Tuesday morning thoughts

Capital punishment has failed as a deterrent. No matter how many people we kill for committing murder, murder still exists. There are extreme cases where a person is so violent, so unredeemable, that permanently removing them from society is warranted. We no longer consider capital punishment for those who endanger our entire society, who create an immoral class system that destroys people’s live for the benefit of a very few who abuse power and amass wealth beyond their needs. They are worse than the person who kills 10 or 20 people. They kill hundreds, even thousands, but indirectly. They allow their victims to die of starvation, homelessness, inadequate access to medical care. These are the monsters among us.

The CIA and NSA no longer serve a useful service to society. We have a president who shares classified intelligence to our adversaries in exchange for personal favors. In the future our spy agencies will be used to monitor us, to keep track of our movements and activities. That’s the sort of intelligence that a fascist regime needs in order to prevent resistance and revolution before it begins. I served in the intelligence community to protect our country against threats both foreign and domestic. We have lost that battle, at least for now. Domestic terrorists are in control and are former allies are no longer on our side. The government intended to serve the people now serves only the wealthy and powerful. The Constitution and our laws are routinely ignored. Once independent agencies within the government now serve only the whims of a mentally unstable and pathologically egotistic dictator. We are witnessing the end of both democracy and capitalism.