The United States of America, the land of the free and the home of the brave, said that overcrowding neighboring countries recovering from Russian rule was wrong. It took sides, labeled it “ethnic cleansing,” and turned its high altitude weapons of mass destruction loose on rag-tag bunches of citizens with guns hiding in bushes, behind houses, under bridges, holes and other places guerrilla bands hang out in Europe’s richest mining country. A source of uranium. One of the elements we need for our weapons of mass destruction.

These seemed like the same kind of Serbs and Croatians I used to drink beer with in South Chicago when I lived in a friend’s house at 104th and Exchange by the Republic Steel plant. Back in the Fifties, they argued with each other every night at the corner pub. I once asked my friend what they were always fighting about, and he told me not to worry about it. It was a religious thing that they had been arguing about for centuries, since the Ottoman Empire. The next day, they would all go to work in the steel mills where life can be snuffed out in a second, and they’ll work together like the best team of friends, no problem. So, I left it at that.

Six thirty one morning, I got on the smoking car at 95th and Commercial to ride to Hyde Park. This was the end of the line, where they flipped the train’s seats and headed back in the opposite direction. No one else was in the car. When we stopped at 87th Street, one person got on. A large burly guy, who walked right over to me and said: “Hey, you’re sitting in my seat.” I got right up and moved back a few rows. I don’t argue with nit wits, especially in a strange new city.

We’ve got a country that’s been building weapons of mass destruction since World War II. You could say it’s the major industry in the United States. We not only dropped two of “the bombs” on Japanese cities one right after the other before they could surrender but we launched right into a Mexican standoff with old allies that might have been appointed to keep us in check.

In the Eighties, we borrowed enough money to drive this enemy into the ground economically and then kept right on with “defense” spending at one of the highest rates in the history of mankind. We not only appointed ourselves guardians of the world, but seem to ferret out places to practice. If we can’t find any, we’ll take out some fishing boats, ski lifts, airliners, embassies, bridges, buses and such. Or is that just the normal accidental consequence of having so many weapons of mass destruction to play with?

Having made so many enemies, it’s now crucial to develop “star wars” shields to protect ourselves from incoming weapons developed by copy-cat evildoers and others we’ve upset. Foreigners we’ve been told are after our cars, toilets and video games. All while we seem to have forgotten how the colonists beat the British by snapping at their Achilles’ heel.

To keep all of this going, our leaders have developed an Oligarchy dependent on “soft” money contributions from the manufacturer’s of weapons, who also run our “news” outlets, as well as scams to rake off Social Security retirement funds, health care funds, and other things citizens were led to believe they were “entitled” to as long as all the workers paid through the nose. Scams that put Charles Ponzi and the Albanians to shame.

But like me, the American people simply move back a few rows. No sense trying to fight City Hall. No one really needs as much as their parents or grandparents had anyway. Not with all that waste of utilities that polluted our world. Forget Sunday pleasure drives and summer excursions. Cars are for getting to work and back. They can be small with room enough for the groceries. Heat and electricity are still enough to keep people from freezing to death, watch television and keep a night light. That nuclear power that was supposed to be the great side benefit, turned out to be much too dangerous to all of us and the environment.

The important thing is that the Oligarchy be funded well enough to argue interminably over trillions in expected surpluses. What to do with it all, and how to get more without ever having to report to the mill or work together with anybody who isn't a high priest of their cult. While the average real laborers, who have been taught not to rock the boat, keep plugging away for unions and industries. Bosses that will force them into early retirement while government raises the age of eligibility for that supplemental stipend a worker has been paying for most of his life. Oh well, it was just another tax anyway, right?

Don't you get the feeling that the nit wits are in control?