You see those commercials on the boob tube for the Addiction Network. It’s another for profit that helps folks with addictions, IF they either have the insurance or the cash. Isn’t it grand that we Amerikans have to use private businesses to rehab those of us who are under the spell of drug addictions? If you took a few moments of pause, you would realize that it should be our government which should be helping those with addictions- many such ones that have occurred because of the power of Big Pharma. Do you realize that they were giving out opioids like candy through foolish MDs and false advertising… but that’s for another column folks.
We do have a much more subtle but powerful Addiction Network operating here in Amerika, and this one is in fact run by our government.. forever it seems. This network has mesmerized the public into thinking two such false facts: A) The Two Party/ One Party system works for a viable democracy, and B) Free Market Free Enterprise works for all. Think about that for a moment:
*The Two Party/ One Party System- Like some monopoly business setup whereupon two mega-corporations control 90% of sales, this Republican/ Democrat fixture all but runs the electoral playing field. The super-rich who really control both of these parties made sure that money, and lots of it, is needed to run elections. We, the suckers, just look on and decide if it is, as Ralph Nader aptly put it, Tweedledum or Tweedledee. Sad but true. Of course, if you are like a Howard Schultz, mega mega millionaire who runs Starbucks, or a Ross Perot, then you can get the exposure needed to reach ‘We the suckers’. Think about this for a second: If, when he decided to take on the Republican establishment, Donald Trump did not have zillions of his own dough and that of a few billionaires, he would not be tweeting from the oval office. Folks, there is NO democracy until we totally eliminate private money from electoral politics!
*Free Market/ Free Enterprise– We’ve been sold another lie that the ‘Market works’ and that if you work hard and are creative you can succeed. Right! That’s why when the price of oil was down to $ 30 a barrel, or when it was up to $ 100, the gasoline at your pump was about the same price. Or that the 1996 Telecommunications Act was going to make competition work in the marketplace. Yeah, that’s why our cable bills have been going sky high for these 23 years. How about wages? Well, the late, great Col. Bob Bowman, who flew in the Nam as a Navy pilot and then became ‘born again progressive/Anti-empire’, said it best to this writer in 2006. He was running for Congress in the Democratic primary that year, in Florida (another example of how if you want to have a chance of being elected you must do it via those two parties) and was a guest on my radio talk show. After the show, we went to lunch. Over lunch, I asked him how he analyzed Wall Street. “Very simple Philip. When wages are higher the market goes lower. When wages stay stagnant or lower, the market goes up. That’s all you need to know.”
People who say they study history tell you that even Hitler and his Nazi Party won office democratically. What they fail to explain is that in Germany at that time there was a real and viable Multi-party system. Even the Communists had a popular party, and actually kept winning more votes than even the Nazi Party. Germany had a slew or parties, most of which got more than 1 or 2 % of the national votes. Perhaps the super rich wizards here studied that fact, and made damn sure that our Amerikan Empire would never experience such a thing: Real Democracy! So, to all the fools out there who are ‘Spectators at their own execution’, just keep drinking the Kool-Aid. Keep arguing over who the next charismatic person will be to lead us over the cliffs of reason. Parachute anyone?
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