Are We All Equal Before the Law?

Do you really believe we are all equal before the law? Do you really believe that “justice is blind”? Do you really believe we are all entitled to life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness? Do you really believe we have a “democracy”?  If you answered yes to all, you must certainly believe in the Easter Bunny.

The giant banks last week pled guilty to innumerable crimes that ruined the lives of millions of people in this country and around the world, but because they are “too big to fail” they have become “too big to prosecute” in court, and therefore no one individual or groups of individuals will be held accountable for their horrific crimes against society. Their crimes are far to numerous to list here, but they did things like money laundering to drug cartels, did business with countries who are labeled “enemies” of the US, massive fraud, cornered commodities like gold and controlled the prices, sold investors stocks and bonds that they knew were failing, then bought into companies and investments that were betting on those failures. The crimes and those who committed them were immoral, reprehensible, had worldwide ramifications, and ruined lives, but not one person will be held accountable.  

Instead, our “Injustice” department chose to hold a press conference and make the announcement that the large banks who have pled guilty to innumerable serious crimes will be “fined”. The “Injustice” department makes it appear as if the banks are being hammered by the power and might of the Department of “Injustice”, but in reality they have given the large banks the mildest slap on the wrist possible. The fines might seem large to the public, but these banks are so large the fines are inconsequential, and will be paid by bank customers in raised rates and fees. In addition, most of the fines levied by the Department of Injustice can be written off as tax losses in a tax code cleverly written to be gracious to the banks and the wealthy. So the fines are, in effect, meaningless. Meanwhile in Iceland big bank leaders who committed similar crimes have been imprisoned.

While large bank executives can commit the most serious of crimes and skate, we have 360 California inmates serving life sentences for “shoplifting”. And you think we have a democracy where we are all equal before the law?  Here comes Santa Claus!!

Boston Marathon Bomber Gets Death, So Why Not Death for all Bombers?

The Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was sentenced to death, despite the requests of the victim’s families. In light of this nation’s history, this is no surprise.  We are the most violent country to ever inhabit the planet. Consider in our early history we exterminated and ethnically cleansed the Native Americans from this county, and then followed up by turning to blacks and enslaving their entire race, and in the course of many years killed hundreds of thousands, and no one was ever held accountable. But Tsarnaev will be killed. Currently police are allowed to kill blacks pretty freely, as in Baltimore by severing the spine of Freddy Brown, while in Cleveland police killed a 12 year old in a playground in less than 2 seconds after getting out of their police car.  When the end of WWII approached we used atomic bombs, not once but twice, on civilian cities, which, according to many historians was totally unneeded.  We justified our mass murder of civilians by saying the bombs were dropped to quickly end the war, but the Japanese were already quite willing to surrender, yet we had to cloak our dropping of atomic bombs as a humanitarian effort to save lives.  Duhh!!

Thankfully we are the only country in the world who has been willing to use nuclear weapons. In addition we have threatened many nations around the world with nuclear weapons, and in light of our history those threats must be taken seriously. 

Then we moved into South Vietnam for no good reason but on trumped up accusations much like the WMD of Iraq. That war finally ended with the loss of 57,000 Americans, but also cost the lives of about 3 million people in Southeast Asia.  For what I ask?  Why did we make war on Vietnam and the other nations of Southeast Asia? What was gained in the killing of over 3 million people? Who was held accountable for 3 million deaths?  Tsarnaev killed 3, but will be killed for his action.

Then the endless war parade marched into Iraq and Afghanistan on more bogus claims. Most Americans after more than 10 years of war on Afghans and more than 20 years of war and bombing Iraq, can’t find either on a map. But the killing continues in both countries. Not being able to locate either country on a map is one thing, but ask the average American why we are fighting in in either Afghanistan or Iraq and you cannot get a reason for either. But the killing goes on. Well over one million people in Iraq have died as a result of a vicious attack on that nation over many years. Four presidents have seen fit to bomb and kill Iraqis. Numbers of deaths in Afghanistan are hard to assess but a conservative guess would be 21,000 civilians. 

Tsarnaev killed 3 and will be put to death, while in Iraq and Afghanistan we have killed millions with bombs and no one is accountable.

Recently we reduced Libya to dust and anarchy with 7 consecutive months of bombing and are now bombing someone in Syria on a regular basis. We have encouraged the Saudis with their bombing of Yemen and provided that nation with “cluster bombs”,  called “Weapons from hell”, and outlawed by more than 100 counties, the US not one of them.  In addition, we have given the Saudi’s their targeting information and have provided midair refueling to their bombers. Since 9/11 we have bombed 14 countries. But all these bombs and all these deaths do not seem to count as much as the one Boston Marathon bomb which took 3 lives; how come?

So back to Tsarnaev. Is it really a surprise that we would kill him? No, because that’s what we as a nation do. We kill. If he is to be held accountable for the deaths of 3 people, shouldn’t someone be held responsible for the 3 million deaths in Southeast Asia by our bombs? Shouldn’t someone be held accountable for the more than one million dead Iraqis, and the bombing of that country for more than 20 years? How about the extermination of Native Americans? Was no one held accountable for the enslavement of an entire race of people?  Why is Tsarnaev being held accountable for his bombing, while others are not? Three million dead in Southeast Asia and over one million dead due to bombs in Iraq, and no one has, or will, be held accountable? Some would argue that the Marathon bomb killed innocents. What crime I ask, did the 3 million in Southeast Asia, or the one million in Iraq, or the countless numbers of innocents in Libya, Syria, and Afghanistan commit? The US as bombed 8 separate weddings parties in Afghanistan killing hundreds. Thinking about the content of the note Tsarnaev left in the boat before his capture might be instructive.  He wrote: “The US government is killing innocent civilians…. Stop killing our innocents and we will stop”. Is there really a difference between killing innocents at a road race vs a wedding? If bombs kill, then shouldn’t all bombers be punished equally?

We Have a Dysfunctional Government, but Hope is on the Way.

Americans lag way behind the rest of the world in political thinking, but it may not be entirely their fault. We have a corporate media that merely acts as a mouthpiece for the official government line and champions the cause of corporatism in this country, so Americans never really get to hear or see what is going on.  Because their media is not so controlled, Europeans on the other hand, are more politically informed,   In any case because Europeans are more informed, they are ahead of us in figuring out the political landscape. Three examples illustrate.

In Greece, after years of suffering at the hands of the international banks and being ruled by two major political parties that did absolutely nothing to alleviate the economic misery, the Greek people left their parties. Greeks in mass finally saw the light, gave up on their two major parties, and simply walked away from them and jumped on the bandwagon of a formerly obscure political party, Syriza. That party, in less than one year, has risen to be the majority party and ever since the election, polls indicate that Greeks are even more excited about their new found party than prior to the last election.  Greeks have enthusiastically supported Syriza because they figured out that Syriza, unlike the major parties, supports the Greek people and will fight to improve their lot. The other two parties in Greece have been abandoned by the population because they were part of the establishment and used rhetoric and empty promises, but never did anything to gain relief for the people of Greece. It should be noted that the Greek people have suffered great financial hardship with economic figures in Greece more severe than were our numbers in the Great Depression. The establishment in Europe, led by the big banks, is petrified of this change and have done their best to gang up along with corporate media outlets, to cast Syriza in an unfavorable light. The financial interests in Europe have worked very hard to destroy Syriza, as is sets a very dangerous precedent for curbing the power of corporations and banks. Here the corporate media has not discussed the happenings in Greece. It is intentionally a well-kept secret in this country. So far the Greek people have seen through the anti Syriza propaganda and have continued to rally to Syriza.

In Spain, almost a carbon copy of the rise of Syriza has occurred, with the rising party being called Podemos.  Podemos, like Syriza, has risen from obscurity to, according to the latest polls, the majority party in Spain.  The Spanish finally realized that neither of their major political parties really do anything to help the lot of the Spanish people.  Their parties, like ours, are merely tools of the banks, corporations and special interest groups. At long last the Spanish people, just like the Greeks, saw the light; that is they would never get relief from the major parties as they are corrupt and unrepresentative of the masses.  Spaniards did the same thing as the Greeks; they just gave up on the major parties and walked away from them, and have rallied behind Podemos, a Syriza like party in Spain. Once again the corporate world and the banking world is frightened, and have done what they can to sabotage Podemos, but once again, like in Greece, the Spanish people have seen through the propaganda war by the upper class. Polls indicate that Podemos will win the next national election in Spain. The remarkable rise of Podemos in Spain has been kept from the US public.

A third example is Iceland. Like Greece and Spain, the people of Iceland finally have seen the light.  The political establishment in Iceland is too corrupt and unrepresentative to bring any substantial change to the people of Iceland, and so you have the emergence of another formerly obscure political party. Polls indicate the new “Pirate Party” has grown dramatically with its support doubled in recent months, and now the most popular party in the country.  Once again the people of Iceland finally “got it”. The light went on and they just left their major parties out of disgust, and flocked to the Pirate Party. 

Meanwhile back in the US there might be some hope. Perhaps Americans are finally waking up to the realization that neither party will really do anything substantial to help the masses. We have a dysfunctional political system that is corrupt with politicians from both sides selling themselves to special interest groups and large corporations. A recent comprehensive study of the major political parties and the US government  told us what some already knew; that the average  and the poor have no voice in government, while the rich and powerful control it, an can get pretty much whatever they want. In our last election almost 70% of eligible voters stayed home out of disgust.So the presidential season is now beginning to get under way, and so far it appears both parties are sticking with the status quo.  Republicans have dusted off Jeb Bush and he seems to be their leading candidate, while Democrats have offered the status quo in Hillary Clinton, who loves war and is owned by the financial interests and corporations. Once again voters are presented with the “lesser of two evils”. But wait!  Bernie Sanders jumped in as a candidate, and while he represents a major party, he is a maverick and not in the graces of his parties establishment.  His emergence shocked and freighted some observers as he raised over one million dollars in one day from small donors all around the country. Sanders is not the answer however.  He is certainly anti big bank, and for workers’ rights, however on the biggest issue of the day, that of war and peace, he is a mainstream candidate, only critical of the way we have fought and pursued our policy of endless war. While he is not the answer to our needs, his early success indicates the US public is willing to embrace someone other than the two establishment parties who do not represent the US public. Is it time for a Syriza, Podemos, or a Pirate Party to rise in the US?  Have Americans finally begun to see the light and have they finally concluded that neither or the two major parties will ever bring them relief and representation?  Let’s hope, so as it appears to be our very last hope.