Chris & Laura thanks

Great interview U R so correct the footage, you showed is the kind of pseudo culture, referring to Nazi Germany we use to describe as PROBAGENDA it's called now days news, it leads to nuking a billion or two whats the difference.
they commit war crimes they send a couple of kids to analyze history.

No Terror No Torture Just Truth

I think we now in America begin to understand what the classical writers on democracy, from Athens and Rome, feared in "the mob". When mindlessness and emotional manipulation by rhetoric become the norm in a society, as it is now in the USA, then democracy becomes tyranny. Hitler was a good example.

I wonder if Chis hedges understands that 'empire' as he calls it is his 'enemy'. If he wants to understand this 'enemy' he must put himself in it's shoes. The problem with the lack of popular support for him in general or this information is that he is trying to get it out there with an approach is no different than Al-Quieda or the empire he decries. Though his attacks are only verbal, he shoots down without fair trial his own enemy, these are unjustified attacks and the 'enemy' is understandably building up with the same feelings of rage and insult that is always created when we approach each other as the enemy that has no rights. The point is that even the enemy has rights and if we are to be unlike them we must honor these rights even as they do not, no matter who they are. Chris makes the majority of humans who are part of this dynamic his 'enemy' He will not get popular nor even minor support until he can get his own story straight regarding the dynamics of 'empire' Where it originates and why it originates, it's own terror, and it's own humanity.

Grit TV is FREE to public stations. FREE!

Wisconsin Public Television ... which endlessly asks for my donations ... turned it down because it "represents a particular political view".

And I see the "lying by omission" at the Lehrer News Hour, with its ads from Chevron, Monsanto, Bank of America, Pacific Life.

"The elites are not going to help us," he warns

Neither are their useful conservative idiots

Chris Hedges tells the truth. Extra-judicial murder is murder nevertheless. What we do to others can be done to us.

As per handnurass's comment about 1.3 or however many muslims there are and what, 10%, are of the fundamental radicals or whatever, makes about 150,000,000 says you.

Well, shit, handnurass, there or 7,000,000,000 people on this planet and just as a conservative number, 10% are bad, evil, wicked and criminal which give us 700,000,000 of those wandering around free and guess what handnurass? Most of those 700,000,000 are right here in this country and at this very moment and they are white religious pieces of fecal matter creating all the mayhem, suffering, death, theft and all that is evil and bad that is going on in this country and by your own self,handinurass, you are part and parcel of that despicable 700,000,000 people. How about them apples trash mouth?

Sorry, I couldn't get past Pelosi's remarks at the beginning of this tape. I have an allergy to the Big Lie.

Aside from the Big One about OBL, there was her nauseating expression of thanks to all those fine "special ops" people out there making the world a safer place for Monsanto. As pukeworthy as anything Obummer has said in the past few days...

I'll try the tape again later to see just how far Hedges and Flanders play into the Big Lie, but for now I'll leave it at this.

And Leea, you seem to underestimate the malevolence, power, and firepower of Hedges's "enemy." To compare Hedges, an individual, however feisty and passionate, to the vast web of interests and institutions that fall under his concept of "empire," is beyond absurd. And Hedges is not malevolent. On the contrary. Hedges is not only right in what he says about the "empire," he is also very brave. If someone as eloquent and persuasive as he were to gain influence and become a political player, I have no doubt that he would be in danger of his life.

Flanders is one of the best interviewers in the business,and Hedges hits many nails right on the head. We talk of the military industrial complex,Hedges adds clarity by using the terms War industry, neo-feudalism, and empathy. Understanding the needs of a War industry explains much of what is happening in the US today better than the MIC concept. A War industry must have a war to fight, to fight War the needs are many. One lots of money,Wars are very expensive to conduct, and chew up money faster than people. Estimates of the costs of killing “terrorists” in the WOT are in the range of fifty million each. In the early stages of empire wars are payed for with plunder, but soon the growing empire's costs exceed the value of the plunder, and the empire begins to consume itself. This process is what we are living in the US today. The massive changes we are seeing in the economy are a direct result of this War industry. We are diverting resources needed for a sustainable economy to the War machine. Thus instead of building the new bridge your town needs we spend the money blowing up a bridge in a town halfway around the world. War is a process of destruction, and consumption. We are literally destroying money, a fighter jet burns more fuel on a single mission than your SUV does in a year. The things that are happening to our economy,high unemployment, stagnate wages, falling house prices, and lost purchasing power are part of gutting our economy to feed the War industry. A desperation tactic when retreating in the face of an invading army is called scorched earth. The War industry is inflecting a scorched earth campaign on the American economy. We are at War with ourselves, and we are losing. The incredible folly of our political leadership will be paid for by generations of American serfs living in the new feudalistic system of the War industry.

Excellent! Chris Hedges has it right, but the American mob simply doesn't care.

I am honoured to have something in common with the ever eloquent, brilliant and insightful Chris Hedges - I don't watch TV or even own one and that is out of choice.

"The elites are not going to help us," he warns, "We're going to have to help ourselves."

FREE AMERICA

REVOLUTIONARY (DIRECT) DEMOCRACY

Somebody has to say this.

The unstated premise to the generally cogent and incisive thinking and writing of Chris Hedges is this: "There is a God". All Persons who accept that premise imagine a =Divine Job Description= that includes: 17) Dispenses Justice. This is among the reasons I know that the human creation of God - in our image - is the H. sapiens expression of Great Ape need for, and longing for, The ALPHA. The principal job of an Alpha ape is to intervene in disputes when the level of violence becomes a danger to the troop. The manner and outcome of Alpha intervention is defined, by humans, as Justice. Nobody publicly admits this is logically absurd - for resolution of disputes leaves one person or party smugly believing that =justice has been served= while the other person or party feels they've been unjustly screwed. The discovery of this verity is like the famous inventory by FISH, whose listing of water comes LAST (yeah, shit, don't want to forget water, damn that was close).

Chris Hedges does not want Osama bin Laden "brought to justice" in some dandified "court of Law" for the world to see proof of the truth: "HE STARTED IT, DAD, HE HIT ME FIRST. I WAS JUST HITTING HIM BACK (whispering behind palm: "You're gonna get it now, you scum bag").

Chris Hedges wants to stand close to =The Throne=, on one leg while swinging a toe in an arc through the dirt, as God leans forward on the seat to put His pissed-off face into that of Osama bin Laden and yell omnipotently: "YOU BEARDED LITTLE SHIT. YOU HIT YOUR BROTHER FIRST. HE WAS ONLY HITTING YOU BACK BECAUSE YOU DESERVED IT I'M GOING TO GIVE YOU SUCH PAIN (giggle giggle snort goes Chris) IN THE NAME OF =JUSTICE= BECAUSE THAT'S MY JOB, AND FROM WHICH THERE IS NO APPEAL. CAN YOU HEAR ME?"

More than anything, what defines a-theists is the awareness that Justice is an Illusion and Bullshit. We live in a Second Hand Solar System because God let the first one blow itself the fuck up. He did not feel sufficiently appreciated and propitiated by the Living Things in it, wiped it out, and started over. "God'll send flood, not a fire next time - Well well well, who's that a callin'? - Well well well, hold my hand - Well well well, night is a fallin' - Spirit is a movin' all over this land - - - - "

Vanity vanity, all is vanity.
Trylon

To help each other form self sustaining communities.
That task is very difficult.
It implies getting back to nature, to growing food, using the primary production of plants.
Nobody can order the soil, the water, the right weather conditions at the right time.
Where suitable conditions still exist, there are questions of ownership and security, and paying the costs of sustaining the natural resources.

The system we have now, requires huge fossil fuel energy inputs to maximise output from industrial agriculture, and needs energy for transport, packaging, processing, storage and distribution.
The embedded energy of the global system supplies the local community. The local communities do not return anything back to global sources of energy and agricultural resource. Energy and material waste is not recycled.

Local communities are not sustainable in this system, when they become unable to produce anything except surplus population. Take away jobs and production, and nothing can sustain local communities except general social welfare. Take the jobs away, welfare away, take education away, take libraries away. Nothing left except unemployed and disaffected people. Given some control local resources, people can organize for some self sufficiency and dignity. But there is always a gross mis-match between resource quantity and quality, and where people live.

Self sustaining communities require a redistribution of people around self-sustaining resources, and careful living. A lot of people will get left without anything, as global fossil fuel inputs fall. Self sustaining resources are limited in convenient location and supply. Where available, they are being depleted and destroyed for global markets. The hoped for saviour is the use of renewable energy technology. This still requires large material and energy inputs from the fossil fuel and mining industries. Renewable and recycling technology is not yet self-sustaining. Wars will always be fought over something that is limited in location or supply. Fueling the wars requires more destruction. We will destroy what little may be left that can save us.

Sustainability will only be reached after removal of sufficient numbers of unsustainable human being lifestyles. There will be few volunteers. Reducing the global energy support and complexity is a start. Replacing fossil fuels with renewable energy is a start. Solar algal biotechnology is a hope. The solutions lie in environment, education, lifestyle and technology innovation, and letting people choose to redistribute their lifestyle to the reality of what can be supported. There are no solutions in wars and global empires. The disruptions and destruction use far too much adaptational energy, are a huge waste of human talent and potential, a waste of energy and resources. They get rid of surplus numbers. Its about time population regulation became a solution and not a problem.

For someone as smart as Hedges, who is usually so ahead of the curve, and as usually perceptive as Flanders is, I'm so disappointed that they have both just accepted the big lie that OBL was alive and living in Abbottabing, and was the target of a double-tap in a lame Hollywood Bruckheimeresque script (we don't even get to see the trailer or even the lobby poster, much less the 3D Imax blockbuster) when their own research could have told them that OBL probably died of medical complications as early as late 2001. Hence, all the hand-wringing and speculating over his "murder" is misplaced, when they should be discussing WHY the lies are being presented NOW and what they portend.

Great. Another brilliant analyst pretending that the news media tells the truth about 911 -- they lie about literally everything else -- but tell the truth about 911 and Bin Laden, apparently out of sheer magnanimity.

As much as I enjoy Hedges, he should toss himself into the pile of those he scorns. He's too chicken to admit the obvious w/respect 911, just as the "liberal class" is too chicken to jeopardize their wide screen TV's.

Now Cindy Sheehan -- she has true "balls", so to speak. We ought to rename boldness/bravery after feminine features.

I generally like what Chris Hedges has to say, but have a problem with this statement (at around 7:00) about our "enemies" - after seeming to lump the entire ME into that category - that (paraphrasing) "the only language they understand is the language of violence." That is pure racist rubbish coming from someone who preaches empathy.

I realize I live in the rarefied air of intellectual thought and purpose, neglecting the necessities of day to day life - as seen by this society.

But haven't too many of us, for too long, been paying too strict an attention to the so-called necessities?

And all the while our manic focus on self-interest has paved the way for the usurpation of all we once held dear.

Or did we never hold anything dear?

When I re-read the two addresses of JFK to the United Nations, in 1961 & 1963, I cannot but think that we did once, for at least a time, aspire to something, whatever that something was.

Now - we no longer aspire - we despair. And despair is death writ large, in the 'glaring neon signs' of Simon and Garfunkel.

This video interview with Chris Hedges - it did something to me.

"Where there is no vision, the people perish"

Are we to perish, in this land so beautiful?

Power and privilege do not man the tanks, or fly the B-1's; they are not the Marine in the desert, or the sailor at sea. Nor the policeman - or the firefighter. Not the factory-worker, not the wage-slave. And they are not the artist, filled with pain.

They cannot exist without our submission.

Environmentalists first wrote of saving the environment - then it was save our civilization.

I don't think we need experts to tell us the importance of the environment - and I'm not sure this civilization is worth saving.

A man on his knees is a sorry sight, without honor - without integrity, And it matters not if he genuflects to his corporation, his flag, or his God.

Instead of saving the world, perhaps we should save ourselves - one at a time - by becoming honorable and whole again.

Our world is melting down - literally.

Politically - we are losing everywhere.

If we do not get up off our knees, as Nature intended, we will find that there is a hell - and it is here on Earth.

And then, if we are unlucky:

"We will be replaced by the insect" (Jacques Cousteau)

I went over to the bookstore after viewing this video, and I quote from Chris Hedge's "The World As It Is" (in the Introduction):

"Rebellion - which is different from revolution because it is perpetual alienation from power rather than a replacement of one power system for another - should be our natural state."

This reminded me of the words of Herman Melville in "Moby Dick":

"Long exile from Christendom and civilization inevitably restores a man to that condition in which God placed him, i.e., what is called savagery... Your true whale-hunter is as much a savage as an Iroquois. I myself am a savage, owing no allegiance but to the King of the Cannibals; and ready at any moment to rebel against him."

Manysummits
======

Was just reading Plato's Republic and the Oligarchic state or Plutocracy described by Plato matched the United States almost exactly...funny isn't it

POWER YIELDS NOTHING.
Which, of course, is why empires collapse.
As much as we need whistle-blowers, what we need many more of, are whistlers who just turn, whistle and walk away.