What will be the breaking point that finally wakes this country up?

[RagingInMiami]

Let's face it, those of us who post on DU are a minority as far those who keep up with the real issues. Most Americans are just content going to work and living their daily lives, believing whatever the media tells them to believe, if they even bother to watch the news at all.

Those who don't even watch the news and don't vote are even more clueless than those who drink the Kool-Aid.

Meanwhile, more and more Americans are left without health insurance or insurance they can barely afford.

More and more Americans are finding they are unable to buy a house or qualify for a home loan.

More and more Americans are finding they have about as much job security as an illegal immigrant during a drought.

Let's just say Alito gets confirmed. And the war continues without a draft. And Roe vs Wade gets reversed. And they find a new way to steal the election (just like they did in 2004).

And the media and other corporations continue their conglomerate course where one day we find ourselves getting information from one company.

Where one day we find ourselves applying for loans from one bank, and buying our prescriptions and groceries from one company (the store might have a different name but it will be owned by the same company).

Where your children are required to recite the lord's prayer after the Pledge of Allegiance every morning.

Where the internet becomes highly regulated and monitored to the point where you're required to have a "license" if you want to dispense news or post blogs.

Where surveillance on citizens not only becomes the norm, but accepted.

Where anybody, including children, can be strip-searched at any moment.

Where homosexuals are dragged from their homes in the middle of the night, and anybody who speaks out against the government disappears without a trace.

What do you think will be the breaking point that finally wakes this country up?

[ixion]

1. if history serves

they'll wake up after it's too late. :-(

[1620rock]

5. ...as long as they have a 6 pack and a TeeVee, they don't care.

[Swamp Rat]

2. When they take away my X-Box 3000!

:cry: ... or whatever they're called.

[Hope springs eternal]

3. Capitalism turing into.....COMMUNISUM!

Freepers are COMMUNISTS!!!!!

[RagingInMiami]

7. Fascism and Communism

are much closer than they would like us to believe.

[tavalon]

87. I don't see the communism

But the fascism is already here and the apparatus for totalitarianism is well on its way.

[Selatius]

91. Stalin, one could argue, was a state capitalist

In such a society, all the means of production belong to the state. Stalin and his inner-circle benefit far above anybody else would in such a system even though they claim that resources are shared by everybody and that their actions are done for the good of all. If my characterization is true, then the Soviet or Chinese models are about as far away from the definition of socialism as one could get. Socialism simply means the common management of resources for everybody's benefit as opposed to it being administered by a small number of people who claim ownership and control over it for private gain. "Common management" is the key. There is no socialism if there is no democracy.

[stepnw1f]

10. Well... USSR Wiretapped It's People

and they were extremely intolerant to people who disagreed with them as well. He sure act like the USSR communists, don't they?

[IChing]

33. China is a totalitarian capitalist communistic country

Capitalism = democracy is a myth

China: Capitalism Doesn't Require Democracy
by Robert B. Reich

China: Capitalism Doesn't Require Democracy
by Robert B. Reich

You may remember when the world was divided between communism and capitalism, and when the Chinese were communists. The Chinese still call themselves communists, but now they’re also capitalists.
In fact, visit China today and you find the most dynamic capitalist nation in the world. In 2005, it had the distinction of being the world’s fastest-growing major economy.

China is the manufacturing hub of the globe. It’s is also moving quickly into the highest of high technologies. It already graduates more computer engineers every year than the United States.
Its cities are booming. There are more building cranes in use today in China than in all of the United States. China’s super-highways are filled with modern cars. Its deep-water ports and airports are world class. Its research and development centers are state of the art. At the rate its growing, in three decades China will be the largest economy in the world.

Communist, as in communal? Are you kidding? The gap between China’s rich and poor is turning into a chasm. China’s innovators, investors, and captains of industry are richly rewarded. They live in luxury housing developments whose streets are lined with McMansions. The feed in fancy restaurants, and relax in five-star hotels and resorts. China’s poor live in a different world. Mao Tse Tung would turn in his grave.

So where are the Chinese communists? They’re in government. The communist party is the only party there is. China doesn’t have freedom of speech or freedom of the press. It doesn’t tolerate dissent. Authorities can arrest and imprison people who threaten stability, as the party defines it. Any group that dares to protest is treated brutally. There are no civil liberties, no labor unions, no centers of political power outside the communist party.>>>>snip

http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0110-42.htm

[pberq]

68. Very interesting article - thanks for posting

[gordianot]

74. They call it neo-liberalism in South America.

Not that Corporate elites do not exist also in Communist or Socialist Countries. I do not make much distinction between a State owned Corporation or a Corporation that owns a State (U.S. model). The neo liberal definition fits well into what we have been calling neo-con. I wonder how George Bush would like to be called a neo-liberal? See the attached Wikipedia Defintion of Neo Liberal.

see link:

Typically, Neoliberalism refers to a political-economic philosophy that de-emphasizes or rejects government intervention in the domestic economy. It focuses on free-market methods, fewer restrictions on business operations, and property rights. In foreign policy, neoliberalism favors the opening of foreign markets by political means, using economic pressure, diplomacy, and/or military intervention. Opening of markets refers to free trade and an international division of labor. Neoliberalism generally favors multilateral political pressure, through managed-trade cartels such as the WTO and World Bank. It promotes reducing the role of national governments to a minimum. Neoliberalism favours the trickle-down theory over social programs, and measures success in overall economic gain. To improve corporate efficiency, it strives to reject or mitigate labour policies such as minimum wage, and collective bargaining rights.

It opposes social democracy and socialism, protectionism, and environmentalism in foreign markets. Domestically, it doesn't oppose protectionism in principle, but rather uses it as a bargaining chip to induce foreign countries to open up. Neoliberalism is often at odds with fair trade and other movements that argue that labor rights and social justice should have a greater priority in international relations and economics.

[0rganism]

85. Eh? Wake me up when the workers control the means of production

I don't see much merit in conflating corporate-sponsored authoritarianism with communism, China's "free market zones" notwithstanding.

[Trevelyan]

4. PNAC said they were going to use the Soviet model - read Solzhenitsen

People let whole blockfuls of people including children be taken to the labor camps if one person was caught criticizing Stalin.

[rzemanfl]

6. I'm almost afraid to say this, but I think it will be the next "terrorist"

attack. Which way the country will swing at that point I don't know.

[firefox]

8. When the right person says "The Empire has no clothes."

I think it will come in a defining moment much as the person standing in front of the tank at Tiananmen Square, except it will be a person that wears his heart on his sleeve with a "The country has gone to hell" speech. It will break all media restraints much like the "Miracle on Ice" did in the Montreal Olympics of 1976.

It may well be a head of state like Chavez or Morales and if Israel bombs Iran it could be Putin that gives the speech that leads to the winner.

[sarcasmo]

44. I feel if you could get a bunch of hackers together to over ride the

satellites. Twenty-Four hours of the truth on the big three networks with NO SPIN and all the fact would wake people up. Have one person speak the truth on all three networks on say like Thursday during sweeps and the country should awake to the stupidity that is this Regime.
If you listen closely this administration uses the word Regime change often. This current administration believe that it is the perfect Regime. We the people can change it we just need to use technology to make the change.

[Dinger]

9. Can't Say . . .

I'll get into a tad of trouble. You know what I mean.

[Faux pas]

11. When there's a national curfew and the military is

policing the streets in Everytown, USA. Like the person up above said, when it's too late.

[Lost-in-FL]

12. With mandatory military service for ages 18 to 23 yrs

Trust me on that one. They will leave the clubs to protest... just like in the 70's.

[alittlelark]

17. That's the one that will do it.

Republicans will abandon the party in droves if that happens. It won't. They recognize the fallout. They will instead utilize stop-loss orders and the Nat. Guard. They recognize that they are burned out, and would rather not have them coming home to add $$$ to the VA needs.

[AndyTiedye]

24. I Wouldn't Be So Sure About That

They want to invade Iran.
Ultimately, they want the whole middle east.
They cannot even think of doing that without militarizing the entire country.

There would always be champagne units for the well-connected.

[stanwyck]

30. middle-class moms ended the Viet Nam

War. Not the protestors in the streets. No. Middle-class moms and dads who lost their sons. The majority supported the war in Viet Nam until it became clear we couldn't "win". Just as we have no idea how to "win" in Iraq. Maybe when the newly elected government kicks us out? Is that when we "win"? And our oil companies have to watch as their oil wells are confiscated by the new Islamic regime? What does "winning" look like?
This administration has no idea what to do next.

[gordianot]

76. One problem with invading Iran.

A war with Iran will be a nuclear war even if no nuclear weapons are used. Sink an American Nuclear Carrier and breach the reactor, nuclear disaster without a bomb. Blow up Iranian reactor you have a lot of nasty nuclear waste.

[yurbud]

92. draft is the political atom bomb, but they will use a real A bomb

to get it.

They think that after another terror attack bigger than 9/11, people will tolerate the draft.

I hope they are wrong, and that they either fear defections in the military and CIA too much to do it OR they try and the military or CIA blows the whistle.

[Sarah Ibarruri]

13. HUNGER nt

[SledDriver]

14. They won't...

Sadly, most will never wake up and realize what's going on, even after it's too late.
They can't be bothered.

[Burried News]

15. Three dollar a gallon gas, a cold winter and one more year. nt

[European Socialist]

16. When the bills come due and the people find that Chimpy has....

looted the treasury much more than what they thought.

[Nikki Stone 1]

18. Something in your post reminded me of the old Twilight Zone episode

The one where the aliens come to earth with their manifesto entitled "To Serve Man". The aliens convince the Earthlings that they are there to help. They gain the trust of Earthlings to such an extent, that Earth people actually board the alien spaceship to visit the alien planet. As these "sheeple" board the craft, a librarian comes running with the alien book in hand. She is desperately yelling "To Serve Man is a COOKBOOK!", but it's too late.

One assumes the sheeple became dinner. One assumes that they will become dinner now.

[maxsolomon]

112. hey, that was sampled in the Simpsons!

Kodos & Kang took the Simpsons abord their ship, and Lisa found a book "How to Cook" actally said "How to Cook Humans". Then the cook pointed out that it said "How to Cook for Forty Humans", got offended, & returned them to Earth.

i never knew...

[TransitJohn]

19. When

their grandmothers are carted off in the dead of night in an extraordinary rendition to be held indefinitely without criminal charges being filed in a foreign country and tortured, because they were health care activists.

[BiggJawn]

20. When you take away their Cable Teeeeee-Veeeeee...

"Gee.....Take back my country, or watch '48 Hours of Homer Simpson'....This is HARD!"

[Chipper Chat]

21. When California, Oregon, & Washington vote to secede.

Followed by New York, Vermont, Massachsetts and Minnesota.
And?

[RagingInMiami]

26. South Florida

[Chipper Chat]

46. Jebbie may have other ideas about that.

I winter in Cocoa Beach - we wanna be blue too!

[Pacifist Patriot]

77. Amen! Brevard has GOT to go blue.

I'm concerned about the U.S. Rep race. The challenger against Weldon is a real light weight and a DINO. Blech!

[Chipper Chat]

100. Plus he has BIG ties to DeLay!

The coast is faily blue, but you should read some of the fundie letters to the editor from people from Merritt Island and Palm Bay!

[Pacifist Patriot]

105. I'm so hoping that will be Weldon's downfall.

I've heard rumors of two other men in Brevard County who are considering filing to run on the Democrat ticket. The fundie letters in Florida Today are mind blowing. Palm Bay is an interesting place. It's got some of our bluest precincts along with pockets of freepers. How they can elect Helen Voltz to the County Commission continues to amaze me. I'm looking forward to seeing Pritchard go down in flames in November. Despite the money base he's got in Merritt Island I think he's out of there.

[no_hypocrisy]

22. Another Depression. And semi-rich people and fairly rich people lose

their wealth, money, jobs, status (e.g., their wives can't afford Botox and go shopping at Whole Foods). When rich people "suffer", THEN it's a national emergency. And they will lose their jobs when 85% of the population can't afford to buy anything, reducing demand, increasing inventory, and there is no capital to rob from them.

[AndyTiedye]

23. The People Are Awake, But They Are Still Drinking the Koolade Because...

...in most of the country that is all there is to drink.

The people are awake, and they are pissed.

That hasn't helped us one bit.

Their fear and anger can always be redirected against some hapless minority
as long as the regime has the media working with them.

[jzodda]

25. I think we are a long long way from waking up

Lets face it we are a "dummied down" nation now. People are happily ignorant, happily uninformed. Not one of my family or friends could name for me the Majority leader of the US Senate or the Minority leader for that matter. The people who are interested in whats going on is shockingly low. More people watch the West wing each week then know whats going on in the real one.

The media is totally in bed with this strategy of keeping us this way, since they lost their independence long ago

[calico1]

29. I agree. The number of fat, happy, stupid

people is mind boggling. It is difficult to find a person capable of an intelligent conversation about what is going on in the country and the world. As long as they can shop, watch Desperate Housewives and play with their XBox, all is well. People don't have a clue and are not interested in getting a clue. Perhaps when martial law is installed and the tanks roll down the street or when people getting shot on sight becomes a common sight then maybe they will come out of their state of contented stupor. And even then I am not sure it will happen.

[leftofthedial]

27. when one serving of fast food costs more than an hour of minimum wage

when NASCAR and the NFL are shut down

I don't think any of your suggestions above will matter to Murkans


as long as "food" is cheap and entertainment is ubiquitous, Murkans will grunt, fart, remain contentedly ignorant and continue not participating in their political system.

"Bread and circuses" is a method well understood by fascists since the days of the Roman Empire.

[PWRinNY]

28. When our borders break

And the rest of the pissed off world invades us from the north and the south...

[stanwyck]

31. When we find out who was illegally wire-tapped

and, guess what, it's not people with ties to terrorist cells. But people who support Greenpeace. Give money to the ACLU. Or have written critical LTTEs.
It's the soccer coach. Or the UPS driver. Or the cute young woman sitting in the next cube.
That's when that squishy middle will truly understand what a nationalistic, fascist government we have.
Hey, Bush was turned down by his own little secret courts for the wiretaps he wanted. He tapped anyway.
So. Who were his targets?
We need to find out.

[raccoon]

32. Raging, do you write? Sounds like you could come up with a

good dystopian near-future SF story/novella/novel about the US.

[RagingInMiami]

35. I'm a writer

A reporter by trade, a poet enraged, a screenwriter waiting for his break.

[raccoon]

59. Maybe you'd think about writing something with a setting such

as your post described.

[RagingInMiami]

90. I've thought about it for the setting of my second screenplay.

The first screenplay is a very cynical look at the newspaper business and I'm currently trying to sell it.

But the idea for the second screenplay, which I envision entitled "American Apocalypse", is along those lines. I wrote five minutes into it and I haven't touched it since because I've been busy with other projects, not to mention obsessing over the state of the nation.

I appreciate the fact that you saw that as a potential premise for a novel or a movie because it surely is.

[IChing]

34. To answer the OP it's when the truth of 9-11 is revealed

and they realize that there is a monster in the room.

[RagingInMiami]

109. That might never happen

If it's anything like the Kennedy assassination investigation and theories.

[IChing]

114. FREE DVD "CONFRONTING THE EVIDENCE "ALSO $1 MILLION DOLLAR REWARD

From reopen 911

http://www.reopen911.org/index.htm

DVD at this link:
https://secure.reopen911.org/freedvd.php

[Touchdown]

36. A couple of centuries from now.

Unfortunately, feudalism is the most resilient, and stable of all political systems in human history, and as long as the "bread and circuses" continue, the majority of people can be placated indefinitely. Tyrrany of the rich, aristocratic "ownership society", over the terrified peasantry who have nothing, and work until death.

All these other terms...fascism, autocracies, monarchies, dictatorships, merchantilism, laises faire capitalism, etc...are just different faces of feudalism. The one constant is the rich and powerful will seek to control everybody else, and they usually succeed.

Only when another Thomas Payne, or Martin Luthor (the german monk, but the civil rights Reverend also works) comes around will we begin to wake up. Democracy requires stewardship, but when you spend 12 hours a day working, and are dead tired, there is no more time or energy for pondering the solutions of society. It's exactly where the aristocracy wants us, and is using religion to do it. Tired and stupid, worshipping a God that will reward us in another life, because we ain't getting anything in this one.

[hatrack]

37. $4.00 gasoline, 20% stock market slump, and 12% unemployment

That is, 12% unemployment that even the Telewhores can't hide.

Until such time, I'm not holding my breath.

[jhain]

48. must agree

the repub voters start paying what europeans pay for gas- they might look around a bit.

And damn, this thread depressed me.........

It is so true
and pathetic.

[hatrack]

88. Yeah, Bush taking a big ol' smelly dump on the Constitution doesn't matter

Going to endless war for weapons of mass destruction which don't exist, shredding workplace protections & pension guarantees, running up debt to a degree never before seen in the history of human civilization, ripping off taxpayers to the tune of literally billions of dollars, obliterating the line of separation between church and state, flattening environmental laws, allowing millions of high-wage jobs to migrate to China and India, branding political rivals "enemies" while perfecting the art of lying blatantly about terror threats, stealing elections, turning Washington DC into a gigantic trough where all the little piggies can wee wee wee all the way home on our money - none of these issues apparently matter.

But high-priced gasoline - wooo! Look out below if THAT comes back - tidal wave of RIGHTEOUS VOTER ANGER if that happens.

:eyes:

[Solly Mack]

38. Stolen elections didn't do it. Illegal war didn't do it. War crimes ain't

doing it. A President that is well on his way to being a Tyrant in name, as well as actions, ain't doing it. Mass corruption in Congress ain't doing it. Attacks to the pocketbook ain't doing it. Katrina response didn't do it. Outrage upon outrage...and the country still slumbers in halcyon dreams of American greatness.

Ain't nothing waking those people up...

[IChing]

39. "The American dream you have to be asleep to live it." N/T

[Solly Mack]

43. Exactly

it's the only place where it's real...in your dreams

[Karenina]

50. DUCK AND COVER!!!

Hey girlfriend! :loveya:

[Solly Mack]

55. Hey!

Folks way too comfortable with being crapped on by their government. Government done taught them to like it - to think it "normal"

[Karenina]

72. YUP!

[cry baby]

40. I don't have any reason to believe that it will wake up.

The only thing that seems to move people is gas prices. If that goes up to $5 then we might see something. We don't have a free press to tell people what is really going on, so they are uninformed and immobile.

[RagingInMiami]

41. And even with that, they can control the masses

By raising the prices right until the people are about to snap, then lowering them again, telling the people, "See what we did for you."

And they can continue that cycle forever because they own the oil fields.

[tatertop]

58. I think it will take some horrible conditions

I think people will pay five dollars a gallon.
They already payed over three and nothing was done.
Not one thing.

[Little Star]

61. Yes, that was a good preview

of whats to come. Americans will grumble but in reality accept anything until its too late. Sigh. I sure hope not but it ain't lookin too good.

[tatertop]

69. I wish people would organize before we are no longer allowed to do so

Without the Internet, how will we find each other en masse?

[Individualist]

42. They'll remain asleep

as long as the MSM keeps spewing reich wing propoganda and suppressing facts.

[The Stranger]

45. Wake up to what? It has gone over the cliff. To wake up now would

only be to feel the impact with the ground.

[dogday]

47. When we are asked to take an identity chip

inserted in our bodies.... Then it will be too late

[Pryderi]

49. Never. Americans have slowly acquiesced over time, and it's too late.

[LincolnMcGrath]

51. Never

It's too late.

[Pryderi]

52. I foresee 30 more years of Republican rule

[FreedomAngel82]

53. I think we are awake but being gagged by the media

Look at all the polls that have been shown and they are on the democrats side but we're being gaged by the corporate whores who are on Bush's side because he benefits them.

[rucky]

54. This is it. The lines are drawn.

Yes, there are that many people who wouldn't mind seeing you locked up. THEY KNOW WHAT'S GOING ON AND THEY'RE OK WITH IT. Fuck the infowars, fuck the culture wars, and to hell with debating freepers. It's time for pure political action: get rid of the corruption and bust the people who fix the voting machines. Nothing else matters.

[tatertop]

56. When they open the camps...or:

When 5-10 percent of the population is living on the street;
When gas is ten dollars a gallon and it costs 700 dollars a month
to heat the average house... on the budget plan;
When the one party system is officially put into place;
When 50% of the country has no health care.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

57. Never--the secret of a successful dictatorship

is that you never make life miserable for EVERYONE. Instead, you persecute the people who disagree with you and tell the majority how wonderful and noble they are. If life gets tough, you blame someone else. If gas prices go through the roof, blame the Arabs. If jobs are scarce, blame the Latinos. If the infrastructure collapses, blame a "lack of money." If there's no access to health care, blame "greedy doctors." If all else fails, scream that the country is in danger from foreign terrorists.

The majority of people will never catch on.

[earth mom]

60. WHEN and IF the LIHOP/MIHOP truth of 9/11 ever finally comes out.

However, since the BFEE has been doing their damnedest to obscure the truth about 9/11, it's doubtful that we will ever know what really happened and thus people will continue to live in the never never land of denial.

Other than that, I would think there are a few scenarios that would wake people up:

The Draft for World War 3.

The Great Depression 2.

Forced micro-chipping of every person in this country.

Forced psychiatric drugs, starting with children.

:grr:

[gordianot]

75. Correct

As far as Great Depression 2, it will be the collapse of the dollar.

A little short on World War 3, a small nuclear war will suffice.

You will hear the truth about 9/11 when rats desert the sinking ship.

[info being]

62. Economic collapse

Which of course isn't far off, and will be caused by the national debt.

[Ksec]

63. After they realize theyre in poverty

and it was the Reichts policies that put em there.

[Walt Starr]

64. When the Allies mount their invasion of the North American Continent

Seriously, it won't happen until war is brought to us by the rest of the world.

[tatertop]

70. That would sure the hell wake them up

that might be what it takes

[NoPasaran]

65. Cities bombed into rubble

Occupation by foreign armies

Large percentage of population living as homeless refugees

[rniel]

66. Sheep

everyone's a follower noone's a leader. I guess we'll just all get used to living under fascism. I guess people figure long as we have our t.v.'s all will be fine.

[FredUptoHere]

67. mushroom cloud over chicago

might go a long way.

[LSK]

79. thats not funny

:grr:

[FredUptoHere]

83. tell me about it...

but my gut keeps telling me that poppy still has another of his operation northwoods or two up his murderous sleeve.

[Stinky The Clown]

71. There will be NO breaking point ........

.... at least not one to which anyone could authoritatively point. Rather it will be (is?) more akin to the 'death by a thousand cuts'. For each person, there will be one event that is the last straw for that particuilar individual (sorry to be mixing metaphors). For some, there will never be a breaking point.

The net result, however, will be a shift in the political wind. The first barometric reading will come in the 06 midterms.

[file83]

73. I'm just glad you didn't use the term "Tipping Point" - I'm so SICK of it

[LSK]

78. when the dollar goes to total crap

Either from whatever China does or from Iran selling oil in Euros in March.

[Marr]

80. This country already woke up.

The media is trying convince it to go back to sleep.

[Yavin4]

81. To Answer Your Question

What do you think will be the breaking point that finally wakes this country up?

When the American people can no longer buy whatever they want regardless of whether they have the money to pay for it.

[Cults4Bush]

82. They wont. I fully expect within ten years if we keep on this course

for everything you stated and more to happen.

Believe me when I say to you their plan is in four parts concerning our ilk.

1.Convert... and if we dont do that
2.Incarcerate... and if that dont work
3.Kick out... and finally
4.Kill.

Right now we are in the force conversion process, but bushy is prepping us up with his words against dissent yesterday. Incarceration is really probably just a USSC nomination away. After the elections in 08 I expect we'll begin to see an actual migration away from the States, as so many will at the point realize that our electoral system is a fraud as all two party systems eventually become.

Hopefully by the time killing and lynching gays, pagans, pro-choicers and your average Liberal Jolene, hopefully by then most of our ilk will have moved.

[AnneD]

84. I don't know...

I thought people would have been outraged long ago. Everything that I told people (crimes, etc) has come true but still no outrage. The closest I think was Katrina and NOLA. But the cover up has shut everything down.
I tell my religious friend that when I use to read Revelation and read about the AntiChrist and all that he did... I thought that would NEVER happen. People are too sharp. Well Bush has proved me wrong. I am waiting for the day we have to take the embedded national ID chip (to help us identify the terrorist of course). Don't know what it takes but I do know we are already in serious trouble. I am looking for another country to hang my hat in. I don't intent to be like the Jews that got stuck in Germany.

[FatDave]

86. suspension of 2008 elections

I think if they imposed martial law and suspended the 2008 elections due to another "terrorist attack", that might be enough to scare people out of their complacency.

But the good news is, if that doesn't happen we'll get a new president. Even if it's another republican, it would still have to be a step up from the shitbags in charge right now. Our country just has to survive the next 3 years.

Shit, when I put it like that it does sound bleak, doesn't it?

[yurbud]

93. they floated a trial baloon in 2004 and even GOP said no

[Raydawg1234]

101. trial baloon, What do you mean?

[yurbud]

102. cancel elections in event of terrorist attack

Here's one of the better summaries of the discussion:

http://www.buzzflash.com/contributors/04/08/con04327.html

Republicans in Congress nixed it, rightly guessing that the public reaction would involve tar and feathers applied to Republicans in Congress if they allowed it.

[greiner3]

89. Some unknown person, male or female;

Will wake up and discover that one of their rights were taken away. That person will start a chain reaction that ends up overthrowing those in power. I don't mean violently. This will be done as a TRUE grass roots revolution. It will gather up all those that have had their rights denied and taken away.

I'll wake up soon!

[maxsolomon]

94. $5/gallon

then we'll VOTE in a fascist.

[Toots]

95. Boy you just described GOP Heaven

Who will be left to awaken?

[DemBones DemBones]

96. Not many people are going to get upset about it

if school prayer is reinstated, particularly if it's specified that it can't be a Christian or Jewish or Muslim prayer. (What the point of generic prayer would be is beyond me and I don't see the courts allowing even that.)

But if they do, take heart.

Hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of us went through school hearing a Bible reading, and saying the Lord's Prayer and the Pledge of Allegiance every day and half of us turned out to be liberals.

[RagingInMiami]

98. "bow your head and close your eyes"

[DemBones DemBones]

99. They could make us do that, but they couldn't

control our thoughts. :evilgrin:

[durablend]

97. When both Desperate Housewives and Americal Idol are canned

Until then, can't be bothered--sorry!

[farmboxer]

103. It's The Republican, corporate, right wing, mainstream News

media they see every day. We need to get news on the mainstream, at least for now. We have NO "Fairness Doctrine"!!!!!!!!

Hitler controlled the media.

[Dunedain]

104. When a bomb is dropped on their head.

[Starbucks Anarchist]

106. When gas is $5 a gallon and American Idol is taken off the air.

This classic speech from "Network" seems relevant:

I don't have to tell you things are bad. Everybody knows things are bad. It's a depression. Everybody's out of work or scared of losing their job. The dollar buys a nickel's work, banks are going bust, shopkeepers keep a gun under the counter. Punks are running wild in the street and there's nobody anywhere who seems to know what to do, and there's no end to it.

We know the air is unfit to breathe and our food is unfit to eat, and we sit watching our TV's while some local newscaster tells us that today we had fifteen homicides and sixty-three violent crimes, as if that's the way it's supposed to be. We know things are bad - worse than bad. They're crazy. It's like everything everywhere is going crazy, so we don't go out anymore.

We sit in the house, and slowly the world we are living in is getting smaller, and all we say is, 'Please, at least leave us alone in our living rooms. Let me have my toaster and my TV and my steel-belted radials and I won't say anything. Just leave us alone.'

Well, I'm not gonna leave you alone. I want you to get mad! I don't want you to protest. I don't want you to riot - I don't want you to write to your congressman because I wouldn't know what to tell you to write. I don't know what to do about the depression and the inflation and the Russians and the crime in the street. All I know is that first you've got to get mad.

[mwb970]

107. They'll never wake up.

We live in a nation of complacent, TV-addled idiots. There are simply not enough of "us" to make a difference. All we can do is watch as they allow the country to be dragged into fascism, cheering for The Great Bush all the way. A tragic end to a once-great nation.

The American Experiment has failed.

[Vinca]

108. Chinese cars.

Yesterday I saw a piece on the news about Chinese cars being introduced at the auto show and they sell for under $10,000. U.S. auto workers make $26 an hour, Chinese auto workers make 30 cents an hour. Figure it out. In the not too distant future the "Big 3" will be the "Big C."

[insane_cratic_gal]

110. The Great Depression 2 or Greater n/t

[FredUptoHere]

111. in 2001, i thought that the failed bush presidency would do it.

i was wrong.

now i just don't know.

let's see what happens when the iranian oil bourse opens in march(as if it will ever be allowed to happen by the bfee)

[undeterred]

113. THE TRUTH ABOUT SEPTEMBER 11

would shake people to the core, just as the events of that day shook the nation to the core. As long as people accept the BushCo cover story- that we were innocent victims who were attacked, and don't understand that BushCo WANTED and NEEDED something like this to happen in order to justify their agenda, we are doomed.

[Lorien]

115. There is no breaking point

unlike other times in human history, we now have the Mainstream Media, and everyone is plugged into it. Even the people I know who consider themselves "free thinkers" parrot every talking point of the day and get caught up in the latest celebrity news. Even here on DU; when Ashley Simpson did her hoedown lipsynch on SNL, DU went WILD. We went wild over Mrs. Alito's crocodile tears, too. We've all been conditioned to focus on the smallest curiosities and ignore the massive reeking elephants in the room.Take action? Hardly; miles of text will be written here while a sentence to a local paper or representative is "too much trouble" for the majority. America will put up with anything and everything, as long as fast food, relatively cheap gas, and endless, mindless TV programming is available.It's bread and circuses in action.