Wednesday, November 25, 2015

Infinitesimal

“I got my finger on the trigger/but I don’t know who to trust.” Bruce Springsteen, Devils & Dust

Infantile, as usual.

Expect nothing less.

The reporter on Good Morning America says that President Obama’s message to the country is this: the government has our back and the homeland is secure this holiday season.

The news is chilling, but the holiday commercials are cheery and bright. Black Friday starts at 6:00 p.m. on Thursday!

How I hate that word, Homeland. It never fails to arouse in me mental images of the Third Reich, goose-stepping black-uniformed soldiers illuminated by torchlight. Like our leaders today, the top dogs of the Third Reich exhorted the German people to be vigilant and report suspicious activity.

Terror is real. Terror is a tactic. We are at war against Terror, have been for a decade and a half. Terror seems to be winning. Or maybe Terror has already won. Once a population trades its liberties and freedoms for a false sense of security, Terror lifts the trophy.

Obama says ISIS must be destroyed so that the group cannot carry out more terror attacks. Obama’s plan is to keep bombing, which will never work to rid the world of ISIS, but who’s keeping track? The US is doing something. Look how successful we’ve been in Afghanistan!

The good news today is that the homeland is secure, we can travel to grandma’s house for a Thanksgiving feast, gather with relations and friends, lift a glass of champagne, stuff ourselves with turkey and ham and stuffing and mashed potatoes, and then head off to the mall for Black Friday, confident that we will not be disturbed by an attack from ISIS. Shopping for bargains is the measure of our freedom. George W. Bush claimed this freedom was one reason the terrorists hate us.

Infantile, like I said.

The idea that Uncle Sam, represented by the troops of the FBI, CIA, DOD, DIA, NSA, JSOC and Naval Intelligence, has our back is ridiculous. Can we please set aside the blatant and absurd fear mongering and tell the fucking truth? The odds of being killed in the US by ISIS are infinitesimal. Don’t worry about ISIS – worry about your neighbor who just lost his job and can’t pay his mortgage or send his son to college, whose marriage is crumbling and whose health insurance is unaffordable – and who owns a dozen firearms, all purchased legally, and maybe has it in his head that immigrants or Affirmative Action is the cause of his troubles…watch that guy.

Why worry about ISIS when every single day in America 100 hundred people are killed with firearms?

Every. Single. Day. Sea to shining sea.

And when it happens, our leaders make pious statements, wring their hands, and bow to the money of the NRA. If you want something to worry about, worry about that.

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