By OcJim

I just finished watching the 1970 Western, Chisum with John Wayne, probably one of the better westerns of years past. The characters are all icons of western legend, as was John Wayne himself. One thing about westerns is that in the end, the good always seem to come out on top and the bad get what they deserve. The good realize that they have right on their side, plus, it was always self evident that the criminals were not as smart and ultimately as able as the lawful.

Things just don’t seem to be that way anymore.

First of all, It’s not so easy to distinguish the criminals from the law-abiding citizens, especially when the criminals in high places are never pursued, for example, executives for Bank of America who foreclose on homeowners when they don’t have documentation and actually manufacture it, Wall Street Bankers who knowingly push worthless derivative paper for profit, politicians who cheat and lie in order to serve corporate masters, Supreme Court justices who serve the rich rather than the law, and bribed civil service officials who look the other way when oil companies violate laws that protect the public.

We even have had presidents who started wars through the use of lies, wars that killed and maimed hundreds of thousands. One past president still walks free as well as others who enjoyed freedom before succumbing to natural causes. We have other officials in government, who enriched themselves before and after serving against the interests of the people, who were CEOs before, like Rumsfeld, who gave us the toxins of aspartame and Cheney, who sold strategic goods to Iran for Halliburton before becoming VP, and condoned torture after. Then there are all the Congress members who work as lobbyists drawing millions from companies they benefitted while Senators or Representatives, companies that reward them for their service.

Some of the crimes I named aren’t really illegal, just unethical. They are in the realm of injurious to the people they were supposed to serve. But what they have in common is none of the perps were prosecuted, especially those that were responsible for crimes.

Like many Americans, I am weary. I see no let up in the corruption, in the unfairness, and the lawlessness of people at the top, in government, in monolithic corporations, and in business practices that hurt the vulnerable.

Republicans might just as well wear black hats and masks, for they are stealing every last bit of freedom and property from the people, in the form of social benefits, tax advantages for the rich, and dashed hopes for the rest of us. Democrats are the cowardly, sniveling town officials who acquiesce in everything the much smarter Republican bullies do against the townspeople, who represent us, all Americans.

Let me give you an example.

I just finished reading an oped piece in the NY Times by William B. Gould IV, a Stanford law professor. It seems that the first of the year, we will lose two of the five seats on the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) which protects collective bargaining. The Supreme Court ruled that without a quorum, the board cannot decide cases. That means employers can do what they want with unions. The NLRB can’t stop them.

The minority in the Senate, Republicans, can block any new appointments to the NLRB, as they have blocked many important appointments. They don’t want union rights anyway.

What have the feckless Democrats done about this? Nothing. They have been too busy caving to Republicans again over the issue of raising taxes for billionaires, something some 70% of the American people want.

The minority has held the power for some 20 years now.

What would John Wayne say?

“Now you understand. Anything goes wrong, anything at all… your fault, my fault, nobody’s fault… it don’t matter… I’m gonna blow your head off. It’s as simple as that.” (Big Jake, 1971)