Manipulated and Stonewalled

Step back from the new America and consider what is happening.  A nation built on a few principles – rule of law, not men; limited powers to government – actually very specified limits; checks and balances and separation of powers to provide ongoing monitoring and correction; a list of very specific basic rights described in fairly clear English that no law…prohibiting…abridging…basic freedoms of speech, religion, bearing arms, issuing warrants, unreasonable seizures and on and on can ever be imposed on the people – gone.  Completely shredded, destroyed, captured by the very government that was precluded from ever, ever doing so.

How did it happen?

The quick answer – we have had no revolutions, no bloodletting, no removal by force and violence of those whose whittle away at the edges of our freedoms.  They went about their predictable behavior – grabbing bits and pieces – sometimes a small bit; sometimes medium sized bits; sometimes huge bits and now it is all gone.

Today, the government controls all.  The people fear the government.  Those who are the government could care less.  There is no reason for them to fear the people.  They have the power; they have the big guns; they also have something else that our founders did not anticipate.  They have the vote of those who come here escaping barren economies overseen by embedded dictators and ruthless bureaucrats and welcome anything that provides them with a wisp of survivability and success.  With a small amount of manipulation – we call it “promises and peanuts,” these “victim citizens”, some new and some not, sell their vote to the high bidder because they feel left out – unfairly treated – or they just place their petty wants above larger principles.  Promises and peanuts are enough for them.

The few voices that do speak out; present facts, figures and analysis; that question, poke and probe, are now dismissed, discounted or simply ignored.  Investigation and disclosure mean little because power and money serve as the adhesion between the government and the media and the large corporations and the big government employee unions and the fat cats with their bulging pocketbooks and the communication routes by which the messages are manipulated, distorted and denied.

Is all lost?  It appears so.  If you are among those who have no idea what to do or even care to do but still find your blood boiling as you watch this disintegration of man’s highest principles and reach, we suggest you secure your own copy of “Stonewalled: My Fight for Truth Against the Forces of Obstruction, Intimidation, and Harassment in Obama's Washington” by Sharyl Attkisson.  Either go to the library or go to:  http://www.amazon.com/Stonewalled-Obstruction-Intimidation-Harassment-Washington-ebook/dp/B00HLIYWA8

Put it on your Christmas list and when you get it, read it, and then share it with someone else.  Ask them to read it and return it to you so that you can pass it on.  If you have offspring – kids, grandkids (teens or older) we suggest this – provide them with a copy of it for this one reason:  at least they will have been given an opportunity to read about what was going on; what was happening, as we (me , you, others) sat on our hands while the principles (see top paragraph) were manipulated; truth and disclosure stonewalled.  Who knows?  Someday they may ask - what were you doing when this was going on?  Why didn't you do something?

Ms. Attkisson is an insider - inside government; inside the corporate enclaves and very familiar with the workings of the media giants.   She knows the players and she names them.  Her telling is specific; the actions and situations she exposes are all familiar; the events current and she uses salty language for emphasis as well as accuracy.   Her book should be the basis of a required course for any journalism school wishing to maintain accreditation.  And much more.