There’s so much “stuff” going on I can’t seem to focus on what I want to write about. That being said, the reality is that most of what is crossing my mind has to do with the “state of affairs” in America as we continue in what has become an endless political cycle. Honestly, my inbox is so lopsided with requests for contributions from people whom I have no idea how they got my address that I spend most of my time deleting emails when I have the time to check. Despite all that, I’ve been kind of thinking along the same lines for the past week or two and I’m going to attempt to get it “off my chest” today. And, that is – why all the fuss over Iowa?

How on earth did we get to the point where people are saying the results of the Iowa caucuses could determine the nominees for President in 2016? I mean, isn’t that the state that just elected Joni Ernst to the U.S. Senate? I think her “claim to fame” was castrating pigs! Iowa might represent the “Tea Party” (ie Donald Trump and Ted Cruz seem to be leading the republican side) but this hysterically intense media frenzy over these caucuses is simply MORE of the media trying to manufacture the “news” from where I’m sitting. They’re ginning up “excitement” that evidently gets viewers, but is it any wonder that many Americans are falling into the “who cares” camp as this kind of circus atmosphere continues?

As I’m watching (as much of) this (as I can) it’s becoming clearer and clearer to me that the brainwashing “we the people” have been subjected to over the past 40 or so years is getting to the REALLY dangerous stage. It’s the media that has created the political environment that is the driving force behind this election and I’m thinking it will be left to the historians “down the road” to effectively analyze what’s really happening. The “Big Lie Theory” that the Fox “news” people operate from says: “If you repeat a LIE often enough, people will eventually believe it’s true.” The problem I’m now seeing with that is the people who are spewing the LIES also start believing they’re telling the truth after they’ve spouted out enough of them. This would almost seem comical except that so many people’s lives are being ruined by what has amounted to a right wing TILT in American politics over the past 40 years that so many Americans feel helpless to stop. And, no one (in the “news”) is talking about it.

There’s “populist” rage running rampant “out there” – but the information providers are so disingenuous and so focused on their “bottom line” at the expense of actual “investigative journalism” that media outlets continue to distort the reality of what is actually causing what I call the “race to the bottom” in today’s America. I’m actually of the belief that many of the “tea partiers,” if they could just stop and take a “non Fox ‘news'” look at what America’s underlying problems are would be falling in line behind Bernie Sanders. And, for someone who thinks like me (and supports Bernie) the FACT that Republicans have been busy ATTACKING Hillary Clinton for the past several years – including the bogus “Benghazi Hearings” – makes me think I need to take a second look at what she’s proposing. What I have noticed – Sanders and Clinton (and O’Malley for that matter) are actually PROPOSING stuff – kind of an interesting phenomenon in this atmosphere.

Here’s one thing that is continually BUGGING me as I listen to (as much as I can stand of) the pundits covering the election. They talk about the “outsiders” versus the “establishment” for each party in the process. They also talk about how people are “fed up” with the lack of accomplishment in Washington and how it’s due to both parties inability to work with each other. I’m going to try to DISSECT both of those “claims.” (This is all not to mention the curious importance they place on Iowa – they must be making a boatload of money)

First: It’s simply absurd to me when pundits promote the idea, for example, that Donald Trump or Ted Cruz are “outsiders.” Trump comes right from the heart of Wall Street, he’s undoubtedly connected at the “spine” with numerous of the Wall Street banks that the “Tea Party” supporters of his actually can’t stand. It reminds me of a post I wrote a couple years ago wondering why the “Tea Party” is railing against the national debt and then voting with Republicans (who virtually gave it to us). I mean, here’s another curious observation of the “Trump phenomenon” – He holds up a Bible and says “I’m religious” and, almost instantaneously, his polling in Iowa goes up due to the support of “evangelicals.” Trump has referred to the voters as being “stupid” and I almost think that’s the focus of his candidacy – to prove that he’s right!

Then there’s Ted Cruz. Yikes! The only reason you could call him “anti-establishment” is because NO ONE who’s been around him in Washington DC can stand the guy. Even his roommate from college, who was interviewed a while back, said he would prefer to pick a random name from the phone book for president than to have Cruz. Who, by the way – and this is a comical irony, due to his “birther” queries regarding President Obama – DOES have a birther issue. He WAS born in Canada, his father is Cuban, and there’s a SERIOUS question as to whether he is a NATURAL born American. I’ve heard more than one constitutional scholar say as a “matter of fact” that Cruz is ineligible to run for the office of President. I also know of at least one Democrat who will file a legal challenge the moment he gets the nomination (which I can’t even imagine is a possibility). But, as Trump has said, maybe the voters are “stupid.” All of that is besides Cruz was a $1 MILLION per year LAWYER prior to gaining his Senate seat (thanks to, of all people, Sarah Palin – which causes me to ask: are the voters in Texas stupid?), his wife works for Goldman Sachs, and Cruz’s campaigns have been funded largely through “deals” with Goldman Sachs and Citibank – two of the “biggest” of the “too big to fail” Wall Street banks that Cruz’s supporters seem to hate. Does anyone besides me see the irony here?

Secondly: The media (and, I’m talking about MSNBC as well as Fox and the other “cable 24/7 ‘news’ outlet6”) keep saying over and over that “both parties” are equally responsible for the divisiveness in Washington DC. That, to me, is the result of the Fox “news” brainwashing scheme about how they’re “fair and balanced.” Anyone with half a brain knows they aren’t “fair and balanced” – but, it seems that every other “news” outlet is trying to follow suit. This, at the expense of recent FACTUAL history and ACTUAL recorded comments from various political figures. Let’s start with the “FACTUAL history.” Sometime in the 1970’s to early 1980’s Newt Gingrich began the push of republican obstructionism that exists to this day. There are many who give Gingrich credit for the low standing in today’s Congress – which, he apparently relishes – much to the chagrin of a nation which has millions of people needlessly suffering. That’s not a “fair and balanced” philosophy – in fact, the news pundits who are claiming the dysfunction in Washington is “bipartisan” are ignoring history.

Additionally, before President Obama took the oath of office republicans were publicly claiming their “number one goal” was that President Obama “FAIL.” I heard this from the mouths of Mitch McConnell (who instigated over 700 filibusters in the six years of President Obama’s administration when republicans were in the minority – rumor has it that if they win the White House McConnell is going to get rid of the filibuster) and, America’s voice ALL republicans fear, Rush Limbaugh. Limbaugh stated, “I want President Obama to FAIL!”

These people could care less if America “succeeds.” They’ve got theirs and there’s nothing “we the people” can do about that (at one time I heard Limbaugh’s income was in the hundreds of MILLIONS per year) and, it’s all about the power to them and their “fat cat” benefactors. Everyone knows America’s government – mainly the Congress – is corrupted to the core and our “news” pundits would have us believe it’s “bipartisan.” However, the REALITY is that the “money changers” are far more connected to republicans than to democrats, the republicans are the experts at obstruction, and their “supporters” (like the Koch brothers and their money empire) will pay whatever it takes to gain the power necessary for them to continue their plundering of America’s taxpayers (we the people). I’ve got my issues with the Democrats, but I look forward to the day when there is a media outlet that is not focused on ratings but actually “telling it like it is.”

One reason democrats appear weak to republicans is their willingness to compromise – to get things done. Many people believe Bernie Sanders’ ideas are too idealistic and will never get through Congress. As presently constituted, I would agree. However, with a REAL fair and balanced reporting, the American people could understand why NOTHING is happening in Congress and maybe would “vote the bums out. (even when they have the majority the republicans refuse to compromise on almost every issue. The recent budget “deal” showed “Speaker Ryan” what lies in store for him [Boehner Deja Vu] if he agrees to another compromise in the future.)

So I’ll end by saying this again, regarding the Iowa caucuses and the upcoming nominations for president. Iowa voters chose Joni Ernst for the Senate. Why would anyone care who they choose for the republican nomination for president? I have to wonder if Trump, Cruz, or any of the others, for that matter, demonstrated they could castrate a pig. Maybe that would be what would make the difference for the Iowa voters. I’m looking forward to finding out if Trump’s assessment of them is correct!