Points of agreement = massive grassroots coalition

[Geolibertarian]

In another thread I wrote:

...We the People must agree to disagree on the diversionary wedge issues (e.g., gay marriage) that partisan hacks in the corporate whore "news" media soooo love to obsess over, and -- following the example set in September 2008 by three of the 3rd party presidential candidates when they united behind four points of agreement -- join forces in a non-partisan, cross-ideological coalition to exert AGGRESSIVE, NON-STOP, ROUND-THE-CLOCK PRESSURE on Congress (and, when applicable, our state legislators) to implement public policy reforms on which the vast majority of us agree.

For those unfamiliar with the "four points of agreement" that several 3rd party presidential candidates united behind in 2008, please see the following:

-------------------------------

http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig7/walsh6.html

The Beginning of the Realignment of American Politics

by John V. Walsh
LewRockwell.com
September 12, 2008

No significant political movement takes place without breaking down old alliances and establishing new ones. And so it is with the press conference sponsored today by Ron Paul at the National Press Club. There he was joined by Ralph Nader (Independent), Chuck Baldwin (Constitutionalist) and Cynthia McKinney (Green), to take on the War Party Duopoly.

To this observer the importance of the event cannot be exaggerated. As Ralph Nader put it, "This is the beginning of the realignment of American politics." It is in fact the realignment that the end of the Cold War demanded but has been so long in coming.

There are two significant aspects to this gathering. First, Ron Paul, erstwhile Republican contender for the presidential nomination, has refused a recent request from John McCain for an endorsement and instead called on voters to vote for the non-establishment party candidates. Second, and even more important, are the four points of agreement, which Paul, Nader and the rest have signed. They deserve careful reading. They are:

1.  Foreign Policy: The Iraq War must end as quickly as possible with removal of all our soldiers from the region. We must initiate the return of our soldiers from around the world, including Korea, Japan, Europe and the entire Middle East. We must cease the war propaganda, threats of a blockade and plans for attacks on Iran, nor should we re-ignite the cold war with Russia over Georgia. We must be willing to talk to all countries and offer friendship and trade and travel to all who are willing. We must take off the table the threat of a nuclear first strike against all nations.

2.  Privacy: We must protect the privacy and civil liberties of all persons under US jurisdiction. We must repeal or radically change the Patriot Act, the Military Commissions Act, and the FISA legislation. We must reject the notion and practice of torture, eliminations of habeas corpus, secret tribunals, and secret prisons. We must deny immunity for corporations that spy willingly on the people for the benefit of the government. We must reject the unitary presidency, the illegal use of signing statements and excessive use of executive orders.

3.  The National Debt: We believe that there should be no increase in the national debt. The burden of debt placed on the next generation is unjust and already threatening our economy and the value of our dollar. We must pay our bills as we go along and not unfairly place this burden on a future generation.

4.  The Federal Reserve: We seek a thorough investigation, evaluation and audit of the Federal Reserve System and its cozy relationships with the banking, corporate, and other financial institutions. The arbitrary power to create money and credit out of thin air behind closed doors for the benefit of commercial interests must be ended. There should be no taxpayer bailouts of corporations and no corporate subsidies. Corporations should be aggressively prosecuted for their crimes and frauds.

On these life and death issues, McCain and Obama have given their base and the broader American public little more than the back of their hand.

For some time the call for this kind of realignment has found a home on the electronic pages of CounterPunch.com, Antiwar.com, LewRockwell.com, DissidentVoice.org and a few other places. Now it is ready to burst into the mainstream.

[Continued...]


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zYALxUfEmfQ (Ron Paul Hosts Third Party Press Conference)
 
-------------------------------

Now, in the spirit of taking what those 3rd party candidates did to the next level, what points of agreement can the vast majority of "We the People" unite behind for the dual purpose of (a) reasserting our rightful control over our own government and (b) using that control to secure a truly just, prosperous and free society?

I'll address that question in my next post.

[Geolibertarian]

Below are points of agreement behind which I think a critical mass of conservatives, libertarians, liberals, progressives and independents could all unite:

Election Reform

* Institute fair and equal ballot access criteria.

* Enact both Congressman Ron Paul's Freedom Debate Act and Senator Herb Kohl's Weekend Voting Act.

* Repeal both the Federal Election Campaign Act and Bipartisan Campaign "Reform" Act.

* Institute instant runoff voting for Presidential, U.S. Senate, and gubernatorial elections.

* Institute proportional representation for both U.S. House and state house elections.

* Mandate the use of hand-counted paper ballots for all elections.

* Require all election ballots to include a binding NOTA option.

Monetary Reform

* Put all derivatives-infected mega-banks through Chapter 11 bankruptcy and, in the reorganization proceedings, legally void all of their derivatives contracts.

* Liquidate all of the ill-gotten assets of criminal scam artists such as Henry Paulson, Lloyd Blankfein and Jamie Dimon, and use the resultant proceeds to help replenish whatever retirement funds they raided.

* Replace our current debt-based money system with a debt-free money system, whereby all new money -- instead of being loaned into circulation at interest -- is spent in at no interest to fund both (a) the production and repair of public goods everyone can see and benefit from (e.g., roads and bridges) and (b) a "National Dividend" -- all at a rate pegged by law to the general price level. (More on this here.)

* Institute a new round of international agreements modeled on the Bretton Woods Accords, with an aim towards replacing the current “floating” exchange rates for national currencies with a fixed rate that, as such, is pegged to the value of either an agreed-upon standardized price index or an agreed-upon “basket” of diverse, widely available, everyday commodities. (More on this here.)

Foreign Policy

* In view of the fact that 9/11 was an inside job orchestrated by traitors within our own government (see this and this), bring an immediate end to our imperialist, terroristic, hornets' nest-stirring wars of aggression, and pass the hundreds of billions in resultant tax savings onto the bottom 90% of income earners.

* Abolish the CIA. (See this, this and this.)

Civil Liberties

* In view of all the false flag terror attacks in addition to 9/11 -- e.g., the "underwear bomber" -- that have been orchestrated by criminal elements within the U.S. government, immediately repeal the "Patriot" Act, Homeland "Security" Act, Military Commissions Act, Presidential Directive 51, and any and all other post-9/11 police state expansion measures.

* Abolish FEMA. (See this, this, this and this.)

Drug Policy

* End the drug war, and with it all of the corruption, hypocrisy and police state thuggery it breeds.

Energy Policy

* Use antitrust action to break up the oil cartel.

* Educate the masses about the manufactured myth of "peak oil."

Excessive Power of Corporations

* Abolish corporate personhood. (See this and this.)

* Abolish corporate welfare. (See this and this.)

National Sovereignty

* Withdraw the U.S. from both NAFTA and the WTO.

* Enact the American Sovereignty Restoration Act.


I have more, but I'll leave it at that for now.

[worcesteradam]

I like the idea of a coalition of forces. Surely has the potential to become a new political party at some point

[Geolibertarian]

http://www.prisonplanet.com/ron-paul-ralph-nader-agree-on-%e2%80%98progressive-libertarian-alliance%e2%80%99.html

Ron Paul, Ralph Nader agree on ‘progressive-libertarian alliance’

Nathan Diebenow
Raw Story
Jan 24, 2011

In this corner, a libertarian, tea party hero who ran several campaigns as a candidate for US president on the Republican ticket. And in that corner, a progressive icon of the left who also ran several campaigns for the US presidency but on the Green Party ticket.

One might think the two men, seemingly ideologically opposed to one another, would rather argue than help one another.

However, on Wednesday’s broadcast of Freedom Watch on the Fox Business channel, Judge Napolitano sat down for an amiable interview with Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) and Ralph Nader to discuss a progressive-libertarian alliance in the 112th session of respective chambers in Congress.

Nader, who has recently called this coalition “the most exciting new political dynamic” in the US today, explained that it works well because both groups stand against corporatists who believe government should be run in the interests of corporations.

       http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kwIZ4syCFLc (Ralph Nader & Ron Paul Interviewed Together!)

[Geolibertarian]

http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig7/walsh6.html

3.  The National Debt: We believe that there should be no increase in the national debt.

I'm sad to say I respectfully disagree with Baldwin, McKinney, Nader and Dr. Paul on this particular point.

To understand why, please see the following:

       http://forum.prisonplanet.com/index.php?topic=199144.0
       http://forum.prisonplanet.com/index.php?topic=197548.0

[Geolibertarian]

There's a world of difference between an American-style revolution and an IMF riot.

For those unfamiliar with the term, "IMF riot," see the following:

----------------------------------

"At this point, the IMF drags the gasping nation to Step Three: Market-Based Pricing, a fancy term for raising prices on food, water and cooking gas. This leads, predictably, to Step-Three-and-a-Half: what [Joseph] Stiglitz calls, 'The IMF riot.'

"The IMF riot is painfully predictable. When a nation is, 'down and out, [the IMF] takes advantage and squeezes the last pound of blood out of them. They turn up the heat until, finally, the whole cauldron blows up,' as when the IMF eliminated food and fuel subsidies for the poor in Indonesia in 1998. Indonesia exploded into riots, but there are other examples - the Bolivian riots over water prices last year and this February, the riots in Ecuador over the rise in cooking gas prices imposed by the World Bank. You'd almost get the impression that the riot is written into the plan."

-- http://www.gregpalast.com/the-globalizer-who-came-in-from-the-cold/

----------------------------------

I, of course, support the recently-launched "V for Victory" campaign. Nevertheless, I cannot stress strongly enough how critical it is that we not allow symbolic gestures of resistance to become a substitute for joining forces in a non-partisan, cross-ideological coalition to implement an agreed-upon policy agenda. Why? Because it was bad government policies that created the need for "resistance" in the first place.

When people do nothing but voice their rightful opposition to current policies, I'm always reminded of the following quote:

"My people and I have come to an agreement which satisfies us both. They are to say what they please, and I am to do what I please."

-- Frederick The Great (1712-1786)

As the old saying goes, a house is only as strong as its foundation. And I respectfully submit that any mass resistance which does not have as its foundation an agreed-upon set of policy reforms will (once an ever-worsening socioeconomic crisis reaches a certain threshold) inevitably degenerate into a series of IMF riots, thereby giving the ruling elite the excuse they need to declare all-out martial law.

The end result? More Nazi-style tyranny, not less.

So I urge everyone reading this to make suggestions on what we can do, both individually and as a people, to make such a coalition a reality. What policy reform measures do you think people from all across the political and ideological spectrums could unite behind?

[Geolibertarian]

So I urge everyone reading this to make suggestions on what we can do, both individually and as a people, to make such a coalition a reality. What policy reform measures do you think people from all across the political spectrum could unite behind?

I'm surprised no one responded to this question.

[freedom_commonsense]

I'm surprised no one responded to this question.

You've already stated some, so me just doing a +1 on the end of one of your posts is a bit pointless.

I do what I can to inform others, but I lack the resources to mount a serious political campaign (besides which, I have a personal life to think about as well - the media loves to attack people on that).  As Henry George said, poverty means weakness and disrepute.

More specifically, it's difficult to persuade British homeowners (the largest voting block) to support a Georgist tax system when they've spent the last decade or two using their property as a cash machine, not to mention the middle class gravy train of central government non-jobs (often interfering with productive enterprise), the warfare state and other corporate welfare. Vested interests are not going to do a 180 turn on these, at least not very quickly. Likewise, the "left" are convinced that central government intervention in almost everything is in the public's interest - that said, it might be easier to persuade them on a land value tax. I can't honestly see a party in the UK that I'd be wholly comfortable backing.

[worcesteradam]

throw anyone linked to big financial institutions out of high level advisor positions
starting with Volckner types

basically what I want is to overthrow the corrupt system, no more harvard/yale/princeton/stanford/columbia etc grads allowed in advisor positions. No ex big bankers or big corporate bosses. No proven liars.

[worcesteradam]

finically id want massive reforms. Im really concerned by mortgages, i think they should be outlawed.
If home loans are allowed, the money that backs them need to exist somewhere

[Geolibertarian]

I can't honestly see a party in the UK that I'd be wholly comfortable backing.

What about the Money Reform Party?

       http://www.moneyreformparty.org.uk/

[freedom_commonsense]

What about the Money Reform Party?

       http://www.moneyreformparty.org.uk/

Only single issue. I need to know where they stand on taxation, occupational licensing, spending reforms etc.

[MonkeyPuppet]

What policy reform measures do you think people from all across the political spectrum could unite behind?

Exposing the truth about upon whom Congress has imposed the federal income tax.

The truth is that the vast majority of Americans are not made liable (nor could they be!) since the federal income tax is only imposed upon foreign persons and their withholding agents, and U.S. citizens residing abroad with foreign-sourced income.

Any exposure to this fact would have to incorporate pertinent information to address the common questions which inevitably follow such exposure... how do we fund our government(s), how do we pay for roads, schools, and other public infrastructure, etc.  To those more informed, these questions seem ridiculous, but I hear them all the time since these aspects of public funding are not generally understood by the People.

It is quite simple, also, to point out that these ill-secured gains collected via the misapplication of the income tax are the reason we have seen such a massive expansion in the size of government at all levels.  Taking our debt-as-money system into consideration, without the guarantee of increased interest funding by way of the misapplied income tax, Congress could not borrow the way it has as of late.  Doing away with the FED is paramount, but choking it with the truth about the proper limited scope of the income tax would be its death knell.

[Geolibertarian]

Below is a perfect example of how diversionary wedge issues are to public discourse about the need for policy reform what a turd is to a punch bowl:  

--------------------------------

http://www.prisonplanet.com/moral-relativism.html

Moral Relativism

The American Dream
Jan 28, 2011

John Adams, the second president of the United States, once made the following statement: "We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Avarice, ambition, revenge, or gallantry, would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution was made only for a religious and moral people. It is wholly inadequate for the government of any other."  As we promote a return to constitutional principles, perhaps we should also be asking ourselves if the American people are moral enough to uphold and defend our Constitution anymore.  Will a political shift in Washington D.C. solve all of our problems, or should we be looking into our own hearts as well?  As controversial as it may be to question the morality of the American people, the truth is that after all of the shocking things that have transpired in this nation over the last 50 years someone certainly should be willing to ask the hard questions.  It would be hard to deny that moral relativism and moral decay are absolutely rampant in the United States today, and that our moral problems are very much at the heart of many of our problems.

A lot of people don't like to talk about morality.  In fact, many of my regular readers will probably throw a fit just because I am using the word "morality" in an article.  But you know what?  Without morality a society cannot function.  Our founding fathers knew this.  But somehow we have come to believe that morality and politics can be separated.

The truth is that when you fully take all morality out of politics you end up with a Hitler or a Stalin or a Mao.  You end up with death camps, torture, mass genocide and social chaos.

Unfortunately, Americans can't really seem to agree on what is "moral" and what is not anymore.  Moral relativism dominates in our society today.  Nobody really knows what the "rules" really are.

But if we all are living by different rules, then how is society going to continue to function?  The truth is that moral relativism simply does not work and our society is starting to find that out.

The list posted below is a perfect example of that.  Many of the things that I think are "morally wrong" will cause outrage among my regular readers.

Why?

Because the vast majority of us have become moral relativists.  We just make up right and wrong as we go along.

But hopefully most Americans that will read this list will realize that these 20 signs are indications that something is very, very wrong with the moral compass of this nation....

#1 If you want to get on an airplane in America today, you must either permit gawking airport security officials to view a "movie quality" image of your naked body, or you must allow a TSA goon to touch all of your private areas with the fronts of his (or her) hands.  So far most travelers seem to have accepted these new practices.  This is not a good sign for morality is America.

#2 90 teens at just one Memphis, Tennessee high school are pregnant.  In some areas of the country, it has actually become "trendy" for teenage girls to purposely get themselves pregnant.

#3 One Philadelphia abortionist is being formally charged with killing seven babies that were born alive, but witnesses claim that he actually slaughtered hundreds "of living, breathing newborn children by severing their spinal cords or slitting their necks."

#4 A new Illuminati-themed television show entitled "House Of Anubis" that is meant to be viewed by our children debuted on the Nickelodeon network in January 2011.

#5 What our government has allowed BP to do to the Gulf of Mexico and to residents along the Gulf coast is absolutely horrific.  Past generations would have never let something like this get brushed under the rug.

#6 Our government continues to brutally torture prisoners and yet very few Americans even seem to care.  The way we have conducted our wars and the way we have treated our prisoners has been a national disgrace.

#7 We are rapidly evolving into a Big Brother police state and yet most Americans are not objecting at all.  Things have gotten so bad that now we are actually giving tickets to 6-year-olds.  According to one recent report, police in Texas have given "1,000 tickets to elementary school children in 10 school districts" over the past six years.

#8 Since 1913, a cabal of international central bankers has used the Federal Reserve to control and manipulate our financial system and yet the American people have never even demanded a full audit of that incredibly corrupt institution.

#9 It is estimated that 89 percent of all pornography is produced inside the United States.  About 11 percent is made in the rest of the world.

#10 The American people are so morally bankrupt at this point that they actually elected Barack Obama (even after so much shocking information came out about him in the media) to be president of the United States.  Sadly, there is still a good chance that a politician as incredibly corrupt as Obama could actually be elected to a second term.

#11 During a stunning television interview with Larry King, former first lady Laura Bush revealed to the world that she flat out lied to the American people the entire time her husband was in office.  In an attempt to help him politically, she covered up the fact that she is actually very much in favor of legalized gay marriage and a woman's "right" to abortion.

#12 The FDA has announced that the offspring of cloned animals could be in our food supply right now and that there is nothing that they can do about it.

#13 Law enforcement officials estimate that approximately 600,000 Americans and 65,000 Canadians are trading dirty child pictures online.

#14 Last year one North Carolina pastor was shocked after he was dismissed from his chaplain duties for praying in the name of Jesus.

#15 In 2010, U.S. health officials announced that approximately 16 percent of all Americans between the ages of 14 and 49 are infected with genital herpes.  But that is just one of the dozens of sexually-transmitted diseases that are rapidly circulating throughout our society.

#16 The Obama administration is telling us that the field of "synthetic biology" poses only "limited risks" and should not be restricted at all.  It is apparently open season for those scientists that are eager to create whatever kinds of bizarre cross-species hybrids that their imaginations can conjure up.

#17 It is being reported that today a whopping 41% of all New York City pregnancies end in abortion.

#18 In recent years the U.S. government has spent $2.6 million tax dollars to study the drinking habits of Chinese prostitutes and has spent $400,000 tax dollars to pay researchers to cruise six bars in Buenos Aires, Argentina to find out why gay men engage in risky sexual behavior when drunk.

#19 A shocking new survey has found that 54 percent of "evangelical Protestants" believe that people from religions other than Christianity can find salvation without Jesus Christ.

#20 The foods that we eat and the things that we drink are making us all very sick.  The companies that are selling us these things know this and yet they continue to rake in record profits without making any changes.  This is incredibly wicked and it has become a national crisis.  The following is a very short trailer for a new documentary entitled "Food Matters"....

[Continued...]

--------------------------------

What would otherwise have been an excellent article was, in my view, ruined by the following:

"#11 During a stunning television interview with Larry King, former first lady Laura Bush revealed to the world that she flat out lied to the American people the entire time her husband was in office. In an attempt to help him politically, she covered up the fact that she is actually very much in favor of legalized gay marriage and a woman's 'right' to abortion."

"#19 A shocking new survey has found that 54 percent of 'evangelical Protestants' believe that people from religions other than Christianity can find salvation without Jesus Christ."

If you want to keep a critical mass of people from uniting across both party and ideolgical lines, then simply do what the author of the above article did: invoke the "gay marriage" issue, and suggest or imply that it's "immoral" not to believe that the billions of non-Christians on this planet are all destined to burn in hell (unless, of course, they convert to Paulism "Christianity" before they die).

[Suriel]

I agree with geolib's above point but if you were to point that out to them then they would just simpley accuss you of being politcally correct.

[decemberfellow]

So I urge everyone reading this to make suggestions on what we can do, both individually and as a people, to make such a coalition a reality. What policy reform measures do you think people from all across the political spectrum could unite behind?

Get us out of the UN and the UN out of the US

[worcesteradam]

I know new political parties are a bad idea, but one which could represent the anti nwo movement which people could rally behind, is exiting.
Maybe called the anti-nwo party, which could go out into the media and expose the lies of the establishment parties.

[Real Pilgrim]

@ Geolibertatian

I greatly approve of the list you made up. Were it up to me, I would definitely place election reform and monetary reform at the top of the list.

I would, however, add a few things to the list you suggested.

•   Today unfortunately, it seems that the power in Washington DC does not necessarily come from those we elect to office; instead great authority and power to control is wielded by non-elected officials who arrived at their position via appointment. Many of these appointed officials actually view elected officials as little more than transient labor conveniently placed before the public eye to take the heat, while the real decisions are being made in the back rooms by non-elected appointees who often fill their respective positions for decades. I’d get rid of them; one and all and return the power back to those who are elected. At present a huge number of major decisions are being made by non-elected officials and neither the house nor the senate has any oversight or control over these groups. Just get rid of them.

•   I would find out who the lawyers are who are actually writing the bills that ultimately get “sponsored” by somebody in the house or senate and I’d fire the whole damn lot of them and not bat an eye while doing it. Then I would make it constitutional law that no bill over 20 pages long could be presented before the house or congress. Furthermore, I would totally outlaw the conventions of “legalese” as it pertains to the very covert and seditious intent of Maritime or Admiralty law, and I would demand that all bills henceforth be written in plain, easy-to-understand English. And since all bills would be limited to 20 pages, I’d make sure that every single word in said bill was read aloud (and televised) before the house or the senate before any bill was actually voted on.

•   From those elected officials in both the house and the senate, I’d elect by public vote a “constitutional committee” who would go through every single bill, amendment and presidential executive order ever written since our nations’ constitution was formed, and I’d toss out every damn piece of legislation that is deemed unconstitutional.

[Real Pilgrim]

Oh! I forgot something...

I'd outlaw all riders on bills. I'd make it law that no seperate issues apart from the original intent of the bill could be attached to any said bill, because that has been a very sneaky way of getting some very nasty legislation passed. Riders don't generally get attached to any bill unless those responsible for writting the rider are aware that said legislation would not pass on its own violition. Do away with them completely.

[Geolibertarian]

http://www.prisonplanet.com/are-the-wild-teacher-protests-in-wisconsin-a-prelude-to-the-economic-riots-that-are-coming-to-america.html

Are The Wild Teacher Protests In Wisconsin A Prelude To The Economic Riots That Are Coming To America?

The Economic Collapse
Feb 18, 2011

Have you seen video of the teacher protests that are going on in Wisconsin?  We haven’t seen anything like this in America in quite some time.  If you haven’t seen video of the protests yet, some very good raw footage is posted below.  On the one hand it is good to see Americans coming together and standing up for what they believe in, but on the other hand what these teachers are freaking out about shows just how much America has changed.  These teachers are not protesting for liberty, freedom or to change the government.  Rather, they are protesting because they want things to remain the same.  They simply don’t want anyone to mess with their pay.  Well, the truth is that none of us ever wants to experience a pay cut.  It is not a lot of fun.  But sadly, states like Wisconsin are so broke that they have to find cuts somewhere.  Someone is going to have to make a sacrifice.  The teachers in Wisconsin just want to make sure that it is not them.

In the United States today, state and local governments are facing unprecedented budget crunches.  Tax revenues are way down and expenses are way up.  State and local government debt has reached at an all-time high of 22 percent of U.S. GDP, and many state and local governments are teetering on the brink of insolvency.

States like Wisconsin have to do something or else they will collapse financially.  Wisconsin is facing a $3.6 billion budget deficit (which for that state is huge), and Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker and the Republicans in the legislature are attempting to make some tough cuts.

In particular, they want public employees to pay a little more towards their health care premiums and pension programs.  In fact, what the Republicans are proposing would still leave Wisconsin public employees contributing far less to health care and pensions than their private sector counterparts.

U.S. Representative Paul Ryan recently appeared on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” program and described what Governor Scott Walker is asking the teachers to do….

"Scott and I are very close friends. We e-mail each other quite a bit… He’s basically saying that state workers which have extremely generous benefits packages relative to their private sector counterparts, they contribute next to nothing to their pensions, very, very little in their health care packages.

"He’s asking that they contribute about 12 percent for their health care premiums, which is about half of the private sector average, and about 5.6 percent to their pensions. It’s not asking a lot. It’s still about half of what private sector pensions do and health care packages do.

"So he’s basically saying 'I want you public workers half of what your private sector counterparts do' and he’s getting riots. It’s like Cairo has moved to Madison these days."

These proposed changes have caused a massive uproar in Wisconsin.  Just check out the following raw video footage from the last few days….

[Continued...]

[Real Pilgrim]

Yep. The cuts are coming. If the states used their brains however, they would immediately adopt a State run Bank after the style of North Dakota’s successful state run banking system, as suggested by the remarkable economist, Bill Still.

http://www.secretofoz.com/index.php?limitstart=5

Secondly, if the states want to avoid going down with a ship that is surely sinking, they would immediately adopt a local currency system that allowed them to create their own legal tender. That way the states could keep on paying their teachers and other employees, and the same local currency could be used by the citizens of that state to pay rent and utilities, and buy food and other necessities.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Local_currency

There is no reason for any state to keep itself tied to the Federal Reserve dollar; we all know what’s going to happen to it.

It’d be nice to avoid the riots and the only way to do it that I can see, is to simply side step the Fed.

[lamourlady]

I find it hard to put forth anything, because every time I believe the people are gaining a foothold I am informed on this very forum that it has somehow been co-opted. 

[Geolibertarian]

I find it hard to put forth anything, because every time I believe the people are gaining a foothold I am informed on this very forum that it has somehow been co-opted.

Don't be silly. If you have some suggestions to add, simply state what they are and we'll go from there.

The more specific this coalition is in terms of the policy reforms it advocates, the more difficult it will be for establishment operatives to co-opt it.

It's when people start relying too heavily on feel-good slogans and empty platitudes that they become unnecessarily vulnerable to the sort of hijacking that largely neutralized the Tea Party.

[freedom_commonsense]

Indeed it would -- a long way towards linking being pro-civil liberties with being pro-austerity, and hence towards keeping people divided into opposing factions.

You could institute the guaranteed income first. 

[Geolibertarian]

You could institute the guaranteed income first. 

Actually, in case you missed it, I advocated the "National Dividend" in my second post to this thread.

[freedom_commonsense]

Please forgive my lack of knowledge.. but, I don't understand how getting rid of Patriot Act and Social Security Act (disband the UN too), would be pro-austerity?   Of course we would have to implement something for retirees, especially since so many are now dependent upon it.  But.  Congress looted those funds a long time ago anyway so that there will indeed be true austerity (poverty) when those who relied upon it, simply won't get it.

When the social security act was passed, it was an alarming event!  But, it was all very quiet, low key for a long time and seemed to work.  Child Protective Services falls under the Social Security Act.  Nancy Schaeffer realized the only fix to many of our social ills was to rid of the Social Security Act which created those ills.  She was killed for her efforts.

I like your posts and read them, but much I don't understand.

Love, e

Cutting the social safety net (in terms of cash to unemployed\retirees) right now would be crippling to a lot of people. It would take time for reforms to be phased in, hence Geolibertarian doesn't support cutting those payments. Aside from which the "defense" budget is the biggest expense.

[Geolibertarian]

http://www.prisonplanet.com/ron-paul-and-dennis-kucinich-slam-obama-misuse-of-war-powers.html

Ron Paul And Dennis Kucinich Slam Obama Misuse Of War Powers

Fox News
April 4, 2011

Ron Paul, Denis Kucinich discuss the truth about Obama and his illegal war on Libya.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=epcq7KqpYX0 (RON PAUL DENNIS KUCINICH ON PRESIDENTIAL WAR POWERS 4/1/11 - FBN)

[Geolibertarian]

http://www.prisonplanet.com/americans-gone-wild.html

Americans Gone Wild

The Economic Collapse
May 6, 2011

Gerald Celente is known to love to make the following statement: “When people lose everything and have nothing left to lose – they lose it.”  Sadly, Celente is exactly right about this.  As the U.S. economy continues to collapse, Americans are going to becoming increasingly frustrated, and this frustration will inevitably boil over into rioting and violence.  Could we be starting to see the start of this already?  The number of Americans that have “gone wild” seems to be escalating.  Years ago, losing a job was not that big of a deal.  Now a job loss is enough to cause some Americans to snap and go over the edge.  We are seeing restaurant brawls and open violence in the streets that would have been unthinkable 50 years ago.  All over the nation people are losing it and are literally going crazy.  The news stories and the videos posted below of “Americans gone wild” are very graphic and very shocking.  There is a reason for this.  These examples are meant to show you that the very fabric of our civilized society is falling apart.  It won’t matter who ends up leading us politically if this is the kind of people we become.

Sadly, it appears that we are not the same kind of people that we used to be.  Something has changed in America.  Something is different.  We have forgotten many of the things that made us great as a nation.  We no longer live by the same principles.  We no longer value the same truths.

There are examples of “Americans gone wild” all over the nation.  The things  you are about to read about below are not just isolated incidents.  The truth is that I could have easily included dozens more examples.

As the economy continues to crumble this trend is going to get even worse.  The following are just a few examples of how Americans have been freaking out and losing it recently….

[Continued...]

[Geolibertarian]

"At this point, the IMF drags the gasping nation to Step Three: Market-Based Pricing, a fancy term for raising prices on food, water and cooking gas. This leads, predictably, to Step-Three-and-a-Half: what [Joseph] Stiglitz calls, 'The IMF riot.'

"The IMF riot is painfully predictable. When a nation is, 'down and out, [the IMF] takes advantage and squeezes the last pound of blood out of them. They turn up the heat until, finally, the whole cauldron blows up,' as when the IMF eliminated food and fuel subsidies for the poor in Indonesia in 1998. Indonesia exploded into riots, but there are other examples - the Bolivian riots over water prices last year and this February, the riots in Ecuador over the rise in cooking gas prices imposed by the World Bank. You'd almost get the impression that the riot is written into the plan."

-- http://www.gregpalast.com/the-globalizer-who-came-in-from-the-cold/

http://www.prisonplanet.com/war-zones-as-the-economy-dies-murders-shootings-robberies-and-looting-erupt-all-over-america.html

War Zones: As The Economy Dies, Murders, Shootings, Robberies And Looting Erupt All Over America

The American Dream
June 2, 2011

As the U.S. economy falls apart and millions of Americans descend into despair we are seeing some really shocking things start to happen all over America. The mainstream media keeps telling us that crime is under control, but they are also the ones that keep telling us that we are in the midst of an “economic recovery”. Unfortunately, the truth is that the economy is slowly dying. Today, an all-time record 44 million Americans are on food stamps. That number is 18 million higher than it was just four years ago. When people can’t get jobs and when people feel deprived they get desperate. The incidents that you are about to see and read about below are very disturbing. Many American communities are rapidly turning into war zones. Sadly, it is mostly young people that are involved in the crimes and the violence that are now sweeping America.

Yesterday, I wrote an article entitled “18 Signs That Life In U.S. Public Schools Is Now Essentially Equivalent To Life In U.S. Prisons“, and there were some readers that objected to the article because they said that the youth of today are so wild that if you don’t use extreme measures they will just be completely out of control.

Sadly, it is true that many of our young people are extremely wild. But a lot of that is our own fault. We did not believe in teaching our kids about “morality”, and so now they do not have any. We did not believe in having the Ten Commandments around, and so now many of our young people feel free to steal and murder. We allowed television and movies to raise our kids, and now they are acting out what they have been watching all of their lives.

If your community is not a war zone yet, you should consider yourself to be very fortunate. There are many communities across the United States where people simply do not go out at night anymore.

Wherever large groups of Americans gather these days, big problems often seem to follow. The following is video that was shot during the recent Memorial Day weekend in Miami Beach….

[Continued...]

[Geolibertarian]

http://www.prisonplanet.com/18-signs-the-collapse-of-society-is-accelerating.html

18 Signs The Collapse Of Society Is Accelerating

The Economic Collapse
June 9, 2011

As the U.S. economy collapses, the thin veneer of civilization that we all take for granted is going to begin to disappear.  In fact, there are already an increasing number of signs that the collapse of society is accelerating.  In cities such as Chicago, roving packs of young people are “mob robbing” local businesses, randomly assaulting tourists and shoppers and are even pulling people out of vehicles.  This isn’t just happening in the “bad areas” anymore. Over the past couple of months this type of crime has been common in some of the wealthiest areas of Chicago.  In fact, many Chicago residents are now referring to “the Magnificent Mile” as “the Mug Mile”.  But it isn’t just in Chicago that this is happening.  During this past Memorial Day weekend, cities all over the United States experienced a stunning wave of mass violence.  We are supposed to be an “example” for the rest of the world, but as our economic wealth crumbles we are witnessing the collapse of society all around us.  So what is going to happen when the economy gets even worse?

The United States used to be a fairly civilized society.  But now very few people seem to care how they treat others.  That is even the case with our own government.  As you will see below, the government is now sending SWAT teams in and dragging people out of their homes over unpaid student loans.

So if the government is going to be so brutal, what kind of message does that send to our young people?

Today our young people are facing a future that looks incredibly bleak.  It is hard to have faith in the “system” when the “system” simply does not work any longer.

What are you supposed to say to a young person when you know very well that there are no jobs and that there is very little hope?

Most Americans don’t understand what is causing the collapse of the economy, but most of them do have a sinking feeling that something has seriously gone wrong.

For the last few years the American people have waited patiently for our politicians to “fix things”, but they have not gotten the job done.

Instead, our economic situation is still declining.

So now frustration is starting to boil over, and it is only going to get worse.

The following are 18 signs that the collapse of society is accelerating….

[Continued...]

[Geolibertarian]

http://www.prisonplanet.com/12-more-signs-that-society-is-collapsing.html

12 More Signs That Society Is Collapsing

The Economic Collapse
June 10, 2011

What we are now witnessing is the slow motion unraveling of America.  Our economy is dying, the American people have lost faith in the government and in almost all of our other major institutions, and our society is collapsing.  Most Americans don’t understand why all of this is happening, but most of them do realize that something has fundamentally changed.  Earlier this year, McDonald’s held a “National Hiring Day” and a million Americans showed up to apply for jobs.  Only 62,000 of them were hired.  That means only 6.2% of the applicants got jobs.  So what are we supposed to tell the 93.8% that didn’t get hired?  Are they supposed to have any hope for the future when they can’t even get a minimum wage job at McDonald’s?  When I was a teenager, I went over to McDonald’s one day, filled out an application and was instantly hired.  My, how things have changed.  Now we have millions upon millions of young people that are staring directly into a very bleak future.  The level of frustration in this country is rising to frightening levels and large numbers of people are already showing that they will stoop to anything in order to survive.

In a recent article entitled “18 Signs The Collapse Of Society Is Accelerating” I focused primarily on the chaos that has been erupting in many of our urban areas.  But the truth is that, as you will see below, there are signs that society is collapsing coming out of very rural areas as well.  This phenomenon cannot just be pinned down to one area of the country or to one group of people.  From coast to coast people are already starting to lose it and the economic collapse has only just begun.

The cold, hard reality of the matter is that what we are experiencing right now is rip-roaring prosperity compared to what is coming down the road.

So if people will behave this wildly now, what is our society going to look like someday when there are millions of Americans that have not had anything to eat for several days?

That is something to think about.

History has shown us that when people are really, really hungry they will do just about anything.

But right now we are not even close to that point and yet people all across America are going crazy.

The following are 12 more signs that society is collapsing….

[Continued...]

[Geolibertarian]

People from across the political spectrum must determine now what their common ground is, and begin using that common ground as a means of forging the sort of massive grassroots coalition of informed citizens that is urgently needed if we are to have any hope of effecting meaningful change within our lifetimes.

I'm afraid I've almost given up hope that a critical mass of Americans will ever unite across both party and ideological lines behind an agreed-upon policy agenda.

Why?

Multiple reasons, but one of the key ones is this tendency that both the left-wingers and right-wingers alike have to attach pejorative labels blindly and indiscriminately to anyone who expresses a view with which they disagree, and how this in turn destroys constructive, unifying dialogue before it even has a chance to start.

I'll leave it to others to give examples of how left-wingers do this.

As for right-wingers, I've spent the last 14 years online learning the hard way over and over again that many if not most of them are so arrogant, so brainwashed and so reactionary, that -- even if the person in question wants (as I do) to abolish wage taxes, abolish sales taxes, abolish taxes on capital goods, abolish taxes on houses, buildings and other improvements, abolish prohibitively high licensing barriers, abolish ObamaCare, abolish corporate welfare, abolish corporate personhood, abolish compulsory school attendance laws, abolish gun control laws, abolish the DEA, abolish the BATFE, abolish the CIA, abolish the NSA, abolish FEMA, abolish the Deparment of Homeland "Security," and abolish the Department of "Education" -- they'll STILL arrogantly accuse that person of being a freedom-hating "socialist" or "collectivist" merely for stating that the Founding Fathers had the right idea when, in the Articles of Confederation, they called for deriving federal revenue from a tax levied upon "the value of all land within each State."

And if that person then objects to this obvious mischaracterization, they'll accuse him of being "intellectually dishonest" as well.

As long as the more thoughtful among us continue to let label-obsessed reactionaries dominate political dialogue in this country, no non-partisan, cross-ideological "coalition" will be possible. And without such a coalition, no meaningful reforms will be possible.

I'd love to be proven wrong, of course, but I've seen virtually no evidence that this will happen anytime soon.

Just calling it like I see it, folks, so plese don't blame the messenger.

[Letsbereal]

IMF Same Exact Four-Step Program

1.0 Privatization 'Briberization.'

2.0 IMF/World Bank capital market deregulation allows investment capital to flow in and out the "Hot Money" cycle.

3.0 Market-Based Pricing, a fancy term for raising prices on food, water and cooking gas

3.5 IMF and World Bank call their "poverty reduction strategy": Free Trade- "The IMF riot."

http://www.gregpalast.com/the-globalizer-who-came-in-from-the-cold/

[Geolibertarian]

IMF Same Exact Four-Step Program

1.0 Privatization 'Briberization.'

2.0 IMF/World Bank capital market deregulation allows investment capital to flow in and out the "Hot Money" cycle.

3.0 Market-Based Pricing, a fancy term for raising prices on food, water and cooking gas

3.5 IMF and World Bank call their "poverty reduction strategy": Free Trade- "The IMF riot."

http://www.gregpalast.com/the-globalizer-who-came-in-from-the-cold/

Yup. The bankers are now doing to us what they've done to numerous Third World nations over the years, and most people (including, unfortunately, certain members of this forum) are too busy worshipping false paradigms to unite with fellow citizens across party and ideological lines.

I don't know what else to say at this point, except that I tried.

[Geolibertarian]

http://www.prisonplanet.com/the-handling-of-the-economic-crisis-may-lead-to-civil-unrest.html

The Handling of the Economic Crisis May Lead to Civil Unrest

Washington’s Blog
June 10, 2011

CNN’s Jack Cafferty notes that a number of voices are saying that – if our economy continues to deteriorate (which it very well might) – we are likely headed for violence, and civil unrest is a growing certainty.

Watch the must-see CNN viewer comments on this issue:

[Embedded video clip omitted - see original article]

Newsweek wrote two weeks ago:

Reality is beginning to break through. Gas and grocery prices are on the rise, home values are down, and vast majorities think the country is on the wrong track. The result is sadness and frustration, but also an inchoate rage more profound than the sign-waving political fury documented during the elections last fall.

***

In search of the earthly toll of this outrage, NEWSWEEK conducted a poll of 600 people, finding vastly more unquiet minds than not. Three out of four people believe the economy is stagnant or getting worse. One in three is uneasy about getting married, starting a family, or being able to buy a home. Most say their relationships have been damaged by economic woes or, perhaps more accurately, the dread and nervousness that accompany them.

Could these emotions escalate into revolt?

Why are people so angry?

Well, as the Newsweek article points out:

[Continued...]

[Geolibertarian]

http://www.prisonplanet.com/greece-this-is-what-an-imf-riot-looks-like.html

Greece: This is What an IMF Riot Looks Like

Kurt Nimmo
Prison Planet.com
Thursday, June 30, 2011

The European stock market reacted jubilantly to news that the Greek parliament agreed to Mafia-like terms demanded by the international loan sharking operation, the IMF. Investors looked myopically at the boards showing the London FTSE 100 up a smidgen along with Frankfurt’s DAX and CAC-40 in Paris. In the United States, stock futures ticked up modestly as Wall Street opened for the day. Dow Jones Industrial Average futures for September delivery and Standard & Poor’s 500 contract for the same month are up 0.2% at 12,238.00 and 1,306.30, respectively.

       http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xo3t82ntchc

Markets reacted triumphantly in South Korea, India, Brazil and elsewhere. It has turned out to be a red letter day for the globalists and the financial class.

Meanwhile, on the streets of Athens, an IMF riot is in full swing. “Despite continuing protests – some violent – on the streets of Athens, investors were pleased that a euro-zone financial disaster had been averted,” the Wall Street Jounral cheerfully reports today.

The IMF riot will undoubtedly get worse later today as the Greek parliament figures out the mechanics of bankster-imposed austerity. It’s business as usual for the financial class on Wall Street, and in London and Brussels.

“Although one would not think it from the pictures from Athens, European policy makers have expressed their approval that Armageddon has been averted following the vote of approval in the Greek parliament,” said Dermot O’Leary, economist at Goodbody Stockbrokers.

Of course, it depends on how you define Armageddon.

When the IMF eliminated food and fuel subsidies for the poor in Indonesia in 1998, the people went into the streets and rioted. After the banksters jacked up water prices in Bolivia, a series of IMF riots broke out. There were riots in Ecuador over the rise in cooking gas prices imposed by the World Bank.

According to former chief economist at the World Bank, Joseph Stiglitz, the IMF and World Bank meticulously plot these riots. It’s all part of the plan. Greece is being gutted economically so the banksters and transnational corporations can rush in and buy assets and resources for pennies on the dollar.

[Continued...]

[Geolibertarian]

http://www.prisonplanet.com/brzezinski-middle-class-unrest-to-hit-u-s.html

Brzezinski: Middle Class Unrest To Hit U.S.

Globalist who wrote books advocating highly controlled society dominated by technocratic elite is now concerned about “disparity in society”

Paul Joseph Watson
Prison Planet.com
Thursday, July 7, 2011

Zbigniew Brzezinski, who forty years ago wrote of a highly controlled future society where the population would be subjugated by a technocratic elite, appeared on MSNBC’s Morning Joe yesterday to predict that middle class unrest caused by economic disenfranchisement would soon hit America.

[Embedded video clip omitted. See original article.]

“I don’t want to be a prophet of doom — and I don’t think we are approaching doom — but I think we’re going to slide into intensified social conflicts, social hostility, some forms of radicalism, there is just going to be a sense that this is not a just society,” Brzezinski said, adding that civil unrest would begin when the lower middle class becomes severely affected by the economic fallout and rising unemployment.

The former National Security Advisor predicted “really serious international turmoil” as a result of the United States, Europe and Japan, the three traditional pillars of global economic strength, struggling with deep financial crises.

CFR member Brzezinski’s so-called concern about “disparity” and a “fair society,” as the rich get richer and the middle class becomes poorer, is completely hypocritical given the fact that he wrote books four decades ago virtually advocating precisely that system, where a tiny elite ruthlessly control and dominate the rest of humanity.

However, this is certainly not the first time that Brzezinski has expressed concerns that a growing rage caused by economic and social disenfranchisement could threaten the existing power structure.

[Continued...]

[Geolibertarian]

http://www.prisonplanet.com/20-signs-that-the-fabric-of-american-society-is-coming-apart-at-the-seams.html

20 Signs That The Fabric Of American Society Is Coming Apart At The Seams

The American Dream
July 20, 2011



There is wild disagreement about what is causing it, but what most people can agree on is that there is something fundamentally wrong with America. The fabric of American society just does not seem to be as strong as it used to. In fact, many would argue that society is coming apart at the seams. Corruption and decay seem to be everywhere. I spend a lot of time in my other articles blaming a lot of this corruption and decay on politicians, bureaucrats and business leaders, but the reality is that they are only part of the story. The truth is that those who are leading us are a reflection of what we have become as a nation. If you got rid of all of our corrupt leaders that would not suddenly “fix” this country. Millions of ordinary Americans have become deeply corrupt as well. The kinds of things that you are about to read about below were very rare in past generations. Society is falling apart all around us and we haven’t even seen the complete collapse of the U.S. economy yet.

A lot of people like to blame the increasingly bizarre behavior of the American people on the economy, but the reality is that things are not nearly as bad as they are eventually going to be. Yes, the U.S. “Misery Index” recently hit a 28 year high. Tens of millions of American families are deeply suffering. Unemployment is rampant and unprecedented numbers of Americans have been getting kicked out of their homes.

But that is nothing compared to what is coming.

So what is America going to look like when true economic suffering comes along?

That is something to think about.

A lot of the items in the list below may seem easy to dismiss as “isolated incidents”. But when you start examining patterns of behavior over an extended period of time, certain trends begin to emerge. America is become a very cruel place. The love of most people seems to be growing cold. What some people are willing to do for a little bit of money or just because someone has “pissed them off” is absolutely stunning. The America of today is fundamentally different from the America of past generations.

We have changed, and not for the better.

The following are 20 signs that the fabric of American society is coming apart at the seams…..

[Continued...]

[Letsbereal]

IMF Same Exact Four-Step Program

1.0 Privatization 'Briberization.'

2.0 IMF/World Bank capital market deregulation allows investment capital to flow in and out the "Hot Money" cycle.

3.0 Market-Based Pricing, a fancy term for raising prices on food, water and cooking gas

3.5 IMF and World Bank call their "poverty reduction strategy": Free Trade- "The IMF riot."

http://www.gregpalast.com/the-globalizer-who-came-in-from-the-cold/

[Geolibertarian]

As the old saying goes, a house is only as strong as its foundation. And I respectfully submit that any mass resistance which does not have as its foundation an agreed-upon set of policy reforms will (once an ever-worsening socioeconomic crisis reaches a certain threshold) inevitably degenerate into a series of IMF riots, thereby giving the ruling elite the excuse they need to declare all-out martial law.

The end result? More Nazi-style tyranny, not less.

http://www.prisonplanet.com/the-rioting-underclass-product-of-a-diseased-culture.html

The Rioting Underclass: Product of a Diseased Culture

Pressure from above, pressure from below; It’s about eviscerating the middle class by manipulating them to demand their own enslavement

Paul Joseph Watson
Infowars.com
Tuesday, August 9, 2011

The riots that have gripped London and swept other major cities in the UK are the product of a diseased culture that leads to violence and mayhem which ultimately only serves to benefit the ruling elite in its bid to eviscerate the middle class by manipulating them to demand their own enslavement.

      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZUzuYoCkYAY

Firstly, anyone who truly believes that the rioters are burning and looting to protest any legitimate grievances, at least ones that they are consciously aware of, needs their head examining.

A BBC video clip features audio of a group of drunk teenage girls describing how fun it is to engage in wanton violence and thieving. In a transparent and moronic attempt to justify their actions, the girls begin babbling about “the government….conservatives or whatever….I don’t know,” before responding to a question about why they are attacking local residents of their own community by snorting, “It’s the rich people, the people that have got businesses and that’s why all of this happened because of rich people.”

Those “rich people” include a local family-owned furniture store in Croydon that survived two world wars yet has now been burned to the ground, a charity shop that raises revenue for the elderly, and a cat rescue center based in Enfield, amongst scores of other homes, charities and small businesses owned by innocent and far from “rich” people.

To claim that these disaffected youths are the vanguard of some organic revolutionary movement is completely asinine. If this is a genuine backlash against the establishment, why are the mobs not congregating around Downing Street, the Houses of Parliament or Buckingham Palace, the real culprits of Britain’s economic degradation. Why instead are they busy filling trolleys full of tennis shoes, mobile phones, along with plentiful supplies of booze and cigarettes from tiny local off-licenses?

The rioters are composed predominantly of nihilistic, aggressive, vapid and intellectually castrated youths that have come to represent the very term “broken Britain”.

This is like a bad zombie movie – it’s the rise of the idiots. The plague started in Tottenham. It rapidly spread to other areas of London, and soon the hordes were rampaging around major cities nationwide. But these zombies weren’t scavenging for brains, they were in search of JD Sports chav-wear, 40 inch TVs and iPads. The police stood by and watched. The petrified public welcomed troops on the streets, curfews, more surveillance and control with open arms. Thanks a lot, idiots.

The cause of this mayhem cannot be traced to any legitimate political grievance, it is almost entirely the product of a diseased culture, fostered by multinational corporations and the celebrity-obsessed entertainment industry, that brainwashes young people to aspire to lifestyles they can never possibly attain.

The social decline of young people becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy as a result of constant media fascination with demonizing youngsters and presenting them with a putrid diet of “heroes,” vacuous footballers and drug-addled musicians, whose behavior makes impressionable kids think that life revolves around being constantly trashed, engaging in amoral sexual conquests and proving their manhood by pointless displays of animal-like aggression.

MTV-manufactured rap icons, movies and video games have trained an entire generation of disadvantaged kids to grow up as wannabe gangsters, marauding around town with their jeans half-way down their thighs in huge mobs intimidating the public. Rampant consumerism is also to blame. Deprived kids on benefits cannot afford the iPods and laptops they are told they must own to be accepted by their peers, so an opportunity like this cannot be wasted. As the Guardian reports today, “Where we used to be defined by what we did, now we are defined by what we buy. These big stores are in the business of tempting [the consumer] and then suddenly these people find they can just walk into the shop and have it all.”

This army of Clockwork Orange-style droogs are then played off against the general public who, suitably terrified by the media’s incessant hyping of the problem, openly welcome troops on the streets, more surveillance, curfews and whatever else is necessary ‘just to keep us safe’.

[Continued...]