In your opinion.........

BarredBuff

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I agree to. (partly because I dont wanna be left out :p )
 

savingdogs

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I think the media is jumping on and hyping this current style of protest, partly because a lot of us are watching for this kind of thing. It isn't a secret that many people are worried at this point. They are PLAYING with our concerns and using it to sell air time, and it irks me to pieces. I hate the way TV news baits you with tidbits to get you to tune in.......and they play on every fear they know we might be having.

Personally I think there have been a lot of focus on the current protestors but I heard they didn't even have very large groups forming, it isn't currently something to be worried about. Those folks are making a social statement. That is something they are allowed to do because it is a free country.

I'm more concerned about riots over food and the food supply, or the electric supply, that kind of thing.
 

Boogity

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savingdogs said:
I think the media is jumping on and hyping this current style of protest, partly because a lot of us are watching for this kind of thing. It isn't a secret that many people are worried at this point. They are PLAYING with our concerns and using it to sell air time, and it irks me to pieces. I hate the way TV news baits you with tidbits to get you to tune in.......and they play on every fear they know we might be having.
Doesn't that irk you to no end?

We went to a Bluegrass Festival on Saturday (and froze to death:)) and one of the bands was a woman and a man who seemed a little bit like carry-overs from the '60 hippy movement. Anyway they were very good and very entertaining. In between songs she told us a little bit about their lifestyle living in a tiny log cabin in the Smokey Mountains near Cherokee, NC and one of the things she told us was that 17 years ago their TV broke and they have never replaced it. Sometimes I wish I had the fortitude to do that.
 

FarmerChick

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Boogity said:
that 17 years ago their TV broke and they have never replaced it. Sometimes I wish I had the fortitude to do that.
this is simple...either you want to live like that or don't. I am not on the fence on certain items in my life...lol...I love my tv along with many other of my conveniences. But one must decide what they can do without. You obviously enjoy your tv to an extent, so don't waste your time 'wondering' if you can do without......pick things you want to change and do it! Taking action on what you do want to change is way more productive :p that is what I do now.
 

aggieterpkatie

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Eh, generation after generation has complained that society was going to hell in a handbasket and it's always going to be that way. For some reason when people get older they suddenly think things were so much better when they were kids, probably because they were too young to realize what was going on in society. :p

I don't think the WAWKI is going to end any time soon. If we can survive a Civil War, WWI, Great Depression, WWII, etc, we can survive pretty much anything I think. :)
 

JRmom

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aggieterpkatie said:
Eh, generation after generation has complained that society was going to hell in a handbasket and it's always going to be that way. For some reason when people get older they suddenly think things were so much better when they were kids, probably because they were too young to realize what was going on in society. :p

I don't think the WAWKI is going to end any time soon. If we can survive a Civil War, WWI, Great Depression, WWII, etc, we can survive pretty much anything I think. :)
I don't think anyone is saying we won't survive "whatever" may happen. :D But many seem to think that "something" is brewing. What and when? Who knows, there are so many variables, but the opinion (at least among people I know) is that we are in for a bumpy ride, and probably sometime soon.
 

k0xxx

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Long post alert! Readers may want to fortify their system with lots of caffeine before attempting to read. :caf

Yes, we have weathered bad times before, and I believe that we will in the future. We have made it through a severe economic crisis, skyrocketing fuel prices, social unrest, food shortages, declining education, high unemployment, civil war and more. However, we have never had to deal with all of these at one time, and I believe that we may be headed (with the exception of civil war I HOPE) in that direction. We can make it through these things again.

Education: For the last 50 years we have had teachers and professors teaching us and our children that America is evil, that capitalism is evil, and that religion and moral codes of conduct are outdated. In most areas of the country US history is no longer taught, and when it is, it's often taught from the perspective that America and Western Society is bad, racist, and needs to be dismantled.

Unemployment: The official unemployment rate is 9.1%, but it were figured in the same way that it had been since the 1920's, it would be 16.2%. The average number of weeks of unemployment has increased from 19.9 weeks to 40.3 weeks, over the course of the last two years.

Fuel Prices: In January of 2009, the average price of gas was $1.82, today it is $3.66. In the words of our president, under his plan of "Cap and Trade", electricity prices "would necessarily skyrocket." The higher prices were to be a way to force Americans (at least those of lower income) to use less electricity. For now, Cap and Trade has been defeated, but this administrations new EPA regulations are set to cost utilities up to $129 billion and eliminate one-fifth of America's coal capacity. The Edison Electric Institute also noted that the U.S. governments regulatory war on coal could retire up to 90,000 megawatts of coal-fired electricity generation. The new regulations will eliminate in the neighborhood of 60,000 jobs. "So if somebody wants to build a coal-powered plant, they can," Obama said. "It's just that it will bankrupt them because they're going to be charged a huge sum for all that greenhouse gas that's being emitted."

We have a very real chance of seeing a region wide conflict in the Middle East. Such a conflict would easily see oil prices double or triple. Consider what such an increase would do to the economy of the US, and the world for the matter. Not to mention the effect that the prices will have on middle and lower income families.

Social Unrest/Civil War: Threats of social unrest have appeared on many fronts, and it is just under the surface of many organization in this country. America is being divided and polarized. We have the heads of the two most powerful unions in the country (Trumka of the AFL-CIO, and Stern of the SEIU) openly calling for civil unrest, and the destruction of capitalism. As SEIU president, Andy Stern said, If we cant use the power of persuasion, we will use the persuasion of power. The power players and darlings of the far left, Francis Pivens, Van Jones, Micheal Moore, Cindy Sheehan, Susan Sarandon, Noam Chomsky, et al, supporting and in some instances calling for open revolution in the US and the West.

The president of the New Black Panthers Party telling a Harlem audience to prepare for war here in America, and that "You want freedom youre going to have to kill some crackers. Youre going to have to kill some of their babies."

Jose Angel Gutierrez, professor, University of Texas, Arlington and founder of the La Raza Unida political party stated that, We have an aging white America They are dying We have got to eliminate the gringo, and what I mean by that is if the worst comes to the worst, we have got to kill him. La Raza's stated goal is to reclaim the southwest US for Mexico, using any means necessary.

Even some of our own politicians don't seem to have a problem with violence. In the words of Mass. Dem. Congressman Mike Capuano, Im proud to be here with people that understand that its more than just sending an e-mail that gets you going. Every once and awhile you gotta get out in the streets and get a little bloody when necessary.

Food: This year drought and flooding has caused the loss of upwards of 15% of crops in the US. High fuel prices are putting even further pressure on farmers. Wheat and corn prices have almost doubled over the last 14 months. With food prices getting higher, farmers are starting to report problems with crop theft.

Economic Crisis: America's debt has now surpassed the nation's entire GDP. If every cent of every dollar produced by the entire country for a full year were used to pay on the debt, it wouldn't be enough, and we are currently borrowing over 1.2 trillion dollars a year. Even more sobering is that fact that since the world has almost completely stopped buying our bonds, that we are now borrowing the majority of the money from the "lender of last resort", ourselves. How long does anyone believe that we can keep doing this without dire repercussions for the value of the dollar? Only a week or so back, the Fed indicated that another round of Quantitative Easing (printing money) may be needed. (I guess that's because it has worked so well these last few years)

The dollar until recently was near record lows in the currency markets. The only thing propping it up at the moment is the turmoil in Europe and the looming collapse of the Euro. Investors are fleeing the Euro and moving their money into dollars. The problem is that if the Euro collapses, it will probably take the world economy (dollar included) with it. The Economic Cycle Research Institute (an International Think Tank that has, to this point, never been wrong on their economic forecasts) now predicts a new recession is unavoidable. ECRI's co-founder Lakshman Achuthan states, "You haven't seen anything yet. It's going to get a lot worse."

If the economy of the US does enter an even deeper recession or into depression, it would only mean the printing of vast new sums of the dollar. If we continue on this path and the dollar goes belly up, pretty much overnight you could see the savings of millions evaporate and the costs of all goods and services go ballistic. It's happened before to other countries that were following the same path that we are. The only thing that has so far kept the lid on the dollar is that is is currently accepted as the worlds reserve currency. That status is starting to break down as more and more countries are dropping the dollar for trade and calling for an end of it's reserve status.

Now consider that we have over 45 million people on food stamps, and increase from 31 million in just two years. We now have third generation welfare "families" that have known no other life than that of total government reliance. Millions of others owe their income and health insurance to the pubic dole in the form of SS, SSI and Medicare. I'm not so sure that these millions would just say "Oh well", and go about their lives if they find that these things suddenly disappear. Which brings us back to the Social Unrest category.

Yes we have been through tough times in the past. All I am saying is that there are more events that are aligning at one time than has ever occurred in the history of our nation and that we have the potential for things to get far worse than they ever have before. We don't know if the worst will happen, but we can (and IMHO, should) certainly plan for it, while still hoping for the best. I do agree with FC in that "something is always brewing", it's only that in this moment in history, there are A LOT of somethings brewing.

To quote Ayn Rand, You can ignore reality, but you cant ignore the consequences of ignoring reality.
 

aggieterpkatie

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JRmom said:
aggieterpkatie said:
Eh, generation after generation has complained that society was going to hell in a handbasket and it's always going to be that way. For some reason when people get older they suddenly think things were so much better when they were kids, probably because they were too young to realize what was going on in society. :p

I don't think the WAWKI is going to end any time soon. If we can survive a Civil War, WWI, Great Depression, WWII, etc, we can survive pretty much anything I think. :)
I don't think anyone is saying we won't survive "whatever" may happen. :D But many seem to think that "something" is brewing. What and when? Who knows, there are so many variables, but the opinion (at least among people I know) is that we are in for a bumpy ride, and probably sometime soon.
Ok, you're right. :) I should clarify. I don't think any "end of the world" situation is ever going to happen in our lifetime, or our children's lifetime. I don't see any major event happening that would cause us all to have to hunker down and survive by eating food we've stored, and having to fight people ala Mad Max. :p
 
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