A similar thing happened right after the Tet Offensive. They were sending a surge of soldiers to Vietnam to take back control and strangle the country. The Generals however said that they needed the troops back here for civil disorder control because they thought there was going to be a full blown uprising. So they got scared a kept a lot of troops here just in case it all kicked off.

Now this is interesting because it's further proof (which everyone denies) of how much of an effect Occupy Wall Street has had. People like to say that it didn't do anything but they're wrong, it tapped into something that's been just under the surface for decades. There's a lot of protest going on and a lot of people just sitting in wait basically. And with the FBI's huge coordinate crack down of Occupy all over the united states, it's no wonder they're gearing up for another showdown.

Now Chingalera is absolutely wrong, we won't win this war by going toe to toe with them with weaponry. We've already won, it's just a matter of everyone standing up and saying we're not gonna take it anymore. They have no power, the people are the power. So yeah there actually might be some serious violence in places but any real protest won't end up like it would in Turkey or even Spain. We'll be fine, they just want to scare some people. And if a bunch of psychopathic jerks decide to arm themselves, they'll be crushed and they'll make it easier for the state to claim the Defense bullshit. That is very hard to claim when you're stomping hippies, much easier when Black Panthers are carrying AK-47s in the streets.

Yeah but it's a fake uniting to me. So check this out, when a new government is formed the controlling party writes a speech for the queen and she reads it and yippie new government. Nobody asks her if she understood what she said or if she believes it, rightly because it's utterly fake. This is along the same lines as Ronald Reagan. He grew up reading what rich guys would tell him to say, so he did the same thing as president. He was credited with this big surge of the Republican party, everyone all ecstatic about the whole thing but after his presidency no reporter bothered to go ask him about anything. No one interviewed him about this stuff because it was known that he doesn't know anything about it, he's not in charge.

It's basically the same with Bush, president for 8 years, big republican gains under his presidency, world shaking effects. You have to struggle to find an interview with him, or something he's written about that means anything. So we've turned our presidency into a sort of Royalty, and that's why it's completely pathetic.

Nice. I didn't know you were a journalist.
In reply to this comment by MrFisk:
Here's a story we put together:
http://cojmc.webfactional.com/2012/11/01/
kerrey-surges-despite-dwindling-democratic-electoral-muscle/

Here's a story we put together:
http://cojmc.webfactional.com/2012/11/01/kerrey-surges-despite-dwindling-democratic-electoral-muscle/

Comment hidden because you are ignoring dag. (show it anyway)

You won't get much of an argument from me. If having high productivity and a lean economy means mirroring the US's diminishing middle class - I'll take Australia.

I do worry though. The Australian economy seems to be built on two pillars - resources and government employment. That's not a very diversified basis for country building. Where are the Apples, Nokias and Hondas of Australia?

>> ^kymbos:

@dag, well I can't doubt your thoroughness. Suffice to say, there is a fertile debate about labour productivity in Australian economics. What you have described anecdotally is a small price to pay for Australia's remarkable economic success - a price any country north of the equator would be happy to pay.
Here are some arguments to the contrary:
http://mattcowgill.wordpress.com/2011/10/18/grace-collier-offens
ive-and-wrong/
http://mattcowgill.wordpress.com/2
012/06/07/productivity-surged-but-were-becoming-a-low-productivity-nation/

@dag, well I can't doubt your thoroughness. Suffice to say, there is a fertile debate about labour productivity in Australian economics. What you have described anecdotally is a small price to pay for Australia's remarkable economic success - a price any country north of the equator would be happy to pay.

Here are some arguments to the contrary:

http://mattcowgill.wordpress.com/2011/10/18/grace-collier-offensive-and-wrong/

http://mattcowgill.wordpress.com/2012/06/07/productivity-surged-but-were-becoming-a-low-productivity-nation/

We got to see a dry-weather creek start running when we were in Austin. Looked just like this, on a 1/20th scale. Instead of trees, it was reeds and twigs on the front surge, the creek being about 5-8 foot across in full flow. Still a pretty amazing sight.

I still prefer long ties! I even made a poll about these two types back in end of March: http://aqfl.net/node/9759 ...

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/doctor-who/7656389/Doctor-Who-prompts-surge-in-popularity-of-bow-ties.html from http://www.reddit.com/r/bowties/comments/j3yq1/bow_ties_are_cool/

@spoco2

Anything worth watching gets canceled or threatened anymore. And they wonder why they have trouble keeping certain demographics when they only keep the teen-angst drama stuff, CSI, and game shows.

Ever notice they also have big surges of similar TV shows debuted every year? One year it's lots of cop shows. Next year it's medical. I've always wondered why they don't try .....alternative their releases so they aren't all putting out the same "new" themed shows.

It's like the great surge of @mintbbb of '09 or '10, I believe.

@pumkinandstorm I salute you.

>> ^kymbos:

I think the US is changing, but it's not changing for the better. More fundamentalist, more corporate driven, more entrenched, more divided... That's change.


I think you're right. the fundies are surging, corporate influence is rising. These things aren't very sustainable though. We know this because it's happened before. Theocracies don't work and are in opposition to freedom. Plutocracy doesn't work and is in opposition to freedom. Just because we seem to have forgotten history doesn't make it any less true.

America does really have the whole sleeping giant thing about it. We're lazy, we ignore stuff, we let stuff slide. We see this stuff coming but do little to stop it. But eventually the fundies and the plutocrats will cross a line and that's when people will finally push back...and push back hard.

When that will happen though..who knows. So yeah, things are going to get worse before they get better. But that's how it usually works. I tend to consider it a given that there is going to be a 2nd American Civil War before I die.

A note from the inside:

Things are hot here right now (and dry), even above the Tropic of Capricorn. The PRI (right-wing) candidate, E. Peña Nieto (EPN) is accused of buying his way into the presidency, from rigging opinion polls to bribing or wielding union and corporate power to setting up twitter bot squads trying to manipulate public opinion. A huge EPN advertising presence clearly over the allowed campaign budget is visible as you travel the country.

But people aren´t having any of it and are fighting back, making sure their voices are heard. A video surfaced after EPN visited a prestigious university in Mexico City where he was shouted off campus, where 131 students state they are not paid to voice their opinions from other parties.

The surge of the #Iam132 (#YoSoy132) hashtag and subsequent movement with Worldwide TT rings a-partisan and mostly just anti-EPN and anti-PRI with their corrupt antics. Weekly protests and artistic gatherings are gaining momentum.

A 4th far-right independent party with libertarian views has surged as well, also backed by powerful unions particularly from the social workers and teacher´s unions, they are double-faced and dodgy as hell. Although Mr Quadri is a scholar and has intelligent views, he is very similar to Ron Paul and his view on drugs.

The left-wing candidate AMLO, who claims the current throne and accuses Calderon of election fraud in 2006, will probably win. He has not stated publicly that he will legalize drugs, although he says that if the people can reach more consensus on the issue, that he would go ahead with it, regardless of what the US might think.

Many are optimistic, as I.

It's from late 2010, when Merkel's party felt it neccessary to regain a more distinct profile with regards to the then surging Green party, who pride themselves as the vanguard of multiculturalism.

Absolutely beautiful! The way he came alive shot a surge of emotion right through me.

That printing money thing sounded reasonable to me so I looked up currencies for backup. Being in Ireland where the price of petrol is the equivalent of 8.33 USD per gallon which my driving friends tell me is up about 25% these past 6 months it seemed like a global thing to me. ANYWAY.

I found a cool applet for showing historical exchange rates.
Really neat exchange rate thingy
I found it informative to take base as USD and the foreign exchanges as Euro, GBP & Chinese Yuan

These websites show historical oil prices for all those currencies:

Oil_vs_USD

Oil_vs_EUR

Oil_vs_GBP

Oil_vs_CNY

I looked at 180 days history for the above graphs.


As you can see, all the oil price graphs have a similar shape and have indeed gone up about 25% for all currencies. Also, you can see that none of the currencies have moved very much with respect to the USD. So yeah, either they're all printing money (CHINA DOES NOT NEED TO, for defs, yo) or the oil prices are not cos America's printing money.

I did actually look for counter-examples in surging economies but even AUD and CAD show the same jump. If anything, that the exchange rates wrt these countries have gone down and the commodity price of oil has gone up for all of them at a similar rate is a positive for the states.


So yeah, I don't accept your hypothesis.
>> ^bobknight33:

Sounds right. Presidents don't have control of gas prices as the left blamed Bush back when he was president. But there is a big difference between Obama and other presidents.

Under this administration there have been massive amount of printing money. Remember QE1, QE2 and possible QE3 have done nothing except debase our currency which has caused inflation. Gas prices will not come down to any great extent but will only go up along with everything else.