Just finished reading Ann Rule’s book on serial killer Ted Bundy, a man she knew as a coworker and friend way back when in Washington State. Of course, Ann did not have the slightest inkling that this fine, intelligent, charming and empathetic soul (they worked together for a suicide hotline) could commit the most gruesome and enraged murders of young women . . . over and over again.
To Ann and most of Ted’s friends, coworkers and fellow college and law school students, he was such a calm and cheery guy. Who would have thunk it? Even after the information filtered down to them, bit by bit over the years, most of them still dismissed any notion that Ted was the one. Even after the police had the name ‘Ted’ as a possible suspect, fitting Bundy’s age and looks, and he drove a VW Bug just like the guy they were searching for, many who knew him waved off the coincidences as just that. How dopey can a person be to not begin to have second thoughts?
Well, we have serial killers running our government. These men happen to be not only our presidents, but others in their administrations who sign on to mass murder. LBJ and Nixon signed off to the carpet bombing of civilian areas during the Vietnam debacle. Bush Sr. did the same during that orchestrated ‘Gulf War.’ Then, the crème de la crème of serial killing went to his son, the ‘compassionate conservative,’ who signed off on first the carpet bombing of Iraq, replete with that sick phrase by war criminal Rumsfeld of ‘collateral damage.’ From that the Bush gang began using drone missiles to destroy terrorist suspects and anyone else who happened to be around them at the time . . . usually little kids with their moms and of course a few of the elderly thrown in for good measure. Then Mr. ‘Hope and Change’ took office and decided to amp up the use of drone attacks by 10 times! Lots of blood and loose body parts, making the Ted Bundy crime scenes pale in comparison. Oh, I know, what these presidents and their ‘fruit salad wearing’ generals used as justification: It was to win a war! Yet, no war was declared on North Vietnam or Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen or even Iraq. Thus, to any historian worth his or her salt, when these stories are told years into the future, the term ‘serial killers’ should be used. It won’t .
Now we come to the dopes of empire. Goodness, we have millions of them don’t we? Remember, those of us who opposed the first and second so called ‘Wars’ on Iraq had to put up with the constant cheerleading by both our ‘embedded in empire’ media and, of course, many of our neighbors and coworkers. They couldn’t get enough news of the destruction of Iraq and Afghanistan. Who cared about the actual civilians who had to wait hours for fresh drinking water each day, if lucky to ever get any at all? Who cared about the little kids missing an arm or leg or ear from our ‘Smart bombs’? We won the peace and that is all that mattered. We brought democracy to those countries . . . as well as massive recruitment for the fanatics calling themselves ISIL or Al-Qaeda. What the dopes who still cherish what our country has done will not come to grips with is that if we never invaded and occupied Iraq, there would be no threat from the fanatics.
Next we come to the dopes amongst us who really think that the next horse race has any viability. I hear them all over the place talking of the candidates from both parties running for president. Most of them buy into the rhetoric spewed out by these hypocrites from both parties . . . the Republicans always seem to spew more, that’s all. You see, to this writer, anyone who runs for office from either of those two corrupt and hypocritical parties has to be a sellout. Now, I like most of what Bernie Sanders has to say, but . . . he is running as a Democrat, and will eventually sell out. He did so on Obamacare didn’t he? Sanders railed against the plan as a ‘gift’ to the private insurers, and demanded Medicare for All. Yet, when push came to shove he voted along with his Democratic colleagues, so that Medicare for All is all but forgotten isn’t it?
Let’s take Trump. He is ahead in the ‘dopey polls’ for some time now. After all, his whole ‘pitch’ is that he is not part of the corrupt Washington political herd. Yet, as he himself admits, it was he who bribed (legally of course, they are called ‘campaign donations’) many from both parties to get the things he needed done for his companies. Now he’s a populist who happens to want to wave our WMD at the Iranians and perhaps do more than that (“This means war!” shouted Groucho in Duck Soup).
Other dopes think Dr Ben Carson is the answer . . . he of the Fair Tax. How many of those dopes who support him are working stiffs, or who have families of working stiffs? Well, the Fair Tax, a.k.a. Sales Tax, would be at least double the current sales tax rates. Anytime a working stiff dope who supports Carson pumps gas or buys shoes, socks, toaster ovens, television sets, or a car . . . they will pay double in tax what they pay now. It will be the 99+ % of us out there that will pay the most, not the super rich, if the federal income tax is ever eliminated.
Others in the Republican camp want to send more soldiers into Iraq and then into Syria . . . with, of course, a subsidy of increased military spending, which is only about 50% of our current federal taxes now!
How many more lives have to be destroyed by our serial killer empire . . . Not only via our WMD but through the strangling of our already depressed economy? Like lemmings running over the cliff of reason, our fellow American dopes may never learn!
Philip A Farruggio is son and grandson of Brooklyn, NYC longshoremen. He is a freelance columnist (found on Nation of Change Blog, Truthout.org, TheSleuthJournal.com, Worldnewstrust.com, Intrepid Report , The Peoples Voice, Information Clearing house, Dandelion Salad, Activist Post, Dissident Voice and many other sites worldwide). Philip works as an environmental products sales rep and has been an activist leader since 2000. In 2010 he became a local spokesperson for the 25% Solution Movement to Save Our Cities by cutting military spending 25%. Philip can be reached at PAF1222@bellsouth.net.
Another good example for Bush sr is Panamanian invasion by Bush via Reagan