Holy shit.

Originally Posted by sbrombacher

I wish I could say you are exaggerating and being overdramatic and pessimistic.

Likewise!

Ten years ago I might have.

Ten years ago the US Army had just arrested Saddam Hussein, and we largely thought that that was the end of the trouble. We had yet to figure how dreadful a President Dubya was. If small-scale right-wing government solved nothing, then right-wing Big Government can make a gigantic mess. Dubya was the definitive big-government right-winger, and he achieved everything that liberals and libertarians found objectionable.

Right now I feel there is very little hope for this country and an increasing number of hardworking citizens are working harder and longer for a very low quality of life, and the more dependent they become on safety nets to supplement their meager earnings, the more they are being taken away. It's like the right wing thugs are kicking you when you're already down and then laughing about it and saying you deserved to be down in the first place. Ten years ago I would have said a violent uprising would be unnecessary not to mention extremely dangerous. Now? I sometimes think that's what things are coming to, and may be the only way "the little people" can be heard. But i wonder why so many people continue to vote against their own interests and the few attempts to mobilize on the left have failed.

What is more troublesome than the taxes that they extract (so long as one gets quality for quality people can be happy -- pay high taxes and get good roads, education through graduate or professional school as long as one's grades can support such, have good libraries and support for the arts that humanize people, and you might be happy) is the opportunities denied. The American tax system is designed to give every advantage to the vertically-integrated business that can squeeze out small-scale competition, and the political order works to give an advantage to anyone who can hire the lobbyists and buy the politicians. The elites preclude competition with themselves yet mandate it among everyone else.

We have little heritage of violent uprisings. It's just as well. Violent uprisings would be met by even greater violence -- by literal death squads funded by the same sorts of people who now send huge amounts of money to right-wing politicians and "think tanks". If our economic elites found themselves under threat they would turn to fascism.

On the whole I don't think American white Christians are any better than the Germans of 85 years ago. That is a harsh statement -- but it is regrettably true. Think of all the superstition, the reactionary ideology, the fascination with weapons, the drug use (contrary to myth, white people use more drugs per capita than do non-whites -- it's just that non-whites are more likely to be caught and get harsher sentences), and the predatory economics. It is as one of them that I know this all too well. It's the non-white, non-Anglo, non-Christian, and non-straight populations that keep America from the political abyss. The educated white middle class is about equal in its political orientation, but poor white people now vote heavily Republican.

Maybe there is an equivalent of the Stockholm syndrome between exploiters and the exploited -- and don't kid yourself, poor white people are badly exploited in America. These people are terribly ignorant of the esoteric arts of psychology and rhetoric, tools that powerful people can use against the unenlightened with great ease to great advantage.

Ever see The Hunger Games? Sometimes I think the far right wants a society like that. No wonder that film and the books have struck a chord with so many people. Art imitates life indeed.

I haven't -- but I get the general idea. I can say this -- that when poor white people recognize as clearly that they are being cheated by elites as poor black, Asian, and Hispanic people know that they are getting cheated, then the game of Maximal Exploitation is up for the tycoons, big landowners, and executive elites.

Originally Posted by pbrower2a

Likewise!




On the whole I don't think American white Christians are any better than the Germans of 85 years ago. That is a harsh statement -- but it is regrettably true. Think of all the superstition, the reactionary ideology, the fascination with weapons, the drug use (contrary to myth, white people use more drugs per capita than do non-whites -- it's just that non-whites are more likely to be caught and get harsher sentences), and the predatory economics. It is as one of them that I know this all too well. It's the non-white, non-Anglo, non-Christian, and non-straight populations that keep America from the political abyss. The educated white middle class is about equal in its political orientation, but poor white people now vote heavily Republican.

Maybe there is an equivalent of the Stockholm syndrome between exploiters and the exploited -- and don't kid yourself, poor white people are badly exploited in America. These people are terribly ignorant of the esoteric arts of psychology and rhetoric, tools that powerful people can use against the unenlightened with great ease to great advantage.




I haven't -- but I get the general idea. I can say this -- that when poor white people recognize as clearly that they are being cheated by elites as poor black, Asian, and Hispanic people know that they are getting cheated, then the game of Maximal Exploitation is up for the tycoons, big landowners, and executive elites.

http://ourfuture.org/20090806/fascis...e-we-there-yet

This list is extremely scary:
http://www.fascismusa.com/

I remember reading this list several years ago and finding it alarming, but just re-reading it now, we are farther along in the road to fascism than we were even a few years ago. Yet the transition is so subtle we barely notice it happening. Danilynn's analogy to a frog slowly boiling to death in a pot is a good one. I think the frog is finally starting to notice he's in "hot water"--but is it too late or is the frog now to weak to jump out and save himself?

I agree with you the voting against your own interests by poor white people could probably be explained as a manifestation of Stockholm Syndrome, but I think there are other factors as well: (a) the misguided belief by many uneducated whites that they will get their share of the pie someday and be rich themselves (which also explains the fascination with purchasing lottery tickets) and (b) fundamentalist white Christians tend to be one-issue voters and vote Republican because that's the party that they believe supports bans on homosexuality and abortion (the two issues even the new Pope has said have been focused on entirely too much at the expense of other, more pressing issues).

Originally Posted by pbrower2a

Guns for everyone -- in the end that implies guns in the hands of drunks, lunatics, addicts, and angry people.

Kinda like right now.

Back in the late 70's, early 80's, I remember the US military being punished (by Congress, irony) for Viet Nam. The result was a mass exodus from the senior NCO corps. This time, it would be worse, as the economics are worse now for late thirties's to early forties workers for good jobs.

Originally Posted by sbrombacher

http://ourfuture.org/20090806/fascis...e-we-there-yet

I remember reading this list several years ago and finding it alarming, but just re-reading it now, we are farther along in the road to fascism than we were even a few years ago. Yet the transition is so subtle we barely notice it happening. Danilynn's analogy to a frog slowly boiling to death in a pot is a good one. I think the frog is finally starting to notice he's in "hot water"--but is it too late or is the frog now to weak to jump out and save himself?

We already have the phenomenon of a state-within-a-state that comprises power outside of electoral purview either in influencing politics (corporate lobbyists), propaganda that most people fail to recognize for its corrupting malignancy (FoX News, Breitbart, Drudge, NewsMax) because it is somehow comforting, and of course the National Security state. Corporate lobbyists have become a de facto fourth branch of government exempt from public scrutiny.

Journalism is badly debased. Instead of Edward R. Murrow exposing the poltroon Senator Joseph R. McCarthy or offering such distressing-but-undeniable reality as "Hunger in America" and "Harvest of Shame" we have talking heads to whom more attention seems paid to the quality of their hairdos than to the content of their reporting. If I have called FoX News "GOP Pravda" it is because like Pravda in its heyday it kept offering the official line (and lie) until the line and lie were shown as demonstrably false and that the manipulative bosses decided that they could no longer get away with what they were doing. Maybe the National Security State proves useful on occasion for whacking Osama bin Laden and some terrorist traitors like al-Awlaki and Gadahn who go overseas, but such comes with a price.

I agree with you the voting against your own interests by poor white people could probably be explained as a manifestation of Stockholm Syndrome, but I think there are other factors as well: (a) the misguided belief by many uneducated whites that they will get their share of the pie someday and be rich themselves (which also explains the fascination with purchasing lottery tickets) and (b) fundamentalist white Christians tend to be one-issue voters and vote Republican because that's the party that they believe supports bans on homosexuality and abortion (the two issues even the new Pope has said have been focused on entirely too much at the expense of other, more pressing issues).

Maybe poor white people believe as strongly as any in the "princess" phenomenon -- that some "prince" will drive through her isolated community, fall in love with her, marry her, and rescue her and her close relatives from grinding poverty. Just think of the song "Delta Dawn"

Originally Posted by song lyrics

Delta Dawn, what's that flower you have on
Could it be a faded rose from days gone by?
And did I hear you say he was a-meeting you here today
To take you to his mansion in the sky?

She's forty-one and her daddy still calls her, 'baby'
All the folks around Brownsville say she's crazy
'Cause she walks down town with a suitcase in her hand
Looking for a mysterious dark-haired man

In her younger days they called her Delta Dawn
Prettiest woman you ever laid eyes on
Then a man of wealth and prestige stood by her side
And promised her he'd take her for his bride

Delta Dawn, what's that flower you have on
Could it be a faded rose from days gone by?
And did I hear you say he was a-meeting you here today
To take you to his mansion in the sky?

Delta Dawn, what's that flower you have on
Could it be a faded rose from days gone by?
And did I hear you say he was a-meeting you here today
To take you to his mansion in the sky?

Delta Dawn, what's that flower you have on
Could it be a faded rose from days gone by?
And did I hear you say he was a-meeting you here today
To take you to his mansion in the sky?

Delta Dawn, what's that flower you have on
Could it be a faded rose from days gone by?
And did I hear you say he was a-meeting you here today
To take you to his mansion in the sky?

http://www.metrolyrics.com/delta-daw...ya-tucker.html

(That's Brownsville, Tennessee -- and not Texas).

It's from 40 years ago, when country music could incorporate irony and even conscience -- that is long past.

Even with the degradation of American economics, a 15-year-old Dawn would still be wiser to prepare herself for the state college, where she might prepare herself to be a teacher, an accountant, or a research technician; in a modest middle-class career she would meet plenty of desirable suitors instead of hoping to win some marital lottery. But -- she might have to encounter some challenges to her culture. Tough! Don't we all?
So there is music other than country music, some of it extremely good even if it comes from a small country whose musical heritage can put ours to shame. Knowledge can humble one about his own nation, especially in culture. Contrary to fundamentalist preaching the universe certainly looks far older than 6000 years -- but science is far more useful than pseudoscience.

A few mansions are being built anew on behalf of America's rapacious elites -- but there just aren't enough of them for every 'princess'. The only way in which many of those 'princesses' are ever going to enter those mansions is by being hired as a domestic servant, which is ordinarily a horrible way to make a living. She would be wiser to hit the books and get a teaching certificate with the expectation of nothing more grand in life than a tract house with plenty of appliances and a husband (or lesbian lover in case such is her inclination) with similar prospects.

...As for the Pope -- people seem increasingly to find that sexual orientation is far more rigid than has long been believed. Homosexuality may now be seen as intractable but harmless. Greed shows itself much more destructive but not an intractable part of human nature.

Just a few thoughts.

40 years ago, there was still the mindset of women as home makers. That is mostly dead and gone and something Gen X and millies never knew or ever will know.
The stay at home mom is more a privilege of the wealthy class now than any other.

I'm baffled by the number of people who seem to feel the need to apologize for their skin color.
White, black, green or slightly freckled. It doesn't matter and I for one feel no need to ever apologize for being a Christian that so happens to be a slight beige/off white-ish color with a multitude of freckles. Get over the "white guilt" crap. It's pointless and divides us as a nation. Distracting us from real threats to all people's freedoms. NDAA, for starters.

As for the road to fascism and the spiral of violence. I'd really like to believe that the things enacted were done with pure intentions, but it looks less and less like the government has put all these things in place for any benefit of the common American.

Believe whatever you want about White Christians, but we aren't the Nazi party nor are we planning to round folks up intern them into camps and gas them to death after prolonged starvation.

As for the folks pushing for an American Spring, laugh, but just know this country is extremely divided. Probably as much as it was once 150 years ago. Just for different reasons.

It may seem laughable to people that have no issue being groped by TSA at airports, don't care if the 2nd amendment goes away or is infringed, the slowly eroding loss of voice and tolerance for Christians and folks that have the desire to only be left in peace to raise their family and go hunting, fishing and to church on weekends. But to that segment and there are more and more getting tired of being infringed upon, make no mistake it is a huge deal to them. And when they get pushed enough, they will get more vocal. It only took 3% of the American colonists to be pissed enough to revolt against England and win. Probably only need about that now to band together cohesively enough to do it again.

There are folks with nothing to hide who resent their emails being read by government agencies, people who don't want their phone calls to their spouse recorded. Who resent like hell being groped just because the government says it is fine. There are more and more people getting tired of seeing the abuses by an ever increasing militarized police force.

There are folks who thought the Boston martial law experience seemed like something out of news footage of another country, not American, and are deeply troubled by it.

Now let's just look, at Gitmo, we now have NDAA which gives the government the right to do that to any American. And a whole lot of folks are real bothered by that.

Laugh, but the number of people who are starting to be pissed off by a few or just one of the little things I mentioned is growing. Being this is a 4T, it's not a hard leap to go shooting match the way things feel in this country now.

Whether you agree or not a Government BIG enough to give you everything, is also enough of a threat to take it all from you, up to and including your life. Three boxes people employ to try to change things: the soap box ( printed materials or internet forums), the Ballot box, and when they feel those have failed, most have no problem reaching for the ammo box, or sword, or pitchfork or whatever they can employ as a weapon. And a growing number are beginning to feel that the first 2 have failed and are waiting for that third box to be popped open.

I'd rather have liberty than the false promise of security. I can take care of myself.

Originally Posted by Danilynn

Just a few thoughts.
I'm baffled by the number of people who seem to feel the need to apologize for their skin color.
White, black, green or slightly freckled. It doesn't matter and I for one feel no need to ever apologize for being a Christian that so happens to be a slight beige/off white-ish color with a multitude of freckles. Get over the "white guilt" crap. It's pointless and divides us as a nation. Distracting us from real threats to all people's freedoms. NDAA, for starters.

As for the road to fascism and the spiral of violence. I'd really like to believe that the things enacted were done with pure intentions, but it looks less and less like the government has put all these things in place for any benefit of the common American.

Believe whatever you want about White Christians, but we aren't the Nazi party nor are we planning to round folks up intern them into camps and gas them to death after prolonged starvation.

As for the folks pushing for an American Spring, laugh, but just know this country is extremely divided. Probably as much as it was once 150 years ago. Just for different reasons.

It may seem laughable to people that have no issue being groped by TSA at airports, don't care if the 2nd amendment goes away or is infringed, the slowly eroding loss of voice and tolerance for Christians and folks that have the desire to only be left in peace to raise their family and go hunting, fishing and to church on weekends. But to that segment and there are more and more getting tired of being infringed upon.

I am about as white as they come -- I have vitaligo that is barely noticeable in the winter time -- and I'm in a relationship with a gentleman whose skin is a delicious chocolate brown. You are absolutely right, nobody should ever feel like they need to apologize for their skin color.

I absolutely have no problems with Christians either; you will sometimes see me in my Sunday dress next to my sweetheart in church (an AME church!), just like sometimes he sits next to me at my synagogue.

The only thing I have an issue with is the presumption that the US is a "Christian nation." Most of the values that make America great are shared with Christianity, but we're far too diverse as a country to say we're a Christian nation.

Thanks for letting my rant.

Another study shows that concealed carry laws reduce murder rates, not raise them. What Chicago and other high crime places need is to make it easier for law abiding citizens to defend themselves. http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/1...94#.UsWvLX7TmM-

Originally Posted by Danilynn

I'm baffled by the number of people who seem to feel the need to apologize for their skin color.
White, black, green or slightly freckled. It doesn't matter and I for one feel no need to ever apologize for being a Christian that so happens to be a slight beige/off white-ish color with a multitude of freckles. Get over the "white guilt" crap. It's pointless and divides us as a nation.

This orwelian crap needs to stop. "White" people are merely "black" people otherwise known as human beings who lost their melanin and decided to separate themselves from the rest of humanity on the basis of it. This is why you cannot be "white" with a non-white parent according to other white people. It also means that racism is effectively a white problem created by them. Therefore what you are not wanting to apologize for is being RACIST.

Originally Posted by Weave

Another study shows that concealed carry laws reduce murder rates, not raise them. What Chicago and other high crime places need is to make it easier for law abiding citizens to defend themselves. http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/1...94#.UsWvLX7TmM-

There is no way to know this, since the NRA has made gun-related data collection and analysis impossible. I know; I spent weeks trying to find enough data to argue with the conclusions reached by John Lott, who had too little data to make his conclusion too.

When the CDC tried to get collection and analysis funded as a helath-related issue, the NRA had the CDC funding slashed. These folks play hardball, but common sense tells you the answer based on their actions: more guns lead to more deaths.

Originally Posted by Calafia

This orwelian crap needs to stop. "White" people are merely "black" people otherwise known as human beings who lost their melanin and decided to separate themselves from the rest of humanity on the basis of it. This is why you cannot be "white" with a non-white parent according to other white people. It also means that racism is effectively a white problem created by them. Therefore what you are not wanting to apologize for is being RACIST.

Why am I not surprised you are being a troll and calling names? Grow up. Get a life or a hooker or a good shrink. Or hell, a good bottle of wine and chill your shit. Sell the race card elsewhere. It's gotten beyond old.

And on the marketing front, the Duck Dynasty is now marketing their own brand of firearms...

Originally Posted by B Butler

And on the marketing front, the Duck Dynasty is now marketing their own brand of firearms...

Something has jumped the shark. Is it the firearms trade or just the Robertson clan?

Originally Posted by pbrower2a

Guns for everyone -- in the end that implies guns in the hands of drunks, lunatics, addicts, and angry people.

Given how Americans vote (as on Nov.2, 2010), I think the second Amendment should be repealed, so that guns don't get into the hands of lunatics.

Originally Posted by Danilynn

Just a few thoughts.

40 years ago, there was still the mindset of women as home makers. That is mostly dead and gone and something Gen X and millies never knew or ever will know.
The stay at home mom is more a privilege of the wealthy class now than any other.

I figured that the super-rich men liked having educated women as their wives. Such women may not have to do paid work, but they may be extremely active nonetheless. Their activities may be charitable or cultural -- and political. The families of the super-wealthy, I thought, typically hired domestic workers to do the household drudgery.

I'm baffled by the number of people who seem to feel the need to apologize for their skin color.

I don't apologize for being white. I consider the bad treatment of any people on the basis of color abominable.

...I for one feel no need to ever apologize for being a Christian that so happens to be a slight beige/off white-ish color with a multitude of freckles. Get over the "white guilt" crap. It's pointless and divides us as a nation. Distracting us from real threats to all people's freedoms. NDAA, for starters.

Who here sees anything wrong with being a Christian? With one exception I have found good people in just about every religious heritage. The exception is Satanism, and I can see no good in worshiping an entity that has nothing to offer but destruction, exploitation, and ruin. All in all conscience prevents more harm and does more good than does theology. That is not to say that Christianity is entirely benign. After all, Jews never persecuted my Huguenot, Quaker, or Mennonite ancestors -- or Moravians if I have those.

As for the road to fascism and the spiral of violence. I'd really like to believe that the things enacted were done with pure intentions, but it looks less and less like the government has put all these things in place for any benefit of the common American.

If I were Satan I could find no ideology more compatible with my intention of imposing ruin, suffering, disgrace, and destruction than fascism. Even Communism at the least offers a vision of a better world although such fails. Just think of what Lawrence Britt sees as hallmarks of fascism:

1. Rampant nationalism as a substitute for thought, imagination, and conscience
2. Disdain for human rights
3. Scapegoating of doubters and others who can't achieve or appreciate the new political order
4. Avid militarism that promotes the military as the model for all else in life rather than an exception
5. Sexism because fascism implies male heterosexual dominance
6. Controlled mass media that exist solely as conduits of propaganda
7. Evisceration of the power of labor through the outlawry of unions to enforce cheap labor as a norm
8. Corporate power exalted because fascism is plutocratic in accordance with its early support
9. Intertwining of Church and State to promote the hierarchy of favored clerics
10. Obsession with national security to define enemies foreign and domestic (like dissidents)
11. Disdain for artists and intellectuals because such people are hard to control
12. Inordinate concern with crime and punishment with brutal suppression of 'enemies'
13. Cronyism and corruption because they can get away with it
14. Rigged elections (if any) because fascism isn't freedom.

It's all pathology, and I could attribute much of this to commie states and to Ba'athism (Arab fascism?) When these become commonplace in a political party (like the current GOP) -- then beware!

Believe whatever you want about White Christians, but we aren't the Nazi party nor are we planning to round folks up intern them into camps and gas them to death after prolonged starvation.

Not all Germans were Nazis. The Holocaust was a well-guarded secret; the horrors took place well out of sight of most Germans. They may have feared Dachau, but they did not know about Auschwitz until the end of the war. Many of the figures of the July 20 plot, unlike most Germans of the time, knew -- and that encouraged their actions.

As for the folks pushing for an American Spring, laugh, but just know this country is extremely divided. Probably as much as it was once 150 years ago. Just for different reasons.

Should we elect someone like ..., then we will need an American Spring. Chartreuse is an attractive color, don't you think?

It may seem laughable to people that have no issue being groped by TSA at airports, don't care if the 2nd amendment goes away or is infringed, the slowly eroding loss of voice and tolerance for Christians and folks that have the desire to only be left in peace to raise their family and go hunting, fishing and to church on weekends. But to that segment and there are more and more getting tired of being infringed upon, make no mistake it is a huge deal to them. And when they get pushed enough, they will get more vocal. It only took 3% of the American colonists to be pissed enough to revolt against England and win. Probably only need about that now to band together cohesively enough to do it again.

1. Keep your filthy hands off my private parts, TSA. Go ahead and let your dogs sniff for bad chemicals.
2. The Second Amendment is badly written -- language analogous to the Amendment repealing Prohibition would serve us better, and it needs a non-discrimination clause.
3. What 'war on Christians'?
4. People having poverty imposed upon them so that a few elitists can enjoy sybaritic excess could well be the ones to turn on would-be masters.

There are folks with nothing to hide who resent their emails being read by government agencies, people who don't want their phone calls to their spouse recorded. Who resent like hell being groped just because the government says it is fine. There are more and more people getting tired of seeing the abuses by an ever increasing militarized police force.

As a practical matter someone has to listen to taped messages. Mobsters, illegal gamblers, drug traffickers, commercial cheats, and terrorists are fair game. The feds get lots of convictions on mail fraud and wire fraud for fraudulent transactions even without having to open the mail or bugging a phone line. So if the message between husband and wife is a suggestion of sex it is no federal matter. If someone uses the mail to disseminate child pornography or to accept payment for such, it is a federal matter.

There are folks who thought the Boston martial law experience seemed like something out of news footage of another country, not American, and are deeply troubled by it.

It was over -- fast.

Now let's just look, at Gitmo, we now have NDAA which gives the government the right to do that to any American. And a whole lot of folks are real bothered by that.

Time for repeal!

Whether you agree or not a Government BIG enough to give you everything, is also enough of a threat to take it all from you, up to and including your life.

If the federal government takes away Social Security or Medicare, then people will get angry.

Three boxes people employ to try to change things: the soap box ( printed materials or internet forums), the Ballot box, and when they feel those have failed, most have no problem reaching for the ammo box, or sword, or pitchfork or whatever they can employ as a weapon. And a growing number are beginning to feel that the first 2 have failed and are waiting for that third box to be popped open.

The soap box isn't so effective. The ballot box is all that most of us have, and at that a sales clerk in a box store and one of the corporate executives has as much right to vote if a citizen. But take away the vote or its meaning, and America would be no more democratic than the old Soviet Union.

I'd rather have liberty than the false promise of security. I can take care of myself.

Well, I do want the state troopers on the road. I have reported a drunk driver and a speeder (someone who drove another person off the road, which is extremely dangerous) with the aid of my cell phone. If I ever see anyone peeking into parked cars to see which cars still have keys in them I will call the cops. You are exempt from that for looking into an antique car like a 1926 Dodge that had some beautiful Art Deco details. Even if I would support the legalization of marijuana I support a crackdown on hard drugs and underage drinking.

My last sentence you missed the point of entirely. Either on purpose to be obtuse or unintentionally to twist it around, I care not.

Just to clarify, where I was going with that sentence: "Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety" Benjamin Franklin, Historical Review of Pennsylvania, 1759

They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.”
Ben Franklin

”People willing to trade their freedom for temporary security deserve neither and will lose both.”

”If we restrict liberty to attain security we will lose them both.”

”Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both.”

”He who gives up freedom for safety deserves neither.”

”Those who would trade in their freedom for their protection deserve neither.”

”Those who give up their liberty for more security neither deserve liberty nor security.”
Ben Franklin

“A countryman between two lawyers is like a fish between two cats.”
Ben Franklin

”A great empire, like a great cake, is most easily diminished at the edges.”..... This we are doing with every roll back on liberty. The NDAA is the nastiest single piece of legislation in years since the (un)Patriot Act to be passed.

The NSA and their minions of Satan tracking our every move. The things they do in the name of "liberty" would make Stalin and Mao proud.

Yes, Boston's martial law was short lived. It looked like a dry run to see how folks would take it. Yeah baby, chanting "USA, USA" the whole way and letting their 4th amendment bill of rights be trampled, great show of giving up all Liberties with nary a protest all in the name of a bit of false security and "public safety".

A peacefully minded toward it's citizens Government does not do the things ours is doing. Paint all the reasons you want on why the listening, snooping into our private lives you want to for the "greater good" on it with hearts and rainbows even, it's WRONG.

As for the "war on Christians", our dear leaders have already named being a Christian, a military veteran, among other things as "potential terrorists".

Yes, the economy in general is imposing poverty on people that formerly weren't. Obamacare debacle is going to accelerate this.

Food scarcity has typically led to rebellion. Bastille Day comes to mind.

I read a lot of eclectic sources. Both ragingly Left to the point Eric would be scared of it left and some stuff from the right that appalls me and a lot in between. I'm sure my computer has been in some dark spots on the web. Insomnia is a pain. I fill hours in reading stuff. But make no mistake there are people from all walks of life fed up and they have had no problem hiding behind their keyboards and venting it, planning marches, protests.

There is no middle ground left anymore. The 2 sides are split. The fractures in this country are there to see if you but look. But most would rather not.

We stand on the precipice of losing all our liberty and gaining nothing but chains regardless of blue or red. 2 sides to the same demon. Pick the poison, in the end it's all the same.

What scares me is that like Boston the masses will be chanting and charming while we lose all our liberties and enter quietly and happily to some sort of really scary hellish dictatorship with the illusion of "voting".

Originally Posted by Danilynn

Why am I not surprised you are being a troll and calling names? Grow up. Get a life or a hooker or a good shrink. Or hell, a good bottle of wine and chill your shit. Sell the race card elsewhere. It's gotten beyond old.

Paying lesbian hookers may be the way you roll, but not I. I also do not drink...

Originally Posted by pbrower2a

I'm baffled by the number of people who seem to feel the need to apologize for their skin color.

I don't apologize for being white. I consider the bad treatment of any people on the basis of color abominable.

No, it's just that Dannilyn is resisting the behavior of white people being viewed in aggregate because she identifies as a black person and has nothing in common with other "whites" other then skin color. It is the shame other white people have of their skin color that is causing her to divide from black people, green people and the race called freckled.

Originally Posted by Calafia

Paying lesbian hookers may be the way you roll, but not I. I also do not drink...


[/FONT]
[/I][/FONT]No, it's just that Dannilyn is resisting the behavior of white people being viewed in aggregate because she identifies as a black person and has nothing in common with other "whites" other then skin color. It is the shame other white people have of their skin color that is causing her to divide from black people, green people and the race called freckled.

a lesbian hooker probably has better reading skills and conversational abilities than you do. Besides we all know you don't pay for the sex, you pay for them to leave afterwards. Which is much more than can be said about you.

Perhaps you should drink, the ramblings coming out might possibly be of interest and coherent.

back to ignore for you. Get a life and leave your basement once in a while.

I'm fully aware of the Franklin message.

I can't see for whom the National Security Agency offers any real security.

Bomb-sniffing and drug-sniffing dogs pose me no threat because I don't carry drugs or bomb-making chemicals.

Originally Posted by pbrower2a

We already have the phenomenon of a state-within-a-state that comprises power outside of electoral purview either in influencing politics (corporate lobbyists), propaganda that most people fail to recognize for its corrupting malignancy (FoX News, Breitbart, Drudge, NewsMax) because it is somehow comforting, and of course the National Security state. Corporate lobbyists have become a de facto fourth branch of government exempt from public scrutiny.

Journalism is badly debased. Instead of Edward R. Murrow exposing the poltroon Senator Joseph R. McCarthy or offering such distressing-but-undeniable reality as "Hunger in America" and "Harvest of Shame" we have talking heads to whom more attention seems paid to the quality of their hairdos than to the content of their reporting. If I have called FoX News "GOP Pravda" it is because like Pravda in its heyday it kept offering the official line (and lie) until the line and lie were shown as demonstrably false and that the manipulative bosses decided that they could no longer get away with what they were doing. Maybe the National Security State proves useful on occasion for whacking Osama bin Laden and some terrorist traitors like al-Awlaki and Gadahn who go overseas, but such comes with a price.



Maybe poor white people believe as strongly as any in the "princess" phenomenon -- that some "prince" will drive through her isolated community, fall in love with her, marry her, and rescue her and her close relatives from grinding poverty. Just think of the song "Delta Dawn"



http://www.metrolyrics.com/delta-daw...ya-tucker.html

(That's Brownsville, Tennessee -- and not Texas).

It's from 40 years ago, when country music could incorporate irony and even conscience -- that is long past.

Even with the degradation of American economics, a 15-year-old Dawn would still be wiser to prepare herself for the state college, where she might prepare herself to be a teacher, an accountant, or a research technician; in a modest middle-class career she would meet plenty of desirable suitors instead of hoping to win some marital lottery. But -- she might have to encounter some challenges to her culture. Tough! Don't we all?
So there is music other than country music, some of it extremely good even if it comes from a small country whose musical heritage can put ours to shame. Knowledge can humble one about his own nation, especially in culture. Contrary to fundamentalist preaching the universe certainly looks far older than 6000 years -- but science is far more useful than pseudoscience.

A few mansions are being built anew on behalf of America's rapacious elites -- but there just aren't enough of them for every 'princess'. The only way in which many of those 'princesses' are ever going to enter those mansions is by being hired as a domestic servant, which is ordinarily a horrible way to make a living. She would be wiser to hit the books and get a teaching certificate with the expectation of nothing more grand in life than a tract house with plenty of appliances and a husband (or lesbian lover in case such is her inclination) with similar prospects.

...As for the Pope -- people seem increasingly to find that sexual orientation is far more rigid than has long been believed. Homosexuality may now be seen as intractable but harmless. Greed shows itself much more destructive but not an intractable part of human nature.

This is the song that launched the career of country singer Tanya Tucker, who went on to have an impressive string of country hits over two decades. Perhaps what is most ironic is that, while Tanya's own version reached #72 on the pop charts, not high enough to receive airplay on most major market pop stations, a cover version for the pop market was released performed by Helen Reddy, who was music's primary Women's Libber during her brief music career. She once told a nationwide audience that God was female.

Originally Posted by Brian Beecher

This is the song that launched the career of country singer Tanya Tucker, who went on to have an impressive string of country hits over two decades. Perhaps what is most ironic is that, while Tanya's own version reached #72 on the pop charts, not high enough to receive airplay on most major market pop stations, a cover version for the pop market was released performed by Helen Reddy, who was music's primary Women's Libber during her brief music career. She once told a nationwide audience that God was female.

Has irony largely vanished from pop culture? Such would suggest the degradation of the quality of mass education. Maybe people who learn to meet a standardized test have no need to question the literal meaning of a text. People unable to read between the lines -- and and the Latin word intelligentia literally means reading between (the lines) -- can accept anything that they are told by people who offer something that comfortably fits their sensibilities. Sensibilities can be very wrong.

remember when I said that there are people calling for change by any means?

here is a new one that popped up today:http://freepatriot.org/2014/01/02/wa...beration-army/

Originally Posted by Danilynn

remember when I said that there are people calling for change by any means?

here is a new one that popped up today:http://freepatriot.org/2014/01/02/wa...beration-army/

If we fracture into two or more separate nations, that will be no different than the end of Roman Empire. The real question will be, what of the remnants? I see several viable sections of the country that could be their own nations, but they would all differ dramatically from the current USA. Once sundered, I doubt they could be reunited.

That can be good or bad, but it would be the end of the American Century.

Originally Posted by Marx & Lennon

If we fracture into two or more separate nations, that will be no different than the end of Roman Empire. The real question will be, what of the remnants? I see several viable sections of the country that could be their own nations, but they would all differ dramatically from the current USA. Once sundered, I doubt they could be reunited.

Ask the Chinese about that. They do it every few hundred years or so.

The break-up/reunification cycle happens so often, it is baked into Chinese culture and mythology:

“The world under heaven, after a long period of division, tends to unite; after a long period of union, tends to divide. This has been so since antiquity. ”
― Luo Guanzhong