America will face Riots, Marches, and Revolution

[Ryan Ruck]

Isn't our march into a Balkanized Turd World nation fun!

U.S. Electricity Blackouts Skyrocketing

August 9, 2010

New York's Staten Island was broiling under a life-threatening heat wave and borough President James Molinaro was seriously concerned about the area's Little League baseball players.

It was last July's Eastern heat wave and Consolidated Edison was responding to scattered power outages as electricity usage neared record highs.

So, authorities followed Molinaro's suggestion to cancel that night's Little League games, which were to be played under electricity-sucking stadium lights.

"Number one, it was a danger to the children that were playing out there in that heat, and secondly it would save electricity that people would need for air conditioning in their homes," said Molinaro, who'd been forced to sleep at his office that night because of a blackout in his own neighborhood.

Throughout New York City, about 52,000 of ConEd's 3.2 million customers lost power during the heat wave. Triple-digit temperatures forced residents like 77 year-old Rui Zhi Chen, to seek shelter at one of the city's 400 emergency cooling centers. "It felt like an oven in my home and on the street," Chen said.

Should Americans view these kinds of scenarios as extraordinary circumstances -- or a warning sign of a darker future?

Experts on the nation's electricity system point to a frighteningly steep increase in non-disaster-related outages affecting at least 50,000 consumers.

During the past two decades, such blackouts have increased 124 percent -- up from 41 blackouts between 1991 and 1995, to 92 between 2001 and 2005, according to research at the University of Minnesota.

In the most recently analyzed data available, utilities reported 36 such outages in 2006 alone.

"It's hard to imagine how anyone could believe that -- in the United States -- we should learn to cope with blackouts," said University of Minnesota Professor Massoud Amin, a leading expert on the U.S. electricity grid.

Amin supports construction of a nationwide "smart grid" that would avert blackouts and save billions of dollars in wasted electricity.

In a nutshell, a smart grid is an automated electricity system that improves the reliability, security and efficiency of electric power. It more easily connects with new energy sources, such as wind and solar, and is designed to charge electric vehicles and control home appliances via a so-called "smart" devices.

Summer of '77

You might say Amin's connection with electricity began in New York City with a bolt of lightning.

In July 1977, Amin was a 16-year-old high school student visiting from his native Iran when lightning triggered a 24-hour blackout that cut power to nine million.

As he and his father walked near their Midtown Manhattan hotel, they were shocked to see looters smash their way into an electronics store less than 20 yards down the street.

Amin recalls feeling violated by the ugly scene -- and wondering if the nation's infrastructure was in danger of collapse. "... not just the electric grid that underpins our lives," he said, "but also the human condition."

More than 30 years later, the United States is still "operating the most advanced economy in the world with 1960s and 70s technology," said Amin. Failing to modernize the grid, he said, will threaten the U.S. position as an economic super power.

Millions remember the historic August 2003 blackout, when overgrown trees on powerlines triggered an outage that cascaded across an overloaded regional grid. An estimated 50 million people lost power in Canada and eight northeastern states. Smart grid technology, experts say, would have immediately detected the potential crisis, diverted power and likely saved $6 billion in estimated business losses.

By April of 2013 ConEd hopes to install a "smart" automated self-healing system aimed at preventing the burnout of large feeder cables during peak demand periods -- such as heat waves.

The new technology would anticipate possible equipment failure in specific neighborhoods and reroute electricity to compensate. For example, a project to help Queens' Flushing neighborhood will "give us the capability to remotely control up to 26 underground switches," said Con Ed smart grid manager Thomas Magee.

Had systems like this been in place, said ConEd's Aseem Kapur, it might have prevented or reduced New York's scattered outages last July.

Who's got the juice?

Some of the most reliable utilities are in the heartland states of Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, the Dakotas, Nebraska and Kansas.

In those states, the power is out an average of only 92 minutes per year, according to a 2008 Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory study. On the other end of the spectrum, utilities in New York Pennsylvania and New Jersey averaged 214 minutes of total interruptions each year. These figures don't include power outages blamed on tornadoes or other disasters.

But compare the U.S. data to Japan which averages only four minutes of total interrupted service each year. "As you can see, we have a long way to go," said Andres Carvallo, who played a key role in planning the smart grid in Austin, Texas.

Experts point to the northeastern and southeastern U.S. as regions where outages pose the most threat -- mainly due to aging wires, pole transformers and other lagging infrastructure.

"They know where they have tight spots," said Mark Lauby, of the North American Electric Reliability Corporation, which enforces reliability standards. Without mentioning specific regions, Lauby said utilities are "making sure the generation and the transmission are available to help support those consumers."

Building a national smart grid "won't be cheap and it wont be easy," acknowledged Amin. Much of it could be completed as soon as 2030 at a cost of up to $1.5 trillion, according to the Department of Energy. It's unclear who would foot the entire bill, but the Obama administration has committed about $4 billion in investment grants.

The 'Easy Button'

Carvallo jokes about the so-called "Easy Button" at Austin Energy. It's not really a big red button on the wall, but it is a mechanism that allows an operator to control tens of thousands of home thermostats.

"Austin is two to three years ahead of everybody else," said Carvallo, now chief strategy officer for the smart grid software firm Grid Net.

He points to a volunteer program that offers free thermostats to customers who allow the utility to remotely control their air conditioners during specific months and hours. This way, thousands of power-gulping air conditioners can be cycled off for a short time when electricity was needed elsewhere.

By summer's end, Austin expects to begin enabling its 700,000 streetlights to be turned "on and off with a flip of a switch," saving $340,000 in electricity each year, and eliminating 200 tons of carbon dioxide air pollution.

Replacing old-style electric meters with "smart meters" is often described as the first step in creating a smart grid. All 400,000 of Austin's meters are smart meters.

Nationwide, 26 utilities in 15 states have installed some 16 million smart meters in homes and businesses.

Soon, when power goes out in a neighborhood with smart meters, utilities won't have to wait for customers to report outages -- the smart meters will alert utilities automatically. Utilities will then e-mail or text message each affected customer information about when the lights will be back on.

Critics question smart meter accuracy and whether the devices will really save energy in the long run.

"It feels a bit like the utilities are jumping the gun and they're trying to put these meters in before the rest of the pieces of the so-called smart grid are in place and before we even know that the smart meters are going to have advantages commensurate with the cost," said electricity consumer advocate Mindy Spatt of The Utility Reform Network.

One advantage of smart grid technology may be jobs.

High-tech manufacturers want to locate their factories in places where electricity is most reliable, said Carvallo. "That's where the manufacturing facilities move to. That's where you get your high-paying jobs."

[Ryan Ruck]

Some Ohio Roads, And Those In Other States, Reverting To Gravel Because Repairs Are Too Costly

August 05, 2010

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Some Ohio drivers who are used to paved surfaces may find themselves traveling on gravel instead as rural counties struggle to pay for road improvements.

Coshocton County, in east-central Ohio, already has let some roads go to gravel, and a few other counties in the state may follow suit, according to Fred Pausch, executive director of the County Engineers Association of Ohio.

"It is kind of a reflection on how times are tough for everybody right now," he said. "I think they are trying to do the best they can with the limited resources at their disposal."

In Ashtabula County, the deteriorated surface of a short asphalt street in Rock Creek was ground up and packed down a few weeks ago, said Chip Laugen, village administrator.

"We just didn't have the funding to put into [Willow Street] and were trying to focus on more heavily traveled roads," he said, adding that the street is used primarily by bicyclists traveling on the county's hike/bike trail. "There had been no maintenance on it for several years, and the potholes were like open graves."

Ohio is not the only state where the "ping" of gravel is becoming a more familiar sound to motorists:

•Roads in about half of Michigan's 83 counties have been converted from asphalt or chip seal to dirt or gravel, said Monica Ware, spokeswoman for the County Road Association of Michigan. "We started to notice this about 2007," she said. "Our revenues have fallen substantially, and costs [for road repair] have skyrocketed."

•Officials in Maine, Indiana, Pennsylvania and New York are converting, or considering converting, cracked asphalt roads to gravel, according to a USA Today story in February.

•An official in Spiritwood, N.D., told the Wall Street Journal in July that his city ground up the deteriorated asphalt on a 10-mile stretch of road because the ground-up surface would cost $2,600 per mile annually to maintain, compared with $75,000 per mile to reconstruct the road.

In Ohio, Pausch said, "county engineers are struggling to balance that ongoing quest to fix the failing roads and bridges while striving to provide quality maintenance services."

He declined to name the rural counties considering whether to allow deteriorated paved roads to revert to gravel, although he said none is in Northeast Ohio.

But while local county engineers said they are fortunate that they can still afford to maintain roads, improving them is another matter.

Roads in Medina County paved with liquid asphalt and rock chips were upgraded to asphalt as subdivisions grew, said County Engineer Mike Salay. But with flat revenue and a tight budget, no future improvements are contemplated.

"We are in a system preservation mode here," he said.

Ohio counties receive money for roads and bridges from the gasoline tax and license taxes. About 11 percent of the 28-cent gasoline tax goes to counties, roughly $226 million in 2008, according to the Ohio Department of Transportation. Counties received about $332 million in license tax fees in 2008, ODOT said.

Salay and other engineers said revenue has been flat for about five years. And as roads and bridges age, the revenue is needed for maintenance, and upgrades are more difficult to fund, especially with rising asphalt prices, Pausch said.

Bill Holtzman, chief deputy engineer in Lorain County, said most of the rural routes in the southern part of the county are chip seal, in which a road is sprayed with liquid asphalt and a roller is used to adhere rock chips to the asphalt. The roads are redone every four years.

"We are doing less miles every year because of cost," he said. But Holtzman does not foresee any reverting to gravel.

Chip seal costs about 40 percent less than paving a road with asphalt but does not hold up as well under heavy use, engineers said. Asphalt on chip seal is about a quarter-inch thick, and an asphalt overlay is about an inch thicker.

Ashtabula County Engineer Timothy Martin said that instead of adding an asphalt overlay to an asphalt road, workers may cover it with chip seal.

"That buys us two years," he said. "We have seen a shift in doing more chip seal and less overlay because of the cost, but we are not to the point to revert to gravel roads."

Many projects under way in counties this summer are funded with federal stimulus money and are generally on heavily traveled roads. In some cases, the stimulus program paid 100 percent of the cost, instead of the 80 percent that federal money usually covers.

"Next year, when all that is gone, we will be back to figuring out how to pay for the road program," said Medina County's Salay.

I've actually seen this in parts of Adams, Brown, Clinton, and Highland counties here in Ohio and hadn't realized what was going on. Now it makes sense. Sort of... I say that because in Clermont and Hamilton counties there is a lot of frivolous road work going on such as building medians with grass and trees as well as widening of sidewalks in other ares.

Weeeee! Further and further down we go! Where it stops, no one knows! Wait a second... Yes we do.

[American Patriot]

Ok. I'm a believer.

I just saw something on Fox News that was SCARY.

thousands of people showed up in Atlanta to get... get this... a piece of paper for a free house. Well, government housing, an application.

They couldn't just put those on the internet? You had to show up. People showed up from all OVER the country.

The lady said they gave out in one half hour 13,000 applications.

Can you believe this shit?

[Ryan Ruck]

Looks like people will freely put on their shackles so long as they are "free".

[Ryan Ruck]

Housing Crisis Reaches Full Boil In East Point; 62 Injured

August 12, 2010

Thirty thousand people turned out in East Point on Wednesday seeking applications for government-subsidized housing, and their confusion and frustration, combined with the summer heat, led to a chaotic mob scene that left 62 people injured.

At the Tri-Cities Plaza Shopping Center, emergency vehicles passed each other, transporting 20 people to hospitals. Medical and police command posts were set up on scene. East Point police wore riot gear. Officers from four other agencies supported them. Yet no arrests were made.

All of this resulted from people attempting to obtain Section 8 housing applications and, against long odds, later securing vouchers for affordable residences. Some waited in line for two days for the applications.

Renee Gray, a single mother holding her one-year-old daughter, Marion, came looking for a housing break and nearly got trampled, forcing her to run from the crowd and into the street.

"It could have been better organized," said Gray, a customer service employee. "A lot of adults lost focus.”

Jacquelyn Cuffie, 50, of Duluth, used a walker to cross the parking lot and navigate the huge gathering, determined to improve her living situation. It didn't matter how hot or crowded it got.

“It’s difficult to pay [the rent] with a disability check,” Cuffie said.

Offering applications for the first time since 2002, East Point Housing Authority officials had triple the crowd they anticipated, and one that was three-fourths of the 40,000 population of the south Fulton city. Things got out of hand when people started cutting into lines and authorities attempted to move groups to different areas.

Sgt. Cliff Chandler, East Point Police Department spokesman, said one flash point occurred early on. Authorities originally had lined up people to come into the front entrance of the Central Station Sports Cafe and receive the applications. However, when they saw the sheer number of people, the officials set up kiosks around the parking lot to hand out the applications, Chandler said.

Felecia McGhee, who came in search of her own Section 8 assistance, saw two small children trampled when people rushed the building that held the applications. When a group of people who had been waiting hours in a line were told to move to another line, people started pushing, shoving and cursing, witnesses said.

People collapsed in the heat. Emergency personnel drove up in a pickup truck and handed out bottled water. People were carried off on stretchers. A baby went into a seizure and was taken to a hospital.

Thaddeus Brookins of Atlanta dropped off his mother, Betty, a part-time furniture store employee, into the middle of the shopping center mayhem. He didn't like what he saw.

“It was terrible,” Thaddeus Brookins said. “Lot of people. People pushing people, knocking people over. People getting hurt.”

Wednesday's deluge of people seeking low-income vouchers in East Point demonstrated just how desperate the need for affordable housing has become in metro Atlanta, officials said. Some 15,000 Georgians currently are accommodated with Section 8 housing, with thousands more on waiting lists. Housing openings have been difficult to find anywhere, including rural areas.

"East Point, to me, is indicative of the problem," said Dennis Williams, a Georgia Department of Community affairs assistant commissioner. "It just goes to show you the situation is pretty dire."

At the same time the recession has pushed many middle-class families out of their homes, the closure of several large public housing projects -- Grady, Bowen and Capital Homes -- during the last decade has left many lower-income families with few housing options as well, elevating vouchers to something akin to lottery winnings. The demand has overwhelmed many municipalities and public entities that administer the Section 8 programs.

A check of the 16 metro Atlanta housing authorities that administer Section 8 programs found the overwhelming majority had closed their waiting lists. In one instance, the waiting list at Marietta Housing Authority has been closed since September 2008.

"There's more people demanding units at a lower-income level. The demands coming in from people who are losing their jobs and potentially having to leave their homes whether they move all the way to Section 8 or not, it's going to create demand, " said Jim Skinner, a planner in the research division of the Atlanta Regional Commission. "That's just the bottom line and that perhaps explains what happened in East Point."

When the crowd thinned out at the Tri-Cities Plaza Shopping Center, the parking lot was a sprawling mess of discarded water bottles, crushed soda cans and cigarette packs.

At an ensuing news conference, East Point officials tried to describe the day as a success, an assessment that was roundly challenged by those who had witnessed or been involved in the unruly scene.

Kim Lemish, East Point Housing Authority executive director, said the Section 8 housing applications were made available by the city for the first time in eight years because a waiting list had been depleted.

There was concern a similar overcrowded scene could occur Thursday morning when East Point began accepting the completed applications.

No one, however, was lining up at the housing authority in advance, by design. Late Wednesday, police had barricaded the housing authority and erected signs that declared "no loitering."


Crowds swarm at Tri-Cities Plaza in East Point on Wednesday morning as people try to apply for Section 8 housing.


Crowds line up for housing vouchers in East Point on Wednesday morning.

[Ryan Ruck]

Look more Turd World-ness... Crowds of homeless taking up residence on city streets in vans and RVs.

Curb Your Parking Enthusiasm

August 10, 2010

Venice, California. An eclectic area in Southern California, best known for its beaches, canals and carnival-like atmosphere along the waterfront.

But lately, tensions have been rising between homeowners and the homeless... who live in their cars, campers and RVs.

" Venice has become an urban RV park," says Mark Ryavec, President of the Venice Stakeholders Association.

" They take up very, very dear parking, they leave a lot of trash, occasionally they use people's front yards as toilets. I mean a lot of really objectionable behavior."

Residents say the "objectionable behavior" from some of the 200 plus RVs also includes excessive noise, drug and alcohol abuse, prostitution and human waste on the curb and in residents' yards.

For years, Venicians have been fighting to limit overnight parking to residents only but the California Coastal Commission intervened earlier this year, saying any ordinance that limits parking reduces public access to the beach.

Commissioner Sara Wan angered residents when she voted against the ordinance, claiming "what (Venice) was trying to do was use preferential parking to solve their social problems."

While many acknowledge the homeless problem and the need to address those living on the streets, proponents of parking restrictions say it's unfair to homeowners in Venice.

"It's the only piece of land near the beach from Santa Barbara to San Diego that doesn't have the right to have parking restrictions," says Bill Rosendahl, L.A. City Councilman.

"They're totally passing the buck. That's what these people are doing. Let them live here and have a car or camper in front of their house. See how they feel."

A partial compromise was reached last month, when the L.A. City Council passed an oversized vehicle ordinance. That will allow neighborhoods to elect to ban vehicles more than 22 feet long or 7 feet high from parking on local streets overnight.

Councilman Rosendahl's office says each block will need 2/3 approval for these restrictions to go into place. They're planning to hold meetings and send around petitions.

[vector7]

The Democrats are bankrupting America!

Glenn Beck 08 11 10 A


Glenn Beck 08-11-10-B


Glenn Beck 08-11-10-C


Glenn Beck 08 11 10 D

[Ryan Ruck]

You know, I thought this picture looked familiar. I just couldn't place it. Then it hit me...

[vector7]

Recession-battered states cut funding for the disabled

Updated 6d 5h ago | Comments 553 | Recommend 29

Enlarge By Jessica Brandi Lifland for USA TODAY Blane Beckwith, who suffers from spinal muscular atrophy, uses a wheelchair to get around but is concerned he'll end up in a nursing home if he loses his state-paid home care aide.

By Marisol Bello, USA TODAY

Blane Beckwith wants to keep living at home with his mother and younger brother in Berkeley, Calif.

For that to happen, Beckwith, 54, who has spinal muscular atrophy and uses a wheelchair, relies on an aide paid by the state to get him in and out of bed, bathe him, feed him, dress him and do everything he can't do for himself.

Now that kind of help is in jeopardy. California, facing a $19.1 billion budget gap, is considering a reduction in funding that pays for home care aides for the disabled. It already cut funds last year.

PHOTOS: Americans with Disabilities Act after 20 years

Beckwith worries that under the new, tighter rules, he might no longer qualify for his aide and other assistance and that he'll end up in a nursing home.

"I'd rather be dead," he says. "Twenty years after the Americans With Disabilities Act was signed, things are getting worse for us. States want to save money by cutting services to the most vulnerable people. That's us, the disabled."

Last month, the nation celebrated the 20th anniversary of the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA), a law that for 50 million disabled people is the equivalent of Brown vs. the Board of Education, the landmark Supreme Court ruling that ended racial segregation in schools and paved the way for the civil rights movement.

The ADA prohibits discrimination against people with disabilities in employment, public accommodations, transportation and state and local services.

Now, though, gains made under the ADA are running into recession-battered state budgets. At least 17 states have cut into funding for assistance to the disabled since 2009 or are planning to do it this year, says Phil Oliff, a policy analyst with the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, which analyzes the effect of public spending on low-income people. The cuts include cash, home nursing services and grants to agencies that help the disabled live independently.

Under the ADA and a 1999 Supreme Court decision upholding it, the disabled have a right to live in their communities. States, within their resources, must provide community-based services that make it possible.

That means states are up against opposing mandates: Under the ADA, the court said, states must provide care that best integrates a person into the community — as long as the states can pay for it. However, Medicaid rules require them to pay for nursing home care, but not home care, for people with disabilities.

"I think every state wants to provide more community-based care, but they just can't afford it," says Ann Kohler, executive director of the National Association of State Medicaid Directors, which manages services to the disabled.

About 3 million Americans who need long-term care live at home and get state-paid services, according to the Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured.

"States are in terrible fiscal constraints right now," Kohler says. "The one thing they can cut are optional services and rates (that states pay for optional and mandatory services), and they are doing both.

Home-based care is optional. Personal care is optional. Those things are going down."

The Obama administration argues that, budget constraints or not, states have to provide home services. The Justice Department has filed lawsuits and, in other cases, supporting briefs in 11 states.

Not being able to afford the community-based services is not an excuse, says Thomas Perez, assistant attorney general for civil rights. He says his department has been working with the Department of Health and Human Services to find more funding for some of the states it is going up against in court.

"People with disabilities want to be free and independent and robust participants in the community," Perez says. "It's hard if not impossible to accomplish that if you are warehoused in an institution."

Rahnee Patrick of Chicago knows about independent living. Patrick, 36, has psoriasis and arthritis so severe that she cannot use her arms and hands. She and her husband, Mike Irvin, 53, who uses a wheelchair because of multiple sclerosis, live in their own home but need aides.

Now, Illinois plans to reduce services to the disabled as part of $1.4 billion in budget cuts. She doesn't know what the impact of the reduction will be on her or her husband, but she says that without the services, she'd still be living with her parents and would not have married her husband of four years.

"I get to live the life I never dreamed for myself," she says. "These cuts would take that away."

[vector7]

Glenn is covering this very incident and the breakdown of a society during the Weimar Republic's hyperinflation during the 20's and how its happening here in this country today

Glenn Beck-08/12/10-A


Glenn Beck-08/12/10-B


Glenn Beck-08/12/10-C

[vector7]

The Meaning of Revolution

Submitted by JR Nyquist on Fri, 13 Aug 2010

An attempt to destroy a political system necessarily coincides with an attempt to destroy the economy of that system. Economic sabotage is not the fictitious activity of nonexistent groups. It is the activity of real enemies, foreign and domestic. Watch the players at work. Consider which nations are manipulating oil prices, grain prices, and strategic metals. Ask yourself what their goal is. Why are they doing it? Are they attempting to raise the standard of living within their own countries, or attempting to smash the standard of living in the United States?

In a recent speech on August 3, David Horowitz said, "We are in a war with enemies both internal and external who seek our destruction."

Horowitz was accepting a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Young America's Foundation. If anyone understands America's internal enemy it is Horowitz. He was raised by communists, and broke with the Left when he realized what the Left actually signifies.

Who are the enemies spoken of by Horowitz? Most Americans cannot answer this question, because the unnamed enemy does not appear openly in a direct assault upon our system. Yes, there are the Islamists. But these are merely a front, a facade. The real enemy, in this case, is the totalitarian Left. To understand how this enemy operates, you must understand the concept of "revolution" and how it applies to present-day events.

History teaches that revolutions periodically occur. Often, revolutions follow in the wake of financial crises and wars. To make a revolution the revolutionary must therefore pay attention to crisis situations and wars. The Marxists were the first to consciously predicate themselves on the inevitability of economic breakdown, and Vladimir Lenin was the first to successfully exploit a systemic breakdown to seize power.

In October 1920 Lenin defined his revolutionary attitude in the following way:

...the revolutionary is not a revolutionary if he has any sympathy for this world. He should not hesitate to destroy any position, any place or any man in this world. He must hate everyone and everything in it with equal hatred. All the worse for him if he has any relations with parents, friends or lovers; he is no longer a revolutionary if he is swayed by these relationships.

Lenin went on to repudiate what he called "bourgeois morality," which is based on God's commandments. "We, of course, do not believe in God," he explained. What the communists seek is the destruction of the bourgeoisie. Therefore, said Lenin, "Our morality stems from the interests of the class struggle...." Turning one class against another is the basis for a revolution in which the "vanguard party" of Lenin takes power. This is made possible by a worsening economic crisis. Once the capitalists have been fully blamed and vilified, the vanguard of the oppressed can unite the masses to overthrow the capitalists and abolish the capitalist class (in favor of a small clique of revolutionary activists).

The ambition, in this case, is not limited to taking over one country. The class struggle, said Lenin, must continue into other countries. The "dictatorship of the proletariat" must become all-powerful throughout the world. Stalin wrote that this was the chief point of departure for Leninism. You don't simply overthrow the tsar and stop. You continue to overthrow governments until all governments are under your dictatorship. Lenin wrote of a universal system "unlimited by any laws, and absolutely unhampered by any rules and relying directly on force." He proposed a new morality which "serves to destroy the old ... society."

Eugene Lyons once wrote, "Russia is a nation occupied by an internal enemy." This was the achievement of Lenin. He founded a state based on terrorism. The chief of Lenin's secret police, Felix Dzerzhinsky, explained it thus: "We stand for organized terror."

The instrument of terror, of course, was the All Russian Extraordinary Commission for Combating Counter-Revolution and Sabotage (CHEKA).

This organization eventually came to be called the Committee for State Security (KGB), and is currently called the Federal Security Service (FSB).

Russia's current dictator, Vladimir Putin, was a career KGB officer and former chief of the FSB. It is an organization that continues to serve the Communist Party Soviet Union underground, which continues to control Eastern Europe through its cells in government, industry and culture. In other words, the Cold War did not end.

Communism is not dead.

It merely opened the West to deeper penetration through the facade of "controlled democracy" and "capitalism." From its inception, the Russian Federation has supported (secretly and sometimes openly) communist parties, front groups and communist governments around the world.

This fact has been brought forward in books by journalists like Yevgenia Albats (see The State Within a State: The KGB and its Hold on Russia -- Past, Present and Future), and cited in news reports on Venezuela's arms buildup, on new proposals for training the Cuban military, and weapons transfers to China. Moscow still supplies its old Soviet satellites with weapons; meanwhile, the Americans are the ones fighting in Afghanistan. An interesting reversal, though few have bothered to notice.

The objective of Russia's rulers, as under Lenin, is to destroy the United States (as the last dinosaur of capitalism).

Since Lenin's works were never thoroughly studied by people in the West, it is not generally understood that Lenin was in favor of using capitalism to destroy capitalism; that he favored a retreat into capitalist forms of production and trade in order to hang the bourgeoisie. When asked where he would get a rope long enough to hang so many people, Lenin replied that the capitalists would sell it to the Bolsheviks themselves.

The West has disarmed itself psychologically. There is no sense of an ongoing struggle, no sense that socialism signifies the destruction of the West's system of ordered liberty. We hear a great deal about "rights," but very little about duties and obligations.

Here we enter the realm of information warfare.

If a subset of the population feels that society owes them certain benefits, and the political system is democratic, they can vote for whatever demagogue promises to confer those benefits.

As the movement for increasing benefits gains momentum, the government finds itself entangled in obligations that guarantee its eventual bankruptcy and collapse. The victory of Lenin's revolution, therefore, is assured.

In the days of duty, under a regime of obligation, there were three departments of government: The State Department, the War Department, and the Treasury Department.

There were no departments for educating, feeding, or housing people; there were no departments for taking care of the sick or elderly. The people were responsible for themselves: to feed themselves, to house themselves, to raise and educate their own children, to care for sick and aging relatives.

The involvement of the national government in these activities is something new, growing out of the pathology of inflated rights and diminishing duties. These latter concepts, in their ultimate tendency, signify a campaign of economic sabotage against the system as a whole.

Furthermore, a serious distortion of statesmanship occurs. Year by year, the statesman's time is increasingly devoted to an growing subset of misfits and neurotics, supposedly "oppressed" by an unfair social system which must be rectified.

Little by little, the "oppressed" become the state's chief preoccupation, eclipsing the traditional tasks of statesmanship. The system no longer justifies itself in religious or historical terms, but on egalitarian grounds, in terms of "fairness" or "social justice." What actually happens, overall, is that greater and greater demands are placed upon the productive citizen to provide for the unproductive.

For thousands of years the helpless infant was provided for by his parents. "From each according to his ability, to each according to his need," was not merely the slogan of Karl Marx.

It describes the operation of the family unit. The helpless infant is provided for by capable parents. In old age, the child provides for the parent. But when this ideal is applied to society as a whole, the family unit disintegrates and some children never grow to adulthood.

They simply evolve into permanent wards of the state. Consider the consequences, as well, to the family: The woman is no longer obliged to be a wife and mother, the man is no longer the breadwinner, as the child ceases to be obedient. In most states of the Union, family court has effectively dispensed with paternal rights, as the woman finds her ultimate support in the state.

There is no need for a husband today, because the state is the husband of every woman, the father of every child. The paternal engine of society has been disconnected. The role of the child is no longer to obey, but to rebel. And even so, the most devastating damage is yet unseen:

National defense is thereby shortchanged, and all resources are consumed in an orgy of organized plunder. As this new system cannibalizes the real productive formations of society, the nation is devitalized, diverted and disarmed.

The child must be rescued from the bad parent, the woman must be rescued from the bad man, and the worker must be rescued from the bad employer. All resources are mobilized to rescue the oppressed, so that national defense is left in the lurch. Feeding the hungry, and eliminating the capitalists, becomes the primary task.

The revolution becomes manifest. An attempt to destroy a political system necessarily coincides with an attempt to destroy the economy of that system. Economic sabotage is not the fictitious activity of nonexistent groups. It is happening all around us.

[Ryan Ruck]

An Increasing Number Of Americans Are Living In Their Homes With The Water And The Power Turned Off

The U.S. economy is literally collapsing right in front of our eyes. Millions of Americans have lost their jobs and their homes. Others are trying to hang on any way that they can. As more Americans than ever switch over to "survival mode", some strange new phenomenons are occurring. For example, an increasing number of Americans are now living in their homes with the electricity and water turned off. That's right - they are camping out in their own homes without any power and without any running water. In the "richest nation on earth", millions of Americans can no longer afford electricity and water. Utility shut-offs have been rapidly increasing as more Americans than ever before find themselves simply unable to pay their debts. So is this what the American Dream has come to? Sitting in our homes with the water and power turned off?

The video footage posted below is absolutely jaw-dropping. It contains footage of real California homes where families are living without any electricity or water....



The reality is that hordes of middle class Americans are really suffering right now. Maybe that is why faith in the economy is plummeting like a rock.

The Conference Board recently announced that its Consumer Confidence Index slipped to 50.4 in July, which was down from a revised figure of 54.3 in June.

American consumers are getting scared. They don't understand what is happening.

But it is actually quite simple.

The U.S. economy is collapsing.

You better get ready.

[Ryan Ruck]

Suffer These Crimes in Oakland? Don't Call the Cops

July 13, 2010

Oakland's police chief is making some dire claims about what his force will and will not respond to if layoffs go as planned.

Chief Anthony Batts listed exactly 44 situations that his officers will no longer respond to and they include grand theft, burglary, car wrecks, identity theft and vandalism. He says if you live and Oakland and one of the above happens to you, you need to let police know on-line.

Some 80 officers were to be let go at midnight last night if a last-minute deal was not reached. That's about ten percent of the work force.

"I came here to build an organization, not downsize one," said Batts, who was given the top job in October.

That deadline has been extended to 5 p.m. Tuesday.

Here's a partial list:

* burglary
* theft
* embezzlement
* grand theft
* grand theft:dog
* identity theft
* false information to peace officer
* required to register as sex or arson offender
* dump waste or offensive matter
* discard appliance with lock
* loud music
* possess forged notes
* pass fictitious check
* obtain money by false voucher
* fraudulent use of access cards
* stolen license plate
* embezzlement by an employee (over $ 400)
* extortion
* attempted extortion
* false personification of other
* injure telephone/ power line
* interfere with power line
* unauthorized cable tv connection
* vandalism
* administer/expose poison to another's

Negotiations are going on at Oakland City Hall in the mayor's office.

Batts said the 80 officers slated to be laid off - mostly new officers - are "pretty sad and pretty depressed," and those feelings are shared by the Police Department as a whole.

The Oakland City Council voted June 25 to eliminate the positions to help close the city's $32.5 million funding gap. According to the city of Oakland, each of the 776 police officers currently employed at OPD costs around $188,000 per year. Most of the officers who will be affected by the layoffs were on the streets of Oakland when Johannes Mehserle's involuntary manslaughter conviction caused riots last Thursday.

The sticking point in negotiations appears to be job security. The city council asked OPD officers to pay nine percent of their salary toward their pensions, which would save the city about $7.8 million toward a multi-million dollar deficit. The police union agreed, as long as the city could promise no layoffs for three years. No dice, says city council president Jane Brunner.

"We wish we could offer them a three-year no layoff protection we just can't financially. It would be irresponsible of us," Brunner said. The city agreed to a one-year moratorium on layoffs, but it is not enough for the union.

The problem is money. In the last five years, the police budget -- along with the fire department budget -- have amount to 75 percent of the general fund. After years of largely sparing those departments the budget ax, now it appears there are few other places to cut.

These are the last hours of negotiation and Brunner is hopeful that the city and police will find some sort middle ground.

"It's been very good conversation and not a whole lot of grandstanding." Brunner said. "There's actually real conversations. Each side understands the problem," she said.

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Are The Economic Riots That So Many People Have Been Warning Us About Already Starting?




For years, researchers such as Gerald Celente have been warning that the coming economic collapse is going to spark mob scenes and riots that are unprecedented in U.S. history.

Many have scoffed at these predictions and have refused to believe that anything like that could ever happen in America. But if what happened on Wednesday near Atlanta is any indication, we could be on the verge of something really bad. 30,000 people turned out to pick up only 13,000 applications for government-subsidized housing.

Some people had waited for over two days just to get their hands on an application. The "chaotic mob scene" that developed as the applications were being handed out left 62 people injured. It turns out that there aren't even any vacancies in government-subsidized housing at this time in that area. These people were going wild just to get an application to get on the waiting list for government-subsidized housing.

Yes, this is what the American Dream has degenerated into - thousands of people rioting in an attempt to get on a waiting list for a government handout.

This is how one person who was there described the scene....
"Lot of people. People pushing people, knocking people over. People getting hurt."

As you watch the video news report about this incident below, keep in mind that these people were going crazy just to get an application to get on a waiting list....

So what is going to happen when real hunger and real economic hardship comes to the streets of America?

What kind of mob scenes will we see then?

But it isn't only in Atlanta where this type of thing is happening.

Just check out the following scene from Detroit from late last year....

Is this the beginning of a whole new trend of economic riots?
Let's hope not.

But things are certainly not getting any better out there.

*New applications for jobless benefits rose last week to their highest level in almost six months.

*U.S. banks repossessed the second highest number of homes ever recorded in July.

*The number of Americans who are receiving food stamps rose to a new all-time record of 40.8 million in May.

*Even the mainstream media is acknowledging that something really historic is happening. Recently, CNN published an article with this stunning headline: "Is This Finally The Economic Collapse?"

Things are getting really bad out there already, and when the economy truly collapses the American people are not going to have the character to handle it with grace and dignity.

No, when the poop really hits the fan the American people are going to go absolutely berzerk. They are going to throw a temper tantrum that will top all temper tantrums.

When that day arrives, you and your family will want to be somewhere safe with plenty of food and water on hand. Let us just hope and pray that day does not come any time soon.

[vector7]

Monday, August 16, 2010
10 Signs The U.S. is Becoming a Third World Country

Activist Post

The United States by every measure is hanging on by a thread to its First World status. Saddled by debt, engaged in wars on multiple fronts with a rising police state at home, declining economic productivity, and wild currency fluctuations all threaten America's future.

The general designations of the ranking system for world status date back to the 1950s, and have included countries at various stages of economic development. Since the Cold War, the definition has come to be synonymous with repressive countries where a wealthy class of ruling elites segment society into the haves and have-nots, many times capitalizing on the conditions that follow an economic crisis or war.

While much of the world is still mired in poverty, the reduced cost of innovative tools such as computing and connectivity ironically puts traditional Third World countries at the forefront of a new lean-and-mean economy that is based on ideas of empowerment for the disenfranchised. For better or worse, the world is leveling due to Globalism. However, America and other over-leveraged countries face this re-balancing of the globe at a time when they have dwindling resources. We can speculate about who and what is to blame for America's fantastic fall, but for the purposes of this article we shall focus on the obvious signs that the United States is beginning to resemble a Third World country.

30,000 Section 8 wait for 455 vouchers

1. Rising unemployment and poverty: Unemployment numbers, food stamps, and home foreclosures continue to reach new record highs. The ugly reality of those numbers was recently on display when 30,000 people showed up to apply for public housing in East Point, GA for 455 available vouchers. Fights broke out, people were fainting from the heat while in line, and riot police showed up to handle the angry poor.

2. Economic dependence: The United States finished 2009 with a debt-to-GDP ratio of 85%, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The current trend projects the United States to finish 2010 at 94% and 2011 at 98%. The 90% level has become the IMF's make-or-break point for countries hoping to grow their way out of debt. If the government debt load climbs above 90% of GDP, economic growth slows so much that growth is no longer a viable solution for reducing that debt, and the IMF insists on austerity measures. Surpassing this debt threshold has also caused China's lead credit rating agency to cut America's credit rating.

3. Declining civil rights: Everyday freedoms are often a casualty of a society in collapse. As the anger of the populace mounts in response to declining economic conditions and political corruption, the government counters by increasing draconian measures that restrict the political rights and civil liberties of its citizens.

America is becoming a country like China, which has one of the lowest scores according to Freedom House. In America, private discussions and movements are monitored, free speech is corralled, the freedom to assemble for protest is by government decree, and independent thought that questions the political system is increasingly looked upon with suspicion. A final indicator is when the government insists upon secrecy for its own actions, while new laws and systems are created to put the individual under nearly constant surveillance.

4. Increasing political corruption: When political corruption becomes the accepted norm, as opposed to the exception, then there's a good bet your country resembles the Third World. Congress and all major institutions face a growing crisis in confidence, where a record-low 11% of the population believe Congress is doing a good job. It now seems obvious to all observers that big corporations directly control the agenda in Washington -- much like typically corrupt Third World countries.

5. Military patrolling the streets: The rise of a militarized police state is a hallmark of most Third World countries, particularly in times of rapid economic collapse. America's declaration of the War on Terror has created a constant threat to National Security that has allowed for the military to be deployed on American soil. Building upon the War on Drugs, this has created a fusion between the military and local police, where military-grade weapons and tactics are being used against American citizens in a cascade of violent confrontations over non-violent offenses. Military checkpoints are moving farther inland, away from meaningful border control functions, and a full-blown military presence in American cities has been planned by the U.S. Army War College.

6. Failing infrastructure: As 46 of 50 states are on the verge of bankruptcy, cities are going dark, asphalt roads are returning to the stone age, and nationwide budget cuts are leaving students without teachers, supplies, or a full-time education. These are common features one will see as they travel through the poorest of Third World countries.

7. Disappearing middle class: During the last presidential debate season, they argued that a family income of $250K was solidly middle-class. Well, Census data shows less than 15% of families make over $100K, and only 1.5% of families make over $250K. The income gap between the rich and poor has increased at a staggering pace, while many more middle-class folks join the ranks of the poor every day. Cavernous income gaps may be what Third-World nations are best known for.

U.S. Dollar Monetary Base

8. Devalued currency: The value of the Federal Reserve Note (U.S. dollar) has declined 96% since the inception of the Federal Reserve in 1913. The value of the dollar is based on its supply in circulation and, to a lesser extent, the demand for those dollars. For the last three years, the money supply has spiked literally off the charts. It can be argued that the dollar has become America's top export as the world's reserve currency, and if the volatile dollar is scrapped, which the U.N. and IMF now suggest, then demand will plummet, killing the currency.

9. Controlling the media: A government-influenced media that censors information is a key component of Third World countries. In some countries it is openly owned by the State. In America, privately-owned major media is not as balanced or as diverse as it seems; the concentration of ownership has led to censorship when national and corporate interests have sometimes overlapped. The persecution of high-profile investigative journalists such as WikiLeaks is set amid a backdrop of the proposed Internet censorship of bloggers who wish to remain anonymous. The end of net neutrality creates a pay-to-play system that can lead to further corporate and government control of information and opinion. Cybersecurity initiatives are the final nail in the coffin, as the entire free flow of information can be vetted in a China-style system of "identity management." On the street, the police state and media control have converged in the recent rise of arrests for those who videotape the police. This is a huge blow to First Amendment rights and the role of photojournalists who wish to document public police behavior.

10. Capital Controls: Many nations have enforced capital controls as their economies collapse. It most recently happened in Argentina and Venezuela as they sought to keep the remaining wealth within their borders. The SEC already has adopted policies to allow money market funds to suspend withdrawals during a financial crisis, while the recent HIRE bill (HR 2487) puts restrictions on Americans moving capital to foreign countries. Some economists suggest that the national debt has gotten so high that the government must now force investment of private capital into U.S. Treasury debt.

Key economic indicators point to a situation potentially worse than the Great Depression. The land of opportunity for so many is devolving into a system of government corruption, corporate looting, and military rule that threatens to sink the American Dream. The capital flight from America has left a dwindling middle class holding an empty bag. This style of underinvestment in the foundation of society is similar to what already has led to the exodus from the rural Midwest. Now, there are ominous signs of a silent exodus of young, intelligent professionals seeking opportunities to realize their dreams outside of America; they are becoming known as Generation Xpat. Lastly, many skilled immigrants have returned to their home countries to seek a better quality of life, which might be the scariest indicator of all.

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The Perfect Storm

Glenn Beck-08/16/10-A

Glenn Beck-08/16/10-B

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18 Signs That America Is Rotting Right In Front Of Our Eyes




Sometimes it isn't necessary to quote facts and figures about government debt, unemployment and the trade deficit in order to convey how badly America is decaying.

The truth is that millions of Americans can watch America rotting right in front of their eyes by stepping out on their front porches.

Record numbers of homes have been foreclosed on and in some of the most run down cities as many as a third of all houses have been abandoned. Unemployment remains at depressingly high levels and the number of Americans on food stamps continues to set new records month after month.

Due to severe budget cuts, class sizes are exploding and school programs are being eliminated. In some areas of the U.S. schools are even going to four day weeks.

With little to no funding available, bridges are crumbling and street lights are being turned off in many communities. In some areas, asphalt roads are actually being ground up and turned back into gravel roads because they are less expensive to maintain.

There aren't even as many police available to patrol America's decaying cities because budget problems have forced local communities across the U.S. to lay off tens of thousands of officers.

Once upon a time, the American people worked feverishly to construct beautiful, shining communities from coast to coast. But now we get to watch those communities literally crumble and decay in slow motion.

Nothing lasts forever, but for those of us who truly love America it is an incredibly sad thing to witness what is now happening to the great nation that our forefathers built.

The following are 18 signs that America is rotting right in front of our eyes....

1 - Due to extreme budget cuts, school systems across the United States are requiring their students to bring more supplies with them than ever this year. In Moody, Alabama elementary school students are being told to bring paper towels, garbage bags and liquid soap with them to school. At Pauoa Elementary School in Honolulu, Hawaii all students are being required to show up with a four-pack of toilet paper.

2 - According to the American Association of School Administrators, 48 percent of all U.S. school districts are reporting budget cuts of 10 percent or less for the upcoming school year, and 30 percent of all U.S. school districts are reporting cuts of 11 to 25 percent.

3 - In Chicago, drastic budget cuts could result in an average class size of 37 students.

4 - The governor of Hawaii has completely shut down that state's schools on Fridays - moving teachers and students to a four day week.

5 - According to the Federal Highway Administration, approximately a third of America's major roadways are already in substandard condition.

6 - All over the United States, asphalt roads are being ground up and are being replaced with gravel because it is cheaper to maintain. The state of South Dakota has transformed over 100 miles of asphalt road into gravel over the past year, and 38 out of the 83 counties in the state of Michigan have now turned some of their asphalt roads into gravel roads.

7 - According to the U.S. Department of Transportation, more than 25 percent of America's nearly 600,000 bridges need significant repairs or are burdened with more traffic than they were designed to carry.

8 - In a desperate attempt to save money, the city of Colorado Springs turned off a third of its streetlights and put its police helicopters up for auction.

9 - The state of Arizona has eliminated funding for full-day kindergarten and has shut down a number of state parks.

10 - Over the past year, approximately 100 of New York's state parks and historic sites have had to cut services and reduce hours.

11 - In Georgia, the county of Clayton recently eliminated its entire public bus system in order to save 8 million dollars.

12 - Elsewhere in Georgia, 30,000 people recently turned out to pick up only 13,000 applications for government-subsidized housing. A near-riot ensued and 62 people were left injured. The amazing thing is that all of this commotion was just to get on a waiting list. There are no aid vouchers even available at this time.

13- In the city of Philadelphia, rolling fire station "brown outs" recently cost a 12 year old autistic boy named Frank Marasco his life.

14- Oakland, California Police Chief Anthony Batts says that due to severe budget cuts there are a number of crimes that his department will simply not be able to respond to any longer. The crimes that the Oakland police will no longer be responding to include grand theft, burglary, car wrecks, identity theft and vandalism.

15- The sheriff's department in Ashtabula County, Ohio has been slashed from 112 to 49 deputies, and there is now just one vehicle remaining to patrol all 720 square miles of the county.

16 - Of 315 municipalities the New Jersey State Policemen's union recently canvassed, more than half indicated that they were planning to lay off police officers.

17 - Not that the criminals are doing that much better. Things have gotten so bad in Camden, New Jersey that not even the drug dealers are spending their money anymore.

18 - Almost everyone knows someone who has been severely impacted by this economic downturn. A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey has found that 81 percent of American adults know someone who is out of work and looking for a job.

So can't the states just step up and start spending more money and fix these things?

Well, no. The truth is that the states are absolutely broke. Quite a few of the states are actually on the verge of default, and there is no getting around the fact that budget cuts that are much more severe are going to be required in the years ahead.

So can't the U.S. government step in and bail out the states?

Well, yes, but as we have detailed previously, the U.S. government is literally drowning in a sea of red ink. The U.S. government is already spending an amount of money equivalent to approximately 25.4 percent of GDP this year.

How much more money can the U.S. government possibly spend?

To get an idea of just how bad things are already, the IMF says that in order to fix the U.S. government budget deficit, taxes need to be doubled on every single U.S. citizen.

Are you ready to pay double the taxes?

No matter how you slice it, the U.S. is in a massive amount of financial trouble and the American people are starting to realize this fact. In fact, one new poll found that nearly two-thirds of Americans believe that the U.S. economy will get worse before it gets better.

But unfortunately things are not going to get "better" - at least in the long-term. The decay and the rot that have already set in are only going to get worse.

These problems did not appear overnight and they are not going to be solved overnight. Our leaders have been making very bad decisions for decades, and all of those bad decisions are starting to catch up with us.

But perhaps you disagree. Feel free to tell us what you think in the comments section below....

http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/a...nt-of-our-eyes

[American Patriot]

8 - In a desperate attempt to save money, the city of Colorado Springs turned off a third of its streetlights and put its police helicopters up for auction.

And I for one, APPLAUD the move. Less damned light pollution.

My neighbor petitioned to have a street light put up in front of her house a few years ago. I didn't want one. I fought her on it and lost. Guess where the light is now? ON MY PROPERTY!

Guess what got shut off?

That damned light. Saves me the trouble of shooting it out

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Standing Up When It's Too Late

Submitted by JR Nyquist on Fri, 20 Aug 2010

There is a letter by Marcus Tullius Cicero, dated 18 December 50 B.C.

This letter was written to his friend Atticus on the eve of the Roman Civil War. He wrote as follows: "The political situation alarms me deeply, and so far I have found scarcely anybody who is not for giving Caesar what he demands rather than fighting it out." To explain the situation in brief, G. Julius Caesar had demanded the right to circumvent the Roman constitution, to break laws with impunity, to extend his command over a large army by using that army to threaten the Senate of Rome.

"And why should we start standing up to him now?" asked Cicero.

The next day he wrote to Atticus: "We should have stood up to him [Caesar] when he was weak, and that would have been easy. Now we have to deal with eleven legions...." Though he hated the idea of civil war, the only course, said Cicero, was to follow "the honest men or whoever may be called such, even if they plunge."

And who were these "honest men"? "I don't know of any," wrote Cicero in the same letter. "There are honest individuals, but [there are no honest groups]." Then he asked rhetorically if the Senate was honest, or the tax farmers, or the capitalists.

None were frightened of living under an autocracy, he lamented. The capitalists, especially, "never have objected to that, so long as they were left in peace." But civil war occurred nonetheless, because people are not free to be dishonest forever. They must admit to certain responsibilities, and oppose the advance of evil. The previous inclination to look away, to do nothing, to shrug off responsibility, proves in the end to be no more than a delaying tactic. They attempted to put off calamity, Cicero suggested, and made it all the more calamitous. That is all.

Why did the Roman Senate suddenly stand up to Caesar? What triggered their resistance? As with all free people, they began with policies of procrastination and appeasement. They hoped that the problem (i.e., Caesar) would go away. In the end, however, they discovered their mistake. Everyone still hoped for peace, though none believed it was possible. Everyone wanted to avoid war, but nobody saw a way out. Pompey stood before the Senate and gave voice to what everyone thought. "If we give Caesar the consulship, it will mean the subversion of the constitution." In other words, it would mean the end of Rome, the end of the republic, the destruction of their country.

In a fitting preface to John Dickinson's Death of a Republic, George L. Haskins wrote, "that the history of Rome is ... the history of the world, that, as all roads lead to Rome, so all history ends or begins with Rome." Why do free people fall into complacency? Why are threats ignored until the eleventh hour?

"Surely," wrote Cicero at the end of Caesar's dictatorship, "our present sufferings are all too well deserved. For had we not allowed outrages to go unpunished on all sides, it would never have been possible for a single individual to seize tyrannical power."

Caesar's cause was not right, but evil, Cicero explained. "Mere confiscations of the property of individual citizens were far from enough to satisfy him. Whole provinces and countries succumbed to his onslaught, in one comprehensive universal catastrophe.." As for the city of Rome, Cicero lamented, "nothing is left -- only the lifeless walls of houses. And even they look afraid that some further terrifying attack may be imminent. The real Rome is gone forever."

Republics are slow to defend themselves against enemies that advance, like Caesar, under camouflage. But make no mistake, republics always defend. Groups and categories of men may not be honest or brave, but when they are finally confronted with the truth -- as individuals -- they see no other course. They stand up and fight. We should not be surprised, therefore, that Caesar was struck down in the Senate and killed by thrusting daggers.

It is all too true, of course. "We should have stood up to him when he was weak," Cicero lamented. The problem with republican government is its tardiness; or rather, tardiness in the face of danger. As Machiavelli wrote,

The institutions normally used by republics are slow in functioning. No assembly or magistrate can do everything alone. In many cases, they have to consult with one another, and to reconcile their diverse views takes time. Where there is a question of remedying a situation that will not brook delay, such a procedure is dangerous.

Machiavelli concluded, therefore, "that republics in imminent danger, having no recourse to dictatorship ... will always be ruined when some grave misfortune befalls them." This is the weakness of republican government. Here is the ground on which it dies. An obvious threat, like 9/11 or Pearl Harbor is not the greatest danger. It is the subtle, camouflaged threat, that creeps up from behind. It is this camouflage that gives reluctant men a way out. "We need not fight. We need not make a fuss. There is nothing to fear."

When this is the prevailing view, people who understand a given threat may ask: "What is to be done?"

As long as we are isolated individuals, there is nothing to do. The individual may be honest with himself, but groups are not honest. What prevails overall is an optimistic dismissal. "The threat isn't real." This is how Hitler got so far.

This is how Communism took over so many countries, and continues today under camouflage. There is nothing the individual can do that will sway the crowd. And as we are a republic, our political system operates according to the psychology of a crowd. The majority are caught up in the fads and media trends of the moment.

Cynical and empty publicity characterizes much of our public discourse.
Are the Russians and Chinese arming themselves against us?

Is Venezuela becoming a military bulwark for Communism in Latin America?

Is Mexico being destabilized by the Russian mafia (via the Mexican mafia)?

Has Canada been infiltrated by Chinese intelligence allied with Chinese organized crime?

Are socialist revolutionaries inside the U.S. government subverting the nation's nuclear deterrent, foreign policy, and border security?

The crowd says "no" because that is what they want to believe. But one day the country will awaken.

Then, and only then, Americans will stop going along as if nothing serious hangs over them.

Will it be too late?

Perhaps it will be too late to save the republic.

But it will not be too late to save the country.

JR Nyquist
jrnyquist @ aol.com http://www.jrnyquist.com

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Is America becoming a third world country?

The main characteristics common to Third World countries are a high level of debt, an income distribution concentrated to the top 1% of the population, and an economy based on export of raw materials and import of manufactured products. (Source: Swans Commentary).

By those yardsticks the United States is slowly slouching toward Third World status.

46 of 50 states are on the verge of bankruptcy, our cities are going dark at night, our asphalt roads are being returned to nature and sharp budget cuts are leaving our students without teachers and supplies, or even a full-time education.

Just this month, in shocking scenes of mass desperation, 30,000 people showed up to apply for public housing in East Point, Georgia for 455 available vouchers. The despair and chaos suggested a Third World nation, not the United States - but it was the United States.

Perhaps we shouldn't be so surprised. After all one out of every eight American adults and one out of four children now survive on government food stamps. And according to the US Department of Agriculture, 50 million Americans were unable to buy enough food to remain healthy at some point last year.

These are shameful numbers for the world's richest nation.

But none of this should be a mystery. Since 1975, practically all the gains in household income have gone to the top 20% of households.

Whilst the conservative right keeps its voters hypnotized with the latest shell game involving God, Guns and Gays, the ordinary citizen has had his wallet pilfered or her purse snatched, over and over.

Of the $1.7 trillion in tax cuts taxpayers received through 2008, high-income households received by far the largest - not only in amount but also as a percentage of income - which dramatically shifted the concentration of after-tax income toward the top.

The income gap is expanding now not because the middle class is losing income, but because the incomes of the wealthiest are skyrocketing.

'If income growth had been shared equally among all income groups, the families at the bottom would have $6,000 per year more than they do now, and the middle would have $13,000 more,' says the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities this month.

It's a fact universally acknowledged that the most dramatic wealth gap in American history literally exploded during the eight years of the George W Bush administration. Now the top 1% owns a third of Americas wealth and 50% of its bonds. In fact, the gap between the top 1% and everyone else hasn't been this bad since the Roaring Twenties.

Meanwhile the real average earnings for middle class Americans have not increased in 50 years.

That's half a century.

Republican tax cuts have significantly increased the wealth gap, of course. Income tax just keeps getting lower and lower for the rich. It's a champagne and caviar party that never ends, if you're one of the elite few with a golden ticket, that is.

If you aren't in the top 1% of America's earners, you're pretty much screwed.

If the 80% of American households are unable to take back the power that they have gradually conceded, then it will continue like this for the vast majority, who have become the financial minority.

Voting for your prejudices and against your pocket book, just like all those broken asphalt roads, is leading us nowhere fast.