Ever think of running for Congress? Seriously. I am incredibly impressed with you. Some days, you give me hope when I desperately need it. You seem to be the lone progressive voice of reason some days.

Fight the good fight!

To paraphrase Dean Wormer, going through life, stupid, nuclear-armed, sanctimonious, and drunk on power does not bode well for one's future.

This nonsense has been going on almost continuously since Obama has been sworn in. This is no accident, just the latest sortie against the barricades. What we have here is the opposition party ACTIVELY laying the groundwork for serious civil disorder, should the Great Recession and our various imperial wars get any worse than they already are.

Think about how many people we all know who are wandering around looking for someone to blame for the insanity that is their life now? Who to blame? Well who else but The Other, The Outsider, The Immigrant?

The Republicans play this evil game very well. It's all about being a bully. Pick on the least and most easily vilified and others will follow, especially when everyone has free-floating anger that needs direction. Who better to pick on than a very small and easily-identifiable and "foreign"-looking demographic than Muslim Americans!?

I'm not at all amazed that the Republicans are wearing racism and bigotry on their sleeves like badges of honor. They've always been fascists, to varying degrees, and now they are actively employing fascist tactics, against a demographic that won't fight back (and if it did/does, it becomes self-defeating for the demographic and a self-fulfilling prophesy for the Republicans).

But, do not be fooled. This is only ostensibly about the demographic (Muslim Americans). The real target is the President and, secondarily, his political party. Place the President's political party on the defensive while turning up the heat on hateful language and actions. Sooner or later, this heady mixture will explode.

Frankly, I take the Republicans at their word: I think they would love nothing more than another terrorist attack on American soil, if only to have a shot at deposing or "otherwise removing" the first democratically-elected minority President.

All it takes is unemployment to climb just a bit more - and remain there - for this toxic brew to boil over.

I am under no illusions about the ultimate desires of Republicans. They place party before country. Just like good little fascists from another time and place.

Well, the upside is that an invasion of Iran would allow America to meld the otherwise disparate wars in Iraq and Afghanipakistan into one huge, continuous, swath of American-owned post-apocalyptic wasteland, but with location, location, location over some pretty amazing oil rights (yay!).

The downside would merely be billions more of wasted taxpayer money, hundreds of thousands more dead (foreigners - dead FOREIGNERS!), thousands more dead Americans, and the confirmation that America itself is The Evil Empire.

Hmmmm. What to do, what to do. Well, we really have no choice, do we? Not if we are all god-fearing Americans, by jingo!

The conclusion is obvious: post-apocalyptic wasteland, here we come!

We The People are in serious trouble.

When the political elites have decided that the laws simply do not apply to them (yeah, assholes, we get it: NOT investigating someone for torture (!!!) resonates a little too well with us simple proles who get whacked hard in fines and surcharges for something as simple as a speeding ticket, or do time on a bullshit misdemeanor charge) and the financial elites have decided that the laws simply do not apply to them (yeah, assholes, we get it: being "too big to fail" means you get our hard-earned tax dollars but us proles in need of a decent universal health plan have to "have patience"), how much longer do you really think it is going to take until more and more of us proles begin to realize that WE THE PEOPLE also get to decide that the laws no longer apply to US!?

And when that time inevitably comes, We The People are going to put to the test this ersatz notion of "too big to fail" and bitchslap the elites with a new phrase: "too big to exist".

Old George, full of the rot of the grave would only say this: told ya so!

George Orwell, our prescient Cassandra.

I stopped reading The New York Rag waaaay back when they were the cheerleaders-in-chief for the Iraq Misadventure.

Actually, none of this comes as much of a surprise given that The New York Rag has an infamous history - going right back to its founding - of being a cheerleader of American imperialism and hagiographer of American war criminals.

It gives new meaning to the phrase "house organ".