Rantings Of A Mad Rodent

Who knows who the Washington Generals are? That's the team that the Harlem Globetrotters take out on the road to ridicule and mercilessly trounce. They've see all of the Globetrotters' pranks and gags, but they still fall for them. Of course, it's all part of the act, but my question is: What's our excuse? WHY do we keep falling for the government's and the corporations' gags and tricks, even though we've seen them all before? When did we willingly become the Washington Generals to their Harlem Globetrotters?

We've seen all of the gags, heard all of the promises, and hell, they even let us look behind the curtain once! And we still we still fall for the same ol' tricks without hesitation! They have alot of gags in their playbook, but one of my faves would have to be the ol' "Patriotism Ploy". This one's a can't miss in its reliability. It's also very versatile, and be sprung in many different ways. You remember in Michael Moore's movie "Sicko", where he had to take a boatload of first responders from the 9/11 tragedy to Cuba for health care? Even though those in the government should have been embarrassed and ashamed, how did they respond? They said what Moore did was "treasonous" and called him a "traitor". How did the American public respond? By agreeing with those statements. Instead of us holding the government's feet to the fire, we fell for the gag. Those who said that Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11, were called "anti - American", because those in charge said they were. It also didn't hurt that Fox News was helping to spoon feed the sheep. The sad thing is, they didn't have to work that hard, we are, afterall, the Washington Generals. We WILL fall for the gag, just tell us what to do, and when to fall.

Then there's a Patriot Act. We allowed them to take away most of our civil rights and liberties, because we were scared, and they told us that this would protect us. We were given facts to show us that it would do the opposite, but he fell for it anyway. The Patriot Act has victimized more of the people it was supposed to protect than it has people it was supposed to protect us from! You hear horror story after horror story about innocent people getting put on "No fly" lists, detained at airports, and the like, but there are some people that still think that it's a good thing. They'll even state facts that can't be proven, but that's what we're supposed to do. In fact, so far, the RIAA seems to be one of the few people benefiting for it. Because of the Patriot Act, they're able to look for "illegal downloads" on your computer. Speaking of trickery, how many of you think that the artists actually get money from those RIAA lawsuits? Everytime they unveil the next thing that's supposed to help us, I can't help but hear "Sweet Georgia Brown".

Take the bailout, who here honestly believed that it was going to benefit the people? Don't be ashamed to admit it, they fooled alot of us. What did they tell us? "We'll give the banks and corporations billions of dollars, and they'll in turn, pass it on to the people.", and what happen? They gave the ball to Meadowlark Lemon, and we never saw it again. They told us that those mega bonuses would stop, they didn't. They told us that corporations would act more responsibly. They don't. They told us that these corporations would no longer splurge on extravagant crap. They did. They told us that people would now be able to get loans. They weren't. They said that people would be able to keep their homes. They weren't. And when the government asked for an accurate accounting of funds, they were basically told to go kick rocks. Meanwhile; we did nothing. Do you know why we did nothing? We weren't supposed to, were are afterall, the Washington Generals! We knew this would happen, and no only did we fall for it, we fucking paid for it! We're still paying for it!

Look at all of these political sex scandals. They've somehow managed to trick you into believing that it's a "private matter", and you're gonna fall for it! Why? Because you always do! At what point do we realize that there's confetti in the bucket for the fans, and water for us? What has to happen before we not only say, "Enough!", but actually do something about it? Shit, atleast the Washington Generals get paid for it! What's our excuse?