Showing posts with label American dream. Show all posts
Showing posts with label American dream. Show all posts

Tuesday, March 21, 2023

How Sweet It Is!

There are so many people in the world who do not understand what a good, kind, helpful, well-meaning country the U.S. is. Which is a way of saying there’s no shortage of haters out there!

They hate our freedoms, our democracy, our commitment to justice and human rights.

Thus, it’s no surprise that America is under constant attack by malicious actors, ruthless scum who want to destroy what has become the great beacon of hope for humankind.

There are no shortage of enemies from the outside.

But the frightening truth is, we citizens have to constantly be on guard for enemies from within as well.

The good news is that we have the best security agencies on the planet and they know about everything going on everywhere, thanks to tens of thousands of “guardian angels”, special agents with headphones and high-res monitors, who monitor our emails, phone calls, browser habits, social interactions both online and in person. No one is getting away with anything!

And boy, do they ever get the job done!

Just recently, a nefarious cabal of sick, sinister cultural terrorists were exposed for what they are and the havoc they were wreaking across our great nation. Targeting children and anyone with a sweet tooth — which I believe would be just about everyone — with their stealthy, toxic messaging, these emissaries of cultural and political filth have been apprehended and properly eliminated.

You probably know who I’m talking about. Yes . . . the M&M SPOKESCANDIES!

It’s hard to believe these subversive malcontents flew under the radar for so long. It’s also hard to estimate how much damage they did over the years, twisting the minds and distorting the reality of American citizens young and old. Oh, how clever they were, disguised as charming little candies, all cute and sweet. It doesn’t get any underhanded than that!

But all is well that ends well. How sweet it is to know that the homeland has been secured, the rapturous purity of American culture restored, and these existential menaces apprehended and taken out of circulation. Despite vaguely-worded announcements from Mars, Incorporated, the company responsible for manufacturing and distributing M&M candies for seven decades, it’s clear that the M&M spokescandies are history. Good riddance, troublemakers!

By MingleMediaTVNetwork – Maya Rudolph, CC BY-SA 2.0

Their replacement by a universally-loved cultural icon, a lady who is funny and nurturing, and most important of all, a loyal American to the core, is a happy ending to a potentially catastrophic story.

The new M&M spokesperson is none other than actress, comedian, singer, and true patriot, Maya Rudolph.

This historic announcement coincided with her debut commercial, featured at Super Bowl 23.





If this doesn’t herald a fresh start and a new age for our country, I don’t know what does.

There’s nothing that can’t be accomplished when a great people has a clear vision, solid values, a historical mission, and a deep understanding why it is superior to all other nations, and thus destined to lead humanity toward the best of all possible worlds. Occasionally we Americans get off track and let diabolical culprits like the M&M spokescandies slip into the room. But we also know how to show them the door.

God bless America!

[ This originated at the author's personal website . . . https://jdrachel.com ]



How Sweet It Is! | John Rachel





Tuesday, February 3, 2015

United?



"The United States of America!" 

Doesn't saying it just make your heart leap for joy?

I start hearing the national anthem play in my head, see the rockets red glare
bursting in air, the American flag waving majestically over the capital
skyline.


But I started wondering the other day:  What exactly does the 'united' stand
for?  What exactly during these contentious, deeply divisive, tragically
troubled times does it mean?


'United' would seem to imply Unity. Agreement. Fellowship. Consensus. Harmony.

Does that sound like contemporary America to you?

Here are some big questions . . .

Are we united by a sense of national purpose?

Are we united by a belief in our destiny and place in history? 

Are we united by confidence in our superiority?

Are we united in our belief in American exceptionalism?

Are we united in our desire for empire?

Are we united by a love for our fellow Americans?

Are we united by our patriotism and sense of duty?

Or . . . are we united by our indifference?

Are we united by our faith in the American Dream?

Or . . . are we united by our pessimism?

Our cynicism?

How about some systemic issues . . .

Are we united in our faith in capitalism?

Are we united in the trust of our government?

Are we united in our belief in American democracy?

Are we united by a trust in God?

A system of shared values?

An ethos?

Are we united by our sense of self-determination?

Or . . . are we united by our sense of helplessness?

Our vulnerability and fatalism?

Our surrender?

How about some very specific issues . . .

Are we united in our love of guns?

Are we united by our freedom of speech?

Are we united by our disdain for socialism?

Are we united by the War on Terror?

Are we united by our hatred of Muslims?

Then there's the psychological component . . .

Are we united by love?

Or . . . are we united by hate?

Are we united by courage?

Bravado?

Self-respect?

Or . . . are we united by fear?

Are we united by our optimism?

Or . . . are we united by our despair?

Our desperation?

Our doubt?

Here I believe is a really important question: Where does the rugged
individualism which we see as the hallmark of a true American fit in?


How can we be united if we each have our own priorities and agenda?

Maybe we're not united at all.

Maybe it's all an illusion.

Maybe the United States of America is more like United Airlines, or United 
Van Lines. Catchy name but it doesn't really allude to any real or even
imagined unity.


And speaking of huge corporations, maybe we are united as customers,
shareholders and employees of the vast corporations which seem to run
everything these days. We are the biologic modules of a sprawling
corporate Gaia, united in our service to interlocking clusters of
entrepreneurial entities.


Less abstract and more the stuff of day-to-day living . . .

Are we united by the automobile?

Are we united by television?

Are we united by smart phones?

Are we united by the internet?

Holiday sales?

Shopping?

Football?

Which makes me wonder . . .

Maybe we're just a bunch of lonely people who need to feel like we belong to something.

Or maybe not.


[ This originated at the author's personal web site . . . http://jdrachel.com ]



Thursday, October 23, 2014

Bye-Bye Miss American Pie

 

I love pie charts!

They are so deliciously informative. A good pie chart makes statistics so digestible!

The short and sweet of it is this:

There are 400 incomprehensibly wealthy people in America which possess more wealth
than the 150,000,000 individuals in the bottom half of our population.


The now infamous 1% controls 43% of America's vast riches. And their share is increasing daily.

By the way, I got the pie chart already baked and ready for consumption from an
article that appears at the website for the Curry County Democrats
based in Brookings, Oregon. You can read the whole article here, and I thank them for their tasty work.


Of course, unlike a lot of the social and political crimes against the average
American by our corporate-government oligarchical junta, income
inequality is no secret.


Elizabeth Warren has railed against it. Obama has thrown his expensive hat into the ring. Even the Chair of the Federal Reserve, Janet Yellen, has expressed alarm, a plea for sanity which was more twerking than real love.

From the people themselves, Occupy Wall Street created the most viral meme
in modern history __ the 1% vs. the 99% __ but we saw how that ended
up. The 1% brought some big guns to the skeet shoot and the clay pigeons
turned to dust.


There is hope. But it's down the road. The house of cards, aka the American economy, will collapse and the people at the top will have the furthest to fall.

In the meantime, we can expect more of the same. Which means more to them and less to the rest of us, the slobbering masses who amble idly like anesthetized sheep outside their gated communities and opulent private estates.
 

I will say this. The well-fed titans of economic tyranny at the top get paid well
to stick it to the rest of us. As this graphic shows (sorry it's not a
pie chart but more of a stale cracker), the income ratios between CEOs
and their worker-slaves in America is way off the charts.


When looking at the obsessive hoarding and soul-numbing, society-gutting greed of our privileged patrons of profligacy, we have to ask ourselves: What is the point?

Yes . . . what is the point?
 


To paraphrase that classic song by Don McLean . . .

I remember when the music died
That was the day that I cried 

R. I. P. . . . the American Dream. 


[ This originated at the author's personal web site . . . http://jdrachel.com ]



Tuesday, February 25, 2014

VIDEO BLOG: Trust No Incumbent


______________________________________________________________

I am doing what I can to address the destruction of democracy in America._Without taking back our government, nothing will change.

In my new book, An Unlikely Truth, I offer an electoral strategy which I believe can effectively remove the crooks and liars from office, and begin to restore representative democracy to America.

An Unlikely Truth (Literary Vagabond Books) will be released worldwide on March 24th. But by special arrangement with Amazon, early-release copies are immediately available. Get a copy of An Unlikely Truth . . .

As a Kindle ebook.
 
As a deluxe paperback.

An Unlikely Truth is a critical read for anyone who shares the progressive vision of a more peaceful, more humane, more democratic America.


[ This originated at the author's personal web site . . . http://jdrachel.com ]