Everything Is Broken

There is no respectability left in this Congress. There is no one who levels with the American people who elect its members. There is only the corrupt Right and the corrupt Left who work in tandem to pass the baton of corruption between them. The few unaligned voices in the middle are systematically drowned out. Reason has been deemed the flattened carcass of a skunk in the middle of the road.

With each turn of the screw by the executive branch it gets uglier. The modesty wraps of the sausage factory peel back exposing the scam. Obama is exhorting the legislative chambers to implode. The American people have awoken from their torpor. They are aware that our system of representative governance is broken; that our country hasn't been governed effectively in years. The best that can happen now is that no further legislation be passed - not until the people have had a chance to clean house.

Obama, on the other hand, knows exactly what he’s doing. He has assigned Congress an impossible task. He has given them a gun and is inviting them to pull the trigger. This would leave only himself in tact – with unlimited power.

Every Washington second-tier politician knows that the curtain has slipped. ("Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain.") They are collectively fighting for their lives. Some know what's coming. Some have already left the sinking ship. It is not altogether clear that the American rank and file will know what to do; or that they’ll even be given a chance to do it. They are at a severe disadvantage. All the major institutions - the media, academe, organized labor, Hollywood - are against them. The world has turned against them. They know the way to go with Sisyphus' stone is up. But every foothold has been ground down.

After the Congress has been replaced by a rubberstamp politburo, it will be the military’s turn to be replaced. Then the dollar. I might have the exact order of events wrong. But, either way, all these things are being meticulously planned for. It is the fulfillment of a dream that every Trotskyite has had since the fall of the Soviet Union. They feel they can get there now that Obama is in office. It’ll be interesting to see what they can do to muck up our elections. But in the end, it won’t really matter – will it? With Congress broken, with the economy broken, with a Marxist occupying the White House, it’s hard to see how they could fail.

Summer Of Love ('67)

I used to admire Jerry "Moonbeam" Brown and Muammar al-Gaddafi. This was before I ever held a job or raised a family. I remember voting for Jesse Jackson in the primaries. The Beatles' 'Revolution' and the Stones' 'Street Fighting Man' were favorite anthems. I don't quite know when the change occurred. For a long time I didn't pay much attention to what was happening in Washington or in the world. Once I came back to it, the fight was already on.

There was a certain romance to those early days. America was our straw man that we could set a match to any time we wanted - to warm ourselves; to celebrate fire - without really changing anything fundamental. America was America, rock solid, leader of the free world. We fed our own egos by tearing pieces off of her, sitting around a campfire on some far-off tropical beach with the blue moon rising over the water, smoking splits.

There's no romance now - only the hard work of getting Sisyphus' stone back up to the summit. Thank God that so many of us have awakened from the stupor and are willing to roll up their sleeves. What's amazing is that so many others are still stuck back there in the 60's and 70’s; that their views haven't changed even in light of all that's happened. It speaks of a Peter Pan syndrome; a kind of pathology that resulted in stunted development of a sort.

I can’t believe that Jerry doesn’t know exactly what he’s doing. He’s a pol first and foremost – and a smart one at that. He thinks he can rekindle that old Haight Asbury illusion in enough others, if not in himself. Maybe in California the smoke is still rising from that ‘Summer of Love’ (’67) disaster as to give the impression that there’s still somebody out there who gives a s**t. And Jackson surely found his niche: extortion. And Gaddafi found his: oppression. I can’t really blame them. Not everybody can afford the luxury of idealism. People get it where they can. The afore mentioned wing nuts have done rather well for themselves - even if they did it at our expense.

But what’s Obama’s excuse. Surely he sees not much profit in standing with the old guard of commie losers. Maybe he’s just plain stupid – but that’s a stretch. Maybe he’s so twisted by hatred, he can’t think straight. Maybe he’s always been carrying that cross of race. Maybe he now sees the opportunity of ditching it for once and for all. But in order to do so, he’s got to put white people in their place. That’s not as easy as he thought – even for the most powerful man in the free world.

The Pit and the Pendulum

‘No plan’ is a plan. What can never be, can never be. Choosing to do nothing is a powerful choice. Bush could have done so after 9/11. Who says we’ve got to do anything? Why not pretend we aren’t even here? It’s not too far fetched, after all. People did alright before we were born. They’ll do alright again, after we’re gone.

Then there’s ‘doing nothing’ as a strategy: Lighting the fuse and watching it burn; then, ducking behind the sand bags. Which part of this is the active part; which is passive? Max out the credit card and then sit back and see what happens.

The determining factor in all this is ‘intent’. I’ve said all along that Obama’s intends to implode the economy; bust the dollar. He hasn’t said so explicitly, but look at his policies. How can any sane person come to any other conclusion? And he’s by no means alone. There are many people in this country who honestly believe that America is and has always been the vortex of evil; that the world would be much better off with an America that is diminished. They believe that global conflicts would cease without undue American influence; that ‘global warming’ could be reversed without American appetites stoking consumerism; that America’s success must be pared down for the rest of the world to enjoy prosperity. It is an argument that has achieved some degree of consensus, even among Americans. What is the meaning of (the) ‘redistribution’ (of America’s wealth)? What is the meaning of ‘social justice’? Is it not the diminution of America?

If our economy survives the Obama administration, it will surely not be due to Obama’s policies. It will be despite them. Ditto, if Israel survives. It will be proof positive that America’s destiny is assured; that, despite all, America’s spirit lives. Both Germany and Japan were bombed into the Stone Age. How quickly it took them to build themselves back up into what they are today! Just the other day I received an e-mail showing pictures of Hiroshima right after the bombing, followed by pictures of Hiroshima today - then, Detroit. The contrast could not be more striking. It is a testimony to the spirit of the Japanese people who alone deserve credit for having made this miracle possible.

Today I read that only 34% of our eighth graders can read at the eighth grade level. This is a disaster not unlike the bombings at Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Who is the architect of this failure? Who will be held to account?

I do believe we will survive this administration. We may disassemble in the short run; but, in the long run, the pendulum will swing back; and it will do so before any other nation or ideology can dominate us. We will find a way to fight back. We will prevail without sacrificing our principles. Every disaster our enemies foist upon us will strengthen our resolve. Even those of us who chose to do nothing for now, are just biding their time, waiting for the right moment. If we have learned anything, it is that ‘haste makes waste’. Our enemy wants our decisions to be hasty; half-baked.

It’s taken them so many years to bring us to this trough. They honestly believe they are on the verge of striking the fatal blow. They have advanced the great stone to the very top of the mountain. Even Sisyphus knew it couldn’t remain there forever. It’ll be our turn when it once again reaches bottom.