The root cause of America’s intractable problems is deeply cultural driven by many engines of willful self destruction. One of the most obvious of these engines is a feckless and irresponsible news media that while pretending to the throne of “liberalism” has played the part of cheerleader for every war to traipse down the pike from both sides of the aisle. Never mind that both sides of the aisle are almost identical in every respect that is important as the cultural differences among Americans has most Americans living in a specter haunted land of dreams where so-called liberals and conservatives are caught up in a spin of their own cultural past. Conservatives believe the news media to be liberal as do liberals yet the news media has provided plenty of cover for the worst both major political parties can deliver.
Last January Obama cut taxes for Social Security by two percent but this barely had mention in the news media and was soon forgotten. What this two percent tax cut ostensibly meant was that it was a gift to the working classes, but in reality can be considered the first shot across the bow for the demise of Social Security for when you cut funds for Social Security you can then use it as an excuse to “save” Social Security by insuring that it will become insolvent thus opening the groundwork for a death of a thousand cuts keeping in mind that Social Security if left alone would have been solvent for the next twenty five years and likely beyond. The news media has done its best to make it seem otherwise by refusing to publish any analysis that shows this to be a fact rather they have merely repeated what lying politicians have said regarding the false narrative that Social Security was in financial straits. And if left to political hacks like Obama it soon shall be.
Going back a decade there was the start of the Iraq War driven by Israel, their American mouthpieces the neocons, and George W. Bush with plenty of compliance from Democratic congressionals who were all too willing to join the Bush bandwagon on its way to a pointless and destructive war in Iraq. During that period the New York Times cheered the war on with its irresponsible reporting since wars inevitably increase circulation harking back to that old worn out tropism that if it bleeds it leads. I can still recall a TV news broadcast from that woe begotten era showing a rousing film of American troops charging through a sand storm with a pounding rock song blasting in the background. It was very dramatic but was also devoid of any kind of sane reporting or logical questions that should have been asked by the news media such as what the devil did Iraq have to do with 9/11. In fact, Iraq had never done anything against the U.S. much less the dire threat that the news media loved to report it as. A decade later Iraq is a rubble heap utterly destroyed as a sovereign nation with what is likely over one million murdered, millions more driven from their homes, and an American government that is on the brink of bankruptcy and incapable of generating jobs for the roughly six million Americans out of work. Today the violence in Iraq continues as the thugs and criminals that make up its American puppet government vie with one another for the leftovers.
This is where the cultural aspects of American stupidity come into play. The military since WWII has become the sacred cow of American life. Even anti-war activists cannot help but tag “and our brave troops fighting in service to America” onto every anti-war piece that they write. Whatever the troops may be they are not in anyone’s service except perhaps that of Wall Street and the oil industries. The true nature of the troops is that they are parasites, very expensive parasites that produce nothing except misery at home and abroad costing the American tax payers dearly in billions every year that could have been put to much better use back in the States. Yet because of the intractable culture of all things military that lives on in the hearts and minds of most Americans very few can see much less admit to such a simple and obvious truth regarding “the troops.” The “liberal” news media of course do their best to keep such noxious beliefs alive and well with their embedded reporters and absurdly sentimental reporting on “the troops” ever portraying them as heroes and brave lads and lasses fighting for their country.
Yet the worst thing the news does is portray our wars as though they are not actually wars at all. One need only recall the recent tragic war against Libyans where NATO – which is just another word for the US – bombed the living daylights out of heavily populated Libyan cities which were invariably reported as without casualties among the civilian population. The Libyan thug-a-lugs, racists, murderers, thieves, and rapists were reported as noble freedom fighters though today many Libyans wish they would disappear and the sooner the better. Scant mention of the blacks these freedom fighters murdered on a wholesale basis is heard anywhere to this day. We see a similar pattern in Afghanistan where innocents are continually slaughtered while their deaths are whitewashed with much help from the news media. It is certainly remarkable that the US can wage wars today without civilian casualties as the news media would have us all believe even though it is thoroughly absurd to believe such gibbering nonsense. Still, the American love of all things military helps Americans to believe just about anything no matter how outrageous it may be.
American culture has become militarized to the point where people are mostly blind to the awful fact that congress has just passed legislation that gives our government the right to assassinate American citizens or imprison them for the rest of their lives on the say-so and whims of a bloody handed tyrant who goes by the name of Barack Obama. This legislation is so vague that it can be construed by the American government to the broadest interpretations possible and is in fact a loaded gun in the hands of the unscrupulous such as Barack Obama our Peace Laureate president. US citizens have just been stripped of their most basic and important rights, the right to trial by jury, and the very right to life itself, the ultimate and most important of all rights. Yet Americans continue on as if in a daze more enthralled with the latest telephone gadgets with large screens then they are with important legislation that shall soon impact them in a most destructive manner. If you ponder this as you might well it is no accident that this legislation that smacks of the Nazi movement comes on the heels of the recent OWS movement where some Americans are on the brink of realizing that the government is not what they thought it was. What better way to keep the great unwashed in line than this draconian legislation that Obama once said he would veto but now shall not – now that it is more in line with his own wishes for more power.
If you doubt any of this – as many will – just consider this upcoming election where you have the choice between Obama (who has clearly shown he is completely enthralled to his corporate backers) and the dingbats on the Republican hopeful aisle. There is simply no choice at all in fact we are all completely screwed, blued, and tattooed. Gosh, I sure hope we have a white Christmas, don’t you?
