I have had the benefit in my 60 years of life of having mentors that had nerves of steel and timeless integrity that was as solid as a granite mountain.  I have always preferred people who tell the truth and cannot be bought at any price.

Simple words describe such people as being of character, honor, integrity, etc.

One of the fundamental problems I have with the US government is their conduct is an insult to me and to every American, whether a person realizes that or not.  They not only insult a person’s intelligence with agendas, lies and half-truths, but they reach even further to demean a person’s freedoms, liberties and even quality of life. When your life comes to have no meaning it is downhill from there.

Life, liberty and pursuit of happiness are no longer what defines America.

The US forfeited its integrity for the glory of their lust for Empire.  The rampant greed of capitalism out of control has actually devalued the very fabric of life in the land that started off with such a lofty idea that the rest of the world wanted to come and be a part of it.  Only greedy idiots come now and want to be part of it.
A publicly traded stock can miss the ‘estimate’ and come tumbling down due to the lunatic notion that greed outweighs sanity or ethics, fraud is OK as long as they meet the quarterly target, and people just shrug it off and mumble something like, ‘well, win a few, lose a few’.

In the movie ‘The American President’ there were several classic scenes that sum up modern day America very succinctly.  If you recall the movie, the main stars were Michael Douglas (President Andrew Shepherd), Martin Sheen (White House Chief of Staff A. J. MacInerney), Annette Benning  (girlfriend / environmental lobbyist Sydney Ellen Wade), Michael J. Fox (Domestic Policy Advisor Lewis Rothschild) .

The first scene addressed an odd trait that Americans have developed in their political discourse.  The President and his girlfriend were at Camp David for the weekend and watching their Republican adversary Senator Bob Rumson (played by Richard Dreyfus) trashing the President and his girlfriend by referring to her as ‘the First Mistress’.  Her reaction was absolutely on target and the following is from the movie script:

MICHAELS  (on T.V.):  Wait a minute, Senator--

RUMSON (on T.V.):  I'm not saying--

MICHAELS (on T.V.):  --'cause that's a heck of an accusation to make, and--

RUMSON (on T.V.):  I'm not making an acc-- let me be very clear. I'm not making an accusation.  I am saying when we hear one thing, we dismiss it. We hear two, we dismiss it.  But when several, several well-respected members and former members of the Virginia State House—

MICHAELS (on T.V.):  Can you give us names?

RUMSON (on T.V.):  --each of their own accord, comes to me and expresses concern over the woman standing next to -- I don't even know, do we call her the First Mistress?  When several--

SYDNEY (at Camp David watching):   My God. He's making this up as he goes along.

SHEPHERD:  I'm so sorry about this, Sydney.

SYDNEY:  Oh, man. My father heard that.

SHEPHERD clicks off the T.V.

SHEPHERD:  You gotta tell him to turn a deaf ear.

SYDNEY:  My father doesn't have a deaf ear.  He hears fine out of both. So do I.  So does my sister, so do my friends.  You're the only one who seems to--
SHEPHERD:  Sydney, I can't challenge the school bully to a fight just because he picked on my girlfriend.

SYDNEY:  I'm not asking you to. I can take care of myself. This isn't about me.  How can you keep quiet? How do you have patience for people who claim they love America but clearly can't stand Americans?
 
America has become a predatory society, a shallow culture bereft of a common goodness and that has now been extended to the far corners of this world through any lie they can dream up in DC to justify their despicable, reprehensible behavior and actions.  There are plenty of good people in America but they get drowned out and are outnumbered by the noise and the national sleaze.

The pretense that America is ‘one nation under God’ is so blatantly shallow when lies, killing and maiming to build an empire is their true goal.  Even a blind person can see it, yet many Americans do not.

The other scene that stands out was when they were in the Oval Office and trying to figure out how to barter and negotiate for votes to pass a pet ‘crime control’ bill.  In the process, they would be knifing the girlfriend lobbyist in the back by agreeing to not pursue that if they would approve the lame crime control legislation.

A.J.:  Mr. President, I think we have to do it.

SHEPHERD:  She is one vote away, A.J. It's important legislation that for the first time has a legitimate chance.  I think she deserves every possible opportunity to--

LEWIS:  She?   meant "it," didn't you, sir? You meant the "important legislation" deserves every opportunity.

A.J.:   Lewis, shut up.

There's a horrible silence in the room. SHEPHERD has locked eyes with LEWIS.

SHEPHERD:  You got something to say to me?

LEWIS:Respectfully, sir. I think we should examine the new poll for more than its value as a box score.

SHEPHERD:  Examine what? They don't like that I'm going out with Sydney.

LEWIS:                  It's not that simple, sir. I think this poll helps bring a murky problem into specific relief.

SHEPHERD:  Whose problem we talking about, Lewis? Yours? You worried about your job? This poll isn't talking about my Presidency. This poll is talking about my life. Two hundred and sixty-four million people have decided--

LEWIS:  Mr. President, two hundred and sixty-four million people don't give a damn about your life. They give a damn about their own.

A.J.:  All right, that's enough.

LEWIS:  Mr. President, you've raised a daughter almost entirely on your own, and she's terrific. What does it say to you that in the last seven weeks, 59 percent of this country has begun to question your family values?

A.J.:  The President doesn't answer to you, Lewis.

LEWIS:  Oh yes, he does, A.J.  I'm a citizen, this is my president, and in this country it is not only permissible to question our leaders, it is our responsibility. But you already know that, Mr. President, because you have a deeper love of this country than any man I've ever known, and I want to know what it says to you that in the past seven weeks 59 percent of Americans have begun to question your patriotism?

SHEPHERD:  Look, if people want to listen to Bob Rumson--

LEWIS:  They don't have a choice! Rob Rumson's the only one doing the  talking. People want leadership.  And in the absence of genuine leadership, they will listen to anyone who steps up to the  microphone. They want leadership, Mr. President. They're so thirsty for it, they'll crawl through the desert toward a mirage, and when they discover there's no water, they'll drink the sand.

SHEPHERD (evenly):  Lewis, we've had Presidents who were beloved, who couldn't find a coherent sentence with two hands and a flashlight. People don't drink the sand, 'cause they're thirsty, Lewis.  They drink it 'cause they don't know the difference.
Towards the end of the movie President Shepherd hit the nail in the head by saying how to win an election.  He finally decided to fire back at what had been an endless assault on him just so the Republican would win the upcoming election:

SHEPHERD:  I've known Bob Rumson for years. I've been operating under the assumption that the reason Bob devotes so much time and energy to shouting at the rain was that he simply didn't get it. Well, I was wrong.

SHEPHERD:  (continuing):  Bob's problem isn't that he doesn't get it. Bob's problem is that he can't sell it.   We have serious problems to solve, and we need serious men to solve them. And whatever your particular problem is, friend, I promise you, Bob Rumson is not the least bit interested in solving it. He is interested in two things and two things only: Making you afraid of it and telling you who's to blame for it. That, ladies and gentlemen, is how you win elections.

Those three scenes sum up what is wrong with American and WHY I gave up on America.  There is no American Dream for me or even a good memory of what it has been like to be Karl Schwarz and stand up against the powers-that-be and get crushed while everyone just watched like idling time away viewing a lousy TV show.  Most Americans have mistakenly assumed they could just sit at home waiting on the pizza dude to deliver their salvation to their door step.

That is how America has devolved from the lofty ideal into something that is not worth having anymore.  Most Americans would be stunned to learn the sheer numbers of Americans who have left and have no intentions of ever moving back.  I meet them every day in Europe and elsewhere when I travel on business.

Americans love to pretend to be a patriot after someone else spilled their blood for them and they were merely spectators.  Most Americans never bothered to even join the fight even though the heart and soul of a nation was at stake.  Why bother to stand up with so much they might miss on TV?

While America slept, your freedoms and liberties were stolen.  While citizens chose to argue about things that truly are not political issues or even the business of Washington, DC, the very soul of America was stolen right in front of the eyes and under the nose of every American.

The movie script was right, any idiot that will grab the microphone, get MSM backing is now THE CHOSEN to lead and most of them could not lead a horny man to a whore or hungry wolves to fresh red meat.  We have complete nitwits in power that cannot accurately count their balls or tits three times in a row and come up with the right answer….. TWO.

One has to consider the irony of a Congress full of scumbags, misfits and reprobates taking it upon their selves to purport to be the leaders of the free world and those most worthy to be the head of a global empire.  If a person takes the time to look closely at what low-life people we have serving in Washington DC it is truly laughable that these people deem themselves worthy and ‘better people’ than those who lead other nations.

The last four presidents, George Herbert Walker Bush, sleazy Bill Clinton, Village Idiot George W Bush and now the lunatic Caesar Obama are least qualified to even sit in the Oval Office on a White House tour, much less serve in the capacity as President of the United States.

It is truly preposterous for a scumbag to point the finger at others hoping to deflect attention away from their despicable conduct.  Many of them are not worthy to serve in the cafeteria line of a prison.  For many of them, that is exactly where they should be.

They are no better than some fourth-rate murderous dictator in a third-rate nation believing he is most qualified to lead the world.

It is a delusion of grandeur and power that is truly dumbfounding to watch DC in action.  They truly excel in only three things and they are miserably inept at any of those except in the category of lies.

They excel in lies to hide their true agenda.

Their agenda is self-empowerment and those who pay for their campaigns.  I truly marvel at those blind Sheeple that wait and hope in vain for DC to be leaders, to be more humane, to be more American.  They defile the very spirit of America with every act they do.

They screw up everything they touch.  Just look around you, the evidence is everywhere as to what pathetic leadership looks like.  No honor, no character, no integrity and the evidence is truly everywhere.

Just open your eyes for a change.

By my estimation it will take America at least a generation to regain any part of the integrity they forfeited.  They will fail because they refuse to change.