We Sure Are Going Out With A Whimper, Aren't We?

[ThomWV]

I always sort of thought that if in a time way off in the future this country slid into lawlessness it would be with a bang. You know, the stuff of Science Fiction movies with roving gangs after the war to end all wars.

I never thought it would be like this. People at the top would just start breaking laws and nobody would care about it. We'd all be robbed at pen point and get up the next morning and hope we still had a job so we could be robbed again. Imagine that the Government itself would make tax returns into pay-day-loans ... and get away with it.

This nation is on its knees economically and a great part of the reason is that we have allowed a war to continue long after we realized it had been started just for the purpose of establishing a base for war profiteering. That's what its about you know, war profiteering. Its from the oil, its from the meals for the troops, its for the non-existent rebuilding of what we destroyed, its every pallet load of hundred dollar bills that disappeared into the black hole of the green zone, it is KBR and buildings never built, MREs never delivered.

And we just stand around like cows chewing shit-stained grass. I never thought it would end like this.

[Philosoraptor]

1. We certainly are pathetic, that's for sure.

[Sarah Ibarruri]

2. We can thank Republicans for that war-for-profit. nt

[leftofthedial]

18. plenty of "democrats"

have been enablers, accomplices and pathetic lapdogs for the illegal invasion and occupation or Iraq and for the phony "war" on "terror."

[Sarah Ibarruri]

65. Sure, however, this system is designed that way. Either you kiss the asses of the rich, or you

don't get elected. Within that sickly framework, politicians try to do what they can to pass fair legislation. What WE the people have to do is get out there and get ANGRY. Not just one person, but all. When we get very very angry, and start having non-stop civil unrest, then things might begin to change. Until then, even election laws will be designed to require the approval$ of the rich.

[Newsjock]

3. I wish you were right ...

... but my fear is that it's just beginning. We ain't seen nothin' yet.

[aquart]

4. That would be correct.

[Booster]

5. I still can't get over the Pentagon losing a couple of trillion dollars

AND NO ONE GIVES A SHIT. Just boggles my mind.

[Benhurst]

7. At last!

Someone else who noticed!

:hi:

[Booster]

10. Well, seriously. How in the Hell do you even do that? That has

to mean that the Pentagon doesn't keep ANY books at all on their accounting procedures - I can accept "I was stupid and paid $700 for a toilet seat", but to get "well, it's gone and we don't know where it went" is just unacceptable. Shouldn't Congress (or somebody) have said they were going to audit the Pentagon's books? Is that asking too much? I think you and I are the only people who are upset about this. ha :hi:

[Virginia Dare]

29. I still can't get over the fact that...

somebody attempted to murder at least two U.S. Senators with anthrax and everybody was so busy shitting bricks over 9/11 it just went by the wayside.

[WinkyDink]

62. Depends on what the meaning of "losing" is. IYKWIM.

[Booster]

64. I think the meaning of losing in this case is "stealing" because

they know they can get away with it right now.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

6. The war will end when enough people realize they're paying for it.

"All politics is local.", said Tip O'Neil, and he was right.

So far, Bush, with the aid of a compliant congress has gotten away with it by borrowing money. The well is running dry and they've had to resort to cutting much needed programs.

Joe citizen is starting to feel the pinch.

[Dhalgren]

12. And the "pinch" has been timed to coincide with the new Democratic

President and majority. We are Larry Fines; we know Mo is going to poke us in the eyes, but when he says, "Look at this!", we can't help but look like what we will see will be different than the last hundred times, when all we saw was fingers coming at us in the dark...

[Selatius]

8. The history books show that's how democracy ends. It's how the Roman Republic ended.

You still have debates over the exact point where the Republic became an Empire, but nonetheless, the day it happens is usually not noticed by the people living at the time.

[natrat]

9. in fairness we used to have congressmen who were not totally corrupt

and a similar media

[Karenina]

13. That was then. This is now.

I say that even though your recollection my be slightly faulty.

[Kermitt Gribble]

11. Nobody cares.

The vast majority cares about getting their kids to soccer practice and what's happening on their favorite teevee shows. Most are totally put off by anything that mentions politics or government, and the rest get their information from the likes of Brian Williams. They are a perfectly-behaved herd of sheep.

[Skittles]

22. they are STARTING to notice

but it is way, WAY late

[Virginia Dare]

30. It's like somebody mentioned the other day..

until people's everyday lives are effected, no significant action will be taken to correct things.

[Yellow Horse]

46. Well, gas going up triple since * (.23 in the past week alone) has GOT to get SOMEone's attention

I don't know who has got this money, that they can absorb these price rises and not notice. And it is not only the gas, it is everything else, that is delivered via fossil fuel vehicle like milk, bread, eggs. And hay to feed the animals that produce these things.

This money has to be coming from SOMEwhere. It's money that they are not spending on kids' soccer lessons, or vacations, or not saving, or SOMEthing.

And they've GOT to notice. I can't be the only person who is this poor.

[Virginia Dare]

48. That's true Yellow Horse..

when people can no longer afford their daily Starbucks runs and their cable T.V., then they will sit up and notice. Too late, unfortunately.

Welcome to DU!

[Yellow Horse]

49. Well thanks for the welcome but I've been on here watching the decline since 2004.

Starting with the stolen election.

[Virginia Dare]

50. Haven't seen you around..

always good to see a new friendly face...:hi:

[Poll_Blind]

14. Thom, I've noticed this too and it scares me much more than if people...

...were in the streets, breaking windows every night because of the Iraq war, etc.

  The level of docility is unexpected and alarming. I'll tell you what it reminds me of- It makes me feel like I'm at a party and someone is loudly making just the nastiest, most vulgar racist jokes.

  And everyone except me has their head down, pretending like it's not happening.

  Of all the endings this country could have, it's going to fucking have the Soylent Green ending. That just beats all as far as I'm concerned.

  Be seein' ya in the fields!

PB

[Ghost Dog]

19. TV is the most powerful narcotic

ever consumed en masse.

[ThomWV]

56. That's a great analogy!

That's just what its like, being at that party with the most vulgar racist jokes from the loudest of them. The only difference we're starting to see is mumbling from the assembled crowd, they know its vulgar but there is just enough that they agree with that they keep their heads down. Mumbling is better than silence I guess, so maybe there is some hope that this giant will wake up.

[Mythsaje]

15. Who the fuck is standing around chewing grass?

Not us.

Some of us have been screaming our heads off for years.

[lonestarnot]

16. We need to do way more than scream! Yell FIRE!

[Gimli]

59. We don't have to go out this way!

If you look at the PNAC agenda, they have been planning this for quite some time and planted their own opposition. We are just trying to catch up as so many people are blindly trusting and do not realize just how evil people can be.
We need to take back the US Congress for We the People so this is not allowed to continue. Right now there are too few progressive Dems running for House and Senate Seats. Many of the same enablers are elected unopposed time and time again. There might be Dems on Du right now, who should consider running for office. Think of all your friends here at DU that will help. WE have the net, we have each other- THink it over.
Here is a list of peace candidates currently running
http://peacecandidates.com/peace_candidate_list
Check here for the requirements in your state
http://peacecandidates.com/states

[bdamomma]

35. yea, we're screaming but who is listening.

maybe there is truth in that actions speak louder than words

[Mythsaje]

38. Depends on the action...n/t

[raccoon]

40. Thank you! nt

[Psyop Samurai]

17. I don't think many of us could have forseen...

They had what - 60 years to perfect scientific fascism? How to manage dissent. How to wage mind-war. All by stealth and misdirection.

And when they showed their cards - the whole friggin' deck - it was the biggest mind-fuck of all, because if you saw it, you were "crazy". Suddenly the people's minds were gone, as was the integrity of every one of our institutions (assuming there ever was any beyond smoke and mirrors).

It's interesting (as in "interesting" times) to become a dissident in your own country, simply by being what you've always been. And you start to think horrifying thoughts like, "my God, are they going to come for me?"

Then one day you waken to an even more horrifying thought: they are not coming for you. They don't need to.

[The2ndWheel]

20. There is a price to pay for an ever increasing control by corporations and governments over life

This would be one of them.

What do we end up doing to solve these problems? We keep giving more control to corporations and governments. Why should it be surprising? Corporations are now global, and governments are more distant than ever. What are people supposed to do? We exist to serve the corporate state. Like you said, what are we going to do, stop going to work? That would mean we would have no money(which keeps us tied to the corporate state) to buy the food that the corporate states owns. There would be no taxes to build the infrastructure needed to get to work and mold the next generation of cogs(you know, our precious children).

I can't imagine us going out any other way. At every step, at every election, at every purchase, we end up giving more control to either corporations, governments, and sometimes both at the same time. Why? It's easier. We get to chase our dreams that way. We get to live limitless lives. If we just give more and more over to the two dominant institutions of our day, we don't have to worry about a goddamn thing.

[earth mom]

21. What do you expect when people here on DU think there's nothing wrong with H or O?!

Hillary voted for the war and has NEVER apologized for that vote.

Obama voted to fund the war and has recently been saber rattling toward so called terrorists in Pakistan. (oooh-terra terra terra-sound familiar?)

Make NO mistake: BOTH will serve their corporate masters who profit handsomely from war-ANY WAR.

We are looking at ENDLESS WARS, folks.

But who gives a damn because it's more important to have a "historic" presidential race between a woman and an African American. :eyes:

Can you say "Good Germans"?

:puke:

[leftchick]

24. good Germans

:puke:

[Steerpike]

25. You are a tool....

If you think Obama or Hillary are comparable to any Republican. We would never have gone to war if either of them were president. We would have a healthy thriving economy if Obama or Hillary were in charge. And the world would be a gentler kinder place if Democrats were in control of the Whitehouse. People who think like you are stupid. (not you...just people who think like you :rant: )

[Donnachaidh]

26. gentler kinder place if O or H becomes president?

:wow: :crazy: :tinfoilhat: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

Haven't been paying much attention, have you? :sarcasm: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

[leftchick]

27. lol!

you forgot the sarcasm smilie. :eyes:

[Tyler Durden]

33. You know, they aren't Republicans...

But they sure as HELL aren't even close to being left of center Democrats.

I can say this of both of them, as I do not have a horse in the race. Truly.

[SammyWinstonJack]

44. You're the tool. But you will have too wait to find that out, unfortunately.

[Mythsaje]

45. With a belated welcome to DU

I have to say you're right.

They're NOT Republicans. They're not the best options we might have had, but the unconscious echoes of Nader's rallying cry on the part of otherwise loyal Democrats is so blatant it might be funny if it weren't so sad.

There damn well BETTER be a difference, else we might as well give up, pack up, and go home.

[earth mom]

51. NO-the "TOOL" is YOU. Why didn't you & everyone on DU support Edwards, hmm?

Edwards while not perfect, told all of us that he would fight the corporate bastards and get us out of Iraq!

Why wasn't DU totally, unequivocally behind him?! Hell, even the owners of DU didn't back Edwards!

You are delusional if you think H or O will stop the war. No, you are getting what you are asking for: MORE WAR delivered to you by the corporations that run this country like puppeteers behind the scenes. There's nothing kind or gentle about their intentions!

So who's the stupid one here? Stupid is as Stupid does as the saying goes and I'd say YOU are the chump who is willing to sell YOUR common sense, soul and integrity and give those greedy bastards a free pass to continue to kill over in the middle east in YOUR name and paid for with YOUR tax dollars for absolutely no reason except GREED!!!

NEWS FLASH FOR YA:
A MILLION PEOPLE HAVE DIED IN IRAQ FOR A LIE. FYI-THE BIG BAD TERRA-ISTS WERE NOT FROM IRAQ IN THE FIRST PLACE!!!


Now go back to your Faux News like a Good German.

[TheWatcher]

55. And you are a tool of The Matrix you so desperately need to believe in so that you may function.

I knew we'd see one of these posts in this thread sooner or later.

Honestly there is no way you can state the above statement is true. I think the problem with most people like you is you seem to meet the questioning of and scrutiny of your "football team" with the same blind herd think and faith that the other side does. The OP speaks the truth, and many others in this thread have articulated very well that it really doesn't matter WHO we choose. It's a harsh reality.

If we choose H or O we will get a kinder, gentler Matrix to live in, but you and I and the rest of the cogs will not see any real, major changes. There will be just enough to keep the masses grazing and believing that something different is occurring, but in the end it will all be theater. A big show dressed up to make you believe something is actually changing, but in the end, the Entities that actually run this country will lumber forward with their agendas, with us once again being used as nothing more than a means to an end.

People like you are not stupid, they just don't want to think. They cannot handle the prospect or the reality of the circumstances in which they live.

And quite frankly, I think the reason posts like yours are so visceral, is because deep down you are scared to death the person you are so visceral toward is RIGHT.

Stop living in fear.

Willful ignorance and superior indifference WON'T save you.

Your fate will be no different than the rest of us.

The only difference is you will never see it coming.

[baby_mouse]

57. Actually, they're very comparable to Republicans.

One day one of you lot will back up this typical non-counterpoint with some evidence of how they are comparable to Democrats.

I'll be waiting.

[bdamomma]

36. yea, and never say

it could never happen here, cause we all know now it has.

[fascisthunter]

41. .

[SammyWinstonJack]

43. !!!

:applause: But who gives a damn because it's more important to have a "historic" presidential race between a woman and an African American. :eyes:

Exactly!

[Uncle Joe]

52. It's an interesting choice for a nation of approximately 300 million people, either

Bush, Clinton, Bush, Clinton or Dick Cheney's cousin?

[Perry Logan]

23. You might try avoiding the media news. It's specifically designed to make liberals feel this way.

[Virginia Dare]

28. It ain't over 'till it's over...

how long did it take the Roman Empire to fall? We're on a decline but we haven't hit bottom yet I'm afraid.

[raccoon]

31. Well, we tried. Or some of us did.

We protested. We attended rallies. We called/wrote/emailed our Congresscritters.

A great many Americans are still drinking the koolaid.

And it doesn't help populism that the corporate media is telling a pack of lies, lies, lies.

[Tyler Durden]

32. Hey, all those rich bastards have to have a place to run to, don't they?

http://guide.theemiratesnetwork.com/living/dubai/the_world_islands.php
http://guide.theemiratesnetwork.com/living/dubai/the_palm_islands.php
http://www.cocobayestates.com/ (mute before opening if at work) (Costa Rica)
http://www.lcre.org/?gclid=CN2b9LzJ5JECFQJEPAodgiZPgA (LUXURY in Mexico)

[Stuart G]

34. It ain't over till the fat lady sings........

It ain't over yet.. More may come perhaps, and it might be like you say. with a bang......

[Javaman]

37. The bigger the empire, the larger the whimper. nt

[go west young man]

39. Americans are still getting their information from the corrupt media

that lied them into the war and has been serving Republican/corporate interest's for decades. Hannity, O'reilly, Scarborough, Dobbs, Carlson, Blitzer, Matthews and the rest all sounded the bugle that has killed what America stood for and we gave them a free pass. We still watch their crap shows and we have yet to punish anyone for the madness. When you have no accountability you have no respect for law anymore and then you have no democracy. The rest of the world watches the experiment in democracy that America is in order to find out what "not" to do. The whole world has learned a valuable lesson lately. One we are all worried about.

[tabasco]

42. It's the telescreens.

The tv generation is easily manipulated.

We are conditioned to consume and obey the corporate will and to keep us in line we are barraged with "prison shows" to show us how lucky we are to be "free."

When more people get hungry, things will change. Maybe. But people will give up food before they give up their tv. Bet on it.

[Uncle Joe]

47. I totally agree it's mass hypnosis,

and the Cop reality shows do precisely what you said.

I believe the beginning of the end was this ludicrous Orwellian "War Against An Inanimate Object". How the hell do you win a war against an inanimate object? You can't but you can steadily erode the freedom and privacy of the American People using this war as a pretext.

Regarding the O.P.'s premise of going out with a whimper, I believe this is directly related to the government making by default a large percentage if not majority of the American People criminals, thereby dis-empowering them. And the attitude of the rest of the Americans is "first they came for the drug users, but I wasn't a drug user so I didn't care".

When that well runs dry if it ever does, they can and have switched it to the "War Against Being Afraid", another ludicrous Orwellian term, which is literally impossible to win but serves the same purpose of dis-empowering the American People by making them all suspect and invading their privacy.

Our increasingly authoritarian government and the corporate media are in cahoots together on this whether by concurrence or by intimidation, the results are the same and our nation is dying as a direct result of these insane policies.

America land of the free and home of the brave, except it's citizens aren't free and they're becoming increasingly afraid of their government. I believe this is the crux of the problem.

[earth mom]

53. I'd say they're coming after the debtors next. How many of us don't have perfect credit?

The Constitution was set up the way it was for a reason. Too bad the people it's supposed to protect don't bother to actually read and understand it's meaning.

Maybe then they'd behave like the French.

[Uncle Joe]

54. I have no doubt the for profit corporate prison industry

would love a new debtors prison law, what a money maker for them.

[krkaufman]

58. Hey, don't count-out the roving gangs.

We just might not get there via the path you expected, though I wouldn't even count-out a final war pushing us into oblivion.

[MasonJar]

60. I truly believe that the reason that there is not more outrage is that

the cabal crimes are so daily. Ironically with the massive number of wrongs it is hard to concentrate on one because the next day there is another.

[vickitulsa]

66. What a cogent point!

I have experienced this aspect of our whimpering demise very personally and have seen others experiencing it as well.

I used to visit frequently with my neighbor, who had been indifferent to politics until we started talking a lot a few summers ago. My persistent rants targeting mostly BushCo and republicans finally got her interested and eventually riled up about the situation. Her husband and then their friends and family members became more involved, began voting when they had not bothered to before, and I felt for awhile that I had accomplished a good thing, perhaps even causing a ripple effect.

Then last summer it became ridiculous, as the offenses and crimes wrought against the people by "our leaders" made headlines so regularly, my conversations with my neighbor devolved from protesting rants into near-hopeless sighs -- not quite of surrender but it feels damn close when I examine it.

Now when we talk more again as spring nears, she asks me, "What should we DO? What CAN we do about it?," I find myself throwing up my hands. It seems that all the suggestions I was making last summer have become almost pointless and futile.

I don't want to give up, but I honestly do NOT KNOW what to do anymore! I certainly don't feel confident that my suggestions from years past will be effective at this point.

So someone, anyone, please tell me: WHAT is it that I can do? HOW do we fight back now?

I not only need some answers for my neighbor, I need them for myself.


What does one do when those in power have simply put us all on IGNORE while they continue without pausing in their destructive behavior?

[WinkyDink]

61. Welcome to the Third World States of America.

[Hugin]

63. Very sad...

The worst part is it's happened while I'm still mentally competent enough to know it's happening.

[Mark Twain Girl]

67. Thing is, I still know so many people who don't see it

I swear, some days I feel like an alien walking the earth. How can they not see? Do they not pay for gas? Do they know no one that has lost a job and can't find another? Do they never worry about a healthcare disaster? We can't be the only ones hurting and scared in this economy/political climate. I sometimes feel like we care about celebrities (and politicians who are becoming increasingly like celebrities) more than we care about each other.

We need to shine light on the corporations and military structures that are breaking our backs. The oil the military guzzles. The endless dollars for despotic regimes when we can't fund clinics and after school programs. What has to happen? Argh, it's so hard not to lose it, just typing the words. Why are these things considered the "loony left"? Aren't they as basic as basic could possibly be?