Wingnuts have always been there; the ‘net now lets you see the insanity first-hand, but do you think it’s something new?

I think those on the progressive side of politics really do yearn to move on to collective endeavors that take all folks and all the earth into account. I know I do.

But meanwhile, what to do about the rabid cannibals at Jawa who’d like to boil us alive? Not to discount their destructiveness, but I don’t take that ranting as coming from their hearts as much as I believe it comes from competitiveness conditioning that’s never been tempered with adequate doses of heartedness or even thoughtfulness. Do not respond ‘in kind’, but rather drop into the kindliness of your deeper self. Maybe, that is what ‘to thine own self be true’ is supposed to mean, especially when the chips are down, or the pot is boiling. I am being a bit fascicious, but well….. cannibals do ingest whatever’s cooked up, so feed ‘em some kindness and maybe alter humanity’s evolutionary curve.

When it comes to politics and ecology, I do not believe in final answers, only trends. There are trends better and trends worse. There are always gonna be some brain-dead righties and brain-dead-lefties peeing in the drinking water. The vast majority can be reached by reason and persuasion. It can take time. Liars can package their political products prettier than the truth. We win out one person at a time, one discussion at a time, one E-mail at a time.

Two examples. Last week I wrote Fox about the OJ special and called them ghouls. The special was pulled. Because of me? No, maybe me and a few million others.

At work a friend was spouting off about ‘controls’ for the Supreme Court. I gave him my view on the reasons the founding fathers made The Court immune to political pressure. The Justices answer to their conscince and their interpretation of the law. I will probably die sooner than some of the conservative appointments. But I would prefer a decade of conservative rulings I detest, than to politicize the courts. High school civics finally made sense to him. I think he changed his mind. I emphasize – HE changed HIS mind.

We have to be informed (hat tip to Maha), passionate, (you are) and articulate. (That’s tough for me; knowing it and saying it are VERY different). A few decades ago, Islamic militants were scattered, unfunded and marginalized. Not today. But they are dealing in hate death and destruction. We have a much more attractive product with progressive thinking. The election suggests a trend better. I have to believe we will win out over the American nut cases.

I feel like we are already divided..whatever my wishes may be that ship has sailed already.That ship salied after the first few “jokes” that included threats to the lives of liberals for me, but the rest of you have to draw your own lines in the sand I suppose.
Once someone calls for the death of someone who has a different political view the chances of being united are pretty much gone.

I think of it, in a way like a marriage..and someone at some point has to recognize that it’s a bad one.And that staying in it to say that we are “united” is a farce.A dangerous one.Going to sleep beside a partner who calls me the enemy and jokes about death makes me a little nervous, but hey thats just me.

I don’t know the solution and I don’t claim we should break up- I am saying we are already dead and we haven’t laid down yet.We are already broke up IMHO- we just haven’t faced it yet and moved on..every time we are directed to a rightie blog it is yet another reminder for me of what a joke the phrase”united” has become.

I take people at their words.In the past few months liberals have been called the enemy, they have been accused of working with terrorists and declared failures almost a month before taking office.Perhaps it is just talking points but I take the authors word that they speak from their heart.If I take them at their word how could I possibly consider myself united with them?Wouldn’t that be self loathing?

We live in a time when technology and other factors are causing nation-states/empires to fall apart, and by the same token, tribal factions are in ascendance. The glaring example is what happened to the Soviet Union. Another example is what likely will happen to Iraq – partition by sect, a completely failed state. In our own country and in Canada, the clamor for breakup is increasing.

If our country is stressed enough, and I believe the stressors are only going to increase regardless of who is running it – the course has been set by decades of rightwing misrule – I believe our country too will fall apart, probably very violently, since most of us are completely unprepared for the shocks this will inflict. In short, the USA wil join the list of third world shitholes, thanks to chronic right-wing misrule. I think most of us agree that we’re already en route down that dismal path.

Our crash will be spectacular and global since every single country is tied into the dollar system – it’s this “death bet” – written about extensively on BopNews – the reluctance to move out of dollars by any of the participants despite our deterioriating prospects that keeps the whole thing afloat presently.

I wish I could find you a link for this, but Stirling Newberry or someone of that stature did an analysis of the cashflow between the blue and red states, and discovered that the blue states are net supporters of the red. Eventually when this enters public knowledge, and if things get bad enough, the blue states will decide they’ve had enough stupidity and will refuse to pay for it.

All of this is speculation but I sense the day is coming, regardless of who gets into power in 2008.