The Hard Chill Begins to Bite

[LibertyorDeath]

By Chris Floyd

It won't come with jackboots and book burnings, with mass rallies and fevered harangues. It won't come with "black helicopters" or tanks on the street. It won't come like a storm – but like a break in the weather, that sudden change of season you might feel when the wind shifts on an October evening: everything is the same, but everything has changed. Something has gone, departed from the world, and a new reality has taken its place.

As in Rome, all the old forms will still be there; legislatures, elections, campaigns – plenty of bread and circuses for the folks. But the "consent of the governed" will no longer apply; actual control of the state will have passed to a small group of nobles who rule largely for the benefit of their wealthy peers and corporate patrons.

To be sure, there will be factional conflicts among this elite, and a degree of free debate will be permitted, within limits; but no one outside the privileged circle will be allowed to govern or influence state policy. Dissidents will be marginalized – usually by "the people" themselves. Deprived of historical knowledge by an impoverished educational system designed to produce complacent consumers, not thoughtful citizens, and left ignorant of current events by a media devoted solely to profit, many will internalize the force-fed values of the ruling elite, and act accordingly. There will be little need for overt methods of control.

Chris Floyd wrote this on Nov. 9, 2001 http://www.chris-floyd.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=433&Itemid=5

A very prophetic warning in my view

This is the part many do not get "There will be little need for overt methods of control."

[TahitiNut]

1. There's no need to control what people DO ... when there's control over what they THINK.

... or even WHETHER they can think. :shrug:

[LibertyorDeath]

6. "when there's control over what they THINK"

Faux & most of the MSM

are hard at work on that 24\7

[LibertyorDeath]

2. babylonsister has more here

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=103x295851

[karlrschneider]

3. Sadly, the methods of control have begun to actually be overt.

Those exercising them are wagering on success before enough of us take notice. It might work.

[LibertyorDeath]

8. "Sadly, the methods of control have begun to actually be overt"

He talks about that here

Chris Floyd: The Legal Pervert's Parade: Executive Privilege Über Alles

http://www.atlanticfreepress.com/content/view/2011/1

[karlrschneider]

9. Indeed. And so they no longer even try to hide their nefarious plan.

The epitaph will simply say, "Not enough cared."

[PDJane]

4. I got it.

I also have an article published in The Progressive in 2003 by J. K. Galbraith called Why Bush Likes a Bad Economy, about the intent behind some of the Bush economic actions.


Almost nine million people are unemployed. Many millions more are underemployed, and most of all, underpaid. Millions more lack health insurance. States are cutting basic public services everywhere, while the taxes (property and sales, mainly) to pay for those that remain are rising. And the gates of opportunity-for instance, to attend college-are closing on millions more.

George Bush did not entirely create this problem. The bubble and the bust of high technology, the obsession with a strong dollar, the debt build-up of American households-these existed before we got George Bush. The late 1 990s were a moment of prosperity and that rarest of economic achievements- full employment. But the boom was based on dreams, illusions, and mortgages. These set the stage for a slump that began in late 2000, from which we have not recovered and will not recover soon.

But Bush has done nothing to make our economic problem better and much to make it worse. We have lost around 2.6 million jobs since he took office, and about 650,000 just since the 2002 election. In the face of this, the bulk of the Bush tax cuts went, notoriously, to the very wealthy, whose spending is little affected. Many middle class Americans will get hit by rising property and sales taxes-at the state and local level. And meanwhile, Bush is bent on eroding pay and working conditions, with the most recent outrage being the assault on fair labor standards affecting overtime. As for the minimum wage? Forget about it.

In the near term, it is true that new tax cuts and more military spending may bring another false dawn. The second quarter GDP growth of 3.1 percent was a sign of this. Meanwhile Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan is doing his best to keep the housing bubble aloft. Greenspan knows about blowing bubbles, but not even he can forever prevent them from popping. Short-term fiscal expansion and continued low interest rates may prevent an early renewal of recession. They will not, however, bring us back to full employment.

The rest is online here:

http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Economics/Bush_Likes_Bad_Economy.html

[Wiley50]

13. John Kenneth Galbraith Had the Bush Economy Pegged for what it is

Too bad we lost him last year. I hope our future Dem leaders have read this piece
and have the courage to act on it.

[Selatius]

5. The best prisons are built out of ignorance and fear, not concrete and steel.

Concrete and steel is how the old authoritarians did things. New authoritarians prefer ignorance and fear over the former. It simply doesn't require one construct massive infrastructure to house dissidents in large numbers. It only requires ownership of the means of communication. In America, the people who own most of the news outlets operate on Wall Street, and that's fast becoming the central decision-making structure of this once great Republic. Indeed, they own most of the valuable land, property, and corporations. Most Americans own little more than their home and car.

[LibertyorDeath]

10. Yes and people are expecting the Old authoritarianism

when we're already living in the New.

"If the Nuremberg laws were applied, then every post-war American president would have been hanged." - Noam Chomsky

Wow he doesn't mince words does he...

[MisterP]

7. that's why I don't REALLY think they'll strike Washington

or the Dems themselves: oodles of them go hand in glove with Bush and the GOP. Witness the IWR and all the incessant excuses from DUERS! "It's not really a war authorization, it just unconstitutionally says declares itself to be," "Candidate X shouldn't regret the IWR vote," "mushroom cloud over Massachusetts!" Remember when Dean said Palestinians and Israelis should be treated as humans, not (respectively) as Untermenschen and Gods Among Us? Pelosi hit the roof!
The only reason many of these cons and "moderates" are opposing Iraq or Banana Head is because they're UNPOPULAR: if Iraqis were only starving to death en masse rather than getting blown up, it might be at 60% approval.

[Wiley50]

11. By this definition, We're Already There

Everything I see described is already in effect.
that explains a lot.

So, what do we do now.

[LibertyorDeath]

12. "So, what do we do now."

I read a lot of people like Chris Floyd that are very
good at analyzing the problem(s) but very few offer solutions.

Impeachment is the solution in the near term.

So I hope this is accurate

Conyers: 3 More Congress Members and I'll Impeach

"House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers has said that if three more Congress Members get behind impeachment he will start the impeachment proceedings."

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x3392226

[snappyturtle]

14. Thanks for the link........What do we do now? I wish we could

have Bill Moyers Journal on Impeachment running 24/7 on a major network! And, here's hoping Conyers can get three more members to co-sponsor. Time to do some more calling and e-mailing. Does anyone know of so good prospects?

[snappyturtle]

15. Not only thanks...everyone this is a must read if you haven't already!!

The must read link is at reply #12....I couldn't get it to "copy"....


The following is a list of those on H.R. 635....may be good targets to sign on to H.R. 333....

H.RES.635
Title: Creating a select committee to investigate the Administration's intent to go to war before congressional authorization, manipulation of pre-war intelligence, encouraging and countenancing torture, retaliating against critics, and to make recommendations regarding grounds for possible impeachment.
Sponsor: Rep Conyers, John, Jr. (introduced 12/18/2005) Cosponsors (38)
Latest Major Action: 12/18/2005 Referred to House committee. Status: Referred to the House Committee on Rules.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
COSPONSORS(38), ALPHABETICAL : (Sort: by date)
Rep Abercrombie, Neil - 1/31/2006 Rep Baldwin, Tammy - 1/31/2006
Rep Capps, Lois - 12/22/2005 Rep Capuano, Michael E. - 3/9/2006
Rep Clay, Wm. Lacy - 1/31/2006 Rep Davis, Danny K. - 3/30/2006
Rep Farr, Sam - 2/7/2006 Rep Fattah, Chaka - 4/27/2006
Rep Filner, Bob - 3/30/2006 Rep Hinchey, Maurice D. - 2/7/2006
Rep Honda, Michael M. - 2/8/2006 Rep Jackson, Jesse L., Jr. - 4/27/2006
Rep Jackson-Lee, Sheila - 12/22/2005 Rep Lee, Barbara - 2/1/2006
Rep Lewis, John - 2/7/2006 Rep Maloney, Carolyn B. - 2/7/2006
Rep McCollum, Betty - 3/14/2006 Rep McDermott, Jim - 1/31/2006
Rep McKinney, Cynthia A. - 2/7/2006 Rep Moore, Gwen - 2/14/2006
Rep Nadler, Jerrold - 1/31/2006 Rep Oberstar, James L. - 2/1/2006
Rep Olver, John W. - 2/16/2006 Rep Owens, Major R. - 1/31/2006
Rep Payne, Donald M. - 12/22/2005 Rep Rangel, Charles B. - 12/22/2005
Rep Rothman, Steven R. - 9/6/2006 Rep Sabo, Martin Olav - 3/2/2006
Rep Sanders, Bernard - 3/9/2006 Rep Schakowsky, Janice D. - 1/31/2006
Rep Solis, Hilda L. - 5/3/2006 Rep Stark, Fortney Pete - 1/31/2006
Rep Tierney, John F. - 2/16/2006 Rep Velazquez, Nydia M. - 2/14/2006
Rep Waters, Maxine - 12/22/2005 Rep Watson, Diane E. - 11/14/2006
Rep Woolsey, Lynn C. - 12/22/2005 Rep Wu, David - 3/14/2006
Rep Lofgren, Zoe - 12/22/2005(withdrawn - 1/31/2006)

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Hope Lamar Smith is ready for his daily dose from me.....and Oberstar..I moved to TX from MN last December....of course, I may have to find a way "around" the address issue but this is so important I say, "It's any port in a storm" right now! If you go to the link two replies above,the list is easier to read!!

[snappyturtle]

16. KICK!

:kick:

[bbgrunt]

17. Mr. Floyd has an awesome ability to speak the truth eloquently.