Just a few questions: What is happening to us?

[HamdenRice]

What’s going on here?

What is this thing that is happening to us?

How did we get into this situation?

How did they get away with it? Why aren’t the reporters asking the big obvious questions?

What if we’re not really a good people? Even if there were evil people who wanted to kidnap and torture how did so many of our young people in the military and the CIA go along with it? Is it true that it’s been mainly the FBI people who were against it?

What were they thinking when beat those people in Abu Ghraib? Did they think they were doing something good for their country? Were they just fed up and scared? Were they just following orders? If they were just following orders, how are we different from the Germans back in the bad old days?

How many black site prisons are there? How many people have been disappeared? Have they assassinated anyone? Are the people in those prisons ever going to get out? Are some or many of them innocent? Do their families miss them?

What are those young men on the Military Channel shows on operations in Iraq thinking, when they yell at elderly Iraqi men in English expecting them to understand?

And what was the deal with those two British guys who were caught dressed up as Iraqis shooting wildly with bombs in their car?

And what really happened to that guy, Nick Berg? Why have we forgotten him? Did anyone ever get to the bottom of that? Was he really in U.S. custody shortly before he was killed? Why hasn’t anyone ever followed up on how weird that video was?

How did his business partner in Iraq, Aziz al-Taee, the last man to talk to him, go from being convicted of being one of the biggest distributors of crack vials on the east coast of the United States, to chairman of the Iraqi-American Congress, the main Iraqi-American organization in support of the war (who elected him?), to making speeches with Jeff Gannon, to making presentations at the Council on Foreign Relations, to being on PBS, to ending up in Iraq as Nick Berg’s business partner? Where is he now? What happened to him?

Why are so many of the people connected to George Bush so bizarre? Why do they have such bizarre histories?

Can anyone tell me what the war in Iraq is really, really about, anyway? Didn’t it come out somewhere that they knew there were no weapons of mass destruction? If it’s about the oil, why are oil prices so high?

Isn’t attacking a country a war crime? Isn’t that the ultimate international crime? Isn’t that what Japan was found guilty of after World War II? How is George Bush any different?

Why doesn’t anyone on the tv and why don’t most Democratic politicians use the word “lie” when talking about George Bush and the war? Is there some taboo about that? Does it have to do with public relations or something? Isn’t it obvious that George Bush lies? Would it shock the public to hear people say it on tv?

How many soldiers have been wounded? How are they doing? How many have lost arms or legs? Is that number available anywhere? What must it be like to be so young and not have an arm or a leg or to be burned or have a severe brain injury?

What’s going on over there in Iraq? Why are there so few pictures of the war?

(When is my partner’s nephew going to get out of Iraq? What is he going through over there?)

How many Iraqis have died? Which number that gets thrown around – sometimes I hear 30,000 and sometimes I hear 1,000,000 – is closer, because these are really different estimates? Does that mean that the difference of 970,000 dead Iraqis isn’t important?

Do they think of Iraqis as human?

Do we?

What happens to our country when oil prices go from a dollar something a gallon to four dollars a gallon in a few years? How can all that money be sucked out of all those household budgets of people already just getting by, without them being unable to afford other things? Where did all that money go – to the oil companies? Could George Bush be serious, could he possibly be serious, when he proposes more subsidies for oil companies from our tax dollars?

Are they really going to bomb Iran? Don’t they know that that would be a military disaster? What are they thinking?

What’s up with the price of food? How can people afford it? If it’s tough for Americans, how are all those people I met in Africa who were just barely earning enough to eat every day going to eat now?

What’s in it for the corporations that aren’t in the oil business or the arms business? As rich as they are, don’t they think they would have been even richer if someone like Al Gore or John Kerry had been president? What do they have against Democrats? Don’t they think they would have been richer if the economy had done what it did under Clinton during the last seven years? All those business people who are used to using spread sheets, and calculating debt and equity and net worth – aren’t they able to predict what will happen to the federal government now that it’s taken on so much debt? Don’t they think about what condition their businesses would be in, if they had been managed the way George Bush had managed the federal government and budget?

Why are stores in New York advertising that they accept Euros? Has that ever happened before? Should I be worried? Why are so many houses in my neighborhood suddenly empty and for sale? Where did the families that owned them go?

In fact, where did all that money go? How many trillions is it at this point, it’s so big I can’t even remember or grasp it – the difference between the surpluses that were projected and the debt we’re now in? How can the Pentagon, CIA, and other parts of the military-industrial complex spend a trillion dollars a year?

How can the federal government award hundreds of billions of dollars to a company once controlled by the vice president? Has that ever happened before? Isn’t that illegal in some way? Why don’t the reporters and newscasters talk about this?

What happened to those billions and billions of dollars that just disappeared in Iraq? What happened to the $9 billion that the governments admits simply can’t be accounted for? Isn’t that illegal? Isn’t someone responsible? Those dollars had to end up in someone’s bank account, right? Whose? What are they being used for now? What happened to those bricks of shrink wrapped hundred dollar bills that soldiers jokingly remember playing football with? What happened to the plane loads of hundred dollar bills flown out of the Federal Reserve Bank in New York to Iraq? What happened to the millions and millions that Paul Bremer was trying to give away at the last minute? Isn’t that interesting to the people on tv?

Why don’t we produce anything anymore? What happened to the factories? Everyone whose voice gets into the media seems to think free trade is a good thing, but by their own free market theory, doesn’t that mean that eventually the wages of American factory workers have to fall to the level of wages of factory workers in Mexico or China? If free market theory is so perfect, and they talk about it so much, why don’t they follow through with the theory when they are telling us what’s good for us? Why don’t they tell us what will happen when wages of Chinese workers and wages of American workers reach equilibrium? Will we be as poor as them or will they be as rich as us?

Why do they think the 1950s and 1960s were so bad?

What’s going on down there in Latin America? Who is this Lula guy? Is Chavez really a dictator? I thought he was elected, so how can he be a dictator? What’s so bad about using oil money to feed the poor and provide education and health to the working people? Why is using oil money to give people education and health care a threat to our national security? Can anyone tell my why I’m supposed to think Chavez is evil? Why are they telling us this?

If American corporations can move anywhere, are they American corporations anymore? Do their executives have any sense that they are American?

Can we really think of ourselves as a country anymore?

Why is it that my father and mother, my aunts and uncles, who had just elementary school educations or high school educations, could talk about politics and economics more intelligently than anyone on tv, or for that matter, most college educated and even graduate school educated young professionals I meet these days? Was it the great war – did they learn something going through that? Or was it the Great Depression? Did Franklin Roosevelt explain things to them in a way no one is doing now? Was it Martin Luther King or John F. Kennedy or Bobby Kennedy or even Lyndon Johnson or Thurgood Marshall or William O. Douglas or Earl Warren or Edward R. Murrow or Walter Cronkite who explained things to them that no one seems to get anymore?

And why isn’t there a Martin Luther King today? Why can’t we produce people like that anymore?

Why is it that in the most important election we’ve ever had in my lifetime, my party is experimenting with nominating the first woman or first black man in American history? Like any black man, I would love to see the first black president or the first woman president, but couldn’t that experiment have waited for a less important election? Couldn’t we have gotten one last white guy, just not to piss off the red states, the bigots and the sexists, in this the most important election of our lives?

Why now? Who chose Obama and Clinton?

Why are Hillary and Obama arguing over Reverend Wright, and the use of the word bitter. Aren’t there more pressing issues to talk about? That last debate – what’s up with that? How did we let them take over our debates?

Why is it that Kucinich is too short? Who said that? Why is it that back in 2004, some reporter told Matt Taibi that on policy Kucinich obviously is the best candidate, but that he’s not interesting enough to consider a front-runner?

How tall was Harry Truman, anyway?

Why didn’t they cover John Edwards? Al Gore – what’s up with that? Is he really just happy doing what he’s doing or does he know something I don’t know about taking over the country at this time? Should I be worried about that?

What did my old college buddy mean, the one who works for CBS and who I heard from out of the blue a few years ago, when they said that the producers at CBS news are so embarrassed by the CBS morning news that they can barely bring themselves to watch their own program? If that story is true, who is giving them their orders and why? And if it’s true, then why don’t their competitors make fun of them? Is it the same at all the other media outlets? Who's telling them what to report?

I remember, especially back during the Cold War, when governments of countries used to compete over things like life expectancy, literacy, per capita income, educational achievement, cultural achievement, and all those things that make life better for the average person; is the United States government interested in that competition any more? Even though it represses its people, China still seems to be in that competition, but does George Bush think about that competition? Why are the Europeans, the Canadians, the Australians – heck the Brazilians, the South Africans, the Venezuelans, the Tanzanians, the Mozambiqueans, the West Indians, the Vietnamese and so many others still in that competition when we seem not to be? How have they sold us on competing to be the most patriotic and most loyal to free market theory rather than on results that affect the average guy? Why isn’t anyone upset that we’re going backwards on the basics? How do they convince so many people that they’re doing better under George Bush? How can the media people still say that with a straight face?

And speaking of cultural achievements, where did gangsta rap come from? What happened to groups with messages, whether political or fun or silly messages, like Shinehead or Run DMC or Public Enemy? Who’s promoting so called artists who have violent criminal backgrounds? Are those the best there is out there? Who’s choosing them to get the record deals? Who’s putting those video games out? What do they think when they are writing those programs to make bodies explode in a hail of bullets? Do they think that’s good for the kids or just funny? Do they care? Why is there nothing to listen to on the radio? Why are there so many good bands on the Lower East Side and East Village in Manhattan, and none of them are able to get record deals? Why is it that there can be 100 channels on cable and yet nothing on tv? Why does the history channel now treat flying dragons, and UFOs, and bible stories as history? What are they trying to tell us?

Why don’t we have universal health care, like the Europeans? Is there something bad about universal health care? Why is everyone on the tv and running for office saying that a European or Canadian style system of out of the question before they even get elected? Wouldn’t it make sense to study all the options – especially if that’s the system that polls say Americans want?

Why did they shoot Sean Bell? Is it normal for a society to have policemen shoot a guy fifty times on his wedding day – and for the officers to be acquitted completely? What’s in it for the police department or even the police union to help such police officers get acquitted?

What’s going on here?

Is there something behind the scenes I don’t understand?

Was the judge who acquitted them serious? Did he even believe his own decision and opinion?

Why aren’t more people angry about this? Have we gotten used to it?

What really happened on 9/11? If the chairmen of the commission now admit they were lied to and didn’t get to the bottom of things, and many of the staff wanted to indict witnesses for perjury, why doesn’t anyone in Congress or the media want to know what the 9/11 Commission didn’t learn? What’s up with the Bush family and the bin Laden family, anyway? How many coincidences can there be before people are justified in getting suspicious? How involved were the Saudis and the Pakistanis and why aren’t we curious about that?

Why are there people who are so militant about the official story, even if the chairmen no longer believe it? Why did George Bush have to give his evidence with Cheney in the room? Has that ever happened before? What was George Bush covering up if the chairmen think they were lied to? Isn’t that an interesting question to anyone?

Why didn’t we catch bin Laden? Why did they outsource catching bin Laden to warlords? How can they get away with explaining that by saying they didn’t want to take American casualties after all the casualties we’ve suffered in Iraq? Don’t we have any memory anymore?

And speaking of warlords, how can we take over Afghanistan and poppy production come back and soar to the biggest crops ever? Where is all that opium going? Who is getting addicted? Whose lives are being ruined forever by heroine addiction and why would they let it come back like that?

Katrina – what the fuck was that about? Putting aside how big it was, and how difficult it was, and what they say about Brownie’s incompetence, how is it that the Army, Air Force, Navy, Marines, Coast Guard, FEMA, Louisiana State Police, the entire force and infrastructure of the United States of America couldn’t helicopter in a few pallets of water and food at the Superdome?

What really was going on there?

Was it because they were on vacation? Was it really all just incompetence? How incompetent do you have to be not to be able to get a few pallets of water by helicopter to the Superdome or Convention Center after days and days?

How is it that Americans died of thirst waiting for water for four or five days?

Tell me that – how is it that Americans died of thirst waiting for water for days and days?

Who was keeping private responders like the Red Cross out of New Orleans? Who cut those telephone lines or threatened to cut them? Did that really happen? Why? Who gave those orders? Who followed those orders? Where are they now? Why hasn’t anyone asked them what they were thinking or who they were taking orders from? Do they sleep at night? Why haven’t they said anything?

Why were thousands and thousands of survivors put on buses and planes and scattered across the country? Has that ever happened before, after a hurricane? Where are those people now? Did they get jobs? Are they doing OK?

Did they all find their family members? Do they want to go back to New Orleans?

Why weren’t those bodies picked up?

Honestly, I don’t get it – how could bodies be floating and lying in the street for days and weeks and months? Has that ever happened before? The Army and Marines have such a strong tradition of recovering bodies that they will risk getting killed to pick up American bodies, and when American coal miners are trapped underground and killed, we will do whatever it takes to recover the bodies – so why did we let bodies rot on the streets of an American city for weeks and weeks, just lying in the sun rotting like animal carcasses?

Is it because so many of them were black? Is there something else about New Orleans they hated?

Why can’t I get over the images I saw of New Orleans? Why do I always feel like crying just thinking about New Orleans?

What’s wrong with me?

Is that the way they want me to feel? What does it mean?

What’s happening down there? Why can’t we rebuild it?

And what if Katrina is from global warming? What if the ice melts? What is George Bush thinking when he works so hard to do nothing about global warming? Do they care if the world as we know it will end while their children or grandchildren are alive?

Paraguay – what’s up with that? Are they planning to flee there when everything collapses here?

How is George Bush getting away with it? Why is impeachment off the table? Am I really supposed to believe that Bill Clinton deserved to be impeached for lying about sex, but Bush doesn’t deserve to be impeached for starting a war of aggression based on lies, authorizing torture, detention without trial, domestic wiretapping without a warrant – and to top it off, telling us he won’t obey the law in signing statements?

Will they be held accountable after?

Are people in Washington scared of something?

(Should I be worried about writing this? Am I being watched? Is my posting this being traced back to my computer and correlated with my financial records, my health records, my movements on the subway using my metrocard – or am I being paranoid?)

How come it came out in a British newspaper that John Bolton was using the NSA to wiretap Colin Powell, but it did not come out in the papers here? And if that story is true, are other people being wiretapped?

What really happened to Eliot Spitzer? Sure he was a hypocrite and a jerk, but why was his involvement with hookers illegally leaked? How come no one got in trouble for that? What happened to that story that came out during the Spitzer scandal about a special unit in the Justice Department that continuously snoops on elected leaders? Why did that story die?

What’s up with Governor Seigelman? Why are they treating him that way? Is the Justice Department really going after Democrats? Are elected Democrats afraid of something?

What happened to the investigation of the politicization of the Justice Department? Who was doing that anyway? Is the press looking into that? Are they going to get away with that?

Didn’t John Conyers subpoena Bush’s people to investigate that? How come they can just ignore subpoenas? Has that ever happened before?

If they can ignore Congressional subpoenas, and if George Bush can tell them to their face he is not going to obey their laws, does Congress have any power any more – any at all?

Do we have law anymore?

Should I believe that the Constitution is still in effect?

What if it turns out the Constitution is useless?

What if it George Bush is only bursting our little myth that Constitution actually does anything? Didn’t they not enforce the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendment rights of black people for, like, eighty years or so?

What if there was a Constitution, but there’s not really a Constitution any more?

What’s going on here? Who are these people? If I can’t believe them when they explain what they are doing, what are they really doing? Some of them are big planners, so I know they must have some goal in mind – but what is it?

What happened in the last two elections? What really happened in Florida and on the Supreme Court? Did Sandra Day O’Conner really treat it like a partisan emergency at that cocktail party? What really happened in 2004 in Ohio? I saw those lines and lines and lines of people waiting to vote. If what I think happened, and if what I think is happening in the Democratic primary is happening, is there any way out of this?

Are they evil?

If they are evil, why are we letting them run things?

Why are we letting them get away with it?

What is this thing that has taken hold of us?

Is there any way out?

Why do I have this knot in my stomach all the time just thinking about them?

Why do I feel there is a great evil upon the land, one that may be bigger than George Bush and Dick Cheney?

What’s going to happen to us?

[lpbk2713]

1. Been watching Andy Rooney a little too much maybe?

:shrug:

[HamdenRice]

3. I almost never watch Andy Rooney

And if you read the post, you would see that the sentiment is pretty much diametrically opposed to his views on most issues.

[rdenney]

32. I'd watch Rooney if I needed to barf for some reason. nt

[pitohui]

39. you have a great sense of style, is probably what is meant

while rooney is/was a jerk (is he still living?), you have a similar way of posing questions to make a person stop and think -- a similar rhythm that is quite hypnotic

you can use your powers for good or evil, rooney chooses to use his rhetorical powers to be an ass, as far as i'm concerned

however, you can just as well use your gift for the good

i wouldn't take the comparison as an insult as i'm guessing none was intended

[HamdenRice]

43. Thanks, I think I did over-react

It's just that when you think through a long post and the first response is kind of snarky -- well, you get the idea.

[havocmom]

4. Rather simplistic pigeon-holing of a lot of good questions and observations.

THAT practice, I believe is part of how we got here.

[HamdenRice]

5. Thanks

It's demoralizing the compose a long theraputic rant, only to have it dismissed.

[havocmom]

6. Dismissing critical and crucial cultural self-examination is the tool of the RW

Their continual line of poppy-cock could not survive a day if we, as a people, started giving serious and regular thought to the inconsistencies between what we SAY we are and what is really going on in America.

It is the RW who tries to marginalize legitimate consideration of reality by dismissing it as something simple and easy to brush off. To see that tactic employed here indicates that DU is a strong voice for restoring some decency to America. To be so dismissed by some wanker might be considered to be a sort of validation of one's good work getting under their skin. ;)

You do good work for restoring sight to a people going blind. I appreciate and salute your efforts. And I will bite the ass of those who go about pooh-poohing critical thought which is the only way our nation can remain relevant and vital.

[HamdenRice]

7. Some here are just flippant and unserious

Especially with the primaries, everyone is in snark mode. I rarely post anymore, because all the oxygen has been sucked out of the room by those who are violently partisan for Hillary or Obama.

Meanwhile the big issues are being ignored and may not be addressed by the next president if we are very very unlucky.

Thanks again!

[havocmom]

9. Yes, and some here are not really us

but them ;)

I have noticed you are seldom seen and I have missed your input around here. I keep O2 in bottles by my computer. It helps :hi:

[Supersedeas]

99. pretty much Hamden and Media has a complete blackout on "news" in order to cover the silly season

[datasuspect]

40. dismissiveness is the best indicator of a weak intellect

[bananas]

2. I was just wondering the same thing

How did we let this happen?
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=3225132&mesg_id=3225829

[zonmoy]

8. simplest answer

modern civilization has started its death spiral.

[HamdenRice]

12. Maybe we have, but Europe hasn't

What's so bad to our "leaders" about our being more like the rest of the world?

Don't you think there is a profound difference between the way the US is behaving and responding to challenges compared to the rest of the world?

That's one of the questions posed in the OP.

[zonmoy]

23. Unless europe is weaning themselves from fossil fuels to the point that they are going into a

permanent power down I don't see how they are doing all that much. Because I think that is what the world is probably going to have to do. unless you can prove that all manufacturing, transportation, and all other services can be done on a purely non fossil fuel using basis.

[havocmom]

81. Generations of train use in Europe v everybody gets in their own car

Not the total abandonment of fossil fuels, true, but a LONG tradition of reliance on mass transit... along with bicycles and walking.

[tavalon]

60. I think the US is behaving just like

Germany under Hitler did.

[Harry Monroe]

73. We've had our place in the sun, now the American experiment is dying

Just like the Roman Empire. We are on the downward slope of the bell curve, the same bell curve that describes all empires and powers throughout history. But we don't want to realize or acknowledge that it is happening and nothing will be done about it, until it is too late. And then our reaction, unfortunately, will be one of violence and war, I'm afraid, like a rabid cornered dog unable to realize what is happening and our brain addled with rabies. The rest of the world may have to end up shooting us to put us out or our misery. Every great power has their moment and then is relegated to the dustbin of history. I'm not very optimistic about American continuing on as a beacon of hope and a shining example of virtuous values. The decline has been happening for quite a long time now. Unfortunately, our government has no solutions to get us out of this mess.


“The budget should be balanced, the treasury refilled, public debt reduced, the arrogance of officialdom tempered and controlled, and the assistance to foreign lands curtailed, lest Rome become bankrupt”
Cicero, Quintus Tullius

[HamdenRice]

74. The British managed the decline of their empire well, looks like we won't

It is possible. Look at how much higher the standard of living is today within the UK, than it was at the end of empire. It was a matter of targeting resources to the home country rather than propping up an expensive, irrational empire.

[SammyWinstonJack]

78. I think it boils down to American Greed and we have plenty of that.

[reprehensor]

10. Yeah.

Why?

[HamdenRice]

15. Even by elite logic

it no longer makes sense.

[Mrs. Overall]

11. Thank you for taking the time to write this out. Your recurring questions

are perfectly placed for an almost poetic prose effect.

These sorts of questions are rattling around my head all the time now, and I must say it is a bit shocking to see it all written out on a page, to see how many horrible, criminal, and downright odd things have been happening the last eight years.

I just hope answers and justice happen within our lifetimes.

I don't agree with everything you have written (like about having a white guy as a candidate), but the majority of the issues you bring up are relevant and very disturbing, and are in need of true investigative journalism and reporting.

[HamdenRice]

13. It's almost too depressing to think of it all at once.

I was just asking myself -- how? why?

and not to be mystical, but is it something more than politics/economics at this point?

[Mrs. Overall]

16. I'm not exactly sure what's going on. I'm interested in what you see going on

that is beyond politics and economics.

[HamdenRice]

31. Some kind of moral and intellectual collapse

of which George Bush is just a symptom? The effects of decades of tv?

Then sometimes I think it's more inexplicable, like karma.

[mithnanthy]

68. Thank you for your How's and Why's...

Excellent questions! After reading this,hopefully many people won't be so obsessed about flag lapel pins and will ASK THESE QUESTIONS instead.

[QueenOfCalifornia]

14. I think you win

for longest rant ever on the DU.... :hi:

[bdamomma]

17. I hate to say this, but if this was happening to other country

with thugs running their government people by the numbers would run them out of the country.

we are too "passive and helpless", to quote Mike Malloy.

[dysfunctional press]

18. we're ALL complicit, and we're ALL guilty...

just like dorothy ALWAYS had the power at her toe-tips to return to kansas- WE'VE always had the power to depose the cheney mis-administration- that's part of why the founders gave us the second amendment. the people, united- can NEVER be defeated.
but we, as a people have found it easier to just go along with the program- kinda like the german citizenry in the 1930's.

we have only ourselves to blame.

[LynzM]

21. I agree...

There are still more of us than there are of them... but until you can't get beer and television... /sigh

[bdamomma]

so if we only have ourselves to blame

do we have to take everyone else down with us? Shouldn't we as citizens (not consumers) confront this government of ours.

[dysfunctional press]

25. we should definitely confront them. but we won't.

that's why they know that they have total impunity to do whatever they damn well please.

[Echo In Light]

62. Brainwashed

I'll take your evil wind
And give it right back to ya
Hungry buzzards are waiting
On the grey fence of ignorance
It's a classic case
They obfuscate
A brainwashed populace

Screaming crows and sirens
A normal world is cryin'
Bright bird of redemption
Winged truth with eyes of fire
One more fool
Divide and rule
A brainwashed populace

You dance around the question
Cause the answers you must hide
You crept into this dimension
Now be lost through all time
It's a classic case
They obfuscate
A brainwashed populace

~ Spirit Caravan, Brainwashed

[info being]

19. The human race is cancer on the earth (another simple answer)

[info being]

20. Read Naomi Klein, The Shock Doctrine, for many of the answers

[zonmoy]

26. an even better book on the subject.

The Long Emergency: Surviving the End of Oil, Climate Change, and Other Converging Catastrophes of the Twenty-First Century

[Echo In Light]

54. Naomi Wolfe's End of America, Hedges' American Fascists, Chomsky, Eric Alterman What Liberal Media?

There's also a host of quality doc films on the subject of the American empire:

Orwell Rolls In His Grave
Manufacturing Consent
Zeitgeist
Why We Fight

[barbtries]

94. thank you -

at least three of these movies are on google video. i'll be busy when i get off work.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

22. People don't want to know the answers to most of those questions.

Because they might feel obliged to do something about them. And, that would interfere with shopping and the Big Game.

[il_lilac]

24. your questions have been rambling in my head too

This one I've been trying to keep at bay this entire loooonnnnng primary season:
"If what I think happened, and if what I think is happening in the Democratic primary is happening, is there any way out of this?"
I think you should start threads on each question now! Are there any answers?

[tavalon]

61. That is one question I studiously avoid

because I have turned that one over a million times and I don't see any way out if it is happening. One of the reasons I haven't been able to get enthused this primary season is because I feel like the mask has been ripped off and the game is up.

[raccoon]

27. "Why do they think the 1950s and 1960s were so bad? "

Who is They in this case? The ruling elite? If so, why do you think they think that the '50's and '60's were bad?

"Why can’t I get over the images I saw of New Orleans? Why do I always feel like crying just thinking about New Orleans?"

Because you have empathy. I feel like that too about N-O. I've often thought that I'm glad my mother didn't live to see that mess.


Edited to add: I haven't read your whole post yet, but enough to Rec it.

[HamdenRice]

44. It's about deregulation

John Kenneth Galbraith was the theorist of 1960s economics, and he felt that big business had reached an equilibrium with big labor and big government (ie Democratic administrations or Nixonian liberal republicans).

The 1950s and 1960s were characterized by high employment, strong unionization, strong government regulation and high profits.

For some reason, that wasn't good for the business people and they fought for and got deregulation -- a much more unpredictable environment even for business, but an environment that could make the luckiest business people billionaires rather than just millionaires.

But overall, maybe that was a better system.

[raccoon]

28. A more in depth response here.

Nick Berg—it’s obvious that video of his “beheading” was a fake. It was way too easy to behead him and where was the blood?

“Can anyone tell me what the war in Iraq is really, really about, anyway?”

Check out "The president's real goal in Iraq"
by Jay Bookman
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
29 September 2002 http://www.ratical.org/ratville/CAH/RRinIraq.html


“Isn’t attacking a country a war crime? Isn’t that the ultimate international crime? Isn’t that what Japan was found guilty of after World War II? How is George Bush any different?”

Yes, I don’t know for sure, it isn’t different, and George Bush isn’t the leader of a conquered nation.

“Is there some taboo about that (Dems or reporters saying GWB lies)?” Apparently so. Just like in an alcoholic family where nobody talks about the alcoholism.

“Why are there so few pictures of the war?” Because if Americans saw the real blood and gore and destruction, a lot of them would be clamoring to let’s get the hell out.

“Do they think of Iraqis as human?” No, just collateral damage.

“Do we?” A great many Americans don’t.

“And why isn’t there a Martin Luther King today?” Maybe because everybody knows what would happen to such a leader? That is, if the corporate MSM didn’t ridicule him/her to death first.

“– so why did we let bodies rot on the streets of an American city for weeks and weeks, just lying in the sun rotting like animal carcasses?” Was it a lesson maybe? :tinfoilhat:

“Why is impeachment off the table?” That’s the $64,000 question.

“Why are we letting them get away with it?” Because only a few of us have our eyes open. Many still have their heads up their arses. Another thing, many people don’t care what goes on—until it affects them personally.

Great post.

[bdamomma]

64. this comment says it all.

Another thing, many people don’t care what goes on—until it affects them personally.

[OneBlueSky]

29. one more time . . . there are only four REAL issues that we should be discussing . . .

in this campaign . . .

1. war and peace,
2. the fight for economic and racial justice,
3. reaffirming our Constitution, and
4. the protection and enhancement of our environment.

four issues . . . that's it . . . every other issue is contained in one or more of these . . .

whenever the campaign -- and particularly the corporate media -- strays from these four issues, we should call them on it . . . loudly, and repeatedly . . . "THIS is what we want to talk about! Not gossip and inuendo and who knows someone who said something controversial!"

with thanks to Bruce Springsteen, who so eloquently summarized the REAL issues facing the nation in 2008 . . .

[Elspeth]

45. What did Springsteen say?

Thanks

[OneBlueSky]

100. go here . . .

http://www.brucespringsteen.net/news/index.html

scroll down to the third article in the left-hand column: "Endorsement, 2008" . . .

[Elspeth]

105. Thanks

n

[undergroundpanther]

30. Our country

has become socially psychopathic in it's mode of function..


the influence of psychopaths and other deviants isn't just one of many influences working on society, but, under the appropriate circumstances, can be the primary influence that shapes the way we live, what we think, and how we judge what is going on around us. When you understand the true nature of that influence, that it is conscienceless, emotionless, selfish, cold and calculating, and devoid of any moral or ethical standards, you are horrified, but at the same time everything suddenly begins to makes sense. Our society is ever more soulless because the people who lead it and who set the example are soulless.. - they literally have no conscience.

In a society, such as the United States today, where the president can lie with impunity on matters of life and death, a pathological environment is created where lying becomes acceptable. Violence is acceptable. Greed is acceptable. It is part and parcel of the ideology of the American Dream, that anyone can be a success no matter who you have to hurt to do it. And, it is in what they must do to actually succeed that the seeds of pathology are sown. In that environment, people of conscience who are weak and easily influenced take on the characteristics of the pathological in order to survive and succeed. They see that their leaders lie and cheat, and they figure that if they want to get ahead, then they can lie and cheat as well.

http://ponerology.blogspot.com/2008/02/trick-of-psychopath-trade-make-us.html
http://www.ponerology.com/evil_1.html#link1

[nadinbrzezinski]

33. Part of the answer is that we are encouraged NOT to think any longer

and NOT to read....

And this has become an American value, anti intellectualism

Compare how well a private in the Union Army could write and how well a PhD candidate can write Today

That is part of the answer to a good set of questions.

By the way... we HAVE become good Germans... and fear is used constantly to keep us in line

[Echo In Light]

56. Important to note how Americans aren't merely un-intellectual, but ANTI-intellectual

[Blue_In_AK]

34. All excellent questions.

I wish we could get some answers.

[Sabriel]

35. Here's one more for you

Why do I go to work each day so that my federal income tax can be used to buy and shoot missiles that kill children in a country that has never done anything to hurt me? Why don't my taxes go to help children instead, ones without adequate nutrition or health care?

That picture on GD yesterday of the dying two-year-old Iraqi child has been bothering me all day. When will we STOP THE KILLING OF INNOCENT PEOPLE?

[SammyWinstonJack]

80. When it's no longer profitable?

x( When we we STOP THE KILLING OF INNOCENT PEOPLE?

I hate that I even think that way. :cry:

[JEQuidam]

36. Take back the House to take back the government

You ask "Why are we letting them get away with it?"

The answer: because we the people no longer govern our government.

Why? Because we no longer control our Representatives in Congress.

Why do we no longer control our Representative in Congress? Because we allowed the congressional districts to be supersized to 700,000+ people.

[seemslikeadream]

37. The First World War

There is a danger in not teaching the truth.






Silent Warrior

Long ago, for many years
White men came in the name of god
They took their land, they took their lives
A new age has just begun

They lost their gods, they lost their smile
They cried for help for the last time.
Liberty was turning into chains
But all the white men said
Thats the cross of changes

In the name of God - the fight for gold
These were the changes.
Tell me - is it right - in the name of god
These kind of changes ?

They tried to fight for liberty
Without a chance in hell, they gave up.
White men won in the name of god
With the cross as alibi

Theres no God who ever tried
To change the world in this way.
For the ones who abuse his name
Therell be no chance to escape
On judgement day

In the name of God - the fight for gold
These were the changes.
Tell me - is it right - in the name of god
These kind of changes ?

Tell me why, tell me why, tell why
The white men said:
Thats the cross of changes ?

Tell me why, tell me why, tell why,
In the name of god
These kind of changes

[pitohui]

38. you're a good writer

there are more questions than answers these days, but it was ever thus

for most of time and human history, leaders have been evil and out to enrich themselves and the people have had almost no power to change it, and i guess just by playing the odds, the likelihood is that we would be living in one of those times of great evil

as far as what's going to happen to us, these days, i just don't think it pays to think about the future any more

since katrina i have one motto, which used to have great currency in the 70s but perhaps is more apropos today: if you're sailing on the titanic, might as well go first class

we already know that if we're dying on teevee, they won't even bother to piss on us to put out the fire, what else do we need to know? we're on our own and if only for our mental health take some time each day to appreciate what you have for the time remaining while you still have it

[Subdivisions]

41. Indeed. n/t

[Lydia Leftcoast]

42. I've had most of the same thoughts at one time or another

I think that those of us who remember the hopeful atmosphere of the 1950s and 1960s find these times especially painful.

I don't know how to break through the television-addled perceptions of the general public.

[chknltl]

46. Short Answer: Capitalism has broken it's bounds in America

Slightly longer explanation: There is no better form of government than Democracy-The Will Of The Majority. Capitalism is NOT a democracy, it is a 'feudal' system with PROFIT as its fuel. Capitalism is crucial to our democracy but if left unrestricted it can and will destroy our democracy. Is their ANY doubt that lobbyists do their thing to OUR government in order that the corporations they lobby for can profit EVEN MORE??? Is there any doubt that those same corporations have as their bottom line a need to increase their profits EVEN IF IT HARMS OUR ENVIRONMENT OR OUR NATION OR OUR PLANET???

This is why capitalism needs restrictions within our democracy. When left unrestricted successful capitalists will do terrible harms to our planet, just as they currently do today. They almost tore us apart just prior to the Great Depression, they learned from their mistakes and today they are at it again. They have corrupted our media and they have corrupted our representatives BOTH Republican and Democratic. This time it will be far harder to stop them..if we still can that is.

btw: Like most Americans, I have a short attention span. Like most American's I want stuff sooner if not now. Like most Americans I hate standing in line. Why does this matter to you, you ask?
Like most American DUers, I had a tough time reading your whole post. I commend you on your thoughts and on your format but I would suggest that a shorter post would have worked better. You have enough material for two GREAT posts or one much shorter EXCELLENT post imo.
recommended

[tavalon]

63. I usually agree with the shorter is better philosophy

but this one worked specifically because it was so neverending. It was a seven year tour of the outrage. I was riveted and I have ADD.

[earth mom]

47. This is the BEST OP I've seen on DU in months!

However, most of the people that a few months ago would discuss this with you in a thoughtful manner, have up and left DU in disgust.

The reality is that DU is no longer the place to come to for answers about what's really important.

Instead, DU has become an echo chamber of a high school popularity contest including all the drama that goes along with it.


The questions you ask are the ones that are at the back of my mind all day, every day.

An endless list of WHY and WHAT and WTF?!

Is this all a set up for the North American Union and the AMERO, so that the United States and the Constitution will no longer exist?

Is it Disaster Capitalism as Naomi Klein writes of and soon we'll be looking at 911 part 2, then World War 3 and then the privatization of every damn thing the greedy elite can get their hands on?

OR

Is it that we are looking at the complete collapse of the United States and the theft of everything that isn't nailed down and soon chaos will reign?




But instead of answers, people come on this thread and post b.s. and "nothing to see here, move along" type posts.

Jeezus, is that ALL some people have learned after almost 8 nightmare years of bullshit???!!! :argh:

[HamdenRice]

55. "An endless list of WHY and WHAT and WTF?!"

pretty much summarizes the entire OP! Thanks.

[CJCRANE]

48. This should be distributed as a samizdat.

Probably the best OP I've read on DU.

[HamdenRice]

53. I think I will

I'm putting an email list together, but wonder whether it will be blocked by aol as spam.

[Ferry Fey]

111. Some PDFs that people can download & print out

Set up one version as PDFs that people can print out themselves, to hand out, email, post on walls and bulletin boards, and otherwise pass on. Do the questions lend themselves to any kind of grouping? Take advantage of that. Use italic and bolding when appropriate, and perhaps a thin ruled border around it.

Give it a title that maybe includes the number of questions -- people always seem to gravitate to numbered lists. Give the online version the little buttons to click to share it with a friend, Technorati, Digg etc, and ask your readers to link. If it is not something you know how to do, ask a geeky friend for help. You might want to think about whether an entry page might be useful, something that would explain all the technical details.

Since it seems to run to about 8 pages at 12 pt, make sure there is a page number on each, and a simple online address where recipients can download their own copies. Remember to run it through a spell check if you haven't already.

[puebloknot]

49. We're all living in a dream-like slow motion movie.

Just one or two of these issues is enough to freeze us into anguish and inactivity.

This list shows the absurdity of our politics, and belies all the "serious" debates that have taken place in this everlasting primary campaign, which give us a little distraction and keep us from really demanding answers to all these questions.

Raising a glass of cyber-Champagne for your compilation of the things that really matter to us as a country right now!

[HamdenRice]

51. "dream-like slow motion movie" well said

I agree that is how it feels. I just don't understand the lack of push back.

During the Reagan years there was so much resistance. Although many Democrats caved, Speaker Tip O'Neil fought Reagan's program every step. Congress investigated Iran-Contra.

The OP is about my frustration about the complete lack of resistance, which cannot be explained through an existing political or legal theoretical framework.

[tavalon]

65. It's more like the slow motion that happens during a wreck

and we're in the frozen, "this cannot be happening!" mode.

[Echo In Light]

57. Slow motion apocalypse

[HughBeaumont]

50. The shortest answer to almost all of your questions:

"What the Wealthy Want, The Wealthy Will GET, No Matter WHAT the Cost To Everything and Anyone Else."

[HamdenRice]

52. Who are the wealthy?

They are a complex of classes themselves. Right now, Halliburton, the oil companies, the military contractors and arms manufacturers are getting whatever they want.

For lots of other wealthy businesses and individuals, it should be obvious that Bush is not serving their interests as well as a more integrated, coherent, organized capitalist-middle class-labor alliance (such as the Clinton administration) would have.

Just ask the banks. They cannot be very happy with the way things turned out, and they are very, very rich. Yet it's obvious that they still support the criminals in charge.

[HughBeaumont]

92. The ostentatiously rich.

People that really, REALLY don't need any more money. Those who get everything and every advantage practically handed to them by our government, at the cost of everything and to everyone else, of course.

This would be the ownership class; your KBRs, United Defenses, Large Cap corporations and the vastly overpaid CEOs that run them (ever notice that in addition to being the only industrialized nation that doesn't have UHC, we're also the only industrialized nation that has one of the most massive problems of CEO:worker wealth inequity?), your Halliburtons, Cheneys, Bewshes and other old money families such as this, etc. If they aren't at pre-Reagan tax rates, their needs ARE being met by Republicans. Semi-successful small business men and women don't fall into this classification, because more often than not, they're not in a position where their money works FOR them.

Of course the banks don't care. Bear-Stearns, for example, was rewarded $300 per taxpayer for making bad business decisions, and no congress critter had a single say in it. Like the sign says: Wall Street made their own bets, Wall Street can pay it's OWN debts.

[tavalon]

58. I'll admit that I usually don't read such long posts

But reading all of those things in one post was just so riveting. I think we have shock fatigue and I think they mean for us to feel this way. The why of it, I don't have any idea about.

[Annces]

59. What are your own immediate family members doing

I think many families are microcosms of what goes on on a larger scale. Many people just want families and to make it to the top. Many people don't know anything about politics (other than if you were to draft their sons). Money has taken over. No one should be volunteering to fight that moronic war.

[Blue_Tires]

66. bookmarked for later

[planetc]

67. Thank you for this fine contribution to the real history of our time

Despite its major flaws, the internet can still bring people like you to the attention of others who are of the same mind, and wouldn't, under ordinary circumstances, have the chance to "meet" you. So you have written out a fairly comprehensive set of questions that represent what millions of your countrymen and women are thinking about and anguishing over. (They are spending my tax dollars to torture people!! ARGHHHH!!!) You've asked all the right questions, except about health care, unless I missed that as I read it all the way through to the end and then recommended it.

I want to make a small contribution to the real history of our time by offering a few of my guesses in answer to a few of your questions.

First, why don't we "produce people like anymore?" We do. They're all around us. But they are not Barack Obama. They're Jeremiah Wright, and they are immediately ridiculed into the dustbin of history by a press which is a disgrace to the idea of serious journalism. Not that they wouldn't have wanted to so consign Dr. King if they'd been able to, but genuinely decent people across the country watched the footage of people being fire hosed in the South, and said "WHOA"! Much of the country, including me, had been genuinely ignorant of conditions in the South. A few of the decent people were in the White house and the Kennedy administration.

Next, what happened in New Orleans? Who was cutting telephone wires, and turning away groups of people bringing boats that could have rescued some of those still trapped in their homes or at the "emergency centers"? Who prevented anyone, including the Red Cross, from landing some food and water at the Convention Center and the Superdome? According to all the sources I was reading (on the internet) at the time, it was FEMA. This means that the American government was not incompetent, it was highly competent at doing what it intended to, which was to execute a very efficient plan. Of course racism was involved, because it flourishes among one wing of the Republican party. If a bunch of pink people had been trapped at the Superdome, they would have been watered, fed, and rescued in short order. Was it meant to teach a lesson? Certainly, and many people, pink and brown, learned it. With the Bush government, if we are brown or poor, or just poor, we are on our own. But above all, New Orleans, with its large population of brown and poor people, had a horrifying tendency to vote Democratic. A hotbed of persistent Democraticness was very efficiently wiped out. I'm telling you, we think of these people as incompetent at our peril.

Well, there's a start. Delighted to meet you, and write whenever the spirit moves you.

[HamdenRice]

70. Pleasure to meet you also

Your point about Wright is well taken. My sister was telling me the other day that she went to the mostly white, very liberal, large, influential Riverside Church in Manhattan a few months ago, and in calm, culturally white rhetoric, the minister was saying basically exactly the same things as Rev. Wright -- but if it were played on tv, it probably wouldn't get the same reaction.

Also, I think we underestimate the role of organization. I hate it when someone says "Dr. King marched ..." That was a small part of what he did. He organized "an organization of organizations," Southern Christian Leadership Conference that had millions of members through affiliated organizations, and that could indeed put demonstrators on the street, but that also housed traveling organizers, printed pamphlets, raised money and spread the organizations analysis. When a demonstration in the south was successful, he also negotiated comprehensive written agreements with local business leaders.

There was a paragraph in the OP on health care -- but mostly on how it is perceived rather than on what should be done.

Lastly, regarding New Orleans, I have also heard that FEMA was the culprit, but I am wondering about the individual FEMA officers who did it. What was their motivation? If they were following orders, what did they think they were doing? helping or making it worse? And where are they now and why don't they come forward?

[planetc]

86. To reply to your points...

To reply to your points, as though we were having an actual discussion:-), which can be done on the internet as long as we ignore the cryptic drive-bys...but to reply: Yes, the pink* pastors can get away with heresy to the American Delusion when brown pastors can't. And to tie in Rev. Wright here with your next paragraph, it appears that Rev. Wright is as familiar with the value of organization as Dr. King was. And more power to him, not less. I've got more to say on idiocies like Pastorgate, but this isn't the thread to do it.

As for the souls of the FEMA officers who followed orders in New Orleans, I've decided not to worry about anyone's soul, just what they *do.* I'm not worrying about Rev. Wright's soul, although he was hammered as an egotist in three different pieces in the New York Times the day after his counterattack on the press, to quickly prevent anyone from listening to what he actually *said*. I'd be happy to listen to him at least once a week. Fine preacher, bright as heck, and better informed than the media types who are attempting to control what we think about everything.

So, no worry about FEMA officers' souls, and none about the souls of the Air Force pilots who knew on 9/11 that something very bad had happened to the nation's capacity to defend itself from a few airliners flying around and trying to do damage. It all goes back to 9/11--for the sake of simplicity, I divide the people who know something about that into two camps: those who were innocent of foreknowledge, and those who are guilty as hell, a much smaller number. A lot of those who were innocent but know something are fueling the 9/11 Truth movement, and those with guilty knowledge are understandably very shy about coming forward and admitting to being mass murderers. We need a real investigation, not the 9/11 Commission travesty. And we can have it, as soon as enough people demand it.

Overall, I'm cautiously optimistic about the state of the United States. Every time you and I (and by now millions of others) engage in honest discussion and spread some truth, we bring the general population closer to the moment we ALL yell ENOUGH! and throw the miscreants out and start on the work we have to do. Don't despair--it's thoroughly unproductive. Shout, and work, and gather forces, and ...:-) organize!

*A note on terminology--it long ago occurred to me that we need to stop calling people black and white, when most of us aren't. Most of us are pinkish, some reddish, or yellowish, and lots are some shade of brown. Almost nobody is black or white, and if we stopped using inaccurate terms, we would get rid of some unfortunate connotations that "black" and "white" carry. It would no longer be possible to have a Great White Hope, for example--Great Pink Hope just hasn't got the same punch. "Free, pink, and twenty-one" would probably die out too. So I intend to change my own vocabulary to reflect my thoughts on the subject.

[Harry Monroe]

79. Welcome to DU, planetc

And you hit the nail on the head as far as what happened in New Orleans. I'm a New Orleans native, moved from there in 1992, but I often go back to visit family and friends. New Orleans is a bastion of Democratic voters in a state that has largely turned Red. This Administration saw a perfect opportunity to try and remake New Orleans in its own image. What happened in New Orleans was no accident; many believe it was simple incompetence. What really happened was a carefully orchestrated attempt at genocide under the guise of incompetence, to purge New Orleans of black, Democratic voting African-American citizens. It was pure luck that the levee breaches happened where they did, had the 17th Street Canal breaches happened on the west bank of the canal instead of the eastern side, largely Republican Metairie and suburban Jefferson Parish would have been flooded instead and the government's response to the catastrophe would have been far, far different. There was absolutely no other excuse for what happened to poor African-Americans in New Orleans, unless you believe the government was incompetent. I believe the incompetence was simply a cover.

[George II]

69. What is the point of this?

[truth2power]

71. What is the point of what? Don't you think these questions are important?

I honestly can't understand why some people are so in-curious about the fact that we seem to be living in bizarro world.

[HamdenRice]

72. My sentiment exactly

I thought my OP was pretty self-explanatory.

Don't you just love cryptic drive bys?

[George II]

75. I think the ANSWERS would be much more important!

[SammyWinstonJack]

77. You have too ask? These are VERY important questions that should be asked and ANSWERED!

I'd like to know why we are experimenting with an "historical" election when we can ill afford too.

I'd like to know who ran Edwards, the REAL CHANGE candidate, off.

I know why which pretty much tell me who. Still I'd like it answered by the same corprat media whores who deliberately marginalized him and then ignored him after he beat Clinton in Iowa.

I'd like answers to all these questions and every question in the OP.

That's the point.

[Harry Monroe]

83. The point of this???!!!

Are you completely brain dead or did you simply come over here from Free Republic to troll and stir up shit? If you leave now, you'll still have time to catch most of American Idol and Jerry Springer.

[CJCRANE]

85. Incurious George nt

[iamthebandfanman]

76. money.

booyah, answered your subject question in one word.

[SammyWinstonJack]

82. Power and Greed.

[sammythecat]

84. That's pretty scary seeing all those questions in a row like that.

I've only gotten about half way through the responses yet, but I saw when you half wondered if the reason all this has happened was something extra unusual. I can see how one could wonder that after reading that incredible list of very important questions that have no good answer. If I believed in such things I'd surely thing we've been cursed. Maybe we're just victims of crime. That's what I think is going on, but I don't understand at all how the hell they get away with all this? It seems they do whatever the hell they want. It seems like everything is corrupted. I can't trust the MSM anymore. They aren't going to hold people accountable for something they themselves were complicit in. George Bush has been enabled by the MSM since before he ascended the throne. It's a sad and very scary state of affairs. I'm afraid it's going to get a lot worse before it ever gets better.

Thanks for all this work. It's really appreciated. When I first saw the length I groaned because I wasn't in the mood to dive into something big like that, but once I started, the paragraphs just zipped by. I wish everyone in the country could be exposed to this. Just so they could get at least some idea of how truly weird this administration is.

[Time for change]

87. I think this is the longest list of great questions I've ever seen

I wrote about something along similar lines not too long ago:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=1519473&mesg_id=1519473

[HamdenRice]

89. Posing them as questions instead of statements

is partly a rhetorical strategy. I think I know the answers to some of them.

Posing everything in the form of a question is intended to evoke the feeling of what it is like to live through the bush years.

But a hallmark of the Bush years, which a post a few days ago mentioned is a hallmark of life under fascism, is that the propoganda system makes you question the very nature of reality.

I think the phrase was something like, politicians lie in democracies in order to deceive or hide inconvenient fact; politicians lie under fascism to undermine the citizens entire grasp of what is real and what isn't.

That's why although there was a lot of deception in the area discussed in your post, the last 7 years have been a fundamental attack on consensus reality, consensus values, and reason.

[Time for change]

106. Well, our whole country damn well should be discussing these things

The fact that our national news media doesn't is a terrible shame.

Your questions should run on the the front page of the NYT and WaPo -- but there isn't much chance of that.

[nichomachus]

88. Read these books

There are three books you can read that will answer all your questions:

1. Opposing the System by Charles Reich. Much ignored when it came out because we were in the midst of the Internet greed bubble. It tells why the system is corrupt and working against us.

2. The Best Democracy Money Can Buy -- by Greg Palast. It tells exactly why these things are happening and what the plan is. Very scary.

3. Rule by Secrecy by Jim Marrs. Marrs gets a little carried away in the second half of the book, which opens him up to ridicule as a "CT nut." But the first half of the book is a frightening look at the connection between people and events that rule our lives. The same people and families keep showing up again and again in the strangest places.

[Jim Sagle]

90. The answer: We're afraid of them. Everybody knows our "president" is a bloodcrazy psycho.

That's why we're ALL being VERY quiet - all 300 million of us.

Because we know he'd KILL US ALL just for shits and giggles if we wised off to him too loudly.

That's not the answer to all your questions, but it's the answer to the most stunning one, namely - why does he get away with it? Why does NO ONE call him on it?

The answer is fear - a well-founded fear that he and his paid goons will fuck us ALL up.

And yes, if you (all of you reading this) are honest, if you look INSIDE for the truth we all know is there - you already knew the answer.

And now for a question of my own: What CAN we do? Or is it really too late?

[Jackpine Radical]

91. Why are you asking all these questions?

Why do you want to know these things?

Why can't you post something about Rev. Wright or kittens or something?

Why can't you shut up and drink the Kool Aid like everybody else?

[happydreams]

93. Commodification of people is what you are seeing. Winston

Smith in Orwell's "1984" saw the end product of that process. We are near that same stage in the US now. People in the US are exhibiting many of the characteristics of the people Orwell depicted: subservient, self-centered, nasty, sniveling, groveling--and don't even know it--assholes.
I was watching the PBS series called "Carrier". Those people on that ship were veritable automatons, indoctrinated with state sponsored religion and "we can do no wrong" attitude that is easily converted into perverse violence like that of Abu Ghraib. When the failure of Iraq becomes undeniable even to these people then WATCH OUT!!
They will be looking for scapegoats and that means anybody who thinks and speaks out about the truth. The process of eliminating thinking people is now underway in the US: "no fly lists" that curtail 1st amendment rights without due process, surveillance and harassment of citizen's--I have personally been experiencing this for years, censorship using mafia tactics of coercion are just a few of these methods.

Remember Socrates, one year a famous philosopher and veteran adored by most Greeks and the next forced to commit suicide for his truth telling about the disastrous Peloponnesian War (Athens "Vietnam"). This is what happens to people when they allow their country to be taken over by thugs. The Greeks thought that the gods were angry at them for impiety, Socrates with the devil of rationalism in his soul was a perfect target.



It's very easy to get people to join in this process of violence; it has been shown in study after study that human beings are easily taught to do the most heinous things if they think they are doing it for the preservation of something higher. In the case of "Carrier" I was simply amazed at how a whole generation--college educated and otherwise--that have come of age in the Post-Vietnam Era could turn out to be so utterly full of shit. The stupid bastards learned no fucking thing from Vietnam. They are docile, easily manipulated, nasty little turds that only give a shit about their own narrow material world--into medals, awards, having kids (to prove they are adults) etc. and don't give a shit about the fact that they are murdering innocent people. Some of the officers spoke contemptuously about people who question the wisdom of getting into the Iraq War. These pathetic assholes have college degrees!!

If Vietnam should have taught the US anything it was to: QUESTION AUTHORITY!!!

The exact opposite is what was learned. There has never been a more wimpish, ignorant, religiously indoctrinated, greedy generation of Americans in the history of this country. They are incapable of learning and growing because they are incapable of self-criticism. The noise of Religion is the way they avoid the quiet necessary for self-criticism. They honestly believe that if they just pray hard and watch enough movies about how great America is that everything will be OK.

I think the vast majority of the US citizens deserve what is happening to them. They have had ample time to wake the fuck up and have decided not to. Now they will be looking for those who have pissed off God.

[wildbilln864]

95. kick!

too late to r. thanks HR. :hi:

[wildbilln864]

96. deleted dupe...nt

[bpeale]

97. your questions are my questions too. would recommend if i could.

[dollydew]

98. Good questions

Thoughtful and well written. I wish I had the answers.

[Duncan]

101. It is all very bizarre indeed.

I too am perplexed by the sheer magnitude of the uncaring callous shit all around us. I can not understand the mechanisms that perpetuate such self destructive idiocy. It begs the question: Has the human race been infiltrated by aliens intent on our destruction like in the movie "They Live"? Posts like this are like those special glasses.
When I put on those glasses and look in the mirror I see that I am partially infiltrated myself. I'm too god damned busy working to maintain my "middle class lifestyle" do anything more than read enough to nurture the knot in my stomach and send a few bucks here and there. I should be fighting the powers a lot harder. What is wrong with me?

Thanks for the great post. Its always good to hear clear expressions from others who feel like this. The world seems to truly be heading for hell, dragged there by greedy powerful corporations and their alliances with greedy powerful politicians, feeding the aggressive and greedy side of every man woman and child they can get their greedy hooks into. I fear for my children, I fear for us all, but hang in there. Keep distributing the glasses.

[The_Commonist]

102. There are too many people on the planet.

The systems that we have in place simply cannot support nearly 7 billion human beings, and we are collectively going insane. It's one of nature's ways of reducing the human population to meet the carrying capacity and the systems we have to feed ourselves, and maintain the "lifestyle" we have grown accustomed to. It's certainly not the first time this has happened, and if we survive as a species, it certainly won't be the last.

We're in the midst of a killoff. Is that better than a dieoff? Are they the same thing? I don't know. I do know that this, the contraction part of the cycle, happens every few generations, and if viewed as a function of nature, makes sense in a strange way. As our populations grow and our systems get more complicated, the speed and intensity of the killoffs we cyclically experience get more intense.

The collective insanity we are experiencing is one of the ways that we deal with what we are doing to ourselves. It's not simply greed, it's a survival mechanism. We have a conscience and a collective memory, and we do things that contradict what our conscience tells us. A dose of collective crazy helps us deal with the horror. That doesn't make it any less horrible, I know, but does explain some of it. To me, anyway.

What is happening to us? We are acting like monkeys with big guns. It's really that simple. If the four fifths of humanity that somehow doesn't think we are monkeys would wake up and realize that we are bound by the rules of nature, maybe we could understand ourselves enough to create systems that would not require a killoff every few generation.

My 2 cents worth...

[f the letter]

103. Great post. Sending this around.

Those are the questions that all of us are asking but nobody is hearing. It's on our hands to make them heard and get them answered by the kind folks in charge.

[road2000]

104. You Speak for Me. Thank You.

HamdenRice, I think you speak for us all. Certainly, you speak for me.

Your litany is like a dizzyingly moving collection of film clips. They stream through my mind constantly. My work, my home life, my relationships -- all have been affected for seven years by the negative sea change. I am depressed. Many of us feel almost too bludgeoned to carry on our day-to-day activities. It's all we can do to function on autopilot.

Here's my thinking on what's happening to us. For my part, I'm a reasonably solvent, single, empty-nester. If this is happening to me, what's going on with couples or singles who are struggling, have multiple children, juggle the rent/mortgage and grocery/gas bills. . . ? Maybe they just shut down when they can take no more. Maybe they are most of *us* Americans. The future may be too terrifying to contemplate.

Thank you for an overwhelmingly thoughtful (and thought-provoking) post.

[cayuga]

107. The only thing that makes sense to me

is that the country is being run by organized crime.

[earth mom]

108. This deserves a HUGE kick!

:kick:

[WHAT]

109. I love your questions...

and I've been reading the responses.

One speculation I have on the "whys" is that we are seeing the reaction to the transformation of perception (don't know if that's the right word). I catalog it all into increasing brutality. I think brutality might be the mechanism of enforcing hierarchy and with the break-down of hierarchy comes increasing brutality for enforcement. Pragmatists think brutality is effective in enforcing the pecking order. I think that might be why we are seeing a "bloom" of brutality...correcting the order of the world, if you will. The tension is in the order of the world changing its social and physical perceptions and organizing along a different consensus. The physical world is no longer hierarchal and linear...it's three dimensions and a forth fleck in the corner of our peripheral vision.

I've been speculating on your questions because I really want to know why. If it is social organization from a linear world to a multi-dimensional world based on physical apprehension of reality (we can fly), and increasing brutality is an hierarchal throw-back for survival of a withering system...long-run, brutality as enforcement won't win because not only is it inappropriate, crude, it doesn't fit a larger reality.

I love your questions, they anchor me in my speculations (and, so they must others) and might lead to larger understanding. Thank You!

[bobbolink]

110. Why isn't US poverty important to "progressives" and DUers?????

Why is that?

Why is there never an answer to that?

Why, when "progressives" and DUers are asked point-blank about that, they either ignore it or give some clearly dismissive answer?

How many poor folk in the US have to die because the DEMs don't think we're important??????

[Kitty Herder]

114. I think many feel powerless to do anything about it.

I know I do. It's a systemic problem and requires systemic measure to solve it. But how do we create systemic change?

[bobbolink]

118. *YOU* feel powerless? How do you think it feels to US???

How do you think that sounds to those of us who are LIVING this??? Do you think reading your statement makes us want to vote for your candidate? Do you?

Uh, that is a really lame excuse to continue to let people suffer and die.

I've posted time and again ACTION notices that you could have participated in.

You can make calls to your reps and senators, you can write LTTEs, you can educate yourself about the issues and talk with everyone you come across.

As a matter of fact, here is something you can do NOW, this week:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x3237076

[Catherine Vincent]

112. How did I miss this great thread?

Too late to recommend.

"Why are stores in New York advertising that they accept Euros?"

Really?

[undercutter2006]

113. most people haven't felt any effects of the war

if you don't watch the news, and you don't know anybody who has been affected, you can just live your life and pretend there is no war going on. that's the majority of american population

there is your answer

[clyrc]

115. This is the longest thread I've ever read on DU, from top to bottom

and I'm glad I did. Thanks, HamdenRice, for the list of questions. That was great.

[Kitty Herder]

116. This is the greatest post I've read in a long time!

Excellent questions. They seem to be pointing to some bigger picture that is just out of sight. Something too big to be seen in its entirety.

[goclark]

117. Top 5 DU Posts IMO~ We have become the Manchurian Candidates

What you are saying is what most of us are thinking day after day.
But we are powerless to do anything about it.
We know Bush should be impeached but what did we do about it? We did nothing because we can't.
Our bodies can't move, we are mere puppets with our strings in the hands of Dick Cheney.

I often think about the Inauguration of GWB. It looked like everything was going smoothly that day and it was not. There were hundreds of protesters but we were not allowed to really see what happened on our televisions. Even if we saw it, we could have done nothing. The MSM had been given their marching orders and we could not see anything or change anything.

We worked so hard to take control of the House. We thought that would change everything. What has it changed? I have no idea. Did it end the War? Did it get Bush out of office? Did it change the Supreme Court in our favor?

Help me name a "Victory" of worth for our side.

I've wondered,why did Nancy Pelosi quickly say, "Impeachment is off the table?" She looked just like the Manchurian Candidate to me --- and she never backed down from that statement. I wonder if they threatened her children.

John Conyers was strong on the Impeachment,what happened to his zeal?

John Kerry didn't even attempt to fight the results ~Did he know something that we didn't know?
I wonder about Katrina too. We complained but even Brownie didn't care. He didn't get in any real trouble. Nobody around Bush was ever punished to my knowledge and probably never will be.

I wonder about the Clinton's. They have changed. They have really changed and not for the better.
It's as if someone is telling them they better act like Republicans.

I met Bill Clinton once. He seemed like a decent man. He has changed drastically IMO. Why? I don't know but they both are acting more like Republicans than Democrats.
Have they been threatened to be this way.? I don't get it.I honestly don't get it.