Very nicely done, my hat's off to you. That said...holy fuck.

As a member of the military I served under Johnson, Nixon, Ford Carter, Reagan, HW Bush and Clinton. We have worked our way down. They say the way to get out of a hole is to stop digging it. I sincerely doubt the American people have learned this lesson. Perhaps electing Trump, and enduring the laughing that is to come with that, from the rest of the world, might change this. I'm another refugees from KOS. I now longer can deal with the bullshit they are spewing.

it's so devastating. I have Pete Seeger in my head, singing "A Hard Rain's a-gonna Fall"... don't have a link though. But that's what people younger than me need to hear, it's going to be hard, a hard rain's a-gonna fall.

if that comes to pass.

I so needed to read this awesome writing of yours. My kids need to see this also. Just got off work and so glad I got to come on and read this.... kinda shaking actually from it.

Occupy!

To me it sounds like a eulogy, but a hopeful one that also contains the possibility of revival. I was reminded of some sentences from a book I recently read and was incredibly moved by.

“Yes, I’ll be glad.” And she said suddenly, “There are some times, Joseph, when the love for people is strong and warm like a sorrow.”
He looked quickly at her in astonishment at her statement of his own thought. “How did you think that, dear?”
“I don’t know. Why?”
“Because I was thinking it at that moment — and there are times when the people and the hills and the earth, all, everything except the stars, are one, and the love of them all is strong like a sadness.”

To A God Unknown
John Steinbeck

I’m still hopeful ...

I so want to hope.

You are aiming right at the heart of what's going on: the kingdom of lies, or the mentirocracia, as I like to put it; the control of the imagination (as this writer also discussed: http://time.com/4235720/democrats-sanders-clinton-black-voters/?utm_sour...) Thank you for your excellent work.

May I make one caveat? You say: "The corporate propaganda has never been so pervasive, so relentless, so effective." It's never been so pervasive, so relentless, and so powerful. But it's singularly ineffective, if one measures the effectiveness of propaganda by its ability to convince. People are less convinced than I've seen them in my lifetime. If anything, I think that's why this election cycle has gotten so butt-ugly: establishment media and establishment politicians are getting downright shirty about the fact that we're not accepting their lies at the rate they expect.

thank you. great piece, great writing. Love the perspective you give ... and the music.

keep the faith.

I tend to key the tipping point to the Edward Snowden affair. After that exposure, government changed dramatically. Desperation was apparent in its every action. In fact, geopolitical actions became "reactions" and "retaliations." All of them, including the toppling of Ukraine's government, the Iran nuclear agreement, and this weekend's bizarre Presidential visit to Vietnam, which was all about massively arming them against China. After a 50-year arms embargo. As if….

Whatever is yanking the US back and forth on the global stage has been invisible up 'til now, although the G-20 is aware of US paranoid-maddness. And poor Europe thinks it has to sleep with the enemy for "protection."

The geopolitcal crazy, including the desperation-filled TPP and TTIF, is what drives the US domestic dystopia. Are the (Russia-obsessed) Neocon's plans for Global Empire too big to fail?

Thanks for sharing your vision.