Stephen LENDMAN

How can there be joy with Washington and its imperial allies waging war on humanity, raping and destroying countries, responsible for millions of casualties post-9/11 alone!

America is a gangster state, a democracy in name only, a plutocracy in fact, carving up whole continents for power and profit, terrorizing humanity, demanding all nations bend to its will, seeking unchallenged global dominance by brute force, featuring endless wars in multiple theaters.

Destructive imperialism and predatory capitalism are America’s most defining features, powerful interests exploiting resources and populations for enrichment and control.

They’re expansionist by nature, wanting indigenous societies replaced by consumer ones.

Monopolies and oligopolies overwhelm small business, notably family-owned ones. Agribusiness displaced family farms.

Today’s America and other predatory capitalist societies are increasingly defined by rotten jobs, low wages, poor or no benefits, weak unions, and workers exploited for maximum profits.

They matter more than human health and welfare. The American way is diabolical, run by dark forces. Exploitation of its most vulnerable people transformed the nation from chattel to wage slavery.

Police state laws and mass incarceration replaced freedom. Resisting the imperial state is met with brute force. Minority communities in America resemble Occupied Palestine.

Killer cops operate like brutal Israeli security forces, killing thousands in America annually. Official numbers undercount reality. It’s too grim to report accurately.

It pales in comparison to imperial slaughter by US forces in declared and undeclared combat theaters, the horrendous human toll mounting daily.

How can there be joy at Christmas or any other time of year with endless wars raging, with millions suffering its ravaging, with growing human misery, with the worst of all possible worlds for most people worldwide.

America wages endless wars of aggression in the name of peace it deplores. Plunder is considered economic development.

The nation is defined by obscene wealth for the privileged few at the expense of most others. Dining with his Mar-a-Lago Florida friends on Friday, Trump reportedly told them “you all just got a lot richer” – referring to the great GOP tax cut heist he falsely called a “middle class miracle.”

The deplorable state of the America includes growing poverty, unemployment, underemployment, hunger, homelessness and despair.

Festiveness is meaningless in a nation and world plagued by pain, torment, heartache, misery and human suffering, things worsening, not improving.

Anti-war activist/revolutionary socialist Rosa Luxemburg once said “(w)e stand today…before the awful proposition: either the triumph of imperialism and the destruction of all culture, and, as in ancient Rome, depopulation, desolation, degeneration, a vast cemetery; or, the victory of socialism.”

Sadly, the forces of darkness are triumphing over the general welfare – the holiday season a time to mourn, not celebrate.

stephenlendman.org