Boycott Corporate America who buy off Congress and support the Amerikan war-machine. Let Boeing go belly-up (sorry, workers, but sacrifice is demanded). Close down bases. Pull troops from wars instead of surges.

Serve the people and consumers instead of exploiting them or face the consequences big business!

Love the title John but you didn't go near far enough.

Gary

The irony is, to fully boycott America, you'd have to stop buying Chinese crap... ;-)

"These days, the worst local intelligence failure I can think of is the proposal by New York's Metropolitan Transportation Authority to eliminate free passes for students. Brilliant! Just when we need more people who know how to spell, the public transit system in the city with the biggest school system is discouraging kids, especially poor ones, from getting to class." -- John R. MacArthur

I completely agree! I live in NYC, and when I first read this news, I immediately thought -- who is running this city? The decision made no sense to me!

The MTA also, during the finiancial boom, so to speak, borrowed about $200 million dollars to invest in an Irish hedge fund -- which worked for a while, until the boom went bust. Last time I read a detailed account of this fiasco, the interest payment had ballooned to $12 million, but MTA claimed to still be within their budget. Rate hikes for public transportation -- of course, "we the people" pay for the mistakes of those who make the decisions. I'm waiting to hear who, exactly, made the decision to borrow the money to invest -- the money belonged to "we the people."

And, again this year, we have banksters raking in billions -- on the backs of most of us who live here and elsewhere, across this country.

I think you will find a lot of us overseas folk have been avoiding American travel in case we get there and find we are on a list.

Michael Hicks certainly is aware of the pitfalls of traveling on American airplanes. Michael Hicks, a New Jersey native, has been frisked every time he has gone through the inappropriately and ironically named Newark Liberty International Airport because Homeland Security has placed him on its watch list because his name is supposedly similar to someone else whose name is on a security list. Michael Hicks is also eight years old. It turns out, according to last Sunday's Oregonian, that Michael Hicks has had to endure this harassment since he was two years old when security personnel at the airport ordered him to spread his legs and felt at and around his crotch to make sure that this pint size supposed terrorist was not apparently harboring any grenades on his little person.

It should be obvious that al Qaeda and other terrorist organizations have most decidedly won their battle at intimidating Americans and their less than wise leaders. The dictum that FDR issued in the 1930s-you have nothing to fear but fear itself-apparently no longer applies in twenty first century America. Eight year old Michael Hicks knows all too well how true this is.

boycott amerika, don't pay your Federal taxes!!

I have been advocating such a boycott for some time now, but something broader based, and for reasons more far-reaching than are mentioned by MacArthur. Since the American political-media class will not wake up to the reality of the empire's tyrannical rampages across the world, the losses of life and resources and heritage, particularly in the Muslim world, and since the US's allies are too lily-livered (especially since Chirac and Schroeder have left the European scene) to stand up to the bully, consumers the world over should stop buying anything to do with the American economy and insist that their governments sanction the beast. The Boycott, Sanction, and Divest campaign with regard to Israel is fine, but it has to be extended to include the larger problem, USA, if it is to be really effective.

After my youngest left school, I had ten illuminating years of international travel before voluntary permanent grounding in disgust. When citing the nose-dives in airline profitability, why are Homeland Security harrassments not identified by the media as chief perpetrators?

Oops, I forgot, the media is controlled by those "perpetraitors"!
Seems there is an endless attempt to define the American people as The Enemy.

Boycotting Amerika may be a difficult thing to do (and impossible for people living in the US!), but selective boycotting is a great place to start.

How about WAlMart? How about McDonalds? How about Fox or USAToday? Selectively chosing to refuse symbolic representations of the Empire is not an insignificant action. Each of us can share our reasons why we won't walk into that WalMart with the people we meet.

We can all deny Caesar at least one pinch of incense - while we can. It may be a small thing for each of us but it is not a small thing for all of us to do.

As we all type our brilliance into Apple Macs and Dell PCs over wide- or broadband connections, enriching AT&T, Verizon, et. al., or into our smart phones or cell phones, enriching Apple, AT&T and Verizon, et. al., before hopping into our Toyotas or Hondas and running down to Whole Foods for groceries.

Look, that's me, too. I'm just saying gladtobeincanada is right. It IS a difficult thing to do. But, gee, gdgoodman: tell us how we can begin to extricate ourselves from the overgrown tentacled swamp that is the Amerikan corporate power structure. It is a step-by-sometimes-painful-step process. But every journey -- even one sidestepping the U.S. -- begins with that first step.

"no gods, no masters" --m. sanger

Way ahead of you.
Cancelled a holiday in San Francisco last year in favor of a trip through northwestern Canada.
This year, heading to a beach in the Caribbean, making damn sure there is no flight touchdown in the continental USA.
Call me when you guys get over your panic.
Actually? Don't.

Welcome to AmeriKKKa.

I've been doing this as best I can for years. I don't buy anything new except for my underwear and toothbrush. All my clothes come from Goodwill or the like. Recycle, reuse and reduce. There are already too many "new" items in the world. If we need furniture, housewares, vehicles, clothes, toys, etc. all can be found pre-used and in good shape. I shop for groceries at the farmer's market in the summer and at a locally owned health food store the rest of the year. I pay a little more for the food, but I pay a lot less for everything else. I've stopped using make-up and nail polish and other female "necessities." I don't drive if I can walk or ride a bicycle to my destination. I restrict the amount of time I use the computer. I don't watch television, don't buy newspapers or subscribe to magizines. The library has all of those for free. Well, except for the television and who needs that drivel anyway? While I do supplement my dogs diet with a good quality dog food, she eats most of what we eat. We only turn on the lights if we're actually in the room and turn them out when we leave. The thermostat is kept at a comfortable level, but you wouldn't want to run around naked in our house in the winter. We use fans in the hottest part of the summer, but I refuse to put in air conditioning. A waste of energy and nobody needs to be THAT cool. I also refuse to allow any store to put my purchases into those horrible and dangerous plastic bags. I save and reuse any jar, carton or wrap I can. We still have a long way to go, but you can reduce a lot of what you use if you just pay a little attention. We NEVER shop at Wal-Mart and haven't for years. We NEVER eat at McDonald's or any of the other toxic fast food places that are on every corner and we haven't for years. We brew our own coffee at home.

I, too, hate flying and it's not because I'm afraid the plane will crash. "Security" has gotten insane. When I think of my 80 year old parents standing in line in their stocking feet I'm outraged. And that's just the beginning. I do, however, fly once every year. I live in Colorado and my grandchildren live in Maine. Considering the time it would take to drive that distance, I fly in order to spend some time with them. I hope one day soon to move back to New England and that will end my relationship with the FAA.

I stopped flying on September 12, 2001 because 4 planes were so easily hijacked and then 2 of them "vaporized".

During nearly all the ghoulish 8 years of the Bush-Cheney crime family ruling and destroying much of the world, I was convinced that the only way to stop them was for other countries to coordinate an attack on Washington, because nothing was going to happen from within this country. Now, if most other countries would boycott the US because of our offically paranoid national security state making travel next to impossible here, or so unnerving and idiotic that you never want to get on a plane again, that might go a long way toward "waking up America."

On the other hand, maybe America is more awake than many of us ever believe, but are collectively convinced We Can't Do Anything About It. "It" being almost anything you can think of. So the "outside pressure" MacArthur speaks of could possibly go a long way toward shaking us from our slumber, but who is "us"? We don't make the insane TSA policies or any other policies that have made us the terrifying laughingstock of the world. Our misrepresentatives do, and so far we've proven totally incapable of doing anything about THEM.

Boycotting--don't know what to boycott, but I'll say this:

I'll never, ever boycott screenings of my alltime favorite film, West Side Story, when that comes around to independent movie theatres in our area, or on TV!

The irony of this article amuses me. People have an irrational fear of airport security, when will be people get over their irrational fear that brings said airport security?

Ha ha. But, seriously - the word 'boycott' no longer exists.

Because it's impossible to know who actually owns what any more, and the teams are constantly trading players. Plus, most of the teams are multinational, so unless a boycott was, like, off the scale massive and sustained, it wouldn't mean shit to Big Corporation X.

No, if Americans are sick of living in government-produced-and-maintained false-fear, then the first thing to boycott is airport security, not the airports or airlines.

Refuse the searches, bitch loudly in line, cause scenes and raise hell until 'our' government is forced to cede to our demands and stop with all the fear/control bullshit.

Demand No. 1: if there are No Fly Lists, then we want Can Fly Lists - there is no reason the 99.999% of us who are 'good guys' should ever have to be treated, repeatedly, as potential 'evil doers' in a country where we're still presumed innocent until proven guilty.

Cicero: "Freedom is participation in power."

This is another example of the idiosyncratic fluff the CD eds are passing onto the site lately. Two or three grains of ideas worth sifting out of a mountain of scatterbrained excelsior.

Please spare us this stuff.

Wonder how 'stringent' security is on the other side of major air ports where the corporate jets ferry those privileged corporate terrorists and their families and friend in and out without scrutiny in anything like a small Lear to the big jumbo all the while laughing at the public side being stripped searched and harassed.

NC-Tom January 20th, 2010 9:47 am
**The irony is, to fully boycott America, you'd have to stop buying Chinese crap... ;-)**

u wanna execute an economic MAD ?
in that case, all bets are off
"when can china haul the United States before the UN Security Council or to take military actions in retaliation for this low-intensity war that has been waged upon it.?"

http://tinyurl.com/mumupz

We dont need to boycott america, america is boycotting itself!!

We all broke..

Yes, it is ridiculous to fly now. We risk having athlete's foot because we have to take off our shoes and walk where everyone else walked with their fungi everywhere in order to go through security. Even if one carries only carry-on luggage because it's too long and too traumatic to have "real luggage", there is someone to ask "Why don't you have more luggage?" From now on, our naked bodies will be able to be viewed by the entire intelligence community of the entire world. My body is okay, but as I have been loathe to take showers in public even with my fellow basketball players, I hate that my privacy, for something as basic as my naked body, counts for nothing.

I remember a funny scene coming back from Lisbon a few years ago flying Lufthansa (the Germans were mad at we Americans for flying one of their citizens off to be tortured.)Well everybody was getting frisked including the mother with her baby hanging on her chest in one of those slings. The security girl was squeezing the little baby arms, the little baby legs looking for C4 I guess.
My last flight.

I remember the good old days when passengers from Central and South America could come to the good ole U.S.A. and buy everything. Of course, we other passengers from the good old U.S.A., had to wait in long, long lines while these people checked their goods. It was healthy that they found nice bargains in the U.S. Now everyone is just soured from shopping in the U.S. I, for one, would rather pay more in my country of residence than put up with airport security. Of course, I can't get grits in my country of residence; I can't get Coffee-Mate in my country of residence; I can't get good rice in my country of residence; I can't get baking powder in my country of residence...I am really deprived because the only way I can get those things is to try to get past security at the airport with them.

in the MEANTIME _ in CHINA........

where REAL FAMILY VALUES Actually EXIST and are the NORM.....more POWERFUL than the Communist Party, in fact.....

==============

Globalist
Single-Party Democracy

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By ROGER COHEN
Published: January 21, 2010

BEIJING — I’m bullish on China after a couple of weeks here and perhaps that sentiment begins with the little emperors and empresses. In upscale city parks and rundown urban sprawls, I’ve seen China’s children pampered by grandparents, coddled by fathers, cared for by extended families.

Scarcity may explain the doting: China’s one-child policy makes children special. But there are deeper forces at work. The race for modernity has not blown apart the family unit, whatever the strains. After witnessing the atomization of American society, where the old are often left to fend for themselves, China feels cohesive.

It’s seeing that most natural of conspiracies — between grandparents and children — flourishing. It’s listening to young women in coastal factories talking about sending half their salaries home to some village in Guangxi where perhaps it goes to build a second floor on a parental house. It’s hearing young couples agonize over whether they can afford a child because “affording” means school, possible graduate education abroad, and a deposit on the first apartment.

The family is at once emotional bedrock and social insurance. “My” money equals my family’s money. All the parental investment reaps a return in the form of care later in life. “Children are a retirement fund,” a Chinese-American friend living here told me. “If you don’t have children, what do you do in old age?”

The Chinese, in other words, might be lining up to play karaoke after long factory shifts, but they’re not bowling alone American-style. They’re not stressing because they’re all alone. That’s critical. There so much heaving change here — China’s planning to open 97 new airports and 83 subway systems in the next five years — the family strikes me as the great stabilizer (even more than the regime’s iron fist).

As Arthur Kroeber, an economist, said, “High-growth stories are not pretty. If you’re growing at 10 percent a year, a lot of stuff gets knocked down.” It sure does: China looms through the dust. But the family has proved resilient, cushioning life for the have-nots, offering a moral compass for the haves (rampant corruption notwithstanding).

After the emperors and empresses, in my bullish assessment, comes the undistracted forward focus. After a while in Asia, you notice the absence of a certain background noise. It’s as if you’ve removed a negative drone from your life, like the slightly startled relief you feel when the hum of an air conditioner ceases.

What’s in that American drone? Oh, the wars of course, the cost of them, and debate around them, and the chatter surrounding terror and fear.

There’s also the resentment-infused aftermath of the great financial meltdown, navigated by China with an adroitness that helped salvage the world economy from oblivion. In the place of all that Western angst, there’s growth, growth, growth, which tends (through whatever ambivalence) to inspire awe rather than dread. The world’s center of gravity is shifting with a seismic inevitability.

I know, China has kept its foot on the gas of its stimulus package too long and there are bubble signs in housing and labor is no longer limitless, with resultant inflationary pressure. I also know there are tensions between state economic direction and market forces, with resultant waste. But my third bullish element is nonetheless an economy entering a 15-year sweet spot where rising disposable income will drive the domestic market.

Think of what Japan, Taiwan and South Korea went through decades ago, but with a population of 1.3 billion. Think of the 10 to 15 million new urban residents a year and the homes and infrastructure they will need. Think of all the stuff the world demands and can’t get elsewhere with the same quality, quantity and price. Think underlying drivers. They remain powerful.

Of course, political upheaval could unhinge all the above. Given that China’s open-closed experiment is unique in history, nobody can say how this society will be governed in 2050. Immense tensions, not least between the rage that corruption inspires and the difficulty of tackling it without a free press, exist. Still, my fourth reason for running with the Chinese bulls is perhaps the most surprising: single-party democracy.

It doesn’t exist. It’s an oxymoron (although a U.S. primary is a vote within one party). It can easily be the semantic disguise for outrage and oppression. But it just may be the most important political idea of the 21st century.

Rightful resistance is growing in China. Citizens are asserting their rights, not in organizing against the state (dangerous) but in using laws to have a say. Nongovernmental organizations are multiplying to advance agendas from the environment to labor rights. This is happening with the acquiescence of smart rulers.

“They know they cannot manage in the old way,” Ma Jun, a leading environmentalist, told me. “They cannot dam the water, but they can go with the flow and divert it to the places they want.”

Whether that place will ever resemble one-party democracy, I don’t know. But I no longer laugh at the idea. Harmonious discord is an old Chinese idea. The extended Chinese family is a daily exercise in just that.

One Fundamental problem with America is its MYTH of everything can be HAD under the sun...

"if you work hard enough" as part of that mythology. it is of course, WRONG, and MISLEADING and far from accurate. since america is really a land where to "succeed" is really an EXCEPTION rather than the rule...and

the RULE is "to live to WORK harder and harder" and get VERY LITTLE in return for you labor..whose real results in wealth creation are then sucked upwards to the upper class

which THEN is USED as a MODEL for all americans to EMULATE "if you work hard enough"......

examples of this mythology:

"yes-- yoU CAN be president of the USA"...

"yes you can be a multimillionaire TOO (just play the Lotto everything else fails"...

and so everyone is enjoined to LIVE the HIGH LIFE

even if the wages of americans can't keep up with the "model life" and as a result - the entire country and economy is based on

people living on DEBT.

indedted in education to "get ahead" - where the economy provides them with NO JOBS for all that education and expense and indebtedness - which makes Fannie Mae and its investors happy until of course THEY mismanage THEIR investments and run to the PUBLIC for bail-outs...among otther ongoing bail-outs in the form of "tax breaks" for corporations.

so - in the end - who are the LOSERS always and forever? Americans....

the COURAGEOUS , RUGGED INDIVIDUAL americans who behave like LEMMINGS being led by their COrporate "let's get rich" and "live the high life coz we got the choices in the land of the free and greedy"....

led by their Corporate Pied Pipers who make them sing songs of patriotism and FEAR and RELIGION and "morals"

that are all of them ...FAKE.

all i know - is i DISCOURAGE any relatives of mine from asia to EVER visit the USA or even THINK of going to america unless they absolutely must, say to visit a relative or business or something. i tell them - KEEP YOUR MONEY where it is - in asia. you wanna travel? see the world? education if you can afford? find jobs? go ELSEWHERE in asia, europe, south america.

there are PLENTY of places in the world OUTSIDE of the Land of the Frightened and the land of the Greedy and self-involved ignoramuses.

DON'T FEED the BEAST.