Category Archives: Deconstruction

Thought Experiment

Posted on August 27, 2016 by johnrachel

Call me silly, but common sense and the wisdom conferred by reading a little history tells me that making life better for all Americans is preferable to spending the money creating chaos, suffering, death and destruction across the globe. Does that make me a socialist? A hippie? A peace-and-love Pollyanna? Continue reading →

Posted in Altruism, Deconstruction, Democracy, Economics, Political Analysis, Social Commentary, War and Peace | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

There were over 28,000 Prince deaths last year.

Posted on August 23, 2016 by johnrachel

America is being medicated into a stupor. Television is a drug of sorts but that’s another topic. Kids of all ages are being medicated, painkillers and psychotropics (anti-depressants, anti-psychotics) are promoted with the same abandon as fast food, Pokemon Go and lingerie. We have a War on Drugs which is a running joke, an FDA in the pockets of Big Pharma, a 15-year war in Afghanistan which revived its poppy production and the country is now responsible for 90% of the world’s heroin. In the U.S., addiction is skyrocketing, deaths by overdose are skyrocketing, abuse of prescription drugs is skyrocketing, Big Pharma profits are skyrocketing. Isn’t there something wrong with this picture? Continue reading →

Posted in Corporatism, Deconstruction, Health Care, Political Rant, Social Commentary | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Just Making A Buck

Posted on August 20, 2016 by johnrachel

America is the biggest arms exporter in the world. We sell some of the most efficient killing equipment ever manufactured, the most lethal and devastating weaponry in the history of the world. Then we wonder why there’s so much death and destruction as wars break out, as jihadists seek revenge, as terrorists inflict their homicidal and genocidal agenda on anyone that gets in their way. It’s beyond ridiculous. It’s like a person jumping into a lake and wondering why he’s wet. We reap what we sow. Continue reading →

Posted in Corporatism, Deconstruction, Political Analysis, Political Rant, War and Peace | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

The Endorsement Bernie Should Have Given Hillary Clinton

Posted on June 28, 2016 by johnrachel

This is how a principled politician behaves, one whose political and moral values are beyond compromise, one who has the courage to provide real leadership in a time which cries for enlightened and unselfish men and women to step forward. Continue reading →

Posted in Deconstruction, Democracy, Political Analysis | Tagged , , , , , | 4 Comments

Update: Stairway To Heaven

Posted on May 31, 2016 by johnrachel

Why do we seek high places? We generally look up when we pray. We don’t send our prayers into the dirt, we launch them out and upwards to float into the ether of spiritual space. We certainly don’t ever aspire to the lower moral ground. We don’t say, ‘I’m at the bottom of the world.’ We don’t declare, ‘I had a valley experience.’ When we smoke a joint, we don’t get low. I guess we just assume that somewhere “up there” is some comfort. Maybe some answers. And if we don’t get the answers we need, at least we have a nice view or easy exhilaration. Continue reading →

Posted in Deconstruction, Philosophy, Spiritual | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

TPP . . . just extrapolate and you’ll get it.

Posted on May 6, 2016 by johnrachel

The TPP trade agreement runs over 5,000 pages. There is so much to criticize about this diabolical gift to corporations, we could go on for months detailing its egregious agenda and ruthless grab for power. Much of the analysis and resulting critique is very technical. Most people can be forgiven for having their eyes glaze over and their attention wander. I offer this simple anecdotal report to make this complex issue real and accessible.

Continue reading →

Posted in Corporatism, Deconstruction, Democracy, Economics, Environment, Health Care, Political Analysis | Tagged , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Candidate Contracts: Replacing Bad Brains With Good Brains

Posted on May 3, 2016 by johnrachel

The brains of our elected officials, the monsters who roam the two legislative bodies of our government, the Senate and the House of Representatives, have been corrupted by money, effectively destroyed, are now lacking the capacity to fulfill their constitutional mandate. They no longer are controlled by the citizens who elected them to office. These bad brains now are exclusively the lapdogs of the rich and powerful. We must replace the bad brains. Continue reading →

Posted in Deconstruction, Democracy, Political Analysis, Satire | Tagged , , , , , , , | 10 Comments

Tonya Harding School of International Diplomacy

Posted on April 27, 2016 by johnrachel

I believe that it’s high time that Harvard or Princeton or other equally prestigious institution of higher learning set aside the resources and proper institutional setting for perpetuating and promoting America’s current visionary philosophy of imperial rule, and appropriately call it the “Tonya Harding School of International Diplomacy”. Continue reading →

Posted in Deconstruction, Political Rant, Satire, War and Peace | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Putting Boots (Birkenstocks) on the Ground: Part VIII

Posted on April 24, 2016 by johnrachel

Here’s a dramatic example of how the candidate contracts can work in eliminating ambiguity and obfuscation, leapfrogging campaign rhetoric and doublespeak to determine exactly where candidates stand on critical issues. Continue reading →

Posted in Deconstruction, Democracy, Political Analysis | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Putting Boots (Birkenstocks) on the Ground: Part VII

Posted on April 21, 2016 by johnrachel

Getting the truth out to the voting public on exactly where the candidates stand requires audacity, creativity, courage, some outside-the-box thinking. But it can be done. It should be done. It must be done! Voters don’t need to see protest signs. They need to see honest and clear choices at the polls. Candidate contracts leave no room for error or misinterpretation. They preclude elected representatives from going back on their commitments to their constituents when they enter the money chamber of the Washington DC bubble. Continue reading →

Posted in Deconstruction, Democracy, Political Analysis | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment