It is probably unwise
for me to delve into politics on a blog that is also used to increase awareness
of my mystery novels. But I haven’t
misled you. I promised occasional rants.
And while my books are not lectures on
social mores, they are about the world we live in as I perceive it. You may not share my perspective, but as
potential readers you deserve to know how I feel about such things as law and
criminality. The comment section is open and I welcome disagreement as much as
I do “amens” provided, of course, your comments are at least relatively civil.
Even if you are not a young Black man, and even if you are
not fair-minded, or consider yourself to be your brother’s keeper, you should
be concerned. Even if you are what Tom
Wolfe used to refer to as “master of the universe,” you are quite likely not
rich or powerful enough. The mix of
corporate influence and government obeisance is the recipe for true Fascism and
unless you are at the very top you will be ground up in its machine. One slight
slip and you are at the mercy of “the authorities.”
Recently, from somewhere, down deep in my Hoosier roots,
came the word, “cahoots.” It strikes me that I might have heard this word from
Gabby Hayes, but it is so fitting now. Unfortunately we have no Hopalong Cassidy to
save us from rampant corruption and deepening injustice. Corporations and your government
representatives are in cahoots to maintain the status quo — low minimum wage
and a reduction in benefits while executive salaries soar. There are more tax
breaks for the rich, and banks are allowed to gamble taxpayer funds for their
own profit, but never their loss. Meanwhile the highest court in the land says
money is speech and the uninhibited purchase of our politicians may continue hidden
by the rules enforced by the authorities. In that case the wealthiest will have more to
say and say it more often.
In fact, as I write this, there is a bill, guaranteed to
pass that will raise limits on campaign contributions thus further promoting
bribery. The bill also means less vigilance over Wall Street allowing them to
return to their pre-crash ways. Yet we have no Roosevelt, Teddy or Franklin, to
reign in the unmitigated transgressions the mighty have inflicted upon the
powerless. We have Obama agreeing to sign the legislation. What does Wall
Street have on the President that he would sell out in this way? Who is running this country, anyway, Jaime
Dimon? I voted for President Obama twice and am pleased that he has taken on
some serious challenges. What I don’t
understand is his ongoing coziness with Wall Street. Have the bankers kidnapped
his dog?
The bill allows banks to make risky investments backed by
taxpayer dollars. This is like you
lending someone a thousand dollars to make bets in Vegas. The guy loses half of it and then says you
owe him $500 to make up for his losses. Big banker Dimon called legislators
personally and it is reported the bill itself was written in language nearly
identical to Citigroup’s proposal. Essentially, Republicans threatened to close
down the government if Dimon didn’t get what he wanted. A banker — a friggin’
banker is running the show.
In a related note, NSA chief James Clapper lied to the
congress about government spying on U.S. citizens. Nothing happened to Mr.
Clapper. Not even a time out. Edward
Snowden, who acted as whistleblower, was vilified by nearly every top
politician as well as many in the corporate media, and was pursued doggedly for
letting us know our private lives weren’t private. You are not supposed to know
that. Who do you think you are? A citizen?
Is there any doubt he would face serious charges if he were apprehended?
Corporal Chelsea Manning is serving 35 years for the part she played in shining
the light in that very dark place. Why
would Snowden come home to tell his story? Anything he might say in his defense
would be classified or redacted. He would be convicted before the trial began.
In fact, he has been already. The authorities want to crucify him for
questioning authority.
Now we know the CIA engaged in torture. They called it “enhanced interrogation
techniques.” They too appeared to lie to congress without repercussions. But they didn’t do it all by themselves. They hired and paid millions to a private
corporation to do it for them. Cahoots is the word. In fact, aren’t we at least
a little wary of hiring professional torturers after our private army debacle
in Iraq with Erik Prince and his army of mercenaries? Remember Blackwater? (In a P.R. move, Prince is now doing business
as Academi.) There are also serious questions about Vice President Cheney, who
called the CIA report “hooey,” as well as his former corporation, Halliburton.
Cheney was chief architect and proponent of our “mistaken” invasion of Iraq, a
war of convenience that was incredibly profitable for Halliburton. I guess if I
can use the word, “cahoots,” Deadeye Dick can use “hooey.” Now, AGAIN, no one
is being prosecuted for the torture. However, former CIA staffer, John Kiriakiu
is in prison for 30 months for shining a little light into that particular dark
corner. (It’s sad to see Cheney walk
free while we stop and frisk random black kids without cause.)
I’m not at all sorry to see Attorney General Eric Holder go.
No one among the rich and powerful, even during all the crooked bank and Wall
Street antics, has been pursued for breaking the law. A few firms paid fines out of their petty
cash drawer. No one is being seriously questioned for breaking the rules of the
Geneva Convention, let alone the gross violation of the values we think we hold
dear.
This isn’t conspiracy theory. This is out there for those willing to look,
listen and put the pieces together. The impact of the intimate friendship among
government agencies and branches and global corporations manifests itself on
all levels. Do we really want private
corporations running our prisons and schools?
When the prisons are low on prisoners, the corporation will find
compliant or indebted legislators, pass some laws extending prison terms or put
some new crimes on the books. Corporate earnings will go up. Stockholders will
be happy. Teachers will lose their
pensions. And students will be good,
little corporate dweebs. What better way
to validate a corporate privatization vision than to inculcate it in the
school’s lesson plan? First eliminate the arts from the curriculum so students
won’t learn to think for themselves. Oh,
that’s already done. Once upon a
democracy, some things were meant to be public institutions — schools, prisons,
and roads. And what about private armies? I can see it now — Wal-Mart’s Fifth
Infantry Division. Impossible? No. The
word is out that the new congress will attempt to privatize the post office. A 222-year old public institution, once headed
by Benjamin Franklin, will be corporatized.
Who, do you think, wants that to happen?
We also believed that our representatives shouldn’t be pawns
of corporate interests. Yet, under current law, the purchaser and purchase
price of a legislator do not have to be disclosed. Did I just dream bribery was illegal?
What we have, as I suggested, is not new. People in power have always wanted to
consolidate and preserve that power.
It’s natural. Many just see it as
part of the game. But it is insidious
when allowed to go unchecked. As it was
when Teddy Roosevelt used anti trust laws and Franklin Roosevelt went after the
banks to level the playing field, we need some reformation. Capitalism is fine
until those at the top of the heap crush those below. They are doing so now
with the blessing and kindly cooperation of the authorities.
We’re seeing abuses not only nationally and internationally,
but locally when police departments, often in cahoots with prosecutor’s
offices, fail to acknowledge, let lone fix ubiquitous bullying, corruption and
unnecessary force used by a seemingly growing number of those in the thin blue
line. When the prosecutor acts like a
defense attorney in a grand jury deliberation, is it any wonder the case
doesn’t make it to a real court where due process can happen?
The notion that the authorities are allowed to act without
accountability leads to local police using deadly force for minor infractions
and powerful office holders and mega billionaires excused from the laws the
rest of us must obey.
Because the power is in the hands of the few is why we have
such a huge income gap, a shrinking middle class and increasingly unequal
access to quality education. It isn’t in the corporate interest to have the
masses educated. They might figure out what’s going on. They may read the fine print. It is the
greedy consolidation and immoral protection of wealth, no matter how it is
accumulated, in the name of “trickle down” that will eventually ignite real and
justifiable class warfare.
Unfortunately the electorate is asleep. Minorities most likely
to suffer oppression from the authorities, women who see their rights
backsliding while disparities in their health care increase, and people being
paid below a livable wage did not fully participate in the last election. Congress, in a few months, will be run by
those who nakedly favor the rich, who believe in taxpayer subsidies for hugely
successful global corporations while defunding, if not eliminating programs
that provide help for those who have either stumbled on hard times or were
pushed into a hole by changing business models. And the elderly, who have paid into Social
Security and Medicare all their lives voted for the very people who would deny
them the fruits of that investment. How unaware can the electorate be? Will it
be only the most destitute and oppressed who will finally, pushed to their
limits, rebel as peasants did against their feudal lords?
2 comments:
You hit the nail on the head. I say Ron for president; but then I know you're too smart to want the gig. Where is our Mr. Smith when we need him most?
Absolutely, 100% agree with everything you have written here.
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