The US became a world power as a result of it's war machine built during WWII. However, the US has difficulties sustaining that dominance.
It tried to be the best in business, but ended up shipping millions of jobs off-shore, and parking profits overseas too (to avoid pay taxes).
It tried to be the best in medicine, but can only reach #21 in the world (or #33, depending upon the survey) _well_ behind other first world nations, and, well, frankly, at 3x the cost!!!
It tried to be the best in policing (I can't say "protecting", now can I?) it's countrymen, but it's citizens end up being 8x more likely to die from police violence than they do from "terrorism" and 5x's more likely to die of homicidal violence in general than any country in Europe.
It tried to be the best in spreading "freedom" around the world, but ended up perpetrating political assassinations that handed power to dictators. And when the "unintended consequences" caught up with the US, it turned to simply invading countries it didn't like, which was quickly followed by drone strikes that produced an alarming amount of "collateral damage."
In truth, the US is #1 at something. It consumes more energy than any nation on earth (40 percent of all the world's energy at last look).
The US is also #1 at spending more on it's military than all the world combined. It also spends north of 50 percent of it's budget on their military.
Lastly, it's citizens have the privilege to pay for the construction of the vast spying machine that's, well, spying on them.
Oh, and the US is _not_ a democracy. Never has been. It's always been a republic and one that's arguably become a fascist republic at that.
... oh... the warlocks and witches of global governance cast thy foul data into the furnace flames... thus erasing the truth from the minds of those who cackled, sang, and danced round and round the tall fires of forgetting and erasing... while, with raised hands and faces glowing red in reflected flame, the high lords of insanity admired their work... and proclaimed it good...
... and the irony is that we wouldn't have known to what extent this is true had not someone done their duty by the Geneva Conventions (to which both the USA and the UK are signatories) and exposed the cockroaches who would have us live in continued paranoia and fear. Cockroaches, as you of course realize, can't stand light being shown on them. No. I believe the cockroaches would rather we return to watching NASCAR or distracting ourselves with our electronic devices or buying more guns and ammo to feel better "protected"...
What is wrong with America? Kill the messenger because nobody wants to face one (of too many) ugly truth about American "freedom?" What an insane place to live. Why not realize the power of truth and actively work to change whatever is wrong? Oops. Sorry. Too hard. Might require someone put down the video game controller and care about something more than just themselves... Character assassination. Yes. That's a far easier thing to implement in America. Real change will have to wait for future generations (like when people might actually wake up and realize that we're all in this together).
Like Baby Bush (aka: Commander Codpiece) said, "the Constitution is just a piece of paper."
...Then again - Perhaps I have this backward. Yes, nuke Assange (and Rodman, and the Kardashians, etc) from orbit, so they stop trying to steal the spotlight from real discussions we need to have about security vs privacy vs basic human rights.
In an America where it's citizens live in fear and paranoia there are no options but compliance. Remember, everything the German government did in the 1930's and 1940's was "legal", and it's citizens too were told it's laws were there to protect them. We all know how well that ended up, don't we?
There's no point to be made from not complying with a legitimate court order. Just comply with it. One day you could be very thankful that we have a legal system that was created to protect us. Please respect that and our fellow citizens.
Some of us are old enough to remember when a measly $10k crossing a certain vice president's desk was enough to get the man ousted. Gods! that seems like such a long time ago and during such innocent times...
Back in the day, all it took was one honest U.S. Attorney to see something like this and get a grand jury to indict the culpable officials, acting independently of corruption from above. Hell, a good lawyer could probably make a grand jury case for a RICO indictment against the whole administration.
Americans seem too easily distracted to really do much more than complain.
Habeas corpus? Gone. Being spied on in clear violation of the 4th Amendment? No problem. Invade and occupy a country that had nothing to do with the events of 911? Bring it on. Grant China entry to the WTO, and in the end, loose millions of American job to the PRC? Hey, that's just "business."
It doesn't really matter if the Man In Office is Baby Bush, the Blue Dress Stainer, or Obama. In-action on the part of We The People tells the people in power everything they ever wanted to hear. They can get way with anything and no meaningful action against them will be taken. Never.
The question left is, what are we(the people) going to do about it?
It is a very serious question. At what point do westerners say enough is enough and overthrow governments, or at the very least hold people accountable and arrest them?
The better question is: What are you going to do about it? Or is the price of liberty and true freedom just too high to do anything meaningful? Oh. That's right. I shouldn't interrupt your video gaming or iPhone twiddling. Sorry.
Perhaps Americans don't yet believe you have a One Party system. You know the one. It's called the Business Party (run by the rich and powerful for their own benefit) with two factions: Democrat and Republican.
Looking back, it seems like the USA was sold a raw deal. First, soften you up with Baby Bush (and his occupations of Afghanistan and Iraq after the event of 911 and the institution of the NSA spying program before the attacks), then turn around and hit you between the eyes with "Hope". Obama strengthened Baby Bush policies (including several additional rounds of giving money to the already rich bankers thru QE2 and QE3, as well as the currently discussed spying on American soil on Americans), and expanded Presidential power to "legally" execute whomever he chooses without the executed ever standing trial for their deeds.
Apparently habeas corpus and rights granted by the 4th amendment are too difficult and "heavy" concepts for simpleton-Americans to realize their value. Perhaps liberty and freedom are concepts just too remotely difficult to grasp and apply in any meaningful way to your daily lives.
While I agree with you, I hate to point out that Americans have a very difficult time doing anything like remotely holding political representatives accountable for anything they do that is clearly, willfully wrong.
It's up to us to contact our representatives and let them know that they can't just sweep this under the rug like usual. There has to be consequences.
Sources, please, on the 15 to 20 percent of the American population who are motivated enough to get up and "do something." I've seen nothing in any of the alternative media to indicate there is any organized force in America outside the rich.
What incentive is there to change? When you no longer have habeas corpus in America, when you have three letter agencies monitoring your every move, your every communication, when corporate "officers" make hundreds, if not thousands of times more money than their employees, when corporations park monies off-shore to avoid taxation, when banks are treated as "too big to fail" (even as they continue to commit crimes that would put most people into jail for several lifetimes)...
No, my fear for America is that if there ever was a public uprising, it would come from a sector you might not like. I'm thinking of the religious right, America's own Taliban. They are organized. They have their self-imposed victim-hood. They have the motivation. They have their "beliefs" and their "god". Purely emotional and nothing rational in that kind of uprising. Are you prepared for that? Really? Unintended consequences, and all that.
It look a lot of rich people having their cash cows threatened to actually have one, and today the rich are just doing too well.
Me thinks you should read history before making such unsubstantiated claims. It takes very few people with wealth to decide enough is enough. It does take about 15-20% of the population to be absolutely fed up and see no other choice. That number seems to turn the rest of the masses against propaganda engines and those holding power. We are very close to the right numbers now.
Living overseas, it's incredible, angering, and saddening to witness from afar what has become of America. I never realized how bad it already is until I got out and experienced a different way of living. It's all to shocking to see how Americans live in continual fear and paranoia, and yet do nothing to change anything, even when they know how exactly things are screwed up.
I know you are trying to be funny, but let's get the facts straight while telling a good joke. Officers of US corporations give jobs to the Chinese by moving manufacturing, intellectual property, and product development (ie: engineering) to the former "low cost region" of the PRC. Yes, the Chinese government put in place big incentives for western companies to come over and do business there. US corporate officers knew a good thing(tm) when they saw it. They got to show an increase in profit at first by paying low wages offshore, claim that they were doing what is natural to them by entering a formerly closed market, and then later, when the salaries rise to nearly match those in the US, forever park significant portions of corporate profits in "tax advantageous" countries.
Therefore, more properly said, it is greedy people running US corporations who have taken jobs away from the US and given them over to the Chinese.
Too late. America is already owned by the top one percent. It surprises me that some people think they still have time to change things when the USA is already nothing more than a dessicated husk of it's formerly great and powerful self.
I'd say the USA is the greatest enemy of the USA. If the madness don't stop soon, the 1% will have sucked the 99% so dry the USA will be a dessicated husk.
Looking at America from a distance, it appears that it has a one party system with two factions - the Democrat and the Republican factions. The name of the party? The Business Party. The sole purpose is to distract the citizens of the USA away from what really matters. Included in the most accurate definition of "fascism" is a description of how corporate interests write the laws, provide the "politicians", and set the government agenda. The country has been taken over and is run by power-hungry monied-elites (a cleptocracy, me-thinks). It's from this perspective that I completely agree with the attached comment:
Wrong! It has not been a flip, it's been a take over. There is no longer a left or right, or Democrat and Republican. It's one team that plays on people's desire to still believe a left-right paradigm exists.
If ever Americans realized they have become addicted to plastic electronic devices that steal their souls and distract them from what normally passes for the real world, I seriously doubt they would, even then, rise up and demand their freedoms be returned. Every time a significant movement arises, it's very rapidly put down and Americans are "reminded" of who's really in charge.
I have to agree with the question "You want "Someone Else" to manage your data that is classified under ITAR?"
I'd strongly suggest you review your options with the right agency of the US Government (there is plenty of good guidance out there, so familiarize yourself with it).
Then confirm whatever solution you come up with is "good" with your company lawyers. Make sure your lawyers have reviewed all relevant materials and agree that they can protect you should there be a breech and y'all end up in a court of law.
I hope that most of North America bands together and drives the unlawful, spying, evil, power-hungry elites from politics. Oh. Right. I forgot. I'm talking about the USA where no one stands up for their rights and no one takes action to change one single thing. There can be a lot of talk, but there's never any action.
It doesn't matter what is appropriate. Hasn't for years. It's far easier for the Voices of America (government and media) to assassinate someone's character than it is to actually fix any of the bigger issues of unlawful and unconstitutional behaviors.
Slashdot Mirror
The US became a world power as a result of it's war machine built during WWII. However, the US has difficulties sustaining that dominance.
It tried to be the best in business, but ended up shipping millions of jobs off-shore, and parking profits overseas too (to avoid pay taxes).
It tried to be the best in medicine, but can only reach #21 in the world (or #33, depending upon the survey) _well_ behind other first world nations, and, well, frankly, at 3x the cost!!!
It tried to be the best in policing (I can't say "protecting", now can I?) it's countrymen, but it's citizens end up being 8x more likely to die from police violence than they do from "terrorism" and 5x's more likely to die of homicidal violence in general than any country in Europe.
It tried to be the best in spreading "freedom" around the world, but ended up perpetrating political assassinations that handed power to dictators. And when the "unintended consequences" caught up with the US, it turned to simply invading countries it didn't like, which was quickly followed by drone strikes that produced an alarming amount of "collateral damage."
In truth, the US is #1 at something. It consumes more energy than any nation on earth (40 percent of all the world's energy at last look).
The US is also #1 at spending more on it's military than all the world combined. It also spends north of 50 percent of it's budget on their military.
Lastly, it's citizens have the privilege to pay for the construction of the vast spying machine that's, well, spying on them.
Oh, and the US is _not_ a democracy. Never has been. It's always been a republic and one that's arguably become a fascist republic at that.
... and the irony is that we wouldn't have known to what extent this is true had not someone done their duty by the Geneva Conventions (to which both the USA and the UK are signatories) and exposed the cockroaches who would have us live in continued paranoia and fear. Cockroaches, as you of course realize, can't stand light being shown on them. No. I believe the cockroaches would rather we return to watching NASCAR or distracting ourselves with our electronic devices or buying more guns and ammo to feel better "protected"...
...Anti-terrorism should not resemble terrorism.
What is wrong with America? Kill the messenger because nobody wants to face one (of too many) ugly truth about American "freedom?" What an insane place to live. Why not realize the power of truth and actively work to change whatever is wrong? Oops. Sorry. Too hard. Might require someone put down the video game controller and care about something more than just themselves... Character assassination. Yes. That's a far easier thing to implement in America. Real change will have to wait for future generations (like when people might actually wake up and realize that we're all in this together).
Like Baby Bush (aka: Commander Codpiece) said, "the Constitution is just a piece of paper."
...Then again - Perhaps I have this backward. Yes, nuke Assange (and Rodman, and the Kardashians, etc) from orbit, so they stop trying to steal the spotlight from real discussions we need to have about security vs privacy vs basic human rights.
In an America where it's citizens live in fear and paranoia there are no options but compliance. Remember, everything the German government did in the 1930's and 1940's was "legal", and it's citizens too were told it's laws were there to protect them. We all know how well that ended up, don't we?
There's no point to be made from not complying with a legitimate court order. Just comply with it. One day you could be very thankful that we have a legal system that was created to protect us. Please respect that and our fellow citizens.
Which begs the question: When do we ever really know it's time to leave? When is enough, enough? Something about the frog in the boiling water...
Yep. We're fucked.
Good point.
Some of us are old enough to remember when a measly $10k crossing a certain vice president's desk was enough to get the man ousted. Gods! that seems like such a long time ago and during such innocent times...
Back in the day, all it took was one honest U.S. Attorney to see something like this and get a grand jury to indict the culpable officials, acting independently of corruption from above. Hell, a good lawyer could probably make a grand jury case for a RICO indictment against the whole administration.
Americans seem too easily distracted to really do much more than complain.
Habeas corpus? Gone. Being spied on in clear violation of the 4th Amendment? No problem. Invade and occupy a country that had nothing to do with the events of 911? Bring it on. Grant China entry to the WTO, and in the end, loose millions of American job to the PRC? Hey, that's just "business."
It doesn't really matter if the Man In Office is Baby Bush, the Blue Dress Stainer, or Obama. In-action on the part of We The People tells the people in power everything they ever wanted to hear. They can get way with anything and no meaningful action against them will be taken. Never.
The question left is, what are we(the people) going to do about it?
It is a very serious question. At what point do westerners say enough is enough and overthrow governments, or at the very least hold people accountable and arrest them?
Yes. This is funny.
The better question is: What are you going to do about it? Or is the price of liberty and true freedom just too high to do anything meaningful? Oh. That's right. I shouldn't interrupt your video gaming or iPhone twiddling. Sorry.
Now congress HAS to do something about it!
Perhaps Americans don't yet believe you have a One Party system. You know the one. It's called the Business Party (run by the rich and powerful for their own benefit) with two factions: Democrat and Republican.
Looking back, it seems like the USA was sold a raw deal. First, soften you up with Baby Bush (and his occupations of Afghanistan and Iraq after the event of 911 and the institution of the NSA spying program before the attacks), then turn around and hit you between the eyes with "Hope". Obama strengthened Baby Bush policies (including several additional rounds of giving money to the already rich bankers thru QE2 and QE3, as well as the currently discussed spying on American soil on Americans), and expanded Presidential power to "legally" execute whomever he chooses without the executed ever standing trial for their deeds.
Apparently habeas corpus and rights granted by the 4th amendment are too difficult and "heavy" concepts for simpleton-Americans to realize their value. Perhaps liberty and freedom are concepts just too remotely difficult to grasp and apply in any meaningful way to your daily lives.
Read Howard Zinn's People's History of the United States. It's always been thus. It's never been a democracy. It's only been a republic.
While I agree with you, I hate to point out that Americans have a very difficult time doing anything like remotely holding political representatives accountable for anything they do that is clearly, willfully wrong.
It's up to us to contact our representatives and let them know that they can't just sweep this under the rug like usual. There has to be consequences.
Sources, please, on the 15 to 20 percent of the American population who are motivated enough to get up and "do something." I've seen nothing in any of the alternative media to indicate there is any organized force in America outside the rich.
What incentive is there to change? When you no longer have habeas corpus in America, when you have three letter agencies monitoring your every move, your every communication, when corporate "officers" make hundreds, if not thousands of times more money than their employees, when corporations park monies off-shore to avoid taxation, when banks are treated as "too big to fail" (even as they continue to commit crimes that would put most people into jail for several lifetimes)...
No, my fear for America is that if there ever was a public uprising, it would come from a sector you might not like. I'm thinking of the religious right, America's own Taliban. They are organized. They have their self-imposed victim-hood. They have the motivation. They have their "beliefs" and their "god". Purely emotional and nothing rational in that kind of uprising. Are you prepared for that? Really? Unintended consequences, and all that.
It look a lot of rich people having their cash cows threatened to actually have one, and today the rich are just doing too well.
Me thinks you should read history before making such unsubstantiated claims. It takes very few people with wealth to decide enough is enough. It does take about 15-20% of the population to be absolutely fed up and see no other choice. That number seems to turn the rest of the masses against propaganda engines and those holding power. We are very close to the right numbers now.
The obvious answer is yes, isn't it?
Living overseas, it's incredible, angering, and saddening to witness from afar what has become of America. I never realized how bad it already is until I got out and experienced a different way of living. It's all to shocking to see how Americans live in continual fear and paranoia, and yet do nothing to change anything, even when they know how exactly things are screwed up.
... Do you think it won't get worse?
I know you are trying to be funny, but let's get the facts straight while telling a good joke. Officers of US corporations give jobs to the Chinese by moving manufacturing, intellectual property, and product development (ie: engineering) to the former "low cost region" of the PRC. Yes, the Chinese government put in place big incentives for western companies to come over and do business there. US corporate officers knew a good thing(tm) when they saw it. They got to show an increase in profit at first by paying low wages offshore, claim that they were doing what is natural to them by entering a formerly closed market, and then later, when the salaries rise to nearly match those in the US, forever park significant portions of corporate profits in "tax advantageous" countries.
Therefore, more properly said, it is greedy people running US corporations who have taken jobs away from the US and given them over to the Chinese.
OK. Back to the humor...
...China taking away jobs from the US...
Too late. America is already owned by the top one percent. It surprises me that some people think they still have time to change things when the USA is already nothing more than a dessicated husk of it's formerly great and powerful self.
I'd say the USA is the greatest enemy of the USA. If the madness don't stop soon, the 1% will have sucked the 99% so dry the USA will be a dessicated husk.
Which begs the questions: Who is the puppeteer? Why don't Americans do something about it?
Looking at America from a distance, it appears that it has a one party system with two factions - the Democrat and the Republican factions. The name of the party? The Business Party. The sole purpose is to distract the citizens of the USA away from what really matters. Included in the most accurate definition of "fascism" is a description of how corporate interests write the laws, provide the "politicians", and set the government agenda. The country has been taken over and is run by power-hungry monied-elites (a cleptocracy, me-thinks). It's from this perspective that I completely agree with the attached comment:
Wrong! It has not been a flip, it's been a take over. There is no longer a left or right, or Democrat and Republican. It's one team that plays on people's desire to still believe a left-right paradigm exists.
Perfectly said!
If ever Americans realized they have become addicted to plastic electronic devices that steal their souls and distract them from what normally passes for the real world, I seriously doubt they would, even then, rise up and demand their freedoms be returned. Every time a significant movement arises, it's very rapidly put down and Americans are "reminded" of who's really in charge.
Executing US citizens prior to them standing trial used to be unlawful.
But not anymore! (think drones)
RIP habeas corpus.
I have to agree with the question "You want "Someone Else" to manage your data that is classified under ITAR?"
I'd strongly suggest you review your options with the right agency of the US Government (there is plenty of good guidance out there, so familiarize yourself with it).
Then confirm whatever solution you come up with is "good" with your company lawyers. Make sure your lawyers have reviewed all relevant materials and agree that they can protect you should there be a breech and y'all end up in a court of law.
I hope that most of North America bands together and drives the unlawful, spying, evil, power-hungry elites from politics. Oh. Right. I forgot. I'm talking about the USA where no one stands up for their rights and no one takes action to change one single thing. There can be a lot of talk, but there's never any action.
It doesn't matter what is appropriate. Hasn't for years. It's far easier for the Voices of America (government and media) to assassinate someone's character than it is to actually fix any of the bigger issues of unlawful and unconstitutional behaviors.