When a society fails to provide the bare minimums essential to life for it's people, that society has failed. The number of poor, hungry, homeless and needlessly ill grows on a daily basis. The specter of abject poverty has become a daily fixture of the American landscape. Ignored by most of us, explained away by the government as unavoidable, made to appear less threatening by apologists and pundits, the simple fact is that while still being one of the richest nations on Earth, the United States has abandoned the weakest among us, and plans to impose harsher austerity on all of us.

When an economic model fails to provide sufficient reward for labor and only serves the ruling elite, that economic model has failed.

The official unemployment numbers in no way reflect the real number of Americans who have not been able to find employment of any kind. Uncounted are those who have reached the end of unemployment benefits, who have spent 99 weeks, plus additional time provided by extensions, seeking a job to no avail. A large percentage of those lucky enough to find a job have had to accept less than full time employment at minimum wage or lower. A full time job paying minimum wage, for a family of two, places the wage earner firmly in the poverty level. Meanwhile multinational corporations are enjoying profit of an all time historical high. The CEO's of these corporations have seen their salaries and bonuses grow by a factor of thousands while the laborers have seen minimal growth, or have had to accept less.

When a system of law only serves to provide protection to the ruling elite, while handing out harsher and harsher "justice' to the majority of citizens, that system of law has failed.Possibly the greatest crime in recent history has been the tanking of the American economy, engineered by the economic elite with full knowledge that their business models and practices were illegal. There has been little to no justice meted out to these architects of greed. The harshest sentences have been the levying of fines that represent pennies on the dollar of their protean profit. These settlements have been reached by negotiations that always include a guarantee that further investigations will cease, and those responsible for the illegal activity will not be charged. They are untouchable.However, the vast majority of Americans have seen their civil liberties disappear. New legislation makes it illegal to protest nonviolently, and those who do are gassed, roughed up, arrested and jailed. Across the board justice for the poor has become increasingly harsh. America holds the record for the most number of prisoners per capita of any nation on Earth, fueled by the privatization of prisons and archaic, unrealistic drug laws.

When a species destroys it's environment, that species has failed. Hundreds of thousands of acres of virgin forest are cleared yearly. Entire mountain tops are removed. Large areas of the world are now uninhabitable, the soil, and ground water being so poisoned that it has become deadly. The land is littered with industrial waste, leaching ponds, poisons are pumped into the aquifer and fracking creates water that is flammable. The oceans are filled with trash, medical waste, toxins, and crude oil. The air is polluted with smoke stacks, coal dust, auto emissions, and toxic leftovers. Scientists and experts are highly paid to use pseudo-babble to explain it all away.

When a political system's only function is to perpetuate failed systems, that political system has failed. All the systems, social, environmental, economic, legal, and political have become unsustainable. The failure of the political system, with it's deeply flawed and thoroughly corrupt election process is, perhaps, the hardest pill to swallow. On some level, to a greater or lessor degree, we're all aware of that. Cognitive dissonance plays a major role in our inability to come to terms with the growing, frightening, gap between what we believe to be true and what our own life experience and intellect tell us is true. The presidential election is but one of many examples of how the combination of hope, belief, fear and willful ignorance can be manipulated to cause an entire nation to accept that there are no alternatives, that the very best we can achieve is to elect someone who will postpone the inevitable for a short while, that it is better to have a less insane hand at the helm.

The government we have is the result of a coup. A handful of billionaires have seized control, and they are now deciding the fate of the entire human race. The government of The United States, and most world governments, have but one purpose: To promote, protect and defend the right of the wealthiest among us to own, control, exploit and destroy the world for profit.

The systems have failed. Let me be clear, it is not that they may fail, not that they will fail in the near future, but have failed.

These systems may grind on for a while due to culturally ingrained habit and faith. These systems may linger for a time due to fear of change. These systems may continue for a time due to force or coercion. However, there is not enough culturally ingrained habit or faith, there is not enough fear, there is not enough force or coercion to prevent the collapse of failed systems.

So what do we have when all systems have failed, but an entire population refuses to accept the fact? What do we have when a governing body's only purpose is to perpetuate belief in failed systems and to prop up a shadow government whose only goal is profit at the expense of systematic brutality, murder, poverty and destruction of the environment?Insanity. That is what we have: pure, certifiable, sociopathic, psychotic insanity exhibited on an entire world scale.

You know, for years now I've said that our government is insane, and being run by lunatics, for insane goals. But it's always been insincere, in a way, like the way you'll shake your head at a friend and say, "you're crazy, man." There's been no sense of danger, no sense of the skin crawling awareness that you're eye to eye with a group of people who are actively, intently engaged in a full blown mental condition. Well, I've had a break through, a new understanding, and that is that the government of the United States is actually, literally, certifiably insane.

It is at once the most freeing thought I've ever had, and the most frightening realization I've ever had. These people, our "elected leaders' are every bit as insane as John Wayne Gacy, or Ted Bundy, or any other sociopath serial killer. Try, try right now to make the leap from "yeah, they're crazy" to "these people are certifiably insane!" It may take you a while to jump from A to B, but it's worth the effort. There is no difference between a person who claims to be a Democrat or a Republican, or an Independent, and a person who claims that arranging potato chips into a certain pattern maintains the status of the universe. None.

The ideals, the policies and the actions of this government are deadly, of no value, and are supported by an illusory, flawed understanding of reality. The people who support this illusion are every bit as infected, every bit as insane as are the people to whom they willingly give their support. Arguing in circles about candidates or parties or policies or actions that are insane is to buy into that insanity. And from this day forward I will engage in these debates with a full understanding that each and every person who in any way offers support or belief in these insane person, policies and institutions is also- by definition- insane.

That's my line in the sand. I will not attempt to cure insanity by arguing with insane people. I can pity them, I can do all in my power to make sure they're not an immediate danger to themselves or others, but I can't cure them. I know I'm not alone. I know there are others whose understanding is the same as mine. I' m calling on those of you who "get' this, who "grok' this to make that leap: These people can't save themselves. They're too invested in this insanity.

The government of The United States is mad. I can't say that often enough, or forcefully enough.It's policies and actions are insane, and only serve to prop up an illusory world where a handful of billionaires claim the right to own, control and destroy the Earth as they see fit. Oppose them and you will suffer. You will be hungry or homeless, or forced to suffer illness for lack of healthcare. Oppose them and you will be a criminal, a terrorist, a target for drones.

You cannot reform madness. You cannot use madness to bring sanity. The institutions, the politics, the economies of madness must be put be aside.Stop fearing the end. The ruins of our ideals, our culture, our society lie in smoldering heaps all around us. The Apocalypse has already happened. We're still here.