The spirit of 76

Happy independence day.

I sat with a retired couple the other day.  Nice people but we were opposites.

Fox News religiously.  How is it that people can be so nice and reasonable and still allow themselves to be so full of shit?

I still closed the deal.  Took me a couple hours but I knew what was going to happen inside of fifteen minutes.

I don’t get paid enough to know that.  I like people and they always like me.  They pay me for that.  Sometimes.  Less often than not it feels like.

I can’t find a decent job to save my life and if I jump out the window, there’s no one to close it behind me so my cats don’t wander out and fall.  I’m on the ninth floor.  I guess I’ll have to leave notice that I’ll be jumping out the window.  I can’t afford a gun right now.  I’ll need someone to close the window just a few minutes after I take the plunge.  Write me at this address if you’re up for it.

Maybe I hate myself.

It’s silly and pointless. We are already a third world country.

Within the next year or so 25% of our children will be below the poverty line.  Check me me before you wreck me but it’s true according to 60 minutes.  How many homeless do you think that means?  Do the math.

From ’09 until now, 88% of all economic growth has entered through the ass pockets of corporate profit.  In the same amount of time, you and I have seen about 1%.  Absolutely NOT adjusted for inflation.  Have you noticed the stock market just can’t get enough of itself?  They love themselves.  They should.  They walk around with thousand dollar bills glued to their  ridiculous jeans regardless of whether we can pay rent or not.  The recession and the subsequent “recovery” have amounted to an even greater concentration of wealth.  Do the math.  As the smoke clears and we treat our own gaping ass wounds, these fuckers eat smooth velvet cake and giggle at our gullibility.

400 of them own as much as 170,000,000 of us.

Republicans continue to flirt with the debt ceiling like it’s a legitimate issue.  Like it’s a real issue.  They raised the debt ceiling under Dumbya 7 times with nary a whimper.  Fuck me.  Blow me.  It’s not about that.  They hold it hostage to further an insidious agenda of austerity.  Eric Cantor wants you to believe that closing tax loopholes for corporate jet use is egregious enough for him to walk out of negotiations that would forestall what everyone agrees, everyone understands and everyone fears with good reason, will be an economic catastrophe.  CAT.  ASS.  TROPHY.  At the same time this officious little prick wants to see poor people lose access to medicine and Ramen noodles.

What a dick.

They keep telling the richest country in the history of mankind that it’s broke.

How can that be?

It’s not, but they want it to be.

It’s fucking bullshit.

I’ll tell you how.  Three wars.  Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya.  Corporations like General Electric don’t pay a motherfucking dime in taxes while illegal aliens pay billions.  We give subsidies to the richest, most profitable businesses in the history of mankind.  We’re talking big oil here. Defense contractors.  Corn growers.  Ethanol is like nuclear power in that neither is fiscally legitimate and both are as dangerous as say, fracking.  Way bigger money than any union.  And they scream and piss and moan about salaries paid to teachers, cops and firefighters.  They push and pine for austerity.  They hate unions because they are the cornerstone of and for the middle class.  They hate them all including a minimum wage because it’s “socialism”.  They hate the middle class because it historically represents a common sense center of power, ethics, morality and accountability in this country.

They hate us.

Many of them should be in fucking jail along with the most prominent members of the last administration.

They don’t just want more, they want everything.  They want all there is to get.

They label everything they oppose “socialism”.  They assume they know what that word means but are sure that you don’t.  They don’t understand that police and firefighters operate under one of the purest social constructs in existence.  Or maybe they do understand.

They don’t care that families will roam the streets in search of food and medicine.  Under the Ryan plan, they will and they just don’t care.  They don’t try to truthfully explain the Ryan plan, they choose instead to lie about it.  It’s kinda how you know they’re full of shit.

They can’t wait for the plutocracy to be complete.  It is why they have grown so egregiously bold.

They look forward to it because they don’t give a mad fuck.  THEY understand that WE no longer elect them.  YOUR elected representatives don’t give a shit about you.  They care only about getting re-elected so that the cycle continues.  They covet power and influence because that’s precisely what we’ve allowed.  The drug war is a sterling example.  Stop imagining that your government is wringing hands over you getting addicted to pot or even heroin.  They don’t care.  They just hope to be able to throw you in prison when you become obstreperous  and unmanageable because you smoke weed and we all understand that never happens.

Never.  Ever.  For the last forty years it’s been a great excuse for incarcerating hippies, activists, and brown people though.

America is a third world country.  The only exception, the only difference is that we go around the globe blowing up every brown person who disagrees with us.  While our teeth rot and our organs fail, while we lose our houses and our jobs, we prance around the world blowing everything up and scaring the shit out of everyone else.  We are bullies.  Assholes.

We hate ourselves.

We debate the debt ceiling, the budget and the deficit and seriously set the table with things like education and “entitlements” like social security, medicare and medicaid while ignoring the eight thousand pound fucking gorilla in the room that is spending hard earned tax dollars everyday to kill brown people.  Everywhere.  All the time.  Every day.  We kill more people everyday than any country on earth.  We incarcerate more people than any country on earth and most of them are of an alternate color.    We pay giant sums to do it all and pretend the argument is about the money we spend taking care of our own people.

Like that’s the bad thing.  Like we can’t afford that.

They really want you to think that taking care of our own is what’s breaking our backs.  They hope to make you see that it is YOU that is the enemy.  It’s the biggest lie they tell you and that says more than a lot.  If you believe that lie it means you are dumber than the people around you.  It means you probably watch and believe Fox News even though the economic policy being sold to you will fuck you in the ass.  It means you are incurably stupid.

It means you loath other people because you see yourself.  Insidiously clever.  I admit I’m impressed.

We pay more more than any country on earth for health care while only a fraction are covered and our health care sucks ass.  Our education sucks and that translates to a seriously jeopardized future.  They want this.  They can’t wait for it.  They think it will make you want to elect more crazy dipshits next time.  They count on it.  It’s their entire strategy.

I hear God loves the Tea Party, the stupidest motherfuckers in America and therefore, the world.  Only in America can you be pro gun, pro death penalty, pro nukes, pro big energy, pro unilateral preemptive aggression (The Bush Doctrine), pro heterosexual marriage exclusively, pro racial discrimination (anti muslim, anti immigration, sexist…..) and still be “PRO LIFE”.  What a bunch of asstards.  We rock at stupidity.  We are the champions of the world.  No wonder every other country laughs at us behind closed doors because they fear us.  We are vacant eyed dumb but we’ll fracture your skull with one roundhouse kick if you don’t shut up.

Like all bullies, we’ve been made to hate ourselves  by abusive, damaged parents.

They do it all in the name of God and religion.  Every single one of these hypocritical, loose lipped zealots says and does everything in the name of God and country like the two weren’t absolutely intended to be mutually exclusive by our forefathers who were way smarter and had had far more honest and far less avaricious intentions.  It is killing me.

It’s an early 80’s horror movie.

Michele Bachmann is the absolute dumbest person to ever run for president of the united states.  She can raise money like a riot and that all speaks volumes about the American electorate after George W. Bush was president for eight mindless years.  Whatever happened to her debating that twelfth grader on the constitution?  She spends her time proving she doesn’t know fuck all about our history and questioning everyone’s patriotism.  She hates herself.  They all hate themselves.  It’s why they always get caught committing some egregiously hypocritical act that the rest of us gasp at and pretend to be indignant about.

We’re all the same.

We no longer manufacture, we no longer lead in innovation, our infrastructure crumbles, our schools and education system rot while our young are uninspired and understandably despondent.  What’s wrong with the new generation?  Us.  We suck.  We are a third world country.  Soon, white people will be crossing the border to Mexico in search of a decent job.  Canada will very soon have an immigration problem.  And they like that. They want it.  They can’t wait.  They would twist and shout if the American middle class began to jump borders to make a better living just like all the brown people.  Then we’ll really start to compete with them and hate them like never before.  Maybe then NAFTA will be a real factor for the disadvantaged.

Will we be more or less of an empire then?

The answer is more.

There will be no balance without the equity of increased revenue AND cuts to our military.  AND cuts in subsidies to fat fucks in three piece suits who offshore business accounts, defense contracts, manufacturing and customer service.  AND tax increases on the wealthy.

We are not broke.  We are morally and ethically challenged and it’s painfully clear as evidenced by the fiscal priorities we actually countenance or tolerate while we behave like the most important things no longer matter.

We are a third world country.  Our elected representatives now represent anyone and everyone that would silence us.  Our voices and will are under sustained attack and deliberate corrosion.  The gulf between the American dream and reality continues to widen while the time to correct it grows shorter.  America as we think of it, is about to be over.   I don’t know about you but I don’t buy for a second that our ancestors walked with dinosaurs or that Reaganomics has done anything but ass rape working men and women.  They can’t wait for you to embrace these things.  And they are so close they can taste it.

They hate us because we are them.  We hate ourselves because we are them.

Do the math.

Happy Independence Day.

Drinks for my friends.

14 Responses to “The spirit of 76”

  • Junior's Ghost:

    Happy Independence Day! Great piece. I feel your pain. Unforunately your prose is not what’s going to save us when the fertilzer hits the fan. We’re gonna need fighters to secure what will be left of our future. Please don’t mock me. I’m not a violent person. I’ve never so much as fired a gun in my life. But I’m not so ignorant as to forsake the coming conflagration for anything other than what it truly is. Anyone born in this country after 1960 is going to play a very important part in this coming cataclysm. I’m hoping I can learn how to shoot straight. I’m hoping you can do something just as vital. If you’re lucky, it will be with a keyboard.

    All of us will play a role. God bless the free.

    • Michael Douglass:

      As always, thanks for reading and contributing. I wonder if it’s going to come to that. I shudder to think of it and I too am non violent but I wonder if that’s what it will take. I hope not. Times will be so terribly desperate.

  • Teresa:

    Nice…depressing, but still informative! 🙂

  • good corn:

    Very nice piece. Kudos. I especially enjoyed the parts where you were writing what I was thinking. I could really use somebody with your unique talent to following me around and note what I’m thinking and saying. I often forget a lot of things, as I like to drink quite a bit. So get in touch if you are ever interested in becoming some sort of glorified assistant/bartender. However, they’ll have to eliminate that pesky minimum wage law first.

    PS. In regard to the dilemma about being on the 9th floor, I may have some insight. In a moment of contemplation whilst living on the 20th floor, I too came around to the same worry about the cats. However, I quickly realized the best solution would be to duct tape them to my body before I jumped. Sure, it’s a bit selfish. But not nearly as selfish as the act itself. So fuck it. But if you’re allergic to duct tape or whatever, let me know. I’m a freelancer with not enough work. I’ve never done that kind of work, but I’m sure I could fake it better than some of the other shit I’ve pulled off. As far as compensation, I could go as low as a bus ticket, a sandwich, a pack of smokes, and all the remaining booze in the place.

    • Michael Douglass:

      Damn, except for that minimum wage part It was sounding like a pretty sweet gig.

      The smokes and some hooch I could do, but it kinda defeats the purpose. How about you just shut the window behind me and call my significant other to come get the kitties? She loves them, they love her and she’s taken care of them before.

      Fuck, I’ll even do the sandwich and bus fare both ways.

  • Outrage over injustice never depresses me. Thanks for your truth. Good to meet you!

  • Marla:

    I feel your frustration. And there are times when I succumb to such mind numbing rage, too. But I have to pick myself up and keep going. The only alternative is the window.

  • Hey Michael: Tell us how you REALLY feel. Why is it that the left, the intelligensia, the liberal class always wait until things are viscious and snarling before we start whackin’? The great depression, the vietnam war and now this. All I can say is, get ready for some killer music and art because they go hand-in-hand with the upcoming shitstorms. Glad to see you still kicking. We weave back and forth into each others lanes at intersting times. yr pal -m-

  • Michael Douglass:

    I miss you my old friend. You were instrumental, pun firmly intended, to how I think now. And yes, perhaps there will be collateral benefit here in terms of art. How tragic that times must be so “vicious and snarling” before we get up, wake up and roll up our sleeves? Godfuckingdammit!

  • ProgressiveVoice:

    Have you read the Vanity Fair article on Sybil Edmonds? It’s a real eye-opener into the patriotism of some of our Republican leaders from the Bush Administration II. The Dems share guilt as well, just not as egregiously.

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