I am overwhelmed with grief. I feel the USA is dying ...

[NVMojo]

the shit is piled so high, this country and it's greatness is suffocating ...I cried when Kerry lost the election but this is worse ...there seems to be no hope in sight. Tell me if I am wrong. America is dying.

[feelthebreeze]

1. You feel overwhelmed because there is so much coming out now.

The lid is finally blowing. I know it does seem overwhelming, but worse is when none of this was coming out. The secrets and lies are being bared and it makes me want to fight harder. Now is not the time to give in. Now in this slowly growing light, we must push on and push hard. This country will survive because of people like you and I. Believe it. Enjoy these moments to tell your grandkids about. Look back and feel pride for your courage in the storm. You are right, and you have the right. You are saving this dream, you are the patriot that our forefathers are talking to in the Declaration of Independence.

[Gregorian]

5. This ^^

You have spoken in such a way that I can only say how beautiful it is. Those are the words of bravery. Of pride. And truth.

[driver8]

11. You are right -- I used to feel overwhelmed as well. One of the

reasons was because these m-fers were getting away with everything. The truth is starting to come out and they are sweating it. I am starting to feel better about things.

I still worry about the future of our country, but it doesn't affect me like it once did.

[FreedomAngel82]

29. I still do a good bit

I wonder will people fall for the bullshit or will we get our country back? The more pissed off I get the more I want to do something.

[Peace Patriot]

23. Well said, feelthebreeze! I feel that way, too. I strongly believe in

the people of this country, and I believe that our democratic ideals are deeply rooted here. The good people in this country--by far the majority--who love peace and justice--will prevail. Got to get practical, though--and address ourselves to the mechanism of our sovereignty as a people: our right to vote, which the fascists have effectively taken away. We MUST get it back. Priority no. 1.

Throw Diebold and ES&S election theft machines into 'Boston Harbor'! (my rallying cry!)

[feelthebreeze]

25. I am right there with you Peace Patriot...

Just fired off a letter to the New York State board of elections demanding open source code on these DRE's. It is stunning to me, what with Washington, New Mexico, the lawsuits in North Carolina, that they can continue to give these manufacturers a chance, with a straight face nonetheless. Oh, well... for another place at DU. Keep on keepin' on.

[AnotherMother4Peace]

24. Maybe it is the exposure of all the corruption & treason

that is causing this hopeless, suffocating feeling. And maybe the light of day will help change things. But when I hear Katey Couric (Today Show) refer to Gore's speech as left over campaign talk, I get angry and distressed. I feel that we've lost the media to the bad guys. It seems like the media, which is supposed to "keep 'um honest" is complicit in the corruption.

Feelthebreeze, I do appreciate & feel more hopeful after reading your words. Yes, we do need to fight harder. And I'm so glad you feel our country will survive. I guess I do too. I will continue to fight the good fight, 'cause I'm not going down quietly.

[NVMojo]

46. thanks, this is what I needed to hear and I know you are right.

So much is coming out now and at such a high speed ...it's frightening. The level of unethical and selfish behavior is hard to bear when one focuses on it. I'll work on my attitude. Thank you, feelthebreeze.

[myrna minx]

61. Oh my god feelthebreeze.

:hug: Your beautiful and wise eloquence was just what I needed today. Thank you. :hug:

[Hidden Stillness]

2. This is a Terrible Era, but We Will Survive It and Regain Our Selves

I have only optimism; we will get through this, as we have gotten through every other threat. This is no worse than what the great Franklin Roosevelt's Administration had to face, with a complete economic Depression and then, before it was even over, a World War. The tide has turned; people are angry, and it is fitting that it began with issues relating to that generation--Social Security and the "Medicare" prescription disaster. Other societies have had their crises, and this now is ours. I only hope the world will understand that we were not all Bush, and that we eventually kicked the neo-con bastards out. We will be the great, and good, America again. We as a whole have not changed.

[MN ChimpH8R]

16. I have my doubts, HS

There has never been a time like this in American history. One cadre controls all the levers of power, government, the media, and the mechanism which counts the votes. This has never happened before. The hypnotized consumer unit sheeple think that freedom is having 37 kinds of Pepsi, Coke or sneakers and that liberty is being able to "vote" for your "choice" on a sub-moronic distraction like American Idol.

The greater part of the populace must be kept narcotized by the corporate media so that they remain fungible, unquestioning consumption units. Functional literacy is at an all time low. The level of public discourse would have to be elevated miles to reach the level of a pool of zoo excrement. Religious insanity goes unrebutted and unchallenged and rages on into evermore spheres of life.

Stupidity is not merely tolerated, it is venerated through the corporate media as something to be actively sought out and adopted. This country's always-present anti-intellectual strain is now celebrated and promoted ceaselessly by the Corporate Media. Science is scorned by tens of millions in favor of "faith."

The Founding Fathers knew that only with the active participation of an informed citizenry could the republic be preserved. The majority of sheeple in this country are not active participants, and if their only news comes from the Corporate Media, they are not only uninformed, they are actively and deliberately misinformed. Ultimately Chimpco's "disasters" do not matter insofar as affecting the electoral process. They are ignored or downplayed by the pre$$titutes of the Corporate Media, and just in case anyone is paying attention, the vote can be easily manipulated to reach the result desired by the corporate masters.

We are done. The only question remaining is when the rest of the world decides it has had enough of the United States of America and takes corrective action. Time is running out.

[feelthebreeze]

26. Nope, nuh-uh, no way. No how. I am not giving up nor cowering

to cynicism. We are far from done and the clock has just started ticking again. You want to crawl under your rock and await the outcome, then you are just going to miss all the joy. Come on, is that how you wish to remember yourself in these times? Come join the fight, and don't hate your country or fellow Americans so much. Remember, that is why we are here. Most of us here at DU are active participants in a Democracy that is going to be mended, not just onlookers as to its downfall. Remind yourself what you love about this country and her people and then, with that embraced, go out and fight like hell for it's continuance.

[Art_from_Ark]

32. I think there may have been a time like this before

The post-Civil War era. You've got bushwhackers (appropriate name, eh?) causing trouble in the countryside. You've got the Republicans controlling everything, Democrats are demonized because they're "the Party of the Rebels". Lincoln's successor (Andrew Johnson, Southern Democrat) is subjected to a farcical impeachment trial because he dared to face down Edwin Stanton, who was probably the real mastermind behind the Lincoln assassination. This was after a kangaroo trial of the purported assassination co-conspirators (including the owner of a boarding house), who were never given a chance to say anything in their defense and were hurriedly executed (quite likely because they might have been suspected of overhearing Booth mentioning Stanton's name). And don't forget that this was a military tribunal that convicted them, and Edwin Stanton was Secretary of War at the time. Quite a sham, I would say.

After President Johnson is safely replaced with General Grant, then the corruption really begins and lasts throughout Grant's 8 scandal-tainted years. And even when Samuel Tilden, the Democratic candidate, appears to win the election of 1876, it is stolen from him and given to his opponent, Rutherford B. Hayes (who is thereafter referred to as "His Fraudulency" by the Washington Post). Hayes is replaced after one term by yet another Republican would-be puppet, James Garfield, who is quickly assassinated because he starts showing some independence.

Meanwhile, things are looking bleak for the Plains Indians, who are being either killed or pushed off their land into the bleakest parts of the West. And the KKK has reared its ugly head for the first (but not the last) time and is causing untold grief for minorities and Catholics in the South and elsewhere.

[MN ChimpH8R]

36. There are some similarities

but the main difference is that now Corporate America controls access to all consumer goods, including information. There were still crusading muckrakers in those days, indeed there were such people until about 25 years ago (funny how that coincides with the Reagan presidency). The vast majority of the populace was not in thrall to mindless consumerist acquisition of things and many people had first hand experience of how tough life could be, and often was, in the slum or on the frontier. Today's comfortable suburban flock wants only to buy, buy, buy, and keep gas in their SUV and heat in their McMansion.

The biggest difference is that the corporation now rules almost every aspect of american life. In the pre-gilded and gilded ages there were the railroad and steel barons, but today corporations control everything and have the money to make what was once a government of, by, and for the people dance to their tune, and to program the mass of sheeple to think what Corporate America wants them to think. Everything has been consolidated, market-tested and dumbed down to something below the lowest common denominator. Massive corporations control the process, the money, the message, the vote counting and the larger social environment. There are no longer any forces that can serve as a counterweight to their influence with the majority of the populace. What Fox and CNN say is "true" whether it reflects reality or not.

We were doomed when the Supreme Court determined that a corporation is a person. We now see the results of that theory. God help us all when the Europeans, Chinese and Indians decide to join forces, hunt the rogue nation to its lair and deal with it in the way power-mad rogue nations have always been dealt with.

[Peace Patriot]

45. Well, MN ChimpH8R, I would say that what you've described is what the

United States was like when the Bush junta took it over in 2000-2001--for the most part, the starting conditions for the coup...

"...the corporation now rules almost every aspect of american life..."

"...corporations control everything and have the money to make what was once a government of, by, and for the people dance to their tune, and to program the mass of sheeple to think what Corporate America wants them to think..."

"Massive corporations control the process, the money, the message, the vote counting and the larger social environment."

"We were doomed when the Supreme Court determined that a corporation is a person."

These--and a couple of other things (f.i., a huge offensive military/corporate war machine maintained for no good reason)--are the conditions that made us ripe for the junta takeover. All of them--except for direct and complete control over vote tabulation--were true under Clinton. That is, for instance, why Kenneth Starr was able to get away with his absurd Inquisition, and why Clinton could get nowhere with health care reform, and it is also how outsourcing of jobs began (with Clinton's buying into global corporate piracy). (The corruption of the Democrats began way before that, under Reagan, with the Reagan tax code re-write favoring the rich, and the Democrats failing to impeach Reagan for Iran-Contra.)

The Bushites just moved in on this already very corrupt government/corporate scene, the nation already enslaved to oil, and the press already monopolized by corporations with fingers in war profiteering, and, with 9/11, they began toppling the last pillars of democracy: the separation of church and state, individual protection from government search and seizure (the spying program, which started early), independent-minded judges (below the Supreme Court level), Congress as a co-equal branch of government, the idea of limited executive powers, the military (its more positive aspects targeted for destruction--for instance, its Uniform Code of Military Justice and commitment to the Geneva Conventions--bulwarks against torture), the vestiges of service-minded people in the intelligence and foreign services, public schools, and all public benefit institutions, environmental regulation and enforcement, our participation in the U.N. and as a lawful partner in international treaties, and, of course, our election system (easily purchased for Bushite voting machine companies, with the $4 billion that Tom Delay provided, and with compliant, corruptible election officials--and the one they couldn't buy, Kevin Shelley in California, they drove out of office). The media were long gone--apparent already during the Reagan era, and consolidated during the Clinton/Kenneth Starr era. And other institutions, such as the Savings and Loan banks, had already been raided. Regulatory control had already been lost--evidenced, for instance, in the Enron debacle and all the other lootings and pillagings. These weren't Bushite inventions. They just crawled up that pile of dung and took the mountain.

HOWEVER. HOWEVER. What I see happening now is the corporate/military albatross, that has been riding our backs for so long, going too far, taking too much, and assaulting our institutions too nakedly, through the Bush junta. And therein lies one of my hopes. They are so ugly, so greedy, such baldfaced liars, and are hitting us so fundamentally, that people who would never question authority are questioning authority, and people who were happy, oblivious consumers at one time, are finding their cupboards bare, their jobs gone, their pensions looted, their parents unable to pay their medical bills, their military sons and daughters used as cannon fodder, their rights under assault (for instance, women's reproductive rights), and all their illusions and dreams about American democracy collapsing, and they--and other segments of society who awakened before they did--black citizens, the poor, humanitarian and environmental groups, unions, liberal (majority) religious groups and churches, many professionals (teachers, librarians, nurses, social workers, scientists, and others), and many local officials (for instance, the many town councils who voted against the Patriot Act, and affected National Guard units decimated by the Iraq war), the many local newspaper editors who endorsed Kerry in 2004 (who had endorsed Bush in 2000), as well as disaffected military and intelligence people--are undergoing a shocking lesson in tyranny, and in the fragility of our democratic institutions under unregulated corporate rule.

I believe very strongly--on the basis of what I consider to be overwhelming evidence--that the people of this country, whom I have largely described above--the majority--in fact, voted the Bush junta out of office in 2004. I think Americans know tyranny when they see it. They smelled it way back in February 2003, before the invasion of Iraq, when 58% of the American people opposed Bush's war--even before all the lies were exposed. Across the board in all polls. 58%!

I believe that, in fact, there is a great progressive majority in this country that has been hoodwinked, by the corporate news monopolies, into believing that they are the minority. And there is very direct evidence for such an intention by these news monopolies. Generally, the news monopolies create an illusion of rightwing hegemony by giving the rightwing a Big Trumpet to promulgate their views, way out of proportion to their numbers. But on Nov. 2, 2004, they did something very specific that tipped their hand--that made their intention quite obvious.

Late on election day 2004, the corporate news monopolies, acting in concert, through one polling organization, DOCTORED their own exit polls (which Kerry won) to force them to "fit" the results they received from two Bushite electronic voting firms--Diebold and ES&S--who tabulated 80% of the vote using 'TRADE SECRET,' PROPRIETARY programming code, with virtually no audit/recount controls (a non-transparent election system that was wide open to fraud). I believe that, in fact, Kerry won that election by a landslide (at least a 5% margin), and that, because Kerry's win was so big, Bushite operatives in Ohio had to implement Plan B, the massive, egregious and visible violations of the Voting Rights Act against black and other voters that are documented in the Conyers report. By these two illegal means, the vote was flipped over to Bush.

Kerry was winning. The reporting system "crashed' for about an hour. And when it came back up, Bush was winning. And what they did in that interim--changing the exit poll numbers--was statistically impossible. They FALSIFIED their exit poll numbers, and put the FALSIFIED numbers on everybody's TV screens, thus depriving the American people of major evidence of election fraud, and squelching protests and calls for investigation. (Exit polls are used worldwide to verify elections and check for fraud. But here they were used to cover up fraud.) (The real exit poll numbers, showing a 3% margin for Kerry, were captured in screen shots by alert techies--Jonathan Simon the foremost among them. And the pollsters later admitted that that was true. That 3% represents only the voters who made it to the polling booth--and not does include, for instance, all the purged black and brown voters who weren't permitted to vote.)

Bald-faced, naked manipulation of the numbers on the screen--to convince the American MAJORITY that it is the minority.

Americans didn't buy Bush's lies. They never have. But they ARE affected by this ILLUSION of a rightwing majority. It makes members of the progressive majority feel isolated and alone--and very disempowered. They also don't realize--most of them--that they have been quite literally DISENFRANCHISED. There is no more black-holed story than election fraud, and the fraudulence and non-transparency of our election SYSTEM (which was put in place in the 2001-2004 period). Even the Democratic Party leadership doesn't dare speak of it (out of corruption, as well as fear.)

The facts are very clear. And no one speaks of it. I could cite you dozens of polls that show that this great progressive majority exists. Polls on the war. Polls on matters like torturing prisoners. Polls on health care and social policy. Polls on women's rights. Polls on Bush's deficit. And all the approval polls showing Bush at 40% or under virtually for the whole year after his supposed election.

But things ARE changing, and very rapidly--on the election reform front, and many other fronts. I think that this great progressive majority will get together and re-assert itself--and is doing just that. I'm not saying things aren't scary and precarious. They are. But I think that the NAKEDNESS and UGLINESS of this Bush junta power grab is exposing the whole anti-democratic structure of corporate rule, and I think that the corporate rulers are about to take a very big fall. Their power is built on lies and illusions. It has no solidity. The rightwing that it is based on is at the same level it has ALWAYS been (about 30% to 40%). There IS no rightwing majority, or even anyting close to it.

---------------------

(Note: Re: the Supreme Court. Oppose Alito, of course--but don't be so worried about the Supreme Court. People are saying it's the end of demcoracy. It's not. There are many ways to subvert or impeach a criminally appointed Supreme Court, once we have restored our right to vote.)

--------------------

Throw Diebold and ES&S election theft machines into 'Boston Harbor' NOW!

[NVMojo]

48. wow, Patriot, this was an amazing read!

[NVMojo]

47. well, you said exactly what is scaring me the most ...the dumbness

of the majority of citizens, the sheeple, and then there is what the other poster said, the media ...we've lost them. I am a formal newspaper reporter. I was trained that when I walked into city hall or other government buildings as a reporter that I was the "eyes and the ears of the public". Without journalists and media sources that have a conscience and feel they watch and listen for us, the masses are easily controlled ...I'm trying hard not to feel hopeless ...

[zippy890]

56. nice post, i hope you are right

'We as a whole have not changed'.

I think we might need to change, to adapt and evolve and take a more world view, there are so many resistant to that.

I like your optimism, though, we could use more of that around here (at DU) sometimes

[neverevergivein]

3. I know how you feel

Believe me, I know.

[nofurylike]

4. sorry i can't tell you you're wrong, but

:hug:


please hang in there, NVMojo.


peace and solidarity, always

[NVMojo]

49. thanks, nofurylike. I can't explain it but I just felt like a friend died

only it was my country ...I cried. I can't explain it other than the first poster might be right ...it's overwhelming to handle all the crap that is coming to the surface now ...I'm glad it is but it's overwhelming to realize that the American people let this happen, let this insidious cancerous group take over ...

[nofurylike]

63. it is something to cry about, NVMojo.

i cry with you.

:cry:

please always hold foremost in your heart and soul, no matter what happens, that what matters most of all is living true to your clearly strong conscience. even when things seem insurmountable, please keep on with your fine vision and devotion to justice.

yours inspire many (including me, thank you!)!!

and love yourself that you know the difference, you are that difference, you have that difference, you make that difference.


:hug:

:grouphug:


peace and solidarity, always!

[Generator]

6. Me too

I'm torn between staying away from DU and finding it a refuge of the only people-and the other blogs I read- that get what's really happening to our country. If I stay away, read or do anything else I can feel better for awhile and put it away-but then it comes back. I can keep the TV off. But I can't be in denial..and no one around me feels as much alarm as I do. Because my friends aren't political, liberal, not religious, but not political. This is the only place I can say what I feel and even feel okay if it's challenged because I know most of the people here GET it. That I'm not insane. It is this bad. And it's happening as we watch. Maybe an overnight coup would be better, yah know..the slow death thing is agony as nothing good happens where we know we are in the rightgeous camp and they are not.

[applegrove]

7. You are cutting your losses again and again with this WH full off

rutting Bull elephants. No civilized society can handle rutting Bull elephants. Why you never see them in Zoos.

It is painful and it hurts. You must remember to cry and grieve and get it out. The only way. Your losses are real. So - accept the awful situation you are in will go on for a bit more and cry. Go through all the stages. And at the end you return with a new take on life - that US has faced some bad luck in who got into power - that it happens - but that civilization has overcome it again and again. Take some time to find volunteer work that pays off for you personally. Take a break. Pace yourself. And be ready to fight in 2006.

It will be okay.

[tatertop]

9. What a thoughtful post

[applegrove]

43. I've been there. I know how much it hurts.

[NVMojo]

50. applegrove, I hear you. What is really difficult is that I also work for

a poor Indian tribe and have to deal with the decreasing lack of funding available to them to provide services to their people, basic services. Every day,I cross a city street and go into a "sovereign nation" territory and try to find ways to help, find funding, etc. and it's all drying up because this country craps on its own people while killing the people of other lands.

I am sure you all are right, this too shall pass but I am filled with shame at being part of a nation that has let this gang of evildoers take over in such a docile way.

I'm scared about future elections in this country too.

[applegrove]

52. Of course. Keep your wits about you. But cry long and hard when

you need to. And don't focus in on one thing "diebold". There is annecdotal evidence of all sorts of election tricks (including getting Kerry to make the Sophie's choice to not vote for the 80 Million dollars). Exit polls should be ignored. You need to make sure enough diebold machines are in each district if you cannot get rid of them. I'm sorry but there was lots of evidence that not enough machines went to some areas. IF dems are all sure diebold will steal votes - and don't fight for the basic adequate number in the district according to population - well then the GOP has tricked us again.

You kinda need to hold your nose and soldier on. Don't knee jerk. Be discerning. And as you get wise - teach others that to split into a third party is exactly what the GOP wants.

Dems can do it. They can take back the Senate. And then - investigations start. And that will be a time for healing.

So don't get tunnel vision. It isn't just one thing the creeps do. It is a long term campaign on your way of life. So cry. Admit each loss. And get used to your new life. That of a super-fighter. But take a step back. And wait for evidence. Cause lots of what you are facing is ricocheting fear. The long term patterns will show themselves. And it will be clearer. Academics are on the case as we speak. So are millions & millions.

Yes - it must be hard if you work with people trying to find a way to get into the middle class from so far away. And you see that that door is shutting for the middle class even. Unbelievable.

I don't think the generation who dug so deep to fight the Nazis... when it was all over and done - they built a pretty great world. They were a generation of full adults. They appreciated every day. They paid attention to the little things. They never sweated the small stuff. And they felt very lucky.

That will be you in a bit. It will.

[Ech3l0n]

8. It is not over so long as we continue to fight

[rockymountaindem]

14. I heartily agree, and welcome to DU!

[feelthebreeze]

15. welcome home Ech3I0n

[Lex]

20. I agree Ech3l0n. And welcome to DU!

:hi:

[NVMojo]

51. thank you, Ech3lOn, and welcome!

[newyawker99]

60. Hi Ech3l0n!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[IADEMO2004]

10. Check this positve attitude Sal Mohamed for Iowa Gov.

http://www.salmohamedforgovernor.org/

[Blutodog]

12. I empathize

I feel the same way many days. I go to work everyday with absolutely no job security and I read this stuff all over the internet and realize that the country is living in 2 different realities. I see it with some of my co-workers that are toal Bu$h robots swallow everything Fox, Limpdick all of them puke up. It's getting harder and harder to bear.

[troubleinwinter]

13. Nothing for you to do but FIGHT.

Fight to the death. Fight until we win. Buck up, friend. You are not alone.

[feelthebreeze]

17. My foxhole is your foxhole. NGU

[troubleinwinter]

42. I like that! We all have one another in this foxhole.

[spacelady]

37. I am in total agreement with your post. However, that is the most

beautiful rose avatar, what's it's name?

[troubleinwinter]

40. I dunno! I made it for Cindy when she was in Crawford,

and have carried it for her ever since. Thank you for your nice comment. Rob it if you want it for Cindy.

[spacelady]

44. Thank you! I filed it. n/t

[iamahaingttta]

18. These will be referred to as "The Crazy Years..."

Robert Heinlein was right!
How did he know?

[MakeItSo]

19. Every generation has challenges

Some more than most. We just know more about what's really going on now, thanks to the free, electronic distribution of information via the Web.

Seriously, do you think it was any better during Vietnam, with 50,000+ US soldiers dead? What about the Civil War for Christ's sake?

Fact of the matter is we've had it really, really, really, really, really, really easy for a long time. Instability is status quo for the human species.

And besides, I'm fucking GLAD Kerry didn't win. #1 because I don't like Kerry and never have. #2 because George Bush and the GOP criminal establishment will now be held accountable for what they've done to our nation. If that includes criminal conviction and jail time, all the better.

[PassingFair]

21. I feel your pain, NV...

My brain hurts when I think of just how *ucked up our country is, and wonder if we will ever be able to dig our way out of it, internally AND internationally.

Reality bites.

Let's hope it chews and swallows this mess.

[tlsmith1963]

22. I Know How You Feel

I wasn't in a very good mood today at work because I was thinking about all the neocon crap. Sometimes it all gets to me. It's a good thing I am on antidepressants, or I just don't know how I would be able to cope at all. This has to be the saddest, scariest time I have ever lived through. But I want to see the neocons pay. It's what keeps me going. I dream of that day all the time.

Tammy

[lucca]

27. Yes, I too, am overwhelmed.

*bush and all his cronies try to suppress us, through fear and intimidation.

As each day goes by, our freedoms are being taken from us.
It makes me sick.

Never, ever, did I think our country would come to this.
I used to take so much for granted.
Never again.

I agree with you Peace Patriot: " Throw Diebold and ES&S election theft machines into 'Boston Harbor!"

We need honest elections, and we need them now before it is too late.

[FreedomAngel82]

28. I know how you feel

:( :hug: I cried for two days after the last "election" was stolen. :cry:

[upi402]

30. Just about toast. You're right and TV news is traitorous

if you ask me.

my .02 -well spent I hope

[Clara T]

31. It's possible

that the "greatness" was always rather overstated and that now we are seeing the agglomeration of all that had been hidden in plain sight.

Is it also possible that you are having a personal awakening to the array and magnitude of the slaughters which have, if you take an intellectually honest historical analysis, been at the core of American society. We really are a blood-soaked nation.

Only when we stop telling the lie can we stop living the lie.

Despair is not sent to kill us it is sent to awaken us to new life.





Peace

[welshTerrier2]

33. from Chalmers Johnson's "The Sorrows of Empire"

here are the final two paragraphs in the book "Sorrows of Empire" by Chalmers Johnson:

There is plenty in the world to occupy our military radicals and empire enthusiasts for the time being. But there can be no doubt that the course on which we are launched will lead us into new versions of the Bay of Pigs and updated, speeded-up replays of Vietnam War scenarios. When such disasters occur, as they - or as-yet-unknown versions of them - certainly will, a world disgusted by the betrayal of the idealism associated with the United States will welcome them, just as most people did when the former USSR came apart. Like other empires of the past century, the United States has chosen to live not prudently, in peace and prosperity, but as a massive military power athwart an angry, resistant globe.

There is one development that could conceivably stop this process of overreaching: the people could retake control of the Congress, reform it along with the corrupted elections laws that have made it into a forum for special interests, turn it into a genuine assembly of democratic representatives, and cut off the supply of money to the Pentagon and the secret intelligence agencies. We have a strong civil society that could, in theory, overcome the entrenched interests of the armed forces and the military-industrial complex. At this late date, however, it is difficult to imagine how Congress, much like the Roman senate in the last days of the republic, could be brought back to life and cleansed of its endemic corruption. Failing such a reform, Nemesis, the goddess of retribution and vengeance, the punisher of pride and hubris, waits impatiently for her meeting with us.

[MN ChimpH8R]

39. Hammer, meet nail

Nemesis awaits us not far down this road. And she is NOT happy.

[OPERATIONMINDCRIME]

34. Fear Not, Friend. We Are Not Dying, We Are Shedding.

A snake is at its most dangerous as it is about to shed its skin. But when the uncomfortable transition is over a beautiful, renewed and refreshed creature emerges.

We will make it through the darkness, we will outlast the transition. We will arise more refreshed, renewed and beautiful as ever before, and you will be there right with us to make it happen.

Times are quite tough right now, but they have to be for the skin to be shed. Keep your faith that resides deep to your core. You are not ready to give up, no. You are ready to fight as hard as you ever had, as soon as you shed your own temporary skin of reflection and sadness. I felt hopeless a while back as well, but shed that skin with renewed focus on what needs to be done. As will you, be it tomorrow, next week, or in whatever time you need.

But we aren't dying, friend. We are shedding our skin painfully, but will emerge more refreshed, renewed and beautiful as ever. Trust in this.

[NVMojo]

54. ...beautiful ...thank you.

[carolinalady]

35. Unless we get nuked, it is probably going to be ok.

cheer up.
:hug:

[PWRinNY]

38. Worth fighting for

In a letter to John Taylor, April 15, 1814, John Adams wrote: "Remember democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide."

Thomas Jefferson said: "Experience hath shewn, that even under the best forms of government those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny."

Jefferson also said: "The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not."

Also from Thomas Jefferson: "Every government degenerates when trusted to the rulers of the people alone. The people themselves, therefore, are its only safe depositories." Thomas Jefferson, Notes on the State of Virginia, Query 14, 1781

Consider this quote from Alexander Hamilton: "The instrument by which it must act are either the AUTHORITY of the laws or FORCE. If the first be destroyed, the last must be substituted; and where this becomes the ordinary instrument of government there is an end to liberty!" Alexander Hamilton, Tully, No. 3, August 28, 1794

Our Founding Fathers knew the danger existed, that Democracy could soon burn out. But they fought for it. They fought for us. They also gave us the blueprints we need to survive - these were in their days, calls to action, as they are to all of us now:

"Fear is the foundation of most governments; but it is so sordid and brutal a passion, and renders men in whose breasts it predominates so stupid and miserable, that Americans will not be likely to approve of any political institution which is founded on it." - John Adams, Thoughts on Government, 1776

America will not continue to live in this state of fear forever. Fear is exhausting, and Americans just don't have that much patience. Before much longer, more people than those of us here are going to realize the fear tactics that have been used on them to paralyze them for so long - and they're going to be ANGRY. They're going to wake up like bears. Americans don't like being manipulated. Once they realize the Bush administration has been playing them for fools, they WILL take corrective action. It is not only human nature, but the nature of Americans.

"If the federal government should overpass the just bounds of its authority and make a tyrannical use of its powers, the people, whose creature it is, must appeal to the standard they have formed, and take such measures to redress the injury done to the Constitution as the exigency may suggest and prudence justify." - Alexander Hamilton, Federalist No. 33, January 3, 1788

"I know no safe depository of the ultimate powers of the society but the people themselves; and if we think them not enlightened enough to exercise their control with a wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take it from them, but to inform their discretion by education. This is the true corrective of abuses of constitutional power." - Thomas Jefferson, letter to William Charles Jarvis, September 28, 1820

"The Constitution which at any time exists, 'till changed by an explicit and authentic act of the whole People is sacredly obligatory upon all." - George Washington, Farewell Address, September 19, 1796

This is OUR government - OUR America - yours and mine! It is within OUR power to stop the government from tyranny and heal our Constitution.

"Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom, must, like men, undergo the fatigues of supporting it." - Thomas Paine, The American Crisis, No. 4, September 11, 1777

"Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph." - Thomas Paine, The American Crisis, No. 1, December 19, 1776

"We fight not to enslave, but to set a country free, and to make room upon the earth for honest men to live in." - Thomas Paine, The American Crisis, No. 4, September 11, 1777

"We have it in our power to begin the world over again." - Thomas Paine, Common Sense, 1776

"All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent." - Thomas Jefferson

"It does not require a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority keen to set brush fires in people's minds" - Samuel Adams

We've lasted a whole lot longer than expected. I don't know if any of our Founding Fathers expected we would still be a thriving Democracy centuries later. I know it was their hope. But today, this day, is the day they warned us of - the day Democracy could die. They showed us how to fight for freedom, for liberty. And we can't lose hope or give up the fight now. Now is the time for us to stand together and fight harder than ever for the America we love. Our Forefathers and ancestors did it, they shed their blood for our freedom, and it is that blood that runs through our veins. Don't lose heart. Always remember what it is to be a Patriot. Always remember what it is to be an AMERICAN. We must cherish our liberty enough to FIGHT for it. It's worth fighting for.

[YvonneCa]

41. Stay strong...

...I too worry for our country, but it needs ALL of us "now, more than ever"...Kerry's words. :-) I thought it was horrible when they stopped the recount in 2000; worse still on 9/11; and I've been so sad since November 3, 2004. That was the first election in which I tried to do more than just vote...I had to (I drove to Las Vegas as a volunteer in a 'swing state'). If Kerry had lost and I hadn't done ANYTHING to make a difference, I couldn't live with myself.

This country is not dying...too many of us won't let it. I think it IS being tested. Ultimately, that will make us stronger. It sure is painful, though, right now. The most difficult thing for me is the lack of awareness of people closest to me...my family and my friends. In the beginning, they thought I was just in denial about the election. But I've 'become' the news for them...I forward news articles (from sources THEY trust) that they otherwise would never see. I've been buying books (Jimmy Carter's, Joe Wilson's, Gary Hart's) and sharing them when I'm done. Then I talk to them about why I'm upset with this administration. They don't always agree, yet. But it's a start. I'm convinced that education is the key to saving our country.

I am most hopeful because our leaders are now speaking out...not enough, yet...and not as 'brazenly' as I wish...but better every day! They are educating the public. That tells me they understand what is needed and are now acting to turn the country in a better direction. But it's like turning an aircraft carrier...REALLY SLOW.:7 When I need a lift, I listen to John Kerry's Georgetown Speech (C-SPAN), and his Council on Foreign Relations speech, and now Al Gore's most recent speech on the wiretaps. (If you've missed ANY of those, you need to listen...they are INSPIRATIONAL ! !

NVMojo, I've enjoyed your posts since I joined DU. Your information helped me when I was seeking answers. Don't give up. We'll get there...this is a GREAT country (most of the time)...and we're not finished yet. :patriot:

[NVMojo]

55. Yvonne, thank you for coming to Nevada during the last stolen election

I appreciate it. We came so close to winning. They stole with the Sequoias ...

I have been strong and I've tried to make a difference in my own way but I guess the reality of what we are really dealing with today got to me ...I had to cry. I will be fighting again tomorrow for the good fight.

Peace!

[YvonneCa]

65. We DID come close...

...and some day we will all know about the theft. And crying is good for the soul.:hug: It's overwhelming what we are dealing with. I will be fighting right beside you! I'm glad you are feeling better. :patriot:

[Hekate]

53. We will live to see better days, and we will make them happen

Honest.

Hekate
who has been in that dark place too many times herself

[B Calm]

57. But, the fags can't marry and rich white men are getting richer..

[Mr.Green93]

58. The 'USA' was founded on Deceit, Death and Destruction

its Karma had to catch up with it sometime.

[depakid]

59. You ain't seen nothin yet.

Wait and see what happens as energy and natural resources continue to be depleted.

What's been going on the last 5 years is just a mild prelude compared to what's on the horizon.

[Greyhound]

62. Once you're done grieving, start preparing for the coming times

I don't believe that the Dems will make any significant contribution to undoing the damage, so its best to be ready for it. Too many in this party are the same elitist, ruling class, bastards.

[scarletlib]

64. I feel your pain.

It is how I feelmost days.

[Telly Savalas]

66. Some perspective

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bonus_army

[Rex]

67. Our republic is dying.

This is a transition period between republic and empire. America will prove that imperialism never really vanished.