Laws

I am not a lawyer, nor a judge, nor an authority on laws, or even necessarily well informed about such things. But I am pretty sure there are laws against sedition, sabotage, blackmail, extortion, treason, hate crimes, the abuse of free speech (falsely yelling fire), threatening or attacking the President, slander, and most probably even about being a public nuisance. There do not seem to be laws against being an idiot in public or lying, probably for good reason as they would no doubt be violated by most everyone.

If, indeed, there are laws against sedition, etc., one might well wonder why they are not being enforced. There would seem to be little doubt that a minority of citizens, both within government and without, are actively engaged in one or more of such transgressions. In fact they openly boast about such activities and they seem to grow more and more bold with each passing day. The latest disgraceful behavior has them marching on the White House, insulting (slandering?) the President, waving a confederate flag, and so on. This demonstration was led by Ted (McCarthy) Cruz, mouthing his usual completely ridiculous nonsense, backed up by a few genuine crazies, and also featuring Sarah (the fishwife) Palin. Palin, I think, should be an obvious candidate for public nuisance number one, she holds no office, is not likely to ever hold another public office, is basically a no-brainer with a big mouth, and, except for a tragic mistake by John McCain, would still be basically a failed nobody governor of Alaska. I guess she might get some credit for stretching her 15 minutes of fame into an eternity of media attention (why she is still a media darling is a mystery to me). If it is true, as claimed by some, that Ted Cruz does not intend to run for Senate again, and is merely trying to use his current celebrity to catapult himself into the White House, he is obviously wasting his and everyone else’s time. I suspect his chances of ever being President are about the same as mine, and even less than winning the lottery.

So why do we continue to put up with these obvious quasi-treasonous crazies that are doing great damage to our country and potentially even to the world at large? Why should they not be charged with, at the very least being a public nuisance, fined and placed in media Siberia where they belong? Frankly, I do not know. Perhaps it is best to just ignore them, although the media refuses to do so, clinging to their every word and appearance as if they actually have anything of note to say. I guess it is easier to concentrate on them than actually pursue any real news, pursuing real news costs money and takes some effort. Thank goodness we now have Al Jazeera.

We no longer have a functioning government. Even the current negotiations going on in Washington have little or nothing to do with actually governing the nation, they mostly are arguments about who is going to get the most “spoil.” With Congressional approval basically in single digits they continue to ignore the will of the people (who might as well not exist at all) and just continue to bicker about which side is going to “win.” I am pretty sure we are now the laughing stock of the world, having exposed ourselves as unable to govern ourselves, let alone teach others the “joys” and benefits of democracy. No longer the “shining beacon on the hill,” we have become the fading embers of what was once a roaring fire, a whimpering memory of what once was and what might have been, a lost cause. And what is worse, we have no one else to blame, we brought it all on ourselves.  

Everything that everyone is afraid of has already happened: The fragility of capitalism, which we don't want to admit; the loss of the empire of the United States; and American exceptionalism. In fact, American exceptionalism is that we are exceptionally backward in about fifteen different categories, from education to infrastructure.

James Hillman