Before General Marshall left for Europe to implement his excellent plan for recovery after World War II, he warned the U.S. that unless the plan included a strong and generous safety net -- food, housing, education, employment -- European governments could expect rioting in the streets.

Democratic Socialism was thus born and helped create prosperous, peaceful and even happy populations. We seem to have lost our memory of how government can really work well for everyone instead of a favored few.

If we want to carry this conspiracy theory further, they then tighten up the border, discouraging European tourists and potential college students from bothering to try to come to the US, either to study or to visit, so there's nobody here to tell people in the US how much better life is in the welfare states of Europe.

Dave Lindorff
www.thiscantbehappening.net

"Here in the US, young people, like their parents, are largely quiescent. Their reaction to the frustrations of joblessness tend to be either self-destructive (drugs and alcohol) or anti-social (gang activity or crime)."

... or media- induced fantasies and blaming others; or apathy and inaction.

But it appears to me that the youth of Egypt and Yemen weren't so much organized from without as successful in organizing themselves from within once they got together in the public squares.

Today's kids are so interconnected, they could pull this kind of thing off in a flash (good term--actually they've done it, with "flash mob" actions, but these are just anti-social blow-ups, instead of directed protests). If they had a little help and direction, they could really shake things up, given their connectivity skills.

Dave Lindorff
www.thiscantbehappening.net

If gang-affected youth in the U.S.can risk their lives each day in the streets warring against each other, they can risk their well being (tear gas, tasers, rubber bullets, even police guns) enough to initiate a massive protest movement.

Perhaps with brave and radical direct actions informed by strategic non-violence (civil disobedience) they could even lead their less-than-brave elders into new territory?

If you are already willing to go to jail and willing to take a bullet for your "homies" how can you not be bold enough to lead a revolution?

IMAGINE the possibilities!!

It is incredible that the Americans spend a fortune trying to run the world when they cannot even run their own country properly. They would rather slaughter people overseas than invest in helping their own people have a better life. They need a revolt but oddly enough they are very passive about the inequality and the taking away of their rights.

Last I heard, real unemployment including the officially unemployed, long-term unemployed and the chronically under-employed was still around 26 million Americans. Official and long-term unemployment (excluding the chronically underemployed) was at 15%. Peak Great Depression unemployment averaged 25% with an absolute peak of 27%, but we had half the population then that we do now.

There were six million unemployed in Germany between 1929 and 1933 as the Nazis consolidated power. By December of this year, at present rates of "job creation" we will have twice that many unemployed in the U.S. Luckily for our crooked politicians they are spread out across more geography in a much more politically atomized country. But that only means that the misery will get much worse leading to scattered and more easily crushed uprisings.

I wonder why Lindorff ignores the high number of older workers suffering long-term unemployment. He only suggests that they don't give up looking for work as much as younger workers because they have families to support. But he doesn't mention that this country's corporations (and much of popular culture) treats them as pariahs simply for being unemployed so long and being older--both of which are not their fault. I've been unemployed for 3 years and four months and have sold off most all of my possessions to survive. My unemployment benefits ran out over a year ago. All the government does for me is food stamps. The single biggest hurdle I have to overcome to look for work is money for bus & rail transportation, which no one--even the churches--is doing ANYTHING about. We recently had a job fair offering a few hundred jobs and 30,000 people showed up to apply.

Good point about the nature of the promised "aid", but please, I'm not "credulous."

The point of this article was not to analyze what the president is offering to Egypt or Tunisia. Actually, if that were the topic of my article, I would have looked at how the US actually gives more in military aid than it does in economic aid to these countries, and that's actually a negative in terms of helping their economies or their people.

But as I mentioned in reference to the prior writer's letter, the point of this article was specifically to call attention to the hypocrisy of the president in decrying the high youth unemployment in Egypt and Tunisia, while completely ignoring the plight of equally unemployed and desperate young people here in the US.

You're not getting an analysis of the uses and abuses of US foreign "aid" here. That's another article for another time. When you don't get everything addressed in an article, don't automatically assume that what the article doesn't address implies a "credulous" author. It's called "focus".

Dave Lindorff
www.thiscantbehappening.net

The problem is that modern day democracy is a farce, Of course Oilybomber want's to help with the continued corruption of the will of the people with "leaders" and "political party's".

The Zeitgeist of today has completely corrupted the ideas of democracy to be anything but. What we are told is a democracy is actually a plutocracy, always has been. since it's inception in Britain of the "Westminster system" in the 17th century.

Consider the battle for suffrage through out the years. First only land owners had the right to vote, then only men, and finally the rights of women we recognized in to the polls.

Every one should know that Politicians, and political party's are all PARASITES. Merely proxys for the rich, powerful, and privileged, to help them skim off of the fruits of the labour of the commoners. Capitalism is all about that. Today you hear about "Intellectual property" never about "Intellectual labour", as if any property of any value suddenly appears without the effort labour. Capitalism was at it zenith long ago when the slave trade was encouraged and people were property.

Instead of "elections" we should have "rejections". Sortition was always the sign of a true democracy, before the Westminster system was invented". The problem has been how to convince the public that this is the best way to manage national policy. Politicians will fight tooth and nail against a real democracy. Why are tax cuts so popular with the political class?. Aren't political contributions already tax deductible? It means more "partays" for the political class.

On voting day we should be given a ballot that names the incumbents. An X on any one line means you think that person should be sent packing. There should be 3 representatives for each riding.

If a representative gets a majority in these "rejections" he/she is removed from the assembly/parliament/congress and a new person is selected randomly from eligible voters.

Who are eligible voters? Any one who goes to the pols and wishes to represent their constituency gets a second ballot with their name on it. This is put into the "selection" box

Electronic voting is not allowed except for the printing of "selection" ballots at the polling station

After a minimal introduction and vetting of the candidate he/she will join the assembly with term limits of say 5 years, but every year must face "rejections"

If you want an upper chamber people who have survived in the lower chamber may be selected in the same manner for the upper chamber.

The ruling class of no country wants democracy for their own country. The USA demonstrates its love for democracy by promoting right wing dictators in other countries and calling that democracy. Remember Reagan's support of the Contras in Central America and comparing them to the founding fathers of this country?

Hypocrisy is the definition of government and the US is the prime example. Maybe the youth in the US will "rise up" if they run out of Mountain Dew and Kit Kats. Till then it's all about entitlement.

Children's literature is to the dawn of Aquarius as music was to the sixties. From Voldemort to Dr. Smog inhaling burning books, to get the ideas, the youth of today are clear on many different games that evil plays. It's just as tough for them to really believe that war monger reality is worse than rule the world fiction as it is for grownups. Also, strong expert propaganda works unceasingly to lull normally alert minds.

I have long thought (20 years or so) that the gradual loss of our liberties and the increasing surveillance was for one reason and one reason only. To keep track of ordinary citizens as we increasingly reject the domestic and foreign policies of the minute minority that occupies this democracy. We are not spied upon to keep track of terrorists. That should be rather easy to do as most of them live inside the DC beltway.
What a sickening bunch, those bastards that call themselves Americans yet pass laws that assist the tyrants.
And what do we call the average American that keeps electing them? Red Coats?

Forget about Demos. Time for the young to rise up and destroy the ancient regime. No more voting and pacifism. It wont work. Time to move past such silly notions as pacifism and the MLK syndrome. Obsolete and useless strategies. Time for ACTION!

Revolution must be real and DEEP!

Actually, this suggests an idea. What if we called for rallies of all unemployed and underemployed people in a central location, in each metropolitan region. After all, it's not like the unemployed don't have the time. Unlike the culture war or antiwar rallies, the unemployment rallies would actually garner widespread public sympathy, since practically everybody has a friend or family member who is un or under employed. Further, the politicians of both parties would glom onto this, looking for any conceivable political advantage.

"Their focus, such as it is, is on now on elections, on recall campaigns, and on the coming 2012 presidential contest."

i.e. on "democracy"®

the "one man, one vote" system.
problem: that one man is The Decider.

"The traditional groups that would have done this in the past--the labor movement, civil rights organizations, and political groups on the left--have been somehow neutered." They have been gutted by cheap labor and defunding. Used to be, construction workers working on houses were making a wage that would allow them to build their own houses. They have all lost their jobs to cheap $7.00 hr labor. Loss of jobs and lowered wages are what has caused most of the loan defaults. I lost my job at a concrete company due to day laborers and had to take early retirement cause I couldn't find another job. The only good jobs are union jobs. And they are trying to outlaw unions.

Why are we still issuing work VISAs? Don't tell me that workers in this country are not as intelligent or don't work as hard as imported workers. The real reason is employer doesn't have to pay in to medical, retirement and can offer a depressed wage and has no fear of them unionising cause he'll just send them back. I guess you could call them scabs. That's why so many undocumented workers are hired - employers don't have to pay taxes, workmen's comp, unemployment, medical or retirement. Now they can't find anyone to buy the products their making.

We will have a slave state soon. When you can only afford to pay for your food and housing, you're a slave.

Banks should be forced to sell housing stock at market rates. There is no wish nor plan for democracy in the USA. If there were, then the biggest engine of economic recovery would be used... housing. The home is the biggest investment, and is the largest expense. The plan should be to "mark to market". Let housing prices across the country drop to the level that they sell. Low income people would by them at a price that they could afford. This would create massive amounts of employment as people need to make improvements and have maintenance done, buy furniture, insurance, and live. It would probably wipe out a lot of bad banks.. a win-win situation.