We have a debt crisis because we have an unemployment and deployment

[WCGreen]

problem...

We, the collective we meaning Americans, have soldiers spread out all over the world to protect us from what, exactly...

The only thing they are protecting is the assets of the corporations who have moved the production of their, insert product or service here, off shore(Could that be the cause of one of our two ...ment problems I mentioned above).

So if we didn't give "tax breaks" to our corporate masters and perhaps didn't think we can control the world through "democracy" tinged with the bad ass weapons we might, just might, have a chance to survive...

But given the proclivity of our "elected" rulers, I wouldn't count on that.

Especially the new recruits who think that they can change the world if they just stay marching in that I am a ten year old obstinate child who will hold my breath until I turn blue in the face before I ever consider that you might have a valid argument manner that has given them power through attention.... (Any child psychologists out there?)

This is insane. Roma insane, bring down the empire and open the gates to the the Visigoths insane.

Sometimes I wish I had run off to that commune back in the seventies when a girl I knew named Sunshine, yes I did know a girl who had her name legally changed to sunshine, wanted me to go off to Oregon with her...

I went to Oregon, but not with her, mistake.

I could have been raising Alpaca's and been far far far away from the Maddening Crowd.

Anyway, It's Friday night, my AC is still not working, it is oppressively hot and I am pissed off at my party, at my government, at the press, at, well, every fucking thing because I have this sneaking up on me feeling that the shit is going to hit the fan this time...

I haven't felt like this since the Soviet Union went on Nuclear alert back in the time of Nixon because of the heightened tensions in the Israeli and Arab conflict.

There was a time when the "know nothing party" took over a large segment of the American electorate. They flamed out real quick historically speaking but it seems their descendants have resurfaced and have taken over a large swath of the Republican Party...

"The Know Nothing movement was a Nativity American political movement of the 1840s and 1850s. It was empowered by popular fears that the country was being overwhelmed by German and Irish Catholic immigrants, who were often regarded as hostile to Anglo-Saxon Protestant values and controlled by the Pope in Rome." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Know_Nothing

Sound vaguely familiar.

Anyway, I have said it before and I will say it again, I am glad I have no children but I am very concerned for the people younger than I who I have gotten to know over the years. They still have dreams and hope for the future.

I really hope I am wrong, but this constant being on the verge of political violence, it almost happened during the last two election cycles, is not a good thing for anyone. The hyper partisanship that only, after all, gives cover to the corrupted scoundrels who feed on the misery of others is dangerous. Armageddon type dangerous. Just ask the Germans or the Italians.

Anyway, it's raining, gently with the subtle rumble of far off thunder. I am tired.

I grow weary from worry and think about some of the last words my mother spoke to me.... "Christopher, your passion has always frightened me..."

Mom, if you are still with me, somehow seeing all that is happening, know that it is not my passion that should have worried you but the people who use the passion of others as a tool to gain power. That is what we all should be worried about...

[napoleon_in_rags]

1. A slice of humble pie is due to all of us at this point.

Yeah, I feel it too. I felt it when I saw Obama speaking on CNN, that sinking feeling in my heart. That sad feeling I felt he was feeling too. Its real this time, this is not a joke.

I identify as a leftist for no particular reason, I feel just at home with the Libertarian right in terms of culture, in terms of the people. I love that bootstrap culture, the independence, the arms, the compassion born of choice not regulation. But I also love many parts of the left, I love the moral cause of seeing the value in all people old, children, disabled, etc. I love the service, I love that sense of losing yourself in something bigger than your own life.

But the truth is our current situation has FUCK NOTHING to do with either of these ideals. To the people who pull the strings here, its about the eradication of nation states to establish a globalist order. Not real global free markets, not Adam Smith style competition between the best players, but a rotten cartel, a conspiracy of those who managed to stay on top working together to ensure they stay on top, even if it means keeping down, or eradicating everybody else.

It's been spelled out in so many ways leading up to this. Banks are a good example, they stopped competing with each other to offer superior customer service and focused on making their money off the poorest of their customers through complex computer systems to extract overdraft fees, charges on people with no money. loans with an instant 1000% interest rate. They stopped concerning themselves with home loans, and focused on foreclosing on houses they don't even own, so long as their computer systems tell them there is a sufficient chance they can get away with it. Cell phone companies focus on cheap phones with GPS exploitation to be packaged as marketing data, civil rights be damned. Its all 100%, completely spelled in things like that this the people they intend to pay for it is the non-elite, the senior citizens, the average people.

But yeah, anyway my point is that your alarmism is right. Its completely, totally right. Its insane just like you said. And its only going to get worse.

[WCGreen]

2. I just can't believe it has gotten to this...

I was in Oregon in the late 70's, when the first real gas crisis hit the country.

I was scarred, worried about the future, but we had responsible political figures back then, people who took pride in their knowledge of how to get things done.

Now, ignorance of how our government works is so ingrained in the minds of the people that they think Rush, and Beck and even the guy who is on late at night talking about UFOs actually know what they are talking about.

This shit sells so the corporate bottom line guys keep flooding the market with these modern day know nothings because it is good for the bottom line. They pay no attention what so ever what this stuff does to the bottom line of the country.

I get it, free speech and all but if the rationalists that are still out there don't even get a chance to be heard, then there is no exchange of ideas.

I don't know, just fed up with a lot of stuff lately.

[napoleon_in_rags]

3. I see a person in you who is awake.

"Fed up" is the state any rational person should be in right now. Its insane, all of it. We have this society where INCREDIBLE crimes happen right under people's noses, and they keep their mouths shut considering their own worldly asses, the one thing they are destined to lose either way. And really, the stakes are so high at this point everybody should be checking themselves three ways to midnight, but instead they are walking around with this fantasy that everything will be alright, it will all go away if they just keep their mouths shut...When any quantitative analysis should show the noose tightening around their own necks.

Life is like this though. Everybody lives for something, everybody dies for something. Everybody has their regrets. For me it isn't the girl inviting me to a commune, it was a wealthy but nerdy foreigner who loved me, and I let her go by because I didn't want the risk of going to her strange country with her. Doh! I could have been a man of the world. (sigh) I'm trying to say I hear you... Past pleasures we have lost, the lesson is to seize the day now, for whatever it's worth.

So here we are, we've all been giving the life we've been given, we've all been given the cards we've been dealt. We have to make the best of them. I don't know about you, but I feel like living life fully. That's what I gather from our brief conversation here. IT may seem somewhat trivial or trite, but something tells me if more people were willing to do the same, we wouldn't be in anything NEAR the mess we are in now.

PEace and courage.

[WCGreen]

4. I have led a very full, some might say colorfull life....

But as my capacity for fully living dwindles, I try not to dwell too too much on the what could have beens. In fact last night was the first time in decades that I thought of Oregon in that way...

Today is another day. I always awaken with hope.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

5. Nothing to add, but K&R...

Very well thought out and written, as always...

I think your mom would be proud...

[WCGreen]

6. Thanks peg... I've been off since early ths morning and I just now saw

your K and R...