** Now as a consideration for my dear friend OPOL as well..whose excellent essay “They Better Hope We Don’t Wake Up” also burns as truth in my soul.

Cross-posted from the Wild Wild Left

(…this started as a response to Gottlieb’s reply to Proximity1 in Ed’s PROMIS essay but grew beyond what I had to say to him into a general essay on the subject…)

I was going to ask first, somewhat glibly, “Would you then come back & help?”

Then as thoughts of Pandora’s Box came into my mind, it grew into ponderings too large to be ignored, not a subject for glibness or levity.



This may be the biggest decision America has had to face in light of our current conditions and the available technology in which they will be dealt.

So, this isn’t just a reply to his comment anymore, but a thought to those who would say “riot” lightly.

It is also a question for those who are ready, and say “riot” not lightly, but with full intent.

Read on for my thinking. Consider well before you leap my friends, for when we leap there really is no going back. And most of us would not live to see the fruits of our actions.

For those trying to squeeze in some serious late summer reading, I strongly recommend Dr. Bryant Welch’s recently published book, State of Confusion: Political Manipulation and the Assault on the American Mind.

Dr. Welch elegantly and succinctly describes the psychological mechanisms behind paranoia and denial, and links them to the mindset of many Americans post-9/11. This societal regression due to fear and uncertainty is exploited by political leaders and charlatans in a process Dr. Welch calls political gaslighting. The term “gaslighting” is derived from the classic movie Gaslight (with Charles Boyer and Ingrid Bergman), where a sociopathic husband subtly manipulates his wife’s reality and invalidates her sense of what is real, until she feels she is becoming insane and enters a state of mental breakdown.

“Reasonable” people call it Authoritarianism for the sake of “reasonable” conversation. People who are more interested in describing the trend we have seen over the last eight years of “Authoritarian” rule (not governance) allow their alarm and disgust to utter words that once did seem alarmist and unreasonable in reasonable conversation.  Words like totalitarianism, tyranny and even the dread and semi-forbidden word….. fascism. Or perhaps even worse….Police State. These words have previously been used in The Land of the Free as part of the Cold War propaganda effeort to describe countries and governments behind the Iron Curtain. The thrust of the propaganda effort of course, was to point to America as a bastion of all things free and just and right, particularly individual and human rights. America MEANS Freedom, especially individual freedom.

Not anymore.

Blurb here: By Mick Brooks via Socialist Appeal.

This is an audio with the MP3 available for download.  There’s also a link on the page.

It’s right there in the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution:

_____

Amendment IV

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

_____

Do not pass go, do not collect two hundred dollars, do not parse, do not fold, mutilate, spindle, tear, gut, burn or shred.

In keeping with policies and procedures consistent with gutting the foundational principles of our Constitution and democracy, the Bush Administration’s Department of Homeland Security has proceeded to ignore the care and handling advice and has engaged in the very actions verboten by those instructions.

Enough is enough.  McCain surrogate Joe Lieberman appeared on Tuesday at Pastor John Hagee’s Citizens United For Israel (CUFI) conference and made a disgraceful, pandering speech.  You’ll recall that Hagee’s endorsement of McSame provoked outrage until McCain rejected it.  But, even without all of that, Lieberman’s appearance was a utter disgrace worthy of condemnation.

The Connecticut Post reports:

With a pump of his fist and a wave, Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman Tuesday evening greeted the thousands of members of Christians United for Israel who came to the nation’s capital to lobby on behalf of the Jewish state.

“I am your brother Joseph,” Lieberman told the crowd gathered in the cavernous D.C. conference center. They stood up from their dining tables and cheered, waving American and Israeli flags as they warmly embraced him.

Lieberman said that he proudly stands by them as a man of faith, believing in them and believing in the Rev. John Hagee, the controversial Texas televangelist who founded the group. As he did a year ago, Lieberman once again compared Hagee to Moses, but this time in reference to the imbroglio that erupted over remarks the pastor made that had offended Jews and Catholics.

“Even Moses fell short of God’s expectations. He made a mistake and hit the rock rather than speaking to it as God commanded. His sister, the prophetess Miriam, sinned too when she spoke badly about Moses. But this didn’t make Moses and Miriam bad people or failed leaders. Their shortcomings were only part of the larger fabric of their remarkable lives of faith and service. And that’s the way the Bible and those who read it view them,” Lieberman said.

Any mention of “For the first time in my adult life, I am really proud of my country.” is ‘low class’. The candidate for change is planning an end-run around Dem primary voters this week. A 41% whipping in West Virginia, a close race in a former stronghold, and sure defeat in Kentucky, probably by double-digits, has the candidate for change spooked.  

In this one I stated how the company you work for owns you.  I have the pdf file which says.

https://www.docudharma.com/show…

Employees can be held liable for damages to the company.

Thing two now comes at my wife.  The “health care” company she works for has demanded she sign her rights away or get zero hours next week.

If you have not signed the agreement you will be removed from the schedule.

In Amerika signing under duress constitutes an “agreement”.