Take it to the streets!

March on the capitol!

March in front of the White House!

Everyone loves a good rally or demonstration.

It's exciting.  Sometimes we even get to see heads busted!

Yep!  Nothing like a whole bunch of people waving hand-drawn signs.

Except these days . . . no one notices.

It used to be the way the "voice" or the "concern" or even the "rage" of the masses could be heard.  We could make those folks at the top of the power pyramid listen to us . . . or else!  Rallies with hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands of chanting, marching, yelling, fired up protestors appeared to portend big changes, or at least the potential for them.  These public events -- some massive like the Million Man March in Washington DC on October 16, 1995 -- represented "people power" and grass-roots democracy in its rawest, perhaps most effective, form.  Or so we believed at the time.

Modern mythology would have it that it was the campus protests of the late 60s and early 70s that stopped the Vietnam War.  That feminists burning their bras ushered in the era of equal rights for women.  That the Civil Rights marches beginning with Martin Luther King Jr. leading historic protest marches in Selma and Montgomery, Alabama created critical momentum for historic changes in civil rights laws and an end to persecution of African-Americans.  Even going back to the 30s, we credit demonstrations coupled with various other forms of political and personal activism, with monumental breakthroughs in the improvement of wages, job security and working conditions.

How important these highly visible street demonstrations were to ultimately changing the landscape of America is debatable.

The durability of their effects is not.  Everything went forward, then went in reverse.

Yes, things changed.  There were positive developments which came out of street protests.

But look at the state of things now!

The labor union movement has been all but destroyed.  Wages have been stagnant now for decades.  Union membership is pathetically low.  Worker benefits are being slashed.  Job security is measured in weeks, not years.

Yes, we're out of Vietnam but we're currently engaged in six other wars, have spread our military footprint to 147 nations with over 900 bases, have specials operations and proxy fighters in Africa, Asia, South America -- everywhere! -- doing under the cloak of secrecy whatever these "invisible" fighters do on behalf of the empire builders, using incidentally your tax dollars to wreak havoc across the globe and increase the threat of terrorism.

The assault on women's rights is a 360º affair, with the juggernaut against choice ramping up, the struggle for equal pay going down the same road as the struggle for livable wages, a President-elect who is more known for articulating the advantages of pussy-grabbing than anything resembling coherent policies, females more and more rendered as sex objects in every form of media and entertainment.  Patriarchy is healthily ensconced in the agencies of government and the power centers of crony capitalism.

Set-backs in eliminating racism are prominent on many fronts these days.  Muslims are openly vilified, blacks marginalized, refugees of all shades of brown bartered as political pawns.  Racist slurs, vulgar stereotypes, xenophobic tirades, ultra-nationalistic and even White supremacist memes appear regularly with less salient blow back than we've seen in sixty years.  With our first African-American president we witnessed the fortunes of the African-American community go backwards.  Obama promised early in his presidency to have an adult conversation on race.  He apparently forgot.  Now we have an openly racist incoming administration, a frightening assembly of socially conservative autocrats, which promises to further divide and polarize a frustrated and angry citizenry.

All of these longstanding challenges and crises certainly were well-represented and each had in some forgotten past their 15 minutes of fame and expression in well-organized and highly visible street protests.  Even more recently, we witnessed the promise of the same in the Ferguson and Black Lives Matter marches.

But let's bravely confront some new realities and draw some honest conclusions. 

Apparently, even the best attempts at facilitating reform by mass demonstrations might in the short run be effective, but whatever good comes of it will through steady attrition and relentless pressure by the rich and powerful eventually be undone, often leaving us worse off than when we started.

Look at our democracy.  Well . . . you can't look at our democracy.  It doesn't exist now.  This is our reward for attempting election cycle after election cycle to make adjustments and incremental improvements in the mechanisms of our electoral process.  We used the accepted, official, approved channels to try to make voter registration more efficient and accessible, make ballot counting more transparent and free of error, allegedly make real choice at the polls pervasive.  What we have is a rigged system where literally millions of citizens are denied their constitutional right to vote, electronic voting machines can be programmed to switch votes and leave no paper trail, and the two major parties taking turns gerrymandering any representative verisimilitude out of our local districts.  

As a result, at least for now, our representative democracy is a representative sham.

What can we do?  Protest?  March on our state capitals and Washington DC?

The evidence is unambiguous.  It has recently become obvious that street demonstrations are pretty much a non-starter.  Any attempts at public assembly are so curtailed by police control, protestors are catalogued for future harassment, many are arrested and booked for no better reason than just being there, attempts to document police malfeasance and excessive brutality illegally but no less finally crushed.

Point in case:  Once the "establishment" realized that Occupy Wall Street was gaining serious momentum, it was just a matter of a couple weeks before it was completely taken apart.  The movement was infiltrated by the FBI and local undercover officers, all sorts of new health and safety regulations suddenly popped up, the protesters were intimidated, cleared out, and/or arrested.  This was coordinated from the top and took place nationally in a remarkably well-organized, perfectly-orchestrated eradication of the movement.

The suppression of free speech -- the constitutionally-guaranteed freedom of expression and dissent -- has been assured by corporate and state control of the media. "Perception management" is the new tool of choice -- which is just a euphemism for creating official narratives which bear no relation to actual events but serve the purposes of the ruling class.  The latest assault has taken the form of a neo-McCarthyism, the heavy-handed maligning of dissenting views as fake news and smearing non-establishment journalists and protestors as anti-American thugs, just tools and agents of foreign governments.

The predictable result is that when people get out in the streets to make their voices heard, either they get no media coverage, or they are vilified as anti-patriotic, stray members of a lunatic fringe, or threats to national security.

Even one of the self-identified founders of Occupy Wall Street, Micah White, in a recent interview characterized the use of mass demonstrations as now being largely ineffective.

So what can we do?

Let me propose something which on the surface sounds ludicrous but I believe holds the key to our success.

We need to hide in plain sight!

No, I'm not joking.  In future articles, I'll explain in detail exactly what I mean.  For now, here's a preview of what I'm suggesting . . .

The corporate state now keeps us in check by perpetuating two illusions:  1) We are free, even encouraged to offer input into the system through a number of established channels; and 2) we ultimately express our will and affect the direction of the country by voting.

Thus, we can organize petitions because the powers will just ignore them.

We can conduct opinion polls because they can just discredit and ignore them.

We can organize community groups because that will keep us busy and distracted.

We can vote because ultimately the elite intend to install their own puppets anyway.

Fine!  If in order to prevent an insurrection and real revolution, the rich and powerful wish to continue promoting the myths that we are self-governing, that we have a voice, that our votes count, I say we call their bluff.  They can't complain if we're just being good citizens.  They can't attack us if we appear to be following the rules.

We work within the official channels because . . .

I believe that all of these approved mechanisms can be used to organize the vast majority of Americans into an enormous voting bloc.  We have much more uniting us than dividing us.  But currently we do not control either the conversation, the narrative, or the agenda.  I believe that if we take control of the conversation and narrative, then create -- or 'discover' might be the operating term -- an agenda which aligns with our priorities and needs, not that of the rich and powerful ruling elite, we can mount a soft revolution in this country.

We can do this in plain sight, apparently just being good, obedient citizens.

This will require some creative thinking, thorough planning, and rigorous discipline.

We will definitely need to think way outside the box.  But trust me . . . it can be done!

What we've been doing thus far, street demonstrations being now high on the list, is not working.  

Time for fresh thinking, exciting new tactics, innovative new strategies.

---

For a preview of where I'm heading with this:

Fighting for the Democracy We Deserve was published in September 2015 and also is available both in every popular ebook format and as a deluxe paperback . . .

 
Amazon (Kindle) . . . amzn.to/1VMf2Ft
Amazon (Print) . . . amzn.to/1L9SdIC
Apple (iTunes) . . . apple.co/1JD1YAg
Barnes & Noble . . . bit.ly/1ZUJUpn
Kobo (Indigo) . . . bit.ly/1IX6rO4
Smashwords . . . bit.ly/22PXWLf
Direct from printer . . . bit.ly/1i7ISFM


The Peace Dividend: The Most Controversial Proposal in the History of the World is now available both as an ebook and deluxe paperback at many of the usual outlets . . .

  
Amazon (Kindle) / US . . . amzn.to/2cpIRfQ
Amazon (Print) / US . . . amzn.to/2cEhnCb
Amazon (Kindle) / UK . . . amzn.to/2cKXFsV
Amazon (Kindle) / Canada . . . amzn.to/2ciZKdl
Amazon (Kindle) / Japan . . . amzn.to/2cbf3TO
Barnes & Noble . . . bit.ly/2cWxvzd
Kobo (Indigo) . . . bit.ly/2cI8cB6
Apple iTunes . . . apple.co/2cqw7an
Smashwords . . . bit.ly/2cb6Cse
Direct from printer . . . bit.ly/2c3mJsl



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



Take it to the streets!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KkyRe18ICeA

From the – to the +

 

Bitch! Bitch! Bitch!

Whine! Whine! Whine!

What's the point?

I agree. 

If all we do is bitch and whine and stop there, there isn't much of a
point. It's just more pain and frustration piled on devilry and
dysfunction.

But . . .

It doesn't have to and shouldn't stop there.

From my perspective out here in Expat Land, the biggest obstacle there in
America is that people don't understand the problems. Often they are so
overwhelmed, they just bury their heads in the sand. Americans are
misinformed, disinformed, and in the throes of massive collective
denial.

Understandably, everyone just wants to go on with their lives, do their job 
__ if they have one __ take care of their kids, mow the lawn, watch some TV, 
and try to eke some fun and comfort out of their often miserable and tense lives.

And if things in America were on track, this certainly wouldn't be too much to ask.

But things are not on track. In fact, the country is heading 180º in the wrong direction.

People sense this. Every day there's some new crisis. Prospect of another war.  
Scary stuff everywhere. New terrorist threats. ISIS. Russia. China. Iran. Contagious 
diseases. Ebola. Killer Avian Flu V. 3.0. Violence by the police. Counter-violence
by angry mobs. More arrests and police killings. Ranting and raving in
Congress. More gridlock. Shutdown of the federal government.  Ranting
and raving on TV.  Muslims, beheadings.  Immigrants. Same-sex marriage,
abortion. Climate change. No climate change. Moreguns. Fewer guns. 
Stand your ground. Arm teachers. Arm bus drivers. Bring a gun to church. 
Bomb Syria. Arm Ukraine. Bomb Iran. Sanction Venezuela. Bomb North Korea. 
On and on . . .

Beyond the anxiety and outright fear caused by this ongoing tsunami of chaos and
trauma, there is a growing sense that all this calamity is not just a
string of bad luck __ that there is something fundamentally wrong!

The problem is that with all of the yelling, finger-pointing, and verbal
mayhem, no one can keep any of it straight, and anything resembling a
constructive conversation is impossible. The lunatics have taken over
the asylum.

We no longer have time for this. There are three challenges which if not faced squarely and honestly pose an existential threat to our nation. They ultimately could destroy us.

The three existential threats?

• Collapse of the economy
• Destruction by war
• Climate change
  

Insiders know where we're heading and what's coming if some things don't change very dramatically, very soon. Vast stores of ammunition have been set aside in anticipation of internal unrest. 
We increasingly see the police being militarized, being authoritarian and unaccountable.
Some observers suggest we are already on the threshold of being a
police state. Those responsible for maintaining the status quo __ i.e.
the standing configuration of power __ know where the incipient chaos
and dysfunction is taking the country, and understandably are preparing for the worst.

But they are not heading off the potential catastrophes. In fact, they are largely to blame!  
They are the reason we're in the mess we're in and plunging toward even worse times.

This bleak future is not inevitable. We can turn this around. 

We! 

Not our current crop of myopic leaders. You and I. But it will take some doing.

And doing starts by getting people to pay attention.

Maybe that's where the bitching and whining comes in.

But it can't stop there. Out of the negativity of recognizing how bad off things 
are now, there can and must emerge a positivevision of what should follow. 
That means each and every one of us deciding what's important. We start 
by asking ourselves what makes our country great . . .

Is it having the biggest military?

Is it having the most billionaires?

Is it having the largest economy?

Is it winning the most gold and silver medals at the Olympics?

Is it the freedom to buy all sorts of stuff __ a seemingly infinite selection __
because television ads tell us that will make us happy?

Is it our entertainment industry __ envy of the entire world, cranking out movies,
TV shows, video games, music __ into which we can escape and live rich
fantasy lives?

Is it how easy things are __ meals we can pick up at drive-thru windows, credit
cards we can swipe when we're broke but want something really bad,
social sites where we can find out what our friends are doing every
waking moment of our lives?

Is it all of the instant gratification __ drugs, fast food, smart phones, Instagram, 
Twitter, free porn, online shopping?

Is it the seemingly endless variety of spectator sports __ football, baseball,
boxing, cage fighting, basketball, hockey, pro wrestling, the amazing
spectacle of the Super Bowl?

Is it the American Dream __ though the vast majority of us don't get to live it?

We also must decide how we are going to go about shaping our society and
country, how our democracy will function, how decisions will be made,
how much of the responsibility to ourselves and future generations we're
going to entrust and delegate to our leadership elite, the elected or
de facto pillars of society . . .

Can we just depend on "experts" __ corporate CEOs and our political leaders __
to make the right choices for our communities, our schools, every aspect
of our lives?

Can we let corporations decide everything for us __ what to buy, what is safe,
what is healthy, what products and services are constructive and
sustainable, what makes for a better society and positive future for our
children and our children's children?

Can we let expensive campaign ads during election cycles substitute for meaningful
debate and serious discussion of critical issues that effect us, our
safety, the quality of our lives?

Can we in good conscience permit the privatizing of everything __ schools, roads,
water, sewage, electricity, libraries, the internet __ because some
corporate-owned demagogues say government is bad bad bad and private ownership 
is good good good?

Should we allow our leaders to worship at the altar of "free trade" __ NAFTA, TPP,
TTIP __ if it means surrendering national sovereignty and handing over
the design and control of our entire future to multinational
corporations?

Can we continue letting our schools, towns, roads, bridges fall apart and
become worthless because we have wasted so much money on unnecessary
wars and military bases, that now we supposedly don't have any funding
left for education and crucial infrastructure?

Should we allow capitalism and pure unfettered pursuit of profit trump individual 
and community needs and values?

Can debt-based currency creation __ the privatization of the right to "coin money" 
by ceding that power to private banks __ over the long haul serve the greater good 
of the country and provide equitable distribution of our national wealth?

Can the monopolization of production and services by large multinational
corporations fulfill the long term goals and aspirations of our country?

After our humiliating record of defeat on the battlefield __ Korea, Vietnam,
Afghanistan, Iraq __ can we trust that our leaders, locked into a
feckless 'war-and-more-war' approach to foreign policy, will do the
right thing on the international stage going forward?

After being lied into the war in Iraq, after having the economy completely
mucked up, after seeing our factories and jobs shipped overseas, after
being conned into bailing out the big banks and watching the wholesale
looting the Treasury and Federal Reserve to stuff the wallets of Wall
Street fat cats and corporate CEOs, can we trust our current politicos
with respect to anything at all?

In theory, nothing in our democracy is written in stone. We __ you and I __
can change the priorities. If our country is headed in the wrong direction,
we can turn it around.

At least . . . in theory.

I'm currently writing a political tome, a concise but powerful, practical
manual for change, which I believe can make a difference. It is my
attempt to help put 'We the people' back in the political
equation, giving the majority of American citizens say in shaping the
future of the country. It's about taking power back from those who
driven by greed and hubris have bankrupted the country and made us the
most feared and hated nation in the world, then assigning that power to
its rightful owners __ you and I.  It is not about tossing
power capriciously into the filthy hands of an unruly mob, but a plan
for thoughtfully and respectfully placing it in the guiding hands of a sane 
and sensible majority.

I hope to have it out late May or early June.

Working title . . . 

Candidate Contracts: A Manifesto (A New Front and Perhaps Last Stand 

in the Battle for True Representative Democracy in America).

Do you see now? At the end of the day __ and it has been a long day for sure __ 
I don't mean to merely be negative.

I actually intend to be quite positive.


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

Negotiating With A Rapist

 

I get this all of the time . . .

"You're too extreme. Too inflexible. Democracy is about compromise. It's about give and take."

Well, I hate to break it to these weak, waffling ambassadors of abdication: Wake up! There are things which are not up for negotiation. Things which we are so valued, compromise is not possible. Values we don't devalue and mark down at a discount.


An armed thug breaks into your house. He ties you up and has your wife and
13-year old daughter at gunpoint. The thug intends to rape them. You get
to watch.

So . . .

You say to him:  "Listen, I'm opposed to your plans but let's try to work something out. 
How about ..."

You talk it over and come to an agreement on some acceptable amount of rape.

Sound ridiculous? That's because it is.

What's my point?

My point is that there are some things about which we don't negotiate. There are
some situations that are too abusive to the human spirit, too sick to contemplate,
simply too offensive and just plain wrong, such that compromises __ any
adjustments of degree or intensity __ are not and should never be on
the table. There are policies, value systems, beliefs, individual acts,
priorities, tactics, strategies, world views, which are so insidious,
trying to find some 'middle ground' is not even a possibility.
What exactly is an acceptable level of child molesting? Or slavery? How
much torture is just about right? Or to bring up a current horrifying
example, how much beheading nails the sweet-spot happy-medium for public beheading?

You get the idea.

Yet a lot of heinous acts, criminality, even outright sociopathic and psychopathic
behavior, gets a pass these days, if not the implied imprimatur of our
allegedly ineluctable, shared complicity. It's a pandemic of
wink-and-a-nod fatalism, succumbing to being "practical", surrendering
to the "realities" of our difficult times, or conceding the
inevitabilities of human nature and the practical limits of politics and
social organization.

Talk about a cop-out!

Talk about intellectual laziness!

Talk about moral failure on a national scale!

Talk about failing our society, ourselves and our children!

Who decided that the best possible education for our children was no longer available?

Who decided that the best health care for American citizens was a privilege for the few, rather than a universal right __ as in the constitutional mandate to "promote the general welfare"?

Who decided that healthy drinkable water was not a basic human need, that we'd have to pay for such a "luxury"?

How did America become a nation which imprisons .5% of its population __ the highest incarceration rate in the world __ mostly the poor and people of color?

When did it become acceptable for the wealthy to be above the law and beyond being prosecuted for their crimes?

How did we become a nation which violates the Geneva Conventions, which tortures?

When did America become nation which starves hundreds of thousands of innocent children to make some incomprehensible political point?

When did it become okay for America to be run entirely by corporate oligarchs and ultra-wealthy profiteers?

When did America, allegedly a nation of the people, by the people, and for the people, decide its people should be kept in the dark about what its government is doing?

How did we become a nation which promotes chaos and fear across the globe?

How did we go from democracy to plutocracy in just a few short decades?

When did we as the citizens of the richest country in the world become unwilling to draw a non-negotiable line in the sand on these and other critical issues?

When did we decide that fighting for a decent life for ourselves and future generations was impractical or too much trouble?

The quick answer is that we made little compromises along the way __ bent a bit
here, maybe a bit more there, made some "necessary adjustments", showed
flexibility, and all too often caved in outright when we knew damn well
we shouldn't.

The point is we shouldn't have compromised at all.

Some things should not have been and still are not negotiable.

We need to learn from this pathetic record of equivocation and glib surrender . . .

Enough is enough!

We can't redo the past.

But we can redo our country for the future.

No more than you negotiate with a rapist, you don't negotiate and compromise with those who have proven to be deceptive, self-serving, sometimes malevolent fools who serve the selfish greed of the 1% at the expense of the vast majority of American people.

Most of us know what's right and what needs to be done.

We need to stand our ground.

No apologies.

No excuses.

No fear.


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

Militarizing The Police – Part 3

 


It's prudent to be prepared.

So . . .

The Department of Homeland Security is purchasing 1.6 billion rounds __ yes, you read that correctly . . . 1.6 billion rounds of ammunition. Half of the order is for hollow point bullets and the other half for special armor and wall piercing ammunition. Hollow point bullets are forbidden by international law for use in warfare, so these cannot be for the battlefield. They are more expensive than regular bullets, so it doesn't make sense that, as claimed by a spokesperson for DHS, they are being used for "target practice". Besides, they only use about 15 million bullets a year on government
target ranges. 1,600,000,000 rounds is enough to keep them practicing for over a hundred years.

Along similar lines, the DHS will be taking delivery of some unspecified number of the 2,717 MRAPs __ mine-resistant and protected combat vehicles __ retrofitted by Navistar Defense, their manufacturer, for use here in America. As the linked article sensibly asks: "Why would they need such over-the-top vehicles on U.S. streets to withstand IEDs, mine blasts, and 50 caliber hits to bullet-proof glass? In a war zone … yes, definitely. Let’s protect our men and women. On the streets of America …?"

President Obama with his March 16, 2012 signing of the National Defense Resources Preparedness Executive Order effectively establishes the right to impose Martial Law, at his own discretion even under peace time conditions, claiming full control over all of the resources of America, including even the labor of its citizens. This executive order expands his already extensive authority under the NDAA, which he signed on New Years Eve 2011 while none of us were paying much attention.

To make sure that no act of "terrorism" within our borders goes undetected, the DHS has established an expansive system of fusion centers coordinating its activities with those of local law enforcement
agencies, sharing information on U.S. citizens and intelligence about their movements and activities. The legality of collecting much of this data is questionable but it goes on because no one is able to challenge it. As we certainly know from the reaction of most public figures to the Snowden revelations, there is virtually no evidence in the national conversation or will in Congress of wanting to put a stop to this.

Yes, it's prudent to be prepared.

But . . .

We need to be asking ourselves, or maybe more appropriately those in charge of
rolling over the Constitution, chipping away at the privacy and legal
rights of American citizens, while quietly engineering and implementing
our New American Police State . . .

What is our government preparing for?


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

The ‘H’ Word

 

It used to be imprudent or just plain vulgar to say the 'F' word.

Now we just say it . . . fuck.

It's such common parlance, so acceptable, it's become the language of diplomacy,
as with the policy declaration by Deputy Secretary of State Victoria 'F**k the EU' Nuland about the crisis she and her neocon friends precipitated in the Ukraine. 

But I'll tell you a word we don't dare say anymore.

You know the one . . .

The 'H' word.

Sometimes it's written as 'h*pe' or 'ho*e'.

We used to actually use the word often. It was on everyone's lips.

 

But after President Obama __ or I should say Brand Obama __ and the
corporate lapdog Democrats made it central to their 2008 and 2012
campaigns, then turned it into both the brunt of cruel jokes and the
poisonous pill of despair, it became as popular as leprosy, not even
whispered anymore in polite company.

Who wants to cry in public?

They sure got us all wide-eyed and teary-eyed with all those 'H*pe and Change'
bumper stickers and campaign posters. People started believing things
would turn around and America would get back on track, after eight
tortuous years immersed in the stupidity, boorishness and arrogance of
George W.

Then this phalanx of feel-good experts and spin doctors responsible for the
propaganda juggernaut we experienced __  especially during the heady
days running up to the 2008 election __ took the faith and good will,
the higher aspirations of the American public and threw them in the
toilet, took several healthy dumps on our heartfelt desire to embrace
the American Dream. They even continue cynically to this day to peddle
fresh variants of their snide charm-offensive h*pe-and-change
trash-talk, assuming the public is none the wiser, and still thirsty for
the arsenic-spiked lemonade of their duplicity.

This is shameful on so many levels. After the horror of George W. and his band
of blatant liars, the ignorant, delusional, self-serving oligarchs who
mockingly led us into a false war, bankrupted the economy, reversed
fifty years of progress toward becoming a humane and sane society, we
had all but given up. Then the sun burst through the storm clouds of our
collective misery and revulsion. People were so engorged with h*pe,
many even heralded Obama as the new Messiah. Okay. Okay. That was over
the top. Yet not just America, but the entire world was at his feet,
expecting this man who spoke with such eloquence, such passion,
sincerity, intelligence, to deliver on the noble promises contained in
his books, Dreams From My Father and Audacity of Hope,
given in soaring oratorical performances at his campaign rallies, in
his inaugural address, and any number of speeches given during the first
few months of his presidency __ most notably the one delivered June 4,
2009 at Cairo University titled "A New Beginning".
Many of us, arguably an overwhelming majority, naively thought this
heralded a new age built around peace and prosperity spanning the entire
globe, and the ascendancy of justice and respect for others.
And what do we have?  You know . . .

Mr. Nobel Peace Prize has proven to be more trigger happy than the sneering
gun-slinging Texan he replaced, Mr. Transparency is far more secretive
and presides over a regime that spies on everyone, the jails
are bulging with more and more people of color __ but none of the
bankers and financial predators who crashed the world economy in 2008 __
the rich just get richer, the poor get poorer, the banks are looting
the treasury, corporations are out of control, fracking is out of
control, global warming is out of control, wealth inequality is out of
control, poisoning our food, air and water are out of control, the
police are out of control, the imperial neocon warmongers are out of
control, the military is out of control, maybe everything is out of control.

Or more accurately, it's in control of the wrong people.

So now the 'H' word is a very dirty word. It's too charged with treachery, the
violation of the best intentions and wholesome expectations of a lot of
very good but obviously gullible people. No one dares utter it without
everyone within earshot going into convulsions of indignation or crying
fits of despair.

There is, however,  another 'H' word I'm hearing more and more these days . . .

Hypocrisy.



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