Humanity has had a good run. At 200,000 years we've lasted longer than some of our bipedal predecessors. And we certainly hit the lottery jackpot back when we discovered all that ancient energy of the sun, stored deep in the earth; and invented many ways to use it to our convenience. But now the oil is running out and so our species has descended into brutal and desperate measures to ensure a continuing of that convenience for an ever decreasing minority of us.

Although this has been an astoundingly intelligent thread based on an excellent article, it all seems rather humancentric, as though the death of humanity will somehow also spell the death of life on this planet. I'm all for the politics of compassion, but eventually there comes a time when the most compassionate thing is to simply shoot the poor beast.

Evolution has relied much more heavily upon mutual aid than survivalist competition between species. But we are a species that is at war with itself, and leaving aside for the moment the Dali Lama and a few other supremely enlightened humans, the rest of us are all guilty. We've all benefited to some extent from the plundering of the environment and if not for the invention of oil, there would be billions fewer humans than today. So even those extra billions have benefited from life itself no matter how harsh.

I am surrounded by my books. I have two loving dogs and also a cat. They rely on me to love them and feed them, so I do. They are getting older and won't be around forever, and the same goes for me. If money eventually becomes worthless and I can no longer care for them, I will shoot them rather than watch them slowly starve to death. Perhaps I will someday do the same for myself.

I have come to realize that the mass of humanity do not wish to understand high principles even if they had the capacity to do so. They seek instead, a means to daily sustenance and perhaps some additional comfort. But billions of them would not even be alive today if not for the invention of oil. Can we blame the fall of humanity on John D. Rockefeller and the Standard Oil Company? Can we blame the eventual extinction of humanity on Rockefeller's social class of today and on their modern corporations which are the modern equivalents of his company? Perhaps.

But as long as we're playing the blame game we also need to look in our respective mirrors. Regardless of how well-intentioned we are all hypocrites. The fact that I own this computer makes me a hypocrite because it was manufactured by extreme sweatshop labor by youngsters somewhere, probably in Indonesia or China. And when this computer wears out there will be plenty of authentic-sounding moral reasons for me to purchase another one.

If someone named Jesus of Nazareth actually did walk this earth he did so in bare feet carrying only a walking stick and wearing only a simple garment. His was also a domination society and he simply chose not to participate in it. In modern terms he would have been considered an anarchist, and he spoke as though to establish an entire society based upon mutual aid, or anarchy. Being a former Divinity student, Chris Hedges understands this.

On one level I would like to dispose of all my possessions and move to an impoverished and desolate region of the world but I'd probably be of no use to them once I got there. They'd probably end up taking care of me.

So, I'll just close this rambling exercise in poseur ma*t*rb*ti*n and go feed my dogs.

luckylefty,

Thank you for telling it like it is!

kegbot1 December 10th, 2007 1:26 pm

...
Folks, you may not like to hear this but I'll make it American simple: its either tears and sweat now or blood later. Your choice.
----------
Kegbot1,

I agree with this. Whether folks like it or agree with it or not, I do think that the worldwide situation is this serious; that it all comes down to this, a case of "pay me now, or pay me later".

I see all of life's lessons btw, like this, it's always a matter of "How's it going to be? You want to learn this lesson the simple way or the hard way?"

In my time, I've yet to see any of life's lessons unfold differently for anyone. Not yet. Not once. And so by deduction, via this deductive reasoning, I've come to see that it always comes down to this choice, a choice between a simple (or easier way) and the hard way.

What's it gonna' be? Pay now or later?

Thanks Kegbot1 for your post.

I think things have come to the point where patriots have to be willing to go to jail to change things. Not just a few, but many. That is what it will take. In fact, we have been at that point since at least o4.

Having said that, I am not yet willing to go to jail. Life is not that uncomfortable. When things outside a jail cell get as bad as they are inside then and only then will we see real change in America. Our corporate masters know this, so they supply bread and circuses. Pretty said statement about the morals of the average American. Myself included.

I am not sure that withholding taxes makes much sense with a paper currency and no gold standard. The US government under Bush just prints more money and goes into more debt when the taxes fall far short of expenditures. And Bush, or his successors, will use the huge debt as an excuse to gut Social Security, Medicare, and virtually every other element of the social safety net.

That approach offers a nice, simple, easy answer one might use to soothe one's conscience. However, the real answers are not so pleasant.

So how do we find out how much of our tax dollar is going to the war?

Ignorance of simple facts is often the only thing stopping many people from taking action...

More old strategies that do not work with the status quo as it is today. We need something new.

I'm feeling like that Duck in the Aflack commercial. I keep screaming at top of my lungs about the new strategy that would work, but nobody is hears me.

RON PAUL

a few years back when bush uttered something about there being "work that americans wouldn't do," he went too far.

For many of us, "work that americans won't do" is not only a foreign concept, and aside from the arrogance, the gall, the racism, the bigotry, the false moral superiority, and so on, in all humility for many of us it's the only type of work that exists here, in this place, that can be done with more or less of a clean conscience, and with enthusiasm. Take that away and there is relatively little to do or worth doing. We will just sit here watching folks run around dressed in suits and ties, or shirts with little logos on the pockets, preferring anything but, anything but such an oppressive kind of conformity.

Now I'm not saying that there isn't virtue within the system, but not for everyone, and probably less so as time goes by as folks only do what they do driven by the motivation of profit.

When faced with the prospect of not doing "american work," even if it's subsistence work, or having to do the little things that yes can seem very agreeable in terms of creature comfort, or even in fulfilling some particular aspect of one's nature, I think there are those of us who would run the other way, I would hesitate to say die as we are aspiring nowadays to non-violence and non-participation.

And in running the other way at this point in time, in not participating, many of us may find ourselves running directly into the problem that we will have to face down. Folks can be as comfortable as they want if that's a life goal, but that's not a comfort I would necessarily choose.

Thomas Albright:

I completely agree with you. We're at the stage where only civil disobedience on a massive scale can change things. The trouble is that my life is rather comfortable. Like you, I'm not willing to give it up. Should it become intolerable, then I'll be willing to participate in civil disobedience.

Prior to getting to that stage, however, there are constructive things we can do. First and foremost is to be aware of what's going on. It appears that the majority of Americans are only vaguely of what's going on. As their standard of living continues to deteriorate, they will become increasingly aware. But we can help accelerate their awareness.

We can also stop feeding the system as much as possible. The simplest way to do that is to stop spending money. Less money means less revenue for corporations and less tax revenue for governments. Get rid of all nonessentials, such as cell phones, cable TV, extra telephone services like caller ID. Pay cash for an old car instead of financing a new one. Stop buying things on credit and paying interest to corporations. Stop dining in corporate restaurants. If you must eat out, do so at local mom-and-pop restaurants. Move to a cheaper locale, pay less money for housing, and get a lower paying job in order to reduce your income taxes.

These measures will accomplish much the same thing as withholding income taxes, without the risk of going to jail.

Dave

The only way to break this cycle of "endless war" is for people to give up their comfortable life style, their constant struggle for wealth and power, their quest for more and more stuff.
Resist being tied into the system from the start, once in it, it is much too hard to get out.

Bonhoeffer (who in hell is that?) "...knew that most of the citizens in his nation were complicit through their silence in a vast enterprise of death." What a load of ignorant, propagandistic crap! Most citizens are not part of any government and they have absolutely no say in what their governments do, especially poignant in the U.S., and they usually have no idea of 95% of what those governments are actually doing. So how can they be complicit if they cannot have a clear understanding of world geopolitical events as they transpire in their actual succession?

To equate all citizens as being of equal intelligence and as being equally informed about global issues is also a ridiculous premise and is as equally ignorant as referring to many of the citizens, whose basic needs are assured, in such a denigrating fashion as to call them "sheeple". To think that the corporate governments have no experience in controlling their dominated citizens is another mistake. Why do you think food is so cheap and plentiful in corporate government countries and yet so hard to get in non-imperialistic countries?

If anyone is going to proselytize resistance or revolution, at least do it in an honest way, or you'll likely find yourself ostracized like that vile scum which currently runs the U.S. is going to be. If you need a model, study the Cuban method, because the Cuban Revolution, although not yet utopian, is the model that all just societies will aspire to in the future.

If we go to war with Iran we won't have to worry about money and taxes anyway. Another war will insure a deprssion. We very likely will the depression anyway next year. You can't eat money, the major problem will be food.

I heard income tax refund checks will be 'delayed' in 2008. For how long I didn't hear. Guess the presses are working overtime printing worthless money and the checks will have to wait. Anyone else hear that on the news last weeek?

I think there are ways in the us tax code to become an official war resister, you'd have to talk to an accountant. But there are ways for people to pay their taxes - and keep their freedom - but not have their taxes go to the army. That being said, even if every antiwar taxpayer in the states went that route, the gov't could borrow for war and still use the tax money to pay the debt generated by the war...

If America had had a government full of Democrats after 9/11, we probably would have first of all treated that incident as a crime of terrorism, rather than a reason for a long protracted war.

If America had a government full of "Tax and Spend" liberals too, instead of "Borrow and Spend" Republicans, we might also have considered raising taxes at the high end to pay for wars in real time. That alone would have ratcheted down the "conservatives'"thirst for war. Instead, what we've done for war profiteers (and everyone else with stratospheric incomes) is give them a tax cut and added "incentive" to do whatever it is that pulls in so darn much money--with no regard whatever for WHERE that profit might be coming from.

You say there ain't no difference? Yes, there is.

Mr Hedges I agree with you on Iraq and Iran but not Afghanistan. Afghanistan is not the same war and we cannot abandon people to life under the Taliban again. The Taliban are supported by Pakistan and Saudi against the Afghan people and as we all know caused horrible suffering. I am married to an Afghan and would not abandon my mother-in-law in Kabul to the horrors of the Taliban again.

From the BBC:

Interviewers spoke to 1,377 people across Afghanistan
Most Afghans are relatively hopeful about their future, an opinion poll commissioned by the BBC has suggested.
They also support the current Afghan government and the presence of overseas troops, and oppose the Taleban.

But the poll suggests that Afghans are slightly less optimistic than a year ago, and are frustrated at the slow pace of reconstruction efforts.

Charney Research spoke to 1,377 people in October and November in all 34 provinces for the BBC, ABC and ARD.

This is the third such survey, and is published to coincide with the sixth anniversary of the fall of the Taleban.

Overall, the figures indicate that the peaceful north of Afghanistan is significantly more satisfied than the troubled south. Most dissatisfaction is found in the south-west, where the Taleban are most active.

The poll suggests that despite another year of conflict, confidence and hope have been dented only a little in the past 12 months.

MAIN EVERYDAY COMPLAINTS
Jobs - 73%
Clean water - 46%
Electricity - 84%
Food - 33%
Schools - 29%

The figures indicate that 54% of Afghans think things are going in the right direction, one percentage point fewer than last year, while 70% described their living conditions as good or very good.

Security issues and the Taleban were the biggest problems facing Afghanistan, according to 56% of the people interviewed (against 57% last year).

One of the most striking findings was the apparent unpopularity of the Taleban and their foreign supporters.

Only 5% of respondents said they supported or strongly supported the Taleban (against 4% last year), with 14% of respondents saying they supported or strongly supported jihadi fighters from other countries.

Only 4% would like to see the Taleban return to government.

Against this, 71% of respondents said they supported or strongly supported the presence of US military forces in Afghanistan, with 67% supporting or strongly supporting Nato and its Isaf peacekeeping mission.

Support for both of these has fallen in the past year, however, even though most respondents blamed the Taleban and their allies for most of the violence.

There is relatively good news for President Hamid Karzai and his government - though it is coupled with a warning.

Both are rated as good or excellent by more than half the people interviewed.

But their popularity is continuing to fall.

There is clear, and in some cases increasing, unhappiness with the availability of jobs, roads and other infrastructure, clean water, electricity and food.

Among other key findings:

69% criticise Pakistan for allowing the Taleban to operate
60% want the government to do a peace deal with the Taleban
62% say growing poppies for opium is unacceptable
The Afghan Centre for Social and Opinion Research in Kabul carried out the fieldwork, via face-to-face interviews with 1377 randomly-selected Afghan adults between October 28 and November 17 2007. Poll by Charney Research of New York, commissioned by the BBC, ABC News of America and ARD of Germany.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7124450.stm

No there isn't. Pelosi knew of the waterboarding years ago and acquiesced. I guarantee you, if you get Hillary Clinton or any other Democrat except for Gravel and Kucinich, you will get more war. Bank on it.

Its refreshing to see people at least honest enough to admit that as long as they are comfortable, they won't do anything. For those of us who have already lost lucrative jobs and also, in my case, a marriage because of our stands, it makes us wonder if this nation and its people are really worth saving.

Folks, you may not like to hear this but I'll make it American simple: its either tears and sweat now or blood later. Your choice.

http://badamerican.wordpress.com/

There's no proof that the dimowits wouldnt have attacked afghanistan and eventually Iraq. They were attacking Iraq throughout the 90s.

The difference between the dims and repugnants is like the difference between Israel's Likud and labor They both have the same agenda, its just how they go about it.

Sure, on some issues the dims are better than the repugs, but why vote for the lesser instead of what you want?

Its not smart, its weak.
Just like King said:"I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro's great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is... the white moderate, who is more devoted to 'order' than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says: 'I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods of direct action'; who paternalistically believes he can set the timetable for another man's freedom; who lives by a mythical concept of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait for a 'more convenient season.' Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection."

jmacneil,

Come on, friend; before you accuse someone of "ignorant crap" and "propaganda" perhaps you should do your homework first:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dietrich_Bonhoeffer
(just for any easy start)

I think you're going to have trouble trying to "ostracize" Bonhoeffer -- he seems to have had some direct experience with what you're claiming to analyze.

I've tried to limit my participation in these discussions, as I believe that they're mostly pointless poseur m-st-rb--tion, but I feel compelled to say that I'm reading a lot of self-serving crap here, a lot of the very thing Hedges was talking about: smug and complacent "liberals" who are too comfortable to do anything about the sitruation in which we find ourselves.

But Macneil takes the cake. You can pretty much discount everything he says. Hell, he doesn't even know who Deitrich Bonhoeffer was. For your information, j, he was one of the towering moral figures of the 20th century--up there with Ghandi, Mandela, and King. He makes you look like the intellectual and moral pygmy that your writing makes you out to be. J, your ignorance is profound. You are obviously one of those people of whom you speak: the extraordinarily UN-equal in intelligence and moral discernment. Do some reading, boy.

I'm afraid that many that are right now on the losing end enough to really want to do something also tend to be those that are in general less motivated anyway. Most that are fairly well-off but still hate what they see happening, have not been pushed past their tipping point to where they will risk a crminal record. Then, as in Nazi Germany, there might come a time when it will be too late. But it is whittled away slowly, almost imperceptively.

Right now those that are hurt the most are at the economic bottom. They can't not pay taxes, because the government has long since decided that their taxes need to be taken from them in their paychecks to the point that on April 15th they look forward to a return. What should they do? Protest by not filing for their return?

Didn't I read so many years ago in the communist manifesto that as the means of production was taken away from the many and put in the hands of the few eventually there would be an uprising? This did not fall on deaf capitalistic ears; they made sure that enough scraps were provided to keep the rable at bay. This is what has happened, and continues to happen.

The talk needs to be changed to how privatization is taking away national resources and put into the hands of the few, who will then use them to extract far more from the many than just the taxes that are paid now. Think road privatization in the form of toll roads as a simple example. Monopolization of a critical infrastruction, such as transportation routes, and we are screwed.

The government is always trying to liberalize foreign governments. At least it starts out that way. Then, once the old dictator has been thrown out and a "democracy" set up, the great corporations can go in and make it all conservative, and the democracy is now an oligarpy, or plutocracy. It has essentially traded one tyrany for another.

The key is not necessarily education. Hell, the right doesn't want to educate anyone and look how successful they have been. The key is getting out a message, and making it hit home with its audience. I don't know why it's so hard to get people to understand that the rich don't have anybody else's best interest at heart other than their own. That's how they got rich. That's how they's stay rich -- by convincing even some otherwise intelligent people I know that the rich deserve lower tax rates, and that it's the poor that need to pay, not the rich. It's just inconceivable to me that so many buy into it, and that it's so hard to talk them out of it.

If you want to join the war tax boycott go here: www.wartaxboycott.org

David Daniel___ You stated we would have been better off after 9-11 if we had had Tax and Spend liberals rather than Borrow and Spend Repugs. I just heard on the news this morning a bottle of 1920 or so liquor sold for $54,000. Now we would surely not want to tax people that do that sort of thing, would we? That will eventually trickle down to the rest of us, like Ronnie Reagan said.

Not much chance for the radical cooperative uprising needed to halt the war machine. There is too much addiction to material comforts, too much nursing on the corporate tit based on unmet infancy needs, and for most nearly 100% dependency on corporate supplied food! To put it mildly the corporate military industrial neocon bunch have most people's allegiance quite secured.
However, given that these evil leaders have control of the bombs and have secured the cooperation of soldiers and likely won't give up power without using all they have at there disposal, let's agree to stop them. Put our bodies on the line in ones and twos and 5000's. dismantle the war machine. the rest of the world and our children deserve it.

qbaldsmoove,

Education in general is not that helpful in stopping fascism, but particular kinds of education may be, especially education regarding political philosophies. Few Americans understand that there are theoretically an infinite number of different implementations of economic/political systems, and the devil is, as always, in the details.

A simple and historically accurate idea that would help is that in virtually every human society, no matter the time or place, those at the top always created, usually with the help of well-paid sophists, justifications for wealth to flow even more to the top. There were divine rights of kings and rights of the nobility, the needs for racial purity or the assumed superiority of one race or caste to manage affairs, the wishes of some deity or religious organization, social Darwinism, "natural law," the "invisible hand," supply-side economics, and the infallibility of the "free market." For some reason, no matter where the society or what the prevailing philosophy is, as long as it is not socialist or communist and maybe even then, this pattern of the elites trying to convince others that everything should flow upwards always seems to be there. And everyone should be aware of that, and, by that, understand the arguments are most likely baseless.

qbaldsmoove--WORKERS HAVE CHOICES ABOUT TAX WITHHOLDING: Workers whose taxes are taken from their paychecks DO HAVE CONTROL of how much is taken. Each worker fills out a W-4 form stating how many dependents and what tax type s/he is. The form is set up so that one can estimate how much tax will be owed and adjust the dependents accordingly. Employers have no say in what workers put on their W-4 forms and no requirements to enforce the tax laws. This means that there is no requirement to take a certain number of actual dependents, and it is designed as a mechanism to estimate the correct amount of withholding. Instead of getting a refund each year (letting the government use your $ without paying any interest to you,) a person, can adjust their dependents to pay only the amount they will owe. Those with more than one employer should do this on a regular basis, because they consistently have withholding of much more than they will owe.

A tax resister can take 10+ dependents and have NO TAX WITHHELD! Then the person has to deal directly with the IRS regarding the consequences of not paying the amount owed re the pay earned (less legit deductions.)

Well, is the point here to analyze all of history or to respond to the articles which the editors present as a representation of current reporting? "…knew that most of the citizens in his nation were complicit through their silence in a vast enterprise of death." The previous quote is from the above article and was represented as the view of the figure mentioned. If that was Bonhoeffer's view then that is not an acceptable condemnation of most citizens who generally have no idea of what their governments do in their name.

The "ignorant crap" and "propaganda" pertain to the authored article and not to Bonhoeffer, who, admittedly, I'd never heard of before, and to the collective disparaging of the normal people in society, as if they are complicit in the crimes of the governing class.

And if the few dissenters did not recognize that then it can only be surmised that their own analytical propensities are suspect or they are furthering an imperialistic agenda of division.

And as for the view of anyone who would think that progressive participation and sharing of knowledge is they're "...mostly pointless poseur m-st-rb–tion," is a true indication of the kind of worthless trash which infests the internet in an ineffectual attempt to disenfranchise the humanists.

Thomas Albright:

"I think things have come to the point where patriots have to be willing to go to jail to change things. Not just a few, but many. That is what it will take. In fact, we have been at that point since at least o4."

Make that 1964. Yes, we took some steps. They were real. We actually started to make real differences in this country. Our actions, opening the doors of economic opportunity and civil rights for minorities and women; our actions opposing our colonial war of conquest in Vietnam; our actions to stop the wholesale degradation of the workplace and the environment - triggered a backlash that has found its fulfillment in George W. Bush. In the meantime, over the last 40 years, the richfilth have successfully retaken America. After 40 years of aggressive Class War, we now have the distribution of wealth we had back in 1880.

The first wave of this Assault on America was a pincer movement: Civil Authority & Wall Street. Civil Authority led the way with COINTELPRO & MK ULTRA. Short version of this strategy can be simply stated: Infiltrate the Movements; Kill, neutralize, or falsely imprison the leaders; Terrorize & atomize the followers. This strategy was fully implemented by all Authority: State/Local/Federal. In some places nearly half the people on the steering committees were State, Local, Fed cops. And these were people peacefully protesting and exercising their Right of Free Speech guaranteed in the Bill of Rights. WE WERE ENEMY #1. "Opposition to the war in this country is the greatest single weapon working against the US," candidate Nixon '68 to VFW in NY. You can make your own list of those executed, hounded into silence or suicide, or falsely imprisoned.

Once the Feds broke the movements, Wall Street went to work. Actually, they started with Taft-Hartley and started moving manufacturing out of the heavily unionized Northeast to the low wage South and West. By the mid 60's the majors were going to the Machiladoras. Starting in the early '70's, Wall Street started off-shoring middle class union jobs to slave labor pits around the globe. By the 80's with Ray-gun the job loss through off-shoring and LBO/devour arbitrage was full steam. During this period, having broken the movements for Economic & Social Justice, Wall Street and Feds worked together again by implementing a strategy called: The Gold or the Bullet. So when domestic Leaders arose, they got bought off or they went bye-bye. Ritual Defamation has worked massively well back to Rome & Athens. The ones who got bought off got their grants every year, never pissed off anybody, and succeeded by failing. Here's the critical point:

The glue that made all this possible: White Male Supremacy & Gender Slavery. This is Nixon's Southern Strategy after LBJ lost the Dixiecrats in '64/'65 by passing, under immense pressure, the Civil Rights & Voting Rights Acts. Racism & Women's Rights. "Pluck the magic twanger froggie – Hiya Kids, Hiya Hiya." As the jobs went away, as the misery index rose, Fundamentalism, fully funded & supported by the most far right richfilth in America, was waiting with open arms to receive the people America (and the Democrats) abandoned. Mega-churches fed their racism a beggar's banquet. Told them women were the source of Evil in the world and have to be subordinated to a White Male. Fed them daily scapegoats to blame for the ills of their lives. And of course in that world women cannot be allowed economic or biological self-determination – hence – Gender Slavery.

So no, nobody's marching. Damn few gonna go to jail. Are you going to pay my rent when I go to the pokey for 6 months (it's a tiny 1 bd for $1000/mo and that's cheap here)? Fuck me. Right? I did what I wanted to do, right? So I should accept the consequences of my actions, right? Are you going to hire me when I have a police record for "whatever"? They call that YOYO. You are on your own. If you believe that, your belief makes you a Republican. Don't fret. If you are, you are part of the Silent Majority. You will not be taken to the camps, unless by mistake. Unfortunately, the Masters never admit they make a mistake.

The comfort I have is the sure and simple understanding that whatever we do now, the Party is over. You need only read the pages of this website for more than a few days and you know. Nothing here will change until the Monster Shatters, and it will, because everything else is changing. Richfilth lack the genes for flexibility and self-restraint. They want only one thing. Richfilth for 4000 years have only wanted one thing: Everything, Forever. They can't help themselves, they're Parasites.

Shock & Awe? Wait til you wake up one Monday morning and your rent just multiplied x3, and gasoline is x3, and food is x3. And the only thing that isn't x3, is your wages. That's when the icy knife of fear goes deep into your guts. It is the moment when the prey knows it is about to be eaten. Bet on it. You'll be in very good company however. Hundreds of Black men knew exactly the same fear when they saw the torchlight mob out the window of their jail cell. In that moment you will know who you really are. Consider it the wages of the Sin. The sin of forgetting, WITT, we are in this together.

Peace.

...Should it become intolerable, then I'll be willing to participate in civil disobedience.

BULLSHIT. TOTAL UTTER BULLSHIT. By then it will be "too dangerous" and you'll stay home. Don't kid yourself. Your enemies DON'T. They drink human blood for breakfast, straight from our veins. Yeah you're comfortable, for now. Enjoy it.

Peace.

Some of us stopped paying taxes way back in '03 when it was clear the Loonitary Decider and 4th Branch Executive Cheney were going shock and awe no matter what. Better late than never, but it shouldn't have taken this long.

Here's a few other effort-less direct actions y'all should be fully engaging in at this point: driving and spending the least amount possible, boycotting Exxon and FOX, and switching your voter registration to Independent.

Remember: all "they" want is our money. You have the power to both protest and vote with every dollar you spend.

Yes, I agree with Thomas Albright. Most of the population hasn't felt anything uncomfortable as a result of Bush's actions. We get just enough. We are able to go about our business and get left alone. I don't know what it will take to trigger a massive revolt. When Martial Law is declared and Blackwater providing "security," it will then be too late.

kivals,

Thank you, I think we pretty much agree then.

Margalo,

How many people do you thing know this? In this regard perception is reality. Almost everybody has enough tax deducted paycheck to paycheck so that they in effect have no choice about paying taxes. Well, except for those who have too much to lose to participate in our little experiment.

The revolution will not be televised.

Symbolic tax nonpayment is really not very effective. There are much more effective ways to defund BushCo. Why do you think Bill Gates has set up a charitable foundation?

Tax exempt savings are available to every one. As are charitable donations.

Tax deferred savings are a much more effective way to reduce your taxes which BushCo is currently using to support the war. Max out your tax deferred saving. Minimize your consumption and maximize your charitable contributions.

Remember if you donate it to a tax exempt organization you do not pay taxes on it. Every dollar that you do not spend, but instead save or donate to a tax exempt organization, sends a message!

I am willing to go to jail for the portion of taxes I refuse to pay! A %20 refusal should mean I get 1 and a half days in a minimum security rehab for semi-celebrities with violent tendencies who aren't afraid to sign autographs! I'm firm in my stance!

To resist, while there is still time, is not only the highest form of spirituality but the highest form of patriotism. It is, if you care about what is worth protecting in this country, a moral imperative. There are hundreds of thousands who have died in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. This number would be dwarfed by a war with Iran, which could ignite a regional inferno in the Middle East. Not a lot is being asked of us. Compare our potential sacrifices with what is being inflicted on and demanded of those trapped in the violence in Iraq, Afghanistan and soon, perhaps, Iran. Courage, as Aristotle wrote, is the highest of human virtues because without it we are unlikely to practice any other virtue. Once we find courage we find freedom.
-------
Mr. Hedges,

Hallelujah!

Put yer money where yer mouth is? Amen brother!

IS THERE GOOD REASON FOR LEAVING THIS 'QUESTION' UNASKED?

'Seattle P-I': Stop Bush, Cheney From Profiting Off Iraq War

By E&P Staff

"...force Bush to promise not to profit from military actions he authorized."

http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/search/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003677411

eris:

One good source for how much of the federal budget goes for current wars and veterans and interest on the debt from past wars is www.fcnl.org, click on "Federal Budget" and then "Military Spending." The FCNL staff do a thorough line-by-line analysis of federal spending. Depending on what you include, it comes out most years to somewhere between 40 and 50% of the total budget.

skippyagogo41:

Unfortunately, the tax code does NOT have any way to choose to be an "official war tax resister." There is also no way to pay your taxes but direct them to non-military uses. There have been various proposals over the years for a Peace Tax Fund option, sort of like non-combatant service for conscientious draft resisters, but it has never gotten very far in Congress. (Big surprise there. . . .) People (including principled Quaker pacifists, not just nut cases) have also tried contesting this through the courts, never successfully.

Anyone considering joining the community of those refusing part or all of their taxes should look at the information at www.nwtrcc.org. These folks have been encouraging and supporting war tax refusers since at least the Vietnam era and seem to give sound advice.

So you don't pay the war tax. So who does?

The people who grow, package, ship the food and everything else must be paid...OR applied to our debt which COULD be passed on to our children and grandchildren.

How do you see this working out...for anybody?

If you want to really protest the wars by not paying taxes, try this. Give money to the Mennonites and Quakers or Doctors Without Borders, Amnesty International, World Vision, Save the Children, Catholic Charities, Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Services. By giving to peace movements and humanitarian causes you get a double whammy for your money. You deprive the war mongers of revenue and you give money to the peacemakers. Bless you Peacemakers, for you will be called children of God.

Kivals...12:07 PM...Most, if not all of your income tax goes to pay simply the interest on the debt we have been incurring since the ILLEGAL Federal Reserve came into being in 1913. The debt that bush is building up we these ILLEGAL wars will be paid by your children and their childrens children. And, who knows how? Maybe they'll take their land and belongings. It's slavery, no matter how you view it. Social security has already been gutted. All they are doing now is printing more "debt money" to make the Rothchilds, Bilderbergers and the remainder of those thieves richer than our imagination could ever think of conjuring up, while your progeny go deeper and deeper into slavery.

Luckylefty has it exactly. By the time everyone feels "the time is right"..it'll be too late..if it is not right now. I don't think the Bolivians or Cubans waited until all the friggin ducks were in line. WE ALL HAVE EXCUSES. I'll tell you mine..I care for my 90 year old mom and can't leave her alone. It's all BULLSHIT AND RATIONALIZATION. We are all too fat and comfortable and believe it'll all go away. NOT THIS TIME, MY FRIENDS, NOT THIS TIME!

Quite simply, most Americans have swallowed ther BLUE PILL and are watching their plasma TV in their SUV, while talking on their cell phones to their partner on the other end who is asking them what color lawn mower should they buy...the green one or the red one. Meanwhile a ten year old girl in Iraq just had her legs blown off and bush is telling the Dems that they are similar to the Germans when Hitler was coming to power. Countries are dropping the dollar like it was Anthrax coated. Food prices are up something like 37%. We have one, posiibly two rights left from the Bill of Rights. Six people are dying a week from Tazers. They gave up looking for Bin Laden. Rumsfield was almost arrested in France. Wolfowitz was forced to resign from the World Bank, but apparently Rice has hired him back as an assistant. We don't know if our votes are being counted fairly or at all. We are on the verge of bombing Iran for no apparent logical reason other than to steal their oil, too. And not one member of the MSM will give Sibel Edmunds a chance to speak and possibly bring down this entire, corrupt, dastardly, murdering, immoral, unethical, war mongering, weapons producing and rotten to the marrow government. BUT, WE ARE ALL WAITING FOR THINGS TO GET WORSE BEFORE WE MAKE A MOVE..........GOOD GOD ALL MIGHTY!

If you believe as I do that what we "do" in life follows a circular pattern and comes back to us; and, you believe as I do that America was born of imposed disease and genocide, then it follows that our near term future is bleak and perhaps unchangeable given current American attitudes and actions. Economic collapse followed by the Avian Bird Flu comes to mind. The Flu would likely kill forty percent of the population and render the collapse largely permanent. This scenario does not take into account the abuse of both the natural environment and brown skinned peoples throughout the globe. The ways that this might come back to us is open to speculation. It may be time for each of us to live a simple and honest life devoid of corruption and to make peace with our God. This late in the game, this may be the only form of resistance that is effective and achievable.

Most people can't refuse to pay their taxes because they're deducted from their pay. Last time I didn't pay, they seized my checking account and put a lien on my house. Now I earn so little, I hardly have anything due. This is why dissidents take up arms.

If it were just about me, I'd already have crossed the line years ago and be in jail now. Or I'd be living in another country.

I don't give a shit about my comfortable American lifestyle, knowing as I do that our comfort depends on others' oppression, pain and death. But I made vows to a man whose son lives with us and is finishing high school. I don't think it's fair to a child who depends on us to choose prison.

My husband and I have talked about what might happen once the child is of age and on his own. I only wish I could've been more active during this time when so much damage has been done.

I wonder how many of the people I see described on this site as 'sheeple', 'complicit', 'complacent'and 'Good Germans' are, like me, just parents trying not to fuck up their kids lives -- trying to bring them up to understand what's going on, what's been done to them. Hoping their generation will do better.

And now I'd like to offer up an experience I had this summer. While attending a small anti-war demonstration (is there any other kind?) there were several young men that suggested we all block traffic to call attention to our cause. This was quickly poopooed by the more "experienced" protesters; "no, we don't want to break the law." I suggested that civil disobedience has long been a tool used by some of the greatest of patriots, and perhaps if we older "more experienced" had too much to lose with a record, maybe we could at the very least pony up some cash to bail out those that were willing to make a greater sacrifice. I didn't get a single offer to help, and in fact was looked at as if I were a miscreant.

So much for protest these days. If I had the words to generate some strength of conviction I would certainly speak them.

"We face a crisis. Our democratic institutions are being dismantled. We are headed for a state of perpetual war. We are paralyzed by fear. We will be stripped, if we do not resist, of our few remaining rights. To resist, while there is still time, is not only the highest form of spirituality but the highest form of patriotism. It is, if you care about what is worth protecting in this country, a moral imperative."

Hedges concerns are right on. Things may be even worse than he states with our rapidly eroding freedoms. See this news article on the Homegrown Extremism and Violent Radicalization Act that is currently making its way through the Democratic-controlled Congress:

http://www.indypendent.org/2007/11/19/homegrown-terrorism

Also, see where Democratic frontrunner Barack Obama stands on this legislation which is currently being considered by the Senate Homeland Security Committee, of which Obama is a member. It has already passed the House by a vote of 404-6.

http://www.indypendent.org/2007/12/10/obama-supports-homegrown-terrorism-bill

If you think Blackwater goons are bad, refuse to pay your taxes or file your income tax forms. Even they now outsource their collecton processors.

christopher, keep telling the truth as you see it. it may not be heard by many but it still needs to be said. just remember ammon hennacy's 'one man revolution'; it starts with us.

Thank you again, Chris Hedges for writing another poignant article. My compliments to the enthusiasm and comments from LUCKYLEFTY and WILLYBILL. I admire the first poster on this article, Mr. ALBRIGHT for an honest evaluation as he sees it. ALL OF YOU have more common sense than most of our fellow citizens who prefer complacency, apathy, and docile regimentation by the "authorities" in power. "Ya' can't fight city hall", ya' know."

As for withholding taxes, most folks are wage earners and our fine Uncle makes sure they are deducted from our checks. I've posted my method on Common Dreams many times and have said the same thing at public gatherings and town hall meetings and am probably considered a little odd. The Working-Class, blue-collar, white-collar, no-collar, skilled, un-skilled, professional, farmer workers and yes, even people in the armed forces, need to co-ordinate a General Strike until we acheive results. Of course it'll be difficult for many on the economic side, but remember one thing...the wealthy and the ruling class can't function withhout the workers. We don't even have to be on a picket line: stay home and relax and read and enjoy conversation with friends and family. Passive non-violent resistance works! You tell me the alternatives and I'll listen and consider. Waiting for each new article to be posted so we can jump on the bandwagon ( like I'm doing this moment ) and show the choir how thoughtful and perceptive we are in evaluating everything under the stars hasn't done much to hinder this administration one iota.

What the hell do I know? I hope something.

I am thinking that if we are going to be an Empire, lets do it right. Lets tax the rest of the world on their national income and Americans will no longer need to pay taxes. The government will no longer need to borrow money on our behalf (we all owe 30,000 dollars and counting on the national debt, let alone our personal debt). Every country pays 5% of their GDP, subject to audit, in return for not being bombed (they can determine how to collect from their critters) and our global security services and using our currency to buy the oil we control. I mean, hey, if you can't beat them........

If you really want to reduce the amount of taxes withheld from your paycheck, have your payroll clerk change the number of deductions and claim six, eight, twelve, or whatever you like. Then fight with the tax collector after you file your return in April. ___Good luck.