Lew C,

It never ceases to amaze me how the so many who seem to have all the right answers for everybody else.  I say, let those sitting on their fat-contentedness defend for their sitting; they’ll learn.  And if they don’t, they’ll die in their ignorance.  Many millions of people died truly believing the world flat.  If it was good enough for them, it’s good enough for the rest.  You may be correct in saying that i’m no revolutionary.  To me, that’s simply playing along with the same crusader con-game.  Were it up to me, i’d blow the whole planet inside-out and be done with it; or, find some airborn pathogen and sterilize the whole planet:  forcing Nature, if it’s possible, to rethink it’s own value(s).  Hate to burst that egotistic violence loving bubble, but surely, you seem NOT to be the one with all the correct and righteous answers, sensing how you’d “love to be there while others are soiling their pants” out of fear, or, whatever.  Sounds more like the warped personality of a sadist/masacist, than one with understanding that really cares.

By jr., August 15 at 10:58 am

Fear is NOT the answer.  And, yes, there are those who find violence orgasmic:  i’m not one of them.  Have had to confront violence in the past, and still am having to do so in the present, and, considering society’s mind-set, may likely have to continue doing so in the future, if there be any future.  In any event, you’re not missing anything, here.  As far as it being “true” violence, well, each man, woman, and child for themself.  My one true hope being, to those who love violence, may they have it till it’s coming out of their nostrils.

I agree that fear is not the answer but neither is stupidity.

The vast majority of Americans have no idea what it’s like to face an enemy that can persecute them with extreme prejudice. They whine if their beer isn’t cold enough when they sit their obese derrieres in their Lazy Boys to watch football or American Idol. In America the recliners now have refrigerators on them so one doesn’t have to be inconvenienced by getting up and walking to the frig for another beer, chips and/or cold cuts. And these are the people who are going to overthrow the Beast and install only god knows what in its place? I don’t think so. People are just bored; too much leisure time.

Successful revolution against this Beast by a bunch of klutzes who haven’t a clue what they’re really dealing with is not possible. Cut their power, water, fuel, and food supply for 2-3 days and they’ll all be on their knees kissing Big Brother’s arse in no time. Imagine how many of the Smith-Corona Commandos are drug addicts and what they’ll be like after a few days of not being able to score.

I love it ... people who can hardly spell hardship, much less having a real knowledge of hardship, bitching about their screwed up lives that the rest of the world envies and wishes they had.

l. ciefer,

Fear is NOT the answer.  And, yes, there are those who find violence orgasmic:  i’m not one of them.  Have had to confront violence in the past, and still am having to do so in the present, and, considering society’s mind-set, may likely have to continue doing so in the future, if there be any future.  In any event, you’re not missing anything, here.  As far as it being “true” violence, well, each man, woman, and child for themself.  My one true hope being, to those who love violence, may they have it till it’s coming out of their nostrils.

By ardee, August 13 at 6:03 pm

Perhaps Lucifer would deign to share with us how many of those rioters were actually on welfare? How did he surmise such you ask. Because of their skin color I suggest, based upon his previous bullshite of course.

The linked article speaks of Ministers’ plans to cut benefits to all those welfare sponges participating in the riots. Their liberals—Jacobin socialist losers—are crying and whining like two-year toddlers—a liberal trait—because as over here, deadbeats are a large part of the liberal voting base.

Ministers plan removal of rioters’ benefits
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/c8970a8c-c688-11e0-bb50-00144feabdc0.html#axzz1V37ebXGg

By jr., August 12 at 11:00 am

Sitting on one’s duff wishing for things to magically change for the better, well, i’m sure i don’t need to go further into that lunacy.

If we be lucky, it is only a beginning before everyone, with any element of common sense, will tire of that “spare the rod, spoil the child” mentality.  Violence is soooooo easy.

Wow! You’re one serious revolutionary. Are you a Remington Raider or a Smith-Corona Commando? I’m just curious.

You are right though I do give you that. Sitting on one’s duff and waiting isn’t much of a plan for success. And ‘violence is sooooo easy’ as you said.

Why didn’t they burn down a few of those royal palaces and big estates of the British Ruling Elite? Why burn down your own homes and the small business establishments of your fellow oppressed trying to eek out a living?

I’d love to be there should you ever have to deal with the fear of having to confront true violence. I bet you’d set a new record for soiling one’s self.

The U.S. isn’t Britain. In the U.S. when all those little Che Guevaras hit the streets Big Brother pulls out the Patriotic Act.

By Lee Oates, August 13 at 12:14 pm

The question is..I wonder what the ratio of commenter is to Agents of Homeland Security, CIA, FBI, US Army, or half a dozen other such groups listening in, taking names, and attempting to shape opinion, or to suck someone into a situation where they can be charged in the future?  Big brother is watching and making a list of who is naughty or nice.

You just hit the proverbial nail on the head.

Let’s see all those big bad Che Guevaras hit the streets ... then ALL Americans will finally learn the true meaning of The Patriotic Act.

To all those of you like ron graves and zonth_zonth, who have the memory capacity of alberto gonzoles and don’t recall, don’t recall,...don’t recall; allow one to refresh those thick memories for thou.  First of all, merry-ole-england is equally as guilty as the u.s. for waging an illegal war against a DEFENSELESS country, iraq.  And, is as equally responsible for the systematic killing of, at least, one million INNOCENT people, and the displacement of another three million, INNOCENT.  I say, “innocent”, because they were NOT guilty of the false, and knowingly, faked accusations being made against them by both tony blair and george w.  Defenseless, because they didn’t even so much as fire one bullet against either of the invading countries.  And, you want to talk about looting,...let’s talk about all the priceless artifacts stolen from iraqi museums, palaces, even, sadaam’s mercedes was ripped-off by the american troops.  Then, there is the fact of the ten billion dollars cash which mysteriously disappeared like a fart in the wind; and, at the expense of the american tax payers, of course.  The only goods left remaining were the oil and the lands, and no doubt, british petroleum and shell will get the oil before it’s all over.  All that seems okay to the two of you, as long as it’s the other guy.  All i was saying earlier was, before you go pointing that finger of judgment against others, get off those pedestals you are on and accept responsiblity for the crimes against humanity for which you are guilty. 

And, as it’s been stated, the whole rioting started over the so-called “authorities” killing, execution-style of a defenseless 29 year old.  That coupled with the fact that those same “authorities” have reduced the economies of both countries to practically nothing.  I can see how some would take offense to being methodically exterminated thru politics, economy, unemployment, starvation, etc.  Again, it’s always easier as long it’s the other guy, huh!?!

If all that was for the planting of the seeds of democracy, and the euopean union, then i agree with adolf hitler, and the world, the universe, and the future are better off without them.  Not that hitler convinced me of anything;  but, your actions have convinced me his words be factual now, and must have been then, too.  The only difference being, the democratic cancer has grown.

I just love all the self-congratulatory chicken hearts like jr & Frtohtus patting each other on the back for ‘protecting’ the ones who they would never break bread with.  There is no egotism more profound than considering the purity of ideology to be more important than the consequences of such ideology. 

Without the mendacious, wicked, antisocial- dole bludgers there would be nothing for professional redeemers to do.  The ‘redeemers’ need victims in society to legitimize their vocations.  Indeed meek intellectuals need to be gaurdians to those they see as beneath them

So you Redeemers try riding your bike downtown during the riots and see if you get your jaw broken and your backpack broken into while in a stupor of helping the dole bludgers.

Laughable, these redeemers whom have never trafficked with the maggots in the bread of life, yet obtain vocations and ideologies based on the continuance of the maggot’s ‘victimhood’.

Lew Ciefer, August 12 at 10:05 am Link to this comment

Considering Britain’s politicians and police forces inability to respond to a bunch of welfare deadbeats one can’t help but wonder how Britain ever was able to be an Empire.

Perhaps Lucifer would deign to share with us how many of those rioters were actually on welfare? How did he surmise such you ask. Because of their skin color I suggest, based upon his previous bullshite of course.

It seems ironic to me that the “Bush Doctrine,” as it
evolved as the narrative for his two wars, was
described publicly by him as planting democracies in
the Middle East. It was ironic because this was an
enormously expensive effort for which we could not
pay, as a nation, and it had very little to do,
really, with global terrorism. To plant a democracy,
tens of thousands would have to die in this
imperialism and America would start to go broke
because of it.

Segue to the Arab Spring: The people themselves
wanted democracy (particularly the young) and the
overthrow of Islamic autocrats and theocratic
tyrannies. Meanwhile, in America, where “democracy”
was being exported through violence, America itself
was headed down a road of some kind of fascism as its
own democracy was being sold to the monopolies and
trans-national robber barons and as the federal
government was becoming—as described in the movie
“Inside Job”—“Wall Street Washington.” Is
democracy dying here as it begins there?

ron graves, of england

Don’t be such a know-it-all.

I heard the prime minister speaking of a generation that has been raised up having no respect for “authority”.  Well, apparently, a generation of elitest snobs has reared it’s ugly head, as well, and thinks the whole planet and, even, the entire Universe is here for the express purpose as their footstool. He seems intent on proving that his/their idea of so-called authority is one of an iron fist;  proving exactly what i said in my earlier comment.  You yourself said, “britain is under the worst and most dishonest governement in modern history”.  Sitting on one’s duff wishing for things to magically change for the better, well, i’m sure i don’t need to go further into that lunacy. 

If we be lucky, it is only a beginning before everyone, with any element of common sense, will tire of that “spare the rod, spoil the child” mentality.  Violence is soooooo easy.

Considering Britain’s politicians and police forces inability to respond to a bunch of welfare deadbeats one can’t help but wonder how Britain ever was able to be an Empire.

Burning down their own neighborhoods (crapping where one eats)  and destroying ethnic-owned neigborhood businesses is nothing less than a trully DUH! moment. But what can one expect from people who have been living an illusion all their lives. Manna from heaven is a mythological story … there really isn’t any free lunch.

Why don’t the brave freedom fighters for social justice –commie version- go burn down all those royal palaces and large estates of the super-wealthy? That’s what I would like to see, Leninist/Stalinist useful idiots going after the man where he lives. Of course we won’t see that because that riffraff knows that as soon as they touch the property of the super-wealthy Ruling Elite it’s all over but the bending over.

It’s coming to a city near you. That’s what happens when the people in this country allow the government to own them.

FIGHT THE CAUSE - NOT THE SYMPTOM
OsiXs (Revolution 2.0)

After centuries of experience, we all know—from Wall Street to the slums—that violence eventually breaks out when large numbers of people are unemployed and are treated as if they are of no value and that violence is largely counterproductive.

Knowing, we “let” it happen.  Why?  The “upper crust” can pretend it’s not their fault, they are the only ones who are “sane” and can be relied on to “keep the peace” etc. etc.  The victims of economic abuse, denial and scorn “take affairs into their own hands” to “fight for justice” etc. The police do what they are told, using whatever method they are told to use.  They are “supporting law and order” as their justification.

Time to change this worn-out routine?  What’s missing? A massive desire to change it, and the rise of determined, widespread vocal support for not supporting violence but instead for working together all the time, before, during and after, from problem to problem, consistently.  Talking, taking care of, learning, sharing, being creative not reactive,  cooperating, not exploiting.

We can change as soon as we decide to do so.

The failure lies in the emptiness between knowing and yet not doing.

I must admit, i’m really impressed with those people of London.  At least somebody has the guts to stand-up to the self-anointed deciders, i’m mean, the self-appointed dictators, that be.

There is a cultural element to this I grew up in the UK, there is a segment of the population that likes violence read “Barmy’s Army” about how soccer hooligans planned vandalism. The book is by a former soccer thug, in an interview I saw he literally get turned on by the thought of violence.
Yes there is frustration due to unemployment, but my Dad was often unemployed and he and his friends did not riot.
I think the shrinking role of religion which has been replaced by consumerism, where the greatest good is money, sickening rap music, movies glorifying gang stuff even Ocean 11 movies about heists, and disgusting video games (this is what the Republicans understand and why they get swing voters)... Western Civilization has been made coarse and crude by Hollywood…
This is not the Britain of politeness and self effacement that I grew up in.

You know we see the coverage on this and some on Greece when it happened, big time coverage on Egypt and Arab spring, now there are pretests in Israel and mum is the word?

The inequities in Israel, emulate what is happening here. link http://www.totallyjewish.com/news/world/c-16745/hundreds-of-thousands-join-israel-protests/

Are the Republicans Tea bags in charge of Israel too!

@tropicgirl

@madisolation

My respect for you grows.

Kudos to the rest of you who have commented thus far, seeing through the self-serving hypocrisy in the rhetoric of the police state and the corporate media, ever kow-towing to power, and seeing the riots for the expression of frustration with the injustice all of us are subjected to by those who want to rule us and decide for us that they really are.  The criminal mafia state bemoans the death and destruction only when it serves them, while they make billions selling weapons and attacking the defenseless and imposing the iron dictatorship of capital, bombing wedding parties and attacking civilians as a matter of policy for fun and profit.

Capitalism is the crime, war and repression and violence are its hand-maidens.

No justice?  No peace.

Governments lie, and nothing they or their talking heads say should be believed.

What is a “student activist”?

These mobs are simply doing what the government and the banks are doing, raping and pillaging. So, is this “student activist” asking for these government perpetrators to get more power?

Get a baseball bat, stick some nails in it, start a neighborhood militia, and start taking care of the problem. We need that done to the banks. Boom, done. A criminal is a criminal no matter how rich or how old.

Ian Welsh wrote:

“So a guy gets hurt in the riots.  He lives in the most unequal city in the developed world. He is a part of the society which condemned these people to hopeless lives, to the point where they rioted, after 333 of them died in police custody over 13 years with not one cop being convicted of anything.  They rioted after a black man was shot and the police lied about it.  They rioted when there is one job for ever 58 applicants where they live, where right out of high school most of them will never hold a job.

Riots aren’t pretty, if you don’t want them to happen, make sure your society doesn’t abandon a racial minority to squalor and hopelessness.

You should all know better. Yes, it’d be nice if they were more targeted against the people who have fucked them the most, but y’know, that’s the way riots go. Hell, even clearly political riots like the Greek ones started out with the rioters fucking up their own neighbourhoods.”

http://www.ianwelsh.net/innocents-were-already-being-hurt-in-britain/

The social contract is null and void.

http://michaelfury.wordpress.com/2008/08/27/memory-holes-in-the-floor/

I posted the following comments after another
article.  Perhaps, they are more appropriate
here:

By christian96, August 11 at 12:17 am

As we watch angry youths destroy businesses
throughout England perhaps we have forgotten what
happened in Greece in 2008. Angry youths attacked
the Athens courthouse with petrol bombs.  Broken
glass and burned-out wreckage lay in the streets.
The rioting started on December 6th after police
shot and killed 15-year-old Alexandros Grigoropoulos.  But Alexandros’s tragic death was
simply the spark.  The real fuel for the fire
came from Greece’s troubled economy.  High unemployment contributed to pent-up hostilities
which erupted when Alexandros was killed.  Greece
and England.  We much ask ourselves a sobering
question, “Can the same happen in America?”  As
unemployment and under-employment continue to rise
so does the anger and frustrations.  Do Americans
just need a spark to ignite what could be an ugly
scene with Americans killing Americans across the
country?  Only time will tell! It’s sad our leaders
in Washington are listening to Economists from the
Univ. of Chicago.  They better listen to human
growth and development specialists about the possible consequences rising from angry frustrated
unemployed and under-employed people.

A view, perhaps, into this nation’s future. With a dysfunctional government filled with venal politicians catering to either corporate greed or radical ignorance it seems only a matter of time before riots begin here.