The American Dream: You have to be asleep to believe it!

  For most of my life, most of the people I have known have spent very little time or effort thinking about the World. They spend a little time in front of a newspaper, or watch the the TV news. They kinda' pay attention to what is being told. If they think about what they are hearing, they generally believe they are getting a "fair and balanced" view on whatever the subject happens to be. Rarely do they do anything resembling independent investigation of what they are told. Rarely do they even stop to think about the fact that powerful interests are deciding what they hear or see.
  I must admit, I have been guilty of this behavior myself. It is understandable how we fall into this easy acceptance. The news is generally bad news. Pondering the constant stream of depressing news, tends to be just that, depressing. We are all understandably more focused on our personal lives and the problems we face up close. We would rather focus on something fun and enjoyable, and that is what most of us have always done, and prefer to do.
  For the Second half of the Twentieth Century, this was an even easier paradigm to embrace because by historical human standards, or by current world living conditions the American population had it real good. There was plenty of "slack" in the economic chain, small and incremental losses were more theoretical than personal. Most often problems were somebody else's and not our own.
  Those days are over. While we have been asleep at the wheel, generally luvin' our countless and pointless distractions,  amoral, greedy power-mongers have been busy stacking the deck against us, and humanity itself. There is no longer any "slack in the chain".  If you care about your future, more importantly if you care about your children and humanity itself, it is time to get in the game. If you are still breathing it is not too late.
  I am including two links here, the first is George Carlin speaking from his heart, trying to awaken us from our self-indulgent slumber. The second is a documentary detailing another way that our elections are being purchased. Or despite the money changing hands, how they are being stolen. I hope you will invest a little of yourself, in you and your children's future.





This next video is a must see for anyone who cares about free,fair and open elections. It is produced by HBO, and titled HACKING DEMOCRACY.

Dismantling The Empire

Mr. Chalmers Johnson is an astute thinker and well respected author. He has spent his life exploring and researching the inter-twined realms of Economics, International Relations, and Politics.
Here is an excerpt from his latest book:
 Thirty-five years from now, America's official century of being top dog (1945-2045) will have come to an end; its time may, in fact, be running out right now. We are likely to begin to look ever more like a giant version of England at the end of its imperial run, as we come face-to-face with, if not necessarily to terms with, our aging infrastructure, declining international clout, and sagging economy. It may, for all we know, still be Hollywood's century decades from now, and so we may still make waves on the cultural scene, just as Britain did in the 1960s with the Beatles and Twiggy. Tourists will undoubtedly still visit some of our natural wonders and perhaps a few of our less scruffy cities, partly because the dollar-exchange rate is likely to be in their favor.

If, however, we were to dismantle our empire of military bases and redirect our economy toward productive, instead of destructive, industries; if we maintained our volunteer armed forces primarily to defend our own shores (and perhaps to be used at the behest of the United Nations); if we began to invest in our infrastructure, education, health care, and savings, then we might have a chance to reinvent ourselves as a productive, normal nation. Unfortunately, I don't see that happening. Peering into that foggy future, I simply can't imagine the U.S. dismantling its empire voluntarily, which doesn't mean that, like all sets of imperial garrisons, our bases won't go someday.