We just went though a whole big episode where 17% of federal government workers went on a paid vacation. For several weeks, our wonderful 24 hr. news media cried that the world was coming to an end.We heard the following so many times that our ears almost started to bleed:

• Our democracy is dysfunctional.
• Our government has been hijacked by right-wing extremists.
• Republicans have rigged the rules.
• The shutdown was a Coup D'Etat.

...and so on.I find it interesting, that the very same media will propagandize to the American public that the U.S. is "spreading democracy around the world." We're spreading our "goodness" through wars and military force.What must the invaded foreign populations think when they see this dichotomy?On the one hand, they can surely see that democracy itself is dysfunctional. Obviously, it produced the biggest government on Earth. That's dysfunction.Yet, on the other hand, the invaded foreigners look up into the sky and find these things coming at them:

 Why are the fighter jets flying overhead?Well, to bring them democracy, of course!And what happens afterwards? The foreign countries are thankful right? They received democracy by being bombed into smithereens. Who could possibly not like that?Right?Right?Hello?Is this thing on?