President Carter proclaims U.S. an oligarchy, and Colonel Laurence Wilkerson says it's a perpetual war machine for defense contractors, weapons manufacturers, and power hungry politicians. In this eye-opening, witty, painfully honest, Socrates-like hard look in the mirror, Darrell Cass reeducates those 99% of Americans and the world that have been bullied, brainwashed, kidnapped, and beaten into delusional submission by master sorcerers. You will laugh, cry, and be ashamed as he illuminates the ingenious ways our self-serving elite have percolated their morals, values, and ethics down throughout society. One that was willingly hypnotized, brainwashed, and duped into playing its role in this play for modern day privateers through a comprehensive list of cancerous infections we've all spread throughout every segment of society for their benefit. This brutal confession points out it takes "two to tango" and exposes our seedily choreographed social demise started by Wall Street, politicians, and Super Pac's in the 1980's with just a few selfish, corrupt, moral-less, narcissist on board. But by 2000, when the train pulled out of the station, it was packed full of ordinary Americans under their spell. You will quickly realize, for the last 35 years we've been nothing more than a highway for political ambitions, an extremist punching bag they beat to a pulp, and a puppet they played like a violin for their amusement. Who caused America's social degradation and empowers the billionaires, politicians, and banking establishments that are more dangerous than standing armies? Who's really responsible for our misguided, irrational, self-absorbed, materialistic, often violent and cruel society and how did it happen? Who helped push the self-destruct button? Now, the question is: Can we restore our admirable society, or is it too late to sink their moral-less mighty fleet and pull the country back out of "Davy Jones's locker?" It's almost as if Darrell Cass climbed into a time machine to take a look at America's immediate future, and found it frightening. Such is the feel from reading A Look in the Mirror, which is the most contemporary book on modern America precisely because it nailed many of the nation's political undercurrents, manipulations, and trends even before the November 8th, 2016 election. Several chapters include the latest damning evidence about Trump's special interests and the ironies involved in the fact that a man connected with federal fraud, money laundering, and billions in failed debt could rise in the system to become President: "As a reward, he is now president and we have the first "foreign born" First Lady." - Diane Donovan, Midwest Book Review A debut political polemic bemoans the downfall of the United States. Many in the commentariat have heaped blame on the 1 percent, who rig the system from their positions of power in Washington and on Wall Street, but the country's problems go deeper than that. In his introduction, Cass writes, Wall Street's greed is echoed in the unquestioning consumerism of average Americans, and the average person on Main Street is collaborating in the destruction of all that made the nation good. - Kirkus Reviews