[Satori]

“Every generation needs a new revolution.”

Thomas Jefferson

[Revi]

I would say so. I talk to a lot of people who feel that it's time for things to change. That's the reason they elected Trump. They think things will change. They don't seem to understand that we are living in a society powered by fossil fuel, and when we change things that could go away. We borrow every day to keep the present system going. We are living off the kindness of strangers. When they decide that we aren't a good risk things could change...

[onlooker]

the debt levels and continuation is just obscuring the true status of our finances and allowing us to continue to splurge today at the expense of tomorrow

[Ibon]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Subjectivist', '
')
This makes me wonder if, once the hot summer season arrives, we will see riots like those that tore up Baltimore and Saint Louis during President Obama's second term this year?

Those anti-police riots were aided and abbetted by the same kind of city leadership we have recently seen exposed in Berkley California, making me wonder just how widespread this instabillity is? No culture can survive long without some form of control over these riot events. Targeting Police is particularly effective in destabilising things if those police do not get government and citizen support as a result.

[ROCKMAN]

Just MHO but I think the term "civil war" is being badly applied and is being done so just for dramatic effect. Criminal activities at various locations and times such as the OK federal building bombing or the Watts riots are not isolated battles in a civil war. They are just local aberrations. Perhaps folks should dig into the details of historic civil wars and the ones going on today.

IOW the US ain't f*cking Syria so stop whining, you bunch of girly men. LOL.

[Revi]

I lived in a country where a "revolution" was happening and it wasn't pretty. I don't know if we really are ready for that yet. Let things take their course. It's going to get bad soon enough. No need to push it.

[onlooker]

Yep real revolutions are not for the faint of heart

[ROCKMAN]

Revi - " I lived in a country where a "revolution" was happening and it wasn't pretty." And I worked in a country once where if TPTB must suspected you were thinking about revolution you could get a bullet in the back of the head. And I'm not talking figuratively... I saw the body laying in the street. Had govt informants working around me pointed out: any local caught talking to an expat about politics were subject to immediately execution. El Presidente changed the constitution to allow it.

That's why it irritates me a tad to hear Americans toss it around so lightly

[Revi]

I just read a very interesting book where the author says that when resources run short human societies almost always have a "witch hunt". They look for a group to blame it on, whether they have anything to do with it or not. It's always in the name of some kind of an ideology. In Salem they picked on widows who may have been living on farms they wanted. In Guatemala they called the Catholic Indigenous Mayan people "communists" to separate them from the resources that were underneath the land they lived on. It's an old story.

http://www.ic.org/community-bookstore/p ... of-empire/

[Ibon]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Revi', 'I') just read a very interesting book where the author says that when resources run short human societies almost always have a "witch hunt". They look for a group to blame it on, whether they have anything to do with it or not. It's always in the name of some kind of an ideology. In Salem they picked on widows who may have been living on farms they wanted. In Guatemala they called the Catholic Indigenous Mayan people "communists" to separate them from the resources that were underneath the land they lived on. It's an old story.

[Revi]

Yes, it starts out as "we are going to create a utopia, but it ends in " we have to kill all of them". "Them" is usually some group that is going to be targeted. I see targeting of Latinos lately. They are the ones doing all of the real work in our society, but the people who are running things see them as the problem lately. It's pretty scary.

[asg70]

The internet also unfortunately drives people to the poles. There are many who now propose we split the US up into red vs. blue states because of the left/right polarization reaching such dangerous levels. We've lost the ability to have civil discourse. We don't value pluralism anymore. Everything's an ideogical tug of war where you're either with us or against us. Much of the debate here between certain posters is part and parcel of that phenomenon. I think most people these days are closed-minded in a very tribalist sort of way.

[Ibon]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('asg70', 'T')he internet also unfortunately drives people to the poles. There are many who now propose we split the US up into red vs. blue states because of the left/right polarization reaching such dangerous levels. We've lost the ability to have civil discourse. We don't value pluralism anymore. Everything's an ideogical tug of war where you're either with us or against us. Much of the debate here between certain posters is part and parcel of that phenomenon. I think most people these days are closed-minded in a very tribalist sort of way.

[efarmer]

Mad Max and The Overshoot Predator showed up at my door last Halloween. They didn't say "trick or treat" when I opened the door but instead just grabbed all the candy and ran off into the night. I watched them disappear into the darkness while the Grim Reaper and his two kids, Spiderman and Cinderella took down all the toilet paper in my trees and rolled it up and made off with that. A guy dressed up as Alex Jones came next, he hollered and ranted, then composed himself and apologized for getting too emotional. I told him I was all out of candy, he said he just wanted money anyhow so I gave him a couple of bucks and I watched him whizz in my bushes before he ambled off down the street. The next morning, my neighbor told me he saw an alien with led lights all over his costume steal crap from inside of my car. I am powering down this year and putting out some beware of dog signs.

[onlooker]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('efarmer', 'M')ad Max and The Overshoot Predator showed up at my door last Halloween. They didn't say "trick or treat" when I opened the door but instead just grabbed all the candy and ran off into the night. I watched them disappear into the darkness while the Grim Reaper and his two kids, Spiderman and Cinderella took down all the toilet paper in my trees and rolled it up and made off with that. A guy dressed up as Alex Jones came next, he hollered and ranted, then composed himself and apologized for getting too emotional. I told him I was all out of candy, he said he just wanted money anyhow so I gave him a couple of bucks and I watched him whizz in my bushes before he ambled off down the street. The next morning, my neighbor told me he saw an alien with led lights all over his costume steal crap from inside of my car. I am powering down this year and putting out some beware of dog signs.

[Revi]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('asg70', 'T')he internet also unfortunately drives people to the poles. There are many who now propose we split the US up into red vs. blue states because of the left/right polarization reaching such dangerous levels. We've lost the ability to have civil discourse. We don't value pluralism anymore. Everything's an ideogical tug of war where you're either with us or against us. Much of the debate here between certain posters is part and parcel of that phenomenon. I think most people these days are closed-minded in a very tribalist sort of way.

[Newfie]

I guess the "natives" I'm worried about are investment bankers and reinsurance executives.

When they start to bail in sufficient numbers our days are numbered.

[Revi]

Let me know when they bail Newfie. It might be time to get in a boat and get offshore!

[onlooker]

Hey, in a way they are already bailing. Haven't you heard that the the rich and powerful are already setting up their luxurious bugouts and bunkers