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The eve of destruction -- that's where I think we are, just as it said in that old Barry McGuire song from the 1960s.
Obviously the Republicans (and let us not forget their nine Democrat allies) intend to keep the government shut down and use the debt ceiling to crash the treasury like a bad bank by forcing it into international default.
Just as obvious, particularly because this crisis has been on the horizon since 2011, is the fact the president and his advisors are either too incompetent -- or too cleverly part of the conspiracy -- to have developed any effective countermeasures.
The only question is how bad things will get. Will the military, which is now a subset of the Republican Party and its JesuNazi fringe, stage a coup? Will the generals declare the U.S. a Christian theocracy and order their troops to begin the methodical extermination of all unbelievers? Will the generals then turn national governance over to a committee of corporate executives? (I had a terrifying nightmare recently in which all those things happened.)
Or will the country merely fall apart, dividing itself into maybe five separate republics, with the few humanitarian-minded realms -- New York City, the New England states, California from San Francisco north, Oregon, parts of Western Washington, parts of Alaska, all the First Nations reservations -- trying to muddle through as best they can?
Assuming Congress and the president hurl the nation into default -- and I am increasingly convinced that is their intent -- we can assume at the very least that life as we knew it is forever finished, and that -- unless we are part of the One Percent and its Ruling Class -- we will all soon be living the infinitely miserable lives of refugees and serfs. Social Security checks, Medicare, Medicaid, food stamps, all those programs will end. Many of us, myself included, will soon die, whether from starvation or by deprivation of medical care -- which is precisely what the One Percent intends.
If default happens, what was last week a relatively peaceful nation will next week be the largest Darwinian zoo on Planet Earth, as one thing the moral imbeciles of Moron Nation's moronic majority are congenitally incapable of doing is working cooperatively for mutual well-being.
If there is no default, you can be sure the carefully scripted so-called "bargain" that avoids it will include calculatedly murderous cuts to Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and all other socioeconomic programs. Indeed it may be this entire succession of crises -- the sequester, now the debt ceiling -- is merely a Machiavellian charade staged by the One Party of Two Names to impose maximum austerity on a population too stupid to resist.
Either way, default or not, think of it as "cleansing" -- socioeconomic rather than ethnic -- but every bit as deliberately genocidal as the Holocaust itself.
As Sir Winston Churchill said on the eve of the Battle of Britian, "only a miracle can save us now."
There was a book written about an intentional effort to “sabotage” the government as inept in order to create an atmosphere of dissatisfaction within the population in order to facilitate efforts to privatize government functions. Is there a possibility that the sequester, the shut-down, etc. are being driven by similar intentions? In reality, how does one shrink the government to fit in a bathtub? Could it be that the underlying intention involves taking the citizens of the U.S. to new heights of distrust in government so that privatization becomes a walk in the park? If this were the case, then specific outcomes (i.e. destruction of the economy) really are just icing on the cake.
Someone once said “a tree is known by its fruit”. The fruit I see is rapidly increasing frustration and dissatisfaction with government in general. I also see parts of the “shut down” federal government being picked up by states (and private money), i.e. parks. Didn’t someone try to sell off the National Parks about 15 to 20 years ago (bio-something or another). Do you think there might be some wealth ready to take over the National Parks? I just saw a news program about how the private prisons are being paid by beds (whether or not filled). I wonder if the private prison contracts are affected by the “shut down” as well as other payments to private contractors fulfilling the work of the government.
I read a book about the war in Iraq that pointed out that instead of the war being a failed endeavor, it achieved near perfect results. The results being: the destabilization of the Middle East in order to frustrate a “Caliphate” from forming that would block access to oil. It occurs to me that the current federal government activities are equally successful if one wants to privatize and shrink the federal government.
Not certain how to vote on this one. It looks like the Koch Bros. have created their own Frankenstein party, that's even out of their control. At the same time the less extreme members of the GOP are leaving the party in droves to the point that even redrawing voting districts may not help them. Could be a landslide for Democrats in the next couple of elections, due to switching parties and/or lack of GOP turnout. Let's hope they make the most of it and make some wise reforms.
Loren Bliss ~ Well said! I hope you are wrong. I wish I could disagree, but I had a minor "procedure" performed this morning and the anesthesia is still clouding my thoughts. On the way home from the hospital I vaguely remember seeing two gentlemen on the opposing corners of one busy intersection with banners around their necks that said something on the order of, "Now is the time to pray! May God save America!" The banners had red, white and blue trim on them. I was too groggy at the time to make much of it; but, now after hearing you Loren, I think they probably had the same nightmare.
Too hard to think right now. Therefore, I'm just going to respectfully bow out of this one and hit the sack early. Good night, everyone. Thanks for the contribution, Loren! Have a great day; and, may God help us all.
Forgive me Bob Hearns, for at least twice I have misspelled your name.
I agree Bob Hearn it is not philosophy. perhaps my writing style missed conveying the point or perhaps I have missed the point. Most, not all of my little essay was meant to be an illustration of how thought would pervert the actual intent of our dialog. How thought might diminish the content. Also how thought might percieve our momentary dependance on a precious resourse and therefor create resentment about that dependance. I simply wish to point out we are addicted to abuseing a precious resourse essential to moving forward and worse we seem as a culture to be addicted to abusing everything of plenty, including each other. Yes it is about thought. Pointing at here and now in every possible way is transendence.
Like you I'm not attached to moving forward but I am about it, maybe were at the "horse" of course. we are most certainly past the "bird" to use your metaphor. No doubt any constructive project addressing climate change deserves expediancy. It is hard to imagine (there goes that thought thing again) a solution that does not require large quantitys of fossil fuel to implement, no resentment about what is. I must confess relative complacency on my part while also recognizing I'm here. I hope as the details of the project you speak become clear, awareness becomes universal as you know if it involves freedom from psycological thought, I'm already about universal awareness. Thank you for continuing to challenge.
John The Union Carpenter ~ You said it, and you said it well. We would do wonders to pattern our society after the Gemeinschaft American Indian model. We would also do well with American Indian elders in charge as well.
It is amazing how our history about Columbus, Native Americans, Pilgrims, and the founding of the country has been warped in our school history books. Here is an informative and humorous recount of real history and how truly noble the Native American nation was prior to European incursion. It also tells how the Vikings discovered America far before the Europeans did and how the Native Americans made quick work of them far before their society was devastated by a plague. Interesting reading:
6 Ridiculous Lies You Believe About The Founding Of America
http://www.cracked.com/article_19864_6-ridiculous-lies-you-believe-about-founding-america.html
I'm thrilled to say I called in today and I'm Proud to be a member. I feel that I need to apologize for talking more than listening. My topic was the Redskins and I was very nervous and wanted to keep it short. I truely feel that there are much better Italians to name a Holiday for and have Parades for than Columbus. There has been many immigrants that have been wronged in America's short history. There has been lots of attention given to slavery and it caused a Civil War! Mexico once owned the western half of the US and Evil men took it from them and I'm certain it burns in their hearts and we owe them too! Japenese Americans were put into internment camps during WWII, but NONE compare to the Crimes perpatrated on the Indigenous Tribes of America!!! They Still live on Reservations and suffer from health issues caused by Poverty and Abuse! As I write this they are Prisoners of Capitalism and NOT FREE!!! The government is poisoning their water, feeding them GMO food and poisoning them with Drugs and Alcohol and it NEEDS TO STOP!!! Our history books described them as savages, but WE were the Savages! They are a Dignified and Honorable People, they have Elders(real leaders) and honor family. They Worship Nature, Land, Water, Air, Sun and Moon and we call them savages, We're Savages, squandering resourses and chasing Money! American Indians NEVER wasted anything, they grew crops, they killed to eat and cooked the meat, made cloths from pelts and tools from bone, made medicine from plants and prayed for them all!!! They TRUELY HONORED their dead and I have NOTHING BUT REVERENCE FOR THEIR RIGHTEOUS CULTURE!!! We should model our culture after their's and I wish they would run for Congress and FIX this Disaster of a government! It's Their Country, WE SHOULD LET THEM RUN IT, then we would have REAL LEADERS that are Brave and Honorable!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
This whole obscene republican caused mess might end up like a South Korean chamber several years ago when all hell broke loose and the house members were hitting each other with chairs. It was total chaos.
Eric Cantor should not have this power. It is not right. It is like he is a dictator. What about checks and balances? I am horrified and the whole thing, the whole mess. It has affected our family business in a bad way. People don't buy things or order things when the government is doing things like this. These clowns are going to be voted out. I sure hope. Often, though, the replacement person voted in gets a King Complex and becomes just like the others he replaced.
Tealiban.
New Word. TEALIBAN. N. Member of a US based terrorist organization. Originally started by the KOCH Brothers as a offshoot of the Republican Party, but since has gone out of control. Tealiban members have taken a secret vow to destroy America by dismantling its economic and social systems and structures.
Forgive me for my language but I am so angry I could chew nails and spit horseshoes. Eric Cantor is a litlle dictator who has set himself up to destroy the world.
That f**king asshole Cantor changed the rules of the House the night before the government shutdown on October 1. He is the only one who can allow a vote to resume government operations. He fixed it so that Boehner is helpless. No wonder Boehner hasn't taken a vote to allow the government to resume work. This filthy prick needs to be stopped. Boehner needs to get some balls and tell this little bastard to STFU.
How can one f**king piece of shit be allowed to destroy the economy of the entire planet?
This is the same prick who went to Israel in 2009 and told the leaders to ignore President Obama. He is a f**king traitor and his appointing himself dictator is the last straw. He must be arrested and charged with treason, found guilty and shot by firing squad in front of the Capitol.
Why can't Boner or even the President order them to vote to open the government? Can't the President issue an executive order? Chimp issued hundreds of them. One f**king Nazi should not be allowed to take down the economy of the entire planet. Is he getting even for the Holocaust or does he just detest black people and Americans because we did not take in the Jews from Europe during WWII?
All the Riechwing wants is to CUT programs that help the Working Class! We have been cut enough!!! It is time to increase Revenue by Taxing those who have been plundering our nation!
SINCE the TEAbaggers are astro turf and foot soldiers for the Billionaires..............who created them so the GOP would regain the HOUSE and make sure that BUSH TAX cut would be extended................it proves that they are just moved by HATRED and as someone said
HATRED is the NOST POTENT FORCE in AMERICAN POLITICS.............something CRUZ knows well because he has been using Hatred of OBAMA and ACA to make these CRAZIES Rally and VOTE for the worst political party ever.
NOW COMPARE the OCCUPY movement ......those who had NO BILLIONAIRE Backing but were TRULY GRASSROOTS.
COMPARE how the MEDIA treated OWS and these stupid Teabaggers and you will see that MEDIA never ALLOWS LEFT WING to WIN...............
I believe the name for the Tea Party should really be the Pee Party as that is what they seem to be doing to us all.
I think most of our legislators are far more concerned with pleasing those who provide campaign funds than with us ordinary folks.
I ran across a discussion today which was arguing the merits of GMO labeling. One argument against labeling was that we should not label children produced by genetic modification of their genome. I personally would be in favor of such labeling if the children were being produced for consumption. (Tip of the hat to J. Swift)
The debt limit law is unconstitutional.
http://verdict.justia.com/2011/07/11/the-debt-ceiling-law-is-unconstitutional
http://www.columbialawreview.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/Buchanan-Dorf.pdf
http://cryptome.org/2013/10/lbsn-hack.pdf
dialindicator, so I woke up this morning, turned on the computer and checked to see if you had written anything more. You hadn't and subsequently, I thought 'what's next? I urge to keep moving forward.'. You wrote first, much of it is what I would have said.
I have been talking for years about the wonder plant 'hemp' (DAnneMarc, I agree that it is) and the many benefits we have lost over the years, but would regain IF WE ONLY STARTED PLANTING IT IN GREAT QUANTITIES.
A word I would not have used is 'philosophy'. I would have used 'facts'. The definition of philosophy includes the terms - intellectual, systems, analysis, ideas, and beliefs - none of which were part of what I was writing. What I wrote was fact for me. When the wolf that is psychological thought is not fed, when psychological thought is not active, is quiet, is dead then the other wolf, compassion, 'is'. It does not have to be fed. It just is. Compassion and all that surrounds it 'is'. Actions then stem from that.
Resentment? no resentment, it just is.
One of the meanings about being Bob Hearns is to move this forward. A crisis demands action. If you are familiar with the song 'I know an old lady who swallowed a fly', I think we may be at the goat, or worse, the cow!
I am aware of a project that moves this forward and am in the early stages of becoming actively involved.
I believe that much of what is now going on in government..ie: the shutdown...is a wag-the-dog ploy to detract from the highly illegal and immoral gestapo practice of spying on everyone in addition to the move to defund the social programs. In addition, they have been assassinating people, even children, on the streets and in their homes...killing thousands of innocent people along with their assassination targets.
So if the government is setting an example...then perhaps they may be influencing a number of people to follow in their footsteps. Could there be citizens inspired to use the same kind of assassination tactics that "our" government uses....even using drones? Drones are not terribly complicated to build in a garage. They wouldn't necessarily be as high tech, or reusable, as "our" government's weapons. But, wouldn't it be just as ethical (or non ethical) as what our government is doing around the world?
Here's an article that has been removed from it's original web site but saved and displayed for all to read on the cryptome.org web site: "Assassination Politics" by Jim Bell
http://cryptome.org/ap.htm
And here is a blog where they discuss "Assassination Politics". And, of course, it is not just about how to handle corrupt politicians but corrupt ruling elite as well. I don't subscribe to these things, of course, but it may be something that would do well to sit in the minds of these overly greedy kochroaches.
http://cryptome.org/2013/10/ap-ycombinator-13-1014-0944.htm
So, Bob Hearn and Dialindicator became anonymous friends, exchanged some philosophy and concluded on the problem. So what, Now what? Whats next? Say,s the mind. I need some content here. Are Bob and Dial going to die in a global warming caused flooding tornadic hurricane caused by burning ickkky.goouee, evil black gue. Will they be thoughtless,and comppassionate, free of self pity as they are swept away?
I wish Bob and Myself a long and plentiful life but yes maybe those things will happen. Here in this universe the laws of physics aren't denied, as far as I know. But as Bob so appropriately allowed us to point out. The problem is not about the laws of physics. The problem is about us.
It starts with the mind set, the idea, the thought. Ickkky, goouee, evil black greeeed infested gue. It moves on. Open pits, dead clear cut forest, lakes of toxic water, The Exxon Valdez, ickkky evil black gue spewing into the Gulf of Mexico, transcontinetal pipelines, fracking, the Koch brothers. I could go on all day but thats a good place to stop!
Yes the problem. Thought! Theres no question we need it (fossil fuel). Thought say's, I cant live without this thing that I,m running out of that I fought for that is killing me. Maybe I won't run out. I think I'll find a scientist who say's it good for me. I'll get a hybrid---If only everyone would get a hybrid. If I don't use it up first Maybe I can use some of it to fly the hemp seed to the tractor. No offense DeAnnemarc. Hemp is a god idea.(decideded to leave that missed key while spelling the word good)
So resentment! How could we not resent such a thing? How could we be greatful, how-ever could we honer it? I would say by not abuseing it. By teaching our children to not abuse it. By giving it the presence it deserves. And take it farther. Give that presence, that honor to every thing we take for granted. To recieve presence from what is, you must give presence to what is. We all do this with something,we know it to be true. Aliceinwonderland most certainly does it with her music, I see it in the photo. We can only solve the problem in the present. This is the wolf we must feed!
Today I will fill up my tank and somewhere deep down I will realize every single little thing it took to get that energy all the way to me!
Thank you for sharing that, Drob! Seems that a shutdown is now locked in? I always look to the two parties of big business working together to help the kleptocrats - that's how I interprete US democracy at the moment, i.e. that rule change is to prevent any ordinary lawmakers with an ounce of decency from trying to derail the crazy shutdown plan. Hope my conspiracy theory is wrong!
Palin, I've had it that bad. Four to six bogus calls per day is pretty standard for me. If you are a self-employed business owner, they're like horse flies; they'll badger you half to death. Those automatic dialers are especially crazy-making, because all I hear on the message machine afterwards is this little clicking noise that repeats maybe a few times before it dies. Thank goodness I can mute the ring, because without having to hear the ring or my greeting, it's a lot less bothersome & disruptive.
Frustrates me to the brink of a meltdown at times, having my space bombarded nonstop like this. Besides all these unwanted phone calls, there's the dozens & dozens of e-mail messages that keep pouring in each day; most of it impersonal, from all these organizations and so on... Then there's that big-ass pile of junk mail from our mailbox I'm having to sort through, several times a week, and dispose of... all too friggin' MUCH. Gets kinda suffocating, past a certain point... Know what I mean?
Do any of you ever crave a quieter, simpler life? - Alice I.W.
Marc, you don't have to sell me on hemp 'cause I'm a believer. It's the most versatile plant known to humans, with literally dozens of uses. Cannabis, in all its forms, is our gift from Mother Nature! It's mind blowing to contemplate how many centuries - if not millenia - hemp products were a normal part of everyday life... right up until nearly eighty years ago, when this ridiculous corporate-sponsored prohibition first asserted itself. After all, it's so much harder to monopolize something like hemp than, say, fossil fuel... Tut, tut. - AIW