the following is more of things i've been working on in word docs for potential publishing in the local electronic fishwrap, but since i have more of that than they will actually publish, here it is here;

Trump’s triumphs: to favor obscene wealth in taxation; to scrap diplomacy and bait Russia; to fund military horrors he vowed to reduce; to vilify and punish the vulnerable; to spurn the world effort to reverse climate change; to reject the Iran nuclear deal; and to decapitate regimes in Syria, Venezuela, and fill in the blank. Each of these bizarre acts had to be based on his conviction of their supreme importance and his expectation of “winning” outcomes.  Each had to be carried out against resistance by misguided “losers” and perverse and deluded enemies.  The fact that his appalled opposition comprised the vast majority of the human race carried no weight with him. Suppose his tax lunacy or trade madness triggers the titanic meltdown in our Funhouse Finance Economy that experts know is in the cards?  Suppose his Middle School Macho provocations of Iran, or Korea, start a complex, irreversible slide to world war as the Serb ultimatum did in 1914? 

It’s hard to be empire, but it’s even harder, to be a truly virtuous society. First, I suppose, you can’t be insane. It’s hard to think of one aspect of American life that’s not insane now. Here are some; our politics are insane, our ideologies, universities, Medicine, Show biz, Sexual relations, and ‘news media’ are utterly insane. What passes for business enterprise in the Empire these days is something beyond insane, like swarms of serpents and bats issuing from some mouth of hell in the medieval triptychs.

“The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country. We are governed, our minds are molded, our tastes formed, our ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of.” Edward Bernays (“the father of public relations”), note that Bernays’ book, Propaganda, begins with the above quote.

The Syrian ‘gas attacks’ are false flag events, and the idea that the Empire has their hand in such attacks to help oust Assad, while at the same time branding him a dictator and a war criminal, is nothing new. It’s not ‘Russian propaganda’ and it’s something that’s been happening for a long time. How many of these potential wars with North Korea, Iran, Russia, and China could we fight without having America bled and bankrupted? What conceivable benefit could we derive from these wars, especially with a China or Russia, to justify the many various costs? ‘Terrorists’ attacks of all varieties are certainly designed to lead ‘consumers’ to beg the state for greater security and restrictions. Guess who that benefits: the state.

Working people have no voice whatsoever in the control of the economy and their well-being. They’re forced instead to play an insulting game in which various parties of capital offer them candidates to choose from, in what are called “elections,” but really are selections; a system of appointing, through the illusion of the popular will, pre-selected candidates of wealth to carry out money’s agenda while candidates that represent the interests of the majority who have to work for a living aren’t permitted to be heard or are marginalized and ridiculed.

When Lord Acton coined the phrase “power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely,” he might have had America in mind. Never mind ‘our’ leaders’ professed good intentions: possession of extraordinary military power continues to lead otherwise sensible people to pursue dangerous, even monstrous policies.

Media punditry in America is rarely fact-based, is never held accountable, and it’s nearly always ideologically driven. ‘Our’ government offers only war. We’re approaching the time where we’ll be forced to choose between obeying government; the law, or whatever a government official judges the law to be, and maintaining our individuality, integrity and independence. Orwell’s 1984, where “you had to live from habit that became instinct in the assumption that every sound you made was overheard, and, except in darkness, every movement scrutinized” has now become our reality. Walking through a store, driving, checking email, or talking on the phone, you can be sure that some government agency, whether the NSA or some other entity, is listening in and tracking your behavior.

The way things are supposed to work is that we’re supposed to know virtually everything about what government officials do: that’s why they’re called public servants. They’re supposed to know virtually nothing about what we do: that’s why we’re called private individuals; the hallmark of a healthy and free society has been radically reversed. Now, they know everything about what we do, and are constantly building systems to know more. Meanwhile, we know less and less about what they do, as they build walls of secrecy behind which they function. That’s the imbalance that needs to come to an end. No democracy can be healthy and functional if the most consequential acts of those who wield political power are completely unknown to those to whom they are supposed to be accountable. Truth requires more courage than lies.