Tag Archives: Republicans

I Am A Ukrainian

How can you not stand up and cheer at what we’ve just witnessed in Eastern Europe? To see an entire populace rise up against injustice, autocracy and the armed lackeys of a corrupt police state reminds me of what real courage looks like, especially when it’s bolstered by the adrenaline of outrage and moral authority.Ukraine

I couldn’t watch this impoverished proletariat fighting so valiantly—and risking so much—for their rights, their country and for the future of their children’s children without thinking about how far we Americans have drifted from our own revolutionary and democratic ideals. So far that we would allow George W. Bush to twice steal the presidency of the United States (see michaelparenti.org/stolenelections.html) staring impotently with our mouths open, too afraid of the consequences that might come from shouting out the truth and fighting for our rights. Too comfortable, in all likelihood, with our material possessions and modest successes to risk any of it by standing up and shouting “Fraud! Thief! Liar!” as we should have done—as we have an obligation to do as legatees of our revolution and its democratic values!

And so we turned over in bed, having taken a sleeping pill to deal with any discomfiting after-effects of watching our country hijacked by these lackeys of disgruntled billionaires.

Yes, we’ve fallen so far from our American ideals that we would allow almost every state legislature controlled by Republicans to institute laws designed to deprive citizens of their voting rights in the name of preventing voting fraud. A fraud admittedly non-existent and clearly invoked as a fig leaf to conceal the pathetic conniving of a fastly-shrinking political minority.

Where is our outrage? Where are the barricades we would mount to fight for the democratic ideals our forebears died to secure and preserve? Where indeed! Instead of mounting barricades we sit docilely in front of our TV sets while this minority band of politicians gerrymander themselves into the power of the majority and attempt to dismantle every right and protection built up to protect the poor, the weak and the elderly.

Why do we allow these cynical enemies of democracy to determine the national conversation? Why do we allow them to first dismantle our economy under Bush, raid the treasury to protect the banks and  tycoons who created the crisis, then block almost every attempt made by Obama to prevent the poor and the middle class from falling off the game board entirely?

Once I was proud to say “I am an American.” Admittedly it was a time of innocence. A time before Viet Nam. A time before we unnecessarily declared war against Iraq. A time before banks and bankers were allowed to destroy our economy with impunity. A time before Republicans and their billionaire puppeteers were allowed to dictate the national agenda. And, yes, a time before drones were sent to foreign skies to kill enemies and civilians alike without due process.

It was also a time before the events of this last week. A week when I was able to watch breathlessly—with equal measures of hope and trepidation—as a country of 46 million people shook off the chains of corruption and domination that a small group of tyrants had imposed. This was what a fight for democracy and freedom really looked like. It was a week where true-life heroes, brave enough to challenge bullets and riot police, were arrayed before the world in a laughable contrast to the Olympic ‘heroes’ who captured most of the media’s attention.

There was only one international event truly worth watching this week. One event where the human species was shown to reach its most brilliant and most memorable heights.

And it didn’t take place in Sochi.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lady Liberty Paralyzed By Elephantiasis, Prognosis Not Good

For those who remember her as a symbol of vibrant democracy and American virtue, the recent succumbing of Lady Liberty to a paralyzing strain of elephantiasis has been particularly disturbing.Liberty

“What makes this form of elephantiasis so destructive is that the invading agent—in this case the Republican Party—is using the very same laws and constitutional processes to subvert and paralyze Lady Liberty that were put in place to protect her and keep her safe,” commented former American president George Washington, as he rolled over in his grave.

Trackers of the disease point to two seminal events that allowed a minority party to essentially bring the forward progress of an entire nation to a grinding halt. “First the sons o‘bitches stole the presidency,” growled former president Andrew Johnson, also rolling over in his grave, “from top to bottom, from hanging chads to Supreme Court interference in the electoral process, they poked Lady Liberty in the eye and opened the door for all sorts of mischief to sneak through the gates she’d been guarding.”

“That allowed an illegitimate, prisoner-torturing, war-mongering American President to stuff the Supreme Court with more of those gun-loving, people-hating Republicans who would sooner throw the Constitution under the bus than go against the wishes and best interests of billionaires and anti-government zealots,” Jackson concluded.

“And damn if they didn’t steal the next presidential election, as well!” Teddy Roosevelt, himself a former Republican, chimed in, being the latest in a long line of ex-presidents to turn over in his grave. “Hell, in all the history of exit polls for presidential elections, there’ve only been two that supposedly predicted the outcomes wrongly,” he continued. “Florida in 2000, Ohio in 2004. Both states whose electoral vote results threw victory into the arms of George W. Bush. You’d think the American media would have had the stink detector—or the courage—to question whether it was the exit polls or the reported results that were bogus?” the former president opined through gritted teeth.

Elephantiasis trackers next point to a confluence of American political events that set the stage for the disease to invade Lady Liberty and totally capture her vital organs and democratic processes. Having voted out the Republican majority in congress who, along with their illegitimate president, had allowed the plundering of the American treasury and economy, American voters elected a Democratic president and congressional majority who not only pulled the American economy back from the brink of total collapse, but also voted in a universal health care program that would bring health care to all Americans, including over 30 million of our nation’s poorest citizens.

That act of social conscience and long-overdue legislative protection for America’s most vulnerable citizens drew an immediate whiplash reaction from traditional Republicans and a GOP-led force of angry zealots who called themselves tea-partiers. And though nobody noticed at the time, the nascent bacillus of Lady Liberty’s elephantiasis secured its first beachhead when this mushrooming mob of angry voters, seemingly forgetting the Republican excesses of the Bush years, voted in a GOP majority—not only in the House of Representatives but in statehouses across the country.

The Elephantiasis bacillus

The Elephantiasis bacillus

In politics, timing is everything. In the development of Lady Liberty’s elephantiasis, timing was of crucial significance. Because those GOP majorities took power at exactly the right time for them to gerrymander voting districts to ensure Republican control of state houses and congressional districts for years to come, no matter how many geographically-bizarre districts had to be created, no matter how much the GOP’s base would eventually contract. Suddenly, at the stroke of state house pens across the country, a minority party with a shrinking base of support, was given a guaranteed legislative majority from which to pursue minority viewpoints and block the will of the American people.

And what of Lady Liberty? Her legs have grown so gargantuan and difficult to lift, it’s all she can do lately to get out of bed in the morning. And with every presidential or senate initiative blocked or ignored by Republican intransigence, she finds herself mostly moving backwards, living in the past, fighting battles she thought she’d won years ago. Kept in the past by a Republican Party and a conservative Supreme Court working tirelessly to set back voting rights reform and civil rights protections, to keep women, immigrants and minorities in their “rightful” place, to reduce middle class earning power and destroy recently enacted restrictions on reckless banks and Wall Street shenanigans, and to bring back the era of clothes hanger abortions. A Republican Party that has filibustered 420 times in recent years to block any kind of initiative that doesn’t resonate with their trickle-down, “serve the wealthy first” theories of economics and social justice, an obstructionist party that refuses to spend money on anything other than defense contracts, foreign aid and the construction of a 35 foot fence along the Mexican border.

The argument never changes. Time and time again, Lady Liberty has been told the deficit can’t be increased, that the precipitous loss of revenues—incurred because the Republicans under Bush virtually sacked the American economy—have driven up the deficit so dramatically there’s no money left to help struggling college students, hungry children, crumbling roads, falling bridges, a failing educational system or to even maintain the social contract she made years ago with our nation’s elderly and infirm. Suddenly Lady  Liberty finds herself spending more money on weapon systems than on an elder population forced to compete for Walmart greeter positions and to work into their 80’s. Rather than plan and legislate for the future, she finds herself repeatedly fighting battles the Republicans refuse to acknowledge having lost. Just last week, the Republican controlled house once again voted to kill off Obamacare, the success of which so frightens them they would rather bring the entire government to a halt, and leave 32 million people uninsured, than allow the law to be funded.

And if there’s nothing else she’s learned from her battle with elephantiasis it’s that there’s no arguing with this particular political disease. It will either have its way or kill her as it progresses. For Lady Liberty has learned better than most that our political process isn’t just broken, as many maintain, but that it’s been hijacked. Just as the Nazis, the Bolsheviks and the Chilean military under Pinochet hijacked their countries’ political processes.

As for Lady Liberty, it’s highly ironic that she may finally pass away at the moment her condition, under Obamacare, is no longer considered uninsurable.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

NRA FIGHTS DRONE CONTROL

Washington, D.C.—Wayne LaPierre, Executive Vice President of the National Rifle Association lashed out at critics of the NRA’s lobbying efforts to protect private ownership of drones and drone NRAmissiles.

Mr. LaPierre was speaking before a small gathering of armament manufacturing CEO’s here in the nation’s capital. They had come to lobby their Republican congressmen and senators to resist attempts by bleeding heart liberals to curb sales of any weaponry that could potentially be manufactured in the U.S.A.

Pointing at the screen behind him where a video was playing without sound, LaPierre explained, “Here you see Sarah Palin, one of the first hunters to use drone missiles. Notice, Sarah no longer needs to use a helicopter to shoot and kill moose. These days she sits at her computer piloting her hunting drone across the Alaska wilderness. Now watch this! As you can see from this Fox News documentary, Sarah was able to successfully bring down an entire herd of moose with a single hellfire drone missile.”

“Pow!,” he exclaimed triumphantly, as the missile hit the quietly grazing herd. “Good shot Sarah. Bad news mooses!”

Waiting for the spontaneous burst of applause to die down, LaPierre continued, “Hell, why is everyone in such a damn rush to limit the sale of drones? If the U.S. Government has drones, how long will it be before the drug dealer on the corner has drones? Assuming they don’t already have them!”

The question of school safety, still on everyone’s mind in the aftermath of the Newtown school shootings,  came up quickly in a question from the audience.

“But how can we keep our grandchildren safe?” one elderly CEO asked. “You called for an armed security guard in every school, but what good is that if everyone can now purchase drones with missiles?”

“Excellent question!” Mr. LaPierre replied, spinning on his feet and pulling out his gun finger to shoot at the inquiring CEO. “Thought you had me there!” he joked, blowing off the imaginary smoke from his recently fired gun finger.

Mr. LaPierre turned to face the blank screen behind him, raised a remote control and clicked it at the screen.

“Anti-missile missiles!” he exclaimed excitedly as a photo of a school-mounted anti-missile artillery battery came up on the screen. “One battery per school should do it; maybe two for schools located in ethnic neighborhoods.”

When asked if owning missile-carrying drones was enshrined in the Constitution of the United States, Mr.LaPierre answered tersely, “It is in my copy.”

Offering a wink and a smile, he added, “Right after assault weapons!”