Image by Adam Jones via Flickr
by Joel S. Hirschhorn
Writer, Dandelion Salad
www.foavc.org
September 11, 2016
For some years I have used the term “delusional democracy” to describe the condition of the US. It seemed obvious to me that the vast majority of Americans have deliberately chosen to fool themselves. They have been brainwashed to believe what no longer is true. Become convinced that you do not live in a true and terrific democracy, or that your democracy is the best in the world.
Image by KAZ Vorpal via Flickr
by Joel S. Hirschhorn
Writer, Dandelion Salad
www.foavc.org
Sept. 2, 2015
I keep imagining the White House with a big, really big neon sign TRUMP across the top of the roof.
by Joel S. Hirschhorn
Writer, Dandelion Salad
www.foavc.org
April 24, 2014
Image by P.T. Manolakos via Flickr
History has been made. But few Americans are aware of it or angry about it. I say: Wake up Americans. A war has been waged against US democracy, from the inside. Time to pick a side and fight back.
If you are not totally brain dead, distracted by pain or pleasure, or consumed by narcissistic obsessions, face the ugly, painful truth. Continue reading
by Joel S. Hirschhorn
Writer, Dandelion Salad
www.foavc.org
March 13, 2014
Image by Muffet via Flickr
Tuck away the many horror stories of the wrong limbs being amputated, things being left in surgery patients, terrible infections picked up in hospitals and totally wrong diagnoses. More relevant is a bureaucratic hospitalization horror that far too few Americans covered by Medicare are aware of.
by Joel S. Hirschhorn
Writer, Dandelion Salad
www.foavc.org
December 18, 2013
Earlier this year I had the great pleasure to visit South Africa. Compared to most Americans, the passing of Nelson Mandela brought tears to my eyes many times as I recalled being in many of the places being shown on countless news shows.
by Joel S. Hirschhorn
Writer, Dandelion Salad
www.foavc.org
September 26, 2013
Recently, Jonathan Cymberknopf wrote a very upbeat article where he makes it sound like third party presidential candidates in 2012 achieved remarkable, even historic, success. He provides considerable data on how a number of third party candidates did better in 2012 than in the previous presidential election. For many years I strongly advocated third party options and even was a state chairperson for a major third party. Continue reading
by Joel S. Hirschhorn
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
www.foavc.org
January 5, 2013
Image by Susan NYC via Flickr
Everywhere I look outside my home I see people busy on their high tech devices, while driving, while walking, while shopping, while in groups of friends, while in restaurants, while waiting in doctor offices and hospitals, while sitting in toilets – everywhere. While connected electronically, they are inattentive to and disconnected in physical reality.
People have been steadily manipulated to become technology addicted. Technology is the opiate of the masses.
by Joel S. Hirschhorn
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
www.foavc.org
September 21, 2012
Image by Tobyotter via Flickr
For politicians to do what is right, first citizens must do what is right.
Of all the many, many stupid things that most Americans do, nothing is more insane than the ritual every two years of reelecting incumbent members of Congress. Countless opinion polls find that the public has incredibly low levels of positive regard for Congress. Just one in 10 Americans approves of the job Congress is doing, according to a Gallup poll released a few weeks ago, tying the branch’s lowest approval rating in 38 years.
by Joel S. Hirschhorn
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
www.foavc.org
September 21, 2012
Here we go again. Millions of Americans will soon vote for either the Republican or Democratic presidential candidate not because they deeply believe that he is absolutely the best possible president the country needs and can have. No, they will know that they are compromising and choosing the lesser of two evils, mainly because most people know that both major parties and their candidates stink. The lesser evil is still a loser.
by Joel S. Hirschhorn
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
www.foavc.org
April 6, 2012
Believing in the classic American Dream that hard work will deliver prosperity is like believing that buying super lottery tickets is a smart way to become wealthy. Both are delusional beliefs because both are bets on incredible long shots that will disappoint nearly everyone who believes this garbage. The American Dream has been destroyed by a revolution from the top.
by Joel S. Hirschhorn
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
www.foavc.org
March 2, 2012
Among Americans there remains strong pride about the US Constitution, even though there is widespread support for creating reform amendments to it. Globally, however, what should surprise Americans is a significant loss of respect for it. Other nations, especially those creating new democracies, see better constitutions elsewhere. This is not opinion. It is fact. And it is important to understand this historic shift.
by Joel S. Hirschhorn
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
www.foavc.org
Jan. 31, 2012
Why am I so sick of all the media attention to the Republican presidential primaries and all the blabbering about President Obama’s advantages and disadvantages for the coming election? I just cannot get excited. My answer may also be yours: No matter who wins, our nation loses.
by Joel S. Hirschhorn
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
www.foavc.org
Nov. 30, 2011
There is a growing convergence of thinking about where the US Occupy movement should go as a next step to turning its values, concerns and commitments into changing what most Americans see as broken government under control of corporate interests. When it comes to political and social movements, history shows us that they usually fail not because they disappear, but rather because they become marginalized, unimportant despite a core group of committed people and groups.
by Joel S. Hirschhorn
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
www.foavc.org
Nov. 6, 2011
When Americans who are the most victimized by our cruel economy still believe in something that is demonstrably no longer true, they are deeply delusional. They desperately want to believe in something once great about American society. The reality is that upward economic mobility has been destroyed, replaced by widely observable downward mobility. Some of the mostly younger jobless that have embraced the Occupy Wall Street and related Occupy efforts know the truth.
by Joel S. Hirschhorn
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
www.foavc.org
October 25, 2011
Feeling angry about being betrayed by a corrupt government owned by rich and corporate elites has driven the Occupy Wall Street movement. Emphasizing how the top one percent has prospered incredibly while the bottom 99 percent have been screwed royally is supported by countless data. New data show this is a global phenomenon and that even in the worst of economic times the wealthiest make out like the bandits they are, and there are a lot more of them than one percent.
Dandelion Salad 