Brennan Browne

Incapacitating panic. Perpetual gnawing fear. The hopeless resignation of waking every morning to an existence which continues pushing one so far to the edge of survivability, it's like bricks being systematically stacked on a drowning victim. Each day becomes a little more impossible to keep one's head above water, as psychopathic tormentors sadistically add one more brick, then another, and another. The victim understands the end is near but is incapable of breaking free. This is the economic reality for large swathes of people currently assaulted and sacrificed on the altar of greed, by the brazen tyranny of our politicians.

We evolved into this apocalyptic nightmare with--to borrow a phrase--eyes wide shut. Except for the efforts of a few brave and steadfastly committed souls, we passively shrugged, with a ubiquitous what-can-one-person-do? attitude, as avarice-driven monsters increased their stranglehold over every last vestige of our lives. We did not rise up demanding justice when injustice prevailed. We were deluded by our own arrogant claims of the "world's greatest nation." Self-satisfied and unconcerned in our 'right' to freedom, believing it would always be there. We traded away our grassroots power for short-term comforts. We did not hold the media and journalists accountable each time they spewed forth lies as truth, betraying our trust and closing down democratic debate. We kept ourselves politically ignorant and became disinterested observers rather than participants because it took less knowledge, courage, effort and sacrifice. We were placated and distracted by rampant consumerism. Hypnotized by mindless drivel shoveled out like sugary, empty calories as we gave our souls over to the brainless Hollywood creations, captivating us daily via our electronic opiates. We succumbed to 'elections' being sold to the highest bidder; naively believing our votes mattered, while ignoring the vast conspiracy destroying our right to choose our own representatives and not that of the omnipotent mystery elite.

As a result, Capitol Hill and every State Legislature throughout the land are now nothing more than exclusive multimillionaire clubs where each day's business is conducted to enrich the interests of self and the corporations writing our laws, while destroying human beings, wildlife and our irreplaceable ecosystems for raw greed.

The nation we are becoming, have become, is poised to surpass anything George Orwell envisioned. Our civil liberties are gone. Stolen by a network of secretive, unaccountable, surveillance-crazed lunatics, handed unfettered control by a Congress who, based on their appalling 'leadership,' are just as deranged. The first lie out of the mouths of our officials is that they "swear to uphold the Constitution" while egregiously making it obsolete in every way possible. Our courts--from the Supreme Court down--are stacked with biased zealots fulfilling their own partisan, financial and religious agendas, unfit to judge even a mud-wrestling contest. Our law enforcement are militarized corporate goon squads; doing the bidding of the ruthless who have melded their own bastardized version of "Christianity" with Ayn Rand's philosophy of survival of the most callous, unprincipled and genocidal. Our military are bent on global domination and eternal war; completely forfeiting their humanity, ready and willing to turn on their own citizens.

The problem with the federal government's contempt-ridden refusal to serve its citizens has nothing whatsoever to do with partisan politics. It has nothing to do with the latest ruse of jamming it to the powerless under the guise of deficit reduction. It has everything to do with the sociopathic society we have become. We are witnessing the human spirit at its lowest, ugliest and most vile; as it drops any pretense of civility and eats its most vulnerable, not only without remorse, but proudly. It is a pandemic which has seized control of our nation's ruling faction and has set the stage for our total destruction.

The amalgamation of government and business with the constant goals of money and power at their apex, have squeezed the life out of the so-called "American Dream" which really only existed for certain segments of society from the beginning. We all know that women and minorities continue to be given a raw deal. Less talked about, and decidedly 'politically incorrect,' is a whole underprivileged class of whites which are invisible; the dirt farmers, coal miners, back-country and mountain people. As our government selectively turns its resources to global poverty, these are among the forgotten on our own soil. For them, food, shelter, jobs, education and health services have, historically, been largely unattainable. These individuals are America's very own Third World refugees. The government sees no worth in saving them because, like the rest of the helpless across the U.S., our poor cannot be exploited to jockey for more power/resources in exchange for foreign aid. They have nothing to barter with. While we rightfully belabor the loss of the middle class, whose existence has been a mere nanosecond in America's history, no mention is made of those who never even came close to that modest dream -- much less to the obscene wealth which those at the top are committing murder to attain.

Who needs our now prevalent American Stasi regime, or the imperialist war machine, when you can kill your own people with multiple strokes of a pen? Just deny them the ability to survive by busting unions; rolling back already slave wages to even more draconian levels; and when they lose their jobs [those which haven't already been shipped overseas] cut their unemployment benefits; take away ALL social safety nets for the sick, the old, the young, the physically challenged, the hungry, the homeless; make it virtually impossible for them to have legal recourse against government-sponsored fascism. These are the crimes against humanity which state legislatures, Congress and the President are committing every single day. [And this doesn't begin to address the wholesale slaughter of people worldwide, assassinated without accusation or trial.]

For those continuing to excuse Obama's bipartisan impotence -- he is not the pummeled, innocent victim of right wing bullies. He is a neocon extremist's wet dream. A collaborator. The radical Right's enabler. Consider the corporate insiders whom he chose to align himself with from the beginning, and the multiple decisions he has made over his tenure in office; the evidence points to a deliberate and nefarious reality. He has been following the elitists' program all along and is simply shrewd and cowardly enough to do his dirty work of selling out the poor and middle class from behind closed doors.

He may have inherited the corrupted trappings of his office from George W. before him, but he is presently fully in charge of the evils being foisted upon the citizenry. One only has to look to the overwhelmingly, lawless, depravity of G.W. Bush, Dick Cheney, et al, to understand the scope of power an Administration can wield when motivated. Bush used his position to demolish any scraps of democracy left when he appointed himself dictator, unleashing economic havoc, police state policies and successfully amplifying the global war doctrine. Obama is consciously choosing to do the same.

We are presently a single party nation -- the Party of the Greenback. The handful in Congress which have not whored themselves to special interests are being pushed out by lying smear campaigns organized and infused with billionaire backing. And the biggest pseudo-grassroots movement in history, funded by the Koch Brothers and calling themselves the "Tea Party," have thoroughly hijacked Capitol Hill with their concentrated brand of proud-to-be-outrageously-stupid tirades. Their obstructionist predecessors, the traditional ultra radical Righties of "NO," who have held America hostage continuously for the past 11 years with their terrorist tactics, make even the Cosa Nostra look benign and benevolent in comparison. Together, the crazies on the Right are murdering America, and there are only feeble remnants of the Left to stop them.

Now we are slaves. Whipped into submission by our very own al-Qaeda, showing not one shred of mercy; scrambling for leftovers, while the paper pushers and money shufflers at the top, who produce nothing, call the shots. The dwindling few, lucky enough to have employment have taken pay cuts, work longer hours, have seen their work loads increase and their benefits disappear. Intolerant contempt by our politicians for the citizens they victimize, has become the order of the day.

Ominously, many wealthy politicians and other high-profile individuals have progressed to a new level of low by not only demonizing social safety nets, but vilifying ALL social justice movements as "evil." They no longer feel it necessary to limit their rage for the underclasses to exclusive soirees held on their yachts or within their mega-mansions. Emboldened by the insulation a right wing media affords them, and the lack of any serious backlash from their peers, their disgust for the poor is becoming increasingly rabid. If this seems familiar--it is. The same type of vicious rhetoric was used to inflame public hatred against the Jews before all hell broke loose in Germany. "Progressives" are constantly being called [ironically] Nazis, Communists, Socialists, terrorists, traitors and any other label the Right believes will instigate the murder of liberals. The Right--with their "left wing media bias" lie--has been systematically shutting down every venue of free speech for progressives since Reagan was in office.

With that in mind, our politicians' one, true, talent is becoming apparent: using legislative genocide to rid themselves of social programs, because it's much easier and more expeditious to mass annihilate the weakest and poorest with the rancorous strokes of pens, rather than wiping them out in some bloody, "anti-democratic" series of crackdowns. [Though, with our current, fully militarized police state, this too has its place in our future.]

We are being held captive by a brigade of spoiled rich brats in old men's bodies; surly misogynistic racists [why any woman, black, brown or gay person would give their allegiance to the same privileged white men who've been beating them down defies logic]; infantile whiners; free-spending deadbeats, demanding self-denial from those who have nothing, so they can gain even more of the wealth and power they so perseveringly clamor for. Shameless, gluttonous, parasites, poised, as always, to take the country and the globe down, whenever and however necessary, in order to pry every last penny from the rigored, dead hands of those they murder, to steal even more for themselves.

As Congress and the President continue debating more ways in which to pick the bones clean from the carcass of the U.S. taxpayer, after serving him up to a corporate feeding frenzy, while blaming the victim for his own death; it is certain our controlling class of morally degenerate nobs, will proceed undeterred by the massive suffering and death they inflict in expanding their reign of all-encompassing terror.

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Copyright © 2011 Brennan Browne. Permission is granted for reprint in email, blog, print and web media if this credit is attached and the title and content remain unchanged. Brennan is a freelance writer whose commentaries have appeared on web media and in numerous blogs. http://www.everystockphoto.com/photo.php?imageId=5777579