we'll be more like europe once that obama magic wears off.

all the reforms democrats will dare to push through congress still won't fix this shell of an economy. consumers are indebted to their eyeballs in the face of a collapsing job market, we have no manufacturing, our banks have no capital, and our government is effectively bankrupt.

it's only a matter of time until we're robbing each other to feed the kids.

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Gas and food are still (relatively) affordable. We still have power and running water. The mail still gets delivered. American Idol is back on the air.

Our way of life and sense of security haven't been so disrupted yet that we're cold, hungry, desperate, and angry enough to take to the streets.

Yet...

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Protests are seldom spontaneous, certainly on economic affairs. A date has to be set, a time has to be decided, information has to be spread... Here in France there would be far less protesting if unions were less strong. (This has a drawback too: the unions have concentrated more and more on the (semi)public sector, and so the vast majority of protests are organized to protect a cushy minority working in state-owned enterprises.)

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He says Americans are a nation that favors gradual solutions to problems, thus we're less prone to mass demonstrations and such. From this reasoning we could assume that people like the French, who are more keen on mass political action, are rather less patient when it comes to progressive social change.

Notice that we're last among wealthy nations when it comes to provisioning members of our society with a safety net, while the French are among the best.

Maybe the slow approach isn't working. Maybe it's too weak. Just maybe calls for patience in pursuing change are a delay tactic meant to calm people down until they lose interest in promoting equality and economic security.

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He says Americans are a nation that favors gradual solutions to problems, thus we're less prone to mass demonstrations and such. From this reasoning we could assume that people like the French, who are more keen on mass political action, are rather less patient when it comes to progressive social change.

Notice that we're last among wealthy nations when it comes to provisioning members of our society with a safety net, while the French are among the best.

Maybe the slow approach isn't working. Maybe it's too weak. Just maybe calls for patience in pursuing change are a delay tactic meant to calm people down until they lose interest in promoting equality and economic security.

In some cases, and in the long term, a revolutionary history may be better than a reformist one.

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American's are among the most propagandized and gullible on earth. As such, most actually believe they live under a "democracy" and "capitalism". U.S. citizens have believed virtually every deliberate sting including 9/11 coverup into bogus 9/11 "war on terror" straight into the national looting of nation sold as "Wall Street Bailouts". They also more or less suck up what the Organized Corporate Criminal media tells them about their phony Washington circus leaders in stooge felon GW Bush and the latest puppet to play-act at the White House, "change we can believe in" Obama.

Venues like Alternet pretend to be an "alternative" to the endless blood money falsity and (of course) hardly do more than peddle retread establishment deceit only slightly less outrageous than that of the corporate monopoly MSM.

Meanwhile real facts and discussion are kept off the table. For the most part, we only hear the usual status quo LIES on genocide sham war and the economics of FASCISM that are recycled in serial reductio ad absurdum so all is masked to make Washington a bastion of "democracy" and "free markets" around the globe.

All of it run though travesty orgs such as the private Ponzi farce "Federal Reserve" Corp that was never federal and has minus nothing at all for reserves.

But the LIES and silencing of the truth don't even begin to conform to the reality of a world run by extortion for extortionists.

Even now, where the planet flies to pieces as a result of one serial scam after the hundreds before all built on the master fraud of false economy run by and for a parasite criminal ruling class, this Alternet writer only talks about the symptoms and NEVER even hints at the root cause of the dysfunction at stake.

Sorry but the stuff of real social revolutions must be based on frank exchange of valid information not on emotional decoy fluff that only reinforces an established ruling class order literally based on global thievery and genocide.

“Unthinking respect for authority is the greatest enemy of the truth.”

“The minority, the ruling class at present, has the schools and press, usually the Church as well, under its thumb. This enables it to organize and sway the emotions of the masses, and make its tool of them.”
Doctor Albert Einstein (in a letter to Sigmund Freud 7/30/1932. 1879-1955)

“The real truth of the matter is, as you and I know, that a financial element in the larger centers has owned the government of the U.S. ever since the days of Andrew Jackson.”
President FDR (on de facto Fascist rule in a letter to corporate monopoly charlatan “Colonel” Edward M. House, co-founder of the Council on Foreign Relations and political fixer for the ruling class. House also handled President Wilson. 11/21/ l933 – from the book "F.D.R.: His Personal Letters" - New York: Duell, Sloan and Pearce 1950)

“When the truth is replaced by silence, the silence is a lie.”
Yevgeny Yevtushenko (Soviet dissident, poet and filmmaker. Yevtushenko was the first Russian to publicly speak out against police state Stalinism (1933-).

“The truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the state."
Joseph Goebbels (minister of propaganda Nazi Germany, 1933-1945)

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Most Americans don't study the economy. When enough people lose their jobs and realized how dumb they were to believe the usual empty promises that politicians make every 4 years, then perhaps they will wake up. Right now the Obama magic dust is still in full effect and the sheep (people) with their glaring look of amazement and cult of personality worship will have to suffer before they get it (that they are suckers).

Most Americans don't even understand our current financial state and what it means for their future and how bad things really are. Most Americans are too busy focusing on the Super Bowl and investing several hours of their day with useless chater about touchdowns and slam dunks (idiots).

Most Americans don't understand the Federal reserve (including myself although I have little knowledge of it), Banks, Inflation and budgets. Most Americans are so dumb that they truly believe that none of this stuff will effect their jobs or their way of life until it happens (deer in headlight syndrome).


There will be no riots until people go broke or the economy collapses that the sheep will begin to wake up and realize that there is good chance we wont recover from what could be potentially the greatest meltdown in modern history.

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good article Joshua, but remember this;
people in the USA sometimes are put in jail 250 years....(probably the judge was senile and doesnt know the average age of human is about 80 years)
The killer who murdered our popular politicianPIM only got 8 years.
childmolesters are put in hospitals ..

So there is a whole world of difference.
In meantime scientists found out that surpression and state violence creates crimes but since it is so PROFITABLE your system will continue..

The strangething is that since OBAMA rightwing politicians seems to be relieved. Is mr.Obama really changing things or does the Mainstreet have to repair all the mistakes of Wallstreet???

Drugusers are considered as patients and never put in jail...

Professor Herz explained that in a depression helping Rich people doesnt linder the problems.
She said give the money to the people who really need it...

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"Americans" spend almost a quarter of their Waking Lives in front of machines that blast images -selected and manipulated by the "Second 9%" under the purview of the "Top 1%"- past their Conscious Minds and deep into their Subconscious.

They do this in conditions of severe Social Isolation -from their Families, from Neighbors, from fellow Citizens, and even from History itself.

The Author's question is the wrong one.

We should be asking not "Why aren't 'Americans' responding as Sentient Humans?", but rather "Why is anyone surpised by this failure to respond, and why don't we ever talk about the obvious causes of this failure?"

The Author's unconscious invocation of TV-Reality in his final line -"Stay tuned."- would seem to demostrate how deep this Alienation from the Actual World has become.

Of course, there is also a long answer. But why bother with it here? I'm sure I have already exceeded the Internets norm for content and depth as it is.

-matti.

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Many years ago, when behavioral testing was all the rage there was an experiment conducted on dogs in which the dog was caged in a two compartment wire enclosure. There was a small partition separating the two sides of the cage, so the dog could move freely from one side to the other whenever it chose.

In the second stage of the experiment, one side of the cage was electrified and naturally, the dog would leap to the other side to escape. This stage lasted until it was clear the dog had learned to "Escape" the painful stimuli and would immediately jump to the side that wasn't electrified.

In stage three of the experiment, the partition was closed so the dog could no longer escape, however so long as the dog continued its frantic behavior, the electricity stayed on. Eventually the dog's natural instinct to escape was in scientific terms "Extinguished" and the dog would lay there in the electrified part of the cage without even trying to escape. Even when the partition was removed, the dog no longer tried to escape.

The scientists conducting this torture called this phase of the ordeal, "Learned Helplessness"...

THAT is why we are Not Rioting...

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and a diabolic MSM keeps it that way.

Pull the plug on all MSM/PBS/NPR and flourish or stay stuck in the dark, draconian hole some call home.

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>Explosive anger is spilling out onto the streets of Europe.

No it isn't. What are you talking about?

What's with hyperbole?

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There is a difference in America compared to some, if not all of these other countries in regards to the financial meltdown.

Most of these protestors are showing anger at their governments, or the US, or big corporations for their role in the meltdown, as well as their response to it.

Americans can't protest over the cause of the meltdown.

Why.

1.) We elected the Bush administration twice, elected congressional representatives that rubber stamped the administrations deregulation and blind-eye to corporate greed. Remember, this country and this government belongs to the people. We are responsible for what has happened over the last 8 (or is it 30?) years.

2.) In some parts of the country, house prices forced homeowners to overextend their ability to pay back a loan, but in my part, tens of thousands of homeowners overextended just to have a McMansion in the 'burbs. While the mortgage companies are to be blamed, so are these homeowners.

3.) The American people accepted NAFTA, shopped at Walmart, and generally sold America's ability to produce real products, allow the shadow financial economy to form.

4.) The American people ran up their credit card debt and spent their savings in an attempt to "Keep up with the Jones".

So, while the American people should be pushing the government to enact swift changes, there is no ground for us to lay blame on anyone other than ourselves. We enabled the corperate greed that got the world to this point, so it doesn't really suit us to be angry at anyone.

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Why do you think the military is in the law business now? The populace will be shot down if they rise up. Look, it took 4 to put an end to anti-war protests in the 70's.
The coup has happened and it's happened silently and with tacit approval.
jimsecor

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Although personally not a union member I would walk with any union which decided to strike. More effective would be for All Unions to strike on the same day- UAW, Long shoremen, Teachers, hospitality...After watching Gettlefinger get worked over by such Corp whores as Corker at the Big 3 LOAN hearings, I'm Livid! Only NOW is congress demanding the embezzling, Extorting Bank Investor testify before congress- after they have squandered 350 Billion of OUR Money.
Why has no one Called these traitors out on their UnAmerican Activities and Ideology? Lockheeds CEO dared say he could get 9 Mexicans for the price of 1 American- what did he think he was doing Bidding on Slave labor? Does he dare propose American Workers be treated like 3rd World Labor? Talk about an UNPATRIOTIC SOB!! he admitted he could give a Shit about American Values and the American Dream for his fellow citizens. He and the Repugs have Delsuions (and schemes) to bring the Feudalistic Caste System to Our Free market Democracy. Why is it the 'Talent' on wall street has every right to work the market to gain the best price possible, but line workers must settle for what ever the Corps feel like paying them. These Wall street 'Talents' have proven they are not only lazy, but Utterly Incompetent and Criminal. They weren't just stealing Staplers, they were stealing the Capitol which kept the entire Comapny (industry) Afloat! Why is it most American Workers 'bonuses' are dependent on profitablity, and yet the CEO's are not? If my company has a shitty year, my bonus is effected,If not totally non existent! Exxons profits from last year was 45.2 BILLION, Was the aerage workers 'Bonus' Increased, what about their wages or bennies? What was the Top brass'? Certianly Exxon did not pass this on to it's customers- $4.00 a gallon, no wonder they had a Historical Record breaking year- for any industry!
Frankly I don't want riots, and realize Strikes effect the workers bottom line more profoundly. What I want is Mass Prosecutions and Executions for those who have committed Economic Treason Against The United States! Get out your Recycled paper plates, heads will start rolling! (What silver platters have not been hocked are far to good for these Traitors!). Actually scratch that, the Guillotine is far to humane, Hang 'em Low & Slow- so we can watch them struggle, as we have for the last 3 decades!

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The answer is found in the article that Holland cites - in Europe, the media is calling it a "depression," while in America, we're hearing about a "recession." Spain is talking about unemployment at 20%, while in America, we're talking about unemployment at 8%.

The government has gotten good at spinning data so the final results make things look a lot better than they are. There's a site, called ShadowStatistics.com or something like that, that shows what the unemployment numbers would be if we calculated them the way we used to back in the 1980s. In the 1990s, we changed the way we calculate unemployment, inflation, and other indexes so that the most damaging data is left out.

As a result, people think that we're in the beginning stages of a recession, hovering above an abyss, and that things might still turn around. The truth is that we're falling headlong into that abyss already.

But let's be careful that we don't get what we wish for. Rioting is pointless if people are just destroying shit out of anger. We have to have real solutions to fight for. If Americans rioted, it'd be to get more big houses, SUVs, and credit cards. That stuff isn't worth rioting for.

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As I've been saying for a while now, until the greater mass of people are cold, hungry, listless (due to being unemployed) hurting and are either homeless or nearly so will they really change anything. The slave mentality is very strong here, and the only thing that will break it is the general idea that the people under it might as well fight because they have nothing else to really lose. Slaves can only be kept passive so long as they feel they are going to be cared for in some manner, and in America, with its YOY (you're on your own) mentality, that illusion is fading fast. If you take that away from them (as a cost saving measure, of course... do it for the company! *puke*) they will revolt. The true unemployment rate here- not reported because it might cause tension (in other words, piss the filthy peasants off) is somewhere near 12-14% or so, and possibly higher. So far, the insulting unemployment the country gives to those riffed, compassionately downsized or otherwise FIRED is still almost enough to keep people from sharpening their pichforks and throwing management out of the windows, but that will be changing, and soon. The world is getting tired of having america and its arrogance shoved up their asses. It is starting to quietly abandon the dollar as a reserve currency. Soon, the USA won't be able to sell its toxic treasury bonds to anyone at nearly any price. Once that happens, or once one of our major holders of debt (Saudi Arabia, Brittan, Russia or China) starts loudly and defiantly dumping them, the USA will run out of money. Once that happens... I hope you're prepared for hell like a survivalist, because the shit is going to hit the fan in a stream. Obama was elected too late to stop this, if he was ever really serious about fixing things at all, which I sincerely doubt. In any case, we're headed for the pavement, and really, its the only way anything CAN change (it takes chaos to undo despotism) under the grand ponzi scheme (eat your heart out, Maddof) that has been foisted upon us all for the last century.

God (or whoever) save us all.

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'The meltdown of the global economy is igniting massive social unrest in a region that has long been a symbol of political stability and social cohesion.'
from a region that had 2 world wars, hundreds of millions killed...

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What is it going to take to see Americans in the streets?
You can make them work, work, work,
Deny them health care, decent retirement and paid vacation (not mandatory as in the rest of the industrialized world) and they still don't bulge.
What does it take for Americans to get angry?
Numbed by junk food, sports, the American wet dream and what else? Pitiful!

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I believe most Americans still have the attitude that we live in the greatest country on earth and that no matter how bad it is here, it would be much worse living in most other places. We have been taught to show homage to our country and flag no matter what the circumstances. The older generation trusts the government and believes everything it hears from the television. I believe their is an uprising forming in the younger generation, but it is still too small. Also, the media controls most of our thoughts and has fueled division amoungst different groups (Right vs Left.) So much so that we cannot agree on anything and revert to bickering amoungst each other. A divided people can never stand up to tyranny. It's very sad.

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Two great pieces on Alternet today - check out the other one on "torture chic."

So on this topic consider:

The FBI could have arrested David Koresh any time he went to town but chose instead, to instigate the destruction of the Waco compound where men, women and children died. Why? Remember the coverage? Message to the American people sent - your government has no compunctions to slaughter you if you resist.

More recently, the completely unnecessary police brutality not only at the WTO protests in Seattle and Miami but the recent detentions and arrests made at the GOP convention in the Twin Cities. These are police state tactics but most Americans shrug - they hear about the arrests but never about the eventual acquittals. Message sent.

And then, who needs an arrest record, even though it may have been completely bogus and unconstitutional? You're boss won't care - you'll be fired anyway and then your family can learn about your inalienable right to live in a shelter. Message sent.

And finally, isn't it interesting how "60 Minutes" and other media showcased the nifty new concentrated microwave torture machines to be field tested in Iraq, but really meant for deployment against future riots amongst the hungry in the USA. You remember - these devices make you feel like your skin is on fire the closer you get. Coming soon to an urban area near you.

Golly those things can HURT!

Message sent.

And still. . . and still. . . people want so badly to believe that they will still wave the flag on national holidays, stand up proudly for the pledge, believe that their country is essentially good and still hate the French.

What is to be done with such a people?

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Rioting ?? Man that is just so 1970s. We don't do that no more.


Chris

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I think there are two main reasons why we are not seeing massive popular protests. 1) the last time we saw massive protests was before the Iraq invasion of 2003. Millions of people marched against the war and the result? Zilch. The guvmint did exactly what they wanted to do anyway. I think people see mass protest as ineffective after 8 years of Bush and co.
2) many people in America - I've read estimates as high as 30% - are on tranquilizers, anti-depressants, and mood stabilizers. Some reports say these substances have gotten into the water supplies, so that almost everyone is exposed to them. It's like a mass biochemistry experiment. Wanna control an entire population? Drug 'em!

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Ok, they are rioting all over Europe and protesting the recession.

How's that worked out for them? Has it improved ANYTHING?

I would be willing to riot, if I could see how it would help.

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we should rejoice in the fact that this dysfunctional system of control, power-over, machinist and devoid of connection...is breathing its last breath...
the millions of the planet will take over their corrupt governments and refuse any longer to be the pawns in this deadening system.
please, let's not turn our anger against our comrades. we have to stick together. the machine is counting on us all losing our minds over what is happening, but we will not give them the gratification of this.
organize in droves. do it everyday. keep the faith in spite of seemingly insurmountable odds. i'm ready and able, who will join me and take the anger and frustration that thousands of us are experiencing and not turn it inward -but to the fearful power-brokers who are barely hanging on.
breathe, and come to realize that WE HAVE THE POWER - they do not(it's all an illusion and dream that we have been a part of)

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The sad fact is that financial toxins that are created on Wall Street must be cleaned-up on a global basis. So financial garbage created in the United States must be cleaned-up around the world, and Americans are largely sheltered from it. Americans can keep watching silly shows on TV. Foreign countries, by contrast, must clean up Wall Street's shyte. If scrubbing the world of Wall Street's shyte is unappealing to them (which it appears to be, given the increasing social unrest), they must divorce themselves from American capitalism. But there would be great fear in doing this, as the United States has a huge, awe-inspiring military. There does not appear to be a workable solution to this conundrum.

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I think the reason we have had no rioting or civil disobedience is that, for the moment, the citizens of the US still believe that their government can be effective. Americans are waiting to see results.

The Republicans are playing a very dangerous game with our future by opposing everything that the incoming Administration tries to do. They could end up setting off a second civil war if no stimulus package is enacted or one that is emasculated is enacted that doesn't work. I don't think that they have picked up on the true zeitgeist that sent Obama into office - and this failure may be fatal.

The time for partisan maneuvering is over. The Republicans can either listen to the people that elected the Democrats and work with them to solve this crisis, or they risk irrelevance or worse.

Let's hope there are enough cool heads on all sides to get this country moving again.

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Just ask your baby-boomer parents, and your grandparents:

1. Red scare persecutions, internment of Japanese-Americans, effectively put the fear of fascist government.

2. State sponsored terrorism and persecution against Civil Rights activists and anti-war protestors during the 50s, 60s, and 70s crippled desire to protest against the state and the ruling elites.

3. Anti-Union propaganda since the 80s have led people to believe that we ought to feel lucky for the little crumbs that we get from the ruling elites.

The message: worry about your individual needs, work your ass off, keep your head down, and don't complain.

America is the land that can be found in Kafka's books. Most of us are simply ignorant of the reality.

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that we can no longer pay bills or eat - after they broke their contracts and raised interest rates sky-high. The crisis started when the interest rates were raised. Doesn't anybody get it yet? Those rates should be lowered.

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What a bullshit idea.
You signed a contact with the credit company and if you actually read all the fine print, you would have realized that you are allowing them to change the rate anytime they wish. Read it - it's all there.

They didn't hide anything. I'm so sick of this "they screwed us over" attitude. You screwed yourself when you signed the contract.

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Rioting, well... who will get me out of jail, or feed my kid if I don't get out? "They" tell me I'm lucky to have a job, can I risk losing it? (tongue firmly in cheek)

Who's to say it won't be Kent State or worse, Tiananmen Square? We like to think that wouldn't happen here but do we know? If a million of us actually stormed the capitol, who is not complacent enough to risk the worst scenario?

I marched with 100,000 of my closest friends on Jan 27, 2007 and it meant NOTHING. I marched with far fewer in September and watched as Iraq war veterans were arrested while attempting to ascend the steps of "our" capitol.
Rioting won't help until we can as a bipartisan people storm the proverbial bastille.

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I don't think so, although the "secret government" with its media propaganda machine has successfully sowed the seeds of doubt among those who are incapable of free thought by ignoring the silent majority. We are not a nation of sheep. The Mafia and crime syndicate that operated in the last century is still present under a new name ... the Congress of the United States. They are being observed as are the greedy corporations. We, who do not take to the streets in a senseless, nonproductive, militant action, are never-the-less armed and dangerous. We sense that the economy and world government will eventually collapse under its own weight. The effects of such a global event are distant from our shores at the moment, but when it becomes localized, when people will be forced to take action to defend their homes and families, there will be uncontrollable violence against the dictates of a government controlled not by the masses but by the rich and famous in this once all powerful nation. Those who are perceived as being in the "elite wealthy, affluent class" will be the first to feel the effects of this massive revolution of society. Classes will disappear along with the dictatorial politicians. Silent, yes. Powerless, no. Waiting for what is inevitable, yes.

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Any of us who have loved ones serving in the military or serving as police officers--needs to have a serious talk with them. Those who work in the military or as police must be told they can make only one choice. Either choose your family or choose your masters. If it comes down to violent insurrection caused by massive hunger or homelessness--then our family members must STAND DOWN. EITHER STAND BY YOUR FAMILIES AND FRIENDS OR BE DISOWNED. IF YOU CHOOSE YOUR CORPORATE MASTERS--YOU WILL BE DISOWNED AND OSTRACISED EVERYWHERE YOU GO. YOU HAVE NO FAMILY OR FRIENDS THEN. IT IS THAT SIMPLE. YOU CANNOT SERVE THE FASCISTS WHO STARVE OUR CHILDREN AND REMAIN A HUMAN BEING.

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"Because we're afraid of 'our' government and/AKA our corporate masters" was my first thought when I read the title. But I'm still surprised that there hasnt been more civil disobedience. I've got lots of ideas but hope people will try lawful means FIRST. Only then, if that isn't satisfactory, should they add other means.

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And that's especially true with those too low to be true gas prices. It takes at least 2 hours to drive 30 miles to work every fucking morning and the same in the evening. And public transportation is a pure joke since most of us don't live near the transit and parking is either unavailable or way too pricey and the bus and rail services NEVER reduce their OBSCENELY HIGH prices. No wonder they generate plenty of business SCANDALS !! And don't get me started with Valentine's Day shit ! Like most other "special" joke occasions, the consumer gluttony stays high and those of us who are frugal are laughed at ! I'm proud to bring my own lunch to work while everyone else guzzles down miles to their crummy restaurant during lunch ! And I'm proud to be a repair woman because I actually took a year of my life to learn home economics while everyone else was whoring around !

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According to the experts at the Minneapolis Federal Reserve Bank, there was no crisis in banking when Paulson and Bernanke told us the sky was falling. Banks were, and still are lending money and, in fact are ready, willing and able to lend.

This "crisis" has all the markings of a planned event. We shouldn't be surprised that the victims are taking to the streets. I'm surprised we haven't seen a few heads lopped off.

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Why aren't we rioting? Americans today are a pretty passive bunch. Whenever I bring up in conversations the injustices that government routinely shower down upon us, people respond "What can we do? We're powerless!" That kind of mindset is the product of many years of American society being put on a war footing by government, and being told that fighting for your rights is communistic or, in today's terms, siding with the terrorists. Europeans know that governments shake in their boots when people unite. We, on the other hand, think if we say anything against the system we are bound for jail and police brutality. We call ourselves the land of the free, yet everywhere we behave as if we are in chains!

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video

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The radical right has had the whole of the generation from Reagan through W largely to themselves. When I retired and returned to school as a student I was struck by how either brainwashed with radical right ideas or passive and unaware of the 60s my fellow students were.

I no longer dare to protest because my “priors” put me in jeopardy, and I am too old to go to jail again. The last time we had riots was in the early 90s. Our neighborhoods still show the scars. But it is just a matter of time.

We have deliberately created a new proletariat by forcing large numbers of people into poverty, and unless we put them to work at a livable wage, we will have our share of rebellion. I do not wish that on anyone. Nor do I see the absence of organized violence as a fault. Only someone who has never been close to a riot could see social conflict as desirable.

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The U.S. has a revolutionary history. We learned in school that the revolutionaries won under General Washington and instituted a democratic republic, which invented free public education, and which later forced nationalized health care upon a conquered Germany and Japan.

The U.S. just elected a former community organizer as President. We're never 100% sure that nonviolent demonstrations "work", but right now we're so happy that we just got rid of Bushie and the Republican Congress!

It's the disenfranchised groups that riot. In America, the blacks have been rioting since the 1920s. Right now they're not feeling quite as disenfranchised. So hold off on the riots.

In general the U.S. has more of an ethic of following the nonviolent practices of first talking, then demonstrating to build public support, then throwing elections. It's true that both parties are corrupt, but Americans (except for fundamentalist bozoes over 60) split tickets if there's anyone worth voting for.

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the populations of occupied territories. Since the '50's, most of America's water supplies have been fluoridated to "help prevent tooth decay." Do you really think the government cares so much about kids'teeth more than anything else that they would drug the entire population? This is part of one article :
"I have your letter of September 29 asking for further documentation regarding a statement made in my book, The Truth About Water Fluoridation, to the effect that the idea of water fluoridation was brought to England from Russia by the Russian Communist Kreminoff. "In the 1930's, Hitler and the German Nazi's envisioned a world to be dominated and controlled by a Nazi philosophy of pan-Germanism. The German chemists worked out a very ingenious and far-reaching plan of mass-control which was submitted to and adopted by the German General Staff. This plan was to control the population in any given area through mass medication of drinking water supplies. By this method they could control the population in whole areas, reduce population by water medication that would produce sterility in women, and so on. In this scheme of mass-control, sodium fluoride occupied a prominent place. ...

"Repeated doses of infinitesimal amounts of fluoride will in time reduce an individual's power to resist domination, by slowly poisoning and narcotizing a certain area of the brain, thus making him submissive to the will of those who wish to govern him. [A convenient light lobotomy]

"The real reason behind water fluoridation is not to benefit children's teeth. If this were the real reason there are many ways in which it could be done that are much easier, cheaper, and far more effective. The real purpose behind water fluoridation is to reduce the resistance of the masses to domination and control and loss of liberty.

"When the Nazis under Hitler decided to go into Poland, both the German General Staff and the Russian General Staff exchanged scientific and military ideas, plans, and personnel, and the scheme of mass control through water medication was seized upon by the Russian Communists because it fitted ideally into their plan to communize the world. ...

"I was told of this entire scheme by a German chemist who was an official of the great IG Farben chemical industries and was also prominent in the Nazi movement at the time. I say this with all the earnestness and sincerity of a scientist who has spent nearly 20 years' research into the chemistry, biochemistry, physiology and pathology of fluorine--any person who drinks artificially fluorinated water for a period of one year or more will never again be the same person mentally or physically."
CHARLES E. PERKINS, Chemist, 2 October 1954. The article, one of many, is posted at http://www.infonews.co.nz/news.cfm?l=1&t=0&id=17791

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I think there are a number of other reasons why Americans don't fight back:

1) We are soft in the head. Mindless entertainment and diversion through drugs and technology keep us too preoccupied to care. We're addicted to fun and do not care about the world that beats us down. We cannot fight what we do not understand. We are pacified and greedy and so, compliant.

2)Education is about conformity not freethinking. And higher education is either for those that can afford it (i.e. their parents paid for it) or for those who are willing to go into debt to get it. Another form of slavery. Again, many of these folks simply cannot afford to fight for fear of losing their jobs, which they need to pay off their debt. Their job and their debt keep them in line even though they do understand the beast.

3)Although Washington has quelled many a revolution, it has also learned along the way that so long as a significant portion of Americans are uneducated, poor, drugged and well armed they will kill themselves and keep everyone else in a perpetual state of disgust and fear. The solution then, is of course, Washington, the cops, the military and the American Way.

3) Obama's election was one of the greatest acts of democracy this country or the world has seen in a long while. But he is not the answer: he is the outcome. If we forget that now, he will be ineffective and our revolution will be obsolete before we've begun.

You can already sense the push back coming from the indiscreet machinations behind McCain, McConnell, Palin and Steele et al.

At this point, I think we all need to revise what we know to be safe and free. The question is: are we willing to get in the trenches to get it done.

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It never ceases to amaze me the activisim in the 1930's in America. In those pre-internet and pre-mass communication days, we had brave heroes who took on enormous steel and auto companies--at the risk of their lives and indeed sometimes fatally.

My dad was a farmer in the 1930s. Farmers got together en masse to stop farm foreclosures. Including stringing-up a judge in LeMars Iowa. They didn't have the near the material things we have in our "modern" day, but they sure as shootin' had alot more GUTS then the average person today!

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We have been systematically controlled by the fear tactics our government has used for generations. Not only that, but we are one of the few countries who are not free to protest without violent repercusions by law enforcement. We have seen it time and time again, people protest, the police engage in inhuman treatment either with violence, shootings, rubber bullets, etc., or everyone gets arrested. Our gov. then sends the message that if you are against their policies, you must be un-American and therefore, subject to any violent act by the police to repress your "anti-American" sentiments.
It is funny that in a country where we tout "Freedom" as the corenerstone of our society, we are less free than most other developed and developing countries. People are even scared to complain to their elected representatives for fear of being singled out as "un-American". For this country to just lay there and take all the abuses from the Bush administration, it shows that we are trully a country with a slave mentality.

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Only a few opened their mouths publicly during that last 8 years of the White House regime.
That's all folks, no balls.
No further comments.

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Over the past few days the paranoid conspiracy theorist have hijacked many of the discussions with the same NWO bs.

With Bush out of the White House and the republicans out of power, instead of embracing the possibility on reform and a new direction, they have only amended their conspiracy theories to allow for a new president.

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This is like the Marxist fretting about why his revolution hasn't come yet. BECAUSE PEOPLE DON'T FEEL THE NEED TO REVOLT THAT'S WHY.

If they do they will, if they don't they won't. Coming up with theories as to why they haven't done so is just making it abundantly obviously that your worldview is too heavily rooted in structuralism.

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Short answer: We're not French? Americans are not in the habit of demanding their governments do things for them.

Then again . . . fluoride and antidepressants in the water? Or . . . Just give it some time?

(case in point: California halting welfare payments, will the state be on fire in a week? Or will we just see a mass exodus toward the Mexico border?)

Here's my take: Jumping around, sloganeering and smashing in shop windows fixes nothing and just fulfills statist police-state wet dreams anyway. The violent protesters at Monticello a year or so ago were outed as agent provacateurs, and other provacateurs - undercover cops or military or intel types - have been outed in the recent Greece riots. It justified the heavyhanded police response.

So-called "socialist revolutons" - staged and financed at VERY high levels - are part-and-parcel of central bank takedowns (which we are in the middle of, consequently Wash DC is toast) and I hope by now that We The People can see right through the one that's possibly being cooked up for us. Expect "the Government" to fix everything and make it "right" for us? What a joke. We can see what a bangup job they've done so far! What a bunch of thieves! But since we turned our wallets over without a whimper we have no one to blame but ourselves. So now we're supposed to take to the streets and demand the government to take over even MORE aspects of our lives?

Anyway, I'm HOPING Americans are too obstinate to fall for any calls to riot and demand the government "take care of us." Why would we want that crap here in the US? How does breaking shop windows and shouting at government buildings and their powerless minions fix anything? Shopkeepers are not at fault, our politicians are paid off/extorted nincompoops, and state/federal employees are just doing their jobs. The ones who deserve to be lynched are sunning themselves in Belize and we don't even know their names, let alone where to find them. So . . . Phht!

The way to "fight" corruption and authoritarian rule is not to rail pointlessly against it. Starve the Beast instead! Go on strike but skip the theatrics. Smart people render authority as useless as tits on a bull when they bypass the control grid, creating fodder for new "Hogans Heroes" and "Monkey Wrench Gang" sitcoms.

Americans can start by turning off their TVs, snapping their wallets shut, bartering useful goods and helping their neighbors.

Vive la resistance . . .

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Rioting is often about destruction.

Hence the quotes in the article of "burn the shit down" and stories of the destruction of private property.

How does burning up some hapless bystander's car or store solve the economic problems of a nation?

Our economy thrives on consumption by its people. 2/3 of the GDP is consumption by the citizenry.

No amount of tinkering with the economy can easily get the nation's citizens to start buying more stuff again. Getting whipped into a frenzy and destroying private property will not solve our economic problems.


Eventually we will reach a point where damn near no one is employed and automation will take over large segments of production and the service industry. We will need to come up with a new economic model to ensure the unemployed humans still get basic necessities.

That is far easier said than done though and rioting is not building a new economic model.

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Joshua doesn't say it, but the chief political beneficiaries of the collapse in Iceland are the Greens. They are forming the interim gov't. with Social Democrats (look at Joshua's link on Iceland: it's an article about the interim gov't.), and are favored to win the new elections - even though the party currently has only 5 members in Parliament.

Actually, precisely BECAUSE the Greens have no responsibility for the collapse and offer a genuinely new approach. Both "centrist" parties, including the SD, are implicated in the neoliberal policies that led to collapse (does this sound familiar?)

Joshua, are you actually saying that we should be rioting in the streets? This is a whole new tack for Alternet, although there was that article about revolution following political disappointment. We have seen riots in response to police killings: they seem to be the only way to get even a pretense of justice in those cases. The latest example is Oakland. But since Seattle, there hasn't been anything like that in response to political abuses.

One reason is that Democratic Party campaigns soak up the energy of rebellion. That's been most obvious in the peace movement. The recent wars are so closely identified with Bush and the Republicans that even Democratic candidates that SUPPORT the wars (Kerry) can deflect and diffuse the movement. I don't think it's accidental.

At the moment, the same is true of our economic problems. However lame and Republican Obama's economic initiatives, we still have HOPE(tm). It isn't until that hope dissipates that you'll see serious efforts to change things. What does "serious" mean? We'll see.

Returning to Iceland: it's a small country. The Icelanders get it: they've been shafted by the "center", and they're swinging hard to the Left. Now it's our turn.

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It's interesting that some people only complain when their pocketbook is affected.

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I may be a slow learner, but eventually I DO learn.

Spent my time getting my head busted in the sixties.

Spent the last fifteen years tree hugging and sitting in front of bulldozers and trying in vain to stop the rape that is urban sprawl.

I've been threatened both above the board and below.

Lost the last two homesteads due to Eminent Domain. Yes...two in a row.

I won't be doing any more marching or protesting. I'm too old to go to jail.

However, I have firmly decided that the next time the government attempts to take my home that it will be over my very dead body. I find that this decision is very freeing. Is that a form of protest?

We have an entire generation now that has never experienced civil disobedience. Will they ever have the balls to face a billy club or worse? Don't know... I do know that they will face it without me. My days of fighting the good fight are over. These days, I make sure my family will survive in a place that is hopefully far enough away from the masses.

I have found peace. I intend to hold onto it. Selfish? Probably. But unless you've spent time on the lines that doesn't include sitting safely at your computer and typing away...then you can BITE ME.

Menopausal Mick

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I'm guessing no one in America feels like rioting. That would explain it pretty well.

I get the impression no one here really feels like rioting either, but just sort of thought someone should be. If y'all feel like rioting, be my guest.

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Best question of the year so far! Because we have become habituated to systemic abuse. We no longer even recognize, feel powerless over it or even deserving of it. NO ONE, red or blue, voted for the kind of bullshit that's been handed out by our political representation for the past 20 years. NO ONE. They lied to us and we believed them over and over and over and over again. It's the common ground between us Dems and Repubs. As soon as we focus on it instead of our disdain for each other, we will begin to gather our power.

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Americans are not rioting for the same reason our politicians don't get into fist fights in the senate and house. It's ridiculous and won't change anything. Sure people are angry, but we know better. The economy has been bad in the past, at varying degrees and it will get better. This is the first real economic crisis that a lot of us have been through, which is why it seems like the world is going to hell. Just ask someone who lived through the depression, they're bound to agree, that it was much worse back then. Things will get better, don't be so cynical.

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Exactly, not yet, the Great Recession has hit enough people yet!!! If the Neocons & their filthy rich supporters have their way, it will. But everyday, you hear about massive lay offs, have you ever thought about this... what if all those who are presently unemployed, received absolutely no more money? Do you think we'd still have a status quo? Hell NO!!!

It hasn't hit enough people hard enough yet, but it will!!!! If you were smart, you'd get prepared cause it is coming to a town near YOU!

Stay tuned!!!

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Exactly, not yet, the Great Recession has NOT HIT enough people yet!!!

If the Neocons & their filthy rich supporters have their way, it will. But everyday, you hear about massive lay offs, have you ever thought about this... what if all those who are presently unemployed, received absolutely no more money? Do you think we'd still have a status quo? Hell NO!!!

It hasn't hit enough people hard enough yet, but it will!!!! If you were smart, you'd get prepared cause it is coming to a town near YOU!

Stay tuned!!!

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All that have posted, all points are correct reasons why there is no riot.....here...
Yet!
Floride
A overall dumbing down of Americans
Debt Slavery
Strategic Poverty, Drug Addiction
Television Addiction to avoid Reality
Learned Apathy
Acceptance
Non Thinkers

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It can all be summed up in a few words:
We're stupid
We're ignorant
We're lazy
We're gutless
Before long, we'll be slaves in everything but name, and will resemble czarist Russia more than the country most of us think we are. If that's OK with you, the good news is that you don't have to do anything; just keep on being the stupid, ignorant, lazy, and gutless slobs you've always been.

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All that have posted, all points are correct reasons why there is no riot.....here...
Yet!
Floride
A overall dumbing down of Americans
Debt Slavery
Strategic Poverty, Drug Addiction
Television Addiction to avoid Reality
Learned Apathy
Acceptance of Mass Media Spin Machines
Non Thinkers
Denial
FEAR

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Being leveraged up to the ass in debt keeps one submissive and obedient. Civil disobedience, rioting and even sedition require commitments and sacrifice that most fat, lazy & apathetic Americans are unwilling to make. That, and they can't afford to lose their precious low-wage jobs that permit them to eke out a miserable existence that has otherwise been portrayed as the "American Dream", i.e. two cars in the cookie cutter mansion, toys like jet skis and snowmobiles and plenty of dog and pony shows a la American Idol.


And those who are already out of work are being fed a crock of shit about shovel ready jobs and green/infrastructure pie in the sky. Hope springs eternal in this country, especially when propogated by a masterful con man whose $600 million PR machine brainwashed an entire nation.


Don't count on anyone ever rising up--even if they could. We were so passive during the Bush years that a security apparatus was gradually assembled which will either keep Americans submissive or see them imprisoned in KBR internment camps. I mean honestly, we allowed the government to construct internment camps in every state of the nation and few questioned the rational. We've allowed phones to be tapped and torture was mainstreamed. This country is FUCKED! Get out while you can because there will be no recovery, only a slow, painful deterioration.

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I am glad there aren't any riots here. They rarely accomplish anything worthwhile

why we don't have them

#1 We at least think just had a transformative election.

#2 Its no where near bad enough most places

#2 The new guys are trying to fix the problem, well sort of.

#3 The county doesn't have a youth or labor movement to speak of. Yet

#4 We are very effectively manipulated by our media and its fear the police shows

#5 We are very well policed

#6 Riots really aren't going to work in this environment anyway. Our government would ignore them and they'd only destroy "our" stuff .

#7 We don't have a collective set of things to demand. For every Regular Joe who wants Social Democracy I can bring you another who wants a Theocracy. Divide and Rule.

#8 No one in the US hates the rich . We all want to be them not bring them down.

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The root of our whole problem as a country is that our government and hence 'we the people' are now controlled by corporations which wield huge amounts of political and judicial power. How can any grass-roots or effective positive change by the people stand against the might of the corps?

We are not stupid Americans nor are we powerless. We are slaves to the bankers and corporations.

What is truly needed, and what we as a people really need to make happen through our democratic process, is to enact the laws which separate corporations and state completely and utterly.

As proof that this would work well is the fact that we already have as part of our first amendment a separation of church and state - which "expressly prohibits the United States Congress from making laws respecting an establishment of religion or that prohibit the free exercise of religion." It has worked extremely well for our forefathers, for us and for our future generations.

Why not do the same for keeping corporations and state separate?

As a beginning to this process of separation we should do the following:

- Enact a law that specifically states that corporations can no longer be viewed as persons by the law - also known as corporate personhood.

- Another law to eliminate lobbyists from and corporate or private establishment. Let our politicians seek out the truth rather than having the evil-doers constantly in the ears of our representatives.

- A law against campaign contributions by any public or privately held corp and cap the contribution of individuals by a specific amount - Say maybe $1000.

- A law against multinational corporations from moving ANY jobs out of the country.

There are many more that can be created to stop this garbage from happening but we need to do it peacefully and through our un-corrupted representatives - and if your representative doesn't want to do whats right then DON'T re-elect them!

Regards - True Blue American
Tony S.

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I have two theories. One is weight obsession. In the U.S., women believe there is a magical place called thin where all there problems disappear. Europe riots, here ratings for the inane show The Biggest Loser go up!

But while living in California, I also witnessed the phenomena of cults. I witnessed people joining against their wishes with a few threats and lots of B.S. But I always thought it was really a secret government experiment in thought control. Perhaps they tapped into the electrical frequency that turns us into Steford wives. Or maybe it is all that Prozac in the water supply.

Whatever it is it is scary. Because nothing seems to be able to wake us up!

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Flouride in the water

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Excellent article, but, as a 30-something, you're a little impatient. Wait, watch.
My cousin in Orlando, whose husband has been out of work 21 months, says, "there's going to be riots in Orlando."
Read my post on your article about America and "Hordes of Suicides".
Debra

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iamthewitness.com
wakeupfromyourslumber.com
whatreallyhappened.com

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Free Market dogma got us into this mess. For the past three decades we have had deregulation, tax cuts, union busting (from 35% union density to 12% over the past three decades) and freed up capital markets. All along we've had nothing but bipartisan supported growing deficits for only one reason; mature capitalism is inherently stagnant. Whether tax cuts and military spending is used by Republicans or tax increases and entitlement spending is used by Democrats, the fact is that the private sector will not continue to invest and create jobs, output and growth so long as there are no profitable outlets for investment.

Here's the problem. When the last thirty year long wave of expansion ran out of steam (1945 to 1975) the US economy was highly concentrated. Prices reflected monopoly capital's dominance of the economy. Prices are not set by the market but by a fixed cost plus formula which reflects a given amount of profit expected to make investment worthwhile in the first place. Overcapacity is built into the system at the outset of a boom ahead of demand and sales in order to anticipate fluctuations in demand and allow cutbacks in capacity utilization during a downturn. Downturns don't bring price reductions and "market corrections" from which comes reequilibrium and full employment. This is a myth. What happens is that capacity utilization and investment not prices are cut in order to defend profit margins. This reenforces the downturn as unemployment grows, effective demand shrinks and stagnation worsens. Monopoly capital's position is strengthened as the economy concentrates further. An exogenous stimulus is needed, usually a war or public investment, because mature capitalism doesn't reach equilibrium, even in the long term, using its former production capacity, employment or material resources at former levels.

Mature capitalism involves shorter and shallower upturns, usually with delayed and weak labor market recovery, longer and deeper downturns with higher average rates of unemployment, and overall long term periods of stagnation. The reason is obvious. Effective demand, which is the real factor driving capitalism, decreases more and more because of the worsening distribution of income and wealth due to monopoly capitalism's increasing concentration of the economy. Thus, a strong link between monopolization, growing profit share in the economy, falling output and chronic stagnation can be seen in late capitalism. As the profit share in the economy rises with monopolization and concentration, output falls due to falling net new investment (because profit share in the economy can increase without a rise in profit levels) leading to unemployment and stagnation. A skewed distribution of income leads to slack demand maintains this condition in the overall economy.

The policy prescription is to redistribute wealth and allow workers to generate effective demand with rising incomes so that growth can resume. The free market solution will just allow greater concentration of wealth as the rich buy up assets at fire sale prices. As investment shifts from production to buying up other firms and concentrating industrial capacity, output declines and profit share soars as capacity is then streamlined to expand profit margins still further. The persistance of overcapacity lowers investment as an inverse relationship between output and profits developes. Income skewes upward toward the rich. Stagnation and recession deepens even further. The increased repression of wages through continued recession will only worsen demand leading to more financialization to spur the economy. This is a prescription for more not less stagnation. The fear of recovery reflects capital's fear of real wage growth and a fall in profit share in the economy. Yet, this must occur for a recovery to happen. Obama would not be the first US president to save capitalism from itself.

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Here it is:

"'Since the founding,' he said, 'the American political tradition has been reformist, not revolutionary.'"

There are obvious counterexamples:

The founding itself was BY revolution. It started in 1774 with the Articles of Association and was done by war with Britain.

Shay's rebellion preceded the second and current Constitution's adoption. It was adopted in an obviously illegal manner, violating the amending article of the then-current Articles of Confederation which the "founders" called "the Constitution." It was motivated, in part, by fears of more revolutionary violence.

That change was revolutionary.

Ah, what else what not reformist? Oh, how 'bout the Civil War over the "reforms" of the practice of selling and owning human beings?

That change was revolutionary.

The violent protests of the 1960s scared US politicians and may have contributed to the end of the US invasion and attacks against Vietnam

That change was revolutionary.

The expelling of the Indians from East of the Mississippi, was revolutionary in that it wasn't reformist. It was genocide. Particularly the Indian Removal Act in about 1828.

That change was revolutionary, on the part of the US government.

US-induced political change *in other countries* has been revolutionary. William Blum documents that over 33 coups have been done by the US against other nations since WWII. The latest was Somalia via US support for Ethopia's illegal invasion.

Those changes were revolutionary.

In short, Obama is wrong.

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"The far ends of the ideological spectrum appear to be gaining currency as the crisis develops!"

Until you check Quantcast and notice that AlterNet's traffic is down 10 percent from last month.

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As ever- the Yanks will do nowt to help themselves or anyone else. The cult of 'Our president as God's representative on earth.' if not 'God himself' that pertains in America, allied with the comfort-blanket of 'The Gun' and the universal obsession with movies- adoration of film actors as if these were real people', forms the lethal cocktail of obedience and obscene reverence towards their rulers and masters, whilst the cult of individuality and 'The Gun' reinforces distrust between US citizens, multiplied by the divisive effect of multi-culture- fragmented society mean that Americans can never combine in support of their fellows, because each sees himself as John Wayne or whatever- as is beaten into them in every single war film police drama etc I have seen the hackneyed scenario of "The man who doesn't go by the book- who brooks authority (whilst serving that same authority doggishly) Americans do not feel for others as the rest of the world does, rather they have been trained to view and fear other nations as potential enemies, ready to strike at them any minute- as they have also been trained to regard their neighbours and fellows- there's always the bad man at the door waiting to pounce. buy a big gun and keep it ready and loaded at all times.
It's not their fault they are neurotic, they are trained from birth to be that way, how else would the banksters and the arms manufacturers, the military and the politicians be able to keep up the insane death machine that dominates life in Deathland?

How else could these agencies continue their 100+ years of continuous bloodshed, save by creating a neurotic populace, and ruling it with gangster viciousness.
The US has long been a brutal,gangster state. Its prisons are notorious, its military behaves like thugs abroad, and its police, like thugs at home.
Americas answer to the world recession that American Jews perpetrated on the world will be to engage in more and bigger wars.abroad whilst viciously putting down any murmurings of dissent abroad.

I meet Americans who believe in a standard, false and typically American scenario. Born of Hollywood and junk religion, they conceive of a time when they will oppose the forces of evil from their (inevitably flimsy- American-style wooden!!-not granite or concrete) homes. Armed with hunting rifles or even an automatic assault weapon, and defend their family.
What will happen is that the first thing they know about the government 'round-up' is when a US army tank shell bursts into their house in the early morning, followed by several more, followed by a few incendiary shells on top of the rubble. Or it is rocketed by an F-16- or apache helicopter a 'predator' drone. Or when they are snatched on the street on their way to/ from work. Or their house is surrounded by 'anti terrorist' militia, any planning they might do will be compromised all along by planted tiny listening/ surveillance devices in their home and car, or via their land-line, PC, cell phone or TV.
The Americans who go for this doomsday scenario tend to forget that the people who will destroy them are experienced professionals, with all the firepower and technology at their command, and with vast experience killing Arabs in Israel, or Iraqis, Afghans, Lebanese Serbs, East Germans and Russian people.

Compared to all of these the isolated American rebels will be like kittens in a bucket- a push-over.

There is only one way out for American patriots- to form a political resistance movement and ALL dig deep in their pockets, get data on all their enemies but most importantly- get data- contact and persuade members of their US military to support them and fight to get America back from the Zio-gangster cabal that now dominates her.

http://www.alternet.org/workplace/124836?page=3

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Does anybody else remember the 1979 movie, "Americathon" with John Ritter?

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'Time for a March on Wall Street'
by Eric Sommer

The time has come for a nationwide U.S. "March on Wall Street'. This march should be organized on a nation-wide basis inside the U.S. by the broadest possible coalition of progressive political organizations, trade unions, anti-poverty, anti-racist, anti-foreclosure, and environmental groups.. It should bring people from throughout the U.S. to culminate in a gigantic rally in Wall Street in New York.


The march can be organized around seven or so simple and clear points, such as:

1. Nationalize the Banking system and ban the use of exotic financial instruments such as derivatives.

2. Use nationalization to create Banking 'of, by, and for the people'

3. Use nationalization to ramp up the economy towards full employment.

4. Use nationalization to end all foreclosures.

5. Use nationalization to support financing of clean energy and ecologically sustainable products and services.

6. Use nationalization to end all give-away's of working peoples taxes to banks and finance companies.

7. Use nationalization to end the power of corrupt finance capital.

By 'nationalization of banking and finance' we do not mean partial or temporary nationalization, with a view to handing back control to the same finance capital system which has brought the world economy to its knees. Nor do we mean a 'bad bank' which will absorb the worthless mortgages and derivatives of the current system at tax payers expense. What we mean is permanent nationalization which places banks and finance under public and democratic control.

With this measure, the American people would get something of value for their tax money - real working banks and finance systems - and not just worthless non-performing mortgages and derivatives.

With this measure, democratic control of finance by the people and their representatives would, at least in principal, be established.

With this measure, the social, and not just the 'for-profit,' aspect of finance could take hold.

When it comes to life-and-death matters , like blood flow in a human being or finance in a market economy, stability is more important than innovation.

Ideally, the March on Wall Street would form one part of a coordinated "Global March on Banks' day, with marches in each country where private banks and finance companies have corrupted and partially or wholly broken the economy.

In Britain, for example, the march could target the area of London known as 'The City' where the majority of Britain's', and much of the worlds', financial control is vested. As with the March on Wall Street, the key demand for each march can be creating democratic control of finance through nationalization of banks and financial systems.

With unemployment, housing foreclosures, and world-wide economic chaos increasing by the day, it is essential to take the power and initiative out of their hands. This can only be achieved by mass organizing.

It's time for groups organizing around unemployment issues, anti-poverty issues, anti-foreclosure issues, environmental issues, and trade union issues to come together under a new banner: March on Wall Street to Nationalize the Banks.

Organizations or individuals interested in working for the March On Wall Street can sign-up for an online discussion group at: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MarchOnWallStreet/

Note: Additional background for this approach can be found in my previous article 'Time for a social movement to nationalize U.S. banks' at:
http://www.globalresearch.ca

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Those who have the most to gain by the system will be the first to deny the system is wrong and when asked why can only reply, "I dunno!"

It is quite plain that most people have no idea just how bad the US economic system is in, or else they are much like the proverbial ostrich with their heads stuck in the sand.

Never mind how dire the circumstances presently are for over 40% of the working poor who have not seen any real future for years now and their fears of years ago are being comfirmed daily.

What were those words of Moses', "The middle class can be off work for 3 to 6 months and have no financial worry while the working poor cannot live without next weeks paycheck."

In actual numbers we have over 25% unemployment today with another 25% living on barely enough to get by.

Two years ago over 55% of paychecks came from one form or another of civil government and that percent has continues increase by almost a percent with every new announcemnt of 250,000 layoffs monthly; this includes educational as well as all forms of military services.

No one alive today has lived in as bad a financial meltdown as we are facing today; and yes this includes the depression years.

No one has lived within a time when the federal govenments payroll and its payrolls to Defense Industry and overseas commitments of aid to foreign nations consume so much of US productivity of the private sector.

Unlike the Depression years there were multiple streams of income producing industrial and manufacturing balanced out against a consumer demand and a somewhat stable small banking and and 8 major banking concerns who couod still invest in the necessary sa=mall bisnes infrastrucrturewe to being abotu an upswing in buisness and financial institutions profitability.

We did not have a one party system of government that is as regressive in policys towards domestic interest in favor of overseas partnerships of interest.

We did not have an acceptance to a continually growing police state with a combined military civl police force and a goverment that is instituting a militarized and regimented society.

Never did we have such a range from the have to the have nots held in so few hands and those few hands having so much control of the common treasury.

There is an elephant in he room but like the old tale of the blind men attempting to describe it never having seen one they knew not the danger they were in until they were stepped on.

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The Soviet Union had problems but the thing that actually got people in the streets to the greatest degree was tobacco shortages. I have always said that the only thing that would make Americans rebel is if the televisions went off. Well what is gonna happen soon, at least for those without cable?

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Am I missing something? I know this isn't a novel idea, I read this and many other political sites, but why wouldn't a stimulus check, directly to the Amer. people work? Something in the way of 50 thousand to each adult who earned less than a certain amount. People would pay down their credit, or mortgages (money for the banks) student loans, whatever. This would loosen up our paychecks to begin spending again, stimulating the economy. I'm sure this is too simplistic, there must be 10 billion reasons it wouldn't work, but I can't think of one that doesn't reward the very jerks that got us into this mess, to begin with.

Peace

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Two thing to think about

fluoride in the drinking water
tranquilizers in the drinking water

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Riot? Are you out of your flipping mind? No I don't want to be beaten with a stick or shot. Thanks anyways.

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The reason there is no U.S. protest over worsening economic conditions -- and the reason there never will be any such protest -- is very simple: the population understands exactly why kill-hardened combat troops are now garrisoned throughout the nation. Quite simply, the masses would rather live in ever-worsening squalor than be machine-gunned to death in the streets. Which is what everyone -- Left, Right, Center -- knows will happen if European-style protests ever begin here.

Think it won't happen here?

Ever hear of a place called Kent State?

Or Jackson State?

Constitution? What Constitution? (That was overthrown on November 22, 1963.) Civil rights? (What civil rights? Ask the veterans of the Battle of Seattle.) Change we can believe in? (Don't make me laugh.)

Think it's a coincidence U.S. soldiers wear Nazi-looking helmets?

Most U.S. citizens already behave as if they were concentration camp inmates: they just bow their heads and trudge on into the sweatshops.

The few who stood up in Seattle are a tiny minority.

Try to organize anything like that today and your neighbors will rat you out quicker than you can say Karl Marx.

Welcome to Moron Nation, where -- thanks to public schools (education for ignorance) and mass media (big lies and disinformation), not to mention a 24/7 police state -- the ruling class has created the perfect slave, the modern counterpart of the Tsarist Russian Mujik, with today's version the ultimate product of capitalist conditioning, superlatively servile in every possible sense: the most violently theocratic, pridefully stupid, viciously conformist, savagely anti-intellectual (and thus self-oppressing) "human capital" in our dismal planet's wretched history.

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Just wait a week until the televisions go to snow in the rural areas. We'll be rioting when our free entertainment comes to an end. THAT'S what's important to us!

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Because Lord Obama is in the White House. Don't you know, Lord Obama is going to fix everything. Why, the streets are going to be paved with gold. Crack cocaine and prostitutes for everyone, as far as the eye can see. You just have to look beyond the bread and soup lines...

"Oh, those golden slippers, oh, them golden slippers
Golden slippers I'm going to wear
Because they look so neat.
Oh, those golden slippers
Oh, those golden slippers
Golden slippers I'm going to wear
To walk the golden street."

(With apologies to Stephen Foster because George Soros' Obamanet finds the original minstrel dialect of the classic lyrics offensive)

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Why aren't we rioting? Its the flouride, stupid!
One of its major side effects - passivity.
European criticism that Americans have such good teeth is more than just envy, its an underhanded commentary on our vacuousness upstairs!

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Just to be clear, there is no flouride in my water (I have a well and live in the county), I am not medicated, I do not watch sports, I do not have cable TV. I put forth the effort to educate myself, so I have a good job with good benefits. I am under no illusion that I will get my social security and I don't gamble on the stock market. I don't gamble, period.

I am not rioting because I really don't care. It's just that simple. None of the worlds' economic woes will have an impact on me... until, and if, I lose my house.

Not that I own my house... The bank owns it until I pay them back. I signed the contract of my own free will... It's called a mortgage.

I have food, tools, weapons, ammo and the wit to survive. Not that I'm a wacked-out gun-nut living on an entrenched compound.

I'm not rioting because I understand that I am the only person in control of my life. Nobody is ruining my life. The quality of my life is my responsibility... Not the government or any one else.

I'm not rioting because I don't extend my version of what is right and wrong into any one elses life. I mind my own business and care not one bit what you are doing... unless it takes from what I am doing. Not that I wouldn't give you anything you wanted if you asked nicely. Otherwise, that's what the weapons are for...

I'm an average joe. I am simultainiously the guy that works everyday, gardens and does minor home repair and ,if need be, the guy who is armed and adept at living by his wits and has no second thoughts about killing anyone who threatens the freedoms I have... even the Government. That used to be the definition of American.

Most of the commentary in this forum is from the fringe element under the outer parts of the Bell Curve. It's my opinion that the bulk of the non-rioting Americans are where I am... on another page entirely. If you guys want to blame everybody else for your problems... go right ahead. It's none of my business.

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We can no longer be indifferent or apathetic. Our government is, and has been failing us. The corporatocracy has blinded us, and tied our hands.

We MUST open our eyes. These are the final days of a dying mentality, we must unite to end the exploitation, the corruption, the greed, the wildly disproportional distribution of wealth. It is our DUTY and RESPONSIBILITY.

REVOLT, TAKE BACK WHATS YOURS

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If California suspends Income Tax Rebates there will be riots. Count on it.

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(Just my opinion....don't shoot the messenger !)
Greetings!
One might consider that most Americans are chemically altered with the addition of FLUORIDE in their drinking water....
Used as a sedative for 100 years...cattle pens operators have used it to sedate cattle....Stalin is said to have used it in the gulags to quell unrest...
Hitler used it in concentration camps to the thousands he interned...
and when the nazi scientists were brought to this country...we learned from them how well fluoride works to deaden the thinking and response processes of the brain....
We can see that it works pretty well....your representatives have just pillaged your future....and we all just stood there....

Is this scenario possible? Think about it....do your homework...

Blessings

Lefty Dave

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for the **epidemic of fraud** & the global economic collapse.

Americans aren't having fits, because THEY'RE STILL BETTER OFF THAN THEIR INTERNATIONAL VICTIMS.

The Poor Americans are TERRIFIED of the 'pain compliance toys' they paid their MUNICIPAL COPS TO BUY...

& they're NOT NEARLY AS SCREWED AS THE PEOPLES OF NATIONS WHO BELIEVED THE US had EVEN A MODICUM OF GOOD FAITH BUSINESS PRACTICES.

where is the money?

GO LOOK AT THE AMERICANS WHO GOT RICH SELLING OFF BAD PAPER TO NON-AMERICANS.

use your heads. That 'bail out money' is COVERING THE FRAUD your gov't allowed to fester & rob the Peoples of the Globe.

We're mad.

wake up.

WE KNOW THIS IS *THE SECOND TIME IN UNDER A CENTURY* THAT YOU'VE ROBBED US BLIND.

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Wounded Knee 1890 and 1973
Strikebreakers 1908
Berkeley Free Speech Rally 1960
Watts 1965 and 1971
Chicago 1968
Kent State 1970
Waco 1990's
All of the Bush years 2000-2008

The police and the military exist for the protection of the greedy and the intimidation of the poor. Until they use their guns to protect us from corrupted politics, this is the bucket of shit we're stuck with.

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Great comment by Joshua Holland!

Proof of how cowed Americans are is the abundance of commentaries (even right here in this blog) blaming ordinary Americans for this credit crisis. That's like a restaurant with a salmonella outbreak blaming its own customers for ordering the fish! One might blame a citizen for falling prey to a Nigerian scamster, but to blame the consumer when all the banks, commentators and even the federal government were encouraging these easy mortgages??? --- Only in America!!

This is yet another example of a pervasive American cognitive disorder: Bragging about "purple finger" democracy (in a country where many citizens would happily erase the recent past and return to the Saddam era; from a country afraid to actually count its own votes). Bragging about "freedom" while protest is stifled, etc. etc.

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Once it wares off and people realise how Conservative Obama's adminstration is, the civil disobedience will begin. I think that is the reason the media tried to paint him as MLK. He only shares race with MLK. He is more like JFK, complete with provietnam advisers and he has to be pushed by a protest movement just like JFK!

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who realize that life is a process, not an objective.

All rioting accomplishes is the widening of whatever chasm that exists.

Whats there to riot about? a bad economy, a huge national deficit? we are currently experiencing the end result of decades of bad decisions and failures.

If you want to make a difference then make one in your own life and leave violence to the animals and assholes that don't have the capacity to engage in civil change.

I wager you this, If you go out and turn over a few hotdog carts, knock out a few windows, and torch your neighbors car. In the morning you will have the same problems as the previous day plus a busted window, a pissed off neighbor and no hot dog.

Life is only that thing that happens, while we are trying to control it.

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America continues to be the safest place in the world to invest stolen loot. Offshore banks may be better places to hide the cash, but America is where the rich like to live, it is safe. And under Bush a whole new layer of government, the Department of Homeland Security was created to keep the country as a safe haven for the wealthy.
When anyone forms a group and tries to do anything to change the material conditions of the country and the distribution of power, the police are right there. I should know I have experienced it myself most recently in the protests against the war in Iraq.
The NSA has been surveying us all as we have been told by the most recent exposes on MSNBC. Organized resistance is futile. On the other hand spontaneous rebellion is still an option.
Americans are no more immune to righteous indignation than any other people and we are a hell of a lot better armed than most. Unfortunately most Americans have taken their failure to make it in the American dream as a sign of personal lack of ability and for the most part the intelligentsia that would be a source of leadership is incorporated in the private sector or the in some form of social busy work.
But when people here have had enough brain washing and when the army refuses to shoot their own and the police refuse to club the protestors any more, then perhaps we will have a chance. Until then one part of the working class will be employed to keep the other part in its place and the lumpen will continue to take their lumps.

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that explains everything if those kinds of numbers are typical of western europe...the US economy is bad..but US unemployment currently stands at less than half of what it is in spain..so at this point in time there is prolly no basis for drawing a comparison.. nor will there be unless US unemployment ever reaches those levels...

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If we pull the trigger to soon it will mean martil law, national ID, possibly gun confiscation. Their just hoping for the riots to start here so they can open the trick bag on us. Lets face it, there is a segmant of our population who dont need an excuse to destroy somthing, these people we could do without anyway. I say let the cards fall where they may for now. This is the kind of problem that took many years to develope, and will take many years to correct. Its our own fault, voter apathy, open borders, the crooks running the buisness,ect,ect, all this done right before our own baby blues. Go ahead keep watching football. We got what we deserve, for forty years good people have been warning us and we just ignored them. Karma has finally made its way around again.

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America should have been banging pots & pans for the past eight years, but noooooooooooooooooo, most were content to sit on their fat hineys on their couches watching "reality" shows, lulled into a false sense of security that THEY'D always have a paycheck, that THEY'D never have to apply for food stamps, that THEY'D never be homeless, and a myriad of other humbling experiences that are "daily bread" for the already-poverty-stricken in this country.

And for those who live in states like Florida, whose "public servants" care only for their own political ambitions, their own "cash stash," their own healthcare, their own welfare, and their own rights.

Florida's governor Charlie Crist, or "Uncle Chuckie" as I'm so fond of referring to him (and new wife, "Bridezilla") are only concerned about getting out of Florida as politically unscathed as possible, and heading north to embrace the social life of DC (yuck, I personally cannot think of anything more revolting, boring, & phony in this life, but Republicans seem to positively LIVE for such "scenes").

To make matters worse, media outlets in FL are as corrupt as they come, finding all manner of lame excuses to keep me from exposing the truth about FL (thank you AlterNet for being more open-minded).

So America, please help me bang some pots & pans & sign this petition:

http:www.thepetitionsite.com/1/equaljusticeforall

Thank you.

Carol Tucker, MA
Pensacola, FL
a/k/a "Redneck Riviera"
Court Reform-NOW
http://courtreformnow.ning.com

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...Captain Renault replied, "I'm shocked, shocked that the people who let their leaders convince them that they should rename their pommes frites "freedom fries" because we Frenchies would not relinquish our liberte to support their ill-conceived war would show themselves to be such a flock of moutons!"

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I liked this article very much except for the 'europeans are divided by class' followed up by [paraphrasing] 'we don't'. Fell off the chair in laughter.

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I read that in Iceland , the people threw raw eggs at their failed banks as a form of protest.If they could afford to buy thm. In another country, instead of throwing food at the banks as a form of protest, they used paint ball guns with red and yellow paint balls to hurl them at bank buildings instead of eggs .This practice enabled them to hurl objects from a longer distance at the buildings as well as at executives. without being stopped.This upset the bankers.
Clearly that kind of protest is against the law here in America.And we must write our congressmen to not give any more TARP funds to banks instead

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From my scarce visits to the US, it seems to me that one of the reasons Americans are so "passive" is that they are completely intoxicated with bad TV, where under-information is the rule. An American is either working, sleeping, or watching (bad) TV. All forms of oxygen, critical thinking, personal research, looking beyond borders, etc. seems to have waned to practically nil. This is a gross caricaturistic generalization, of course: not all Americans are TV-lobotomized, and AlterNet is there along with other interesting, albeit marginal, media and their publics. But certainly a vast, vast majority is under, as is visible to the naked eye. That is a huge change from the 60s, when I lived in the States and was impressed by the independent thinking encouraged and experienced there. The TV phenomenon, with its seamless introduction of commercials more frequently than you can count to ten, accompanied by obesity-generating junk-food snacking, seems to have mish-mashed the American brain. What a pity.

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