James Howard Kunstler: Scary People, Scary Times -- Where Is This Country Going?

The times lately have been mostly uncertain, but soon they'll turn scary, too, as it becomes clearer that the people running things in the USA have no idea what's going on or what they're going to do about it -- and what's going on is an involuntary permanent re-set of the terms of everyday life, from a wet-dream robotic "consumer" techtopia to something more like the first chapter of Tobacco Road, with a family of half-wits reduced by hard times to fighting over a sack of turnips in a roadside ditch. That's the story-arc anyway, and lots of people won't like it. But the theme of dwindling resources is not a pretty one.

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Glenn Beck May Be a Clown -- But the Shady Right-Wingers Who Pull His Strings Are Dangerous

Glenn Beck is a charlatan. A clown. A buffoon. He belongs on a second tier stage in Vegas, and he very well may end up there, some day. He is not dangerous, but his ability to exploit the legitimately angry dispossessed reveals something that is dangerous.

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Joe Bageant: Understanding America's Class System -- Honk if you love caviar

Moneywise, Washington's political class is richer than the working class by the same orders of magnitude as the ruling class is richer than the political class. This gives the political class something to aim for. To that end, they have adopted the ruling elite's behaviors, tastes and lifestyles, with an eye on becoming members.

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U.S. Strategy: Control The World By Controlling The Internet -- A Chinese Perspective

To control the world by controlling the Internet has been a dominant strategy of the US. From the network infrastructure protection of the Clinton era to the network anti-terrorism of the Bush era and to the "network deterrence" of the Obama era, the national information security strategy of the US has evolved from a preventative strategy to a preemptive one.

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Senator: Put a "Hold" on Fake "Food Safety" Bill S.510!

Keep Fake "Food Safety" Bill S.510
On "Hold" in the Senate!

Tell Your Senators to Continue Stopping S510!
Ask them to Put a "Hold" on the Bill!

http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/568/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=4252

Our friends in DC tell us the fake "Food Safety" bill about which we have warned has been "pushed back" again. We stopped it in November 2009 with a couple hundred thousand messages to the Senate HELP committe; we held it off through the July 4th weekend, a major goal achieved! If we can hold it off til the Augst recess, it is very unlikely to pass. See http://www.healthfreedomusa.org/?p=4608 for backgroud. Continue below for the latest Action Item we need you to take.

July 14, 2010 Update: The congressional majority leadership has issued its "short list" of bills it wants to push to passage before the August recess. The good news is: S.510 is NOT on the list! The bad news is that the bill's handers could "sneak it through" the Senate as a "unanimous consent" non-controversial matter! That is, unless opposing Senators put a "hold" on the bill, which means it cannot be treated as non-controversial. Please send the Action Item below to your Senators, demanding that the "hold" the bill! How does a Senator do that? The Senator has one of his or her staff members call the staff of the Senate Cloak Room (yes, there still is a Senate Cloak Room, but now it has a staff! Ah, bureaucracy! The staff is responsible for non-controversial, unanimous consent bills. That's where this bad bill stops!

http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/568/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=4252

Mike Adams: Collecting rainwater now illegal in many states as Big Government claims ownership over our water

Many of the freedoms we enjoy here in the U.S. are quickly eroding as the nation transforms from the land of the free into the land of the enslaved, but what I'm about to share with you takes the assault on our freedoms to a whole new level. You may not be aware of this, but many Western states, including Utah, Washington and Colorado, have long outlawed individuals from collecting rainwater on their own properties because, according to officials, that rain belongs to someone else.

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Anna Gorman: Climate change linked to possible mass Mexican migration to U.S.

Lower crop yields and agricultural production could drive as many as 6.7 million across the border by 2080, a study finds.

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Consumer Confidence Falls As Corporate Profits Rise

Americans' confidence in the economy faded further in July, according to a monthly survey released Tuesday, amid job worries and skimpy wage growth. That's at odds with Wall Street's recent rally fueled by upbeat earnings reports from big businesses such as chemical maker DuPont Co. and equipment maker Caterpillar Inc. That's because the pumped-up profits are being fueled by cost cuts like layoffs and overseas sales. In fact, big companies have shown few signs they're ready to hire.

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Tea Parties Racked By Infighting, Confusion and Dissent

The tea party movement is not just a political juggernaut -- it's also become a big business. That quickly became clear following last September's unexpectedly enormous rally in Washington organized by Dick Armey's FreedomWorks, the event that helped put the movement on the map.

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The Gray And The Brown: The Generational Mismatch

Two of the biggest demographic trends reshaping the nation in the 21st century increasingly appear to be on a collision course that could rattle American politics for decades. From one direction, racial diversity in the United States is growing, particularly among the young. Minorities now make up more than two-fifths of all children under 18, and they will represent a majority of all American children by as soon as 2023, demographer William Frey of the Brookings Institution predicts.

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