Sitting by my computer this mundane Sunday AM listening to the late George Harrison’s classic song ‘ Isn’t it a Pity?’ As a 1960s lefty student all grown up into a Baby Boomer socialist columnist the lyrics of this song ring so true:

Isn’t it a pity?
Now isn’t it a shame?
How we break each other’s hearts
And cause each other pain
How we take each other’s love
Without thinking anymore
Forgetting to give back
Isn’t it a pity

Some things take so long
But how do I explain
When not too many people
Can see we’re all the same
And because of all their tears
Their eyes can’t hope to see
The beauty that surrounds them
Isn’t it a pity

It seems as if nothing has changed since my youthful protest days. Instead, they have gotten terribly worse. Woody Allen could not have written a better script about a narcissistic con man demagogue who becomes president. I mean, pushing aside the MAGA army of his, who in the hell would ever have imagined this!? On top of that we have the Republican Party marching at us with sometimes imaginary, sometimes not, torches with other Nazi era mantras. Fascism loves its scapegoats and those bozos have a yard full: Drug dealers pushing through our southern border ( with the usual number of rapists… only looking for white women), young boys becoming young girls in sexy dresses, the Sin of abortion ( and Clarence ‘ Long Dong Silver’ Thomas’s coming ban on contraceptives), the terrible teaching of slavery USA to name but a few.

Isn’t if a pity that most of the folks who will vote for this party only focus on inflation and gasoline prices… as if any political party was ever responsible for it? It is the sacred market that has always determined when we have a ‘ boom or bust ‘ economy replete with inflation. You remember The Wizard of Oz film? Well, Dorothy, it is this Military Industrial Empire that calls the tune. The Super Rich behind the Wizard’s screen control the politicians and media. Why? Well, those jackals will always make fortunes regardless of the Dow and Bond Markets. The scene from Robert DiNiro’s great 2006 film ‘ The Good Shepherd’ tells it all.  A top CIA leader (played by Matt Damon) visits a top mafia boss  (played by Joe Pesci) at his home. He wants the mafia to do something for the agency… covertly of course. Pesci asks him a question: ” You know, the Italians have family and the church. The Irish have their homeland . The Jews their tradition. Even the Niggers have their music. What do you people have?” Damon answers ”  The United States of America, and the rest of you are just visiting.”

So, on one hand you have the aforementioned Right Wing AKA Republicans joyously dancing a fascist jig. Meanwhile, you have the new War Party, the Democrats, dancing the Neoliberal jig. Neither of them gives a rat’s rear end for us working stiffs! Neither party will stand up and do the necessary: Take ALL private money OUT of electoral campaigns and substitute public funding of elections,  tax the mega millionaires and mega corporations, give us  complete medical and dental care for all Americans, cut the obscene military spending ( 50+% of our tax dollars), institute a Universal Basic Income to totally stimulate this economy, eliminate this feudal system of Absentee Residential Landlords  by replacing it with community run nonprofit home and apartment leasing, empowering the union movement by erasing Taft Hartley and Right to Work laws… to name but a few. Oh, and let’s not forget the need to institute community owned and operated nonprofit media to break the hammerlock of jumbo corporate run private television and radio. That is where the propaganda is generated.

For now the number one goal for all good and decent lovers of a Democratic Republic is to stifle and resist the fascism. One major party has shown its true colors and needs to be voted down! The sad pity is how the other major party is just so damn wanting!

PA Farruggio
October, 2022