“I hate this country” was Adam Levine’s comment a few weeks back on national TV.  Who is Adam Levine you ask?  He is the gay singer of the even more gaily named band Maroon 5.  (I am using the term “gay” facetiously.  Not in a good way.  As opposed to say “the twenty-first century was a great time to be gay.”)  Maroon 5 (whatever that is) has written and recorded some of the worst music ever released.  If you’ve listened to rap that’s saying something.  Without his band’s success the at best, marginally talented Levine would be working at McDonald’s.   As Levine has literally lived the American Dream, even a no-talent can sleep with Victoria Secret models, my blog was going to advise him not to let the customs officers hit his perfectly toned fanny on his way out of the country.

But like a broken clock that is right twice a day, Levine actually has a point.   Today at the Whitey Bulger trial one of the government’s star witnesses, John Martorano testified.  The mob hit man who plead guilty to 19 murders but is believed to have killed significantly more revealed the following fun facts.  Despite being an admitted serial killer he served only twelve years in prison.  While in prison the government paid $6,000 into his canteen account.  Upon his release he was given another $20,000 to get started.  He has been paid over $300,000 for the rights to his story.  He says he never killed for money.  While I’m sure that is great solace to his victims’ families what did the checks Whitey gave him upon delivery of the body bag represent?  He now collects social security.  My guess would be unlike you and I who pay 14% of gross he never paid a dime into social security.  So he basically served 1 and a half years for each murder and has been paid $500,000 for his trouble thus far.  Makes you wonder why US Attorney Carmen Ortiz (and her senior advisor her unemployed husband) insisted on significant jail time for computer hacker Aaron Swartz.  Swartz unable to do the time killed himself.

This is the same government who successfully fought to insure Martorano’s and Whitey victims didn’t get a single dime.  This despite the fact that some were innocent and all were killed with the government’s assistance.   And Whitey is a bad guy?   Like any government the United States’ is not immune to incompetency and corruption.  However, one of the few things that distinguished the United States from all others was the government protected its citizens.  The First Circuit Court of Appeals in upholding the government’s right not to compensate the families despite the complicity of the FBI in the murders condoned the government’s right to murder its own citizens.  (Despite public appeal Ortiz has faced no consequence for either her aggressive handling of the Swartz case or Swartz death.)   With that freedom the government in general and the United States Attorney in particular is now in business with serial murderers, corporate interests and corrupt governments.

The “liberal” Obama administration policies now make Russia, Venezuela and Darfur look like law abiding republics.  Innocent US soldiers continue to die for no reason in Afghanistan.  There is no US interest, no financial interest, no worldwide interest.  The so-called Afghanistan government continues to steal hundreds of millions of aid dollars with the knowledge and assistance of the Obama administration.  Every phone call you make, every website you visit, every where you go the government is following; all without a warrant.  (I am surprised at the “outrage” of civil liberty groups.  When you buy a smart phone you are in essence consenting to the retrieval of this information.  Apple knows more about me then I do.  Finally, the most powerful institution in the world, the Internal Revenue Service targets people.  As someone who has been targeted by the Mass Department of Revenue (again I am surprised people believe these institutions and the people in them are “fair”) I can tell you it is pure mental torture.  Think Theon in Game of Thrones but on a financial level.  The inquiry is forever probing, never ending and without recourse; not to mention expensive.

Almost makes you long for the good old days of George Bush.  So you know what face lifted, pretty boy, one hit wonder, Adam Levine?  I agree I hate this country and its government in particular.  However, I love the people.  And someday, somewhere, some way we will reclaim this country.  We must remove hose in power who abuse this democracy to protect the interests of a few.  We must return to protecting those who cannot protect themselves; each other.

KOKO