To me, history consists of people wanting to be free and through revolution or whater they achieve freedom and immediately start restricting everyone else's.Talk about cyclical.

Isn't strange that Washington is a bigger swamp than any in Florida or Louisiana .Here in FL there are plenty of swamps but none of them smell as bad as Washington's..

And it's supported by the government run press. Why are we such fools 911 caused the need for revenge hence the P>A> just to make sure our own citizens weren't conspiratorially in volved.

Did I say the Founders? If so, I attribute it to my age. Yes, many of them owned slaves, but what great minds they had considering the times.To put individual freedom as the basis for a government, brilliant! Way, way ahead of their time. They wouldn't even consider today's Washington.

the choice is to go quietly into the dark or challenge the slide toward totalitarianism...catch it in words they will see as end of their world of expectations and maybe they will want to hear more...plants seeds of hope...

It does not sound crazy to me. I see human history as the story of people uniting and forming a government to defend themselves against thugs only to find after some period of time that this very government has been corrupted, resulting in exactly the thing they were trying to defend against.

None of us is old enough to have been around when the roots of a fascist state were first instilled in our government. The Insurrection Act, established in 1807 (!) gives exclusive right and authority to the President to declare a state to be in a condition of insurrection against the federal government, based on a perception that rights are being denied to some or all residents of the state, and that the governor is either incapable or unwilling to eliminate the insurrection. The President can declare martial law in the insurrectionist state(s) and abolish the state government(s). Congress has no right of review or consent under this law, and the courts cannot stop the action, since it has been adopted under the Constitution. Frightening, eh?

The Patriot act, and subsequent measures are rooted in this older measure. Aside from President Lincoln relying on the powers granted under the Insurrection Act, we've been miraculously, blissfully unaware that the Executive had authority to wield such power. It's a credit to those who've held the highest office since 1807 that only one felt compelled to exercise fully the power of a dictator (although Wilson and FDR skirted close to it).

Check out my Youtube tribute. See a stinky swamp anywhere? Oh, you'll see some fresh water I need to drink.
Me dino does not like swamps. Swamp creatures taste really bad and I don't slither.
To be able to run over 30 MPH on solid ground is my best hunting tool.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-Zgj...

"The Patriot Act" is the codification and hence justification of bureaucrats to do anything to promote the extortion of the citizen to get what is wanted from them. It authorizes imprisonment, confiscation, no due process with just an accusation of an officer of the state. No one even has to be notified that you have been removed from society. This is all the justification any bureaucrat needs to feel they are morally and 'legally' allowed to do whatever they choose. The more this law is used the more liberally it will be applied. There is only a slim difference of degree in what is happening here compared to Stalinist Russia and over time it will come to that degree. What most people don't realize is that even in Stalinist Russia or Mao Tse Tung's China most people never ran afoul of the government henchmen in that they did not go to jail. That is small comfort to those who spent time in prison, were tortured, starved and died by the millions in order to keep the rest in line by the use of terror to live a dehumanized gray existence just trying to survive instead of trying to achieve. Knowing that any excellence might get you noticed and you the would be a victim of the system of terror.
Part of the reason this continues is because most want it, accept it or at the very least don't believe it. It reminds me of a story I read about early in the start of the German pogrom to exterminate a religious group, one of the first Jews to end up in a concentration camp and was able to escape and returned to his religious community where he warned his friends and family about what was happening. None believed him, it was not possible they said. He left alone for America. Those that stayed died by the millions.

What do you no longer believe about the Founders? I am "with Reagan", still...no fear, here!

I'm not as bad as some tinkle peep I am.

I can not tell a lie I chopped down that cherry tree. If anyone would ever turn over in his grave for what his namesake has become. The prosperity and potential in recent decades for this US has been squandered looted and abused.
We have been like a 69 Charger running on 1/2 the cylinders. It still looks good but no performance.
Without care even the shine will dull.

Yes, but it means dissolution.You see, we are constantly told that chaos is bad. Things must be orderly in an orderly world, which is simply not true If he who governs least governs best, then he who governs not at all is best. Unfortunately, the human race has not matured to that point. If it ever does. It may not be capable of self regulation. There used to be men called "regulators" who were hired guns to take care of disputes (see "Shane"). But true anarchy is not possible for a race that judges people by how they talk rather than what they do.

Maybe when your merrily writing along...Jack Daniels should stay at home...

You know, I see many others, including myself making the same mistakes...is, instead of if,,, The, when you intended on typing they?...not exactly upside down nor backwards...if you ask me...I think someone slipped the internet a micky!...When I am away from it for a while...I don't do those things.

But, in any event... we still get what you, me and everyone is talking about.

Very insightful. True, our country is decaying from within and while you have witnessed it, few others have. We have been doped by the prosperity of our past. It has brought us prosperity beyond past imagination and has made us subject to it as dope creates a dependency that isn't easy to shrug off. As long as we can keep our prosperity, our homes, our cars' our TV's as a buffer between us and reality we are not too concerned. But when the collectivists finally, irrevocably win, the illusion of the pile of stuff will disappear bit by bi, and as that happens, the reality of central regulation and its failure becomes clear, then and only then will humanity see that the supposed chaos of non-regulation is the only way for humans to exists. It may bring back the "shootist" and the "regulator" but what is better, the gunfighter or the police?
It sounds crazy, I know, but there is no such thing as any kind of government that works. The USA came the closest, but see and smell the cesspool we named after one of the truly great men among us.

Thanks, Carl, but I've had this thing before they had a word for it.I would be merrily writing along , but when I read what I had written how come certain sections seemed as is I had been having a long conversation with Jack Daniels?

Many factions, special interests and criminals with very few Conscious Americans.
Sometimes I wonder how long a Conscious Being would survive that environment before being tricked, coerced or vaccinated into selling their soul to the devil.

Is there really a non-violent way to just pull the plug and let it drain...

War. Violence as an industry. We are stuck with a huge defense expense .How productive is that for humanity? The real world is permeated with evil leaders that see and use their citizens as pawns.
I have witnessed like a slow moving domino pattern the fall of opportunity and freedom for the individual in the US. After spending Trillions supposedly defending those free Americans rights and ideals.
The enemy is within. It is in an undeclared Uncivil war against the individuals. The opposition to this take over are all very effectively labeled. Rednecks, Racists , White supremacists, Bigots
On and on and on. This is effective to eliminate free speech or honest discourse. But really who gives a rats ass what anyone else is doing or what lineage they derive from. let alone spend time to Oppress people , really only a govt can do that.

I have lost my ability to understand what's going on within the beltway. Washington is so corrupt that I no longer recognize it. If congress and certain parts of the DOJ are as they appear to be there is no use doing anything as they will distort, delay or downright eliminate anything the stirs up the swamp or corrects anything. It looks as if being a Washington politician mean to be the very essence of corruption, and sinc I won't involve myself in that cesspool, I might as well simply shut up.

Something similar to the patriot act is going down here currently. The government is trying to implement a new law which would give the dutch intelligence services (and the police) the right to mass collect and analyse the data of people (and everybody near to them) if they are suspected of high-end crimes.

This wasn't liked by a lot of people so they collected signatures to get an advisory referendum regarding this (we don't have binding referenda in the netherlands). Even before this referendum has taken place had the ruling coalition has declared that they would not follow result of the referendum.

I think there are things on the internet that screw up one's ability to type his thoughts out correctly.

Allosauer:
I though a Dino would enjoy a good sloshing, or is the water too stinky even for you? The beltway is not filled with bad children needing their hand's slapped, but murderous felons who need their bodies electrified, or their necks stretched.

Good old Trotsky coined "Useful idiots" I believe, and eventually became one of them himself. he had his own bullet lodged in his body for his contributions.. I think that the Libertarians have something with their idea of rather than he who governs least governs best changed to he who governs not at all governs best, Problem: The Human Race has not progressed to that point as yet. We are far too immature.

I am such a bad, slow typist that I'll uuse any excuse .

I watched a video of a former Soviet KGB guy who's job was to assist the rebels in a coup install Marxist regimes. He stated that the most vocal for the overthrowing the establishment were the first to be executed because they cried the loudest when the reality of an inferior system became evident. Useful idiots is what the are called.