In these days.....

In these days, we have secret laws and secret (FISA) courts. We have a government who can say in our open courts that something is a “national security issue” and thereby prevent any reasonable defense – even to the point that the accused may not know what crime he or she was charged with ~ because it’s a secret.

In these days, we have an off-shore gulag (Guantanamo) were we have placed hundreds of foreign men and boys, tortured them, and kept them imprisoned even after a judge ordered their release. For many of them, there was never any evidence that they engaged in criminal behavior. They were handed over to the US military and US secret agents for a bounty. Over a hundred men are still there. They have been there for over 12 years now.

In these days, people caught in this country without documentation are rounded up and sent to gulags inside the USA for no reason other than they do not have documentation. They are kept there for months. Some of the children in these gulags are American citizens. And there are thousands more American children who were put into the foster care system because their parents were shipped back to their country of origin or sent to the gulags inside our country.

In these days, the USA has 2,300,000 people in jails. Many of our prisons are privatized and run for profit. In these days, we have more people in prison in the USA than in any other country on the planet, even those countries that are reported as not-free (that is, communist) and have a four times greater population than the USA. We have seven times more prisoners in our jails than any other first world country. Most of our prisoners are black men. A great number of these prisoners are kept in solitary confinement, which is torture. The vast majority of Americans do not seem to care that their government agencies routinely torture people.

In these days, there is a widening gap between the very rich and the poor. Income inequality is increasing. The middle class is disappearing. And government policies/laws are being made to help out the very rich and abandon the poor. In these days, the rich and powerful are subject to less and less scrutiny by the government and more and more admiration from the corporate media. They are also much more likely to skate on any charges for criminal wrongdoing. In these days, a local department of transportation may send in bulldozers to destroy the tents and belongings of homeless people, even in the middle of winter. In these days, the homeless have no where to go.

In these days, the richest country in the history of the world is unable to help the poor living within its borders. Homelessness is increasing. Poverty is increasing. Hunger is increasing. School lunches were thrown away in front of the children who thought they were going to eat them because their parents were behind on lunch payments (or, at least the school staff who did this thought they were). The rich are never punished for damaging or economy or our environment or much else. They generally have lawyers and connections that can leave them above any law, if they are even charged.

In these days, the poor and powerless are treated more and more harshly by the government, and made out in the corporate media to be totally at fault for their situation. In these days, those needing help are usually vilified by our politicians, corporate media, and many of our fellow citizens.

In these days, corporations can pollute the water source for millions of people and never face arrest, much less jail. The corporations can destroy an entire eco-system in the Gulf of Mexico and never face arrest, much less jail. The corporations can destroy entire communities with gas drilling, fracking, oil drilling, train derailments that spill massive toxic materials, spilling from pipelines, spilling from chemical plants or energy plants, or blow up or blow away entire mountains, and never face arrest, much less jail. In these days, a corporation can cause major water, land or air pollution and never face arrest, much less jail time. In these days, a corporation can blow up half a town in Texas and never face arrest, much less jail time. The corporations are not required to even clean up after themselves, and the corporate media assists them in lying to the American people. And citizens who protest these things are sometimes arrested and prosecuted. 

In these days, if you are an individual, you can face arrest and jail time for giving money to the poor on a street corner. If you are an individual, you can face arrest and jail time for throwing away one piece of paper on a highway. In these days, more and more of our law enforcement agencies are using ‘asset forfeiture’ in the drug war. They often keep whatever money or cars or whatever that they find, even without the suspects being prosecuted.  

In these days, an American is eight times more likely to be killed by the police than by a terrorist. In these days, we generally allow the police to get away with beating, torturing, and killing people. In these days, we are - more and more - living in a lawless police state.

In these days, a whistleblower that shows us that the US is engaged in torture goes to jail, while the torturers go free. In these days, a member of the US military who leaks evidence of war crimes committed by the US military sits in jail while the war criminals go free. In these days, those who point out unconstitutional behavior by US government agencies, or leak information to support this, are either in jail, have had their lives ruined, or are in exile in foreign countries. In these days, the majority of the corporate media show fealty to the establishment, and vilify the leakers and whistleblowers.

In these days, a major economic meltdown from corrupt financial practices has resulted in no one being arrested and no one being punished beyond a fine on a major bank that is less than a month’s worth of profit. 

In these days, the criminals that started up wars of aggression (based on a pack of lies) are honored. The members of the corporate media that helped propagate those lies are still employed in high paying jobs. They are still treated with respect by the elites and politicians. The members of the financial class that caused the biggest economic setback in decades are not in jail, and are still getting paid a huge amount of money. But, many of those citizens who protested any of the above have been arrested, prosecuted, and sent to jail.

In these days, the president holds a meeting (called “Terror Tuesdays”) to decide who will be killed by drone bombings without an arrest, a trial, a judge or jury or evidence presented to the public. So far, this has only happened in foreign countries, but there have been four Americans killed by the drone bombings, along with thousands of innocent foreigners. Many more are injured. There is no accountability. In these days, the claims that the drone bombing victims are all terrorists and could not be arrested have been proven to be lies. In these days, if you protest these drone bombings, you may face arrest. If you participate in the drone bombings, there will be no arrest or accountability.

In these days, most of our politicians and candidates for federal offices are corrupted by “campaign donations”. All of them are on the take, because the system forces them into this situation. They are corrupted by every major industrial group, particularly by financial interests, energy companies, and the military-industrial complex.

In these days, the corporate giants and big money are controlling our government and writing the laws for our elected officials. They decide who our elected officials will be. In these days, those same entities do not care if they destroy the entire planet on their way to excessive profit. In these days, the corporate media sucks up to these big money powers.

In these days, government agencies feel us up at the airport or radiate us, as we obediently take off shoes, jackets, coats, sweaters, hats, purses, wallets, and belts as we try to get to our airplane. In these days, the NSA and other spying agencies of our government collect all the data about us that they can – where we are, who we call, what mail we send or receive, what we read, what we watch on our TVs and computers, what films we watch, what we buy, what we type on our computer, even what we almost post on social media, along with what we do post, of course. In these days, all this snooping and groping and radiating is done in the name of “national security”. This has nothing to do with security of any kind. In these days, the same spying is done on elected officials in the USA, and pretty much everyone around the world, including elected officials in over 35 foreign countries, including some that are our allies. The point of all this massive surveillance is to control other people and corporations, and if necessary, destroy lives and ruin reputations, just like the COINTELPRO actions from decades ago. They seem to be especially interested in who is having an affair or looking at pornography, reflecting their sexual deviancy, I suppose. 

In these days, four million people are employed by our government and private contractors to spy on the whole world, including Americans. This means some of them can easily make a lot of money on insider trading, just by spying on the richest investors in our country. This massive spying is defended by many of our politicians and pundits, most likely because they are making a lot of money off of it also. Congress recently undid a law they passed to forbid insider trading, so the practice continues.

In these days, all of this is being done with little objection from the American people. In these days, all this spying is done by a government that feels it has every right to lock people up forever, engage in torture, and even snuff out their very lives (which they are currently doing routinely in some foreign countries). In some cases, Americans cheer on their government’s abuses of power, so long as the targeted victim is foreign, brown, or has a different religion from them. In these days, many Americans do not realize that they could be next in line for the abuses of power. In some cases, Americans do not appreciate the leakers and whistleblowers and (instead) actually support the US government’s mistreatment of them.  They do not seem to care how often or how badly their government lies to them. In these days, a lot of Americans do not seem to care about the US Constitution or Bill of Rights being followed in any reliable and recognizable way, with the exception of the second amendment.

There is a word for what this is not: FREEDOM.

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“Actions are held to be good or bad, not on their own merits, but according to who does them.  There is almost no kind of outrage – torture, imprisonment without trial, assassination, the bombing of civilians – which does not change its moral color when it is committed by 'our' side.  The nationalist not only does not disapprove of atrocities committed by his own side, he has a remarkable capacity for not even hearing about them.” ~ George Orwell 

“Only after the last tree has been cut down. Only after the last river has been poisoned. Only after the last fish has been caught. Only then will you find that money cannot be eaten.” ~ Cree Indian Prophecy

“The power of the state is measured by the power that men surrender to it.” ~ Felix Morley