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I've heard nothing but bad about Mugabe over the years -- and I have non-white inlaws from there. However, I don't really know all that much about the place. But reading over the Wikipedia Mugabe page I found the section on "Social Programs" especially interesting. From the indicators reported there, things seem to have improved radically in terms of literacy, infant mortality, and life expectancy during the first 10 years of his leadership. After that the IMF imposed it's usual austerity program on them, in exchange for cash... and things seem to have gone downhill from there. Of course this is just wikipedia... so who knows... but it's interesting to consider that besides the complicated and violent political and ethnic internal problems, that the external influence of the IMF may have (yet again) be also a villain here.

• Modernization of the country: all Saudis were too good to be garbage collectors, so goats eating garbage was common. Western companies got large contracts to 'westernize' the place. Garbage collectors were imported from Asia. Desalinization plants were built, etc.
• Military support for the Saudi Royal Family: "We'll keep you in power, all you gotta do is accept our 'dollar' and only our 'dollar' for your oil"
• A certain Saudi prince had a thing for blonds. So Mr. Perkins got him a blond escort.
• etc.

"Economic hit men," John Perkins writes, "are highly paid professionals who cheat countries around the globe out of trillions of dollars. Their tools include fraudulent financial reports, rigged elections, payoffs, extortion, sex, and murder."

John Perkins should know--he was an economic hit man. His job was to convince countries that are strategically important to the U.S.--from Indonesia to Panama--to accept enormous loans for infrastructure development, and to make sure that the lucrative projects were contracted to U. S. corporations. Saddled with huge debts, these countries came under the control of the United States government, World Bank and other U.S.-dominated aid agencies that acted like loan sharks--dictating repayment terms and bullying foreign governments into submission.

The question we should be asking, is why is US growth so low, and how can we fix it.

Your post has the answer to your question:

Contrary to popular belief, a substantial amount of engineering for Dell is done in the US, not in Taiwan. Employees have constructed an effective wall to foreign design centers and have actually left the company any time mgmt has tried to tear it down (thanks to HP for showing employees what to be afraid of).

Dell is an exception, rather than the rule. Jobs have been fleeing the United States for years... First it was manufacturing, then engineering/technology too. Foodservice and low-level Health Care positions don't pay nearly as well as manufacturing, IT, or engineering used to. Wages in the jobs that are still in North America are being squeezed by competition from low-wage China and elsewhere.

There's no chance of fixing the economy now - the time for action was in 1992/1993, when Traitor Bush the Elder first negotiated the North American Free Trade Agreement and Traitor Clinton pushed the NAFTA implementation bills through the congress. Or in 1995 when the World Trade Organization was first organized. Or in the 80's, when Reagan (really, Puppet Master Bush the Elder) was printing money to pay for his military buildup. Or in the late 60's/early 70's, when the Feral Government was printing money to pay for the Vietnam war. Or even more recently, when Traitor Bush the Junior negotiated the Central American Free Trade Agreement (and others).

There's also the hordes of illegal immigrants (encouraged by the corptocracy) depressing working class wages... But vdare was yesterday's story...

The best we can do now is elect a congress who will impeach/convict the Bush/Cheney junta. Tell your friends - Fire the [republican] incumbents, the Bush depression has already begun.

Economic restructuring is a good thing, because many of us are miserable in the current political/economic climate. Look at the people you see out in WalMart's isles: fat & sick, and looking for satisfaction in meaningless trinkets. Going to get a little rough, but it will certainly be worth the struggle in the end.

I've some earthboxes and seeds, so I won't be entirely dependant on produce shipments from far away, picked by mexican slave labor.

These earthbox pictures are from 3 weeks ago (start with the last picture). The plants are coming along nicely, and I'll be harvesting my first lettuce & tomatos soon (I'm in the desert southwest, so the plant-killing summer heat has just recently abated).

I usually give links to back up what I say...

See John Perkin's Confessions of an Economic Hit Man for more on the Feral Government's response to the 70's oil crisis. Before "we" got involved, the Saudis let goats eat their garbage, because they were all so good that none of them would stoop to the level of garbage collector. Now they import asians to pick up the trash. And so on...

The commentary on the petro-dollar were largely inspired by a recent Freedom Report from Texas congressman Ron Paul (not online at that site; I got a hardcopy in my now-deceased Grandmother's mail earlier this year - March or so?). I don't have my copy handy, and the scan is on another computer. But this looks like it might be what I read: The End of Dollar Hegemony - Part I, Part II

Corptocracy: When Corporations & Government become integrated. I first read the term in John Perkins' Confessions of an Economic Hitman, though I'm sure it's been used elsewhere too.

Not supposed to be able to happen, but how better to explain how the same group of people keep getting recycled through government service? Yes, I'm a "conspiracy theorist". :)

People are obsessed with the two parties which have brought nothing but failure after incompetent failure. They will vote for somebody not even knowing the first thing about their platform based soley on their association with one of the two long term providers of constant pure failure. Now that person voted they feel they did their civic duty and leave the parasite Republican or Democrat unchecked as they forget their constituents and head to D.C. to get with Dubya and get on the Abramoff cash cow for personal wealth and benefit. Maybe when they are caught being a crooked criminal and the media hypes it a bit, that person pretends to care again and may gripe a bit at work. They do not change the way they vote. They do not make it a point to keep tabs on D.C. at all. They do not protest. They do not show their dislike of this by writing to a snake still in D.C. They do not show they are serious by voting these vermin and all of their bedfellows out of office. Almost makes the whole debacle of Diebold a moot point, why care about rigged elections when you don't care to BEGIN with? Why try to wake up sleeping fools when after decades of pumping propaganda into the mainstream the Republicans & Democrats have effectively turned the voter base into cattle; clueless animals with herd mentality. Does it matter if Washington dumps a light brown shit or a dark brown shit on your head? That is really what we are talking about with rigging elections, you are getting shit on no matter what. It is just a matter of what kind of shit is rigging up the election to dump on us all because we will be dumped on.

If you are serious about wanting a change and getting American back to being prosperous like it used to be, wake the fuck up.

http://www.lp.org/

Try to learn a little more about who you are empowering too, our foreign policy is a shining example of the D.C. mentality and lack of caring about you, the poor, or anybody else that does not sit with them at their Imperial Table of the Rich and Worthy.

http://www.economichitman.com/

It just seems so absurd that so many people are getting their panties in a bunch in a purely token expression of emotion. Were people serious, there would be organizations created and supported and they would be getting as many other organizations involved as possible such as the United Nations and any other watchdog group concerned about crooked elections. Were people serious, there would be wholesale public outcry [e.g. Watergate] and somebody would eventually connect the dots that a climate has evolved where we actually have to worry about rigged elections and which single individual will get into power and further expand their powers unchecked while deminishing freedom and liberty. Nobody seems to grasp that concept, the Federal Government has gotten too powerful and too big. Big to the point that it all but completely runs our lives and takes greedily from us while providing us in the long run truly nothing. All this and more to seriously consider and question...and people make a token gesture of being upset over a box that can, and probably did already, rig elections.

The People should be upset over the root fact that we have allowed the Federal Government to go overboard in the first place, Diebold is just them now playing with their new tools to cement already secured power. Instead; We The People, in order to form a more perfect tyranny and fascism, have become lazy and disconnected ourselves from our Governments and civic duties.

SAMA means something to this poster, and if doesn't to you then you know don't know shit about America's foreign policy and just how far we will go to further the corporatacracy and the imperialist goals of those bound for the World Bank after cementing their fortunes in US office.

Here is a link directly to the book's site:

http://www.economichitman.com/

I suggest the rest of you wake up also before blindly supporting the leader of your herd through everything.

Oddly enough every one of those points in the post you replied to are the same ones I get from reading books, news from media outlets around the globe, exercising the FOIA, thomas.gov and the Library of Congress. Guess I am not reading the Christian versions meant for people with single digit IQs already brainwashed and programmed into complete ignorance as they actually think they are not only right but the only ones who can be right and their imaginary friends tell them so and their ancient book of poorly written fairly tales supports that. Maybe it has to do with the fact that your nose is shoved in shit all the time and shit might not smell so bad even if it is still shit because you are used to shit. I know! You have to do a few lines of Oxycontin with Rush before you can buy into his feeble dribble!!

Perhaps the Fuhrer is tossing you some scraps from the table and you feel obligated to lower yourself to the Fuhrer's level I mean after all you would then be one of the rare few actually benefitting from this criminal facist racist bigot being in office and following his Father and Grandfather's Nazi footsteps.

Yes, the Bush family are Nazis! But you would need to know how to exercise the rights you so freely and readily give away to find all the memos and documents detailing the involvment in the 3rd Reich for the Bush family starting when J. Edgar Hoover caught Prescott Bush fully financing and laundering money for the Nazis. But as stupid as you seem to be, apparently you could care less about the facts, truth and rights you lose contantly. Maybe you and your kind should go to Iran and see what happens when you never question and overpower a corrupt government and mix in religion with it. They got blind faith too and lots of spin which would make you feel right at home along with practically no liberty, rights or freedom. Maybe then YOU could just be the one to change your mind and be the one to open your eyes before you are butchered in Iran like a farm animal by a mature version of the Monster you feed and support.

http://www.lp.org/
http://www.economichitman.com/

"The world is too dangerous to live in, not because of the people who do evil, but because of the people who sit and let it happen." - Albert Einstein

The real problem is that the U.S. Government has subsidized petro-oil since the mid-70's. See John Perkin's Confessions of an Economic Hitman. After reading the book, I've come to believe that the federal government has been hijacked by thugs who use it to maximize their own profits (Haliburton getting no-bid contracts to clean up New Orleans).

If oil prices had stayed high/volatile after the 70's oil embargos, economic development in the U.S. would've been totally different. We certainly wouldn't have seen the mass proliferation of SUVs and suburban sprawl with gas at $2.50/gallon in the late 90's (I distinctly remember paying $.89/gallon in 1999).

Too bad he got caught, but good thing this will now be done in copycat style globally. Don't kid yourself with empty hopes of further overpowering the too powerful Government to stop this, move HQ offshore away from useless US laws and keep collecting your money. Just think if he really knew what he was doing and had a malicious tendacy to his nature; Those zombies could have been sleepers that exploited that almost hushed Cisco IOS flaw...spreading from backbone to backbone dropping them arcoss the internet until we are back to 1970 for global network functionality.

Even for all the talk about "focus on the real badguy" nobody has really dropped the crosshairs on the responsible party.

Your Mom.
Your Dad.
Your Brother.
Your Sister.
Your Aunt.
Your Uncle.
Your Cousin.

It is solely and purely the fault of the individual person that allowed their machine(s) to be compromised and then REMAIN compromised. Unless you are a Bishop in the Catholic Church (Thomas "Keep em kissin the windshield" O`Brien) in Phoenix, AZ you cannot feign ignorance for your defense if you run somebody over with your car. You are responsible for that vehicle when you practice your right to own and operate one; You excercise your right to own a computer and connect it to a global network physics damnit you are responsible for that computer or LAN behind your gateway. Typical to American arrogance however nobody wants to have to admit responsibility for their mistakes, instead we blame others and waste time and money to have civil servants do their thing. ACCEPT THE FULL RESPONSIBILITY FOR ONCE. When the hand of oppression chokes something you cherish, you immediately react such as blaming video games for violence and decay of society and all of America's ills (Jack Thompson anybody? Parents try being parents again for once?). Same concept, different situation. Apply your logic fairly.

Sure, the issue would diminish if Microsoft would not keep stacking shit on shit and giving it a new name. No matter what kind of syrup you pour over a nice fresh steamy log of shit...it will still be shit and never will be French Toast. But it is not like a big secret that Windows is extremely prone to security exploits; Virus has been a buzzword for a decade now. Should you be that dense and sheltered from the world that you don't know Windows is prone to viruses/trojans, the internet is the last place for you. If you know, and you choose then to ignore that my friends is neglect...yet the majority targets the person clever enough to make money off those ignorant fools and the ones who click.

My fellow citizens sicken me, wake up.
http://www.lp.org/
http://www.economichitman.com/

http://www.lp.org/

http://www.economichitman.com/

Wake the fuck up.

Too true! Since you appear to have the ability to think for yourself, I would like to share a book with you that really supports what you say about the media and can enlighten as to why our Government behaves the way it does and sleeps with the World Bank.

How do you control a Rebpublic? Control the information you feed the masses and thus influence the way they think. But how can the media be controlled? By the wealthy man who makes sure what is reported is best business for the media outlet and his other interests globally.