Our government at work...

[nicobie]

China is great for those with plenty of money (AKA privileged class/ party members)

Just don't belong to the wrong religion or eat the food unless it's been grown in their, restricted to the rich, private gardens. God forbid if you have a baby and need formula that is safe. I see nobody has mentioned the shitty air that they are forced to breathe or their totally constipated transportation system. The out of control government corruption deserves a mention as does their unfair court system.

To be honest, I can't ever see my self living there. But, each to his own.....

 

[Dee Jay]

Great!

Sooo... where do I send my money?

:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

back to The Fed (TM)

(preferably in an envelope titled "Mr. Strawman has moved--return to sender")

huh yeah... the Well Fed *rimshot*


[youtube]hsqW66pzL7M[/youtube]

 

[j3tch1u]

awww...warm n cozy bedtime stories. mr banker, read me another.

 

[Gordo]

China is great for those with plenty of money (AKA privileged class/ party members)

Just don't belong to the wrong religion or eat the food unless it's been grown in their, restricted to the rich, private gardens. God forbid if you have a baby and need formula that is safe. I see nobody has mentioned the shitty air that they are forced to breathe or their totally constipated transportation system. The out of control government corruption deserves a mention as does their unfair court system.

To be honest, I can't ever see my self living there. But, each to his own.....

nicobie,
My hope was for some to realize how brainwashed we are. Our view of the world can be very simple or very complex. It can also be totally wrong. If you are interested in what was real, what is real and what will be real, I have found Hans a great teacher. For a primer, see this; http://www.ted.com/talks/hans_rosling_at_state.html
For very specific, accurate pictures, learn to use this.
http://www.gapminder.org/desktop/
From the standpoint of a guy who is living what would be my dream if I was his age;
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLCD2898DBC1440B4C&feature=plcp
If you take the time to view all of his videos, you will see a lot of the China we don't see. Winston is having a blast on everything 2 wheels, including ebikes.

 

[nicobie]

That's all well and good gordo, but none of it refutes the points I made.

Maybe the guy has statistics on their air that are different from everybody else.

It appears that brainwashing works both ways. :|

 

[marty]

The only terrorist groups to fear are the US government and US lawyers.

http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/14.06/chemistry.html?pg=1&topic=chemistry&topic_set=


Which seems like as good of time as any to show this video taken just an hour from my home. I can't even imagine how impotent and pathetic of a leader you have to be, and then how spineless of an officer you have to be to pepper spray a group of students sitting on the grass at there school holding hands.

[youtube]6AdDLhPwpp4[/youtube]

It's funny how many things become a self-for-filling prophecy. For example, if you wanted to protest police brutality, you would undoubtedly be met with it sooner or later.

The corruption and evil is so deep here, it's the law.

Come on, ya can't blame me every time some dumb frock sprays hot pepper juice on some nit wits. Did you see how fat those cops were? 300+ pounds. Put your self in there shoes for a few minutes. First thing you notice is 300+ pounds is a lot of weight for them shoes to carry. The cops job was to move the protesters off the sidewalk. If a tree fell on the sidewalk, a chain saw would be a good tool to cut up the wood. Pulling on a bunch of nit wits sitting with there arms locked would result in broken bones and other injurys. Think just walking around the people sitting on the sidewalk would be the best option. Have you ever smelled those Occupy Wall Street protesters? Living in a tent for a few months can cause people to smell a little funky. Spraying them stinkers with pepper sauce was definitely wrong! I say spray the cops with pepper spray as a punishment. Lets all try to get along!

 

[Joseph C.]

The line is cast and the worm is wriggling...

 

[Arlo1]

Here is the answer! :lol:
[youtube]BrhA0sEkuaM[/youtube]

 

[Gordo]

That is too funny. The one point I did not make and has been rattling around in my empty head for a few days, is the first time I came across a fellow with a "Canadian Kit." 1968 in Mexico, just after the Summer Olympics. The guy introduced himself as "Tom Collins, a good mixer." When I asked where he was from, I found is was a little town in California. So I just had to ask about the Canadian hat, flags and pins. Before the internet, we had Popular Mechanics and in the back pages we had 1000's of items for sale. This is where you purchased a "Canadian Kit for safe traveling." The "Green go" Gringos have been despised for a very long time. From that day on, I have made a point of challenging anyone who called me a Gringo, and correcting them.


Edit,
I forgot that a University student from Merida point out to me that many of the kits were from HK as the maple leaf had 13 points instead of 11. :lol:

 

[Lessss]

LPF please change title from "our" to "US" or "Our US gov~~~"

 

[etard]

As Dee Jay pointed out in his youtube video, it is one and the same. My government is YOUR Government, so we are in this together, unless you live in someplace like Iran or Venezuela, then you might actually be one the other team. At least they are sticking up for themselves though...

 

[Gordo]

As Dee Jay pointed out in his youtube video, it is one and the same. My government is YOUR Government, so we are in this together, unless you live in someplace like Iran or Venezuela, then you might actually be one the other team. At least they are sticking up for themselves though...

Sad, but true. We like to forget how our goon squad handled the G20 Summit in Toronto. Over 1000 arrested and very few charged. We no longer have anymore civil liberties than the rest of the western world. A few camel jockey's have shown what they could do.
But now Bin Laden is gone, all the danger is over.

 

[gestalt]

even this doesn't paint the whole picture either, still comes down to people with weapons and a uniform against the unarmed. I love seeing people stand up to authority but these kids played it like chumps trying to encircle the cops to get their friends back, someone was bound to get maced.

damn thing wont embed...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hhPdH3wE0_Y&feature=pl­ayer_embedded

 

[dkw12002]

Whenever you use mace against demonstrators, you have already lost that round. It makes the cops look like goons. Just walk around them or ride your e-bike around them even better if you don't like it. Looks like a constitutional right of assembly to me.

 

[deVries]

The really dangerous & ruthless aspect & degeneration of American society has occurred due to Wall Street & Unregulated Banks starting with the repeal of Glass Steagall in 1999. Click Here Seriously!

In the 1990's, a heroic American & presidential 3rd party candidate, H. Ross Perot warned America about so called Free Trade. That was the beginning of the end of America's middle class & its ladder for the poor to climb out of poverty. With Free Trade The Rule of Wall Street's Evil Empire began gutting America by sending our manufacturing to Mexico, China, India, all overseas just to enrich themselves committing class warfare on a national scale. Their Matrix shit-canned these now unemployed American citizens destroying whole American communities en mass! Replaced by better jobs? :lol: :lol: :lol:

These greedy sociopathic people rapidly invented new financial instruments that were bet "off the books" in publicly held companies (All the major Banks & Investment Banks.) & no reporting occurred to the shareholders w/o legal enforcement or rules to regulate it. These same criminals destroyed the mortgage industry after destroying our manufacturing base.

Always add wars & terrorism to distract the citizenry & escalate fear whenever possible, and it's no wonder America is in shambles. That's your Military Industrial Complex hard at work to tax you more & put you in debt as their wage slaves to tax at will.

Ron Paul will be another farce if he does not run as an independent. Sorry guys, he will be just another fake-out, again, IF he doesn't run as an independent.

We MUST have a 3rd party NOW in order to change the system. Guys, you have to try to do this. Don't just quit on America. It can be reborn even with your vote AND hard-real work beyond the armchair & computer screens to organize against the bastards in Congress, White House, and, mainly, imo, Wall Street & Their Bankers aka The Evil Empire of Toilet Paper Financial Instruments of Mass Destruction.

We can organize online & vote our people in. It is possible to do it. 8)

Realize you've been played. Now, just don't rollover and play the victim they pray you will be. Luke, be a Skywalker, man, it's calling for you & us now!!!

Another way we were rolled...

Honestly, I think the pacification of the US population occurred with more leisure time for cable tv & computers & the internet causing a lot of dissociation with real life & loss of relationships with people. Throw in video games & now children, teens, 20 somethings, cell phones w/texting too.

During this time frame more women entered the work force, and one result is you have more breakdowns of the family w/divorce probably now over 50% of marriages. Again, this harms people's abilities to have trusting & lasting relationships. Most women went to work initially, because the family could not be supported on one income anymore.

Life is never going to be easy wherever you go, so make the best of it where you are now. AND, damn it, try to improve it too even if we are the underdogs & may be destined to fail. Everyone of us is a dead man walking sooner or later anyway... what tale will you tell before you die? How much time have you spent directly trying to elect people you know that will not sell out & change the system vs your time watching tv, playing video games, or whatever you do that could be considered non-productive vs losing your country to anarchy & civil war... WE ARE ALREADY IN THAT WAR... so far, it's just a psych-ops semi-veiled Cold War, but it's real. Are YOU Their Matrix Frog in a Pot?

Life free or die has always been your choice. Believe me, it is never given freely by ANY ruling class anywhere, ever! Fight smartly my friends AND NEVER GIVE-UP. 8)

P.S.
I think they think they can win by printing money & getting it at zero percent to lend to us at x-percent. Then after they've neutralized or destroyed enough of us Boiling Frogs, they will just zap that excess money out of the system electronically to prevent inflation. Should a private corporation called The Fed or The Federal Reserve be allowed to do that? Next, they will hatch another sociopathic plot to scam the next generation of fools... there are always rats on this Ship of State. That's why we need term limits because power corrupts, absolutely! Force the rats to drown overboard. And, drain the swamp of lobbyists in DC by ending all private & corporate funding of congressional & presidential campaigns. Easy Pleasey You Have Your Country Back.

He who gets the last laugh wins!!! :lol: :lol:

 

[mdd0127]

WOW! Nice post!
Unfortunately, I think that the only votes that count anymore are bullets and dollars......and all of the wrong people have the dollars!

 

[deVries]

WOW! Nice post!
Unfortunately, I think that the only votes that count anymore are bullets and dollars......and all of the wrong people have the dollars!

Thanks!

Take heart my friend. You know you're not alone. Millions of Americans know there is a scam & a sham & that the system must change. Until The Evil Empire of Toilet Paper Financial Instruments tears down the Internet & cuts us off en mass, then we do have a chance to organize & vote & win. Think of all the Vets that *know* Iraq & Afghanistan was not a war of justice or a solution to our problems or even defeated our real enemies. How many of them now know war is not the solution?

For those with Internet or Cable TV I suggest watching C-SPAN at least 10 hours per week until the elections next November 2012. Watch your government at work without ANY filters from Fox News or MSNBC or CNN or Alex Jones et al (yes, AJ quotes the news filters too & creates his own filters), etc. Since Facebook is the hottest idea for now, then that may be the ideal tool to use to organize & get votes for the candidates you support.

You can get all kinds of Free Unfiltered Programs over the Internet from C-SPAN that go back years & decades. Learn about your representatives & candidates finding out about them on the C-SPAN database. If you know enough already & want change, then go find someone to run against the representatives you don't support. Actually work & spend hours every week to elect people you support.

Our votes will always be more powerful than bullets. Bullets expose the evil, and no one can justify murder over protesters & voting. Study Martin Luther King. Remember Kent State, Ruby Ridge, and the Branch Davidian children burned alive.

Or, you can just sit back and possibly watch your country burn to the ground in chaos, rioting, or revolution if that is the outcome you foresee. That is not being a Patriot to passively watch from your armchair video-tech or some mountaintop Shangri-La. Can you morally isolate yourself away in safety without a real fight for change? The Internet has The Power to transform government & society well beyond any other tool in history. 8) It is already more powerful than cable tv, propaganda news & programming fictions, books & the printing press, the 1960 protests & assassinations, or the tyranny of Police States, and, yes, bullets too.

If you know & understand the U.S. Constitution & Bill of Rights, then you know as a citizen you have a duty & an obligation to defend yourself against the tyranny of The State; and, yes, that includes anyone in government operating beyond the bounds of your rights & trampling on these sacred principles. Executive Orders by the President need to be challenged in the media & with your public debate exposing the dangerous nature these have upon or against our rights when not in states of emergency. Should we even be in a State of Emergency granting more powers & legitimacy to these Executive Orders?

You see, we still need to amend the Constitution, as it is not a perfect document. There is work to do... have you done it?

It is far better to prevent violence & act peacefully for change. Observers can never say you are the dangerous enemy if you are quashed in violence or forced imprisonment while you acted peacefully for change.

Personally, I choose only peaceful methods of change, since I believe it is far better than using any form of violence. I will be working for any 3rd party candidate for President this time around. I will never-ever trust or support the Democrats or Republicans as long as there is no viable 3rd party that wins national elections too. :wink:

The reign & realm of the two-sided coin & ring of power is dead forever! America was never founded upon ANY party system. This two-party system has been abused to dominate its citizens for the wealthy few. It's the Jim Crow system for you & me.

http://www.c-spanvideo.org/videoLibrary/

http://www.c-span.org/

You Are a Jim Crow Slave!

Amend The US Constitution Now! It Takes Time to Complete

 

[Philistine]

I don't believe in the secret cabal meeting to get Ranier Wolfcastle voted in as Governor of California, nor of them making Steve Gutenberg a star, I mean an action movie star will never be Governer of California, and Steve Gutenberg will never be a star....

But seriously, to me the most coherent explanation of our political system and its disconnection from what people "generally" want, is that of public choice theory:

Special interests

Public choice theory is often used to explain how political decision-making results in outcomes that conflict with the preferences of the general public. For example, many advocacy group and pork barrel projects are not the desire of the overall democracy. However, it makes sense for politicians to support these projects. It may make them feel powerful and important. It can also benefit them financially by opening the door to future wealth as lobbyists. The project may be of interest to the politician's local constituency, increasing district votes or campaign contributions. The politician pays little or no cost to gain these benefits, as he is spending public money. Special-interest lobbyists are also behaving rationally. They can gain government favors worth millions or billions for relatively small investments. They face a risk of losing out to their competitors if they don't seek these favors. The taxpayer is also behaving rationally. The cost of defeating any one government give-away is very high, while the benefits to the individual taxpayer are very small. Each citizen pays only a few pennies or a few dollars for any given government favor, while the costs of ending that favor would be many times higher. Everyone involved has rational incentives to do exactly what they're doing, even though the desire of the general constituency is opposite. (It is notable that the political system considered here is very much that of the United States, with "pork" a main aim of individual legislators; in countries such as Britain with strong party systems the issues would differ somewhat.) Costs are diffused, while benefits are concentrated. The voices of vocal minorities with much to gain are heard over those of indifferent majorities with little to lose.

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

There is no grand conspiracy designed to keep the poor down and the rich rich, this is just what happens when a very large group of people get together, and (necessarily) allow power to be concentrated in small places. How often have you gone to a social function with a big group of friends, and everyone throws in some money and a select group of people are chosen to spend the money on the food/booze/drugs/....hookers. Your preferences were probably only represented as a fraction of what your vote "represented". This is just people, it isn't some Grand Moment in History.

My personal fundamental views are:

1) Free Markets are good
2) Globalisation is very good
3) Free trade is good (it is actually morally good for the whole world, not just convenient to me personally)
4) THe current political system needs fixing, we need changes to regulate both lobbying/special interest influence in our political system (one good start would be to make voting compulsary in the US, and to stop campaign contributions by corporations), and we need regulation of financial markets to ensure prudentially effective markets (one good start would be the re-enactment of Glass-Stegal, and/or a true seperation of the seperate arms of banking, from research/ratings/investment - I would also suggest IPOs should be based on hourly rates of advisors work not commission based).

(Rant over)

 

[deVries]

1) Free Markets are good
2) Globalisation is very good
3) Free trade is good (it is actually morally good for the whole world, not just convenient to me personally)

Perhaps in Utopia or Shangri-La or Dubai dreams?

Since there is no such thing as Free Markets or Free Trade, this is just repeating a mantra "sound bite" by economic vampires of the embedded media controlled by the elite that control the political & propaganda process.

Globalization is very good for controlled markets & controlled trade & is just another hallucination & blue pill for the "uninformed" Matrix pods that have been given a belief system in Free Markets & Free Trade that is ultimately a new economic religion & philosophy of power & control. These materialist religions & philosophies are fully exposed by their various sponsored Think Tanks & their Propaganda Intellectuals recycled in & out of government & their lobbyist industry or Harvard-esk Ivory Towers based in DC or nearby and sponsored by Wall Street & their Bankers or the Military Industrial Complex or Oil Interests or Foreign Interests & their minions. Et al.

This "free philosophy tank warfare" is nothing but a "killing field" for lowering our wages & losing jobs in the millions with more people becoming poor in the USA to obtain perceived Free Trade "Walmart cheaper" products from the other side of the world. It's been boom times for industrial areas that have no pollution controls, where rule of law is not uniform or even in existence, where people including child labor are housed at the factory & fed on site, and the cost of goods to ship from the other side of the world is not even accounted for in the cost of many goods shipped here. This "Free Trade" process hops from country to country as greed burns out the easy pickings before having to move-on to the next set of cheap labor "victims".

These trade treaties have also signed away our national sovereignty to International Authorities beyond the American peoples' input or control including by way of our representatives in Congress or our President. Our American rights are usurped by International Authorities unaccountable to our courts & legal system. Just another power trip to take our rights away from our U.S. Constitution & Bill of Rights. Our legislators don't even write these trade treaties or even know what is in the text before voting. Do we the American people see any of this beforehand? Peons we are.

Where is the job training & replacement before sending some individual and/or family (in the millions now) to the shit pile of screw you unemployment and poverty in the name of Free Trade & Free Markets! Sounds more like communist re-education camps without the work or education to me.

The theory of Free Trade & Free Markets has not made the American people more prosperous or more secure for employment or more educated for ourselves & our children or given us a safer future with security in any aspect of life. Only the wealthy elite have done well in the last 30-40 years or more, and most of them pay less taxes with off-shore accounts & tax cuts making you their little tax & debt slaves to 'their' co-opted IRS & Tax Free Bonds too. :wink:

Wow, that's just another Trickle Down economic theory that is a pile of shit trickling down on the rest of us drip by drip.

At least using the words "trickle down" was more honest in its meaning & end result. :x

F'k Free Trade & Free Markets ... I want Fair Trade & Fair Markets & Fair Jobs for the Middle Class & Poor Too!

 

[deVries]

this gives me the willies....

who's down?

[youtube]p66hhMhA2Cs[/youtube]

From Wikipedia... Controversy Over Indefinite Detention

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Defense_Authorization_Act_for_Fiscal_Year_2012

Section 1021 and 1022 have been called a violation of constitutional principles and of the Bill of Rights.[29] Internationally, the UK-based newspaper The Guardian has described the legislation as allowing indefinite detention "without trial [of] American terrorism suspects arrested on US soil who could then be shipped to Guantánamo Bay;"[30] Al Jazeera has written that the Act "gives the US military the option to detain US citizens suspected of participating or aiding in terrorist activities without a trial, indefinitely."[31] The official Russian international radio broadcasting service Voice of Russia has compared the Act to legislation passed by the Third Reich;[32] the Act has been opposed by the ACLU and Human Rights Watch, and received criticism from The New York Times,[33] and other news organizations.[34][35]

On December 31 and after signing the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012 into law, President Obama issued a statement on it that addressed "certain provisions that regulate the detention, interrogation, and prosecution of terrorism suspects." In the statement Obama maintains that "the legislation does nothing more than confirm authorities that the Federal courts have recognized as lawful under the 2001 AUMF. I want to clarify that my Administration will not authorize the indefinite military detention without trial of American citizens. [...] My Administration will interpret section 1021 in a manner that ensures that any detention it authorizes complies with the Constitution, the laws of war, and all other applicable law. [...] As my Administration has made clear, the only responsible way to combat the threat al-Qa'ida poses is to remain relentlessly practical, guided by the factual and legal complexities of each case and the relative strengths and weaknesses of each system. Otherwise, investigations could be compromised, our authorities to hold dangerous individuals could be jeopardized, and intelligence could be lost. I will not tolerate that result, and under no circumstances will my Administration accept or adhere to a rigid across-the-board requirement for military detention."[36]

The American Civil Liberties Union has responded that despite claims by the Obama Administration to the contrary, "The statute contains a sweeping worldwide indefinite detention provision... [without] temporal or geographic limitations, and can be used by this and future presidents to militarily detain people captured far from any battlefield." The ACLU furthermore commented that "While President Obama issued a signing statement saying he had 'serious reservations' about the provisions, the statement only applies to how his administration would use the authorities granted by the NDAA," and maintains that "the breadth of the NDAA’s detention authority violates international law because it is not limited to people captured in the context of an actual armed conflict as required by the laws of war."[37]

 

[Philistine]

Yes, let's go back to total protectionism, that has worked well for everybody, particularly the darker coloured people of the world.

The theory of Free Trade & Free Markets has not made the American people more prosperous or more secure for employment or more educated for ourselves & our children or given us a safer future with security in any aspect of life

I wasn't suggesting it was necessarily all that good for you (the US), I was suggesting it is fair and equitable for the world. Personally I think national sovereignty is a pile of shit. Arbitrarily drawing a border around "where my parents chose to f*ck" to me seems morally indefensible (but a practical necessity - I grant that, but not one I can ontologically maintain).

The west thoroughly enjoyed the bit where we all got plasma TVs and cheap Nikes, but god forbid that the rest of the developing world gets an equal shoe up.

You are right Devries, the US should continue using the 301 Trade process to punish developing countries who won't play ball to maintain the bloated unsustainable American middle class. It's really a good thing that the US reprsents 5% of the world population but uses 25% of the worlds energy resources. Tears are streaming down my face for the unfairness that the US has had to face of late, and we should use US military and trade muscle to ensure that the arbitrary game of national borders is maintained, and that every American gets their right to their fourth Plasma TV. To paraphrase Ali G, "there is some kids in the US ghettos, who is so poor, dey have to wear Reeboks, and dey have never owned a pair of Adidas"......

EDIT:

Since there is no such thing as Free Markets or Free Trade, this is just repeating a mantra "sound bite" by economic vampires of the embedded media controlled by the elite that control the political & propaganda process.

That makes as much sense as saying "our democracy is currently not a democracy, so democracy is a pile of crap "sound bite" by the embedded media". What is it you propose in the alternative? Yes our democracy needs work, it isn't working properly, that doesn't mean you shove it in the junk pile of failed political philosophy. Equally, yes, we don't have "free markets" in the world, that is my very point, we need them.

 

[deVries]

Yes, let's go back to total protectionism, that has worked well for everybody, particularly the darker coloured people of the world.

I don't think anyone is suggesting this idea including me.

The west thoroughly enjoyed the bit where we all got plasma TVs and cheap Nikes, but god forbid that the rest of the developing world gets an equal shoe up.

As indicated in a previous post, Fair Trade is a good thing. I don't support Trade Treaties that allow for slash & burn destruction of either country's populations or environment to enrich wealthy elites on both sides whilst ignoring the damage such trade disruptions cause to the poor & middle class & damage to their environment. That's why I rephrased the idea of Free Trade to contrast it with idea of Fair Trade. Free Trade is wedded to slash & burn ... FT is embedded in our media & political mantras, and it's why I compared it to Trickle Down Economics -another evil dominance idea, imo.

You are right Devries, the US should continue using the 301 Trade process to punish developing countries who won't play ball to maintain the bloated unsustainable American middle class. It's really a good thing that the US reprsents 5% of the world population but uses 25% of the worlds energy resources. Tears are streaming down my face for the unfairness that the US has had to face of late, and we should use US military and trade muscle to ensure that the arbitrary game of national borders is maintained, and that every American gets their right to their fourth Plasma TV. To paraphrase Ali G, "there is some kids in the US ghettos, who is so poor, dey have to wear Reeboks, and dey have never owned a pair of Adidas"......

None of my ideas fit or agree within your suggestive context above that "You are right Devries", and then imply I am proposing such concepts or beliefs that follow. I do not agree with anything you wrote above if you are suggesting that is what I believe.

Since there is no such thing as Free Markets or Free Trade, this is just repeating a mantra "sound bite" by economic vampires of the embedded media controlled by the elite that control the political & propaganda process.

That makes as much sense as saying "our democracy is currently not a democracy, so democracy is a pile of crap "sound bite" by the embedded media". What is it you propose in the alternative? Yes our democracy needs work, it isn't working properly, that doesn't mean you shove it in the junk pile of failed political philosophy. Equally, yes, we don't have "free markets" in the world, that is my very point, we need them.

As explained, Fair! Trade!

Free Trade or Free Markets have far too negative a connotation in the USA when abused by political ideologies. H. Ross Perot understood. Why don't you? :wink:

 

[deVries]

[youtube]3sub3IIqvcU[/youtube]

Hey, you can get arrested for blowing a soap bubble in the air & it lands on the police "man"

Pay 10 cents at a "peoples' park lemonade stand" for a lemonade & the seller is arrested.

Now let's see Grandma being groped in her wheelchair & underwear at the airport, since she might be a terrorist. Frackers!

Police State :x

 

[Harold in CR]

What all y'all are not remembering is, All of us Veterans were trained to return to our homes with as limited damage to our bodies as possible. Some didn't make it back alive. Others have serious injuries. But, there are millions of us that remember how we existed and made it back alive.

Regardless, a nice AR15, M-16, 30-06, .223, etc., all varmint rifles, and many other types of arms, will be unleashed on these fat poorly trained goons, that taze and arrest grandmothers defending their families, teen skateboarders and other people, that the goons don't realize who the families of those beaten down, really are. When the Militias and veterans have had enough, it is going to be a really bad scene in the USA.

For anyone that thinks this can't happen, just bide your time and pay attention. Once public support drops from protecting these poor goon Police, and starts backing Joe Public, it's going to be the beginning of the second Revolution in the USA. First, the large camps being constructed will need to be destroyed. Then, they can't lock up everyone. It's sad and getting worse.

 

[Philistine]

Philistine wrote:Yes, let's go back to total protectionism, that has worked well for everybody, particularly the darker coloured people of the world.

I don't think anyone is suggesting this idea including me.

Devries, how exactly is it that you are going to stop manufacturing in the US from moving to Mexico, China and India, without engaging protectionism?

With Free Trade The Rule of Wall Street's Evil Empire began gutting America by sending our manufacturing to Mexico, China, India, all overseas just to enrich themselves committing class warfare on a national scale.

Call me crazy, but that is where I got it from.

Devries can I take a punt that you have never visited a developing country? Have you ever spent time (I mean in a real home, with real people) in a developing country?

Do you have any idea about US foreign policy in relation to the Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property (TRIPS), and the US using the 301 trade process to stop Indians and Africans from "breaching" US pharmecutical patents (to save the lives of their own people)? This isn't the "fat cats" on Wall Street - this is your Government.

As indicated in a previous post, Fair Trade is a good thing. I don't support Trade Treaties that allow for slash & burn destruction of either country's populations or environment to enrich wealthy elites on both sides whilst ignoring the damage such trade disruptions cause to the poor & middle class & damage to their environment. That's why I rephrased the idea of Free Trade to contrast it with idea of Fair Trade.

Free trade is fair trade, because the minute that you get to choose what is "fair", guess what? You make it unfair for the next guy. If you doubt that, go look at the US behaviour in relation to IP and TRIPS. That isn't because the US are a c&nt of a government, that is because, guess what? They are self interested, just like everyone else, that is why we need true freedom. It is the same reason we need "freedom of speech", because the minute we let someone decide what is "fair" speech, mine (and lots of others) pie holes get shut.

EDIT: I really want to nail home this point, it astounds me that Americans (of all people), don't get the importance of Free Trade. It is simply ontologically incoherent, and deductively false, to attempt to maintain that a civic polity should have freedom of speech, without freedom of international trade. FFS, you protect the concept of interstate freedom of trade, but magically the minute you leave Federal sovereignty the concepts evaporate into thin air? If you believe in the underlying principles of the US Constitution, then you MUST, support free trade. Maybe you don't support the US Constitution? I don't know. Personally I think the US Constitution is one of the most beautiful documents ever created by man (certainly miles better that that POS the Bible), I wish it was Australia's Constitution (ours is a steaming pile of crap), but I scratch my head sometimes at the inanity and spoilt brat ideas that come out of (what I consider) the second best country in the world (which has the best Constitution).