Politics in the US is what we are talking about here. The once “greatest nation in all of the Galaxies” has taken the lead in showing the rest of the world how to self destruct. It really was not that difficult at all. It started before the Civil War, with the new nation split into its pro-slavery and abolitionist factions. Then came the isolationists v. the join the war factions, two times no less. After that we experienced the Great Society advocates against the ultra capitalist fear mongers, which was a very funny tragicomedy playing itself out between the have not’s against the never will have anything’s.
The loudest voices against social programs came from those who could have gained the most by having a social safety net in the form of some type of catastrophic insurance coverage, to be taken out of their wages in the same way that social security and disability as well as unemployment insurance are now. Right now, there are millions of people who are un- or under-employed. For many families and individuals, the nation’s safety net for those having lost their jobs is the only thing standing between them and hungry eyes.
If, like the rest of the US population, it is spread about evenly between Republicans and Democrats, then fully half of those unemployed, all those who are so strongly anti-socialist, the believers in the neo conservative agenda, the Ayn Rand faithful, the ones who feel that Ronald Reagan was America’s prophet, they should all do like Nancy Reagan said: “Just say no [to socialism]!” Refuse the socialist programs keeping them and their families afloat. Refuse social security, refuse Medicare and Medicaid, refuse unemployment benefits, subsidized public transportation systems and your FHA mortgage, use of parks and public facilities and by all means, refuse public assistance to help feed your children by way of what used to be known as food stamps.
According to some of the self destructive candidates for President of the US currently are some who would blame the jobless for being lazy and not doing enough to help themselves. But in the US, the word “socialism” has been so sullied by so many years of false propaganda, that the majority of the populace now believes that it is something akin to Marxism or communism. Nothing could be further from the truth.
One of the very phrases of the foundation of the US is that “United we stand. Divided we fall!” My interpretation of that phrase is very simple: If we all stand together and help each other, we can achieve greatness. Now that is socialism. And the United States showed the world how it can be done; how the country pulled out of several depressions, with soup kitchens, breadlines and compassionate help for each other, when even the super rich contributed some of their time, efforts and wealth to the common good. There are some brilliant examples of that to be found even in today’s toxic atmosphere of the rich getting richer, and the poor getting screwed by their elected representatives.
2012 being a presidential election year, the big feeding frenzy began right after the 2010 elections, with politicians jostling for positions to bring down the President, but it reaches back to right after the 2008 elections when the Senator “Mitch” McConnell publicly stated that his number one priority was to make President Obama a one term president. To accomplish that goal, the Republican Party has done everything in their power to deny the president his appointments and his agenda, fighting against the will of the American public in order to deny their opposing party any kind of legislative victory.
The results are obvious. A congressional approval rating of less that 10%! The Republicans have relied heavily on the three hot button issues that seem to tear apart the country: abortion, same sex marriage and second amendment rights to own guns.
If only the brainwashed US citizens came to realize that in the second amendment of the US Constitution, it states pretty plainly that “a well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.” But it is the first part of the amendment that has me baffled: While those who insist on owning any kind of weapon (I am amongst them) only seem to concentrate on the part that states that the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not being infringed, the interpretation that always seems to be the test for the constitutionality of the second amendment, the question of “a well regulated militia” never seems to reach the hollow chambers of the US Supreme Court, where supposedly the nation’s greatest constitutional minds are busy re-interpreting that flawed document written so long ago… so long ago in fact that the writers of our Constitution could have never envisioned my Beretta Model 92A1 9mm automatic pistol with a 17 round magazine, my HK 223 with a 40 round quick change magazine or my Browning 12 gage semi automatic shotgun, which with a little tinkering now holds 10 lethal rounds of express ammo, rounded out with a tiny little 25 automatic Beretta that holds a complement of lethal hollow points and lives completely undetected in my pants pocket. Yes, I am protected when in the US, but the people I need protection from are not the eventual home invaders or whatever our wise forefathers envisioned we need protection from.
It is that “well regulated militia” that gives me the heebie jeebies! May I invite you to read what has become of that well regulated militia? I am very concerned, or you may call me paranoid, even crazy, about the US government coming to take me away, ha ha… now that our president has signed into law a provision that allows the government to arrest and indefinitely detain US citizens without due process, although he did state that he would never use that power while he was president. As a white person of European descent, I believe him, sort of. But what if I was Somali, or Pakistani or an American Black Muslim? This provision was rammed through Congress in spite of vehement opposition of the directors of the FBI, CIA, the Attorney General and all other directors of those hundreds of secret agencies residing all around the US.
Why did the conservative majority attach this to a must-pass piece of legislation? What is their agenda? How soon before a future president or attorney general will use these provisions to incarcerate members of militias, which generally are already considered to be wing nut terrorists by the government? Anyone here remember Randy Weaver? Or the brutal intervention of the federal government in Waco, Texas? It always came down to that “well regulated militia” enforcing government violations of the second amendment. What happened in Waco is an unspeakable atrocity committed by the US attorney general Janet Reno, an action that was so heavy handed that it cost the lives of 84 human beings, granted, some of them having been brainwashed by religious interference since birth, but that alone should not condemn them to being US Govt. FDA approved Bratwurst!
On the subject of abortion, which has become the paternal issue of the Republican Party, loudly proclaiming that life starts at conception, I, as a man will issue no personal opinion. It is not my body, it is not my business. I would however interject that I do have a daughter and two lovely granddaughters for whom I am grateful.
But the hypocrisy of the pro life factions becomes evident when you look at some simple truths: If life begins at conception, why is it OK to kill thousands of children in armed conflicts such as Iraq? Many a pregnant woman also died in that conflict. But apparently that is OK, because they were the enemy, and as such they were fair game.
Then there is the question of so many impoverished women all over the world who were forced to give birth by the right to life faction in the US, led by former President George W. Bush, who explicitly cut off all foreign aid connected to countries that did not fall in line with their agenda. The result of that policy was an unprecedented rise in the mortality rate of children in third world countries. As a matter of policy, that equaled a pogrom. During the 8 misbegotten years of the false alcoholic prophet, more children died of starvation and disease than did Jews during the holocaust.
If you look at the US alone, where the evangelicals insist on having control over a woman’s body and the destiny of her fetus, once they win the battle to save the innocent little unborn, they could give a shit about what happens to the now born infant. In fact, the Republicans have gone through some great efforts to remove any and all assistance to the now living lump of tissue by blaming the mothers for irresponsible and lustful behavior. Therefore it stands to reason that the child must be punished for the sins of the mother.
The truly sad thing is that those in charge in Washington DC are almost exclusively men, who at some time or another, while at school, or in office, have participated in exactly that type of “immoral” behavior. From state representatives to the very President of the US, there have been violations of an unwritten code that states, “Thou Shalt Not Fuck your Interns!”
While all those fine politicos pretend to be one head taller that the rest of us, they are actually the slime that holds society together. They are the ones who attach riders to must-pass legislation at 11:59PM. They are the ones who have been elected by and are in the service of the corporations that financed them. In the case of Citizens United it has become very clear who the real “citizens” are. The corporations! The actual group called Citizens United (different link) describes its mission as being dedicated to restoring the United States government to “citizens’ control” and to “assert American values of limited government, freedom of enterprise, strong families, and national sovereignty and security.” In reality they are a sham organization that fronts for extreme conservative issues, such as having corporations shielded by the first amendment and allowing them in this coming election cycle to anonymously donate over ten billion dollars to defeat the incumbent president, because we must have that “shit trickles down on the poor effect,” originally invented by former Bedtime for Bonzo co-star Ronald Reagan’s creators.
Citizens United is one of those right wing agenda driven organizations led by a clearly discredited political hack, David Norman Bossie (Warning: graphic picture). During the Whitewater era, he was fired for fabricating and altering evidence by Rep. Dan Burton from Indiana. But that did not stop him and his compatriots from pulling shit out of clear air about Senator Kerry et al. in order to take a case, the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (BCRA), all the way to the Supreme Court, which was as divided as always, 5:4. There may be a light on the horizon with this encouraging Montana Supreme Court decision. But as long as court 54 is in charge of corporate destinies, I suggest that you not hold your breath!
A dissenting opinion by Justice Stevens was joined by Justice Ginsburg, Justice Breyer and Justice Sotomayor. To emphasize his unhappiness with the majority, Stevens took the relatively rare step of reading part of his 90 page dissent from the bench. Stevens concurred in the Court’s decision to sustain BCRA’s disclosure provisions, but dissented from the principal holding of the majority opinion. The dissent argued that the Court’s ruling “threatens to undermine the integrity of elected institutions across the Nation. The path it has taken to reach its outcome will, I fear, do damage to this institution.” He pointedly stated: “A democracy cannot function effectively when its constituent members believe laws are being bought and sold.”
Justice Stevens also argued that the Court’s holding that BCRA §203 was facially unconstitutional was ruling on a question not brought before it by the litigants, and so claimed that the majority “changed the case to give themselves an opportunity to change the law.” Stevens concluded:
“At bottom, the Court’s opinion is thus a rejection of the common sense of the American people, who have recognized a need to prevent corporations from undermining self government since the founding, and who have fought against the distinctive corrupting potential of corporate electioneering since the days of Theodore Roosevelt. It is a strange time to repudiate that common sense. While American democracy is imperfect, few outside the majority of this Court would have thought its flaws included a dearth of corporate money in politics.”
Justice Thomas, yes him, of sexual misconduct fame, wrote a separate opinion (one of the few after all these years) concurring in all but part IV of the Court’s decision (upholding the disclosure provisions). In order to protect the anonymity of contributors to organizations exercising free speech, Thomas would have struck down the reporting requirements of BCRA §201 and §311 as well, rather than allowing them to be challenged only on a case-specific basis. Thomas’s primary argument was that anonymous free speech is protected and that making contributor lists public makes the contributors vulnerable to retaliation, citing instances of retaliation against contributors to both sides of a then recent California voter initiative. Thomas also expressed concern that such retaliation could extend to retaliation by elected officials. Thomas did not consider “as-applied challenges” to be sufficient to protect against the threat of retaliation.
How did we end up with this Supreme Court? Just looking at the eyes of Justice Roberts gives me the creeps. And when it was time for the Democrats to show their wisdom in not going along with his appointment, they as usual just rolled over and forsook the Constitution in order to have parliamentary peace. What Idiots! They turned the Republic over to those who just passed that legislation, earlier mentioned, regarding the arrest and detention of US citizens without due process. (Oh wait, all those who will be implicated are probably just {insert your derogatory term of choice here} - but remember, the “N” word and the “J” words are unacceptable because one of those is President, and the other ones are ruling congress by way of AIPAC). What happened to our Republic? I want to puke, even at this safe distance of 7000 miles. It is a disaster, and Americans are just sitting on their credit card fattened asses, pretending everything is OK.
Which brings me to the third meltdown issue of the Republicans/Evangelicals, the same sex marriage issue: Frankly people, who gives a shit? Mind your own business and keep your opinions to yourselves. So what if two gay people love each other and want to express their love by joining in marriage? Many of those deviates work alongside you and some of you may even be married to one. Some of them are US Senators tapping their feet in public toilets at airports. And why are the police there, tapping their feet as well to the tune of In a Gadda da Vida, baby? Is there no real crime happening? Those who are bothered the most by homosexuality and lesbianism are the ones who are the most fearful of their own same sex sexual fantasies.
Just like the racial prejudices that were practiced until a very short time ago, and still are in places, given a generation or two, our children’s children will come to accept that lifestyle, just as they have come to live with inter racial marriages. (It produces beautiful children: ver. Hawaii, Brazil, Vietnam etc.) By following the gays that opted to get married or civil unionized, we will discover that they are not a bunch of rampant child molesters, and we will also discover that their children will not all turn out to be degenerate faggots and rug munchers, but regular citizens of the world, perhaps more tolerant of football players’ closet antics and non-same sex marriages.
So we return to the topic of the good ol’e USA again making a total ass of itself to the rest of the world that is looking on. In my travels around the globe, the same question keeps popping up, asked by highly civilized peoples as well as citizens of underdeveloped and developing nations: “What the Fuck happened to America?” I wish I knew! But once upon a time, I was deeply involved in a large multinational corporation, and I was astonished at some of the practices applied to defeat the competition. As a mid-level executive in the epic battle between Kodak and Fuji film, I was able to game the system for 7 figure amounts, because they were so greedy for “market share.” In my position as a low level player, I was able to plant suggestions into the executives’ ears on both sides while I took them out marlin fishing, plying them with prostitutes and whiskey. When I first laid eyes on digital cameras, I sold my options and went to Fiji. Now Kodak is bankrupt and Fuji is prospering not just in Fiji, but all over the world.
Take the current selection process for the candidacy to become the next President of the United States. It’s a joke! There are way too many debates, and the candidates are obviously disingenuous during these debates, where the only moments of truth emerge when they have a brain fart like Rick Perry’s forgetting one of the 3 things he would do away with. It turns out it was his running for president. Most of the rest of the field is falling all over each other to proclaim how Christian they are, compared to that other guy, you know, the Mormon cultist. When JFK ran for the highest office in the land as the first ever Catholic, he had to overcome the same type of “Christian prejudice” against his faith. Now that all the various truths are being revealed, we find that he too diddled his intern, along with all the other illicit affairs we knew about. (He was quite the virile stud horsy, that Irish Catholic fellow!) But it seems that the political selection process this year has been reduced to a wastewater treatment facility, where the only thing floating to the top is that brownish foamy scum; I think they call it Santorum. For a party who hates this president even more than they hated President Clinton, who in reality was a closeted Republican, they sure failed miserably in coming up with a qualified and viable candidate. Karl Rove must be having a conniption fit, what with sitting on all those hundreds of millions of dollars without a decent candidate to support. But what the hell, the media corporations will get it all no matter what. The current election cycle is the first presidential election where Super-PAC’s can spend all their secret money freely. Congratulations America! You have finally made into law what I have been saying all along: Corporations are people; greedy, dishonest, power-hungry people for the most part. Welcome to the Corporate States of America! Did you know that the US Government and by extension the world’s governments are run by Goldman Sachs and Company? If that escaped your attention, you really are leading a sheltered life. Get ready for the biggest wakeup call of your entire existence.
…And if you are supporting Rand Paul because he advocates the gold standard, beware! The USA does not even come close to having the physical amount of gold to cover either your money or their astronomical debt. If you were to take all the money in circulation, all the fictitious money that only exists in computers, and divided it by the amount of the actual gold holdings of the government, you would come up woefully short. Americans got screwed a lot worse when their government decided not to issue coins containing silver anymore. That was when my father, a wise man, started to buy bags of silver coins.
The US currency stopped being on a gold standard long before the official denial of it. If everyone during the changeover would have demanded their gold certificates be traded into bullion, the nation’s citizens would have ended up with about 34 cents on the dollar. But if we are not on the gold standard, why is our government holding 8133.5 tons of the yellow metal (as of Jan 1, 2012)? That is only 3 times the amount that the IMF or 8 times the amount that Switzerland has. Or are they really holding it? There certainly is room here for a whole new conspiracy theory! Who stole all the gold and replaced it with gold plated lead? Did it go to the United Nations? Maybe the Clinton clan? The Bush family? Rupert Murdoch? The evil Koch brothers? Vaporized in the twin towers? Only the shadow knows, and he has been off the air for too many years. But if you have any good theories on a new conspiracy, I urge you to send them to me for the widest possible dissemination.
Thank you for reading my rant. Please send me you comments or write your own rant, which will be published here. No personal attacks or libelous comments, unless they are in a foreign language such as Esperanto or Elmer Fuddish.
And remember, the preceding is just an opinionated opinion. I don’t claim to have any of the answers to the dark secrets of the universe. For those, you have to go to the altar of the Prince of Darkness, Rupert Murdoch and his evil twin, Roger Aisles. Good luck with that though, you may be sucked into a black hole!
Jamie Douglas
Safely ensconced in my bunker with my REMs and my Tinfoil hat, with the ever present bottle of Malbec to share with my child bride.
