RESIST OR BECOME SERFS

[kpete]

Published on Monday, April 6, 2009 by TruthDig.com
Resist or Become Serfs
by Chris Hedges

America is devolving into a third-world nation. And if we do not immediately halt our elite's rapacious looting of the public treasury we will be left with trillions in debts, which can never be repaid, and widespread human misery which we will be helpless to ameliorate. Our anemic democracy will be replaced with a robust national police state. The elite will withdraw into heavily guarded gated communities where they will have access to security, goods and services that cannot be afforded by the rest of us. Tens of millions of people, brutally controlled, will live in perpetual poverty. This is the inevitable result of unchecked corporate capitalism. The stimulus and bailout plans are not about saving us. They are about saving them. We can resist, which means street protests, disruptions of the system and demonstrations, or become serfs.

.................

The corporate state, and the political and intellectual class that served the corporate state, constructed a financial and political system based on illusions. Corporations engaged in pyramid lending that created fictitious assets. These fictitious assets became collateral for more bank lending. The elite skimmed off hundreds of millions in bonuses, commissions and salaries from this fictitious wealth. Politicians, who dutifully served corporate interests rather than those of citizens, were showered with campaign contributions and given lucrative jobs when they left office. Universities, knowing it was not good business to challenge corporatism, muted any voices of conscience while they went begging for corporate donations and grants. Deceptive loans and credit card debt fueled the binges of a consumer society and hid falling wages and the loss of manufacturing jobs.

........................

The bullet to our head, inevitable if we do not radically alter course, will be sudden. We have been borrowing at the rate of more than $2 billion a day over the last 10 years, and at some point it has to stop. The moment China, the oil-rich states and other international investors stop buying treasury bonds the dollar will become junk. Inflation will rocket upward. We will become Weimar Germany. A furious and sustained backlash by a betrayed and angry populace, one unprepared intellectually and psychologically for collapse, will sweep aside the Democrats and most of the Republicans. A cabal of proto-fascist misfits, from Christian demagogues to simpletons like Sarah Palin to loudmouth talk show hosts, who we naively dismiss as buffoons, will find a following with promises of revenge and moral renewal. The elites, the ones with their Harvard Business School degrees and expensive vocabularies, will retreat into their sheltered enclaves of privilege and comfort. We will be left bereft and abandoned outside the gates.

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20090406_resist_or_become_serfs/

[SpiralHawk]

1. "But, but, but we love Big Brother." - Them

[panAmerican]

2. Too bad Obama is helping lead the charge

I, for one, am so far very disappointed.

[obiwan]

45. Like the Rolling Stones said,"You can't always get what you want."

[raccoon]

62. Like the Who said, "Meet the new boss, same as the old boss."

Well, not exactly, thank goodness. But they both belong to Big Business.

[scarletwoman]

119. Big Business IS the Boss. The Washington politicians are the loyal vassals.

Which makes us, the unprivileged masses, the serfs.

[fascisthunter]

89. problem with your statement is assuming we get anything we want

which we rarely do... but Wall Street seems to get most of what they want. Well... not for too long.

[FiveGoodMen]

109. But what if this is something we NEED?

Can we get that?

Mick thought so, but I don't know.

[Lorien]

104. You aren't the only one

the only real change I'm finding so far is under my sofa cushions. Otherwise, much of it is just more of the same-which the elites think is just fine n' dandy!

[BonnieJW]

196. I am disappointed as well.

We hoped too much. I received an email today from BarackObama.org asking for a donation. I unsubscribed citing as my reasons my disappointment in the president and his continued support of unwarranted spying on American citizens and his complicity with the people who contributed to the financial collapse (Geithner, Summers).

I am devestated. I realize he hasn't even been in office 100 days, but it didn't take long to see where his allegiance was.

[truedelphi]

227. Isn't that the worst of it? he's not in office seventy days

And already we realize he isn't so much the President as the cheerleader for Wall Street.

[leftstreet]

3. Serfdom - the fastest growing field in the employment market!

K&R

[NJmaverick]

4. Good grief! This sort of out of touch hyperbole is what gives liberals a bad name

As a liberal I find it embarrassing that people will label me with the same label as Chris Hedges. I wish they could be another tin foil hat liberal created, so that there could be seperation.

[TBF]

7. Where do you see hyperbole in the OP?

Just curious - you may want to look up the word before tossing it around.

[WeDidIt]

11. First sentence

"America is devolving into a third-world nation."

That's hyperbolic bullshit rhetoric.

[NJmaverick]

13. Thank you! If you don't mind I will use that for my answer as well

Although I guess I could use the suggestion of a nation of serfs, just as easily

[WeDidIt]

23. I usually give the title a break

but if the first sentence is every bit as hyperbolic as the title, I move on quickly.

[TBF]

17. That is simply a difference of opinion. If you read the entire article

I think you'll find the author did not intend that to be a figurative statement. He meant we are literally devolving into a third-world nation. You may disagree with his opinion, which is fine, but I think you're reading the intent of the author incorrectly.

[WeDidIt]

18. When the title and first sentence of an article is a steaming pile of shit

there's no reason whatsoever to move on from there.

[NJmaverick]

22. Absolutely! It's rare to see an article or opinion improve from such a bad start

[Runcible Spoon]

120. Oh you found a little friend.

How cute.

[SammyWinstonJack]

185. .

:spray: :evilgrin:

[Skittles]

103. ????

that sentence is the truth - America is deteriorating - losing jobs, health care only for those who can afford it - fuck yes we're headed down, down down

[harun]

195. We don't have Universal Health Care, just like all the 3rd world nations.

We are ruled by the rich, just like the 3rd world nations.
We are subject to 24x7 propaganda, just like the 3rd world nations.

Only difference I can tell is we have decent colleges, at least for the rich. Also we do still have decent employment opportunities, for the well trained.

That being said I don't find it hyperbolic bullshit rhetoric, more like hyberbolically making a good point.

[NJmaverick]

14. "serfs"?!? "US a third world nation"?!? I think you are the one in the need of a dictionary

[leftstreet]

20. Do you have any idea how many 'everyday' people say those things?

The author is using the language we've all been using.

What's the big deal?

:shrug:

[Egnever]

79. Everyday people tend to be tools

of whatever propaganda the media is spewing at that particular moment.

No matter what happens we will continue to be one of the richest countries on this planet far into the foreseeable future for no other reason than our abundance of natural resources.

[leftstreet]

81. You must think you belong to this "we"

"We" might be one of the richest countries on this planet, but "we" don't get to determine how the Ruling Class allocates that wealth.

More and more people are waking up and learning they're one of "us."

[brentspeak]

90. How does that translate into the standard-of-living for the average American?

Tens of millions of Americans cannot afford to see a physician. We have tent cities popping up all around the country. How will the nation's abundant natural resources (which ones are you even talking about, anyway?) prevent even more citizens from falling through the cracks?

[pattmarty]

123. The point of the article is WHO exactly shares or controls and owns.............

................those "abundance of natural resources".

[robinlynne]

152. ALl third world countries are full of natural resources. Production is what takes a country

out of the third world, not natural resources.....

[anigbrowl]

84. Lots of everyday people think God created the world in 6 days too

I don't think the popularity of an idea has any direct bearing on its validity.

[TBF]

24. See #19

We've already got nearly 10% unemployment (and those are official numbers not including the people who've stopped looking or taken lesser-paying jobs), and 10% on food stamps. I wish very much that these are bottom-out numbers and that the rest of the year it'll start picking up. I don't see that realistically happening, we'll see.

[omega minimo]

126. don't recognize the terms apply cuz you don't read article cuz you don't recognize the terms apply

:crazy:

[brentspeak]

86. You failed to convince me that the Hedges article is wrong in any way (n/t)

[sendero]

97. If you think it's hyperbole..

... maybe you are just wrong.

[Zhade]

129. As a liberal, I find your pollyanna ostrichism fucking terrifying.

Your attitude is why we're in this mess in the first place.

[Name removed]

5. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[seemslikeadream]

6. Chris Hedges is one of the smartest people on the planet

[WeDidIt]

8. No, he isn't

You cannot be one of the smartest people on the planet and produce such a piece of shit.

[seemslikeadream]

10. Who are you, pray tell, to be so enlighten as to trash Hedges?

Reasons for your critique, please?

[WeDidIt]

12. When the first sentence is a pile of steaming bullshit

the rest just goes downhill.

And the title is almost as bad as the first sentence.

He's an asshole.

[seemslikeadream]

15. You don't seem to be familiar with Hedges

[WeDidIt]

19. Good thing for me

I don't like reading steaming piles of bullshit.

[seemslikeadream]

34. Seymour Hersh, Jeremy Scahill, Chris Hedges and Laila Al-Arian in Conversation

Seymour Hersh, Jeremy Scahill, Chris Hedges and Laila Al-Arian in Conversation

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4953410595298191432&ei=dEnaScTxLIOeqgL_scjFAw&q=chris+hedges&hl=en

[WeDidIt]

48. No need

I won't click your link. one article of elf important bloviation is enough.

[ProgressIn2008]

78. K&R for Hedges. nt

[omega minimo]

132. whereas for you, one post one "of self important bloviation is" NOT "enough."

you seem strangley invested in insisting on how full of shite this is, yet you have nothing to SAY

[Zhade]

134. Your self-imposed prideful ignorance is the real steaming bullshit.

Hiding from the truth like a fucking coward isn't going to change facts.

[seemslikeadream]

37. Chris Hedges, a Pulitzer prize-winning reporter, is a Senior Fellow at the Nation Institute.

http://www.alternet.org/authors/5769

[WeDidIt]

49. No need to click your link

I've seen too much self important bloviating hyperbole already.

[DireStrike]

207. Oh two posts asserting that! It is much more true now.

Your posts is the equivalent of TL:DR. How do you know he didn't back up his assertions in the article if you didn't even read it?

[Lorien]

105. Name calling isn't a good way to make your case. nt

[Raineyb]

115. What case? He hasn't made one. n/t

[PurityOfEssence]

28. A brief translation:

Those whose egos are entwined with the unshakable fact that Mr. Obama is all that is good and true cannot brook any dissent or critique. The very moniker of triumphalism precludes much introspection, and only an ingrate would expect any elaboration beyond the proclamation of defecation. The premise is unshakable, and no proof is needed.

The complex mental contortionism on display is quite impressive: President Obama is on both sides of so many issues, yet he's unshakably "with" so many of his enthusiasts. The confused rumblings of frustration are already being heard, but the premise holds true. Regardless of how cheek-by-jowl Obama is with the very corporatist feudalists who have deregulated us into a banana republic, they're somehow betraying him and it isn't his fault. He's good by definition, so nothing bad can be his doing. It's precisely like religion: all good is his doing, and all bad is either done by those who don't have the true faith or by unfortunate accident.

Rationality is ALWAYS our friend, yet we've bought into an emotional vagueness that plays to the cheap seats and defies all reason as it crushes any dissent. Hope. What a vapid, cringing, subservient bit of wistful peonage we've been suckered into accepting.

It's nice to hear the term "feudalist" tossed around more; we truly are in an age of neo-feudalism, and this Administration is a fine bunch of vassals.

[cali]

50. codswallop of the most irrational kind.

and Obama has nothing to do with it.

"The very moniker of triumphalism precludes much introspection, and only an ingrate would expect any elaboration beyond the proclamation of defecation. The premise is unshakable, and no proof is needed."

That sir, is word salad of the most pretentious and nonsensical kind. Orwell would excoriate you upside and down for this kind of political "writing". What does it mean? Virtually nothing. Let's parse. By triumphalism, one can only assume you're referring back to those who you believe have " egos are entwined with the unshakable fact that Mr. Obama is all that is good and true cannot brook any dissent or critique. That in itself is a ridiculous straw dog. Why? Well, for one thing, it's cheap ass pychoanalysis. And it's absurd to jump to the conclusion that because someone supports Obama, there ego is tied up in triumphalism. Oh, have I mentioned how much contempt I have for pretentious bullshit that has nothing to do with real intellectual acuity?

Rationality is a good thing. YOU wouldn't know it if Orwell smacked you across the face it.

[PurityOfEssence]

91. I'll translate

The monkier "We Did it" is one of triumphalism, and bespeaks certainty and unwillingness to question the finality of its statement by the person posting under that alias.

Many posters on this board are so personally on the line with their hero-worship that ANY criticism is a public insult to their fragile and aggressive egos. Sadly, the world is a nuanced place, and those who thirst to have hard and fast answers rage at dissent. This personal need to be correct at all cost is done at the expense of the common good.

Did you not know what a moniker is, or are you merely playing games?

How you presume to channel Mr. Blair's spirit is beyond me, but rage on.

Yes, you have mentioned how you detest those who deign to differ with you, and you've repeatedly sneered with endless insults at the inferiority of your foes, just as you've shown the consistent self-proclaimed right to up the ante to make sweeping dismissals of the character of your opponents. This is nothing new.

Double-plus ungood.

[Lorien]

106. ...

:thumbsup:

[scarletwoman]

117. ...

:applause:

[Two Americas]

121. bravo

Well said.

Wish I could make a "salad" as well as you do.

[Uzybone]

127. and what does a sanctimonious moniker like PurityofEssence mean?

what does it say about your mental state and ego?

This board is amazing sometimes.

[scarletwoman]

133. Wow. So now we attack people's choice of username when we disagree with them?

You got one thing right, this board certainly IS amazing sometimes!

:eyes:

[Uzybone]

143. are you referring to "purity" or to me

because we both did the same thing.

[scarletwoman]

151. POE didn't slam the poster's username, merely made some observations on its meaning in the context

of what had been posted by that person. Observations which were not only dead on, but entirely germaine to the debate.

Unlike your post which just cheap snark.

[blindpig]

190. lol

Naw, that shit never happens around here.

[Zhade]

137. Fucking pathetic. That's all you've got?

Fail.

[Uzybone]

141. Well if you read the post above

you will easily see that the poster I responded to attacked a previous posters name.

But you didn't read it did you?

[PurityOfEssence]

161. It's General Ripper's recall code from "Dr. Strangelove",

although a simple googling would probably have clarified that.

[Individualist]

130. ...

:yourock:

[Zhade]

136. Knocked it out of the fucking ballpark. Nice.

NT!

[LooseWilly]

175. POE?

You do realize the whole Purity of Essence scene of Dr. Strangelove was satirizing insanity, right?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N1KvgtEnABY

Reading your post, I can't decide if you are trying to likewise satirize insanity?... or do you really mean what you're writing?

[obiwan]

47. That's your OPINION; that's not a FACT.

Please, if it's your opinion, say so (IMHO or similar.)

If it's a fact, say so. And PROVE it.

But don't confuse opinion and fact. Sometimes, the two are substitively different.

But no need to be arrogant because you didn't like the article. Be civilized.

[Name removed]

53. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[brentspeak]

87. After reading the article and comparing it with your opinions...

...the article wins, hands-down.

[druidity33]

118. kinda sucks

that people here can call any Pulitzer Prize winning person an "asshole" but that i might get banned for saying such a thing about a DUer named WeDidIt.

And the aforementioned dickhead didn't even read the piece...

:eyes:

[Moochy]

146. roger that we got a douche alert in sector GD over

[seemslikeadream]

164. .......

;)

[NJmaverick]

25. Is more hyperbole a good defense?

[seemslikeadream]

35. truth is

[NJmaverick]

36. I am pretty sure an opinion that is unsubstantiated by fact

doesn't meet the criteria or definition of "truth"

[seemslikeadream]

41. Chris Hedges - Collateral Damage: America's War Against Iraqi Civilians

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=221047753114925234

[WeDidIt]

46. Sorry, I'll never read anything by Chris Hedges

after wasting a few minutes of my life on the utter piece of shit you posted that he wrote.

[azmouse]

51. Same here.

[seemslikeadream]

64. sorry to hear that you've missed his great work on Dominonist and their rise in this country

and in the U.S. military

[bvar22]

66. I have never seen so many at DU....

...who are proud of holding their hands over their ears and screaming LALALALALALALA.

I have no respect for those who boast of being ill informed.

[Richd506]

88. And I have no respect for people who think every single thing is a conspiracy

[bvar22]

95. I have much respect for people who question everything our government does.

Asking the questions NEVER harmed anyone.

OTOH, NOT asking the questions had harmed a great many.

[truedelphi]

224. Oh it is certainly not a conspiracy.

It is a carefully and brilliantly planned takeover

Of every last dollar on Main Street, for the next ten years.

[girl gone mad]

92. It isn't that many.

It's just a handful of people, but their post to person ration is astronomical. Wonder why?

[truedelphi]

228. Maybe because we are mad as hell and aren't swallow take any more Voodoo economics from

Anyone any more.

And certainly not from a man who pledged to bring us "Change"

That being said, thank you for all the very observant, very knowledge-packed posts and OP's you bring us.

[Lorien]

107. It's amazing isn't it? Where is the surge coming from?

I grow more and more dismayed every time I come here. Some days it's "Ostrich Underground", other days it's "Libertarian Underground", but I'm seeing fewer and fewer well informed Liberals posting here. Too much TV? Too many years without the Fairness Doctrine and the Right Wing Noise Machine blaring away? :shrug:

[Moochy]

150. all the puma preserves are shrinking fast?

:shrug:

[cali]

54. The OP is dreadful, but Hedges used to very good.

I recommend "War is a force that give us meaning".

[Lydia Leftcoast]

82. Nothing like sticking your finger in your ears and saying

"bla-bla-bla" loudly.

That's what you're doing, at least figuratively.

[Zhade]

138. Well, you are a fucking idiot, so no surprise.

NT!

[Moochy]

148. Sorry, I'll never read anything by WeDidIt

after wasting a few minutes of my life on the utter piece of shit it posted that it wrote.

Thanks DU for IGNORE!

[NJmaverick]

56. Chris is just another critic and I think this quote

is very appropriate:

"In many ways, the work of a critic is easy. We risk very little yet enjoy a position over those who offer up their work and their selves to our judgment. We thrive on negative criticism, which is fun to write and to read. But the bitter truth we critics must face, is that in the grand scheme of things, the average piece of junk is probably more meaningful than our criticism designating it so.."

[slay]

108. A great and freaky article

I too think what he wrote was great and needed to be said. THIS should be on the front page of every magazine and every news channel - but NO - that would never be "allowed" to happen. Anyone who has any illusions that our "govenment" protects us and not the huge corporations is either blind, or didn't read this Chris Hedges article. :hi:

[girl gone mad]

75. You can say the same thing another 20 times on this thread.

It won't make you any less wrong.

[TBF]

9. K&R

It is going to be one huge tent city before some people notice. 10% unemployment & food stamp usage is not a good thing folks.

[cali]

16. He used to be a good writer

now he's just another ranter who thinks he has a crystal ball.

[seemslikeadream]

32. 2002 Pulitzer Prize Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Chris Hedges

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8117853208483879448&ei=dEnaScTxLIOeqgL_scjFAw&q=chris+hedges&hl=en

[cali]

40. no shit, sherlock.

Why do you think I noted that he used to be a good writer? He wrote with power, subtlety and authority, and he didn't hammer his readers over the head. He does none of that here. This is a sophmoric, histrionic piece, and he doesn't back up his claims. And that's why it's sad.

[seemslikeadream]

43. you are sad

[cali]

52. Not really, but I am someone who actually thinks

and I can write in whole sentences. And as you're unfamiliar with either activity, you may well be confused, sladkins.

[Raineyb]

116. Translation: when he agreed with me I liked what he said

Now that he's saying things I don't like he's shit.

[Zhade]

139. Yeah, like your uninformed opinions are worth shit.

NT!

[Mandate My Ass]

176. only one of cali's opinions is ever worth a shit

"the stupid, it burns..."

But ironically it's her categorically and vociferously stupid remarks that make the grade.

[cliffordu]

21. Whole lot of whistling past the graveyard going on here.

You already are serfs. Try living without a credit card for a while.

Or try to live without any credit at all.

[cali]

26. uh, that's hardly evidence that one is a serf.

Not saying that Hedges couldn't end up being correct, but he doesn't present a real argument. And no, we aren't a third world country. And anyone thinking we are needs to do some traveling- or at the very least, some reading.

[cliffordu]

29. So: Who are you indentured to, Citibank or Chase??

[cali]

31. neither.

[omega minimo]

140. or gambling......... that "China and oil rich nations" don't pull the economic plug......

[TBF]

27. Agreed. The article is much more a lesson in pointing out the obvious

than hyperbole.

[NeedleCast]

30. Silly Article

Didn't get past the first sentance. Anyone who think the US is devolving into a third world nation doesn't know the first thing about third-world nations.

[cali]

38. Except Hedges absolutely does

I don't know what happened to him. He used to be a first rate reporter and writer. It's just sad to see him issuing such poor prose.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Hedges

[NeedleCast]

44. Don't really know his work, which is ignorance on my part

So I just judged by the article in the OP, which seems to be of the same ilk of "caricature of the left" that I already see too much of.

[girl gone mad]

74. Yeah, third world decay could never happen in America.

:eyes:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hHr2mLQZUtU

Take your blinders off. Wake the fuck up.

[Occam Bandage]

33. It's good to know crazy-ass revolutionary talk is infesting the left as well as the right. nt

[nomorenomore08]

122. It's the times we live in, man. It's driving the good folks crazy just as much as the not-so-good.

:shrug:

[seemslikeadream]

39. Transcript: Bill Moyers Talks with Chris Hedges

http://www.pbs.org/now/transcript/transcript_hedges.html

[KG]

42. way too late.

but least we got Wii and american Idol!

[TahitiNut]

55. I think anyone who ignores the warnings is an ostrich.

"Third world" means without national health care, a Gini ratio above 0.5, a militarist government, and a currency in the tank.

We're almost there. :shrug:

[cali]

58. We're not that close.

not saying it couldn't happen, but no we're not that close to becoming "third world".

Anyway, Mr. Hedges histrionics won't open any eyes.

[TahitiNut]

59. Perhaps the decal on your rear view mirror has been removed???

"Objects are closer than they appear."

[cali]

60. perhaps. or perhaps

I'm a student of dystopian thought(literally. I have my MA in it) and see things through that prism.

[Zhade]

142. Your prism is clearly cracked.

NT!

[walldude]

68. Maybe not from your perspective....

I'd say someone living in a tent city would have the perspective that we are close to a third world nation. It's easy to sit here with my internet access, and my 22" monitor, my decent job, and this big cheeseburger I'm eating and say "yeah, not even close". But the fact is I'm not in a position to judge how close we are.

[rpannier]

98. He didn't say close

He said devolving

Devolving means moving in that direction

How close we are to that is depends on where we think we are.
The highest prison population in the world
The massive amount of debt we have incurred in 8 years -- that will grow only bigger
We pass new laws all the time to 'get tough on crime.' Yet we are always in a state of fear.
The increasing gap between the haves and have-nots

Now compared to nations like
North Korea, Vietnam, Laos, China, Afghanistan, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Uzbekistan, Korea, Thailand and India we are a lot better off in terms of having a solid middle class, clean environment and basic freedoms (I chose only Asian countries because this is the region I live in and I am familiar with these places)

Do I think we're devolving into a Medieval-style Feudal system -- No
Do, I think we're devolving into a pseudo-Corporatist style Oligarchy -- Yes

[Lydia Leftcoast]

83. If current trends continue, we're headed there

We're in decline, and anyone who has traveled to Western Europe or East Asia recently can see that.

[lonestarnot]

153. You left out the only affordable place for peons to buy chinese food, Wallyfartworld.

[Echo In Light]

57. K&R for Hedges!

I was raised Catholic, and even tho stopped practicing by age 12 or 13, enjoy reading Hedges' take on the whole 'why I don't believe in atheists' subject. A well reasoned journalist.

[seemslikeadream]

61. HELLO PEOPLE OF THE EARTH

WE ARE NOT TALKING ABOUT CHRISTOPHER HITCHENS HERE :rofl:


douchbag


Hedges

[librechik]

63. too late--at least serfs have a steady job!

we won't even have that.

What is anyone doing to avoid this inevitable outcome?

Trying to pretend it isn't happening and treating a problem we don't have with means that won't work anyway and only enrich the wrong people again.

[JoseGaspar]

65. Good point.

Serfs were wealth. Feudal lands could not till themselves. Neither could new serfs be brought in if you let the old ones die (no "reserve army" of the unemployed). Serfs had very steady jobs (even if it was to be "covered in shit"), and they had the same right to that "job" as the Lord did.

Perhaps Hedges could rephrase it to, "We want to be serfs!"

[truedelphi]

226. +1 ! n/t

[earth mom]

67. K & R but how many of us have been saying this for months?

Anyone with enough common sense can connect the dots to see what is happening to this country, yet people on this thread insist that it's not happening. :crazy:

Another day, another excellent DU thread trashed with disinfo.

[countryjake]

69. K&R!

[Fire1]

70. Whadaya mean, 'become?' lol!

[Better Believe It]

71. K & R But .....

I don't think the tens of millions of people victimized in this crisis will simply move to the right anymore than during the last Great Depression.

We'll see the development and growth of authentic mass fascist organizations and also a rapid growth of left wing organizations including radical political parties.

[countryjake]

72. Upon reading this entire thread (and that topic which was just locked)...

it is amazing to me that so many still find their "comfort level" to be so secure that they can find no insightful warnings in this published Hedges' article.

Such attitudes remind me of that famous "let them eat cake" comment often attributed to one headless monarch!

[NoSheep]

101. I agree with you completely. Several years back I used these terms

myself to describe the trend I saw going on...and I can see a clear motive as well. Already we have the rich using the average working folk (serfs)to make their billions... (way prior to the bailouts...which may ultimately be necessary under the circumstances)I'm not just talking about Capitalism...but the ultra rich stole control of the government and started using tax dollars as investment funds. Clear examples are private contractors "hired" to make their living off a war paid for by tax payers: Halliburton (Dick Cheney and his cronies). Big pharma making billions off the sale of exotic flu scare vaccines (Donald Rumsfeld & his cronies), and finally the banks at the final hour of the last "administration" .

I don't have access to this kind of money to invest in order to increase my wealth...the same way I don't have access to a serfdom. There is no difference at all that I can see. We are working like hell to fill up a bottomless bank account that only benefits the powerful few.

Why is this article such a threat to those that oppose it? It isn't Obama's fault this has happened...it seems to me he is trying to do what he can-operating in this world, NOT an ideal one - to fix it so we don't all lose our homes starve and as a result.

[Zhade]

144. Because they're terrified - they know they're wrong.

They won't admit it, but they know. And they know that when it all crashes, we're not going to help them.

I sure as fuck won't.

[NoSheep]

169. Question:

Who ARE these people? I don't think they're all Freeper trolls here...I think they're a part of a huge majority who have NO IDEA what is happening. They seem conditioned by blips...little quick snipets with no substance from a television set...sound bites...and the hot air the powerful have been trading around.

I wish there were somewhere to go to discuss these things without the "short-attention-span theater" I'm subjected to here. It used to be better...I thought. But I've only been here when we had a common enemy. Now I realize how out of it so many are.

:(

[countryjake]

174. Maybe they're sitting on piles of gold ingots...

independently wealthy and just don't care if the rest of us are looking at hell in a hand-basket. Many here simply don't know any working-class folk at all or they act blind to the plight of the poor so they seem far out of touch with the reality that so many of us have struggled with for years.

It's pretty common to be accosted by the petite bourgeoisie when calls for resistance, dissent or organizing go out...it's just very discouraging to have to waste precious time dealing with such delusional people.

[earcandle]

179. They have integrity issues. They can fix them here with a little bit of effort.

http://www.noodlebrain.com/nbpits.swf

[NoSheep]

204. What a fantastic website!

[earcandle]

217. Thank You!

I built it myself when I learned there was no place to grow
with my brand new BA Degree from San Francisco State
University in Speech/Communication Studies!  So I became an
accountant for bread and butter and made this my outlet for
arts and sciences and humanities. 

It so nice to hear someone likes it! 
I get about 20K hits per month, which is nothing really,
but encourages me none the less. 

[NoSheep]

222. I'll be sending the link to everyone I know. I'll also be able to spend more time there

after work today...good job!

[SammyWinstonJack]

186. .

:thumbsup: :applause:

[girl gone mad]

73. I'm glad someone in the media is saying it.

We are becoming a third world nation and it seems like so few people care. I don't get it.

[seemslikeadream]

77. me too

[defendandprotect]

76. GOP-Third World America ... they've been working on that for decades -- !!!

[earcandle]

180. True dat. Since Reagan

[Dr.Phool]

80. The entire article is awesome. And he cites some very reputable sources.

It's really sad that so many choose to be ostriches.

[Kermitt Gribble]

85. K&R This article

is like the Ghost of Christmas Future. How many people will it take to be jobless and homeless before we rise up and do something about it?

[BluePatriot21]

93. We are all

We are all White and Blue Collar Serfs already. I am a serf that is still unemployed and on food stamps. I'm ready for revolution and have my Beatles song cued up and ready to go should my hope in my President ever seem to turn into an illusion.

[MasonJar]

94. I thought that I voted for change, but I am not getting it. I am so disappointed

in Obama on war, warrantless spying, teacher merit pay, the Geithner-led economic debacle, the handouts to the bankers/Wall Streeters who brought us to the brink, but obviously have no consequences, the utter refusal to investigate Bush crimes against humanity. There are etcs., but I think those examples just listed give the general idea of why I AM DISAPPOINTED.

[truedelphi]

225. I am disappointed, angry and disgusted too. n/t

[northofdenali]

96. I've been saying this for several years.

Beginning way before GWB; and beginning my planning for these times. Now, it looks as if my planning was off by a mile (never just that inch that could be made up) because of medical bills I cannot pay, and a mortgage that I MUST pay or lose our only hope of shelter.

[scarletwoman]

99. Very interesting piece, thanks for posting it. I think his description of our current circumstances

is right on.

But what's really fascinating are some of the reactions to it in this thread. Wow. I'd expect something like that from pre-schoolers who've been told there is no Santa Claus -- but an analysis of our current economic situation and a warning of where it could lead by one our premier contemporary thinkers and writers? Whoaaa, that's weird.

sw

(late edit for typo I just noticed in the subject line)

[Kermitt Gribble]

110. Definitely weird.

Almost makes "I know you are, but what am I" seem like legitimate debate. Pee Wee would be proud of them.

[Pharaoh]

100. The system is inherently corrupt n/t

[NoSheep]

102. excellent post kpete.

I couldn't agree more.

[TankLV]

111. My ultimate goal: Delare all unpaid debts paid in full!

and everyone starts from scratch again - talk about a boost to the economy and all the scumbags will be left crying...!!!

[earcandle]

181. I am so down wid dat!

[paparush]

112. Charlie Doesn't Serf!!

I love the smell of proto-fascists misfits in the morning. It smells like . . . a third world nation.

[GMBshootingclubM60]

113. Don't blame Vermont..

The gun owners got rid of peter smith, 1-term repug..

And gave you Bernie Sanders!

peter smith thought a gun ban from Pete Stark (D., CA) was a way to stick it in the Vermont gun owner's eye... bad move.

Bernie's been our advocate and now has moved on to the Senate.

[scarletwoman]

114. Are you sure you posted on the right thread? Cuz your post really doesn't have any relation

to the OP that I can see.

[Two Americas]

125. right

We want to talk about Minnesota, dammit, not Vermont again!

:rofl:

Actually, it is far from being the most irrelevant post on the thread. And some of those posts are from Vermont!

[scarletwoman]

128. Heh.

:spank:

[mirrera]

124. You are too right... read defying Hitler, great book.

[mirrera]

131. Reading the nay-sayers is strange. Forwarded this excellent piece to 80 people, so viral it goes.

[earcandle]

182. oh! is that allowed? Is that how I get to share these great posts legitmately?

Pray tell?  

At least post on my news site at noodlebrain.com 

[Uzybone]

135. This screed could easily come from the right wing

just change a few words and interests and an America-first Klansman could easily use this article.

The funny thing is that most of those who read it as gospel usually do nothing but sit and complain instead of "resist". I am sure they all have bank loans and credit cards and all the usual amenities of the "corpofascist" state they sit on the computer and hate away at.

[Zhade]

145. Keep your head in the sand, if the self-deception helps you sleep at night.

NT!

[Mari333]

147. this is a GREAT article

thats spells out the wool thats been pulled over eyes for decades. fudging numbers and lies.
k and r

[Mike 03]

149. Absolutely. NT

[lonestarnot]

154. No soup either. Rationed dirt cakes. K & R

[seemslikeadream]

155. Christian Embassy - This is why I stand behind Chris Hedges

http://www.militaryreligiousfreedom.org/Media_video/christian-embassy/index.html
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/8/3/125520/2516






A lawsuit filed by the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (see this Dec. 13, 2006 Slate story, "Onward Christian Soldiers", for the full text of MRFF's legal complaint ) was dismissed for "lack of standing" but a just released 47 page report from the Department of Defense Inspector General concurs < see Truthout full PDF of report>, substantially, with MRFF's allegations that high ranking Pentagon officials improperly endorsed the "Christian Embassy" through their appearances in the Christian Embassy's promotional video.

Please keep the following in mind:

Individuals featured in the Christian Embassy promotional video are among the highest ranking members of the United States military, and as such they are supposed to be the ones setting the standards for military behavior.

The Pentagon Inspector General's report provides evidence for the following conclusion which I have been substantiating, along with other MRFF researchers :

The United States military is now heavily influenced by para-church ministries that promote politicized, right leaning, religious ideological views, and that influence extends from the upper levels of the Pentagon down to the level of the military rank and file.

A few months ago that would have been an unfounded assertion on my part, but since then I've been working as part of a team effort, under the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, to amass evidence to support that claim. I can't divulge specifics right now, but yesterday I wrote, in general terms, of what I have helped uncover, for MRFF, on the spread of Christian nationalist events, improperly endorsed by the US military, across the nation. Material from that research will be emerging over the course of the next few weeks and months.

For an example of some recent Military Religious Freedom Foundation research that is public, please see MRFF researcher Chris Rodda's excellent MRFF Investigates OCF Neighborhood Bible Study Program at Fort Leavenworth.



Chris Hedges: America’s Holy Warriors


http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20061231_chris_hedges_americas_holy_warriors/P100 /

Chris Hedges: America’s Holy Warriors


Posted on Dec 31, 2006

From Salon.com
A bodyguard from Blackwater USA protects former Coalition Provisional Authority head Paul Bremer in Iraq in 2004. Blackwater’s founder is a right-wing Christian whose paramilitary contractors may be operating outside constitutional restrictions imposed on the police and military.

By Chris Hedges

Editor’s note: The former New York Times Mideast Bureau chief warns that the radical Christian right is coming dangerously close to its goal of co-opting the country’s military and law enforcement.


The drive by the Christian right to take control of military chaplaincies, which now sees radical Christians holding roughly 50 percent of chaplaincy appointments in the armed services and service academies, is part of a much larger effort to politicize the military and law enforcement. This effort signals the final and perhaps most deadly stage in the long campaign by the radical Christian right to dismantle America’s open society and build a theocratic state. A successful politicization of the military would signal the end of our democracy.

During the past two years I traveled across the country to research and write the book “American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America.” I repeatedly listened to radical preachers attack as corrupt and godless most American institutions, from federal agencies that provide housing and social welfare to public schools and the media. But there were two institutions that never came under attack—the military and law enforcement. While these preachers had no interest in communicating with local leaders of other faiths, or those in the community who did not subscribe to their call for a radical Christian state, they assiduously courted and flattered the military and police. They held special services and appreciation days for all four branches of the armed services and for various law enforcement agencies. They encouraged their young men and women to enlist or to join the police or state troopers. They sought out sympathetic military and police officials to attend church events where these officials were lauded and feted for their Christian probity and patriotism. They painted the war in Iraq not as an occupation but as an apocalyptic battle by Christians against Islam, a religion they regularly branded as “satanic.” All this befits a movement whose final aesthetic is violence. It also befits a movement that, in the end, would need the military and police forces to seize power in American society.

One of the arguments used to assuage our fears that the mass movement being built by the Christian right is fascist at its core is that it has not yet created a Praetorian Guard, referring to the paramilitary force that defied legal constraints, made violence part of the political discourse and eventually plunged ancient Rome into tyranny and despotism. A paramilitary force that operates outside the law, one that sows fear among potential opponents and is capable of physically silencing those branded by their leaders as traitors, is a vital instrument in the hands of despotic movements. Communist and fascist movements during the last century each built paramilitary forces that operated beyond the reach of the law.

And yet we may be further down this road than we care to admit. Erik Prince, the secretive, mega-millionaire, right-wing Christian founder of Blackwater, the private security firm that has built a formidable mercenary force in Iraq, champions his company as a patriotic extension of the U.S. military. His employees, in an act as cynical as it is deceitful, take an oath of loyalty to the Constitution. These mercenary units in Iraq, including Blackwater, contain some 20,000 fighters. They unleash indiscriminate and wanton violence against unarmed Iraqis, have no accountability and are beyond the reach of legitimate authority. The appearance of these paramilitary fighters, heavily armed and wearing their trademark black uniforms, patrolling the streets of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, gave us a grim taste of the future. It was a stark reminder that the tyranny we impose on others we will one day impose on ourselves.


Dominionist Christianity which welcomes an Apocalyptic confrontation between the USA and Islam

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/9/8/32210/85815


It is also big time unconstitutional.

To have only ONE religious point of view broadcast at taxpayer expense through the Armed Forces Network violates the 1st Amendment AND the spirit of Clause 3 of Article 6.

Obviously it is also very unfair to exclude other denominations such as traditional protestant denominations, Catholics, Jews, Muslims, agnostics and atheists.

Coral Ridge Ministries, with their radical Dominionist interpretation of the Bible are unrepresentative of the majority of Americans. This is wrong in yet another level because the official mission of the Armed Forces Network (a.k.a. American Forces Radio and Television Service) according to their website is;

Purpose/Mission

AFRTS is the American Forces Radio and Television Service. It is part of the Department of Defense, and is headquartered in Alexandria, Virginia. The AFRTS mission is to communicate Department of Defense policies, priorities, programs, goals and initiatives. AFRTS provides stateside radio and television programming, "a touch of home," to U.S. service men and women, DoD civilians, and their families serving outside the continental United States. AFRTS includes the Radio and Television Production Office (RTPO), The Pentagon Channel NewsCenter, and the Defense Media Center.

Our Vision

The AFRTS vision is to provide multi-channel broadcast quality radio and television services and expanded internal information products to all DoD members and their families stationed overseas, on contingency operations, and onboard Navy ships around the world. Today, AFRTS uses seven satellites along with digital compression technology to provide multiple television and stereo audio services to over 1,000 outlets in more than 175 countries and U.S. territories, and on board U.S. Navy ships.
Let's take a look at he Armed Forces Network Radio schedule.


If you look carefully, you will find no reference to the Coral Ridge Hour (more on why later) but you will find a "fair and balanced" mix of political views (riiiight!).

Such luminaries as David Horowitz, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, James Dobson (no sermons, just short commentaries) and Dr. Laura balanced on the other side by Alan Colmes and Ed Schultz (who does what he can and I appreciate it).

A MRFF member wrote the AFN for an explanation why on the schedule published on the MyAFN website there was no slot for Coral Ridge Hour and this was the exchange;

[Liberal In Texas]

194. Chris Hedges is one of the few journalists left

speaking truth to power. I know that's become a cliche, but usually cliches have a logical foundation.

Hedges is a national treasure and we need more like him. I only wish he had a larger forum.

[earcandle]

219. We put a war set on our Ear Candle Radio station and quoted some of his bits from his book

on War is a force that gives us meaning.

Brilliant guy.

[seemslikeadream]

156. 6,000 complaints from soldiers who claim to have been persecuted by Christian evangelicals;

http://www.motherjones.com/news/update/2007/11/anti-crusader-mikey-weinstein.html

The Anti-Crusader


Weinstein is the middle rung in three generations of soldiers. A former Air Force JAG and White House attorney for Ronald Reagan, he has adopted a shock-and-awe approach to battling efforts by the military to impress Christianity upon American soldiers. "We have the Christian Taliban and the Christian Al Qaeda inside our military," says Weinstein, the founder of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, "and they really have WMD, unlike Saddam."

An amateur pugilist with shoulders like a butcher block and a head like a cannonball, he several times challenged evangelical minister Ted Haggard to a boxing match. (Haggard declined.) His adversaries call him, to his great delight, "The Field General of the Godless Armies of Satan," though his friends prefer nicknames like "Ticktock" and "Motor Mouth." During one of his trademark rapid-fire, profanity-laced diatribes, he proclaimed," Our job here is to kick ass, take names, and leave sucking chest wounds on the people who are trying to engage the machinery of the state to push their biblical worldview." To allies who suggest that perhaps Weinstein should appoint someone more diplomatic to lead the foundation, he offers, "First they will have to prove to me that what we are engaged in is a polite exchange of views" with right-wing Christians," instead of a bloody battle that only ends with the last person standing."

Weinstein is certain that fundamentalists will stop at nothing to transform the United States military into an army of God. He notes that Officers Christian Fellowship, with chapters in every major U.S. military installation in the world, envisions—and here he quotes its mission statement—a "spiritually transformed military, with ambassadors for Christ in uniform, empowered by the Holy Spirit." The group has helped boost fundamentalist Christianity among the armed forces from a negligible presence 20 years ago to a faith currently held by 30 percent of U.S. soldiers, according to Weinstein. He adds that many of those soldiers—hardcore end-timers and Dominionists—desperately want America to invade Iran, thereby triggering the biblical prophecy of the Rapture.

This summer he uncovered plans by the Pentagon to ship "freedom packages" to soldiers in Iraq that were to contain Bibles, proselytizing material in English and Arabic, and Left Behind: Eternal Forces, a video game inspired by post-Rapture novels in which "soldiers for Christ" hunt enemies who look suspiciously like U.N. peacekeepers. Partly due to Weinstein's efforts, the packages were never sent. "It's not just the Holocaust or the inquisition or the pogroms or the nine—count 'em: nine—crusades," Weinstein cautions. "It's everything that's happened since then. Whenever a virulent form of any faith has engaged the machinery of the state, in the words of the U.S. Supreme Court, we have ended up with tidal waves of blood."

And so Weinstein is laying sand bags. He has fielded more than 6,000 complaints from soldiers who claim to have been persecuted by Christian evangelicals; 95 percent of the complaints come from mainstream Christians. Tipsters helped him catch uniformed military officers publicly endorsing an evangelical group and ferret out an anti-Semitic Bible study guide on an army base website. In September, he shunted many of the complaints into a massive lawsuit against the Department of Defense. His lead plaintiff, U.S. Army Specialist Jeremy Hall, alleges that a major at Iraq's Speicher base threatened to block his reenlistment in the Army in retaliation for organizing a meeting of atheists.

[seemslikeadream]

157. Christian America are pumped into tens of millions of American homes through Christian television an

Christianist fascism in the Air Force


Chris Hedges's new book examines how Christian dominionists are seeking absolute power and a Christian state. According to Hedges, the movement bears a strong resemblance to the young fascist movements in Italy and Germany in the 1920s and '30s. Hedges is the former New York Times Middle East bureau chief and author of "War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning."

Democracy Now: American Fascists Pt. 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZHABaK7LXYU
Democracy Now: American Fascists Pt. 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=75KQCNSEh0M


http://www.opednews.com/maxwrite/print_friendly.php?p=genera_tim_rile_070906_nuclear_insanity_ord.htm



http://ianmasters.org/ian_masters_021807_80.mp3 (direct link to mp3)

http://www.ianmasters.org/archives.html (site link - scroll down to Feb. 18)

Chris Hedges on the religious right in the United States. Mr. Hedges is a Pulitzer Prize-winning veteran war correspondent, who now writes about religion and politics. He is a graduate of Harvard Divinity School and is the author of the just published "American Fascists: the Christian Right and the War on America." In this book, Hedges, who grew up in rural parishes in upstate New York where his father was a Presbyterian pastor, attacks the Christian fundamentalist movement from the point of view of a believer, as someone steeped in the Bible and Christian tradition. He points to the hundreds of members of Congress with high approval ratings from the three most influential Christian Right advocacy groups as one of many signs that the movement is burrowing deep inside the American government, in order to subvert it. The movement's call to dismantle the wall between church and state and the intolerance it preaches against all who do not conform to its warped vision of a Christian America are pumped into tens of millions of American homes through Christian television and radio stations, as well as reinforced through the curriculum in Christian schools. He shows that the movement's yearning for apocalyptic violence and its assault on dispassionate, intellectual inquiry are laying the foundation for an unrecognizable fundmentalist America. His thesis: we face an imminent threat. Chris Hedges earlier books are highly acclaimed. He is the author of War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning, What Every Person Should Know about War and another religiously themed book, Losing Moses on the Freeway.. He has worked for various publications including the Christian Science Monitor and the Dallas Morning News. He was part of the New York Times team that shared the 2001 Pulitzer Prize for global terrorism coverage. Hedges has written extensively about his experiences on the front lines of war. He has reported about his experiences in Sarajevo, El Salvador, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Colombia, the Middle East and other places around the world. He is lecturer in the Council of the Humanities and Ferris Professor of Journalism at Princeton University. He received the 2002 Amnesty International Global Award for Human Rights Journalism. (In a 2003 Commencement address at Rockford College in Rockford, Ill., Hedges raised the intense ire of audience members when he spoke out against the war in Iraq. Many regard Hedges as a "philosopher of the experience of war." According to Hedges, the experience of being in a war zone, where there is very little distinction between life and death, fills a person with a sense of "meaning" and brings him to a "high" that cannot be experienced so strongly any other way, producing a kind of addiction.)



http://ningens-blog.blogspot.com/2007/01/why-chris ...

It's long and rambling, but it links to some stuff about Christianist fascism in the Air Force and also links to articles by Antipas Ministries, which is an interesting evangelical website that heavily criticizes right wing evangelicals for basically dealing with the devil.



http://militaryreligiousfreedom.org /

Michael L. Weinstein, founder of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, wrote "With God on Our Side: One Man's War Against an Evangelical Coup in America's Military."

click on Public Forum and you'll see this blog post from May:

Saturday, May 26, 2007
FOR MEMORIAL DAY WEEKEND
FROM MICK FARREN BLOG POSTING

I’ve been aware of various news reports concerning Fundamentalist Christians making increasing efforts to turn the US Military into a “Christian” fighting force, but other things, some epic, some trivia, have been absorbing my attention, but when activists and Air Force veterans like Michael Weinstein make statements like the one below I kinda think it’s time to take notice. I mean, I don’t feel exactly comfortable with the idea that megaton loaded nuclear bombers are flying around with crews who believe the Book of Revelation is going become reality anytime.

“The Christian Taliban is running the Department of Defense, It inundates everything. Can you imagine a contingent of religious zealots, with their contempt for secular values (and such manifestations of secular order as the U.S. Constitution) — and with their zest for holy war — in control of the most potent fighting force and weaponry in human history? Is this possible? Well, said Weinstein, consider the 523rd Fighter Squadron, based at Cannon Air Force Base, N.M., which calls itself The Crusaders, and whose emblem consists of a sword, four crosses and a medieval knight’s helmet. They fly F-16s with payloads consisting of “a wide variety of conventional, precision guided and nuclear weapons.” And listen once again to Commander-in-Chief Bush, speaking in 2003 to Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas, according to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz: “God told me to strike at al-Qaida and I struck them, and then he instructed me to strike at Saddam, which I did, and now I am determined to solve the problem in the Middle East. If this is a religious war — a “clash of civilizations,” waged by competing agents of God’s will — victory may be indistinguishable from Armageddon. God help the human race.”


Here's another blog post that talks about the AF:



Tuesday, April 24, 2007
Because I love America: Reagan's Assistant General Counsel, Mikey Weinstein Speaks Out. with God on our side
By Mikey Weinstein

When I began asking questions about what I saw going on at Colorado Springs in 2004 I never expected that the inquiry would lead me to the horrifying conclusion that our country had been taken over by people who have used our own freedoms to enslave us. But that is what happened. When I began I, like most people, was focused on the personal. I believed that what was happening at the United States Air Force Academy, the harassment of cadets and staff with unwanted evangelism, was limited in scope. As the months passed, however, I found myself forced to constantly reassess my basic assumptions. The logic of events was stark and undeniable. Promises of an open inquiry were ignored; decent and courageous people like former Air Force Chaplin MeLinda Morton were intentionally muzzled to ensure the truth would not be heard and the wrongs righted.

As a Republican and an Academy graduate I find myself in head on conflict with my own oath to protect the Constitution. As a Jew I confronted a situation through ears that still hear the cries of my people walking silently into the brick buildings that would reduce them to ash. I cannot stand still and let that happen to my country.

You know about the law suit we filed; that suit took on the issue directly, based on the1st Amendment Right of members of the military to choose their own spiritual paths, unhampered by those placed in positions of authority and on the basis of the Establishment Clause and Clause Three of Article Six, which prohibit the existence of a national religion. That is what has happened. America now has a national religion whose tenets extend to a foreign policy that sees war in the Middle East as the fulfillment of its core mission . The power block responsible for the take over are now, effectively, in charge of the mightiest weapon the world has ever known, the United States Military.

My law suit was one element in the larger battle to take back America. That might seem excessive or alarmist; I only wish that was the case.

more...

http://militaryreligiousfreedom.org/events.html#4




http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/opinion/2004012110_floyd14.html


Blackwater: bulging biceps fueled by ideological purity
BLACKWATER, the secretive private army now emerging into public view, is a perfect hinge linking two key elements of the Republican political base: America's war machine and a muscular form of fundamentalist Christianity.

Military contractors such as Halliburton and Blackwater are the brainchild of Vice President Dick Cheney and former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. A major goal of Cheney when he was secretary of defense in the first Bush administration was to privatize as much military work as possible, ostensibly to make it more efficient. He commissioned a study by Halliburton, which predictably liked the idea and wound up as America's largest military contractor. Cheney was hired as Halliburton's chief officer, awaiting the return of a Republican administration.

When that occurred, Cheney and Rumsfeld enthusiastically promoted privatization, and went so far as to include private contractors in the "Total Force" of the American military, standing never before given to contractors. When Rumsfeld left the Pentagon in 2006, there were nearly as many private contractors in Iraq (100,000) as American troops (130,000). Contractors provided food, fuel, housing and, in the case of Blackwater, heavily armed soldiers with a license to kill and an aggressive attitude.

Blackwater operated basically without oversight since proconsul Paul Bremer gave it a no-bid $27.7 million security contract in 2003, with immunity from Iraqi law. In 2004, four of its soldiers were ambushed in Fallujah and their bodies desecrated, bringing retaliation that killed hundreds of Iraqis, leveled the city and fueled the insurgency. A month ago, Blackwater guards killed 17 Iraqi civilians, in an incident that has drawn the attention of Congress and the FBI.

Blackwater soldiers, often with Navy SEAL or Army Special Operations backgrounds, are paid from $500 to $1,500 a day, far more than regular-duty troops. Their image is straight from central casting: young men, tanned biceps bulging from black T-shirts, wearing wraparound sunglasses and brandishing automatic weapons. For young veterans who loved military action but couldn't afford to stay in, Blackwater offered big money and plenty of opportunities to order people around. Blackwater's aggressive guards became the image of American cultural insensitivity, sometimes erasing the best efforts of our uniformed soldiers.

Blackwater is the private empire of billionaire Erik Prince, a major Republican fundraiser and bankroller of several fundamentalist Christian organizations. His private army employs some 2,300 active gunners and boasts a register of 21,000 ready to serve on call. He has the largest privately held arsenal in the country and the expertise and firepower to bring down a small country.

In 2006, Prince expanded internationally, forming a new subsidiary in Barbados, outside American taxes and regulation, to train foreign forces, often funded by American military aid. Elite Blackwater soldiers have conducted secretive "black jobs" for the CIA or other spy agencies.

Despite its financial success, Blackwater is under fire from two sides: Democratic critics who want accountability and families of the four men killed in Fallujah in 2004. The families have sued, alleging negligence.

Blackwater's lawyers assert it cannot be sued because it is part of the "Total Force." But, while Congress demands that it be subject to American military codes and international treaties, Blackwater takes the opposite view — it is not military, it's a civilian contractor. Big money has gone into D.C. lawyers, lobbyists and public-relations spinners to sell this apparent contradiction.

There have always been mercenaries, and a case can be made for limited use of contractors, but the Bush administration has erased the line between a national military and a private war machine. Iraq is our first outsourced war, siphoning billions of taxpayer dollars into the private war machine.

Military contractors have become an integral part of the American military, allowing the White House to understate troop numbers and avoid a military draft. Unpopular wars for oil or ideology can be waged without calling on middle-class families to send their children; mercenaries will fill the jobs if volunteers don't come forth.

In Prince, the Republicans' radical Christian base is wed to the war-machine base, the one providing votes and manpower, the other providing campaign funds.

The resulting combination is one of rigid ideology and eagerness to solve any problem with overwhelming force. The Bush administration convinced itself its views on Iraq were right, pushing aside contrary evidence, then failed to think beyond "shock and awe," with resultant horrors.

In a world of nuance and gray areas, ideological purity and bulging biceps will cause as many problems as they solve. Blackwater seems to epitomize a dark side of our psyche that should be troubling to all Americans.0




http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Fascism/ChristianRight_AmerFascism.html


The Christian Right and the Rise of American Fascism

by Chris Hedges

www.theocracywatch.org, Nov 15, 2004

(This is an article by Chris Hedges that no major publication will print.)


Dr. James Luther Adams, my ethics professor at Harvard Divinity School , told us that when we were his age, he was then close to 80, we would all be fighting the "Christian fascists."

The warning, given to me 25 years ago, came at the moment Pat Robertson and other radio and televangelists began speaking about a new political religion that would direct its efforts at taking control of all institutions, including mainstream denominations and the government. Its stated goal was to use the United States to create a global, Christian empire. It was hard, at the time, to take such fantastic rhetoric seriously, especially given the buffoonish quality of those who expounded it. But Adams warned us against the blindness caused by intellectual snobbery. The Nazis, he said, were not going to return with swastikas and brown shirts. Their ideological inheritors had found a mask for fascism in the pages of the Bible.

He was not a man to use the word fascist lightly. He was in Germany in 1935 and 1936 and worked with the underground anti-Nazi church, known as The Confessing Church, led by Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Adams was eventually detained and interrogated by the Gestapo, who suggested he might want to consider returning to the United States . It was a suggestion he followed. He left on a night train with framed portraits of Adolph Hitler placed over the contents inside his suitcase to hide the rolls of home movie film he took of the so-called German Christian Church, which was pro-Nazi, and the few individuals who defied them, including the theologians Karl Barth and Albert Schweitzer. The ruse worked when the border police lifted the top of the suitcases, saw the portraits of the Fuhrer and closed them up again. I watched hours of the grainy black and white films as he narrated in his apartment in Cambridge .

He saw in the Christian Right, long before we did, disturbing similarities with the German Christian Church and the Nazi Party, similarities that he said would, in the event of prolonged social instability or a national crisis, see American fascists, under the guise of religion, rise to dismantle the open society. He despaired of liberals, who he said, as in Nazi Germany, mouthed silly platitudes about dialogue and inclusiveness that made them ineffectual and impotent. Liberals, he said, did not understand the power and allure of evil nor the cold reality of how the world worked. The current hand wringing by Democrats in the wake of the election, with many asking how they can reach out to a movement whose leaders brand them "demonic" and "satanic," would not have surprised Adams . Like Bonhoeffer, he did not believe that those who would fight effectively in coming times of turmoil, a fight that for him was an integral part of the Biblical message, would come from the church or the liberal, secular elite.

His critique of the prominent research universities, along with the media, was no less withering. These institutions, self-absorbed, compromised by their close relationship with government and corporations, given enough of the pie to be complacent, were unwilling to deal with the fundamental moral questions and inequities of the age. They had no stomach for a battle that might cost them their prestige and comfort. He told me that if the Nazis took over America "60 percent of the Harvard faculty would begin their lectures with the Nazi salute." This too was not an abstraction. He had watched academics at the University of Heidelberg , including the philosopher Martin Heidegger, raise their arms stiffly to students before class.

[seemslikeadream]

158. This evangelical Christian supremacist fascism within our military and government is a cancer

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=389&topic_id=2509817

The Cancer From Within

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20071107_the_cancer... /

Posted on Nov 7, 2007

By David Antoon


"I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic. ..."
-Oath of Office


"Our mission is to educate, train, and inspire men and women to become officers of character motivated to lead the United States Air Force in service to our nation."
-Air Force Academy mission statement


"We will not lie, steal, or cheat. ..."
-Air Force Academy honor code


"Military professionals must remember that religious choice is a matter of individual conscience. Professionals, and especially commanders, must not take it upon themselves to change or coercively influence the religious views of subordinates."
-Religious Toleration (Air Force Code of Ethics, 1997)


Forty-two years ago, at the age of 18, I took the oath of office on my first day as an Air Force Academy cadet. The mission of the academy was not only to train future leaders for the Air Force but for America as well, because, in the end, most academy graduates do not serve full military careers. The honor code became an integral part of everyday life. These are the values that I, and most graduates of the 1960s and early '70s, took with us from our four years at the academy.


I, as did many graduates, underwent pilot training followed by tours of duty in Vietnam. Like military men and women of today, we did our best to become technically competent and professional leaders. Never, during my four years at the academy and subsequent pilot and combat training, was the word warrior used; nor, whether as a cadet or officer, did I ever encounter "Christian supremacist" rhetoric.


In April of 2004, my son, after receiving a coveted appointment to the United States Air Force Academy, asked me to accompany him to the orientation for new appointees. This 24-hour visceral event changed my life forever, and crushed my son's lifelong dream of following in my footsteps.

[sam kane]

159. kpete, you are the best! nt

nt

[seemslikeadream]

160. Hedges: Huckabee, The Evangelican Revolution (leading to Christian Fascism)

Thanks Wiley50
:hi:

http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/12/24/5984 /

The rise of Mike Huckabee as a presidential candidate represents a seismic shift in the tactics, ideology and direction of the radical Christian right. Huckabee may stumble and falter in later primaries, but his right-wing Christian populism is here to stay. Huckabee represents a new and potent force in American politics, and the neocons and corporate elite, who once viewed the yahoos of the Christian right as the useful idiots, are now confronted with the fact that they themselves are the ones who have been taken for a ride. Members of the Christian right, recruited into the Republican Party and manipulated to vote against their own interests around the issues of abortion and family values, are in rebellion. They are taking the party into new, uncharted territory. And they presage, especially with looming economic turmoil, the rise of a mass movement that could demolish what is left of American democracy and set the stage for a Christian fascism.

snip

The Christian right is the most potent and dangerous mass movement in American history. It has been controlled and led, until now, by those who submit to the demands of the corporate state. But the grass roots are tired of being taken for rubes. They are tired of candidates, like Bush or Bill Clinton, who roll out the same clichés about working men and women every four years and then spend their terms enriching their corporate backers. The majority of American citizens have spent the last two decades watching their government services and benefits vanish. They have seen their jobs go overseas and are watching as their communities crumble and their houses are foreclosed. It is their kids who are in Iraq and Afghanistan. The old guard in the Christian right, the Pat Robertsons, who used their pulpits to deliver the votes of naive followers to the corporatists, is a spent force. Huckabee’s Christian populism represents the maturation of the movement. It signals the rise of a truly radical, even revolutionary force in American politics, of which Huckabee may be one of the tamer and less frightening examples.

snip

Huckabee has close ties with the Christian Reconstructionist or Dominionist branch of the Christian right. The Dominionist movement, which seeks to cloak itself in the mantle of the Christian faith and American patriotism, is small in numbers but influential. It departs from traditional evangelicalism. It seeks to redefine traditional democratic and Christian terms and concepts to fit an ideology that calls on the radical church to take political power. It shares many prominent features with classical fascist movements, at least as such movements are defined by the scholar Robert O. Paxton, who sees fascism as “a form of political behavior marked by obsessive preoccupation with community decline, humiliation, or victimhood and by compensatory cultures of unity, energy, and purity, in which a mass-based party of committed nationalist militants, working in uneasy but effective collaboration with traditional elites, abandons democratic liberties and pursues with redemptive violence and without ethical or legal restraints goals of internal cleansing and external expansion.”

Dominionism, born out of Christian Reconstructionism, seeks to politicize faith. It has, like all fascist movements, a belief in magic along with leadership adoration and a strident call for moral and physical supremacy of a master race, in this case American Christians. It also has, like fascist movements, an ill-defined and shifting set of beliefs, some of which contradict each other. Paxton argues that the best way to understand authentic fascist movements, which he says exist in all societies, including democracies, is to focus not on what they say but on how they act, for, as he writes, some of the ideas that underlie fascist movements “remain unstated and implicit in fascist public language” and “many of them belong more to the realm of visceral feelings than to the realm of reasoned propositions.”

Dominionism teaches that American Christians have been mandated by God to make America a Christian state. A decades-long refusal by most American fundamentalists to engage in politics at all following the Scopes trial has been replaced by a call for Christian “dominion” over the nation and, eventually, over the Earth itself. Dominionism preaches that Jesus has called on Christians to actively build the kingdom of God on Earth. America becomes, in this militant Biblicism, an agent of God, and all political and intellectual opponents of America’s Christian leaders are viewed, quite simply, as agents of Satan. Under Christian dominion, America will no longer be a sinful and fallen nation but one in which the Ten Commandments form the basis of our legal system, in which creationism and “Christian values” form the basis of our educational system, and the media and the government proclaim the Good News to one and all. Labor unions, civil rights laws and public schools will be abolished. Women will be removed from the work force to stay at home, and all those deemed insufficiently Christian will be denied citizenship.

snip

Huckabee has publicly backed off from this extreme position, but he remains deeply hostile to gays. He has used wit and humor to deflect reporters from his radical views about marriage, abortion, damnation, biblical law, creationism and the holy war he believes we are fighting with Islam. But his stances represent a huge step, should they ever become policy, toward a theocratic state and the death of our open society. In the end, however, I do not blame Huckabee or the tens of millions of hapless Christians-40 percent of the Republican electorate-who hear his words and rejoice. I blame the corporate state, those who thought they could disempower and abuse the working class, rape the country, build a rapacious oligarchy and never pay a political price.

[seemslikeadream]

162. Five Authors. One Warning - The company Hedges keeps

http://www.truthtopower.tv /

For the first time, all five of these fearless authors come together to speak truth to power. They expose shocking trends towards an accelerated merger of religious fanaticism with a corporate-controlled federal government, and blatant subversion of constitutional guarantees that, if left unchecked, could well lead to a police state.

We may be one terror attack away from a totalitarian state. Everyone needs to see this film!
-- former Minnesota Governor Jesse Ventura

"The Warning" is the most analytical, comprehensive, and uncompromising of the many DVD reports now available on the crises facing the United States as a democracy and a world leader."
--Chalmers Johnson, Author of "Nemesis: Last Days of the American Republic"


http://www.truthtopower.tv/robertk.htm

Robert F. Kennedy Jr.: Crimes Against Nature: How George W. Bush and His Corporate Pals Are Plundering the Country and Hijacking Our Democracy

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. serves as Senior Attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council, Chief Prosecuting Attorney for the Hudson Riverkeeper and Chairman of Waterkeeper Alliance. He is also a Clinical Professor and Supervising Attorney at Pace University School of Law's Environmental Litigation Clinic and is co-host of Ring of Fire on Air America Radio.

He has worked on environmental issues across the Americas and has assisted several indigenous tribes in Latin America and Canada in successfully negotiating treaties protecting traditional homelands. He is credited with leading the fight to protect New York City's water supply.

Among Mr. Kennedy's published books are the New York Times' bestseller Crimes Against Nature (2004), and The Riverkeepers (1997). His articles have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, The Wall Street Journal, and many other publications. Kennedy has also written several articles for Rolling Stone examining the probability that the 2004 presidential election was fraudulently stolen.



http://www.truthtopower.tv/naomiw.htm

Naomi Wolf: The End of America: A Letter of Warning to a Young Patriot

Naomi Wolf is the author of seven other books, including The Beauty Myth and Promiscuities. The End of America was a New York Times bestseller. She is the cofounder and president of the Woodhull Institute for Ethical Leadership and cofounder of the American Freedom Campaign, an American movement for democracy and the rule of law, www.americanfreedomcampaign.org .

Reviews:
One of the most important books that's been written, certainly in the last decade or two, and perhaps in my lifetime.
-- Thom Hartmann, best-selling author and host of The Thom Hartmann Radio Program

Naomi Wolf's End of America is a vivid, urgent, mandatory wake-up call that addresses momentous issues of tyranny, democracy, and survival.ä
--Blanche Wiesen Cook, author of the three-volume Eleanor Roosevelt

The framers of our Constitution fully understood that it can happen here. Patriots like Madison, Paine, and Franklin would certainly applaud Naomi Wolf and recognize her as a sister in their struggle.
--Mark Crispin Miller, author of Fooled Again

You will be shocked and disturbed by this book. Most Americans reject outright any comparison of post 9/11 America with the fascism and totalitarianism of Nazi Germany or Pinochet's Chile. Sadly, the parallels and similarities, what Wolf calls the "echoes" between those societies and America today, are all too compelling.
--Michael Ratner, Center for Constitutional Rights

PROMO New Book (follow up to End of America):
In GIVE ME LIBERTY: A Handbook for American Revolutionaries (Simon & Schuster; September 16, 2008; $13.95), Wolf investigates the roots of a growing national malaise that has bred "fake democracy" in the United States over the last three decades, a condition marked by equally fake patriotism and a modern notion that we Americans are "the Elect." This is direct heresy against the founders' intent, Wolf says: Jefferson, Adams, Franklin and the rest "did not create liberty for America, but America for liberty, which they understood as part of universal law. The founders had made it clear that we were not supposed to see ourselves as constituents, voters or recipients of the leadership of our representatives. We ordinary people were supposed to run things ourselves."

http://www.truthtopower.tv/chrish.htm

Chris Hedges: American Fascists; the Christian Right and the War on America

Christopher L. Hedges is a journalist and author, specializing in American and Middle Eastern politics and society.

Hedges is currently a senior fellow at The Nation Institute in New York City and a Lecturer in the Council of the Humanities and the Anschutz Distinguished Fellow at Princeton University. He spent nearly two decades as a foreign correspondent in Central America, the Middle East, Africa and the Balkans. He has reported from more than fifty countries, and has worked for The Christian Science Monitor, National Public Radio, The Dallas Morning News and The New York Times, where he spent fifteen years.

Hedges was part of The New York Times team that won the 2002 Pulitzer Prize for the paper's coverage of global terrorism. He received the 2002 Amnesty International Global Award for Human Rights Journalism.

REVIEWS:
"Chris Hedges may be the most credible figure yet to detect real-life fascism in the Red America of megachurches, gay-marriage bans and Left Behind books. American Facists is at its most daring when it enunciates...the perversities that are obvious to those of us not beholden to political exigencies."
-- New York Observer

"Throughout, Hedges documents, and reflects on, what he feels is the bigotry, the homophobia, the fanaticism -- and the deeply un-Christian ideology -- that pose clear and present danger in our previous and fragile republic."
-- O, the Oprah magazine

"This is a powerful book that looks inside some of the darkest movements on American soil."
--Time Out New York



BOOKS:
War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning (2002)
Hedges' bestselling War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning draws on his experiences in various conflicts to describe the patterns and behavior of nations and individuals in wartime. The book was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction.

American Fascists (2007)
American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America was published in January 2007. In this book, Hedges argues that the Christian fundamentalist movement emerging today in the United States resembles the early fascist movements in Italy and Germany at the beginning of the last century, and therefore constitutes a gathering threat to American democracy.

I Don't Believe in Atheists (2008)
I Don't Believe in Atheists, was published in March 2008. It critiques what it calls the radical mindset that rages against religion and faith.

Collateral Damage (2008)
Collateral Damage: America's War Against Iraqi Civilians, with Laila Al-Arian.



http://www.truthtopower.tv/naomik.htm

Naomi Klein:The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism

Weblink: http://www.naomiklein.org /

Naomi Klein is an award-winning journalist, syndicated columnist and author of the New York Times' and international bestseller, The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism. Published worldwide in September 2007, The Shock Doctrine is set to be translated into 25 languages to date.

Her previous book No Logo: Taking Aim at the Brand Bullies was also an international bestseller, translated into over 28 languages with more than a million copies in print. A collection of her work, Fences and Windows: Dispatches from the Front Lines of the Globalization Debate was published in 2002.

Naomi Klein writes a regular column for The Nation and The Guardian that is syndicated internationally by The New York Times Syndicate. In 2004, her reporting from Iraq for Harper's Magazine won the James Aronson Award for Social Justice Journalism.

She is a former Miliband Fellow at the London School of Economics and holds an honorary Doctor of Civil Laws from the University of Kingâs College, Nova Scotia.

REVIEWS:
Her argument is well-documented, logical, riveting, and convincing.
-- Jane Smiley, author of A Thousand Acres and Ten Days in the Hills

Naomi Klein is . . . a muckraker who digs in where others accept the surface. I love her stuff.
--Studs Terkel, historian and author of Working

Naomi Klein's exposé of neo-liberal economics is certain to be sensational. Hers is a long-needed analysis...
--Chalmers Johnson, author of the Blowback Trilogy

This beautifully written, very readable book will change the disgusting history it so calmly chronicles.
--Peter Carey, author of Oscar and Lucinda and Theft: A Love Story

This masterful book is a measured but furious call to arms.... A spectacular triumph.
--John Cusack, actor/filmmaker


http://www.truthtopower.tv/joec.htm

Joe Conason: It Can Happen Here: Authoritarian Peril in the Age of Bush

Weblink: http://www.joeconason.com /

REVIEWS:
A masterfully rational and lucid writer . . . a serious, focused, and well-reasoned call to awakening.
--Daily Kos

ably catalogs the Bush administration's attempts to subvert civil liberties.
--The New York Times Book Review

offers pithy insights into each central character in the post-September 11 drama, including Karl Rove, Dick Cheney, Alberto Gonzales, David Addington, and John Yoo . . . a well-written account of an administration bent on establishing authoritarian executive power.
--The New York Review of Books

Conason eloquently warns of the danger of American authoritarianism.
--Naomi Wolf, The Guardian

Joe Conason is national correspondent for The New York Observer, where he writes a weekly column distributed by Creators Syndicate. He is also a columnist for Salon.com, and the Director of the Nation Institute Investigative Fund. His writing and reporting have appeared in many publications, including Harpers, The Guardian, The Nation, and The New Republic. He also appears frequently on television and radio (notably as a regular Friday guest on Air America's The Al Franken Show). He lives with his wife in New York City.

His books Big Lies: The Right-Wing Propaganda Machine and How It Distorts the Truth, and The Hunting of the President: The Ten-Year Campaign to Destroy Bill and Hillary Clinton, with Gene Lyons, were both national bestsellers; his latest book, It Can Happen Here: Authoritarian Peril in the Age of Bush, was released in February 2007.

[immoderate]

163. This is all too plausible.

Hedges says some things that I have been saying for years. It's a case where I hate being right. It has cost me some friends who don't want to be told. This is scary.

It's hard to believe so many on this thread are in denial.

--imm

[mistertrickster]

165. This is the left-wing equivalent of "rapture end times," always just around the corner

and never happens.

[scarletwoman]

167. You really missed the point. He's describing what's ALREADY GOING ON.

Notice the word "resist" in the title? That's a call to action. Understand what's happening, understand what could happen next as a result, and then DO something to prevent it.

[cali]

187. yeah? what are you doing? What is Hedges doing? Writing polemics

is hardly resistling. Sorry. And no, despite Mr Hedges' unfortunate histrionics, we're not all serfs now. And as for the morons claiming that we're worse off than medieval serfs, let me suggest that they're idiocy is infuckingcurably. That's what happens when you suck the teat of dogma.

[scarletwoman]

206. Waking people up to the fact that they've been conned is the necessary first step.

It's interesting how this thread demonstrates that those with the brittlest egos, who will not brook any challenge to their cherished assumptions, can not help but react in outraged denial.

Happily, there are significantly more on this thread who are open to understanding the difference between the Official Narrative of the American Dream, and the true reality behind the slick Marketing.

sw

[Autonomy]

178. lol so true

I am stockpiling guns because the government is out ta git me OR I am stockpiling guns because Jesus is coming OR I am stockpiling guns because the corporations are taking over. All are the same.

[unkachuck]

166. Mr. Hedges....

....speaks the truth....

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x5400837

[MisterP]

168. oh-ohohoho, it's worse than serfdom

you see, medieval serfs had rudimentary rights and privilege; with proletarianization, the lower class has only its labor, and has to work entirely on the employers' terms
with corporate slavery, there's even less space and opportunities than serfdom (just internal promotion and unpaid overtime)

[rhett o rick]

170. So are you saying that there is no hope that the Democratic Party will rescue us from this march

toward feudalism?

[scarletwoman]

171. The Democratic Party will be aiding and abetting all the way.

I hope you don't seriously believe they work for US?

The political class serves the Owner Class. The job of the Democrats is to protect the status quo by keeping the serfs in line with small tidbits tossed our way once in awhile. The Republicans prefer to use fear and authoritarianism, but both parties function as loyal vassals of the Owners.

sw

[rhett o rick]

229. Have you seen this thread?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=5409776&mesg_id=5409776

[Ken Burch]

172. Not unless it's forced to, from below

As it was in the Thirties. As it was on civil rights in the Sixties.

It's up to us.

[Liberal In Texas]

192. Sure there's hope. But realize that after the repubs were thrown out, corporate interests

turned their influence ($) and pressure to go to work on those in power, the Dems.

Winning the election was only the beginning. It's up to us to keep the pressure up to get the change we voted for.

They may have the power of money but we "serfs" have the power of numbers, and we need to use it. I think that's what Hedges was saying.

[rhett o rick]

230. See this post.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=5409776&mesg_id=5409776

[LWAG]

173. I agree with Hedges

Check out this oldie but goodie from Carlin:

http://www.metacafe.com/watch/757645/george_carlin_who_... /

And then this more recent commentary regarding the Corporatist State from Last Friday's interview with Bill Black on Bill Moyers:

http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/04032009/watch.html

[democracy1st]

177. K & R

[Kablooie]

183. I, for one, sure don't want to be this guy ...

[sandyj999]

184. We're Already There. n/t

[Name removed]

188. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[whistler162]

189. Same Olde S***!!!

Just as idiotic and pathetic as every other article of its type!

[blindpig]

191. K&R

Ain't like this stuff started yesterday, we got a lot of catching up to do.

[LWolf]

193. K & R nt

[EnviroBat]

197. We are the comodity...

When are we going to wake up and realize it.

[no name no slogan]

198. EVERYBODY'S GONE SERFIN'

SERFIN' USA

(Mike Love unavailable for comment)

[blindpig]

199. Judging from many of the responses here

it looks as though 'We're #1!' has carried over from the previous regime nicely. American Exceptionalism is ignorant and wrong, but is as comforting as pajamas with footies. The posters themselves are not entirely to blame, our education system treats us like mushrooms in regards to history, but the lack of curiosity about the boiler plate which we are served is deplorable.

Reminds me of a song:

It can't happen here
It can't happen here
I'm telling you, my dear
That it can't happen here
Because I been checkin' it out, baby
I checked it out a couple a times, hmmmmmmmm

And I'm telling you
It can't happen here
Oh darling, it's important that you believe me
(Bop bop bop bop)
That it can't happen here

Who could imagine that they would freak out somewhere in Kansas...
Kansas Kansas tototototodo
Kansas Kansas tototototodo
Kansas Kansas
Who could imagine that they would freak out in Minnesota...
Mimimimimimimi Minnesota, Minnesota, Minnesota
Who could imagine...

Who could imagine
That they would freak out in Washington, D.C.
D.C. D.C. D.C. D.C. D.C.
It can't happen here
Ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba
It can't happen here
It can't happen here
Everybody's safe and it can't happen here
No freaks for us
It can't happen here
Everybody's clean and it can't happen here
No, no, it won't happen here
I'm telling you it can't
It won't happen here
(Bop bop didi bop didi bop bop bop)
Plastic folks, you know
It won't happen here
You're safe, mama
You're safe, baby
You just cook a TV dinner
And you make it
(Bop bop bop)
No no no no
Oh, we're gonna get a TV dinner and cook it up
Go get a TV dinner and cook it up
Cook it up
Oh, and it won't happen here
(No no no no no no no no no no no
Man you guys are really safe
Everything's cool).
Who could imagine
Who could imagine
That they would freak out in the suburbs
I remember (tu-tu)
I remember (tu-tu)
I remember (tu-tu)
They had a swimming pool
I remember (tu-tu)
I remember (tu-tu)
They had a swimming pool
I remember (tu-tu)
I remember (tu-tu)
They had a swimming pool.

And they thought it couldn't happen here
(duh duh duh duh duh)
They knew it couldn't happen here
They were so sure it couldn't happen here
But...

'It Can't Happen Here' (in part), Frank Zappa

[rhett o rick]

200. I'm ready, when do we start? nm

[Javaman]

201. our ration of victory gin has been cut! Double plus good! I have more to drink! nt

[Auggie]

202. Start by voting the elite out of Congress.

[L. Coyote]

203. Start by voting religion out of Government

The "elite" are an economic class.

Worry instead about belief systems which transcend political parties.
The left and the right can become compromised by beliefs.

Beware any politician who admits to religion!

[blindpig]

209. Irrelevant.

The bottom line is alway economic. Culture war is a RW scam to divide the masses.

Single payer health care transcends all religion, 'cept perhaps the Christian Scientists.

[L. Coyote]

211. Religion is a RW scam to enslave the masses, what with buying and selling people

being outlawed for decades now!!

[scarletwoman]

212. Corporatism enslaves everybody, religion has nothing to do with it.

Religion is just a sideshow that works to keep a certain segment of the population docile and obedient, marketing and consumerism accomplishes the same thing on a far larger scale.

Our government serves the Owner Class, we are simply herd animals. The main task of the political class is to keep us dazzled with bullshit so that we pose no threat to the status quo.

sw

[blindpig]

214. Be that as it may...

Dividing the people on the basis of religion is a guaranteed loser, it leads to stalemate at best, which is a win for the status quo.

We are better off simply insisting that religion has no bearing on politics. The best we can do is address real human needs, they will trump.

It is useless to argue theology with theists.

[antimatter98]

205. Agreed, Congress does not represent citizens, but banks and corporate power.

I'm thinking that Americans will literally have to 'taste in their cereal' what is coming before they
believe it. There is so much controversy, so much information, and a lot of media
manipulation going on that it's getting harder to discern the truth.

One rule I use, or try to is: 'What you see is what you get.' and another is "Seeing is Believing."

I'm seeing that my initial beliefs and perceptions of Obama the candidate differ from what I'm
seeing now, with President Obama. Invocation of 'states secrets' regarding telecom monitoring,
moving 'the same health care for all that Congress gets' off the table, and other things tell me
that we're in a strange zone here. I'm seeing more of a George Bush Senior: overly concerned with
globalism, and hardly any concern for domestic issues, as if Main Street does not matter.

With W, we knew he was a frat boy punk taking orders from Cheney, and had enough money to save himself
even if the US went up in a puff of smoke someday. Most of us have to live here, and die here.

[Auggie]

216. I should amend my post to say "the elite without integrity"

There's nothing wrong with having money and it shouldn't preclude someone who wants to serve the people.

[earcandle]

220. Abundance and Power Source are the two top tiers after Normal

on the Integrity Tone Scale developed by Vern Black and David
Goodstein in 1978.

Check it out.  You can have money and still be a good guy,
just takes some effort and commitment to yourself and others,
and keeping your word.

http://www.noodlebrain.com/nbpits.swf

the original is floating around on the web as well.

[Nikki Stone1]

208. "America is devolving into a third-world nation." Yep, but it's not devolving--it's being pushed.

Naomi Klein's "Shock Doctrine": MUST READING.

[debbierlus]

210. Good luck with that - the election of Obama gave them the cover to finish the job

Diffused the momentum of a true people's movement while we wait for the Obama administration to 'fix' it.

I don't see anyone doing much of anything besides complaining on message boards and fretting with friends and family. It will take what you describe to fuel a movement of real change. Not having basic services or enough food will do it.

[scarletwoman]

218. "Diffused the momentum of a true people's movement" -- ain't that the truth!

Fiendishly clever, though. And another brilliant tactic for more "divide-and-conquer" post-election. Because now we have a new split between those who cannot bear to stop being true believers, and those who have rubbed the fairy dust out of their eyes and get that we've conned again, big time.

sw

[earcandle]

221. move out of being at the effect of it all to becoming cause in the matter

[jimlup]

213. Err Umh, Sorry to point this out but...

This has already happened. That we have not attacked the bankers and cooperate CEO's with pitchforks in hand is proof. We've been swindled in a huge way and it is ongoing. The American people have bought the "American dream" but it is a complete lie intended to forestall attempts at equality.

We already live in a multi-tier society. The workers have been sold down the river while they were "American dreaming".

[Orwellian_Ghost]

215. Hi-ho Hi-ho

[JoseGaspar]

223. Arguing over analogies is silly.

Whether serf or slave or peon best fits the current case is a literary dispute. The article is about our direction of travel. There was another thread today:

"MetLife says Half Of Workers Are Just Two Paychecks away from Calamity"
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x5405501

Despite the obvious fact that America is a wealthy country, the situation for many if not most people is that they are increasingly vulnerable to employment loss, credit loss, health issues or even to things as ordinary as divorce. The current crisis has made that vulnerability more obvious while its repercussions are likely to both broaden and deepen its reach. Nothing has been proposed by anyone in the political arena that would fundamentally change that. Things are going to get worse. Thus Hedges.

From the MetLife Study:

"A disturbing 50% of Americans say they are only one month — or only two paychecks — or less away from not being able to meet their financial obligations if they were to lose their job, and more than half of these, a startling 28% of the total respondents, couldn’t survive financially for more than two weeks. Even the “mass affluent” — those making $100,000+ in income per year — aren’t immune with more than one-quarter (29%) saying that they couldn’t meet their financial obligations for more than one month following a job loss."

"According to the third annual MetLife study, the last twelve months have not only had a profound impact on Americans’ financial stability, they have also had a dramatic effect on how Americans define and approach the dream... These tectonic shifts would typically be expected to span decades. Yet, according to MetLife’s research, the country has experienced major changes year-over-year that will likely have a lasting impact on how Americans achieve and sustain the dream. The American dream is on pause."

"Americans still view material goods such as a car, washer/dryer and residential Internet access as necessities. Yet some discretional purchases have been recalibrated in consumers’ minds. More than eight in ten (81%) Americans now view vacations as a luxury, up from 73% in 2006. Similarly, 91% see eating out as a luxury, up from 87% in 2006. Four in 10 Americans are even feeling “buyers’ remorse” about past purchases – wishing they had spent less and saved more over the years."

"Work — and the paycheck and benefits associated with it — are propping up the American dream. With the number of Americans collecting unemployment benefits in early February 2009 at its highest rate since 1982 (source: U.S. Labor Department), few have cash reserves on hand to cover monthly expenses in the event of a job loss. Following a job loss, 59% say they’d be somewhat or very concerned about having to file for bankruptcy and 64% would be concerned about losing their home. Three quarters of Americans have already been touched by unemployment in some way as a result of the financial crisis, with nearly two in ten reporting that they have recently lost a job and an additional 55% having a friend, relative or neighbor who lost their job. It’s not surprising then that more than half (56%) are concerned about losing their job in the next year as a result of the financial crisis. Among the mass affluent, more than half (53%) are worried about losing their job over the next year."