Shift,

Great post. I would like to believe that far more than 1% of our population is shifted in this same direction. My own communities, (since I seem to live many places)have definitely moved in this direction for the past several years actually, but then most of my past several years have been in California and we’ve had time (and some vision) to have moved toward this mentality and incorporate the practices you mention here. I won’t pretend that it is a full majority, but we’re getting there. Cooperation between community members and communities is the only way we’ll survive. So, maybe I just wanna believe that.

But, that’s not to say that we shouldn’t acknowledge the other side of the reality coin, which is the Hobbsean version of the survival (of the fittest)scenario, where not nearly as many of us can expect to succeed.

The author, as usual is ahead of the curve. Apparently he couldn’t wait for the impending “collective nervous breakdown” so he decided to have one indivually in advance. How ironically appropriate that this delusional fantasy should appear beneath another piece which, while also disingenuous in its own way, at least bears the more sanely realistic title, “Obama Chooses Wall Street Over Main Street”. While the title may indeed have been the best part of that article - except of course, for reminding (reprimanding) us once again that Nader was right all along - it captures in a nutshell, if only a banal one, just why these “interesting times” are fraught with “peril and promise”. The peril, of course, belongs to “Main Street” and the “promise” belongs to Wall Street. “That’s the glass-half-full way of seeing this extraordinary moment”. Wall St.‘s glass is in the process of being re-filled to overflowing again, courtesy of new puppet president Obama, aptly alluded to by the unflinchingly, ingenuous Nader, as a corporate Uncle Tom.
For the proles “along with the anxiety, there’s also a sense of rare opportunity—a chance to”... be submerged even worse ..“than we were economically, politically and socially.” That’s the glass-doesn’t-belong-to-you-in-the-first-place way of seeing this extraordinary moment, when the national Treaury is being looted by the corporate robber barons who have seized this “rare opportunity” to pull off the biggest heist in history. Most of us, never learned first hand “that dealmaking for dealmaking’s sake—for decades the most highly compensated business activity in America—does not in fact create enduring wealth”... since we never had the opportunity to try it. Just like we never gave our democratic permission to use TRILLIONS in public funds to cover the arses of all those greedy “straight A” asses in the financial markets now on “a cusp, a brink, a verge (phew!)” of ruin. “There are straight-A seniors at Harvard and Princeton”... who will continue to try and rule over the rabble as long as we will let them, and to make sure that their ‘class-mates’ glasses are always full. Obama Copacabana is one of them and he and his sleazy “brainiacs” maniacs will use all their illusory mandate to serve those interests faithfuly. Economically and “politically, Americans are”... more ..“divided than we’ve been since at least the Reagan era, perhaps longer”. “Barack Obama’s victory margin, 53 percent to 46 percent, didn’t qualify as a popular vote landslide. But considered with other factors”... such as the 40% that turned their back on the whole rotten two-party system and didn’t vote at all, he wound up with less than a third of the total electorate. Some mandate. Obama was put into office by his corporate patrons to keep the political spectrum from shifting further left and shove it back firmly to the right just like Bonzo, for whom he has professed great admiration. So, “It’s meaningless to argue whether ours is a center-left or center-right polity; the midpoint of the nation’s political spectrum is, by definition”... whatever the corporate media like the Washington Post say it is, to defend the status quo.“Whether you voted for Obama or not, it’s hard to watch this crisply orchestrated transition and doubt that the president-elect both understands and relishes”... serving Wall Street and AIPAC interests. “The epochal significance of the election of the first [half] African-American president”... means these corporate-imperialist interests can take on a politically correct face and go on as before. “In myriad ways that we’ll discover over the next four years, Obama’s election makes this a different country—‘a more perfect union’”... of multicultural corporate-imperialist cutthroats. Fans of corporate imperialism may “feel blessed to live in such interesting times”... but for others, from Peoria to Palestine - they’re still cursed.

Anarpeace
You are right and the motto of the corporatist party is: “We are all in this together.”  And you can’t mention class.  And you must love the leader.

If the politicians, only just in the 1940s, hit upon the use of fear to justify virtually everything they did, Anarpeace, they were kind of late tumbling onto it. Nearly a century ago, Mencken wrote, “The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.”

And to those who object that some of those hobgoblins are NOT imaginary, let’s remember that a good liar (which is what most effective politicians are) always starts with a grain of truth.

Dear coloradokarl and Shift…...

I am sitting here So appreciating your stated indications….
As one who deeply embraces the truly liberating concept of reincarnation,
I add this to your visions….

..........As we think, so we become….........
Harder times may surely be on The horizon ahead,
but the Answer is Always the same…
and…Giving Thanks Every day is required for real progress to manifest…
it’s an alchemical thing…’-)

Strive On, Friends

Graham Greene described the years of the
Great Depression as years of “capitalism staggering from crisis to crisis.”

I remember those years and I also remember that good social and economic legislation came out of them. (Of course conservatives have been zealously committed, and still are, to wiping them out.)

But what’s scary is that like the drunk staggering down the street who with one lean-over-too-far can be down and out for the count, our coming months, or years, can easily find us down and out for the count.

Remember what Gandalf said to Bilbo in THE HOBBIT, just before he left Bilbo and the dwarves at the entrance of Mirkwood? “Remember you are over the Edge of the Wild now, and in for all sorts of fun wherever you go ...”

I am in wholehearted agreement with you in regards to Reagan…That is why I despise the Term ‘Reagan Democrat’.Ever since it has felt like a slippery slope. I was optomistic about Clinton- knew he was more Center than I, but after 12 yrs of Neo cons i thought we had a breather. Hindsight has proven that to be naive. NAFTA, Deregualtion, path way to another Cheney Regime and of Course the Revelation which Hillary provided by her Campaign tactics straight out of the Neo Con handbook (autographed copy Hill?)
the Neo Cons realize their every move is being watched now, all their little antics heavily and Loudly Criticized as BS. But the Clinton machine appears to think it is still ‘invisible’ and still has stratedgies they can manuever within this Democratic Adminstration. I DON’T Trust Her!
SHE took this Ol’ “Clintonian” and not only Smacked the Rose Color Glasses off My face, SHE smashed them into the ground.
I think this Presidential Lose and the Economic Meltdown has been a Humbler for many Neo Cons. But I think the Clintons Missed the part Where THEY had been bitch slapped too. Well Ok probabaly didn’t miss struggling during the primary; Teddy whipping the ‘Torch’ right past their heads; Or the current recitation of the stepping stones Bill provided to aid in this Economic Cluster and the level of distain many ‘left’  Americans are having with so many ‘Clinton’ people being named to the Transition or Admin.
I have no doubt Bill has always been a bit more Left then as to how he Governed. But Hillary has Proven she’s Not just to the right of Bill, or even Center…She is Squarely Right when it comes to Military engagement, Economic appeasement to Corps,WallStreet and the Upper echelons. Did You notice the flood of ‘big Money’ after Hillary ‘released’ her donors into a previous small donor campaign? Who parroted McCain’s sing along ‘bomb bomb bomb Iran’ with the Chorus ‘Obliterate Iran’.
What continues to elude the MSM conversation is the fact that the Democrats have moved past the Clinton era and thus the DLC had better figure out which side their bread is buttered on. No One has mentioned every candidate since Bill has lost the Presidential bid…Gore, Kerry, Hillary,Edwards, LIEberman…See a pattern?
This group not only brought Republican corp’ist leanings into the Democratic platform, they aided in the misrepresentation of the Democratic party…Equal Rights, Labor rights and Peaceful solutions. Granted we are very concerned about the environment and animal rights etc, BUT we are not, nor have ever been DEFINED by those as we have been since Reagan.It’s about as justified as claiming all Republicans are Holy rollers. A devisive misconception which has been intentionally perpetuated about both to disguise a similarity in regards to Economic control issues.
Frankly I wish they would form their own party once and for all…The Corporationists. Those who think ‘Trickle Down’ is not just a great economic stratedgy, but Tool for Populace control.Ya Know that video by Pink Floyd about the ‘Machine’ Corporationists see that as a Nirvana.
The Clintons should bear in mind some Ol’ Clinton supporters are saying to themselves ‘We won’t get Fooled Again’.

Bush gave us an absolutely miserable , if not obscene, picture of what ‘ugly american’ values are. This shit rolled downhill and washed over much of our materialistic society and reinforced the Reagonomic ‘all for me’ and ‘me first’ attitudes..
Now with a man with decent values, maybe that will roll downhill and positively affect the masses as well.

Shift, I agree whole hearted! Alas, the majority of the masses are the innocent flocks who through the fear instilled by the royalty, scurry around their daily lives ,heads down and unable to even imagine the wonder that awaits us over the next hill. Our mission, and it’s a daunting task, is to circle the globe with a wave of Hopeful Peace. Like a blanket of Love and calm serenity, LOVE IS THE ANSWER

Loss of wealth is a poor excuse for transformation.  Lasting transformation involves the mind, heart, and spirit and is a positive journey filled with hope.  As best I can tell, only about one percent of American’s are on that road.  The transformation is emerging from the bottom and involves a new spirituality and strongly values respect for all things and cooperation among people.  A sense of positive evolution permeates the movement.  Decentralization as in locality is central to life as people choose to do business with their neighbors instead of national corporations.  Conspicuous consumption is out.  An eclectic dress style of durable, functional, and recycled is in.  Old things are repaired and made to last longer as opposed to buying new, as a sense of partnership with the earth
and a healing of the earth is embraced.  Social and environmental responsibility define patterns of behavior.  Green is embraced as a lifestyle and practiced locally.  Harmony and balance are serious goals. Acquiring needs and not wants is a given.  These seminal values are gravitating upward and influencing cultural life in America although not currently seen as important by those living at the top whose transformation seems only to be the sobering loss of wealth.

One Million new small businesses or millions of profits for a few corporations? The majority of money for infrastructure spending goes to large corporations and the bureaucracies of government. A tax on gasoline should pay for Infrastructure.
This is the test for our “NEW” mandated Congress and Executive. Only time will tell.