Road To Perdition

Saw a bizzare political ad on of all things Sportscenter last night, in which the left was near comically demonized. The ad screamed that voting for any democratic candidate was an act that would lead the country down the road to ruin. Really? There's no compromise anymore? 
Yeah, the left represents (in my opinion) to the right the one thing that they fear the most, dread the most, willl do anything to defend, will fight tooth and claw to their bitter end about, and that is relinquishing profits. 
  And to that end, they will try and foster support for their cause by saying that they represent anything other than that. 
It's easy for the right to rally the religious, just mention the A word and you got 'em, but as one astute person recently tweeted, "There are ten commandments, not one”.
And those 'crazed hordes' approaching the border might be cause for alarm in lesser minds but hey, I've been around immigrants- a lot- and they bring good food into this country. Couldn't they be allowed to come in and make tamales, falafel, spanakopita, Tom Yum soup, and open up Parrillas (Argentine barbeque joints)? That would keep 'em out of the profitmongers hair, they'd be self supporting. How about imagining that option? One of perhaps many?

Parrilla

Christian Koepke- Unsplash.com

Frankly, I'm a little disgusted by the lack of rational thought, the unwillingness to negotiate, to debate, to explore options because it's never gonna be a one way street. This here is a democracy, not a 'demon'cracy, if some people haven't noticed, read the constitution, or understand that in a two party system there's such a thing as actual deliberation needing to be employed in order for the thing to work. 
Were this built-in need to negotiate not so, we'd be living in something resembling an authoritarian regime, where somebody at the top would decree that something is so, and it would be so. Like God. Is your party, which claims to be so tight with God, trying to actually play God?
I hope not because I actually talked to God the other day and he's not happy about your party's considering pushing him aside. But, being God, he's also forgiving. In addition to that, he'd like to come by and visit, talk a little sense into those that think they're capable of doing his job, give a few pointers, because when God does his job, he takes input from everybody and then works out a soulution.  
Some would argue with that, they would say that when God calls the shots he does whatever he damn well pleases but if that was so we'd all be mindless robots but we aren't, we are allowed to think and act independently. After all, who would want to live in a world where they have to take orders all the time by people......
....that think they know best and/or want everything to be their way? Kings used to speak and whoever stood in front of them, their knees shook. Anybody want to go back to those loose bowel days? Not me! 
    So God's a' comin', he said he'll be here Thursday. No, wait, I heard that incorrectly. God isn't coming, he's sending some emissaries. He's way too busy. 
These emissaries have been around, they know how to curtail the wall building impulses that come when certain factions don't want to negotiate anymore and start to throw tantrums, adamant as hell that they won't budge an inch on their positions and wanting every vesitge of power simply turned over to them without ever presenting a rational argument to the governed as to why that should be allowed, who died and made you the boss, and all that other messy democratic hashing things out stuff. These emissaries are skilled with handling the kind of folks that act like they're the new, self-appointed schoolteachers and the citizenry is just a bunch of wide-eyed third graders taking it all in. The emissaries simply posit a few questions to the self-appointed know-it-alls:
"Why should adults grant you any authority?" "On what grounds do you base your assessments of any situation, much less upon reality itself?" Present We The People actual, authentic reasons for any of your proposed decisions that the citizenry may then choose to follow. Soundbites, pieces of audio/video taken out of context, flashing comical images, and baseless outright lies do nothing to sway the learned. 
Situations are complicated. Governing is hard. This is the internet age. People are way smarter than before. 

And Jesus, whoever dreamed up that ad, stop interrupting Sportscenter!

Up your game or leave the court!

In The Dark

They are in the dark on this. Let's keep them in the dark on this. What is our cover story? We have to put a positive spin on this. I want everybody in this office on message. Now let's get out there and inspire the troops. Who's our point man on this? I don't want anybody breaking rank. Solid wall of denial. Counterattack with reverse psychology. Misdirect. Paint the other side as the instigators. Vehemently deny assertions of misconduct. Establish plausible deniability. Keep 'em guessing. That was the way my predecessor did it. I did not know that was going on within my department. Rogue elements. Apologize profusely if caught. Claim it was an error in judgement and vow to move forward differently than before. Claim that you did not know about it, even if it was very, very close to you. Meet in secret. Push through legislation. Downplay the opposition. Smirk. Laugh. Ask for absolution from the church. Be forgiven. Entrust the process to your acolyte. Step down, be pushed aside, be forced out, accept a lesser role within the organization. Return to public life. Have your lawyer appear to be outraged, claiming that his client will be absolved of all these nonsensical allegations. 

Never ends. The avoiding and evading.

(On cell, inside limo) “Who’s in the loop on this one?”

Andre Benz- Unsplash.com

The more I observe the behaviour of politicians and our two political parties the more I start to see that they really represent two ordinary factions, the ones that this country and all others are built upon, which is ages old. Management vs. employees. 
Managers claim to promote jobs but will never work at one. They espouse the nobility of work but will always be the ones leaning on the golden shovels at the groundbreaking ceremony and will disappear until reappearing at the ribbon cutting ceremony. No way are they going to get their hands dirty, strain their backs, or work a shift. That is for the lesser people, the ones other than management. 
  Now managers are necessary in a properly functioning society, somebody has to oversee the process, the operation, the system, the event, in order for it to run smoothly for decisions have to be made. People have to be in a position to make decisions because if things are left to a committee forget about anything getting done in a timely manner. 
    But, managers, being close to the decision making process, have temptation after temptation thrown at them. They have foreknowledge aplenty, which can be used for personal gain. They can get in on the ground floor and set themselves up in the catbird seat quite easily, the only thing standing in their way being pushover things like morals and ethics which they claim to have but (look to what was written above) as to how they handle that. 
'Watchdogs' are touted as countermeasures put in place to curb appetites and ‘ethics councils’ are sometimes present to oversee things but really, in the present political climate, what a joke. 

So, expect more of the same from the same public figures, some of whom claim to have God on their side. Well, if GOD can't fix this, what can ordinary mortals do? seems to be the issue facing us 'employees'. More like God Help Us. 
But methinks the present-day brash behavior is actually the end of a long lifting and peering under the rug period, where We The People are witness to what's been lurking there all along. So let it all hang out, governors, managers, go hog wild! Disgust the populace so much that accountability will be demanded by the employees because nobody is going to buy your multitudinous excuses anymore and those precious votes you need won't be granted at any price.