The United States of Nonsense

This is not a serious country, this United States of America. I’m sure that those who are in charge of ripping us off, the heads of giant corporations and the disgustingly wealthy, are serious, but I don’t believe the rest of us are. If we were we would certainly not put up with the utter nonsense that now passes for government, or even news.

Need I remind you that the next election is still 17 months in the future. We have already had to endure endless “news” about Donald Trump and Sarah Palin, neither of whom had any intention of actually running for President. Newt Gingrich is another non-candidate who receives almost daily attention. There have also been speculations about many others, Haley Barbour, Huckabee, Giuliani, Perry, Ryan, Allen, and I can’t remember who all else. The 2012 election, a long way away, is occupying the bulk of our “news,” day after day after dreary day, along with what is likely, or not likely, to happen to the debt ceiling. Will they raise it or won’t they? They almost certainly will but suspense sells. If we were truly serious about our politics, or more importantly the fate of our country, we would not put up with this. Our politics has become little more than an ongoing soap opera.

The current news “darling” is Michelle Bachmann who not long ago was regarded as borderline insane, or at least a genuine “flake,” but who has now, through the magic of our fake “news,” become a serious candidate for the Presidency. Now we have to listen to all the “pundits” speculate whether or not she has a chance, what kind of campaign she will run, can she overcome her previous idiotic comments, and no doubt soon what does she wear, what does she eat for breakfast, what happened to all those foster children (as there are apparently about 23 of them this will probably keep the “news” busy for a very long time).

It appears Bachmann has become the non-Romney candidate, a position first awarded to Pawlenty. Pawlenty, however, has turned out to be so deadly boring he is already probably dead in the water. Romney, too, is boring, I mean really boring. And of course the others still claiming to be in the race are such complete nonentities and long-shots as to not be worth bothering about – except if they can be made “newsworthy” like Herman Cain, carrying on about race and Jon Stewart and other complete nonsense.

President Obama, the darling of Wall Street, has fallen out of favor with Progressives, supposedly his “base.” So speculation is rife about whether or not he can actually be defeated. In the real world he no doubt should be defeated, after his miserable performance with respect to “wars,” transparency, Israel, the Bush agenda, and legality in general. But fortunately for him the Republicans have put forward a slate of candidates so excruciatingly awful he will almost surely survive for another term.

Our elections have become little more than just another form of “infotainment,” unbelievably expensive and virtually endless, and virtually meaningless. They divert our attention from our international “sins,” insure that we know as little as possible about what is really happening in the world, and give us something to occupy our time while waiting for the football season. Even our most serious problems, global warming, the national debt, social security, Medicare, poverty, infrastructure, education, environment, and so forth have become merely “political” issues rather than the serious matters they are. Instead of trying to solve them our politicians play political games with them, charades that lead nowhere but score “points” with their sponsors.

If we were serious people we would not put up with this. We would demand our “leaders” be serious and try to actually solve problems rather than kicking them back and forth like worn soccer balls or limp footballs. Our road to hell will be paved with discussions about whether bloated corporations and the obscenely wealthy should have to pay taxes, or how many children should be allowed on food stamps, whether chronically unemployed people should be allowed to eat, or if there should be a minimum wage, and whether poor women should receive health care. This is disgusting beyond belief, our “leaders,” with rare exceptions, are a bunch of criminal fakers who have no interest in doing the “right things,” only where their next big payoff will come from. We are, I fear, getting what’s coming to us.