Yes, yes, whatever. I learned about this stuff in grade school from finger wagging crotchety Miss Zimmer, that was about 100 years ago (factoring in the premature aging I experienced yesterday while watching the Bush press conference). But now I discover in my latter years, that the theory of "checks and balances" is a fallacy. It does not work.
In the White House, as you read these words, there operates a small corporation with a complete dolt playing the part of the unitary chief executive with one finger on the button and another finger up his nose. More importantly there is a powerful cadre of megalomaniacs who are using a glaring loophole in the enforcement of the Constitution to shift actual mountains of public money into the pockets of their friends and favored business associates.
That they also cripple and kill thousands of US soldiers, tens upon tens of thousands of innocent foreign civilians; that they put future generations of US citizens deeply into debt; that they turn the whole diplomatic world against our country; that they ignore the science of global warming . . . this is just an inconsequential by-product of doing business to them.
And no matter how brazenly offensive and law-breaking The Unitary Executive Corporation acts, there is no viable "check" to put a stop to them.
I used to wonder, thanks to the movie magic of Kubrick's Strangelove, what if a true psychopath were to become president? Then what?? Would "it" be over so quickly none of us would know what hit us? ("It" being civilzation)
This stark fear that everyone of us thinking humans have experienced usually passes with the aid of some Miss Zimmer type high school knowledge that rests somewhere deep within our minds. Some long forgotten mental note that says "not to worry, there is a system in place to take care of psychotics in government."
Well, I watched Bush yesterday in his press conference and it was a stone cold fucking HORROR SHOW. There is no use in imagining what might happen IF a psychopath were to become president, because it has happened, it is here, it is a reality. Any half-competent psychiatrist would agree that Bush is, at best, delusional.
Which brings me, us, to the question: "Now what?"
The "check" that needs to happen is that Congress needs to step in the way a large animal vet steps in when one of the elephants goes on a rampage. The legal version of a tranquilizer dart is needed to halt this perversion of democratic rule before the paciderm does mortal and irreversable damage. Because this isn't just a zoo with scattering patrons, this is World War 3 AND global warming AND trillion dollar debacles AND . . .
and the guy I watched in that press conference yesterday, has the power and the self-assured authority to launch nukular attacks.
Yeah, that guy.
And thanks so much to the mainstream press, editors and publishers and producers and even reporters. If a real elephant had gone on a rampage in a zoo yesterday in Atlanta or San Diego or wherever, it would have gotten mountains of more coverage than did Bush's press conference. But I guess the cusp of war isn't that big of a deal anymore.
The Cusp of War! And to quote Bush from yesterday (excerpt from WAPO):
Steve Holland of Reuters asked about Iranian weapons in Iraq. "What makes you so certain that the highest levels of Tehran's government is responsible?"
Steve Holland of Reuters asked about Iranian weapons in Iraq. "What makes you so certain that the highest levels of Tehran's government is responsible?"
Bush admitted he doesn't know "whether or not the head leaders of Iran" were involved. "But here's my point: Either they knew or didn't know."
Got it! The point is NO ONE KNOWS SHIT yet still we are on the brink of war because there is no check or balance. Or I'll just say:
No check for the unbalanced.
Are checks and balances viable? Have we just been lucky so far in escaping the pitfall of the unitary-deranged-individual in the one branch of government that permits this to happen?