I feel like the US is heading toward a big crisis.

[Target_For_Exterm]

There are so many problems building that I wonder how the denoument can be averted. The economy is crap. Medical care is crap. Our military is so overextended and their equipment so beat up they're crap. Our elected officials care more about limiting their work days to 2 than they do about our country - that's crap. Iraq is crap. The war on terror is crap. Jobs are being shipped overseas left and right so all we have left is crap.

I feel as if there's this storm that's building, and sooner or later it's all going to hit the fan. I feel this heavy, anxious feeling because I know there's a big, bad sword hanging over all our heads that will drop one day. What will happen to us then?

We are truly becoming a 3rd world country.

[liberal N proud]

1. Yup

We will all be working for land barons or in sweat shops before it is all over and the US will be under a totalitarian rule.

[MannyGoldstein]

2. Don't Worry!!! The Brave Congressional Dems Have Your Back!!!

They'll stop at nothing... ABSOLUTELY NOTHING!... to ensure peace, health, and prosperity for all Americans, and to make the world a better place for all.

[QuestionAll...]

3. :(. I agree with your sarcasm. nt

[partylessinOhio]

4. Unfortunately, I have to agree with you. This will be the least merriest Christmas yet.

I wish I could see this country changing but I don't.

We don't have financial security anymore and that is NOT a good thing.

[bdamomma]

5. there will be no peace on earth, until this regime leaves or goes

to prison. how they burned us and our country and our standing in the world. Damn all of them.

[OPERATIONMINDCRIME]

6. We're No Where Near Being A 3rd World Country, As Can Be Seen By Your Sitting At Your Comfy Computer

for the record.

There is definitely a whole lot we need to fix. But to over-dramatize it and exaggerate it to the degree of considering us to be or to almost be a 3rd world country is just quite silly and far-fetched.

[Deja Q]

9. Thank you.

People who catastrophize (like myself) need a small nudge from time to time.

Things could be far worse and we're nowhere near there yet.

[Target_For_Exterm]

10. I don't know.

I was just reading a post about how Bush wants to eliminate the lead air quality standards so lead can be added back into gasoline.

I know a number of places in the US where the homeless congregate that are just as bad as poverty stricken slums in other countries.

I know people, and have personally experienced myself, a lack of medical care that could have led to death. I know in some cases it does lead to death.

I know people who go hungry because Bush cut food stamps. This group of people includes the families of deployed soldiers who stand in line at food pantries because they can't feed their families.

I know a lot of people who have been unemployed (or underemployed) for a very LONG time through no fault of their own.

We've seen recent outbreaks of E-Coli and other foodborne illnesses that have killed a number of people (and all the while the Administration complains about over-regulation).

And for the record, there are a LOT of people in 3rd world countries who have computers and spend a lot of time on the internet. Perhaps you should read up on it? Every country in the world participates on the internet, except maybe North Korea (and I bet dissidents are secretly active regardless).

Perhaps you'd like to offer some concrete examples of what you've seen in 3rd world countries that's grossly different from what we see here? The only difference I've seen is in quantity, and that's what I'm saying is changing here in the US.

[OPERATIONMINDCRIME]

12. I'll Repeat: We Are No Where Near Being A 3rd World Country. I'm Not Even Going To Entertain This

ridiculousness by actually giving proof after proof of why it isn't. To do so would be giving credence to the argument, as if there had been any legitimacy or potential for its accuracy in the first place.

To call us a 3rd world country or soon to be 3rd world country is beyond exaggeration. One doesn't need to provide proof of that, as some things just stand logically all by themselves.

[Target_For_Exterm]

13. Then let me ask you this: Do you think the US is declining?

Maybe it matters where you currently fall on the food chain as to how you perceive the US right now.

[OPERATIONMINDCRIME]

17. There Are Many Many Things The Repubs Fucked Up That We Need To Fix. That DOES NOT, However,

equate to us being a 3rd world country or anywhere near one.

[Target_For_Exterm]

18. What about the aftermath of Katrina?

What about all the first reponders who are sick because the government lied about air quality after 9/11?

What about the plight of the homeless?

What about the post on DU tonight about the little boy who has to go without freaking BLANKETS because the government doesn't think he needs to stay warm?

We may not be a 3rd world country now, but IMHO, we're headed in that direction.

[OPERATIONMINDCRIME]

24. You Have The Right To Your Opinion And I To Mine.

Mine is that we ain't even close, and won't be in any foreseeable future.

To each their own.

Goodnight.

[leftofthedial]

7. happy holidays!

[roamer65]

8. Welcome to the end of the American Empire.

Rome rose and fell. So too, shall we.

[sendero]

11. I've been feeling it..

... since about 2003 and I've been preparing.

Yes, America is not moving the right direction, the only question is "what can we do about it?".

The midterms were a start but frankly, on the economic/jobs front things are so dismal that I don't think anyone or anything (except maybe some fantastic luck) can forestall the inevitable.

[nadinbrzezinski]

14. To add to the voices of gloom

I have said it before and I will repeat it... we are one step away from violent civil war. We have been in the midst of a cold one for a while

So you are not off... I hate to say it, but the point to avoid it was 2004... at the moment I'm just waiting, with baited breath, for the fun to start

[roamer65]

19. You are correct.

Bin Laden has us right where he has wanted us, just like the former Soviet Union.

[nadinbrzezinski]

20. Our state of cold civil war predates

9.11

Look for the clear starting point at 1996... and the clinton games.

But 9.11 did not help

[roamer65]

25. What was a crack b4 9/11, became a fissure after.

I remember one night watching Charlie Rose during the late '80's and Charlie had on his show a former military gentleman who had written a book on American history. He was very prophetic. He said back then all this divisive politics from the right would bring us very close to or into a civil war. I wish I could remember the guy's name. He was dead-on correct.

[nadinbrzezinski]

28. Students of history realize these things

for me it dawned when I was doing reserach for a novel and delved into the fringe of the right wing. Mind you, novel was put on permament hold since some of the events I was writing happened life in front of me, courtesy of CNN (Columbine). But as I read those papers, documents and websites I started getting a very uncomfortable feeling... kind of a sense of deja vu... if you read the papers of the 1850s you will get a smilar feeling...

[Doctor_J]

27. The sooner the better

the Gates debacle should prove to even the most starry-eyed optimists that our votes mean nothing.

[roamer65]

30. I hear you on Gates, but his appointment is meaningless now.

The die is cast for a wider ME war. I expect Saudi Arabia and Iran to start exchanging blows very soon. Two geopolitical earthquakes have happened. Iraq has fallen apart and the US is now an impotent force. The void will be filled.

[lectrobyte]

15. Don't forget peak oil. Seems like we should be directing our

efforts in a lot of directions that we aren't. But we never seem to do anything until the wolf's at the door.

[tnlefty]

16. KATRINA didn't make you think about this?

I knew about the poverty in this country, but seeing it laid bare and then to have so many displaced, insurance companies still trying to screw people over, and so many Americans who have forgotten about it? During a conversation with my republic (trying to recover, mother) last week, when she mentioned her disgust with what is still the plight of the Katrina suffering Americans, I expounded on it and stated 'welcome to the third world country of the US'. She was very quiet for a few seconds but it did hit a nerve with her.

I'm not trying to be confrontational, just trying to put things in some sort of perspective I suppose.

[Mojorabbit]

21. I also worry about our national debt

I think this country is sitting on a financial house of cards and from the articles I am reading I am not the only one.

[roamer65]

31. Nothing that hyperinflation won't solve.

It's just around the corner, sad to say.

[longship]

22. Headed for??? Headed for!!!!?????

Wake up!! We're not headed for a crisis, we're in the midst of a Constitutional crisis of the likes this country has never seen. The only problem is that very few of us are smart enough, informed enough, or observant enough to know.

Okay. I know what you're talking about. I'll play...

How about a hurricane season that makes 2005 look like a gentle breeze in a flowery meadow?

How about a meltdown in Middle East relations while Chimp continues to "stay the course" in Iraq?

How about the sudden collapse of the Ross Ice Shelf?

How about any number of nightmare scenerios brought on by an idiotic administration which puts politics before *everything*?

It's so difficult to choose, isn't it?

I must ask you not to touch the controlling mechanism. Return and make your selection. When you have chosen, I will prepare you through the atavachron.

Mister Atoz, librarian.

[nadinbrzezinski]

29. Can I choose ALL OF THE ABOVE?

:-)

They are possible, and all happening at the same time

[longship]

32. Just make sure I process you through the Atavochron, first.

;-)

[Cleita]

23. We aren't heading for that crisis, we are there.

All the dominoes haven't fallen yet, but it won't be long.

[Doctor_J]

26. It can't some soon enough

The sham of Gates' confirmation doused all hope that the republic can be saved democratically. 56% of the electorate (at least the ones who went to the polls) last month said they wanted Smirk neutralized. Then 95% of the Senate today said, "No, I think we'll do what he wants - he is really going to do better now".

Things need to hit bottom and we can rebuild from scratch.