“Too many notes” was Emperor Joseph II’s comment on a Mozart composition! “Too many crooks” is my opinion of U.S. legislators. “Too many” also applies to TV newscasts, pundits and lawyers.
Let’s start at the top. Our legislators form two fanatically opposed blocks — Democrats and Republicans. Republicans are funded by and openly serve big business and their grossly overpaid executives (five American CEOs are reportedly worth $50 billion-plus). Democrats claim to serve all the people — including workers. Current Democratic priorities are aimed at stopping Vladimir Putin from expanding his dictatorship and saving the environment from climate change. Republican priorities seem limited to a witch hunt on Joe Biden and saving the rich from paying their taxes — currently the lowest in the world. Congress is deadlocked while the world spins faster and faster!
The U.S. is rotting from the top! We have the most (and highest paid) lawyers per capita in the world who love the fees from long trials and TV interviews – creating the illusion that we are a country of law and order! Actually, the opposite is true.
We have the world’s longest trials, and the most convicts per capita while Donald Trump, his (convicted) acolytes and even members of Congress stay free for years by playing the system.
We also have the most TV channels in the world brainwashing us with different interpretations of the news. It’s hard to know what to believe! Most people take the easy approach and settle for one extreme — CNN and Fox seem to be on different planets!
Trump and Putin (and 56 other dictators around the world) clearly yearn to be like Hitler, Stalin and Mao. Each of the named three is best known for a huge ego and causing tens of millions of deaths.
The U.S. has a surfeit of guns. In “entertainment” our many westerns and cop shows cement the idea that guns save us from bad guys — the opposite is clearly true. CNN and FOX often have very different representations of the top stories of the day. Limiting the number of channels, checking them for truth and punishing obvious lies would, in my opinion, improve the behavior of many watchers ... and save trillions of dollars in excessive salaries that could be put to better use. More is not always better.
Honest democracy clearly beats dictatorship as a system of government. Europeans enjoy it, why not Americans? What happened to the “can do” thinking Americans were once famous for?
Frank Fish, Taylorsville
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