Does anyone else see the anger and frustration in America peaking?

[AndyA]

I'm beginning to see it more and more. People who have taken the adventures of Bushco in stride, tolerated high gas prices, put up with everything that's been dished out so far, are now getting fed up.

I'm beginning to think a perfect storm may be brewing. Oil prices are going up during a time of year when they are traditionally lower. The high cost of oil is beginning to impact everything, from the cost of gas to fuel our cars, to home heating oil, groceries, and any most goods we buy that depend on some form of transportation to make it to stores.

And this is all happening as we head into the holidays, the time of year that is make it or break it for retailers. People will be cutting back due to the higher costs of filling up their cars, buying groceries, and heating their homes. Combine a bad holiday season with the housing slump, cut backs in other areas due to the high cost of oil, and you have a perfect storm.

Retailers will dump employees due to slow sales, their payroll budgets are very tight and cutting hours is the first thing they do when sales are slow. That will impact the unemployment numbers.

I can see a real problem looming on the immediate horizon. And this is something that will impact even the most devoted Kool-Aid drinker. Bushco continues to escalate the threats against Iran, despite the failure in Iraq, and despite America's disgust for the war in Iran. The war rhetoric is partially responsible for the higher oil costs.

Everyone knows this (mis)administration has heavy ties to the oil industry, which has been making record profits.

I can see the possibility of a backlash coming...for the GOP as well as the Democrats, as long as they continue to ignore their responsibilities.

Does anyone else see this thing coming to a peak around the holiday season? :shrug:

[katmondoo]

1. Also a lot of people do not want to buy Christmas gifts

with a made in China label. Even some very hard core repubs(I know a lot)do not want to buy goods from China.

[AndyA]

5. Yes, I've seen that as well.

I saw someone looking at something, and then her friend asked where it was made. When the woman saw it was China, they both got a disgusted look on their faces, and put it back. One of them said, "I refuse to buy anything made in China. We will do without before they get one more penny from me."

I think it's happening, this could truly be the beginning of the end for Bushco and the GOP.

[tsuki]

16. A lot of Republicans I know are saying that they are not buying

this season. They're busted.

[Blue_Roses]

30. I know, me too

I think we need a "gift center" here for those of us who make our own things during the holidays. For instance, I make wreaths, swags and other things for the holidays and sell them at craft shows. Why should someone buy a wreath that has been made in China, when it could be bought from someone right here in the US? On top of that, mine look better too:D

[leveymg]

2. These are just the foothills of our discontent. The peaks are miles ahead.

Either radical reform or violent revolution will be the outcome. Because of the blind stupidity and venal corruption of the leadership, it's looking more and more like the latter.

[AndyA]

6. I think if there's anything that will cause people to universally hate Bush, it will be the cost of

oil.

Especially now that it's beginning to filter down into other areas.

People are complacent as long as it doesn't impact them, personally. But this is going to impact everyone, except the oil company executives.

[leveymg]

17. Bush is just a passing figurehead, but the underlying problem is the disinvestment in America.

The Bush era has been marked by offshoring and stripping away of revenues from what was previously American-based and American-controlled institutions. Anything that isn't nailed down is going overseas.

This hollowing out of the domestic economy has been masked by bubbles in housing prices and credit accumulation. Both those bubbles are bursting. Pop. Pop. A trillion here, a trillion there, and it adds up real money.

The middle-class will pay and pay.

The waste of war has accelerated the process of American decline. If you liked Iraq, you'll love Iran.

This is how the Empire ends.

[Dulcinea]

34. Well said.

"The underlying problem is the disinvestment in America."

That deserves its own thread.

[ixion]

3. which is why BushCo recently created several executive orders allowing him to declare a

State of Emergency, lock down all the cities down and suspend the constitution.

You can bet your boots that he'll use them, too. He's just that batshit crazy.

[cali]

10. I'd bet just about anything that bushco will not declare

martial law. Furthermore, I think it's a logistical nightmare, and nearly impossible to impose.

[ixion]

27. I believe that all they feel they lack is a context

if you had told me that 10 years ago that I'd have to take off my shoes at the airport and have my toiletries confiscated in the interest of national security, I would have said the people wouldn't stand for it. Lo and behold, though, they are. If the proper context (another "trifecta") came about, they would implement these things.

New Orleans was a testbed for this, IMO.

[Zywiec]

15. I'll bet my boots that he won't use them.

How could you lock down all the cities? 300,000,000 people locked down how and by who?

[doublethink]

24. Not with tanks and guns that's for sure ....... but with one word......

'Fear'

[Amonester]

28. Fear, and "no mo money for ya" (i.e., no job if it's not in the army or...

making "robots-to-make-bombs-or-bullets-and-coffins").
.

[lunatica]

32. They don't have to lock up 300 million people

They only need to lock up the people who influence the millions. What would be the reaction if suddenly the most outspoken and well known people were to suddenly get hauled off to a camp somewhere with the excuse that they are giving comfort to the enemy. Just as a simple example, say they lock up Olbermann and Krugman and the Rude Pundit and Skinner. And all they would have to say is that they were caught plotting with the enemy by patriotic workers who wiretapped their phones. Who would be able to stop them? Sure, people would scream and raise hell, but then what? Everyone would go back to business as usual, only everyone would stop talking against Bush and his adminstration. Those drastically reduced few who would still have the gumption to publicly criticize the government would be picked up easily. This is a tried and true tactic and has worked for all the dictators in the past.

On the other hand the bane of dictators everywhere would also come about. The rise of insurgents who can move rapidly around the country, pop up long enough to bomb something and then melt back into the mist. Americans know how to use guns and many own them, and have used them to hunt all their lives. The insurgents would be able to live off the land in this country and there would probably be plenty of ordinary fold helping them out with food and shelter. Look at how long it took the law enforcement officers to catch the Eric Rudolph. It took years. Now imagine that if people were willing to hide him, a real criminal, how would they act towards freedom fighters?

[rateyes]

4. See it and feel it. nt

[glowing]

7. Heading into a depression with this asshat will be the ruin of this nation

It will become an all out battle that will look like a real civil war. The further from the cities you live and the better self-sufficient you are the better.

[bullimiami]

8. energy costs should put the stop to this global economy bullshit.

global economy = where the wealthy corporations get goods for pennies, ship the for dimes and sell them for dollars, all at someone elses expense.

[w8liftinglady]

9. I see more and more people using coupons,buying store brands,and telling their kids "no"

I was at a grocery store yesterday.The baskets all had 20 or less items,very little meat,lots of bulk items,soup,very little treats or junk food.Very little fresh vegetables.
Things are changing.

[shanti]

26. yes

meat prices are ridiculous. i see lots of people checking the meat out, and then just walking away without getting any. the shelves in many stores are looking a little more bare too. not as many customers, no need to stock as much. drip, drip, drip...

[mmonk]

11. Yes, that is why it's the perfect time for an impeachment inquiry.

[deacon]

12. No. I think it will still be a while before we actually see a peak.

A lot of the damage has not been realized yet. For instance,just using one problem as an example, the real estate market will get worse, foreclosures will still increase in large numbers...I think the peak is still pretty far off.

[AndyA]

14. When do you think we'll hit the peak?

Between now and the elections in 2008?

That would certainly be a perfect storm for the GOP!

[Laura PourMeADrink]

13. I think it is a quiet movement out there. Shit - 76 % of the people

don't like Bush and 50% strongly dislike him. Just like us, waiting and holding our breath until the nightmare is over. And just like a dem won the governship in KY - it's over for all the repukes out there. It will be a tidal wave. Too bad it may not be a tidal wave for Prez - since we are putting up someone half the people hate.

[iamahaingttta]

18. Building? Yes. Peaking? No!

We ain't seen nothing yet!

It's going to get so much worse, and on purpose. They're TRYING to incite us to revolution, so they can get rid of as many of us a possible as quickly as possible. It won't be the holidays this year, it'll be a long, hot summer next year.

Count on it!

[The2ndWheel]

19. Yeah, physical reality can do that

When you attempt to sustain a way of life that is unsustainable, all you end up doing is having to sustain ever more unsustainable practices. You end up spending more energy on just trying to keep everything already in place together, and you stop growing. Once you stop growing, it gets harder and harder to keep everything already in place together. That's the reason empires have been rising and falling since day one. There isn't anything you can do about that, except try and come up with a way to push the limits further out. We keep finding ways to do that, but we keep making the problems worse each time(which is why we have to keep pushing the limits, which makes the problem worse, which means pushing limits, etc, etc, etc). But then that's built into the way we concentrate power.

Is the anger and frustration peaking? I hope it is, because if it is, it's been easy. Maybe we'll figure out that continuing to push those limits isn't worth it. However, if we don't push the limits, we don't grow. If we don't grow, it'll be harder to keep everything that is in place together. It's always chasing us, but that's when physical reality catches up.

[Ganja Ninja]

20. No I don't see it yet.

When you see the riot police in the streets and the burning cars and busted glass then you'll see the peak.

[Ninga]

21. The prediction is that for the first time since the depression era, children born now, will struggle

to do better than their parents. So scary, and so sad.

[lonestarnot]

22. Stand back, she's about to blow!

[bdamomma]

23. Pressure cooker, that is what this society is becoming, and

when that pressure pops, watch out, cause I am sure no one is going to take whatever they dish out to us lying down.

[LanternWaste]

25. cyclical disturbance...

I think it's nothing more than the peak of social cyclical disturbances that hits us about twice a generation.

We're at a peak now much like we were in '65, '74, and '80. We'll begin to descend soon-- probably mid-summer of next year if my prognostications aren't too far off the mark.

[Javaman]

29. I like to call it the Silent Rage.

or the calm before the storm.

[watercolors]

31. It will show at election 2008

The rumblings are beginning, both parties are not happy. I hear everyday, concern for our future, I had one student state that its time for a revelotion, he's 78, and he is right!

[AndyA]

33. At the very least, I hope it shows at election 2008.

I hope it's a clean sweep for the Dems: White House, and greatly expanding its majorities in both houses.

THEN, just maybe, the Dems will have the spine to tell the Republicans to go F*CK THEMSELVES, using the words of that disrespectful potty mouth Cheney.

[Gold Metal Flake]

35. Peaking? Huh?

No! I do not. I see no massive street demonstrations occuring over the course of days. I see no weeks-long seiges of state/federal congressional buildings. I see little in the way of mass civil disobedience. I have heard of no large groups (millions) of people withholding payment of taxes. I see no mass fights amongst political factions in the streets.

Peaking? The nation is still fast asleep.