Who's the enemy?

[BO]

I think we can all agree that US democracy has been successfully extinguished. And it's probable that other western countries will follow suit as more conservative leaders are placed in office globally.

Chris Hedges and Sheldon Wolin call the resulting new form of government, "Inverted Totalitarianism."

Considering that voting has become meaningless and the rule of law in the US has become nothing but a joke, how does a concerned citizen fight back?

In the past, totalitarian governments were lead by individuals who espoused a particular political ideology, now we have a entire system of corruption and subversion designed to enrich the ruling class. And considering its success, the system has worked well for its intended benefactors.

The question is: who's really behind the subversion of our democracy? What is their ultimate goal? Conspiracy theories abound--many espoused by the lunatic fringe. But many seem to warrant further investigation.

I started this thread in the interest of ferreting out who the primary players behind our enslavement are. What are their goals, and how do we expose them? Imagining you could do something, what should be done with them?

BO wants to know.

[BO]

That Peacock dance video is amazing. Scary good. The woman must have peacock in her DNA.

[waldopaper]

Check out this 11/05/2013 post from Rude Pundit:   

"I'm not a lazy stupid slacker. I'm not a 'taker,' not a moocher. I'm a person who can't find a job, who can't make enough money to make it anymore. I'm 57 and have realized, after more than 100 applications and even 12 interviews, that no matter how talented or educated or motivated I am, no one will hire me because I am 57." 

That's right.  Because only-place-in-the-world-who-does-this ties "healthcare" to your "employer."  Oh, and the teabaggers think they're ripe for "revolution" because "socialism."  They think they'll march on Washington with their little pop-guns and replace "Obama."  Probably won't happen... and if it ever starts, they'll be hosed off the streets with laser/ microwave and other fun (and really expensive) stuff that is already operational and deployed. 

So forget the baggers' candyland fantasy for a moment.  Yeah, it's difficult because we have been living in it for at least a decade.  But that's coming apart..  Half the US now lives at or below the (technical) "poverty level."  The REAL "revolution" is happening right now... on your phone.  And facebook... and twitter and all that other crap for which some of us have neither the time or patience.  Take down the phones/ internet? 

Not likely.  As Marx said, "...the capitalists will sell us the rope we'll use to hang them," or something like that.  It's happening now.  Why watch the "spectacle" when you can create your own.  Most of the screens in the casino and on the airplanes were playing "football."  I did not see ONE smart-phone screen doing that.  Usually geometrical games... or texting... or facebook pages... or reading.   

Maybe THIS time they'll have a war and nobody will come.  Old hippie dream... I know. 

[waldopaper]

addenda: "audience-based prose."  It used to cause all kinds of annoyance and grief... until finally figuring out an angle on it:  "fake it until you make it."  Met several Biology majors who claimed to "...not believe in evolution."  They were undergraduates... and I have no idea whether they got through school or not.  But if they did, betcha that's how they did it. 

We all know people who told the bosses what they wanted to hear until they (the teller) actually believed it.  Hm.  Maybe is exactly what I am doing now. 

[pan]

Does Bibi talk to his guys before blurting out?

[waldopaper]

Holocaust Survivors Struggle To Survive on Pittance in Israel

What's a pittance?  According to this story... about $520 a month.  Yeah.  That's a pittance.  While the Likudniks are building bunkers out of tanks,,, the last real witnesses gotta eat cat food,  nice. 

What is a quisling?  They write books like When Did White Trash Become the New Normal? A Southern Lady Asks the Impertinent Question.   Yep,, mum.  We all sold out to the Nazis. 

“There are, I thus adduce, two keys to not being White Trash: having a job and paying your bills on time,” 

Trains run on time too. 

[pan]

Too bad Bageant isn't alive to reply to that bitch.

Really sad that Israel appears to disregard the Holocaust survivors who provided its initial (and continuing) reason for being.  But then, creating a Nationalist ideology based in ethnic purity forged out of years of suffering that is expressed as militaristic imperialism, wasn't that done before?  And shouldn't the Jews have known better, based upon their experience with the Aryan version of that?

Meanwhile, at one of my alma maters.

[BO]

“With or without religion, you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion.” 

“Maybe at the very bottom of it... I really don't like God. You know, it's silly to say I don't like God because I don't believe in God, but in the same sense that I don't like Iago, or the Reverend Slope or any of the other villains of literature, the god of traditional Judaism and Christianity and Islam seems to me a terrible character. He's a god who will... who obsessed the degree to which people worship him and anxious to punish with the most awful torments those who don't worship him in the right way. Now I realise that many people don't believe in that any more who call themselves Muslims or Jews or Christians, but that is the traditional God and he's a terrible character. I don't like him.”
― Steven Weinberg

[pan]

Reading a book on Machiavelli.  He was an atheist - or at least he had no time for the Church's morality.  He believed that the highest level of human endeavor was political as it served the polis.  He also believed that success in politics required an ability to act swiftly and decisively with amoral, or even immoral, behavior.

While I agree with your Weinberg's assessment on the use of religion to rationalize amoral/immoral behavior, it isn't a prerequisite.  There are some who still idolize Stalin and rationalize his purges as necessary for the coming paradise of the worker......I suppose one could identify the extreme ideological faith in the "science of Marxism" as a religion though.

[BO]

I agree with your observations, Pan. To blame religion for all of man's failings is too easy. It's only symptomatic of the seemingly ubquitous human pathology that underlays the 'them vs us' mentality that can be applied in any number of scenarios -- whether it be race, religion, sports, politics, or simply, elitism. It's probably a base human emotion to view all 'others' as a threat -- a remnant of evolution that helped guarantee survival in the past. Unfortunatenly, it's that same regressive emotion that assures our extinction now.

Happy Thanksgiving!

 

[BO]

Then again, how 'bout we just chalk the whole thing up to stupidity. There…I guess I'm just being an elitist intellectual snob. Please lord, make NY sink into the sea.

http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/macy-thanksgiving-day-parade-ba...

[BO]

and one more thing…don't forget to pour the gravy down your pants.

Anther Thansgiving article about 'them vs us' from Wonkette. Hillarious. Especially, the reader comments…

It’s Thanksgiving Day, so as we gather together with (or hide from) our families, however functional or dysfunctional they may be, let us remember the true meaning of any American holiday: It’s an opportunity to pound home a political lesson about why We Are Good and They Are Bad. It’s a revered grim tradition: You serve Susan Stamberg’s socialist NPR cranberry relish, and your Teabagger brother-in-law recites how the settlers of Plymouth Plantation nearly starved because they had socialism forced upon them, but finally prospered after they became capitalists.
Read more at http://wonkette.com/535396/sorry-mr-limbaugh-thanksgiving-has-never...

[pan]

Is it me or has the  whole whip up the shopping frenzy for Black Friday media thingy really spiraled out of control in an exponential fashion?

Thanks for posting the W.S. Burroughs Prayer.  It has been a tradition of mine to listen to it every year and I nearly forgot this time.