Oh no! I've discovered their plan.

[Gregorian]

Quite simply, it was to bring the wealth of the American people down. We were getting too wealthy. Pardon me if this meant something only to me, after waking out of a dream at 4am. But I believe this was their mission. And this is also why he could stand on that aircraft carrier the way he did. He really did accomplish his mission. It had nothing to do with Iraq. It was about bankrupting us. Why? So we would be competitive with China, and the other cheap labor countries of the world. So we would do anything they put in front of us for work. Bush and his friends may be rich, but the corporations must have a work force to be profitable. As China becomes more wealthy, their wages will rise. They are already working on the next phase. The one where the American people are the next cheap labor.
Just a thought. One that springs from the thought that so many Americans are willing to torture. Somehow that got me to thinking about how people will do anything for work, if they need it badly enough. Well, not those on DU. But many others. And that is the mission. Make us needy.

[MadMaddie]

1. You may be on to something....

The repugs are currently trying to bust the unions and any other employee benefit-insurance etc.....

He stood on that ship in front of the soldiers because they were a captive and oath bound audience...they couldn't speak up if they wanted to.....that's how they want the working class of America....

They are traitors to this country!!!

[BlueEyedSon]

2. No, just redistribute it upward

[CheshireCat]

3. Congratulations!

Your eyes are now completely open.

This has been the plan since the Reagan Administration. For 25 years now, I have tried to emulate Paul Revere and have been put off as belonging to the lunatic fringe.

So many people still refuse to see.

[RaleighNCDUer]

8. I've been saying the same thing, ever since Reagan fired the

Air Traffic Controllers.

Just like the Dems, these people believe in a level playing field for American labor -- only they want to attain it by reducing American labor to the level of 3rd world countries, rather than assisting 3rd world countries to raise their standards of living to US levels.

[Gregorian]

9. Thanks, even if I am quite late to this revelation.

And it is embarrassing to be doing so in public.

It's just that my mind could never grasp anything so malicious. These guys are law of the jungle. Like pushing people under water to stay on top. It's unforgivable. And a very dark realization.

[SmokingJacket]

4. It's been one big looting.

Katrina, for example, was seen by Bush as another opportunity to move money and resources into the coffers of big business. Why mitigate the damage, why help the victims? That would just mean less money for Halliburton, KBR, etc. Sounds crazy and heartless, but that's the new normal around here.

[underpants]

5. Supplant the corporations in place of self rule (govt.)

that's the big picture. Weaken the courts in the process so the individual has no recourse whatsoever.

That is pretty much it and the scary part is that both parties are basically involved in it.

[JaneGat]

25. That's what happens in privatized countries. The power shifts from

elected officials to corporations. Pretty much all of the social horrors we are witnessing are a result of the stealth privatization (with deregulation) that is being imposed on us by both parties. We're well into the third and final stages of privatization: infrastructure.

Enforced privatization is especially counterintuitive to our culture, and with the recent revelation that foreign countries, such as Communist China, and possibly Dubai are running our seaports, imagine foreign entities running our water supply, building our roads, educating our children. And as you say, with no legal recourse. It's a nightmare of outrageous and unimaginable proportions, and the country is waking up to it.

If Dems could tear themselves away from the idea of privatization, believe in the ethic of the American worker again, and find value in America as a country rather than a commodity, they might find a winning platform.

[underpants]

31. Welcome to DU and Welcome to the privatized USA

water supply you say? DONE check out Idianapolis and Atlanta and who the parent companies are that run the water system. Anyone who deals with US Filter is in some way paying either Sues or Vivendi--French bashers are not going to like that one bit.

GREAT source articles here
http://www.publicintegrity.org/water/

I could go on and on but privatization was our contribution to 9/11. The airlines got to run security and since it did nothing to ADD to the bottom line they did it as cheap as they possibly could and it cost us "big time"

[JaneGat]

36. Thanks for the welcome and the link

Thanks too, for the information about the water. It's always worse that I think.

[helderheid]

6. K & R

[Hubert Flottz]

7. Welcome To The "New World Order!"

Jobs will come back as our standard of living decreases.

[Gregorian]

10. Scott Ritter said, to solve a problem you must first define it.

I feel like the beaten housewife. I wake up one morning, and realize the truth. But it is a good thing. It's the beginning of the definition of the problem.

I knew there was something sinister about the sound of that phrase. It just took me 20 years to realize what it was. Being an honest person, lies are not something I expected out of the mouth of presidents.

[Justpat]

11. It is a return to the feudal system.

The middle class will join the ranks of the working poor and we will all be working for the
global corporations that control agriculture, industry, etc.

There was a good book: "The Case Against the Global Economy", edited by Jerry Mander and Edward Goldsmith
published 1996 detailing the growing desperation of the middle class under the policies of the economic
new world order. The best chapter was written by Ralph Nader. Whatever feeling I might have about his
misguided political aspirations, I have to recommend his ability to put out the facts about what we are
up against with regard to this global economy. He should have been a teacher. He made it completely
understandable to me.

The book was a compilation of essays by many different economists, all describing the loss of democratic
process and self determination under the global economy. It made me wake up to the fact that I better
make plans to survive on a piece of land where I determine what I am going to grow and eat and how to
reach out to local communities to encourage co-ops.

[glitch]

41. Absolutely a return to the feudal system. And they call themselves Capital

ists - that's the biggest joke of all. Looting us back to the dark ages, that's all they're about.
Good book, I can't believe it's 10 years already! I need to re-read it.

[mattclearing]

12. You guys didn't know this?

The whole idea is to bring our wages down to the point where we can compete.

[Hubert Flottz]

14. Not just wages but working conditions.

When the unions go there goes the safety. Then there's those nasty EPA regulations they'll need to destroy. They'll also need to trash any other form of government regulation of the corporations. They'll also need to do away with any non productive mouths to feed, like the old and the sick.

The "New World Order" will be much like the 30s-40s era "World Order", that like minded leaders once tried to set up... The Fourth Reich

[mattclearing]

15. It's all to cut costs for corporations...lower costs = higher profit.

Not to mention more competitive. But money is the sole motivation of these people, and always has been.

[Gregorian]

20. No. It never donned on me that anyone would actually want that.

When you are honest and care for everyone, it never dons on one that hurting others in order to benefit would be a policy.

Yes, some of us are fast in some ways, but very slow in others. And thereing lies the importance of these forums.

One thing- never assume others know. I'm sure Einstein had his blindnesses. Hell, he failed math for some reason.

[mattclearing]

28. The Democratic approach (at the extreme end) is the opposite...

I believe that we want to raise wages in other countries until they are competitive with us.

We are thinking in a worker-central mentality, because we actually care about the people doing the work.

Republicans think in a corporation-central mentality...their solution is to depress wages here to catch up with places like China. That way corporations reap maximum rewards.

The Democratic model has workers reaping the rewards globally.

Everything...trade, monetary policy, hiking of prices (like oil), etc. is all attributable to this Republican goal.

Inflation is good in their logic. The idea is to inflate the dollar while keeping wages the same and artificially masking the inflation by changing the criteria used to calculate it.

The consumer price index goes up with gas prices on everything across the board, but the dollar hasn't caught up with it yet.

It will. The ultimate goal is to lower our standard of living to match workers in the rest of the world.

[BonnieJW]

13. making everyone poor

I believe that's the reason college loans were cut. Now all the poor kids won't have any choice except to join the military if they ever want a college education.

[mattclearing]

16. or work in manufacturing.

An uneducated populace is a hardworking, poorly-paid populace.

[slaveplanet]

17. We were the prize

not Iraq...

and they're getting ready to have their way with us, hence the police state.

[CheshireCat]

18. Keeping the people down

In South Carolina, the education system is one of the worst in the country. The politicians give lip-service to improving education, but nothing ever gets better.

The realization that South Carolina purposely keeps the quality of education low came to me when I was around 17. When I became a teacher, I thought I could make a difference, but after teaching for 15 years, I left the profession.

You cannot teach critical thinking skills when you have to teach to the test. You better believe that all these politicians who push the importance of standardized testing know what they are doing. They want to teach us to follow instructions and obey authority figures. Thinking for yourself is not in the curriculum.

[earth mom]

19. It's a Class War.

Some of us have been saying it for awhile now around here. The bastards want to take the country back to the days of the robber barons-pre-union, pre-workers rights...back to the days of rich or poor and nothing in the middle. :puke:

A recent thread about the Class War:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=364&topic_id=522048#530548

[Gregorian]

22. I read that post. Believe it or not.

The phrase "class warfare" just didn't sink in. See? We all learn on different levels. I probably have a learning disability. I think we all do, in some way. I see things most people don't. But most people see things I don't.

I tend to look for beauty. But this is so wild, I can't not pay attention.

They can only succeed to a degree. And I believe it's diminishing. We won't go back to robber baron days. I hope.

[earth mom]

29. I understand where you are coming from because

I used to believe with all my heart that everyone-save a very few-looked at the world through the same rose colored glasses that I did. I was in denial for a long time myself before I awoke to this nightmare-what a rude awakening it has been!

Many in this country are still slumbering....but hopefully they will wake soon!

[PATRICK]

39. Class war is perhaps

too broad a term because not all the wealthy class is the robber baron perp gang. Class wars or ethnic wars or whatever are always able to be sucker wars manipulated by an embarrassing few perverts. The target keeps sliding away from people like that, the Untouchables, and then directed at the suckers and minions or people we just don't like or agree with within effective reach. Egged on and controlled by the real perps a lot of energy that would have been expended on healthy politics and civic responsibility will turn to internecine slaughter, hate and chaos that will transform and enfeeble all opposition- again- against the real troublemakers and avoiding responsibility for difficult social problems that war can never answer.

We bear responsibility for being had. The barrier to taking that responsibility seriously, even acknowledging it, keeps the manipulators safe beyond reach of the law,

[Hubert Flottz]

21. I have a gift for you that you may find helpful...

The Rockefeller File
by Gary Allen

http://www.mega.nu:8080/ampp/gary_allen_rocker/

This is where I learned about the "Plan" about 30 years back. Print it out, or order a copy from a used book store and enjoy...This guy saw into his future, that we are living in today. Below is another good book by the same writer. The text is not on the internet I don't think, but if you can find a copy at a used book store, grab one!

What those "in the know" say about
NONE DARE CALL IT CONSPIRACY

I wish that every citizen of every country in the free world and every slave behind the Iron Curtain might read this book.

Ezra Taft Benson
Former Secretary of Agriculture

NDCC is an admirable job of amassing information to prove that communism is socialism and socialism (a plot to enslave the world) is not a movement of the downtrodden but a scheme supported and directed by the wealthiest of people. If enough Americans read and act upon NDCC, they really can save the Republic from the conspirators--whose plans for the destruction of our country are galloping fast toward completion.

Dan Smoot
Former Assistant to J. Edgar Hoover

Now that NDCC is available, I no longer need to answer "no" to the question which is often put to me, namely: "Mr. Dodd, is there a book which I can read so I can know what you know?" No higher praise is possible for this book.

Norman Dodd Chief Investigator
Reece Committee to Investigate Foundations

This book concerns the way in which our nation and other nations are actually governed. As Benjamin Disraeli said, this is not the way in which most people think nations are governed. The whole subject of the Insiders who so largely control our political and economic lives is a fascinating mystery. For the reader who is intelligent but uninitiated in the literature of superpolitics, I can think of no better introduction to the field than NDCC.

Dr. Medford Evans
Former Chief of Security for the Atom Bomb Project

http://yamaguchy.netfirms.com/allen/nonedare_00.html

[stepnw1f]

23. Not Being Rude

but this is exactly what I have been saying to people around me for sometime now. I'm only surprised some don't believe this to be true. Keeping people desperate, keeps people in control, theoretically.

One big problem: it's a theory and in practice has to be done for generations in order to work. Not in the USA... they (GOP) fucked up.

[converted_democrat]

24. Think about this too..

Right now, if you make a product and sell it the most profitable place to sell it for the most part is America.. Look at the drug companies, perfect example .. We subsidize to some degree the world.. If they can bring our standard of living down, while raising the rest of the world's standard of living at the same time so we meet in the middle, they can sell to everyone and gain larger profits.. Instead of just being able to sell a product just in America (and a handful of other countries), they will be able to sell the product globally.. Instead of having a customer base of 250 million, they'll have a base of 6.5 billion.. The only way it can happen is if they lower our standard of living while raising it in other areas..

[Deja Q]

26. Wrong.

It hasn't stopped the executive elite from getting exponentially wealthier...

If wages go down and the cost of living to match, I have no problem. Let them have their billions. I just want room to live and grow, I don't care about wealth; I merely wish to experience life.

But if wages go down and everything else remains high, we're not talking about being too rich. We're talking about killing off the herd.

[Virginia Dare]

27. You are abolutely correct..

which is why they were willing to lie, cheat and steal to get into power. Also add to the agenda getting rid of all of the New Deal initiatives, which of course includes social security. Transfer all government-held wealth to private corporations and Wall Street. It's probably a done deal at this point. We'll have to fight hard to get it back.

[Patsy Stone]

30. And make the public fat and stupid too.

The education system must be gutted for the plan to work -- so they're almost there. Keep the proles poor and stupid, fill the food with chemicals and preservatives, and make healthcare difficult to obtain. It's a classic plan to eliminate the middle class and return to a feudal society.

[ClayZ]

32. Those 4:00 awakenings:

Some say it is angels tapping on your window!

[leftofthedial]

33. the overarching theme of our times is a class war

the wealthy (and the corporations they control) are kicking our asses

[lostnfound]

34. Poverty not only for cheap labor, but to drain the majority of power

People scrabbling to survive or maintain their standard of living are too busy to object or to become a force of their own.

"The fact is that the only institution in the world today that is more powerful than the American government is American civil society." Arundhati Roy

Think about what that statement means.

Noam Chomsky calls it "Deterring Democracy".

[michael_1166]

35. So now that you're awake...

...what will you do?

They're only a few you know, they may be vulnerable if you abandon their military or carry out a general strike. Preferably both at once. Deserting from the military, and deserting from their way of life is the most honourable thing to do. The most powerful weapon you have.

Just my opinion on this. I wish you all the luck in the world.

[hunter]

37. We're in the midst of a Soviet style collapse.

We no longer have the resources to support our empire.

Look at it this way: Countries like Venezuela are breaking away from the United States just as countries like Poland broke away from the Soviet Union.

Now the kleptocrats are jockeying for position. They intend to steal as much as they can in the chaos they themselves created.

[PATRICK]

38. it doesn't have to be a plan

Some cynical Repugs might believe this, notably the Straussian nutjobs, but the important fact is this is what must happen. The utopian excuses and the public welfare arguments that any elite or tyrant might make to themselves are illusions that never happen. Reality always bites hard. It starts with the powerless and works its way up to the panicking managers.

When I first perused heartland.com, the supposed libertarian slant on things it was apparent where all the policies, framed in benevolent disguises were going. And they would inevitably trend to goals that might not even be what they were originally hiding. Like education trending toward a pyramid structure of enforced ignorance, dronedom and entitle advance for the established wealthy class. That it would have to become repressive, counter productive, destructive of all education to enforce the myth covering up the stratification. That it would have to then rely on foreign, non-voting, talent imports but that economic policies abroad would undo that neat little system. Darkness, a permanent underclass, pitting all real educators against each other and suppressed. Then it would get worse if it continued.

In the environment the real trend toward desertification for the benefit of corporate greed that not only is free from civic responsibility and control but rules civil society for gain beyond all that the corporate entity actually produces. Unsustainable, nomadic money primitivism disguised as globalization would leave the garden variety GOP nature lovers abandoned in their deserts. They would have to move but there would be fewer refuges than ever. Lately they have been fleeing to the oil poor Dakotas.

And so on. As with nomads the real planning is small, temporary, migratory. The gloss of globalization is the sole recognition of their unsustainable vulnerability. To DOMINATE globalization for nomadic ends is inherently death oriented. Avoidance and profit and other vices make planning these results invisible, even unlikely. Nonetheless the results will proceed as if some great overmind(call it Mother Nature married to Satan) had organized a death cult for our final extinction. Few of the benefits can long survive the success of the small minded actual plans. Few will even see the actual light of day, but the evils will rapidly appear and chaotically spread.

Unless opposed by ACTUAL planning which, for some reason, the conned sane people on this planet seem loathe or incapable of doing.

[brazil]

40. Their plan

'Now I will tell you the answer to my question. It is this. The Party seeks power entirely for its own sake. We are not interested in the good of others; we are interested solely in power. Not wealth or luxury or long life or happiness: only power, pure power. What pure power means you will understand presently. We are different from all the oligarchies of the past, in that we know what we are doing. All the others, even those who resembled ourselves, were cowards and hypocrites. The German Nazis and the Russian Communists came very close to us in their methods, but they never had the courage to recognize their own motives. They pretended, perhaps they even believed, that they had seized power unwillingly and for a limited time, and that just round the corner there lay a paradise where human beings would be free and equal. We are not like that. We know that no one ever seizes power with the intention of relinquishing it. Power is not a means, it is an end. One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes the revolution in order to establish the dictatorship. The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now do you begin to understand me?'

George Orwell left them an instruction manual, damn him...

[glitch]

42. "How to Serve Man" It's a recipe book!!

Remember that? Twilight Zone or Outer Limits, can't remember which. Aliens came to Earth and were herding people back to their planet. Lots of people wanted to go. Some were suspicious. The aliens had this book which it took awhile to translate...
That's what your post reminded me of (not making light, it was a horrific revelation).

[JHB]

43. The super-rich only want one thing: EVERYthing!

When Americans No Longer Own America
by Thom Hartmann

The old concept was that if there was a dollar's worth of labor in a pair of shoes made in the USA, and somebody wanted to import shoes from China where there may only be ten cents worth of labor in those shoes, we'd level the playing field for labor by putting a 90-cent import tariff on each pair of shoes. Companies could choose to make their products here or overseas, but the ultimate cost of labor would be the same.

Then came the flat-worlders, led by misguided true believers and promoted by multinational corporations. Do away with those tariffs, they said, because they "restrain trade." Let everything in, and tax nothing. The result has been an explosion of cheap goods coming into our nation, and the loss of millions of good manufacturing jobs and thousands of manufacturing companies. Entire industry sectors have been wiped out.

These policies have kneecapped the American middle class. Our nation's largest employer has gone from being the unionized General Motors to the poverty-wages Wal-Mart. Americans have gone from having a net savings rate around 10 percent in the 1970s to a minus .5 percent in 2005 - meaning that they're going into debt or selling off their assets just to maintain their lifestyle.
....
Thus it shouldn't surprise us that the cons have sold off our ports as well, and will defend it to the bitter end. They truly believe that a "New World Order" with multinational corporations in charge instead of sovereign governments will be the answer to the problem of world instability. And therefore they must do away with quaint things like unions, a healthy middle class, and, ultimately, democracy.

http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0227-20.htm
(more at link)

[Gregorian]

44. I want to thank you all. Brilliant posts.

Every one of you. Each post strikes a chord. The quote from Orwell; The obviously well literate and experienced; Those like me who have a gut feeling (truthiness is ok sometimes). Every one of us has a facet of truth that someone else does not have.

I think there will come a time when everyone realizes we are all in this together. Perhaps something like global warming will ecclipse the urge to grab power. After all, the most powerful of men is only a fragile being. There is a reality.

[skids]

45. Dilbert strip...

...I wish I could find it. The PHB walks in and says something to the effect of
"Work Smarter, Not Harder" isn't working for us -- people are resigning for better
jobs at other companies, so we're trying a new theme: "Work like a frightened idiot."

I've been pretty much sure that that's the objective of the right, and of
corporatists both left and right, all along.

[michael_1166]

46. It's quite relieving somehow

that "their" cunning plans can be boiled down to comic strips. After all, their plans might not be so cunning and probably implode at the prick of a needle.

:toast:

[applegrove]

47. There will be a "lack" of american workers in 2014. When the boomers

retire. Why they want "guest workers". To keep wages down. Cause otherwise it would be an employees market.

Hard to believe.

So too - making sure kids do not go into industrial jobs - and that those all go to china - will make the oil crisis less (if all your civil goods are from away - then China has to worry about the oil to run those plants.

Again - this will lower inflation.

Rich people hate inflation. They hate when they have to fight it with market downturns. They'll do anything to not be the ones fighting inflation..even though they are the ones whose stock portfolios loose value when there is inflaion.

48. indentured servitude - and take away ability for bankruptcy

And that Bush-fool smiles at his own stupid lies. AAAGGGHHHH

[Random_Australian]

49. You've missed a short term sting.

the reason they are spending less on social security and mmore on defense is so that the poor will sign up to the army. We all know about Yank recruitment problems. After all if the American Military were to not be good enough they could not impose the order you say they seek.