Well, we were all just about 200,000 miles from being annihilated yesterday by a big rock from space. Next time we may not be so lucky. And that big rock wouldn't have been picky about sparing those with all the money. That's one thing that is the great equalizer, isn't it, after all...death is the great equalizer. You can't take it with you...you can just leave it for some spoiled brats who can't wait till you die to inherit your money. And with that, they go on to do more damage to the world thinking they are so much better than all of the peons who deserve their fate. The "peons" did not inherit anything from their derelict parents or grandparents except maybe lots of love and togetherness. And even though they slave away trying to support their families...perhaps even toiling in the fields..with back braking labor...they don't deserve to exist because they did not inherit fortunes?

The willful brats of the wealthy ruling elite go to ivy league schools and get indoctrinated in the "we-are-better-than-anyone-else" mentality from birth. These are the real troublemakers that will plague the earth...the ones that manipulate us into wars and mass murder. So what is a Vietnamese, or Iraqi, or Afghani, or Pakistani, or Yemeni, or soon to be Iranian life to these highbrow stuff shirts? They are expendable in the struggle for ultimate control and exploitation of other people's natural resources. Other people are made to do without their lives so that Americans don't have to do without the latest faddish gadgets...or oil...or cheaper bananas.

General Smedley Butler knew it and spoke and wrote about it back when he was still alive. He said that he had spent his career, in the military, as a muscleman for racketeers, the corporations.

In his book he said: ""I spent 33 years and four months in active military service and during that period I spent most of my time as a high class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street and the bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism. I helped make Mexico and especially Tampico safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefit of Wall Street. I helped purify Nicaragua for the International Banking House of Brown Brothers in 1902-1912. I brought light to the Dominican Republic for the American sugar interests in 1916. I helped make Honduras right for the American fruit companies in 1903. In China in 1927 I helped see to it that Standard Oil went on its way unmolested. Looking back on it, I might have given Al Capone a few hints. The best he could do was to operate his racket in three districts. I operated on three continents."

And it hasn't stopped since then John Perkins has helped fill in the gaps:

"By participating in persuading third-world nations to borrow more money than they can repay, a process is engaged that leads to the use of debt to gain control of resources. -- According to Perkins, this is the ultimate mechanism whereby the U.S. has attained global hegemony. -- When the "economic hit men" fail, the "jackals" are the next line of defense (or offense): covert action by clandestine agencies, leading to a coup or an assassination. -- The use of the military, as in Iraq, is a last resort. "

http://www.ufppc.org/book-notes-mainmenu-36/1923-interview-john-perkins-...

A perfect match, especially since many in the media are saying there is no discernible message. Wall Street Washington is the problem. They need to be separated so that Washington can protect the people from predatory capitalism and the push to privatize what should always be public.

If tea partiers mean what they say about "crony capitalism," they should be there, too. This should get them to thinking and blow the fog of Foxnosis off their brains. They believe that the cure for the unholy matrimony of business and state is to reduce the state. But that is exactly what the corporate regime wants is an impotent government.

In a kind of Stockholm Syndrome, the tea party captives are in love with their captors. Going back to Machiavelli, there can be no real populism in republicanism.

But I wonder if OWS should resist becoming astroturf for the Democratic Party. Yes, it's a nice fit; but it means they are no longer the 99%. To separate business and state and reconstruct a democracy it will take more than just the progressives.

The tea party is old white folks who were freaked out when the house of cards fell in 2008. OWS is the disenfranchised youth of the planet. It's their future that will come out of this, their hope, and their dream. But it has to become something new, something post-modern, and something that tears down the managed democracy system and replaces it with a realized democracy. We need an amendment to get money out of politics and then, when we the people have real representation, we can hash out the details together with a Congress owned by us.

"Come gather 'round people whereever you roam/ And admit that the waters around you have grown/ Accept it that soon you'll be drenched to the bone/ If your time fo you is worth savin'/ Then you better start swimmin' or you'll sink like a stone/ For the times they are a changin'." -- B.D.

I want to share with you a question that was asked to me at the time President Bush was giving away money as bailout to the big bankers.................
this came from a 7Th grader........."if President Bush is giving away so much money to the banks can't he just give 1Million to all the tax payers and get us all out of this mess?"..........this was in the context of tax filing at the time.
I could not answer the child then and I am asking the same from our leaders now............... can't this be done or won't be done?
I believe that the common American has woken up form their slumber and will vote out anyone who try to hurt us anymore.

Even though the media (most notably, MSNBC) has pointedly defined this as a movement exclusively for "working middle class Americans," the better-off, I am one of those who understand that most of us are a single job loss, a single illness, from losing absolutely everything -- even, thanks to Clinton's welfare "reform" policies, our own children. I stand firmly with all of our post-middle class, and all those who have never had a chance to work their way into the middle class. We CAN afford to keep every poor person from drowning merely by reversing "Reaganomics," pulling our money (yrs of massive tax cuts/handouts) back out of the bank accounts of the richest few, putting it back into an immediate entitlement to poverty relief while rebuilding the middle class jobs that the survival of the US requires. However, since even our progressive media ignores poverty and America's poor in our post-welfare nation, after years of a massive exporting of jobs -- much less even considered that the poor need more than another 30 years of promises of eventual job creation -- I have little expectation of real change.

SYMBOLICALLY PERFECT: OCCUPY DC and OWS.. Big business using their money to make the American government their puppets has been the root of all our problems since reagan..

Quote by Palindromedary:

"I wonder if a bug can fathom the realities that we humans have come to know. And wouldn't humans be like bugs to these technologically advanced beings? If these aliens were so advanced...say thousands of years advanced technologically anyway...and that could just be because they have certain elements on their planet that has allowed them to do things that we cannot..or that they have just existed as a "civilization...whatever that means..." for millions of years longer than we have....or that they never developed imaginary stories like religious beliefs...a belief in an imaginary, all seeing, omnipresent, guilt creating God. We could have been a thousand years more advanced technologically if it weren't for the stupid religious oppression of the dark ages. Mankind let its superstition and ignorant bully boys in the pulpit...like Torquemada..the Popes...and the various cults that followed.... dictate what we should believe in...which was that the earth was only about 6000 years old and man was created by that wicked sociopathic, egomaniacal wizard in the sky. But that imaginary overseer was merely created in the minds of men to use as a control mechanism over others. And people were so stupid as to fall for it...over and over again.

There are many cults and sects with varying ideas that have broken away from the mainstream God cults...and they are really no better than the ancient ones because they are still feeding their imaginary bull to whomever will listen....whomever will fall for their gullible idiocy."

Palindromedary, you are so right about much of what holds man and womankind in the dark ages of yesterday as well as today. Your analogy is excellent. This is why it is so good to finally see the People uniting in a cause which is sensible. But do remember, many of those who have reincarnated upon other more enlightened worlds have at one time or another gone through the same stages of development (not bugs, nor apes) of intellect and societal structure, some utilizing their experiences with wisdom, others with folly unto themselves, as well as those whom they interact with.

Palindromedary, we love your logic and wholesome common sense and whit, and almost laughed our heads off at your words. We are indeed intellectual midgets compared to our brothers and sisters "in the skies" whom come to us from other planets at the peril of their own lives from threats by the 1% who hate the idea that these benefactors from other worlds should perhaps positively influence their "relatives" on earth by trying to teach them the common sense of collaborating with one another in a friendly atmosphere of love and good-will towards all people.

And after all is said and done, this in reality has become engrained in our own thinking as we look upon the many troubles people are creating among themselves. We speak therefore of oneness and unity, so we become more empowered to effect a change for the better upon this sorely stricken planet.

At one time humans on earth had all the technological knowledge neccessary for intergalactic space travel, and that was 1000's of years ago. Then religion came, usurping the consciences of people for mere control's sake, and that was the end of mankind's spirit for a full and complete intellectual expression. The money trick took them down even further.

With false religious concepts came wicked philosophies calling for the exploitation of the many for the benefit of the few, and I think in that manner, mankind, as we know it today, became lost in their own ignorance - not even knowing any more how to get out of it, nor what caused it.

By posting here we wish to assist the people in a comeback of their once held state of intelligence and knowledge, which of course includes the recreation of a world without money. It is only under those favourable social and economic conditions of complete liberty the mind of man and woman is able to evolve and become liberated sufficiently to rediscover the secrets of free-energy devices or the secrets of intergalactic travel.

But UNTIL the progress of humankind on this planet takes place in the higher moral, ethical, economic and societal structure, displayed one to the other in wisdom, fairness and justice, there can be no space travel even if the technological means is there.

Why is this? Simply because there are other worlds (not all, some even worse than here) which have cultivated themselves in a distinct appreciation of belonging to the Oneness of the whole of the creation within their particular galaxy and Universe, and these worlds will never be allowed to be invaded by the 1% of this particular planet earth. - Cygnus1

Exploiting the dead.

"Hsu" is pronounced /shoo/, or probably more like /shyoo/. It's modern (i.e. Pinyin) spelling would be "Xu".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinyin#Initials_and_finals

DIVORCE AGREEMENT Dear American liberals, leftists, social progressives, socialists, Marxists and Obama supporters, et al: We have stuck together since the late 1950's for the sake of the kids, but the whole of this latest election process has made me realize that I want a divorce. I know we tolerated each other for many years for the sake of future generations, but sadly, this relationship has clearly run its course. Our two ideological sides of America cannot and will not ever agree on what is right for us all, so let's just end it on friendly terms. We can smile and chalk it up to irreconcilable differences and go our own way. Here is a model separation agreement: --Our two groups can equitably divide up the country by landmass each taking a similar portion. That will be The most difficult part, but I am sure our two sides can come to a friendly agreement. After that, it should be relatively easy! Our respective representatives can effortlessly divide other assets since both sides have such distinct and disparate tastes. --We don't like redistributive taxes so you can keep them. --You are welcome to the liberal judges and the ACLU.--Since you hate guns and war, we'll take our firearms, the cops, the NRA and the military. --We'll take the nasty, smelly oil industry and you can go with wind, solar and biodiesel. --You can keep Oprah, Michael Moore and Rosie O'Donnell. You are, however, responsible for finding a bio-diesel vehicle big enough to move all three of them. --We'll keep capitalism, greedy corporations, pharmaceutical companies, Wal-Mart and Wall Street. --You can have your beloved lifelong welfare dwellers, food stamps, homeless, homeboys, hippies, druggies and illegal aliens. --We'll keep the hot Alaskan hockey moms, greedy CEO's and rednecks. --We'll keep the Bibles and give you NBC and Hollywood --You can make nice with Iran and Palestine and we'll retain the right to invade and hammer places that threaten us. --You can have the peaceniks and war protesters. When our allies or our way of life are under assault, we'll help provide them security. --We'll keep our Judeo-Christian values. --You are welcome to Islam, Scientology, Humanism, political correctness and Shirley McClain. You can also have the U.N. but we will no longer be paying the bill. --We'll keep the SUV's, pickup trucks and oversized luxury cars. You can take every Volt and Leaf you can find. --You can give everyone healthcare if you can find any practicing doctors. --We'll continue to believe healthcare is a luxury and not a right. --We'll keep "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" and "The National Anthem." --I'm sure you'll be happy to substitute "Imagine", "I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing", "Kum Ba Ya" or "We Are the World". --We'll practice trickle down economics and you can continue to give trickle up poverty your best shot. --Since it often so offends you, we'll keep our history, our name and our flag. Good for starters.

Well said.

Issue 3 in Ohio was a sleeper - there was almost no campaigning on it and literally half of the voters didn't know anyting about it. The ballot language made it sound like it was intended to increase the availability of healthcare insurance. It's passage means nothing.

Thom,

I am still looking forward to someone in politics today or even a person with the wealth of Warren Buffet who can shock our nation out of its ambiviant behavior that describes our political environment. We all know the issues, global warming, sustainable energy vs. fossil fuels, corporate profits vs. society stakeholder ship, inequality of capital, debt and deficits, education and infrastructure spending. The malaize that the Reagan Revolution caused that halted the New Deal/Great Society Generation in it's tracks and polarized the two major political parties took 30 to 40 years to impregnate our culture. Special interest, unregulated political funding and the media hype of today turns our center off; only the core of each party seem engaged and they just say no to any compromises, speak blindly into the camera's of the status quo and continuously undermined their patriotic, social and political obligations to our countries future generations.

We need to awaken the center, we need to turn that ambiviant behavior not only into social action but we must set our agenda and goals to correct the course of meandering from our self greed and selfishness of these past four decades and direct it to how we can mobilize our new partners in the center to join us. The 99% set the alarm clock of action but with winter setting in we need to avoid the snooze button and create a functional action plan.

I would prefer to have use of the Democratic Party minus the Blue Democrats as a part of that caucus become that leadership but, we need Obama to think outside the box and actually create the coalition of 60+ Dems and 39- Rep in the Senate with 260+ D in the House to be able to work through the next 12-16 years to turn back towards prosperity as a nation and a people.

I was born in 1957, when I was a kid I did not understand the social issues of Civil Rights, Medicare and the functions needed to protect our country from our capitalist form of economy and the need for regulation. But now I see we need specifically directed regulation to protect banking from imploding, from the continuous use of fossil fuels with a energy tax to enable the next generation of solar, wind and thermal sustainable energy resources.

How do we bring the center to this awakening? How do we create an atmosphere of collaboration within our political system? I find it very ironic that we won the Cold War only to self destruct with self interest, greed, and anger turned inwards. Our attitudes towards immigration, hate towards our government and the paranoid small minority of 18th century socially handicapped when it comes to protecting a women’s right to choose, gay marriage and our new Jim Crow Laws to disenfranchise a faction of our citizens from being able to vote.

Who will become the Koch Brother's equivalent in power brokering a social and political ground game to save ourselves from self destruction? I'm looking, listening and ready to go to work.

JND