THE DECLINE AND FALL OF AMERICA (1950-2010)

         

    It's looking more and more like the last days of Pompeii, the sin city of Italy that was smothered in the thick, broiling lava of Mt.Vesuvius over 1900 years ago.There's a Big Money orgy going on in our country right now that nobody seems to have a clue about. Maybe I'm wrong, but here's what I think is happening.

    The Wall Street thieves are bailing out, sending footlockers stuffed with cash overseas to exotic places with great beaches and no extradition treaties with the U.S.. Former CEO's and other tin horn "Captains of Industry" are vacuuming the last pennies out of the corners of their shuttered factories while the little lady is at home helping the help pack the luggage. Our used-to-be automotive geniuses are in China,   being chauffeured around in limos while they shop for prime real estate on which to build their retirement palaces. In between stops they're asking their drivers about "safe" banks with friends in high places in Beijing. Back home in just-been-raped- again America, the Boards of Directors for the Health Care monopolies and Big Pharma are having a joint session, synchronizing their Rolexes and crossing checking calendars while  computing exactly how many more billions they can safely suck out of this country before the volcano blows.

    Everybody is screwing everybody else and it's impossible to tell who's with whom. It's the drunken billionaires' last big blowout before the ship departs. If you're a Republican national office holder or lobbyist, you don't need an invitation or your credit cards. "Come on all ready, buddy!" one of them shouts to one of the lobbyists. "It's our turn to take care of you. Come on, come on, Lieberman, you too!" 

    It's happening right before our eyes and not an single ordinary Joe is out in the street throwing Molotov cocktails and screaming bloody murder at the bastards. We're all walking around like everything's going to be all right. The Democrats said so, right? And after eight years of being bullshitted, ripped off and screwed over by the Bush-Cheney regime, we believe them. Where are the Democrats , anyway?

    Oh, that's right. They're still in Washington revising the Health Care Reform bill in hopes that the latest version will sweep Sen. Olympia Snowe off her feet and she'll vote with them.

    Aren't there any Angry Americans out there? Even a couple of hundred thousand who are willing to put down their cans of lite beeer, rise up out of their matching easy chairs and turn away from their wide-screen TV's? Are there no New Revolutionaries who've  heard the last nickel fall and are at last enraged enough to storm out of their unforeclosed on homes and march down the middle of the streets hollering, "We're mad as hell and we're not going to take it anymore!" Even, "Enough is enough!" would be okay with me.

    If nobody is willing to leave home, how about three hundred thousand raging citizens who, like the news anchor Howard Beale in the movie Network, are prepared to stick their heads out of their windows and scream like hell?

    Where are the people with guts who used to make up the heart of this country?

      I've believed for years that unless Washington screws around with the NFL schedule and slaps a$50 per 12-pack surtax on beer, there will never be another revolution in this country.

    Here's My Two Cents: I propose that we all hook up by email and agree on a date and time for a simultaneous protest from the Atlantic to the Pacific. We'll put all the media on notice. And when the time comes, all of us will go out on our front lawns, the sidewalks and our porches. Those who can't get outside, will stick their heads out a window and we'll all scream,"WE'RE MAD AS HELL AND WE'RE NOT GOING TO TAKE THIS ANY LONGER!" We'll shout our heads off for five solid minutes.

    If we can't be bothered to do even this small symbolic act for our country, it will be proof  enough that most of us have been cowed and have surrendered their fighting spirit. If that's true, then we will shortly lose everything else.