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If I walked up to you 5 years ago and said "One day the government will own GM" what would you have said to me ?
Or I said "We're going to have a crisis as bad as the Great Depression" 5 years ago. What would you have said ?
Or I said "The US tortures it's prisoners as worse as terrorist countries" 5 years ago. What would you have said ?
What was once "preposterous" or "it will never happen" is now reality.
"Too big to fail" has legs and a life of it's own.
The "impossible" just may be possible....keep an open mind; history shows that apathy does not always result in good things.
I knew GM would tank. I happened to own one of their cars in the 80s. I also knew Dodge was garbage after owning one of their trucks.
We are not in a depression, nor are we going into one. In fact, this isn't even an entertaining recession. So no shock value there. If you've seen masses of people nearly starving, you learn to know when it's really time to worry.
As far as torture goes, I'm saddened we've changed what that really means. I've been through training tougher than the chubby nutjobs in Gitmo, so I don't think the drama is necessary.
Bottom line is simple. When your poor are fat, you're ok in my book. The biggest threat IS apathy, you're right on that. But it is the slow erosion of personal responsibility, not some dramatic government takeover.
Put in perspective, the only really scary thing is laziness and debt. But like I said, those aren't really sexy things to fire up debate.
maybe this is the next birther-style panic puddle for you all. One of those "any day now..." fantasies, like guns being taken away.
Oh no, you must not know about the FEMA trains with chains and shackles that are coming to take us all away to concentration camps where there are boxes where "they" will chain us up.
I am not making this up. There is a contingent in the US that believes this is imminent.
Yes, U.S. Officials Are Quietly Preparing for BIG Trouble Ahead
A new report by the Army War College's Strategic Studies Institute states flatly the U.S. military must prepare for "a violent, strategic dislocation inside the United States" that could be provoked by "unforeseen economic collapse" or "loss of functioning political and legal order."
Late last year, The Washington Post noted the incoming Obama Administration is going to "earmark" at least 20,000 troops returning from Iraq to deal with "domestic emergencies."
I know they are getting ready; I work for the government and have started getting FEMA training (I've already whined about it on the board)
What bothers me most is not that they are getting ready to deploy troops and have all sorts of contingency plans, but that all this is happening in the background while the figureheads of the government repeatedly an loudly proclaim that everything is all right and is actually getting better. Like hell it is!
So, declare martial law, put a batallion of soldiers in my front yard and give me my ration coupon book. I'm cool with that, but don't lie to me and say everything's OK. If the president would just step up and say: "folks, were in deep *%$t and this what we're looking to do so the country doesnt' fall apart; we need you to do this.... I would not be nearly as worried. Instead, our leaders are two-faced liars that are more interested in saving their own asses than actually trying to solve the problem at worst and trying to hide the truth at best.
It's that whole Titianic analogy again, telling everyone that everything is OK when they know it ain't. The problem is the authorities forgot that the bottom of the ship floods first, so the "commoners" might notice the lie a bit sooner than planned. It's a bit absurd to tell a soaking wet, freezing cold man not to worry and to go back to his room.
Likewise it is ubsurd to say there isn't a problem when you are training government employees and military personel to respond to the breakdown of society, the unemployment rate has almost tripled in just a few months and shows no sign of slowing down, the national debt has skyrocketed higher than the number of stars in the Milky Way Galaxy and the stock market is in never before seen conniption fits.
Why would he? Even the Stasi called themselves the "German Democratic Republic" police. Gotta put a pretty bow on the pig s*** you're trying to sell your citizens.
Oh, for gosh sakes! I could drive right around here and identify several locations which "might" be used as a detention center to hold recalcitrant citizens, but that wouldn't make it so, would it?
I mean, good grief, we have the county jail, another county detention center, the local school system's "Pathways" facility, the juvenial detention center, two city jails, the old Air Force base. Hell, we have several city and county parks which could hold hundreds, under the right circumstances.
For that matter, we have a local reservoir into which hundreds of thousands could be dumped to swim or drown.
Like the way they "assisted" during hurricane Katrina?
Were you there after Katrina? I was, and I can tell you without fear of being proven wrong, that peoples needs did not start being met until the military showed up. From the north shore of Lake Ponchartrain to New Orleans to Belle Chase, it was the National Guard and regular forces who brought water, food, medical assistance, rescue and order to the affected areas. The state and local resources were just simply overwhelmed.
and I'm pretty sure "security force" doesn't mean girl scouts and tree huggers.
"Security force" isn't "civilian military," is it?
And, by the way, I didn't hear him mention ARMED security force, did you? The one thing which sets the military apart from every other organization is their armament.
Further, "security" means much more than just the power and ability to enforce order.
Last edited by stillkit; 07-31-2009 at 12:59 PM..
Reason: additional comments.
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Like the way they "assisted" during hurricane Katrina?
