Tag Archive - Political Rhetoric

Romney Shambles: A Sham For The Lambs

“Who let the dogs out? Who, who.” (Martin Luther King Day parade, 2008)
 
“I love this state. The trees are the right height.”
 
“I’m not familiar precisely with what I said, but I’ll stand by what I said, whatever it was.”
- Mitt Romney

 

 

Today in the USA is Labor Day, a public holiday. Most Americans are taking the day off and celebrating. Of course, many aren’t really sure what they’re celebrating … but shucks, who cares anyway, right? Let’s not sweat the details! After all, ignorance is bliss.

Mind you, many Americans are lost in a ‘glitterfried’ parade of gleeful ethnocentric sentiment, spoon-fed to them daily by neoconservative concerns and multinational corporations. The main designs of these true ‘powers that be’ are to make money, to consolidate ultimate power and to defend their assets, financial or otherwise.

Sound familiar? Glory be! It’s the new American Way! And, judging by the debt the average American carries, you can tell just how close to home these yearnings have been embraced by the asses … sorry, I meant masses.

Yes, it’s obvious these ‘controlling interests’ are doing their best to keep the gravy train rolling. They’ve done a fine job of ensuring that their ‘passions’ have ‘trickled down’ to the ‘average Joe’, as well! In fact, there’s even a clique called the ‘Republican Party’, aka The Grand Old Party (GOP), to which any feeble-minded conservative zealot can swear his, her or its allegiance. All are welcome, even Libertarians and Teabaggers! The party’s message is simple: feed the rich! Dig a bit deeper and you find the usual subliminal command, as well:  consume and conquer; the one with the most at the end wins … death is just a minor detail.

But of course, this is why organized religion (read: the extremist Judea-Christian bible humpers) has been recruited, to prod the sheep and lambs into believing there’s life after death for them … and that for the right donation (read: tax-deductible contribution), true believers and card-carrying conservatives can buy their way into heaven. Amen! Hallelujah! Charge it! Praise the Lord … and don’t forget to pass the ammunition, chimes the National Rile Association (NRA), another transmogrification of American right-wing political ideology, like the KKK and other white supremacist groups. Oh Lord, please let those ‘boolits’ from heaven rain down on us! Genuflect, genuflect, genuflect …

Speaking of ‘trickling down’, I guess you heard that Mitt Romney is now the GOP’s ’de facto’ candidate for the President of the Unites States. Yes, this would-be ‘Emperor’ was duly christened in the pomp, romp and circumstance of the Republican National Convention (RNC). As promised in my last post, here’s a little more about good ole ‘Mittens’.

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The Grand Old Sham: The Republican National Convention

“Corporations are people, my friend.”
 
“I like being able to fire people.”
 
“I’m not concerned about the very poor.”
- Mitt Romney

 

My Fellow Americans (and any international Netizens who register more than a ‘blip’ on the IQ scale),

Forgive me for going political on you. Spare me your rising ire for daring to wax vitriolic about a concern that should be an affront to anyone who still possesses any ability to think for him/herself … or an iota of self-respect.

Question: Do you know when you are being insulted or patronized? In other words, if you’re brainwashed and you know it, clap your hands.

Today the Republican National Convention (RNC) will kick into full gear … full swing … full frontal. Yes, yes, we get see the ‘Grand Old Party’ (GOP) in all its glory, grandstanding for its so-called conservative strength brand of snake oil.

You do know what snake oil is, don’t you? A product of questionable value that claims to cure all of your ills. It’s a product whose only real value is to the sellers yearning to fleece you while profiting from your misery. This week, a large den of snake oil salesmen will be nesting at the RNC in Tampa. Their mission simply is to rob you blind. And yes, it will prove to be quite the ‘medicine show’!

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In For A Penny: Debtors’ Prison In The USA

Debtors; Prison - Anywhere, USA

“A nation’s greatness is measured by how it treats its weakest members.”
- Mahatma Ghandi
 
“The measure of a society is found in how they treat their weakest and most helpless citizens.”
- James Earl “Jimmy” Carter, Jr.

 

I had a different post in mind for this week … until I read about the following news item that just made me sick:

Lisa Lindsay, a breast cancer survivor in Illinois, was arrested for a disputed $280 medical bill, which in fact she was told she did not have to pay. Nevertheless, the bill was turned over to a collection agency, and the next thing she knew, local State Troopers bombarded her home and hauled her off to jail in handcuffs. (Insert painful pregnant pause here) Yes, apparently in the United States of America – the home of the co-called ’free’, debtors’ prisons, previously abolished in the 1830′s, are making a comeback.

You read this news item (links below) and you get the idea that there has to be more to this story. You get the feeling that the thousands of dollars that went into the arrest of this poor breast cancer survivor, over a billing error, just doesn’t make sense. But it’s true.

Folks, something is very wrong in the United States of America. Something that defies all logic and what might be referred to as ‘humanity’. Something that should be an insult to all … but it’s not. Instead, its ‘business’ as usual. It seems the game of ‘life’ is really just a game of ‘Monopoly’ to the government and Big Business. No money? Go to jail. Go directly to jail. Do not pass go …

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Eat The Rich: Socioeconomics 101

Just Another Black Friday

Them that’s got, shall get
them that’s not, shall lose
so the Bible said, and it still is news
mama may have, and papa may have
God bless’ the child,
that’s got his own, that’s got his own
- Billie Holiday, (God Bless The Child)

It’s funny how we build thoughts into ideas, concepts into crusades, mole hills into mountains, and pet peeves into perversions. We preach, we scorn, we rave and we rant. We stand on our soap boxes and express our outrage, spitting bile and brimstone in indignation at the very core ideas we embraced long ago, even those that have become part and parcel of what we call ‘humanity’.

For example, this past week we once again had the displeasure of experiencing another Black Friday, an appalling and dehumanizing ritual of consumerism promoted by ‘Big Business’ in the name of the almighty dollar. I’m not sure when this much-anticipated annual display of commercial beastliness became popularized, but it’s certainly become just another symbol of the decline of American ‘values‘ … and I don’t mean the Republican kind. It’s a perverse version of the ‘running of the bulls’ in which the ‘tall and the small’ get to displace their sanity and civility in the name of lethal consumerism. This year’s theme, by the way, was pepper spray.

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Grievously Lost In The Political Dialogue

I was doing time in the universal mind. I was feeling fine. 
I was turning keys, I was setting people free. 
I was doing all right. 
Then you came along, with a suitcase and a song. Turned my head around. 
Now I’m so alone, just looking for a home in every place I see. 
I’m the freedom man. That’s how lucky I am. 
- The Doors, Universal Mind 

 

Suffice it to say that I am my own worst enemy. “Don’t discuss sports, politics or religion”, I’ve often been told over and over by those who espouse mediocrity in the name of gaining more followers and building readership. “Stay away from socially sensitive topics”, I’ve been admonished. “Tell your story”, I’ve been told. “Fair enough”, I’ve answered, yielding a pensive pregnant pause, a harbinger of rebuttal. “However”, the boom is lowered, “as the conversations of my life manifest on a daily basis, and I seem to exist on a day to day basis”, I smile, “then all I can really do is share with you all how twisted some of these conversations are.” Yes, it’s easy to get lost in the discussion, and in my doing so you will learn volumes about who I am. “So let’s start with politics” he says as a groan is heard escaping somewhere from the bowels of a ‘platitude’ just north of hell.

It’s difficult to know where the conversation began. Most likely I pissed someone off as usual merely because I stated my opinion, which to be honest was probably more an exercise of my playing the devil’s advocate than my speaking from the depths of my own conviction. Nevertheless, despite my incessant ‘teasing the cat with a bit of string’ at some point my feelings in earnest do tend rise to the fore, meeting the occasion head on. Now mind you, I’m not a politician, nor am I really a student of politics. But I do know where I stand and on what soapbox my heart bleeds. There are some issues over which I become incensed, inflamed, stupefied, and just down right outraged … but never indignant.

This particular conversation occurred between ‘Heart Bleeder’ and ‘Freedom Man’, the former a so called Liberal, the latter a self-possessed Libertarian. Now, I do have a bone to pick with Libertarians, especially the ones who claim ‘liberty and freedom’ and apparently suggest that they know what the framers of the constitution originally had in mind, which is apparently what we all seem to have forgotten over the years. Yeah, I almost forgot they ‘love them some guns’ and think that in a true free market, a little hamburger shack opened in a formerly abandoned ‘Fotomat’ booth will be able to compete with McDonald’s, Burger King, and Wendy’s. In other words, they don’t have a clue, but celebrate their right to live in denial anyway.

The conversation is joined already in progress. Trust me, you haven’t missed much…

Freedom Man:
So the question is for whose benefit will said regulations and statutes in reality be composed, especially given the fact that they are written by politicians beholden to Big Business?
 
Heart Bleeder:
If you are answering your own question, what’s the point in asking? Still, the obvious answer is to dispense with ‘Big Business’ and its corruptive influence and power.

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Lethal Carnage: Guns, Politics, Victims and The American Way

Victims of the Tuscon, Arizona rampage.

There are some things that are just too hard to swallow. On January 8th in Tucson, Arizona, a clearly deranged 22-year old, Jared Loughner, purchased ammunition from a Walmart, took a taxi to a Safeway supermarket where a political meet-and-greet was being staged by U.S. Representative Gabrielle Giffords, and then opened fire on Giffords and her constituents because … he wasn’t happy with her response to a question of his at a previous political rally. The incident left 14 wounded and 6 people dead, including a judge and 9-year old Christina Green.

Yes, there are some things that are hard to swallow. One such being that “we the people” of the United States have brains. This is obviously not the case because we continue to allow gun-related tragedies to occur. Really, it pains to me write this, because I would like to believe that despite soaring crime, violence, racism, and politically correct intolerance we are a nation of humane, rational, peace loving people. I would like to believe that Michael Moore was wrong in his depiction of us in his film “Bowling for Columbine” as phobic gun loving sheep willing to be brain washed by political rhetoric, big business and organized religion. I would like to believe that lessons have been learned in the wake of the horrific tragedy this past week in Tucson, Arizona. But, you know what? I’m wrong on all counts: None of the above is correct.

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