Now here's a post about NEOCON Robert D. Kaplan !!

This is from In the Wilderness .. 

[This is a sharp-eyed look at the madness of a major neocon talking-head regarding China policy. But for perspective-by-analogy, let me ask you a question about Iran. Ever wonder what would have come about in Iran had the Central Intelligence Agency not fomented an illegal coup d'etat against democratically elected Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh? He moved to nationalize the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company, triggering the wrath of the American economic hitmen who engineered his sudden overthrow in 1953. That clever piece of finesse brought the bitter ordeal of the bogus Shah of Iran, his notorious Savak secret police, the 1979 Shiite revolution, and the eventual sabotage of the entire Carter Presidency - which was, let's remember, the last hope for a timely mitigation of Peak Oil. And now they're in something called the Axis of Evil.

The Iranian example is just as relevant for Venezuela, where Uncle Sam recently tried and failed to repeat the trick, as it is for China, where he can't. In every case, guys who haven't read Verse 61 of the Tao Teh Ching take it upon themselves to intervene in other people's affairs in the pursuit of their own short-term advantage. They do so in the name of "realism," because that category acts like a mirror to those who would operate under its cover: my policy reproduces an existing world of scarcity and danger and resentment; by comparison, yours is unrealistic - therefore, I'm the credible adult in charge, and you're the dreamer on the margin.

The Realist's low expectations of others are a mask for his desire for their goods. He wants to raid his neighbors, so he laments aloud that they are such a hostile people, it will be necessary to destroy them. In wrecking the place, the Realist makes the world match his vision of it, then boasts that he was right. --JAH]

China in America's cross-hairs: 
Robert D. Kaplan and neocon hawks clamor for new Cold War

By 
Larry Chin

© Copyright 2005, From The Wilderness Publications, www.fromthewilderness.com. All Rights Reserved. This story may NOT be posted on any Internet web site without express written permission. Contact admin@copvcia.com. May be circulated, distributed or transmitted for non-profit purposes only. 

June 20, 2005 1100 PST (FTW) The feature story of the June 2005 issue of The Atlantic Monthly is Robert D. Kaplan's "How We Would Fight China: The Next Cold War". This inevitable war, according to Kaplan, "will link China and the United States in a future that may stretch over several generations." By comparison, "the Middle East is just a blip." 

Kaplan's provocative China piece, detailed below, coincides with increasingly confrontational rhetoric by the Bush administration, the growing influence of neocon hardliners, growing concern about China within the elite cadres of the New World Order (from the G-7 to the Bilderberg Group), tensions between China and Japan (the US proxy in the region), and more East-West trade bickering (currencies, etc.). In February 2005, new CIA Director Porter Goss issued a warning to China regarding its military modernization. One day later, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld issued a similar warning. 

Does the militaristic Kaplan article, afloat upon the growing hostilities between the US and China, mark the beginning of a dangerous new phase of conflict and superpower war?

Who is Robert D. Kaplan?
In a post-9/11 political landscape crawling with warmongering policymakers and military-utopian intelligentsia, Kaplan deserves singling out. It is not Kaplan's wild views, but his influence - the fact that he has the ear of top military and intelligence brass, and enjoys a symbiotic relationship with elites at the highest levels - that is of greater importance. 

Kaplan is a correspondent for The Atlantic Monthly and the author of nine books on international affairs, including Warrior Politics: Why Leadership Demands a Pagan Ethos, and international travel books with distinctly political biases, such as Balkan Ghosts and Eastward to Tartary. 

Fascinated (some would say obsessed) with military/intelligence and war, Kaplan's upcoming book, Imperial Grunts: The American Military on the Ground is one of several books he is writing about the US armed forces. 

Kaplan's essays have appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post. He has appeared on C-SPAN and CNN. New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman calls Kaplan among the "most widely read" authors defining the post-Cold War (along with Francis Fukuyama and Harvard's Samuel Huntington).

Kaplan is a favorite of both George W. Bush and Bill Clinton. According to U. S. News & World Report, "President Clinton was so impressed with Kaplan, he ordered an interagency study of these issues, and it agreed with Kaplan's conclusions." Kaplan was invited to meet with George W. Bush in the White House - and brief Bush on foreign policy. 

Kaplan is also a consultant to the US Army's Special Forces Regiment, the US Air Force, and the US Marines. He has lectured at military war colleges, the CIA, the National Security Agency (NSA), and the FBI. Kaplan has lectured at the State Department. More recently, Kaplan was embedded with US forces during the attack on Fallujah, and has spent considerable time with the US military over the past three years. In other words, Kaplan is a military-intelligence insider. 

Kaplan has a reputation for being one of the first American writers to forecast (from as far back as the 1980s) the Clinton-Bush administration wars in the Balkans and Central Asia, and the current 9/11 War (Afghanistan, Iraq).

More on the link above .. 

RED ALERT RED ALERT RED ALERT

Oh, God, I was told the date for The Event would be 8 May.

Well, it's coming in right under the wire.

Why couldn't we get Those Bastards impeached in time?

Why?

Feels like the Cuban Missile Crisis Mach 100.

Veeger


BULLETIN ITEM: I have been trying to ignore the F116 Fly-By's But...HEADS UP SOMETHING IS UP

MWM: The rumors are of course flying thick and heavy, as they have for months, even years now, about pending military escalation in the Middle East. I have always felt I would know personally just prior to the event because of the habit of the Navy to do a last round of checks of pilots and planes they are about to send overseas. On one route, they fly up Black Canyon from Luke Air Force Base on the Sonoran Desert Plain. They fly over at relatively low elevations, testing their terrain maneovering skills. Hard to miss, they are screaming fast and loud and they quite often manage to fly almost dead over my house. The first fly-over in a long time I heard a couple of weeks ago. We are now three days running with a fly-over check-over each day of a couple or so jets each time. In my personal opininon, a major rotation overseas is occurring or about to occur. I have been trying to ignore this factoid but the outbreak in Lebanon should raise all the hair on the back of your necks. Billed as Hamas and Hezbollah against everyone else.....you should by now be able to see the perfectly obvious. Play Act One: Hamas and Hezbollah must go because they are the troublemakers in Lebanon not to mention that they are the only and final opposition to a final CIA Stooge imposed lasting Palest Indian nigger-reservation settlement peace plan to keep Israel white jew only. Hallelujah, segregation now, segregation forever. Play Act Two: oops, need new governments in Lebanon to force the CIA Stooges into power, but oops, Play Act Three: Syria must be kowtowed into abject submission to stop the Iranian support of Hamas et al, but ah shucks its not working so well, so Play Act Four, here comes "The Gipper", one of America's greatest war heros, riding tall in the saddle just like Ronnie used to do in Death Valley Days, to save us once and all from the Iranian Evil-Doers who hate our freedoms and are trying to piss all over our way of life. Instead we will piss all over them with a reign of terror you can't even imagine.

Considering all in all, including the information below and a few other million pages on the web, it appears we are good to go. Are the curtains now rising on Play Act One? Only the shadow knows what evil lurks in the hearts of the neonazi zionists but I believe he is tapping out a signal...

Date: Wed, 7 May 2008 16:33:15 -0600
Subject: [phoenix-quest] Fw: ARMY GEARING UP FOR SOMETHING... SERIOUS

Best regards,.
Bob

From: Richard Niemela
Sent: Wednesday, May 07, 2008 12:24 PM

Subject: Fw: ARMY GEARING UP FOR SOMETHING... SERIOUS

----- Original Message -----

Sent: Tuesday, May 06, 2008 9:48 PM
Subject: Fw: ARMY GEARING UP FOR SOMETHING... SERIOUS

ATT everyone! This info came from a person that has always been reliable and I would trust them with my life! Please heed!! Keep this to yourself and give only to the ones you trust! Sanitize this e-mail before forwarding!!

ANYTIME--- ANYWHERE--- AND BY ALL MEANS NECESSARY!!

Subject: ARMY GEARING UP FOR SOMETHING
Importance: High

Army Gearing up for SOMETHING?

This afternoon, I received a call from my niece in Texas. Her husband is in the service. They live near the base in an area where many other families in the service live. Yesterday, she received a visit from some kind of army personnel, as well as many of her girlfriends who also have husbands serving. From what I understand, this is what took place. She was given several locations as well as dates and times to show up for "commodities" , as well as a location on base they were required to show up today. She said the area on base they were told to go to, she was familiar with, only this time, there were large tents set up, one of which they were told to go to. She told me her fears were she would be told her husband was going to be sent overseas, however this wasn't the case. She said they were told that they would be taken care of, and to begin to stock up on non perishables. They were given a voucher for what she stated were "large sacks" of beans, rice and other "non perishables" . Also informed that generators would be provided. Times and dates to pick up these commodities. They were also handed out some kind of contract that the "spouses" of personal were required to sign. It stated they were not at liberty to share this information with civilians. Her and several others when asking about what is going on, they were told the Army takes care of their own. This took place in Texas. Anyone with any info please post

Chycho> Economic events of the last 7 years, to WWIII,

chycho.com

7 of the Most Important Economic Events of the Last 7 Years: Collapsing the Economy in the Buildup to World War III

Since the year 2000, the following seven events have either caused or been the symptom of the present economic crises:

1. Year 2000: Iraq dumps the US dollar and switches to the Euro - The following article,"The Real Reasons for the Upcoming War With Iraq", which was written before the US invasion of Iraq, lays forth an argument that the war in Iraq was not just about oil but about the currency in which oil is traded. It is mandatory reading for anyone who wants to understand the basic concepts of American foreign policy, economics, and its military operations around the world. This article states that the principle reason why the United States invaded Iraq was because Saddam Hussein in the year 2000 went "ahead with its plans to stop using the U.S. dollar in its oil business" and start using the Euro.
   Iraq switching from the US Petro-dollar to the Euro meant that countries would no longer be obligated to buy oil in US dollars, so they would no longer have to maintain their US dollar reserves.
2. Since reaching a double top in the year 2001/02, the US dollar has been devalued approximately 35%.
   
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   source
   Even though Iraq dumping the US currency is no longer an issue because the United States is now occupying Iraq, many countries continue to sell the dollar, converting their reserves to other currencies. Some of these countries include: Sweden, Cuba, U.A.E., China, Russia, India, Indonesia, North Korea, Venezuela, and many more. If the tipping point has been reached, it would explain the dollars dramatic devaluation.
3. Year 2005: Rewriting the U.S. Bankruptcy Law - After years of lobbying, the “dream bill for credit card and financial service companies” finally came into effect in the United States. Two years ago the financial institutions that were preparing for the coming crash were able to lobby Congress to pass the ‘Bankruptcy Bill’. This law that took effect in 2005 created what is now widely refereed to as Debt Slavery and is “the biggest rewrite of U.S. bankruptcy law in a quarter century”.
   The Bill was conveniently introduced at a time when US household debt was at an all time high.
   
   click to enlarge
   source
   Those who were wise enough to realize what the implications of the Bill would be declared bankruptcy before it took effect. Those unfortunates to have been caught unaware are now just realizing that corporations, who’s debts are wiped clean when they declare bankruptcy, have more rights then they do. Unfortunately, since personal bankruptcies have been surging, many people are finding out about their slave status the hard way.
4. Year 2006: Discontinuance of M3 - “On March 23, 2006, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System” ceased publishing the M3 monetary aggregate. The M numbers (M1, M2, and M3) are “components of the United States money supply”, which “show the amount of dollars in circulation”.
   
   click to enlarge
   source
   “M1 is the most volatile, equivalent to cash on the loose. M2 is less volatile, equivalent to savings account deposits. M3 is least volatile, equivalent to Rich Folks Money which they park.” One of the most important things that the M numbers are used for is to measure inflation. Clearly, the data indicates that “there has been substantial money growth since 2000”.
   If there is more money in circulation then it becomes devalued. The downside of devaluing a currency is that it can cause inflation and force the government to increase interest rates, but there are positive effects.
   As the Federal Reserve states, “A key effect of devaluation is that it makes the domestic currency cheaper relative to other currencies. There are two implications of a devaluation. First, devaluation makes the country's exports relatively less expensive for foreigners. Second, the devaluation makes foreign products relatively more expensive for domestic consumers, thus discouraging imports. This may help to increase the country's exports and decrease imports, and may therefore help to reduce the current account deficit.”
   However, not knowing how much money the Banks are printing means that there is no longer an accurate indication of how much currency is in circulation. This basically means that we are playing Monopoly with people who can take money out of the bank anytime they want, because they are the bank. This should be raising alarm bells across the United States the way it has done across the world, as the dumping of the US dollar by most countries indicates. After all, why would anyone want to hold on to a currency that has lost more than 67 percent in five-years relative to its peers?
5. Year 2006: Iran moves from US dollars to the Euro - At the end of 2006 Iran announced that they would “use the euro instead of the US dollar in the country's budget for the next Iranian year”. This announcement is at least an order of magnitude more significant than Saddam Hussein saying that Iraq would start selling oil in Euros.
   If the United States was willing to invade Iraq to prevent oil from being traded in any other currency then the dollar, then it would be logical to assume that they will also confront Iran regarding their plans to permanently and absolutely phase out the US dollar. The United States now finds itself between a rock and a hard place, because they will either need to invade, bomb, or enforce sanctions against Iran along with any other country that decides to stop using US dollars in their oil exports, or they will have to watch the complete collapse of their economy and the devaluing of the Federal Reserve currency known as the US dollar.
   
   click to enlarge
   source
   Where this will lead is yet to be determined but we now know that the United States is willing to sacrifice hundreds of thousands of lives, both American and foreign, and is willing to execute the leaders of sovereign countries to prevent them from switching from US dollars to the Euro.
6. Year 2006/07: Subprime Market Collapses - “Subprime lending , also called B-paper, near-prime, or second chance lending, is the practice of making loans to borrowers who do not qualify for the best market interest rates because of their deficient credit history. The term also refers to paper taken on property that cannot be sold on the primary market, including loans on certain types of investment properties and certain types of self-employed individuals. Subprime lending is risky for both lenders and borrowers due to the combination of high interest rates, poor credit history, and adverse financial situations usually associated with subprime applicants.”
   In the US the competition between these lenders became so fierce that “when the rates were getting too low, they switched to competing by way of advance ratio versus selling price.”
   “In other words, if lender ‘A’ was offering 90% financing, lender ‘B’ would go to 100% financing, then lender ‘C’ would advance 100% of selling price plus costs, then to 105%, etc. We have seen the U.S. equity lenders now go to 130% of selling price, giving back 10-15% to the purchasers to help buy furniture, large electronic products, groceries, while the remaining 15-20% was eaten up in fees.”
   Why would a lender risk giving someone 130% of the value of a property, especially if the people are considered to be high risk? Fractional-reserve banking of course: A system that has been established to allow financial institutions to “loan their customers many times the sum of the credit reserves than they hold”. It’s a pyramid scheme in which everything continues to work until the bottom falls out, and the bottom has fallen out in the United States where “States have subprime exposure between 18% to 30%” and early payment defaults are rising. This problem with the subprime mortgage market is intensifying with the US and UK housing market crashes.
   The following animated documentary contains further information on our present monetary system, and is a great introduction to fractional reserve banking: Money As Debt (47:07)
   With this kind of banking system where money is created from debt, is it any wonder that the International Monetary Fund is warning that “house prices in the UK are overpriced by as much as 40 per cent and the bubble might burst” in Britain as well as several other European markets as it has in the United States.
7. Year 2007: Run on The Bank in the UK - “A bank run is a type of financial crisis. It is a panic which occurs when a large number of customers of a bank fear it is insolvent and withdraw their deposits,” and this is exactly what happened in Britain, the financial capital of the world, in September of this year.
   “The queues that formed outside Northern Rock, the country's fifth-biggest mortgage lender, represented the first bank run in Britain since 1866. The panic was prompted by the very announcement designed to prevent it. Only when the Bank of England said that it would stand by the stricken Northern Rock did depositors start to run for the exit. Attempts by Alistair Darling, the chancellor of the exchequer, to reassure savers served only to lengthen the queues of people outside branches demanding their money. The run did not stop until Mr Darling gave a taxpayer-backed guarantee on September 17th that, for the time being, all the existing deposits at Northern Rock were safe.”
   This banking crisis is not an anomaly that just became realized in the UK. Banks in the rest of Europe are also facing a crisis and all indications are that this “Force 5 economic-hurricane that just touched ground in Great Britain is headed for America and gaining strength on the way.”
   The following documentary is worth viewing to fully understand the causes and implications of what is taking place: ZEITGEIST, The Movie: Part 3 of 3 (47:05)
   
   
   

   
   
   
8. Year 2007: 52% Support U.S. Military Strike Against Iran - In the most recent Zogby Poll released October 29, the “majority of likely voters – 52% – would support a U.S. military strike to prevent Iran from building a nuclear weapon, and 53% believe it is likely that the U.S. will be involved in a military strike against Iran before the next presidential election.”
   Why would an attack on Iran be considered an economic event? Because war is the perfect consuming machine and a racket. “It always has been. It is possibly the oldest, easily the most profitable, surely the most vicious. It is the only one international in scope. It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives.” (Major General Smedley D. Butler, USMC)
   The US economy was on the verge of collapse before 911 and again before the invasion of Iraq, but it was saved thanks in large part to the wars. “What do the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the economic recovery in the United States have in common? More than one might expect, to judge from the last couple of rounds of US growth figures (2004).”
   How much did the Iraq war contribute to boasting the economy? “During the second quarter of 2003, when the war in Iraq was in full swing, some 60 per cent of the 3.3 per cent GDP growth rate was attributable to military spending.”
   “The war has been a large part of the justification for the Bush administration to run ever-widening budget deficits, and those deficits, predicated largely on military spending, have in turn pumped money into the economy and provided the stimulus that low interest rates and tax cuts, on their own, could never achieve.”
   This however has run its course and the American economy has taken a serious downturn. As it is the case with delaying the inevitable, the present economic crisis is much graver than it was pre-Iraq, hence a bigger intervention is required to rejuvenate the American economy with its cannibalistic corporate structure.
   Thanks to these wars, US debt is at historic levels, $9 trillion and counting, and all indications are that it is going to go a lot higher.
   
   click to enlarge
   source
   So what is this ever-widening budget deficits mean? The above chart is a “projection of the US budget” for the near future. “These are the US government’s own projections—and we all know they have every incentive to accent the positive. If this is the best they can do at this point, then you know things are not just bad, they are calamitous.
   “This glimpse at the future clearly shows that the debt of the US will, in the foreseeable future, go from being a troubling yet manageable fraction of the economy to being several times the size of economy. That can’t happen without serious repercussions.
   “The US government will be spending money they don’t have, which means creating more of it out of thin air and diluting the value of all the dollars that came before. It doesn’t take a Harvard MBA to know that the kind of deficits projected above guarantee a persistently weak dollar, higher inflation and higher interest rates going forward.”
   So how does a collapsing empire as large as the United States recover from such disastrous fiscal policy? If history is any indication, a World War is the only solution. “The Great Depression ended as nations increased their production of war materials at the start of World War II. This increased production provided jobs and put large amounts of money back into circulation.” Hence in large part, WWII helped to bring about the end of the great depression.
   Unfortunately however it was not the general public that benefited from the war. “World War II spending often required a conversion of plants designed for civilian good production into military factories and back again over the 9 year period. Substantially higher federal tax rates that were paid by the majority of households imposed much stronger fiscal drags on the benefits of the spending. Finally, less of the military spending was earmarked for wages and use of locally produced inputs, which reduced the direct stimulus to the local economy.” In essence, World War II just helped to consolidate corporate assets for the privileged few.
   This attack on Iran will be nothing short of World War III which happens to be the mantra of the neocons who, with their corporate connections, would have everything to gain while the human race would have everything to lose, specially considering that this global war to save the American Empire is about to begin with the use of Nuclear weapons.
   Unwittingly, the American populace is beginning to support the Bush administration’s plans to attack Iran, but they fail to realize that the decision to start World War III is solely an economic one to prevent the banking institutions from collapsing.

So what are the implications of all this?

In a recent lecture, Seymour Hersh, an American Pulitzer Prize winning investigative journalist, stated that he feared what would happen if American citizens began to believe the propaganda from the Bush administration now that the rhetoric to attack Iran has changed from preventing Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons to stopping them from killing American troops in Iraq. He states that this change in tactics by the US administration seems to be working and Americans are starting to support an attack on Iran. As the Zogby Poll indicates, Hersh’s fears are becoming realized.

The US economy is showing signs that it is in a recession and heading for a hard landing, due in large part to the subprime crisis and the inevitable end to fractional reserve banking. Unfortunately economists believe that the short term solution to saving the banking theocracies from completely collapsing, with a crisis of this magnitude, is to wage war. However this strategy has the reverse effect, and completely collapses an economy if the war drags on by mushrooming the national debt and depleting the resources of the warring nations. This kind of economic lifeline has two major consequences: First it devastates the populace and the environment, and second it consolidates assets for the elite.

There is also one major setback to this proposal of a war with Iran: An attack on Iran would be nothing less then World War III. But then again maybe that is what the US economy needs to stay alive, a World War: The Perfect Consuming Machine. After all it was World War II that decisively ended the great depression, and since most economic indicators are worst now then they were then, it would be reasonable to assume that the United States will start World War III for nothing else then to continue the American lifestyle, maintain the banking plutocracy, and consolidate world assets into the corporate coffer.

If World War III, the minimum expected death toll for which is 200 million, is allowed to take place to save the banking institutions from collapse, then it is a true sign of corporate economic intelligence and control, however this well not resonate well with humanity, but then again, corporations are anything but human and war is everything but humane.

Posted in Economics | Politics Submitted by chycho on Sat, 2007-11-10 23:10.

Update: March 15, 2008

CARACAS (AFP) - “Venezuelan state oil giant PDVSA has decided to sign some oil contracts in euros in the face of a plummeting dollar, local media reported, citing officials.”

chycho | Sat, 2008-03-15 22:21

Bank run in the US

Unsure about the future of home-loan giant Countrywide, bank customers line up to withdraw their money.

chycho | Sat, 2008-03-01 12:55

What if we've already been rounded up?

The pragmatism of a dystopian present-tense.

Edited on Fri Oct-19-07 12:33 PM by nashville_brook

It seems reasonable to me that politically aware people such as fellow DUers would be waxing dystopian lately. We're witnessing bizarre and regular shocks to our collective pysche...

-- The Katrina Massacre (a city overtaken by paramilitary thugs, mass death and random imprisonment/police violence);
-- police brutality at shutting down mass demonstrations (such as the LAPD Immigration rally melee); and,
-- tasering civilians practicing free speech in a university setting,
-- Grand jury subpoenas IP addresses of alt-newsweekly readership

Given these abuses, it's only normal to air our anxiety about what happens next. We worry for our kids: what sort of world they are inheriting? We want to fix it. Instead of paranoid "fantasies," I see worried "parents" are getting over their fear of what happens next and entering a "strategy" phase, as Naomi Klein hopefully posits in The Shock Doctrine: when the shock starts to wear off, we can get down to the business of making life better.

So, it's with alarm and puzzlement, that "worst case scenario" discussions often attract heated debate as to whether or not the worst could really happen "here." Some people seem personally invested in the notion that nothing that bad could ever happen here. Their posts are peppered with tinfoily hats and eyeroll icons. I guess the desire is to claim a moral or intellectual high ground, as if there's an upside to ignoring creeping authoritarianism. Is there a real-world upside to ignoring the temperature rising under our amphibious butts?

I'm puzzled by this response, because, as I see it, no one loses when ideas are freely discussed. If no worse case scenario happens, well, yea. In the meantime, why wouldn't you "reality check" and strategize?

Setting this aside for a moment, I think it's significant that our discussions are evolving from mere anxiety to strategizing. Might we be seeing the light at the end of the tunnel, if we are no longer afraid to answer these questions?

I'm going to assert that our worst case scenarios HAVE ALREADY HAPPENED. Consider New Orleans in the wake of the levee failures and the paramilitary takeover.

Doesn't it seem like we had a worst case scenario there? For all the people who died in their attics, or lost their homes, or are forever poisoned from the environment, it doesn't get any worse.

The narrative that has captured our imagination and generated controversy is the "good german" myth, where rights are diminished to the point of non-existence, while everyone looks on. We imagine that we'll know when "it's fascism" by the presence of government troops and concentration camps. But, the founders of this country imagined a different worse case scenario -- tyranny in the form oligarchy and theocracy. Our laws and Constitution were written to protect the people from the concentration of wealth and political power. Who here can say that we are not yet danger regarding these threats? Who here can say that economic and political power haven't ALREADY slipped from our grasp?

What if the shit hit the fan a long time ago and we're not noticing it because we've grown accustomed to the constant stream of poo covering our cultural landscape? "Good german" scenarios warn against the loss of freedom. So, can someone please tell me what freedom it is that you are afraid of losing? Can you put that "freedom" in plain sight so that we can guard it more carefully? Because, think we have basic misunderstanding. The Good German Syndrome is the fear of complicity in the face of loss of freedom. I think our problem is more serious and talk about "freedom" is meaningless. Our problem is that we've lost our POWER, not our FREEDOM.

We can speak all we want. We can speak in "free speech zones." We can speak if we don't mind being tasered. We can march in mass demonstrations if we aren't too afraid of being caught in the middle of a melee. We can post on DU, as long as we don't mind that the telecomms are keeping track of everything we say. We have freedom of movement as long as we don't mind cavity searches if we show up on a secret "no-fly" list.

We have freedom-in-quotation-marks in spades.

The problem is we have no power to be heard because our government has no interest in speech that doesn't come in an envelope with a large donation.

Does money equal speech, as the Supreme Court will likely rule 5-to-4 for the rest of our lifetimes? If corporations enjoy "freedom of speech" via money (which I have very little of), then, how likely is it that my speech will be heard?

Earlier this week, Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi lamented her inability to arrest those exercising free speech outside her Bay Area mansion. Do you think, if those wishing to be heard, came bearing giant corporporate donations, that they'd be outside building buddahs? No, they'd be inside being heard. Forget about having the power to compete against the deafening ka-ching of lobbyist checks being cashed. We no longer even have the commodious tolerance for speech (even in San Francisco!), by our so-called Democratic leadership. Were that we were homeless, indeed.

Freedom is nothing without POWER, and we're starting to realize just how vulnerable this has made us. Discussing "what if" and "worst case" scenarios is a response to our loss of power. It makes perfect sense to take inventory of our assets and formulate a response in the face of another, larger, deeper catastrophe -- such as the "World War 3" Bush says is "worth starting" in Iran.

I think we've already been "rounded up." We're fed-up, and we're not going to take it anymore. Our discussions at this point are about REGAINING POWER -- not pre-empting a disaster.