American Gullibility - Part 2

Let us now turn our attention to some of the nonsense Americans have been fed, and have swallowed, on the domestic front. In the interest of brevity, we will skip Lincoln's rape of the Constitution and Wilson's unforgivable role in the creation of the Federal Reserve. Let's begin with JFK.

Here, 52 years later, we still have no clue as to Kennedy's assassin. We have theories galore, ranging from the laughable, Oswald acted alone, to the frightening, the CIA acted in cooperation with extreme right wing rich folks. It is certainly fun to play with the possibilities, we all love a good mystery, but it is absurd that we still have no idea what happened.

We do know, from their own records, that the CIA was, at that point, in the midst of the MKUltra experiments. In case you have not heard of these, in brief, the Agency, in an effort to learn how to control the human mind, were conducting a range of experiments on US citizens, involving, drugs, torture, hypnosis, and any nightmarish scenario they could come up with. By the way, a lot of those experiments were the suggestions of supposedly ex-Nazis scientists we had imported after WW2 as part of the incredibly illegal Operation Paperclip.

Then, we have LBJ. The man was insane. That is the only way to explain his belief that we could afford to send 500000 troops to Viet Nam while conducting a major social initiative, the Great Society and the War on Poverty. Guess what? It cannot be done.

Nixon, of course, was de-throned by Watergate. Much like the JFK assassination, this event has never been satisfactorily explained. It did not happen because Nixon was afraid of losing the election. At that point, the Republicans could have nominated Bullwinkle J. Moose and beaten McGovern. What really  happened? Who knows?

Skip ahead to Ronnie Reagan, we see a huge hustle being pulled off, two actually. First, he convinced everyone that all the Nation's woes were do to too many laws and Congress, like little puppets, said, "yes sir," and de-regulated most everything. You will see later that this was definitely a bad idea. Second, the Old Gipper turned loose Ollie North and his merry band, who, in an effort to illegally fund rebels in Nicaragua. flooded the Land with cocaine.

George Herbert Walker Bush, a loathsome individual, promised, repeatedly, no new taxes, before he oversaw the raising of taxes. By the end of his term, the economy was in awful shape.

Then, we have Bill "Slick Willie" Clinton. For now, I will not mention all, and there are many, of his sleazy escapades, to focus on his rape of the Social Security Fund. He makes much of his balancing of the Federal Budget, but always omits the fact that he did this by, with no legal justification, borrowing from Social Security, money that has never been paid back. To any younger readers, do not count on drawing Social Security in your old age. The economy did boom while he was in office, but that had nothing to do with him. He was just lucky to be around when the Tech Bubble was happening. Of course, like all bubbles, it broke, leaving many a poor yuppie.

Next, we move to George Walker Bush, a man as loathsome as his Father. Let us overlook 9/11 and the whole Weapons of Mass Destruction nonsense. On the Domestic front, he should be remembered for his lack of action during the collapse of the Housing Bubble and the monstrous Banking Scandals, both the direct result of Reagan's de-regulation program. How a President can sit by and do nothing while big time investment banks not only collapse, but continue paying those who oversaw the collapse huge salaries and ridiculous salaries is beyond me. He should have called for their dismissal and deep Federal investigations. Instead, he called for tax payer bailouts. Oh, he did accomplish something else. He oversaw the creation of the Patriot Act. If you wish to know more about that, simply read Orwell's 1984.

Leaping to the present, we find Barak Obama. Barry O has been a busy fellow. First, he has tightened the noose of the Patriot Act, after hinting that he wanted it repealed. Second, he has forgotten that he is supposed to, according to our much neglected Constitution, govern in cooperation with Congress. Instead, he has signed a dizzying array of Executive Orders. I am still not sure why the legality of these unilateral actions has not been questioned but, it hasn't. Finally, we have his pride and joy, the Health Care Act. After he rammed this through Congress, many discovered that they had to drop plans they liked in exchange for more, much more, expensive plans. Businesses in a time of a stagnant economy, had an expense added that they could not really afford, so many dropped workers and began using part-timers they didn't have to cover. There were actually cases of post-menopausal women having to take policies that included pregnancy coverage. Those who were poor were told, "don't worry, the States will help you," only to find that they weren't eligible for help or that their State was one of many who were not going to help.

Why do I say Americans are gullible? Simple. Many when confronted with these facts refuse to believe them. "Oh, no, our Government wouldn't do that." More, will admit problems but insist that all of these issues can be fixed by voting for the right Candidate in the upcoming election. That is the gullibility factor comes in, and that is what I will discuss in my next installment.

In the meantime, most Americans will not give any of this a thought. All they want is football on the TV and a full refrigerator they can waddle over to. It is no accident that you see so many of those annoying erectile dysfunction treatment ads on sports programs.