THIRD WORLD AMERICA !

Very true, but, in a free capitalist profit-driven society greed has to get a pass. But when they had their own man sitting in the co-president captain's chair pulling strings for them.... uhm, you can't prosecute the co-driver without also prosecuting Bush so, that'll never wash.

The dominoes are all holding each other up. One big happy fraternity boy club.

I meant more recently, like going into Iraq saying we'd get reduced prices on oil....

Hmm. The US doesn't seem to be real good at plundering others, but some feel we've plundered our own selves (pollution). That could be easily fixed to a large degree.

Iraq was already a desert so they can't pin that rap on us!

You're very good at finding appropriate quotes.

What these guys (Aristotle being my favorite) are telling us is that human nature & politics haven't changed, at all, since antiquity ;)

"The tyrant, who in order to hold his power, suppresses every superiority, does away with good men, forbids education and light, controls every movement of the citizens and, keeping them under a perpetual servitude, wants them to grow accustomed to baseness and cowardice, has his spies everywhere to listen to what is said in the meetings, and spreads dissension and calumny among the citizens and impoverishes them, is obliged to make war in order to keep his subjects occupied and impose on them permanent need of a chief." - Aristotle

"A tyrant must put on the appearance of uncommon devotion to religion. Subjects are less apprehensive of illegal treatment from a ruler whom they consider god-fearing and pious. On the other hand, they do less easily move against him, believing that he has the gods on his side" - Aristotle

DRESSED REHERSAL IN MEXICO & PAKISTAN ?

Mexico, Pakistan, and the So-Called “Failed State”
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=12709

Are Mexican drug cartels a threat to the United States? This is an easy conclusion to make after reading most mainstream U.S. newspapers. Hardly a day goes by without sensational stories about “broad daylight” gun battles, heart-wrenching interviews with weeping mothers, and praise for the Mexican army in its “war” against “narco-terrorists.”

Interestingly, Mexico has lately been compared to Pakistan as a country “on the verge” of becoming a “failed state,” with the Mexican drug cartels accused of playing the same “destabilizing” role as the Taliban/terrorists in Pakistan. Calling such a comparison a stretch would be a gross understatement, of course.

There is in fact a real connection between Mexico and Pakistan that’s worth discussing, though you’d never hear it mentioned in the mainstream media. Both countries have governments that are virtual pawns of the U.S. and, as such, are having a difficult time with their native populations as they attempt to please their real bosses — U.S. mega-corporations and rich investors.

And these bosses can be demanding. For example, in Pakistan the U.S. dominated International Monetary Fund (IMF) is demanding that Pakistan privatize state-owned banks, railways, power plants, water, insurance, factories, etc. — so that U.S. corporations and investors can buy them at discount rates for private profit.

HIM AGAIN :)

BEST MIDDLE OF THE ROAD ANALYSIS

Nobel Prize-Winning Economist Joseph Stiglitz: Obama Has Confused Saving the Banks with Saving the Bankers
http://www.democracynow.org/2009/2/25/stieglitz

HAVE A LISTEN PRESIDENT O !

If he had taken the $700 billion that we gave, levered it ten-to-one, created some new institution guaranteed—provide partial guarantees going for, that would have generated $7 trillion of new lending. So, if he hadn’t looked at the past, tried to bail out the banks, bail out the shareholders, bail out the other—the bankers’ retirement fund, we would have easily been able to generate the lending that he says we need.

So the question isn’t just whether we hold them accountable; the question is: what do we get in return for the money that we’re giving them?

amen

WOW !

Most of what you just wrote could also applies to the US of A !!!!

"The injury we do and the one we suffer are not weighed in the same scales": - Aesop, Fables

Interesting, all of it, but there is an underlying persuasion here that what America is losing truly represents a loss. China can laugh all the way to the bank, but look at their landscape, look at their disregard for the health and well being of their people, and I see a giant nation running blindly after the discarded playthings of the US. China can manufacture everything it wants to manufacture, but when they are their own best customers and they finally wake up and realize they have destroyed both their people and their environment in the ridiculous pursuit of worthless goods, then they will understand that being number 1 carries a price (human and environmental) that the US is no longer willing to pay. China is not only destroying itself manufacturing the foam hand, it is destroying itself by turning into the main consumer of the foam hand.

Thank you Whitenoise, I am constantly checking my footing to try to understand if my primal terror at the current socio/politcal/economic situation is justified or not. I keep answering yes. Then the trick is to try to share the concerns with others without having them write me off as a fear monger or 'conspiracy theorist'. Of course I understand how the fascist types have taken over the media and the disparaging use of the term conspiracy theorist is a tool used to undermine the very real and justified concerns of the socially and democratically minded people who would like to protect their life and liberty.

We can join groups that are active around disaster response, that are active around sustainablitiy and developing alternative economies. Those groups could be a life saving network when networks are needed most.

Hopefully, everyone who shares here on current is also active in some community organizations as well, so that if we have to respond, there will be people who share some of our concerns and are willing to act.

Was mostly pulling your virtual leg with the assumption that humor is the politeness of despair as the optimist said ;)

'If you wind up with a boring, miserable life because you listened to your mom, your dad, your teacher, your priest or some guy on TV telling you how to do your shit, then YOU DESERVE IT. Stupidity has a certain charm, ignorance does not." - Frank Zappa

WhiteNoise,
You replied, "Don't want to sound too cocky but...
How can knowledge be ultimately sooo depressing ?
Is ignorance really bliss ?"
To my "sooo depressing" remark made, above.

I guess ignorance is bliss, to some people. I, however am not one of them. If I was, I surely would not be reading your posts.:))

I too, like to know, even when/if the news is not good.
To be forewarned is to be forearmed.

BTW...like the name. That's the background hiss on my ham radio that just won't allow me to ignore it.:))

"FIVE AUTHORS. ONE WARNING"

Excellent video. If Obama does nothing to undo the mortal wounds inflicted by Bush, then revolution is the last remedy. The people must be prepared to defend their rights, their freedoms guarateed them in the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. The alternative is oppression and slavery at the hands of an elite one percent or less of the population. Americans should be prepared to shoot the bastards who would enslave them.

Indeed...Klein nailed it !

Check this out for size...

http://www.truthtopower.tv/

FIVE AUTHORS. ONE WARNING.
The Warning exposes the dangerous excesses of last eight years and warns against allowing those changes to go unchallenged during the next administration. Five authors, during extensive interviews, uncover the political and economic forces behind this radical transformation of American democracy.

If there is one person who may be credited it predicting all this well in advance, it is Naomi Klein...

Google Shock Doctrine, Naomi Klein

You'll fiind lots of good articles and some good videos.

OK...I agree with statements made here. I understand trying to inform people of what is coming down the pike.
Is there a solution short of massive violent revolutions around the world? Is there even a solution? For what is put out here is far beyond the means of the average person to even want to try and find a solution, let alone execute that solution.
I am a reader of science fiction, and in almost all futures one world with one government is the norm and the people are simply, there.
Revolutions are in place, but basically ineffective on a global scale.
Is this where the people of the world are now? Where do we go from here?

If every challenge is an opportunity for creativity , it is time to see how creative we are !

This is soooo depressing, even though I have to agree.
Globalization is not going to be good for the "free" world.

lenhart says...

"one is hard pressed to name a single industry in which the US still leads the world"

...may I suggest : The Military Industrial Complex ;)

“When will the American people actually vote to give to the world more than bombs and missiles, sweatshops, dubious science, frankenfood, poverty and misery?” - Cynthia McKinney

Our complacency seems to have no limit indeed !

Ignorance is the downfall of all cultures and we are about to hit bottom.

"The American nation is in the worst condition I can remember in my lifetime, and our prospects for the immediate future are even worse. I am surprised and embarrassed to be a part of the first American generation to leave the country in far worse shape than it was when we first came into it. Our highway system is crumbling, our police are dishonest, our children are poor, our vaunted Social Security, once the envy of the world, has been looted and neglected and destroyed by the same gang of ignorant greed-crazed bastards who brought us Vietnam, Afghanistan, the disastrous Gaza Strip and ignominious defeat all over the world. The stock market will never come back, our armies will never again be No. 1. " - Hunter "Gonzo" Thompson

Two big factors have already made the US a THIRD WORLD nation

1) R. Reagan's tax cut of 1982 which began a trend in which wealth trickled up to the top one percent. The trend reversed in Clinton's second term but resumed with Bush Jr. Today--as a direct result of unfair REGRESSIVE taxation, the nation's elite of about 1 percent of the populations owns MORE than about 90 percent of the rest of the population combined.

2) Deals cut by R. Nixon, Ronald Reagan primarily have resulted in the outsourcing of a) jobs; b) entire industries. As a result --the CIA lists the US as leading the entire world with by far the BIGGEST BALANCE OF TRADE DEFICIT! In stark terms, one is hard pressed to name a single industry in which the US still leads the world even as we OWE the world for having picked up our debt.

The US simply cannot continue to survive as a nation, let alone a world power. And for all of this we owe the GOP for having been its architect and the Democratic party for having caved on crucial issues.

Instead of making peace with the GOP, the Democrats should have waged JIHAD! By bending over and taking it, by capitulating to the robber barons, the US has been sold down the river.

It's all over folks. This US will not come back in our lifetimes.