An out-of-breath fourteen-year-old girl in cheap shoes hurries to cross the street, her hand clenches over some cash and an electricity bill. A mother feels like forty miles of bad road, stands abandoned in a super market and ponders whether to buy milk or bread. After he sees his neighbor's newer model Rolls, the crushed millionaire drives his older model into poor areas and feels better. A grateful busboy eats his lunch in the alley next to a dumpster. An au courant angry, bitter, skinny woman wonders how much thinner she should be before becoming rich and famous. Insanity creeps on a teary-eyed father as they take his son—the college student—away to prison on pot charges. Technologically astute BFFs engage in a heated texting fight over whom should convert…the Kim-girl or the Paris-girl; two bros debate, which give more bulk, kettle bells or battle ropes; and an iPhoneless poor beautiful young woman chooses community college over porn but finds no classes available; she still learns to beg instructors for 'add-cards'. "What sin have I committed? You keep sending these stupid ugly heads my way," a television hair-and-makeup stylist says to God. A delusional Tongue-Fu master works his "magic" on his wife as she thinks, "Oh, loser! I can draw you a map, it's never gonna happen!" A priest contemplates a no-brainer: should the church buy food and shoes for poor children or finance Alzheimer's research? In an emergency room, a racist-in-the-make holds his sick daughter for seven hours watching undocumented non-English-speaking people receive treatment while his loved one remains in pain. An IRS agent interrogates an elderly small business owner into a heart attack; after all, he will not let her get away with a few hundred dollars of "taxpayers' money!" The government hands the Wall Street hustlers (aka the "talent" that brought the world economy down) a big chunk of money to cover tens of millions in bonuses. The US Supreme Court rules that money equals free speech, and the defeated Satan apologizes to his trusted demons as he leaves Hell, "I am sorry, I can never top that!"

Meanwhile, a despicable talking head on TV obscenely says, "The American people want this…the American people think that…" What "American people?" To which "people" is this vermin referring?

As guard labor, news anchors/political commentators invite "experts" on political talk shows to do their masters' bidding. No real news, no relevant information, no follow up questions, simply a whole lot a nothing and the message is always, "the status quo is great!" Watching these mockeries, one can easily detect the fake discourse and moronic bullshit. Disgusted by the charade, one cannot help but also realize that even the mediocre suits are worth far more than the talkers in them are. These TV heads redefine politics as cheap gossip; they make the National Enquirer look like a highbrow newspaper. None of these parasites could ever get a job outside the US, let alone be on TV. We, Americans, should demand the return of honest investigative journalism, where the main bulk of the news exposes corruption (Wall Street, banks, corporations, and their gofers) and pernicious legislation. Tell us who is stealing our money and how; otherwise, fire these assholes and give us some decent drama shows.  

When a speaker calls on a citizenry, she understandably addresses the poor, the working class, not the rich, and politicians and crowds of all nations know this human universal. The rich do not need help. They have enough money to pay for anything and everything, except may be love and good genes. They also have the same rights as the rest; even the rule of law, by design, protects the rich "more equally." Capitalism is not an egalitarian system. There will always be lucky and unlucky, and everyone loses at some point. Yet illogically, in America, there is a fierce war against the poor, and more people fall into the unlucky category as the gap widens. If you lose in this game of chance, the word is, "You did not want it bad enough; you did not work hard enough."Yet, I can assure you, these are not the reasons I came in third place at international championship sponsored by prettypenis.com ©.The smug attitude that one should claim all credit for his wealth and that success is eternal is as lame as it is nocuous. The owners of this country have an old simple policy called, "eating the cake and having it too:" in a façade of democracy, legislation will favor the rich and the peasants are in check. It is all you need to know about American politics.  

Every few years the big money commissions the media to stage a fight between the Democrats and the Republicans featuring the President and the Congress. In the last episode of each season, one or both sides will appear to compromise, and the peasants—that is what the big money calls the 90%—will buy the bridge. Meanwhile, each time, the big money ends up getting what it wants: sending the poor to war; cutting taxes for the rich; deregulating Wall Street and repealing the Banking Act of 1933; or raising oil prices. Unfortunately, for Obama, the big money's mandate this term is to cut social programs such as Social Security, Medicare and Education—when the exact opposite is long overdue—and lower taxes on the rich. Even the "liberal media" is selling this cruel injustice by regurgitating the Right-wing slogan, "We all have to make tough choices!" To sustain the illusion of democracy, the big money will occasionally give the dog a fake bone…and later take it away—the Supreme Court rules for Obamacare and the Congress may let the taxes go back up on the rich by 3%, rather than fairly raising their taxes by 30-50%. Incidentally, stifling the internet, the last standing venue of free speech, under the guise of property rights laws, is next.

This obscene level of corruption should neither surprise you, nor faze you in the least. As a citizen, you still have the most power: you can vote. You are the original politician. You do not need an expert to tell you what you want. You know what you and your family need. Vote for those who will deliver; if they don't, vote them out. Don't stand by and watch the states deny others the right to vote; instead, protest, assemble, petition, and take those votes back. You must also closely monitor legislation and know exactly what you are voting for, because the Congress keeps passing many of the most restrictive, most oppressive and most idiotic laws in history…the war on drugs is just one catastrophe. The Religious Right's backward rhetoric against birth control and abortion stems from the belief that women who have sex out of wedlock are whores. Therefore, next time think hard before you vote to keep sex work illegal, for example. A woman's right to have absolute control over her body should be sacred. To legislate what a woman can and cannot do with her body is the ultimate slippery slope. On the other hand, if those nice "family values-Christians" bring back the Inquisition and abortion becomes illegal, who do you think will suffer? Any rich woman can have an abortion during a long weekend in Paris and comes home as she left…with an extended middle finger!   

The big money is running out of money to steal (and ways to steal it) while holding a big chunk of the country's capital hostage as dead wealth, chocking our economy. It is political blackmail, an insurance policy, if you will, in case the President or Congress wants to play hero. No loans, no investments, industries disappearing and manufacturing is slowing down. Raising taxes on the big money (including corporations) is the one right solution; it is the only incentive. That is, as long as you are investing your money building, producing and creating jobs, you will make even more money. Yet, if you decide to bury your money, the government will invest it for you. Moreover, the government should put its full weight behind certain industries or even take them over to level the playing field globally, just as China and many European countries do. Finally, since the poor and the Middle Class always spend their last dime, which strongly stimulates the economy; therefore, cutting social programs, let alone raising taxes on the Middle Class, is as stupid as it is putrid.

Beware! As I write, the "pious" Right is gaining might. The goal is evil: a time medieval. When the wingnut dim young farts, call the decent, "bleeding hearts," you tell them these two parts, "our hearts are meant to bleed, lest turn to stone by greed."

Samuel Ryan © 2012