An Allegory for Our Time by Gary Brumback. OpEdNews, August 3, 2018.

To preserve and expand its power, America’s power elite, hugely outnumbered, must keep the massive but powerless, subjugated and exploited public at bay. It does so in myriad ways. One is to divide and conquer the public. Perhaps the oldest means of doing this was to have written the U.S. Constitution and then years later to have created multiple political parties to confuse and distract the public. Another is to impose a police state that takes no prisoners. Another is to spin the legacies of US presidents whose behavior was so odious and heinous that to leave it bare and open to the public would likely cause a revolt.  Another is to create foreign enemies to stoke fear and the revenue draining national security budget. Another is to create an open-door immigration law to further diversify the nation as well as to gain cheap labor. Yet another, more relevant to the allegory to be told, is to barrage the public daily with corporate mainstream media’s propaganda and untruths about any prominent politician who does not fall meekly in line with the power elite’s imperialistic agenda.

That brings us to the current U.S. president, Donald J. Trump, the only US president in America’s history to challenge the corpocracy’s power elite. There isn’t one aspect of his domestic or foreign policy views and actions that have not come under withering attack from those who are fearful of America’s corpocracy crumbling. Consider his seeking to localize more and globalize less America’s economy. If I were to pick two of the corpocracy’s strategies that have turned America into a third world country in terms of quality of life conditions for the citizenry they would be globalization and a burgeoning war budget. Consider his seeking to end America’s open-door immigration policy, one that I have already mentioned that serves only the power elite. Consider his seeking detent with Russia and North Korea, enemies created by his predecessors solely by and for America’s power elite.

In short, Trump goes against the grain of the corpocracy. He’s not really one of its members. He is the only US president never to have previously held public office, which means he wasn’t groomed in a poisonous crucible spewing out corruptible politicians. He made his fortune in the real estate industry, one of the least injurious of the major industries such as the war industry. In other words, despite his wealth and position, he senses and is trying to be responsive to the needs, despair and misery of Joe and Jill America, which brings us now to the allegory. I got it in an e-mail from a friend who tells me the author is unknown. Here it is.

The Racoon Story

“If you really want to know how the majority of people feel? And this applies to both Democrats and Republicans; read below, it says it all. You've been on vacation for two weeks, you come home, and your basement is infested with raccoons. Hundreds of rabid, messy, mean raccoons have overtaken your basement. You want them gone immediately.

You call the city, 4 different exterminators, but nobody can handle the job. But there is this one guy and he guarantees you to get rid of them, so you hire him. You don't care if the guy smells, you don't care if the guy swears, you don't care if he's an alcoholic, you don't care how many times he's been married, you don't care if he has a plumber's crack, you simply want those raccoons gone! You want your problem fixed! He's the guy. He's the best. Period !

Here's why we want Trump, yes, he's a bit of an ass, yes, he's an egomaniac, but we don't care. The country is a mess because politicians suck, the Republicans and Democrats can be two-faced and gutless, and illegals are everywhere. We want it all fixed! We don't care that Trump is crude, we don't care that he insults people, we don't care that he has changed positions, we don't care that he's been married 3 times, we don't care that he fights with Megyn Kelly and Rosie O'Donnell, we don't care that he doesn't know the name of some Muslin terrorist.

This country is weak, bankrupt, our enemies are making fun of us, we are being invaded by illegals, we are becoming a nation of victims where every Tom, Ricardo, and Hasid is a special group with special rights to a point where we don't even recognize the country we were born and raised in; "AND WE JUST WANT IT FIXED" and Trump is the only guy who seems to understand what the people want.

We're sick of politicians, sick of the Democratic Party, Republican Party, and sick of illegals. We just want this thing fixed.  Trump may not be a saint, but he doesn't have lobbyist money holding him; he doesn't have political correctness restraining him; all you know is that he has been very successful, a good negotiator, he has built a lot of things, and he's also not a politician, he's not a cowardly politician. And he says he'll fix it, and we believe him because he is too much of an egotist to be proven wrong or looked at and called a liar. Also, we don't care if the guy has bad hair. We just want those raccoons gone, out of our house, NOW. The raccoons have got to go.” End of story.

In Closing

Wonder what will be Trump’s legacy some day? Like that of Honest Abe? No. Abe was not so honest, was a racist, and triggered a war that killed 750,000 Americans simply so the power elite could maintain a “unified” country large and strong enough to keep expanding its empire. Like that of Likeable Ike? No. Over a million Koreans were slaughtered due to his decisions, not to mention the reign of terror by his puppet dictators in Central America. Like Harry Truman? No. In addition to his culpability for war crimes against N. Korea, He sent millions to their deaths just to show Russia America was no weakling and thus to usher in a profitable Cold War. Like LBJ and his murderous war crimes? No. Like Bill Clinton, called “the world's leading active war criminal?¹ No. Like George Bush and his devastation of Iraq? No. Like his predecessor, Obama who began drone killing shortly after taking office and kept on droning and rationalizing? No.²

No, I predict that when trump’s tenure is over he will have been the least murderous of all his predecessors save two who died early in office and the most populist president of any before him. To ensure a continuation of his policies and actions that erode the dangerous and malevolent power elite of the corpocracy, all Americans who agree with the Racoon Story need to help build a “Citizens’ Voice Alliance” or a “Peoples’ America.” Notice that I didn’t call them “parties.”    

Notes

1. Herman, ES. Clinton Is the WorId's Leading Active War Criminal. Z magazine, December 1999.  Herman is an economist and media analyst.

2. See, for example, my article, Spinning the Legacies of America’s Presidents. Dissident Voice, July 31; OpEdNews, August 1, 2016.

DIFFERENT STORIES

Gary Brumback, PhD

CROC AND THE NEIGHBOR'S CAT

Posted January 20, 2018

Prelude

I have written many serious non-fiction books, book reviews, and articles.  The subject matter of many of them are depressing. I am now going to write uplifting stories for young children to enjoy. The Croc and the Neighbor's Cat will be my first book. A first draft copy of it is below. The final book will be colorfully illustrated. There are no illustrations in this draft because I do not have an illustrator yet. Please let me know what you think of it.

CROC AND THE NEIGHBOR'S CAT

BY

DR. BRUCE (MY MIDDLE NAME TO RHYME WITH DR SEUSS)

David’s crocodile stuffy was his favorite bedtime friend.

David loved to go to the Zoo.

His favorite animal was Mr. Crocodile.

“Be careful,” said Mr. Zoo Keeper.

Never pet crocodiles unless they are your friends!

Years later there was a baby crocodile with no parents.

So, Mr. Zookeeper gave David the baby crocodile.

David named him Croc and built a little zoo in his bedroom.

David and Croc became very good friends.

Croc grew and became very big.

He was too big for the bedroom!

David had to build Croc a home in the cellar.

One day, David forgot to lock the cellar door!

Guess what happened?

The neighbor’s pet Cat walked in!

Cat saw Croc and was so scared he jumped on top the fish tank!

Croc had never seen a cat before and was scared, too!

But David got Croc and Cat to shake hands and like each other.

Sometimes they would have meals together.

Sometimes they would play ball together.

Sometimes Cat would stay overnight with Croc.

Croc snored loud, and Cat purred.

They were very happy together.

As Croc grew older he was REALLY BIG!

He must return to the Zoo, said Mr. Zookeeper.

Croc cried. Cat cried. David cried.

Croc was sent back to the Zoo.

Guess what David and Cat did next?

Thev visited the Zoo every week,

So they could still see their friend!

Croc ate his meal inside the cage.

David and Cat ate outside.

Mr. Zoo Keeper was so happy,

He took a picture of the three.

And gave the picture to the newspaper.

Everyone in town came to see Croc.

Croc became very, very famous.

And Cat and David became famous, too!

One day, Croc married a Lady Croc.

And soon they had a Baby Croc!

Will Mommy and Daddy Croc let Baby Croc go live with David?

David and Cat hope so!

Do you hope so, too?

1% vs 99%? Reality check and some soul searching

I’m not a demographer, a statistician, or a sociologist, but I don’t need to be to know that the slogan “1% vs 99” is not a factual statement. You undoubtedly know that, too. It’s a rallying call. It also symbolizes an actual fact, namely, that among industrialized nations America has the worst income gap and the worst ranking on all other important socioeconomic indices.

But I’ll play amateur demographer for a moment and estimate that 1% amounts to about two and one-third million adults if my figures are correct. That leaves roughly 228 and one-half million adults for the 99% of the rest of us adults, obviously an overwhelming majority. It’s just as obviously underwhelming in wealth and, more importantly, power. The “1% vs 99%” can’t begin to convey the real imbalance in power. 

So a slogan closer to reality would be “corpocracy vs the rest of us,” and the 99 percenters unorganized and unguided as we are will never be able short of a bloody revolution (that should absolutely be avoided) to unseat the 1 percenters. 

Another slogan closer to reality would be “have’s vs have nots.” You probably know that, too. If we define the “have nots” as Americans living below the poverty line, then they are the 15 percenters. That figure would rise somewhat if we used living wage as a bottom line. In any case, whether 15 percent or some figure a bit larger, the “haves” greatly outnumber the “have-nots.”

The next slogan I’ll mention closer to reality is “exploiters vs exploited.” Nearly half a century ago I did a doctoral dissertation on the matter of exploitation. But a PhD isn’t required obviously to know that exploitation means taking advantage of people and situations in anticipation of personal gain and at the expense of the people and situations exploited.

Exploitation, needless to say, is very unethical behavior. It breeches most if not all the universal ethical values such as those of honesty, keeping promises, caring for and respecting others. But also needless to say, the corpocracy’s exploitation plunges far below the bottom line of ethical behavior by causing through unregulated actions and products and endless and unnecessary wars (necessary only for expanding the self interests of the corpocracy) an inferno of human misery and death everywhere.

If we take into account that the corpocracy’s exploitation spans the globe, then the imbalance becomes almost unfathomable, and we have another slogan closer to reality, “billions vs a few millions.” When thousands of protestors hit the streets anywhere on the globe they are essentially protesting a global corpocracy led by American multinational corporations and their compliant government partner.

I would guess that all of the “have-nots” are among the most exploited. What about the “haves” (of which I’m definitely a member)? Are we sometimes exploiters as well as targets of exploitation? We can take for granted that genuine members of the corpocracy (e.g, powerful corporate interests and their government pawns) are exploiters day in and day out, but what about the rest of us “haves” outside of the corpocracy? What about you and me? These questions lead to some soul searching do they not? I give you three personal examples after having searched my own soul.

One, I detested the Vietnam War, but other than to close friends I did not speak out about say, the exploitation of draftees, because I was a government employee. Two, I waited until I retired from government service to write the Devil’s Marriage, a book about the corpocracy’s massive exploitation of people and situations. Three, because they matched the ones replaced, I recently bought some major appliances from a corporation that I knew well beforehand is a recidivist scofflaw and a master exploiter (e.g., in outsourcing jobs and not paying income taxes).

In these three examples I behaved as an ally of the corpocracy, the citadel of exploiters and their exploitation. To paraphrase Pogo, I have met the enemy and it’s sometimes me, hardly though on the scale of an ally like the US Chamber of Commerce. I am certain that most of us “halves” outside the corpocracy are far more often being exploited by it than in exploiting it. It takes some real cunning for the powerless to exploit the powerful

So, in closing, where does the foregoing leave us? One, the corpocracy is much mightier and invincible than throwing around the epithet of the 1% could ever suggest. Two, to end the corpocracy the “have-nots” must be aided by a goodly number of “haves” outside the corpocracy. And finally, three, the corpocracy pervades every sphere of life, and so we may willingly or not, let it compromise us in small to larger ways occasionally but that need not incapacitate us from launching what I call “two-fisted democracy power” (see www.uschamberofdemocracy.com) as a peaceful and legal way to achieve major political, legislative, judicial and economic reforms and in so doing to rid America of her corpocracy and fulfill what the framers of the Constitution promised in its preamble, to promote the general welfare.

5 star review of the Devil's Marriage

Here is the first customer review, and a five star one, for my new book:

---1 Review 5.0 out of 5 stars Want a Democratic Government? Read This Book., August 10, 2011

By Edward A. Hacker (Millis, MA USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Devil's Marriage: Break Up the Corpocracy or Leave Democracy in the Lurch (Paperback)

Gary Brumback's book "The Devils's Marriage: Break Up the Corpocracy or Leave Democracy in the Lurch" is much more than a warning that powerful corporations have taken over our political system and that the middle class is on the verge of extinction. It is also a handbook for political action, for those who wish to fight for a government that is responsible to the people, not to corporations.

In Part Three "Unleashing Democracy Power: The Possibilities" Brumback discusses in detail how people can organize and take back their government. He points out that we must act soon, else democracy, in any true sense of the word, will cease to exist. What is most refreshing about the book is the practical organizing procedures Brumback presents, procedures that if followed would allow us to fight the powerful corporations that now dominate our government.

I have read dozens of books detailing how our government has been invaded and taken over by corporate powers, but this is the first book that has given me hope that these powers can be successfully fought. Brumback gives his e-mail address towards the end of the book and ask his readers for suggestions.

Gary Brumback has given us the tools we need to fight for a government of the People, by the People, and for the People. It is now up to us to use these tools.

My website, http://www.democracypowernow.com/ gives a good overview of the book.

Congress/White House debt ceiling talk --it's all babble

Lower the bad debt from tax havens and endless, winless wars and raise the good debt from rebuilding America. Bad debt benefits the wealthy and war profiteers. Good debt benefits the general welfare, one of the purposes of America's  creation as stated in the Constitution. 

Thought for today

The corpocracy is a kleptocracy that has stolen our democracy from us, along with many Americans' jobs and adequate standard of living.

Memorial Day Cliches

Let's honor our fallen veterans without mouthing tired cliches like, "Remember the price of freedom."

Let's remember the horrible price of war and its legacy, more war.

War is exactly what the corpocracy propagandizes with the help of mindless cliches.