Why not ask Senator Clinton why she apparently ignored your analysis of Secretary Powell's speech to the UN? I am still undecided about my vote for the Presidency, and her response--I hope--would aid me in reaching a defensible decision.

Arrrrgh!

We ALL knew this!
What CAN we do to derail this runaway train called US Election (Clinton/Obama/McCain.)

Most Americans refuse to hear this. They demand their SOMA instead.

Lord, help us!

With all due respect to McGovern and his friends (and a LOT of respect is due), I have to say that it didn't take professional intelligence officers to see through Powell's speech.

The international press laughed the whole thing off the next day, and even if you took all the evidence Powell presented at face value, it didn't support claims of an imminent threat to the United States.

In one of the few happy ironies of recent political history, Hillary Clinton's political vote for War Powers has come back to haunt her politically, just as the same calculated political manipulation of national security haunted Edwards and Kerry.

It would be funny, if the corporate American media that approved Powell's ridiculous baloney hadn't managed to protect Republicans from most of the backlash they deserve.

Thwarted political ambition is probably punishment enough for unprincipled votes in Congress, but Powell and Feith and Cheney and Rumsfeld and Bush should be in prison, enjoying the same enlightened standards of confinement as Jose' Padilla, Mohammed Hagi Fiz, and Abdul Razzak," who recently died in the prison at Guantanamo after five years of brutal abuse.

Goddamn George W. Bush and all who travel with him!

The VIPS warning, that an invasion of Iraq would fuel terrorism, was folly not in that it was a wrong assessment but in that it missed the point entirely. Terrorism is what gives the Bush administration power. What McGovern and his brethren offered up as a warning was already enshrined in policy as laid out by the Project for a New American Century.

i listened critically to Powell at the time and concluded,
with some surprise, that Hussein had nothing!
to that point, i assumed he must have something nasty stashed--nothing much, but something--stashed somewhere.
Powell put on a nice little show in which the most important
parts had already been debunked.
JacobFreeze has it right.

Most of us that come here knew and many of us were out in the streets opposing an illegal act of aggression based on lies. Powell is a whore. Clinton is an insider. Both should be in prison along with the neocon junta.

Clinton knew Saddam did not have WMD even before that--her own husband's administration had come to this conclusion. Clinton is in the pockets of AIPAC, who really wanted the US to bomb Iraq, just as they now want us to bomb Iran. She is a gutless coward, a shil for the corporations and the Israeli right wing.

Your job, as progressives, shouldn't be hard to accomplish. Do Americans want security?

Show them the geniuses in their government with their CIA and spy satellites and their defectors and their torture. Show them how all these got Iraq wrong. Show them how they got Iran wrong. Show them how they are getting Afghanistan wrong.

Now show them the newspaper articles lampooning the laughable case for war from around the world that came out the day after Powel's show. Show them the Millions of people that were marching against the war around the world. Show them how the sympathy that the world had for the US after 9/11 evaporated.

Show them the Straits of Hormuz direct to Pravda fake news video with the oh so scary voice and threatening motorboats.

Show them the latest drug production figures from Afghanistan. Show them the increased areas of Taliban control.

Show them the evicted, foreclosed homeowners. Show them the chronically ill who are fired for being sick and lose their health insurance as well as their job. Show them the thousands of new burial plots for the un-photographed returning soldiers.

Can Americans keep trusting their futures to these same clowns who don't want to see what any fool around the world can see? It shouldn't be so difficult.

Would you VIPS get yourself a web site?! You have so much to offer. What? Would it appear like advertising. A bit too forward for those who formerly operated in shadows?

You're (former) professionals, right? Similar to when lawyers didn't use to advertise (and hospitals, etc). It's your allegiance to each other, and not to those you write for - we're just allowed to peek in. A web site would be so unseemly. Like you really meant it! The horror. So 21st century.

Just get a website. Okay? It's what people do nowadays. When I Google VIPS I should get a VIPS website, not an article here and an article there. It's ridiculous.

Powell will not be held accountable, Bush won't be held accountable, and our front runners are not being held accountable.

There are three responses to a criminal act. People are not held accountable out of fear, manipulation or ignorance; or they are held accountable in an act of unjust vengence; and a third choice, which is rarely done, held accountable in a measured just manner.

We usually either turn away or act like animals (hanging Saddam). Why? Because it takes a society that has a system based on law and justice to act in manner that acts in a just manner, with a measured response that is appropriate to the crime. This is not our country.

Bush has lied repeatedly, broken the law, and still doesn't face impeachment, which would be a just response.

Colin Powell got a 'pass' for his charade at the UN debacle. Not only was he involved with Iran Contra (sucking up to criminal acts), but I believe he was also involved with trying to [not] investigate My Lai massacre.

And these criminal acts against humanity will continue with the current crop of mainstream presidential candidates.

I don't see much good coming out of the current presidential reace, no matter how much we want to look at Obama (or Hillary) with rose colored glasses.

We need to have at least someone talk the dramatic shift in government that is necessary before we can call ourself a just society.

so it goes...

PS - vote third party

Colin Powell will never live down the shame and disgrace of the day he sold his soul and went before the UN with blatant lies to foment a war against an innocent nation. How does it feel Colin to know your name will be for ever known as one of America's greatest traitors?

I generally don't like to to dwell on racial topics, but some thoughtful African Americans as well as others may have noticed that three very high-ranking blacks in government--Colin Powell, Condoleeza Rice, and Clarence Thomas--have not produced records that are particularly helpful to anyone.

My suggestion for this disappointment problem is to elect Barack Obama, and allow his potential to simply trump the others' errors into obscurity over time. Seriously. Blacks need this, and so do all the rest of us.

thanks, Ray!

The lesson is that there isn't much point in being right if you don't have the power to make it stick.

I only wish that we could have heard more of this at the time. I'm glad that other people had the same reaction to Powell's speculation and mischaracterization at the U.N. I call it a poor imitation of Adlai Stevenson.

As Jacob Freeze implied, even if there were WMD, there was no imminent threat which is required for a pre-emptive attack. WMD is this administration's Maine.

The true purpose of the invasion was for U.S. control of Iraq's oil and war-profiteering. Once again, our soldier's died, as did innocent Iraqi's, and the taxpayers paid for corporate benefits.

What a shame how our government represents us. Hopefully, McGovern and gang can be heard enough to prevent attacking Iran.

We the working classes and the minorities need a pree press to extol the virues of Democracy.
Colin Powell's son was Chairman of the Federal
communication commission..He gave the power to the corporate Press to own radio, tv, and newspapers in the same town..If Colin Powell had brought up his son outside the protected service that Colin was feeding at the Government Trough, the son would have voted against the Corporate
Greed Grab of our institutional Free Press.
We were sold out again by the Colin Powells

Powell blatantly lied to the UN and did so again when he said the intelligence people had misled him when he was preparing his UN speech. Either that or the US top military brass are complete idiots.
Any person who had worked at higher military headquarters and was used to receiving/preparing security briefings woudl have had no difficulty, when listening to Powell's UN speech, in deciding that there was no intelligence supporting what he said and that he was, dishonestly, pulling together some scraps to create a fictitious conclusion. He larded his speech with just enough little titbits for people without any military intelligence experience to think that tehre may be some vague threat there.
Powell was, and is a prostitute. He prostituted himself (and showed teh true value of his integrity - zilch) for power. he only got out when, like a rat (a rather apt comparison), when he saw the Bush ship was not safe. he then lied again by saying that intelligence misled him. He had held the highest military position in the land and there was no way with that experience that the intelligence people could mislead him with the flimsy rubbish he expected us to believe.
He is a prostitute and a liar.

At least Powell has chosen the path of atonement:

"Also in 2006, Powell began appearing as a speaker at a series of motivational events called Get Motivated..."

From the "Get Motivated" website: "Only the BEST of the BEST appear on our stage! Dazzling pyrotechnics, live music and stunning special effects set the stage for our superstar speakers who deliver riveting presentations packed with cutting-edge skills for success."

Powell seeks atonement on Zig Ziglar's national speaking circuit as Rudy Guiliani used to do. But he makes a lot of money doing it. Is Powell seeking atonement through his entertaining motivational speeches for which he reportedly is paid about $100,000 an hour?

Bush and his cronies have certainly lowered the bar for what qualifies as success.

Yep, another article worth reading but ruined by Daniel David. Can't go throught the inanity.

Colin Powell is/was a clown in G.W. Bush's circus that DD helped get elected by not voting for the person he can't seem to quit obsessing about.

shame shame

joseph paquette February 6th, 2008 4:48 pm reminded us that Colin Powell's son was Chairman of the Federal communication commission where he did everything he could to allow the airwaves to be bought-up by the conservative corporate communication moguls so we could listen to "Rush Limbaugh" mentality programing 24/7 or whatever tripe the White House wanted aired. Like father like son-corporate whores.

Powell is nothing but a gutless uncle Tom.

Gen. Colin Powell is an honorable man. He was duped with false intelligence (Photographs included) not just by Bush,
but also from this administration's International Spy Agencies. Maybe some of you former CIA spooks are angry and
vindictive by what your Agency Director and some of the Top Staff manufactured to support Bush , Cheney , and the NeoCons Gang; but you guys didn't start sounding the loud alarms. Five years later, you silence deserves a major piece of shame!!!

However, former Sectretary of State, Colin Powell, was lied to by George W. Bush. He was set up to pitch the lies, both to the United Nations, the people of the world, and his fellow Americans. Months later Gen. Powell quit, and later he told the American People and the World that he had
been used and deceived by that false intel.

Further, remember that Colin Powell had actively resisted
the Military Aggression that both Bush and Cheney had been pushing for 2 years. If he had known that they were duping him; he would has resigned rather than be used.

General Colin Powell will always be a great hero.......

Powell, Rice and Thomas collectively, pale in comparison to this MAN.

Paul Robeson was the epitome of the 20th-century Renaissance man. He was an exceptional athlete, actor, singer, cultural scholar, author, and political activist. His talents made him a revered man of his time, yet his radical political beliefs all but erased him from popular history. Today, more than one hundred years after his birth, Robeson is just beginning to receive the credit he is due.

To this day, Paul Robeson's many accomplishments remain obscured by the propaganda of those who tirelessly dogged him throughout his life. His role in the history of civil rights and as a spokesperson for the oppressed of other nations remains relatively unknown. In 1995, more than seventy-five years after graduating from Rutgers, his athletic achievements were finally recognized with his posthumous entry into the College Football Hall of Fame. Though a handful of movies and recordings are still available, they are a sad testament to one of the greatest Americans of the twentieth century. If we are to remember Paul Robeson for anything, it should be for the courage and the dignity with which he struggled for his own personal voice and for the rights of all people.

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/database/robeson_p.html

jamadison4: Get a grip on reality! Your blind faith in a facade is very sad.

".....General Colin Powell will always be a great hero……."

Ha ha ha ha .... Thanks for the great joke

The entire period of these Bushyears has been : corruption stifles growth.

I fail to understand why hardly anyone such as Ray McGovern does not ever metion a few other truths about that world wide televised address Colin Powell gave to congress Feb 5th, 2002.

In September of 2001, the Diirector of the CIA, George Tenent met in the Oval Office with Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld. Tenent had the finished, Top Secret, National Intelligence Estimate in his hands. In that soon to be released to the public NIE report, Tenent informed Bush that he had been wrong to tell Congress and the American public, that Saddam had stockpiled weapons of mass destruction and had also purchased uranium from Africa. "You were wrong Mr. President".

WOW!! If Tenent released that accurate information, Congress would not dare give Bush the vote he needed to use military force against Iraq and he wold look like a damn fool for his previous publlic statements. So what then ensued, is the crime of the century. Bush had Tenent ALTER the NIE report.

Colin Powell was not privey to that meeting or that crime. So instead of the accurate NIE report, Powell was given the altered NIE report to address to congress, along with some other faulty intelligence. The NIE report read that Saddam indeed did have WMDs and he had purchased uranium from Africa. Powell was the goat, and Powell had previously warned Bush several times, that he should not invade Iraq.

What exactly was Powell supposed to do when he was given that NIE report to read. That report is the "Bible" for our intelligence gathering. More than a dozen inteligence agencies had imput into that very important NIE report, along with input from intelligence agencies from around the world. Joe Wilson attempted to correct the outright lies and look what happened to him and his wife Valerie Plame.

Why isn't what actually transpired ever printed in an article and published for sites such as Comnon Dreams, why isn't it broadcast by our media? Why does it seem to be, that this article is a way to snipe at Hillary Clinton and or 76 other Senators.

edit?

A poem for you to grok:

Dover Beach, by Matthew Arnold, around 1860 +or-

The sea is calm tonight.
The tide is full, the moon lies fair
Upon the straits; on the French coast the light
Gleams and is gone; the cliffs of England stand,
Glimmering and vast, out in the tranquil bay.
Come to the window, sweet is the night air!
Only, from the long line of spray
Where the sea meets the moon-blanched land,
Listen! you hear the grating roar
Of pebbles which the waves draw back, and fling,
At their return, up the high strand,
Begin, and cease, and then again begin,
With tremulous cadence slow, and bring
The eternal note of sadness in.

Sophocles long ago
Heard it on the Ægæan, and it brought
Into his mind the turbid ebb and flow
Of human misery; we
Find also in the sound a thought,
Hearing it by this distant northern sea.

The Sea of Faith
Was once, too, at the full, and round earth's shore
Lay like the folds of a bright girdle furled.
But now I only hear
Its melancholy, long, withdrawing roar,
Retreating, to the breath
Of the night wind, down the vast edges drear
And naked shingles of the world.

Ah, love, let us be true
To one another! for the world, which seems
To lie before us like a land of dreams,
So various, so beautiful, so new,
Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light,
Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain;
And we are here as on a darkling plain
Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight,
Where ignorant armies clash by night.

This was known before the invasion:

Think outside the box! Please consider the context of Iraq vis a vis the other countries of the Middle East and of the law. You should factor into your thinking these basic considerations:

1. It would be a violation of international law to wage war against a nation that has not attacked us.

2. It would be a violation of the principles of the United Nations of which the US is a member swore to uphold those principles. The government cannot expect its citizens to follow U.S. laws if it does not set an example itself.

3. Even if Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, it would not be alone. Testifying before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee recently, former Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright noted, "There are perhaps half a dozen other countries that are thought to have weapons of mass destruction programs and links to terrorism that are at least as extensive as Iraq's." Why select Iraq for disarmament? In fairness, we should go after these countries, too. A more basic question, why can the U.S. have weapons of mass destruction but other nations cannot?

4. The Central Intelligence Agency released a letter in August. In it, a senior intelligence official said that the likelihood of an attack by Saddam using weapons of mass destruction in the "foreseeable future" is low. But he went on to say that if Saddam was attacked, the likelihood of him using chemical or biological weapons or providing them to terrorist organizations was "pretty high." In other words, a war against Iraq would likely create exactly the disaster that President Bush claims it will prevent.

5. There are many nations that have defied United Nations resolutions, Israel among them. Why, then, pick on Iraq? At least it is not unlawfully in another territory causing havoc and destruction as Israel is doing in Palestine.

6. Iraq does not have nuclear weapons. Senator Chuck Hagel (R-NE) says the CIA has "absolutely no evidence" that Iraq possesses or will soon possess nuclear weapons. Even if it had them, it does not have the missiles to deliver them. Not having threatened us in the last ten years, where is the "imminent danger"?

I am not a CIA spook - I am just an ordinary person who was not suckered (unlke the gullible people who obviously cannot think clearly and are blinded by the fact that he was a top General) by Powell's prostitution of himself and all that he was supposed to stand for. One of the main reasons he was able to get away with it is because so many people did not question what he said because he was "an honourable man" - they just accepted it, no matter how weird or illogical it appeared because he said it - even if they felt uncomfortable about it.

If he had had any integrity he would have resigned rather that knowingly lie, as he did. Unless he was a liar or a fool (unable to interpret what he was given) he, having been the top military man in the US, he would have known that there was nothing supporting the assertions he made to the UN to try to sucker the rest of the world into fighting the unjustified, illegal and immoral war that George Bush wanted to fight. He gave credibility to Bush and Cheney's lies - they wanted the oil all along but suckered teh US public and Congress with Powell's help.

And he is a liar when he says that all he had was the doctored intelligence reports. There was enough stuff floating around at the time for a man of integrity (any integrity or ethics at all) to pull back, say "whoa, I'd better look more closely at this".

Because Powell gave the illusion of integrity many Americans came on board with Bush - they all said that he was an honourable man.

He is worse than a prostitute - he bears a huge responsibility for the 4000 American dead, the tens of thousands of US injured and maimed and the the hundres of thousands of Iraqis who are wounded, maimed and dead.

He is despicable, beneath contempt. At least Bush and Cheney had no facade of integrity but Powell did and he allowed to to be used to cause the thousands of casualties so that Cheney's mates in halliburton (and Cheney himself) could make billions.

And no, I am not a Democrat nor any part of any political party (US or otherwise).

Let's not forget that Hillary was peddling the same lies as Powell and voted for the war. Her judgment, credibility and integrity are no different from his. She also supported his cruel sanctions which denied medicines to Iraqi chidlren, killing 500,000 of them, his opposition to intervening to save innocent lives in the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda, his "don't ask, don't tell" policy that has done so much harm to gays in the military, his refusal to support the landmines treaty and opposition to the International Criminal Court.

Who cares about Hillary (although I agree with you). This is not about who will be the next President.

Not only Hillary but just about the whole of the US Congress supported the war - where were the voices of integrity and conscience? where were the ethical US legislators? (Don't try to answer - it is only an rhetorical question - I do not expect an answer)

I recall one lone Senator opposing and deploring the headlong rush for the US to defend freedom by crushing an impoverished and 16th rate army which was no threat to anyone but its own people (who, by the way, were much better off under the "worst dictator since Hitler" that they have been ever since under that beacon of freedom, peace and deomcracy, the US of A). And that Senator was not reported by the yellow press that teh US seems to be inflicted with.

And what a brave victory for the world's largest amd most powerful nation - to militarily defeat a small army of a small nation, a small army, what's more that had been starved of modern weapons for ten years.

And, another point. The intelligence assessment was not arrived at independently of political input.

We seem to be forgetting that when Bush/Cheney did not get what they wanted from the intelligence community they tore it up and made sure that they got the "intelligence" they wanted. That is another swindle the Bush lot have got away with. Bush created a super intelligence agency which was not independent of the White House.

They have made people forget what really happened and too many people have swallowed their lies (that came out a couple of years ago when they had an "ohnosecond" and realised they were in deep dodo as their lies and flawed action were exposed - you know, when the NYT decided that it was dangerously exposed by continuing to support Bush and that perhaps it should apply some honesty and critical thinking.

Just think back to when the US people started to question Bush - that is when, all of a sudden, the intelligence people who had given Bush exactly what he wanted in 2002 and 2003 (because he fed them the result he wanted) became the baddies for Bush and were to be blamed for the errors.

I usually find Ray persuasive, but his close is very poor journalism. He wrote:

"What follows is more than a mere footnote. It is not widely known that our Feb. 5, 2003 memorandum analyzing Powell's speech was shared with the junior senator from New York. Thus, she still had plenty of time to raise her voice before the Bush administration launched the fateful attack on Iraq on March 19."

Source? Claim? Proof?

He has to provide something better than this if he hopes to persuade.

"I recall one lone Senator opposing and deploring the headlong rush for the US to defend freedom by crushing an impoverished and 16th rate army which was no threat to anyone but its own people (who, by the way, were much better off under the "worst dictator since Hitler" that they have been ever since under that beacon of freedom, peace and deomcracy, the US of A). And that Senator was not reported by the yellow press that teh US seems to be inflicted with."

Plaza, wouldn't this be the right moment to actually go ahead and name that Senator?

JAMADISON4

You've got it right.

Tenet too was a good guy.

Bush and Company fooled all of America and the world.
But so few admit they're stupidity; they tell us instead how smart they were, how smart they are, and no matter how this comes out, how smart they will be.
The President and others may avoid prosecution just so that some of the people they fooled won't have to admit they got fooled.
It's obvious to anyone who was really watching and listening, that some of our leaders not only had the courage to admit they were fooled, they also had the courage to do something about it.
The same humility our founding fathers used to create this country is saving it today.
Americans, who 50 years ago were luckier than the rest of the world, imagined instead that they were better than the rest of the world; this arrogance, has led them to the very place the German people found themselves in almost 100 years ago.

This nice man has a lot of nerve suggesting that the Central Intelligence Agency had any integrity to be compromised in the first place. How about an article on Operation Gladio?

ARKITEKTON

That Senator was Barack Obama.

And again,

if one did in fact have evidence of WMD with WMD inspectors in the country, one would logically send said inspector to the alleged WMD and then confiscate them.

To say with circumstantial evidence to the inspectors, "get out now, we found em, trust us" makes no sense at all.

One doesn't start a full scale war over a game of "gotcha". (he's got em and we caught him, lets bomb the hell out of 20 million people)

There are no arguments to defend the defense of this war prior or post.

No one dem or rep, can use any misleading inteligence as a legal rationale for preemptive war.

Medusa, thank you for posting Dover Beach.

Remember Bush said WMD + al Qaeda + nuclear material; he threatened Congress and Country with a mushroom cloud.

Ray McGovern, as always thank you for all your patriotic efforts, you are a true American Hero.

We all need to act based on the knowledge we gain. It seems we were all very skeptical regarding Powell's speech when he made it. Now we are armed with real factual information from a source, not just our own common sense (be very thankful you have it and use it, and are not part of the sheeple that makes up parts of America).

The corporate media will not let us ask the critical questions from their podium. They are protecting the liars, and the liars yet to be in office.

Stand up, call your congressperson(s), and write, talk about it to friends, and yes continue to post, but we need to do more, say more, act more. We, like Mr. McGovern, must never give up. We must fight for the US Constitution and our great Republic.

Today I read that we are indeed a nation that tortures. Not in my name. I just can't believe we are okay with that too!!!!

My brothers, WE ARE THE CRITICAL MASS.

Justapeon: you are right, we are "the critical mass", but how do we make it count? I cannot remember the number of times, I have attempted to talk politics with friends, only to be told "I don't do politics", whereupon the conversation will move to other equally important matters - holidays, pets, football etc. My point, is that nobody seems to want to talk about important, relevant subjects. I cannot try to persuade people to look at voting for a different party, because they will simply say " oh, I always vote for them, and anyway it doesn't matter who you vote for, because they are all the same"
The levels of apathy and ignorance are so overwhelming, that I would prefer to sell up, and get away from it all, and just grow a few vegetables and go fishing and walking.
We need more people like Ray McGovern to keep writing articles like this, but above all, we need the mainstream media to start taking a real interest.

Tenent was a good guy? __ And I don't believe Obama was a Senator in 2002.

If Tenent was a good guy, he would have gone to Congress and the UN with the first and accurte NIE report and informed EVERYBODY that the report given to Colin Powell and then read to Congress, was a faulty report altered by the orders of Bush and Cheney.

Had Tenent done that, Bush and Cheney would have been impeached ___ and jailed. There would have been no war in Iraq.

War is like love, it always finds a way.

- Brecht

Uncle Tom Powell commits
Political suicide
In front of the World.
One way to get rid of the Competition.
Give him a vial and ask him to shoot himself
In front of the cameras!

Way to go Carl.

Some General?

Do The Condi Conga
I have a tanker named after me!
Do The Condi Conga
I forgot everything Bush ever told me!
Do The Condi Conga
Who will McPains V.P. be?
Do The Condi Conga

AndyUK, I sure do know what you mean. I just continue to bring it up. I think a lot of my "friends" might just listen and ignore, but others end up not being my "friends" any longer because they just don't get it. Perhaps I can convince one, just one other person to see what is going on then that will be the accomplishment I need to see. I don't think it will be an quick and easy conversion for some to the more enlightened ideas of what is going on around them, but one person at a time.

We are in such an unfortunate situation as the 4th Estate, the media, is corporately owned and therefore only concerned about their bottom line, not the human aspect of life. Corporations don't even call one country theirs any longer, so you can't really say American Corporate leaders. To the corporations we are all just plebes, or slaves to do their bidding, help them to reach their profit level, regardless of what we may have to endure.

So, you are right in thinking you should "prefer to sell up, and get away from it all, and just grow a few vegetables and go fishing and walking." There is a lot of genuine (see I told you common sense) in what you pronounce. We have to get away from the consumer nations that we are and become more self-sufficient. It will hurt their bottom line, and we will get a simpler life without the pressure to buy, buy, buy and thereby work, work, work to pay for it. We have to get back to the basics.

Believe me, I do not think that I have "the answer" here. I don't know that there is any single answer, but reaching out to your community where you live, getting to know your neighbors and realize that we need each other desperately as we are all in the same sinking ship together. I doubt that anyone here posting falls into the top 1% who have all the money/power. Our power is in our numbers and that is where we have strength, buying power, or in this case not buying power. Become more self-sufficient. That should be any thoughtful person's goal. Depend on each other for sure, but not on the corporate giants who think they can tell us what to think, what to do. They aren't the boss of me!