[dropcap]B[/dropcap]aby Boomers should remember that innovative Sci Fi television series, The Outer Limits ( 1963). The opening monologue really was a rare look into the future... OUR future here in Military Industrial Empire's Amerika. Remember the opening:
Control Voice: [introduction] There is nothing wrong with your television set. Do not attempt to adjust the picture. We are controlling transmission. If we wish to make it louder, we will bring up the volume. If we wish to make it softer, we will tune it to a whisper. We will control the horizontal. We will control the vertical. We can roll the image, make it flutter. We can change the focus to a soft blur, or sharpen it to crystal clarity. For the next hour, sit quietly, and we will control all that you see and hear. We repeat: there is nothing wrong with your television set. You are about to participate in a great adventure. You are about to experience the awe and mystery which reaches from the inner mind to... The Outer Limits!
Well, that was 56 years ago, and look at the boob tube now. They say in all the civics classes that We the People own the airwaves. Yeah right! It is those who run this empire who control our media, and not us. You channel surf through ALL the so called news and news talk shows, and all you get is ****! The Two Party/One Party food fight centers lately on the ominous Mueller Report , all day and all night!
In between that nonsense the Democratic Party leaning networks —the Dems "media minions", who are many and constitute a much larger noise machine than the equally noxious rightwing machine—focus on how terrible ( and he is ) Trump is behaving, but not on the real issues that we working stiffs should be concerned about. No, they spend time, after many commercial breaks, on sexual scandals and other low brow things, while this straw man is allowing the Military Industrial Empire to bankrupt us! On the right wing pro Republican networks they focus on how great our economy is, despite the fact that too many working stiffs need to work second ( even third) jobs to stay afloat. Both sides seem to wish Julian Assange should be jailed for life... if not executed along with Ms. Manning and of course Eric Snowden... who had the foresight to get the hell out of Dodge before they got him. Both sides also want to satisfy the empire's movers and shakers by seeing regime change in Venezuela, ignoring the fact that Maduro was legally elected and re-elected by his people. And through it all our cherished media servants make sure to genuflect at the altar of this massive beast called the Pentagon.
I used to love watching sports talk shows. No more. On any of the multitude of such shows all you get is hype and spin for either the NBA or the NFL. You have millionaire commentators, many ex jocks, who carry the water for their masters, the uber rich, who own those sports teams and the networks... and of course the corporations who advertise on them. Scandal is in and strategy is out! Ever try to watch a live sporting event? In the old days of my baby boomer youth a NFL game was maybe 2.5 to 3 hours long. Now, they are at least close to 4 hours. So, a smart fan tapes the game and watches it on delay to avoid those incessant commercials. Major league baseball games used to also be 2.5 to 3 hours long... now they too are close to or even over 4 hours. I won't even delve too much into the financial aspect of pro sports, with the mega millionaire players who spend too much time being on injured reserve, or the millionaire players who can't even hit with a .250 average. Well, look at how much their team's owners are raking in: Billions in some cases! And the media , like the Outer Limits monologue says, controls everything and makes mega billions on these sports. Meanwhile, any working stiff who dares to fork out a couple of hundred bucks to take his kid to a game is a jackass! Bad enough what we have to all pay for cable television when the 1996 Telecommunications ( under so called ' progressive' President Clinton) opened the door for massive fee increases! The rest of the world may yet be ahead of us as many of their pro soccer leagues have the players wearing sponsor's ads on their backs.
What I love is the two year cycle of preparation for another presidential election. Yes, it usually begins two years after the last election when the Two Party/One Party con job returns to overwhelm the suckers. The drama intensifies as to who will be the next water carrier for the uber rich empire. Dumb downed Amerikans get so intense and so angry, each at the other side of this phony spectrum. The candidates are running around to raise money, for without the cash no one can ever have the sufficient commercial time of twenty and thirty second sound bites to win ' Hearts and minds'. The print and electronic media whores love this all, as it fattens their piggybanks, with all those commercials and mailings.
Meanwhile, our ship is sinking and you better start taking Chinese language lessons!
PA Farruggio
May 2019
Philip A Farruggio is a contributing editor for The Greanville Post. He is also frequently posted on Global Research, Nation of Change, World News Trust and Off Guardian sites. He is the son and grandson of Brooklyn NYC longshoremen and a graduate of Brooklyn College, class of 1974. Since the 2000 election debacle Philip has written over 300 columns on the Military Industrial Empire and other facets of life in an upside down America. He is also host of the ' It's the Empire... Stupid ' radio show, co produced by Chuck Gregory. Philip can be reached at paf1222@bellsouth.net.
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