WTF is going on with this country and who's really pulling the strings?

[kitkat65]

This administration seems more like incompetence by design than pure cronyism or ideology.

Lately, I've come to one conclusion and that is that those who are really in power and pushing this current agenda through are doing so in order to rape this country of it's resources (money, oil, etc.) for as long and as much as they can get away with before Bush and fellow Republicans are finally booted out of office be it through elections, rebellion, civil war, whatever it will take for the left-to-right-and-back-again pendulum to swing back to the middle. If we ever get a real chance to look at the documents and records from this administration we'll be stupefied by the amount of fraud and waste perpretrated by this administration.

Lately, I've gotten the feeling that this administration is screwing up on purpose in order to keep us distracted from the real culprit that is controlling this whole machine. They don't even bother trying to hide it anymore. I mean, c'mon. A president breaks the law and pisses all over the basic American tenet of the right to privacy by spying on American citizens without easily-obtained warrants and in the end Congress does nothing? Just this week I heard that oil companies are going to tap into oil obtained on American soil without paying for it in a time when we're spending billions of dollars per day in Iraq, the deficit is becoming astronomically huge and the oil companies are making huge profits while we pay the highest gas prices ever? Now THAT is one the biggest fuck-yous to come from this administration but what do you expect from a Texas oil man?

It's almost like a predictable polical suspense novel - almost like they're testing the waters in order to find out how much corruption American citizens will take before they wake up and say enough already.

What is one to believe?

A lot of lifelong Republican voters are becoming dissatisfied by their own party while we liberals are disgusted by Democrats who say they're fighting for we, the people, only to turn around and do the exact opposite of what they say they're fighting for." What can we do when we're in the minority?" is the excuse they use and we let them get away with it.

I started this DU experience during the time when the debate was over whether or not Kerry or any other Democratic senator would contest the Ohio election. I believe if he had done this, at the very least he would have drawn more national attention to our very flawed voting system where partisan hacks control elections. It also would have helped to shed some more light on the Diebold machines susceptible to fraud. It might have even ended up in the Supreme Court where they would have had to again, make the much-criticized-by-lawyers-and-constitutional-scholars-since-the-first-decision decision regarding George Bush and whether or not to thwart the will of the people and hand Bush the presidency. It would have been the time for the Democrats to stand uinfied as a party for the people and state that fair and transparent elections are a right and not just a priviledge given to few by those in power. After much anticipation, letter writing and petitioning we got the Black Caucus and a few Dems of the House who saw the disenfranchisement for the racism that it was and one lone Senator to stand up and contest the Ohio election for a guy that didn't even bother to show up for his own electoral count. And because of our limited choice of a two party-system we were grateful for that lone scrap of dissent from Barbara Boxer and the less-than-supporting cast of fellow Democrat senators who made pretty speeches about the right to vote, blah, blah, blah, we'll take care of it, blah, blah, blah. What have we gotten so far from them regarding voting rights? Bupkis from the Senators and not enough from the House to get anything done. I wonder how they feel about that day now and do they wish they had done anything differently?

If one were a conspiracy theorist one might start to think that this thing we call a democratic government is really a dog and pony show set up to fool the people into believing they have fair representation - a real good politician, bad politician routine.

Then there's no real dissenting voices heard from the "mainstream" media which has been rendered mute and useless either by fear, greed or narrow-minded ideology. Everything I hear or read that questions what's going is on the internet, which the government is currently wanting to stick it's peeking eyes into. Who has the resources to intimidate and control all of the media? I don't think even the evil genius of Karl Rove is capable of such an incredibly vast operation, so where are the Woodward and Bernstiens of our day? Are they waiting for just the right moment to pounce or have they been trying to avoid the "liberal media" label so hard they've forgotten what they're business is all about.

What surprises me most is the lack of any movement by our youth. In the sixties, we had, for the first time in American history a youth movement that dared to question authority and then norms of society. Along with it came the sexual revolution, the right to an abortion, civil rights, feminism and a focus on the injustice and futility of the war in Viet Nam. Why aren't the current youths of draftable age rising up against the current war and why aren't they standing up for the ideals that their baby boomer parents dared to stand for? Didn't their baby boomer parents teach them anything about their values or are these freedoms so taken for granted that it's just an afterthought? Has growing up with MTV destroyed their attention span or their capacity for critical thought? Didn't they learn anything in social studies?

Before the baby boom children were "seen and not heard" but the boom brought about a shift which focused more on the importance of child development. I've heard it said that the flower power generation and the ability to question authority was made possible by this change of attitude. What does one do when faced with a huge population of angry protesting youths who would one day have their own youths?

If one were a conspiracy theorist, one might look at the Roe v. Wade decision with the more jaded eye and see it as an attempt to reduce a growing crisis within a population by slowly reducing the population. Then later, they found the bonus benefit of vilifying abortions from a purely moral standpoint and use it to rally all those God-fearing Christians to vote against their bests interest to save the life of the "unborn." It's become the perfect little carrot to dangle for votes from overly-zealous Christians who believe the Constitution is somehow based on the tenets of Christianity.

And what about the private militia groups that were so bad and scary in the 90s - the kind that made Timothy McVeigh possible? We had a fear of terrorism when Clinton was in office but the fear was internal and it was sometimes hard to distinguish the good guy from the bad guy. But from what I remember of the militias (the ones that weren't absolutely driven by one goal like white power) was that they all seemed to have an underlying fear that the government was getting too big and intrusive and if it didn't stop, then a civil war or revolution was inevitable. You'd think that with half the shit the current administration has pulled regarding civil liberties, they'd be all over it. But we've heard nothing. Poof. They're not heard from or about at all anymore which makes me wonder what were their real motives? Maybe they enlisted for Iraq just for the chance to actually be able to kill someone, but I kind of doubt it.

A vast conspiracy indeed but now I'm rambling. Who gets to profit from all of this? More and more it seems like large corporations and their lobbyists are really in control of what happens in our government. I wouldn't be surprised if the Abramoff scandal is just the tip of a very large iceberg.

Or it could be that karma is finally coming back to kick us in the ass for meddling in the affairs of other countries just to keep trade with the locals cheap and easy or to stick it to the communists.

Either way, it all comes down to one thing: greed. Be it for money or power, it's all about keeping what you have and wanting more.

[pearl]

1. Yes, Yes

Thanks for putting into words, each time the truth is articulated
it's a good thing. Can't say it's very comforting though.

[RazzleDazzle]

40. Yes, yes from me too

It IS intentional; they ARE raping the country of its wealth. They DO want to render the U.S. the equivalent of a 3rd world country so that the World Bank and all their uber-wealthy friends can walk in and pick off the remaining resources, just as they have done with struggling 3rd world countries who sadly and woefully and misguidedly got involved with the World Bank.

[CottonBear]

2. "A nation of sheep will beget a government of wolves."-Edward R. Murrow nt

[zanne]

15. That's a great quote.

Every once in a while, I'll read something, very short and concise, that sums up what's been bouncing around in my head for years. I love it.

[CottonBear]

20. I printed it in a big font and taped it to the back window of my truck

so that everyone behind me in traffic can read it and think about it. I also have a great Thomas Jefferson quote as well.

[Mme. Defarge]

26. I think my husband nailed it last night

when he commented that we are a nation populated by people who will applaud and give a standing ovation at the opera even when the singing is abominable.

[stop the bleeding]

3. Good post

A lot of lifelong Republican voters are becoming dissatisfied by their own party while we liberals are disgusted by Democrats who say they're fighting for we, the people, only to turn around and do the exact opposite of what they say they're fighting for." What can we do when we're in the minority?" is the excuse they use and we let them get away with it.

[Lerkfish]

4. as wonderful as the youth movement was in the sixties, at its core was

enlightened self-interest: there was a draft. That immediacy of one's own personal fate was a great motivator to fight for social change.

I'm not criticizing the movement, I personally think it was the one time in our history of a species where we came the closest to group self-actualization. I witnessed it as it happened as a young boy, and I lament its absorption into the various movements that killed it outright ( the "me" decade, etc.).

As Dickens said, "it was the best of times, it was the worst of times". I believe the current puppetmasters learned from the sixties, that is why they try to keep secret photos of coffins of returned soldier dead, why you never see maimed or crippled war injured, and why they control the media absolutely. They learned that if the actual cost of the war is in the news, day after day, they'll lose the hypnotic stranglehold they have on the complacent population.

Unless and until we take back control of the media, or more accurately, remove ANY controls on the media, we will never be a serious threat to unseat this administration or its puppetmasters.

As much as I hate this administration, merely removing it will not solve the problem, as you point out, there are behind the scenes puppetmasters who will simply coerce the next administration into doing its bidding. The reason they have succeeded so well in controlling this administration is because it is either willingly complicit or too easily manipulated by its weaknesses.

[kitkat65]

7. I agree and meant to mention that but got sidetracked.

Maybe reinstating the draft would be a good thing? Don't know. I think there'd have to be another 9/11 type of event to make that palatable to the American public. And that thought alone makes me so angry. I really don't know how far these people are willing to go or do to get what they want. Hopefully, they'll get it soon and be done with it so this country can get back on track and be what it's ideals claim it to be. It's kind of embarassing other countries fairly new to democracy doing it so much better than we do.

[Lerkfish]

11. I don't want a draft, I have a son, but I think that's the missing

impetus for getting a movement going. There are diehard protestors, especially here (which is why I like it so much), but we are the overenlightened ones. Too many others are lulled asleep, they see nothing that affects them personally in the whole thing. UNTIL they do, its not going to be worth risking employment or liberty to fight for.

In Lieu of a draft, we need some "pearl harbor" of our own that wakes the sleeping giant. What it needs to be? I have no idea, I would have thought they would awakened by now.

[oldlady]

17. our own Pearl Harbor

yes. I thought Katrina would be that. It's not just the ability of media to spin-- but, the ability to wait out our attention.

[AndyTiedye]

38. Have You Forgotten the Massive Protests We Held To Try to Prevent the War?

That wouldn't be too hard unless you participated in them, or watch the foreign press, because our media largely ignored them.

The protest movement collapsed because it failed to either stop the war or attract any significant media attention inside the US.

Back in the '60s, we still had a free press, and protests were an effective way to draw attention to a cause.

This doesn't seem to work anymore, with the regime in control of virtually all media.

[Lerkfish]

39. right. that's why I am saying we need to reform the media.

I think that was key in the sixties, and would be key now, if allowed, for the media to report the truth instead of propaganda.

[Burried News]

41. I agree but I wonder if it has ever been different. We are a bigger

country with bigger corruption but it seems to me the powerful have pretty much run the show since the early 1800's. The techniques of manipulation have been refined but fundamentally I question whether we were ever the democracy portrayed in our history books.

[Vidar]

43. They are deliberately undoing the work of every decent administration

since Lincoln, even though in the long run ruining the country is not in their own self-interest. Short-term gain and absolute corruption are all that matter.

[marions ghost]

59. Right

these are NOT the 60's.

Why do people think that resistance to war profiteering and tyrannical government always has to be led by the kids, just because it was then? We need everybody willing to fight the war for our collective soul. We need wisdom and experience. We need whole families. We need more Granny D's. I think this lament --that suburban kids raised in the easy late 80's and 90's with no fear of the draft-- aren't turning into political activists in large numbers to lead us out of this disaster is REALLY misguided.

In the 60's there was a real watchdog media, there were leaders of substance, more blind hope, less cynicism, and there was not the level of surveillance, intimidation and fear-mongering that we face today. It is a TOTALLY different world today. We must find new ways to resist those who would subjugate us and not rely on outmoded means.

[corkhead]

5. I used to think either the Trilateral Commission or God

But I would think they would have stepped in by now.



:tinfoilhat:

[bluethruandthru]

6. I sometimes feel like this is all a big joke!

I am absolutely stunned everyday as I read more and more about the absolute corruption of this administration and how they flaunt their disdain for the American people! The republicans in congress are just as bad, if not worse! It's one scandal after another, one more blocked investigation after another, one ethics violation after another, one previously unimaginable act of utter shamelessness after another (oil company deals, selling our national parks, etc., etc....)one more indictment after another, more stolen elections, more swiftboating, more selling of favors for the highest bidder, more threats made to other countries to blow them off the map, more photos of more torture being condoned and promoted by our government..... Some days I feel like looking around for the candid camera... This is a joke, right? This can't really be happening!

[kitkat65]

8. I know! With each new scandal, atrocity or law broken I think

surely this will be the straw that breaks the camel's back but nothing changes and it just keeps piling up. I just don't understand why certain party loyalists don't see through the hype and bullshit or see it but refuse to admit it.

[Harald Ragnarsson]

29. Have you ever considered that they DO see the hype and bullshit

and that they are willing servants of it?

[marions ghost]

60. welcome to the real world

As more people come out of their bubbles, take the blinders off and SEE (as you have seen) what is going on...there is greater hope for changing things. Like any breaking out of a fond delusion, it isn't easy but it's the important first step. A large part of our country is being run by the most corrupt white collar criminals imaginable, the worst kind of sleeze. They have been aided and abetted by the largely unregulated corporate climate. And with the B**h administration they have succeeded in hijacking the highest levels of government. They are drunk with power and they abuse and exploit those they have power over on a daily basis. This is a deadly serious situation. Welcome to the hard truth.

[FormerDittoHead]

9. I share many of your concerns - America's big decline...

Yes, it's a "land grab" and the "theme" is that everyone (in power) is *rushing* to get as much as they can like people buying milk, eggs and bread before it snows.

Personally, I think the final act will be the raping of the stock market (ie: crash), where so many Americans have stored the surplus of their life's work. That will bring about radical deflation (housing prices will crash) and the rich will be free to snap up whatever resources they want at bargain-basement prices. (sound familiar?)

We will see the return of city living (apartments/renting), which is economically more efficient (energy use, public transportation, etc). In spite of the religious right, we will see a radicial redefinition of 'death' as it pertains to medical care of the terminally ill (when 50% of all lifetime medical costs are spent).

I believe the rich gutted our manufacturing because they'd rather build new than renovate or update existing resources and of course, it will get them out of having to pay all of those pensions. Trouble is that it will take about 20 - 30 years for the cycle to end (critical mass of baby boomers to die) before they can justify investing back here. (when China's current growth cycle will have pasted its peak).

The thing that disturbs me the most, however, is how education has been gutted. I'm wondering how long it will be before even upper-middle class children will go overseas for a 'good' education. With TV, radio, computers, the Internet, all of these things which can be used for education, our kids instead play video games.

All my life I've wondered about the great depression, esp how it was POSSIBLE for so many people and resources to remain simply IDLE for years and years. I think we're seeing such mechanics going on right now.

[kitkat65]

12. It's a complete dismantling of what previous generations fought so hard

for from the struggle to form unions to Social Security. All to the detriment of the middle and working class. And it all benefits the already wealthy or well-establilshed corporations. But you'd think it would be a tight little group in order to pull off such a thing, wouldn't it? As big as the problem has become, you'd think someone would have spilled the beans by now, wouldn't you? It's actually quite brilliant how it's been pulled off. Systematically villify everything that stands in the way of what you want, keep saying it over and over and eventually it'll become the truth.

[catzies]

51. We've had several stock market crashes & we're still here, but I say

when the housing bubble bursts, is when we'll really get hurt.

[FloridaPat]

10. Well said. And it's not just *. Governments around the world

seem to be in the same Twilight Zone governance. * and Sharon got elected the same year and both went off on warring binges. The nuts running Iran seem to want a conflict with the US. Look at Britain and Australia - they both supported the Iraq invasion. Britain was the co-invader. It's the perfect STorm of Stupid World Governing.

[Clara T]

13. Excellent Post- Here's Some Food for Thought

In essence, the Straussian philosophy and teachings are now known as Neo-Conservatism. Below are some of the more interesting and perhaps surprising or even disturbing aspects of Neo-Conservatism as taught by Strauss:
• Nations cannot consider collective action and multilateralism unless it is 100 percent in line with their own selfish interests
• Strong leadership is required
• Military power is essential
• Leadership ought not be encumbered by human rights discourse or a moral conscience but nonetheless must "appear" to advocate such ideas.
• Rulers need not observe the laws they impose on the ruled.
• A ruler can cheat and lie and do all sorts of things but should at all time maintain the outside appearance of adherence to human rights and caring for people.
• Leaders can use religion as one of many tools to ensure the nation keeps on course as formulated.
• Outside threats help ensure social cohesion under domestic leadership
• Altruism, environmental protection, justice etc, are not the concern of governments and ruling elites. They have no part to play in the equation of power
• Strauss questioned how, and to what extent, freedom and excellence can coexist.
• Strauss was very pre-occupied with secrecy because he was convinced that the truth is too harsh for any society to bear; and that the truth-bearers are likely to be persecuted by society, especially a liberal society because liberal democracy is about as far as one can get from the truth as Strauss understood it.
• Secular society is the worst possible thing, because it leads to individualism, liberalism, and relativism, precisely those traits that may promote dissent that in turn could dangerously weaken society's ability to cope with external threats
• Nazism was a nihilistic reaction to the ungodly and liberal nature of the Weimar Republic.
• Religion should impose moral law on the masses who would otherwise be out of control.

http://www.tvnewslies.org/html/the_truth_about_george_w__bush.html







Rockefeller leveraged not only the financial power of his banks and industrial and extractive industries, but created interlocking directorates of supporting political power. Thy Will Be Done could rightly have been titled Conflict of Interest , as Colby documents how Rockefeller consistently misused public office and nonprofit status to gain personal economic advantage. His tools were his "non-profit" foundations; agencies and commissions in the U.S. government and military; and the C.I.A. and clandestine parts of the National Security Council, par ticularly the Special Group. Rockefeller men moved from agency to agency like chess pieces on a board to create public policy which furthered Rockefeller interests.

Through constant fueling of these agencies from the family fortune, Rockefeller was also ab le to buy or control political and economic leadership in the Amazon countries, as well as in Central America and Argentina. In effect, he and his associates became a super-government in the Western Hemisphere.

Thy Will Be Done also shows how Rockefeller, the C.I.A. and their Latin American counterparts used the Wycliffe Bible Translators, otherwise known as the Summer Institute of Linguistics, headed by William Cameron Townsend, to "soften up " native peoples in Latin America and the Far East so they could be more easily exploited. The result was the slaughter or displacement of millions of native peoples, the theft of tens of millions of acres of their land and the destruction of the environme nt at a rate which suggests planetary suicide. (For example, every year in Brazil' s rain forest an area is being destroyed by fire which is the equivalent of half the size of California). It is a story paralleled only by the equally iniquitous treatment of Native American peoples and their environment on this continent.

Colby and Dennett tell fascinating stories, such as that of U.S. involvement in the deposition of Brazil' s liberal president Joao Goulart; the clandestine alliance of Lyndon Johnson and Nelson Rockefeller; and the close cooperation between Christian funda mentalism, including the Wycliffe Bible Translators, and U.S. intelligence, which in the light of our present political situation, should serve as a cautionary tale. They tell us much about the use of the "communist menace" and Castroism as excuses to subvert governments and exploit peoples during the Cold War.

http://www4.dr-rath-foundation.org/publication_library/histbooks.htm

Front Page Miami Herald: July 5, 1987 - REAGAN AIDES AND THE 'SECRET' GOVERNMENT
by ALFONSO CHARDY, HERALD WASHINGTON BUREAU

WASHINGTON -- Some of President Reagan's top advisers have operated a virtual parallel government outside the traditional Cabinet departments and agencies almost from the day Reagan took office, congressional investigators and administration officials have concluded. Investigators believe that the advisers' activities extended well beyond the secret arms sales to Iran and aid to the contras now under investigation.

Lt. Col. Oliver North, for example, helped draw up a controversial plan to suspend the Constitution in the event of a national crisis, such as nuclear war, violent and widespread internal dissent or national opposition to a U.S. military invasion abroad. When the attorney general at the time, William French Smith, learned of the proposal, he protested in writing to North's boss, then-national security adviser Robert McFarlane.
The advisers conducted their activities through secret contacts throughout the government with persons who acted at their direction but did not officially report to them.

The activities of those contacts were coordinated by the National Security Council, the officials and investigators said. There appears to have been no formal directive for the advisers' activities, which knowledgeable sources described as a parallel government. In a secret assessment of the activities, the lead counsel for the Senate Iran-contra committee called it a "secret government-within-a-government."
The arrangement permitted Reagan administration officials to claim that they were not involved in controversial or illegal activities, the officials said. "It was the ultimate plausible deniability," said a well-briefed official who has served the Reagan administration since 1982 and who often collaborated on covert assistance to the Nicaraguan contras.
The roles of top-level officials and of Reagan himself are still not clear. But that is expected to be a primary topic when North appears before the Iran-contra committees beginning Tuesday. Special prosecutor Lawrence Walsh also is believed to be trying to prove in his investigation of the Iran-contra affair that government officials engaged in a criminal conspiracy.

ADVISERS FORMED SHADOW GOVERNMENT, PROBERS SAY

Much of the time, Cabinet secretaries and their aides were unaware of the advisers' activities. When they periodically detected operations, they complained or tried to derail them, interviews show.
But no one ever questioned the activities in a broad way, possibly out of a belief that the advisers were operating with presidential sanction, officials said.

http://fpiarticle.blogspot.com/2005/12/front-page-miami-herald-july-5-1987.html

[veracity]

53. best kept secret - print out the FREE pdf

....is PNAC and the people who planned the debacle we see today.

Ask your friends who and what Neoconsevatives are....and see what they say. The article at TvNewsLIES is in pdf format....

Print it out and give it out..... it's one of the most important revalations of our time....and dems have no clue either...


http://tvnewslies.org/html/the_truth_about_george_w__bush.html

[AntiFascist]

65. Excellent post! n/t

[BlueEyedSon]

14. Lobbyists and campaign donors. In a word, MONEY is pulling the strings.

[BlueEyedSon]

16. And yes, the '00s are the '60s, except with no counterculture.

[helderheid]

18. who pulls the strings?

[leveymg]

21. Multinationals.

This is all about what Schumpeter termed the "creative destruction of capitalism". It involves freeing up money from less profitable industries and markets and moving money around the world, protecting investments, and maximizing returns through risky speculation. The investment strategy is actually quite simple: managed chaos, destabilization, and deception of competitors and neutralization of regulation. Pass costs on to others.

In the eyes of the multinational managers, the United States of America, and the American middle-class are like a factory that is past its prime. It will continue to be operated with decreasing levels of reinvestment until it is eventually shut down, stripped of usable parts, and either abandoned or demolished. We are merely one among many around the world.

If we don't like this, we can always lock out the managers, expose their past crimes, and put them on trial.

[rman]

28. Transnationals

They do have more power and wealth than nations, and bounderies of any kind (national, financial, cultural, religious) don't really matter to them.

[glitch]

34. "If we don't like this, we can always lock out the managers, expose

their past crimes, and put them on trial."

Well said. We are not powerless, no matter what we hear.

[leveymg]

37. "We, the People of the United States of America,

in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America."

That's ours, along with the Bill of Rights, and all priviledges and immunities that go with citizenship. They can never take that away from us. We will prevail.

[glitch]

63. Oh yes indeedy we will. :) nt

[mod mom]

19. Great Rant. Kitkat, you are right on target. I feel as though I live

in a separate reality from many friends + acquaintances. The analogy was been repeatedly made to "falling through the looking glass". Our nation is crumbling and hardly a blink from many well educated individuals too selfishly focused on the daily trivialities of their own lives to notice our democracy is in trouble. Where is the youth? As many of us who attended the peace march in DC in Sept will attest to-absent. I found this to be also true when organizing post election rallies in Ohio (which I believe you participated at).

We blame the media, and of course they play a role, but many people don't even bother with them anymore. It is up to us. If our leaders won't take the lead then we have to push forward in getting the word out. There was a recent Wired magazine article posted that spoke about the ability to disseminate information outside the mainstream. The analogy was used of Jon Stewart on Crossfire. Our ability to get that out after it's airing was (I believe this is correct) 3X greater than the initial viewership. This is our strength.

In just a little over a year we have got our message out about the corruption of our election system. If nothing else we have placed the seed of doubt in many minds. It is absolutely amazing that the GAO Report on Electronic Voting has gotten such little attention, especially when coupled with the mountain of evidence that has been brought forward. I still can't believe the Dems won't get on board. It draws one back to the conspiracy that you eloquently speak of.

Peace.

[porphyrian]

22. I am.

Unfortunately, you have uncovered my plans ahead of schedule. While I find this inconvenient, I assure you that nothing will prevent me from tricking society into thinking hypocrisy is a virtue! Muhuhahahaha...! (Fade on maniacal laughter.)

Seriously, though, listening to these guys, I can't help thinking they're playing that it's Opposite Day or some shit. When I hear average people, who in no way benefit from doing so, parroting their bullshit, I can't help thinking I'm the one who's crazy.

[Norquist Nemesis]

23. Watch the documentary The Corporation for some answers

then do a google on Dominionists.

[banana republican]

24. Read Perkin's Book:

Confessions of an Economic Hit Man.

What is fuzzy will become very clear...

[tlsmith1963]

25. I've Wondered About the Militias, Too

Where are they? I guess they were really in with the neocons all along. Bunch of hypocrites if you ask me.

Tammy

[Kansas Wyatt]

30. Militias? Extreme Right Wing Militias?

They got their wish for this country to come true, and their actions are no longer considered domestic terrorist activities.

Extreme Right Wing Militia members are now Patriotic Murikans, proudly supporting the Bush/Cheney Republican Government, which use to be the U.S. Government.

[Harald Ragnarsson]

27. I can tell you in 3 words what it's all about

What George HW Bush called for on Sept 11, 1991(Note the DATE), the creation of a New World Order, a one world government.

Something that should scare you even more; the only reason the US "won" WWII was because we were able to turn our factories into the war effort. We armed ourselves, the Brits and the Soviets. When all these manufacturing jobs were moved out of the country, everyone saw the money going, but I think it was done with another purpose in mind, to destroy America's manufacturing/war production capability. We can not covert over to producing tanks planes and artillery today because there are no plants to covert over to those products. We make nothing. We even have to buy bullets from foreign countries because we can't make enough.

We are being made the new Nazis of the world and you know what happens to Nazis. We won't be able to defend ourselves either, short of Global Thermonuclear War. That ain't gunna happen.

America has been intentionally destroyed from within. We will give up our national sovereignty and join the New World Order or we will die.

Think it's tin foil or kooky all you want, when you add up everything all together it's the only thing that makes sense.

This is why people don't want you to see and hear what Alex Jones has to say, because he will tell you this same thing and back it up with news item after news item to prove his point.

[newspeak]

33. Yes, the New World Order

is the Old World Order and their plans are in motion. Remember the attempted coup of FDR? In WWII we did have the manufacturing base to create the mechanisms to protect ourselves. The "powers that be" aren't American--their idealistically misguided power hungry sociopaths. My cousin was in the USSR before it's fracture and says that the same feeling now is in the US. They want to "Balkanize" us-fracture-if you fracture the structure you decrease power of the people. Look at the WTO-corporations wheeling and dealing with no input or regard for the people in all countries. And, talking about the right wing militia, not all bow at the altar of Bush. I believe some do believe in the Constitution and the Bill of Rights--some are being fed the kool aid like the UN wants to take us over. But make no mistake, they're very much against chipping people and spying on people. I believe we are being systematically destroyed within. They are attempting to bankrupt us as fast as they can, while feeding their already bloated, gluttonous friends our resources and treasury. Think of a world order run by sociopathic corporations and the people behind them. It gives me chills just thinking about it. The balkanization of the United States. I keep thinking of the movie Brazil or the Handmaid's Tale, but at the World level. They think they can create reality, but it's all an illusion and once the majority of the people of the world see it as their illusion, the better off we all will be. The people of the world can determine what is valued as money. I remember an old Twilight Zone episode where these cons steal gold and wake up in the future where their gold is worthless. Take the value away of what they deem valuable and they are nothing. The only real value is labor, especially craftmanship labor. What will still be valued when there is nothing--craftsman, plumbers, electricians, mechanics, people who know how things work. What is not valued-middlemen, executives, shysters who know how to rip off people. We the people can create our reality, against their illusion. Remember in ThunderDome, the pigman was valuable because he knew how to keep the lights on-knew how to create and distribute electricity. Maybe we need to start at the community level and become more aware at that level, like Arcata CA. One community at a time, one city at a time.

[glitch]

35. I agree with you, and I haven't listened to Alex Jones. It's obvious if

you ignore what the say and watch what they do.

edit: Welcome to DU!

[TheModernTerrorist]

31. ah yes

Illuminati at it's finest.

[SoCalDem]

32. It's always about money and the love of it.

The irony is that accumulation of vast wealth is futile, since you truly can't take it with you. One might say that the super-greedy are "doing it" to make their own families secure when they are "gone", but that isn't even IT.

There are some personality types who always want MORE..more food, more money, more sex, more excitement..just MORE...

Money is a clever way to measure success, because it's easily counted, and can be compared to their peers.

It's a game, but there are few "winners" in this game...and MANY losers.

The losers get little, if any, consideration.

[Me.]

36. Your Thoughts Coincide With Some I've Been Having

I did a thread last night asking where does all this take us.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x449206

At some point this batch of criminals will be out, to be replaced by what? The same song sung to a different tune? What is going on here, really,and what will be left of our country?

[Disturbed]

42. "this batch of criminals will be out:

This batch will be replaced with a new batch.

[cassiepriam]

44. I agree about the karma part

We are running up a very big karmic debt that will have to be be paid.
And we are getting kicked in the butt for our past outrages.
What goes around comes around as they say.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

45. I saw a real shift late in the 1970s, when companies stopped

hiring liberal arts graduates and insisted on hiring only business majors.

This changed college from an opportunity to become broadly educated to a very narrowly focused and expensive vocational school.

The youth of the generation just after mine became obsessed with jobs and money and showed little interest in broadening their knowledge.

That's how the establishment prevented the next generations of youth from rebelling. The "drug war" caught up many of those who were not college graduates.

[Cleita]

48. My late husband, who was an architect, used to complain about

this all the time about the new hires. He couldn't believe how ignorant they were about many things other than architecture. He often wondered why the colleges weren't teaching them anything other than their chosen field.

[Cleita]

46. I have another take. I think we have become a province of

Saudi Arabia. This takeover of our ports by the UAE kind of confirms this to me. Now I know it's not that simple and why would UAE be the ones rather than the Saudis? It would be too obvious for them to do so, but since those other Arab states exist at the pleasure of the Saudis as vassal states and are related to the royal family in many cases by blood and marriage, it would make sense. Yes, I know officially that isn't so, but in this case I think I'm right.

Now the whole ME questions is very complicated and when you throw Israel into the mix it makes it quite a peppery stew. But, I think this is what is happening right under our noses.

[Cleita]

47. wrong post

[Nikki Stone 1]

54. This is the first time I have ever seen this theory.

I think it is far more likely that Britain is pulling the strings than SA. Notice that this Iraqi war fever occurred as Britain's North Sea reached peak oil, and Britain went from being able to produce its own oil to having to import. I don't think it is any surprise that the only consistent European supporter of this ME fiasco has been Britain, but I think it is Britain pulling the strings and not the other way around. The "poodle" image Blair has in the press is very useful to hide his leadership.

:tinfoilhat:

[Harald Ragnarsson]

61. I think you are correct, Nikki

I figured I was the only one that thought this way. It's looking to me like we never really won the Revolutionary War after all and it appears to me you are 100% correct that Bush is following Blair/UKs tune, not the other way around. They just make it appear like Blair is the lapdog to take the pressure off of them. Americans are the ones hated around the globe, but the Brits are right there in Iraq with us.

[Cleita]

62. Anything can be possible if you can find out the truth, however,

I find it hard to believe that anyone with Tony Blair's ego would allow himself to be referred to as a poodle to a man as idiotic and hated worldwide as Bush is just to hide his leadership.

[Nikki Stone 1]

64. If it's all political theater, then the "poodle" references are par for

the course and not in the least important.

[tiptoe]

49. Provoking the public, daring a "response"...as premise to Martial Law? n/t

[kainah]

50. Grover Norquist is succeeding

They're drowning our government in a bathtub of ineptitude.

[SmokingJacket]

52. Yep, Loot, loot, and loot some more.

It looks like incompetence, and it is, but it's deliberate incompetence. The more mess and chaos, the easier it is to steal from.

[RagingInMiami]

55. Very well stated

[upi402]

56. the corporatocracy started with Reagan in 1980

and the Iran hostage scam. People still think Carter was bungler and Reagan a good man. Recall CID Casey had a bubbled brain before he was to testify on it.

The start of a liberal TV news is the only solution.
We can't educate folks on the importance of paper ballots or campaign finance reform without it. So democracy is neutralized without TV news.

[Festivito]

57. I think #24 is correct. Makes sense.

Not that there cannot be bigger conspiricies.

But, the IMF, funding Halliburton and Bechtel like engineering firms directly.
Then making the country repay that work with interest.
Then, when they cannot repay, make the country give us its resources instead.
..or, its votes in the UN.
If, the leader agrees, he gets a large palace and weaponry.
If not, he gets a coup or a plane crash.

Explains why they have so much venture capital to fund these ads, swift boats, think tanks, etc.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=364&topic_id=450369&mesg_id=451025
..all it says is to read the book.

[No Exit]

58. About the militias

"But from what I remember of the militias (the ones that weren't absolutely driven by one goal like white power) was that they all seemed to have an underlying fear that the government was getting too big and intrusive and if it didn't stop, then a civil war or revolution was inevitable. You'd think that with half the shit the current administration has pulled regarding civil liberties, they'd be all over it. But we've heard nothing. Poof. They're not heard from or about at all anymore which makes me wonder what were their real motives?"

I'm not here to argue with you. You have raised some very good questions. But--about militias. I think the reason there isn't any militia formation to rise up and protect from THIS government--which is about 1000 times more intrusive and scary than the Clinton government (or any democrat's government, for that matter) ever was--is because if any group of men get together and try to perform ANY quasi-military, or quasi-enforcement, function, they are immediately branded as racists.

I'm speaking of the "minutemen". I am emphatically NOT saying the minutemen are perfect or even that their goals are worthwhile. I am not troubled by the Mexicans I see flooding into the area, because I have noticed that such people are for the most part hardworking and are an asset to the communities. BUT it just so happens that the minutemen and their supporters held a different view. They didn't want illegal immigrants coming in in droves. They, like any Americans, are entitled to their own views.

The point with the minutemen is not WHAT they were organizing for, but the fact that they saw what they perceived to be a problem, and instead of sitting at their keyboards complaining while eating yet another bag of chips, they actually organized and did something.

Did they stop illegal immigration? Hell no. Did they EMBARRASS THE FUCKING POLITICIANS WHO LET IMMIGRATION LAWS BE BROKEN? Hell yes! What I enjoyed about seeing the minutemen was the fact that they were republican types, or "conservatives", and they were organizing and embarrassing republican politicians.

But they just got dismissed, and tarred as "racists".

Another oddity I've noticed is that, during Clinton, all we heard about--and all we seemed to have--was "school shootings". Remember those horrors? It was turning into a huge fear thing for everyone who had any connection with a school. How come we don't hear about "school shootings" any more? Oh... I forgot... the government has decided that instead of scaring us silly with the possibility that our kids and their teachers could all be massacred, it will scare us silly with the "possibility" that we will all be massacred by funny-looking foreigners who are hiding in our midst. (Boo!) School shooting, "terrorism", whatever... "just as long as we scare 'em, we can control 'em."

[RagingInMiami]

66. I think it goes deeper than that

"But--about militias. I think the reason there isn't any militia formation to rise up and protect from THIS government--which is about 1000 times more intrusive and scary than the Clinton government (or any democrat's government, for that matter) ever was--is because if any group of men get together and try to perform ANY quasi-military, or quasi-enforcement, function, they are immediately branded as racists."

I don't think that fear of being labeled racist is the reason nobody has created a militia against this administration. It has more to do with apathy and pacifism.

If any militia rises against this government, it won't be a bunch of overweight, white country boys camping out in the woods wearing camoflauge and it won't be a bunch of white, left-leaning democrats, no matter how outraged they are.

It will probably be made up of urban black men.