Philip A. FarruggioPhilip A. Farruggio -- World News Trust
July 10, 2015
Just watched a major league baseball game on the boob tube last night.
The home team, like many others recently, was wearing, are you ready for this, camouflage uniform tops! This is being done to "honor our troops who are at war."
Whose war? The empire's wars of aggression in places we have no business being in? They've substituted the reality of it all, which is that our military is illegally occupying, and very slyly say they're "at war."
Ever watch the NBA playoffs in recent years, whereupon the overwhelming majority of the crowd at home games all wear the same T-shirts? Grown men and women sitting there, like the masses of German "true believers" at a Nuremberg rally in 1935, chanting "D-Fence, D-Fence."
When you go to a local city council meeting, they always begin with having everyone stand and recite the pledge of allegiance, just like we did in elementary school. You stand there and, quite honestly, you feel foolish to have to recite such a thing, as if your very loyalty is being tested.
Remember the myth of the lemmings, small arctic rodents who follow one another over the cliff to their group death? Well, we have an American Empire that has, over the period of decades, transformed much of our populace into lemmings.
They achieved this with bombarding us, through the corporate-run media, with misinformation, disinformation and outright lies.
The empire played the fear card over and over: first it was fear of the Commies, then fear of the Islamic terrorists, fear of illegal aliens from south of the border to rape our wives and daughters and then take over our busboy and dishwasher careers; fear of gays corrupting our children, fear of a Marxist/Socialist government, and of course, for we white folks, the fear of the blacks taking over our neighborhoods.
Simultaneously there was a need for a kind of "blind patriotism" so that the empire could justify all the dirty deeds that it has and is doing in our name overseas. So, the flag was wheeled out along with, as Sinclair Lewis predicted, the cross. The message was clear: We are all over the world to bring democracy, Christian righteousness, and fight off the evil ones who resist us.
In order to keep the lemmings in line and ready to jump off the cliffs of reason, the empire purposely orchestrated this two-party "One Party" system of politics. They made sure the far-right party, the Republicans, stayed far right, and that their adversaries, the Democrats, moved further to the right while deviously labeling them "Liberal." Boy, did it work for generations, and will continue to work... so long as the majority of working stiffs stay asleep.
Never will we hear the hypocrites in Congress or the White House ever debate an end to this obscene military spending (more than half of our federal taxes each year) with 1,000 bases in more than 100 countries.
Never will they debate the need to dismantle Obama Care, not in favor of total private insurance control, but rather to have the same national health coverage that the Brits and Canucks have... which costs each of their citizens less than a few hundred dollars yearly.
Never will they debate taxing mega-millionaires at a much higher rate than those earning $300,000 a year... duh, like maybe a 50 percent surtax on all income over $1 million annually?
Never will either party come out for establishing nonprofit community owned and run mortgage banks that only charge overhead, so that millions of us who now pay rent could afford to own our own residence.
Never will either party admit that private money in electoral campaigns inhibits most of us from obtaining office. Need one go on?
Here is the kicker as to why so many of our fellow lemmings are so proud to call themselves Republican or Democrat. The empire made it so that only certain "hot button" issues are continuously repeated over and over via the mainstream corporate- and empire-controlled media. Abortion, gays marrying, Obama care, the undocumented, welfare payments and other so-called "entitlements"... these are what most of our fellow lemmings become concerned and impassioned about. What Wiki Leaks and Edward Snowden revealed about illegal U.S. invasions and occupations, torture, NSA spying on Americans and of course 9/11 and what may have really happened, these mean squat when compared with the aforementioned issues.
What we see is the far-right-wing party taking one position, and the right-wing party, their "friendly" adversaries, taking the opposing one. Of course, the Military Industrial Empire just keeps on chugging along while the "children" argue.
As to who will the lemmings vote for from the One Party syndicate? Do you think the empire really cares? The vote, such a cherished right for us all, has been made an "exercise in futility" by this dumbing down of most of our populace.
As long as they have their Wal-Marts nearby, and their electronic gadgets and boob tubes and junk food...
PA Farruggio
July 10th, 2015
(Philip A Farruggio is son and grandson of Brooklyn, NYC, longshoremen. He is a free ance columnist (found on World News Trust, Nation of Change Blog, Truthout.org, TheSleuthJournal.com, The Intrepid Report, The Peoples Voice, Information Clearing house, Dandelion Salad, Activist Post, Dissident Voice and many other sites worldwide). Philip works as an environmental products sales rep and has been an activist leader since 2000. In 2010 he became a local spokesperson for the 25% Solution Movement to Save Our Cities by cutting military spending 25 percent. Philip can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.)