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269 comments on DrumBeat: August 24, 2008

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NeverLNG on August 24, 2008 - 6:18pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

+1 greenie for your sentiment.

At the beginning of the Great Depression (so-called), the U.S. was at the pinnacle of its potential, and that power would be realized over the next three decades.

Now it looks more like the 4th century than 20th century

By the end of the 4th century AD the Roman Empire was staggering under crushing taxes, fraudulent judges, dishonest officials, abandoned cities and the foederati from which we get the English words federation and federalism.

The foederati was the Roman idea of subsidizing those barbarian tribes Rome needed to defend the empire. In short it was a nice way of saying that the Romans were no longer willing to fight in their own armies so they were looking for others to work at the jobs the Romans wouldn’t take. We call it the hiring of mercenaries.

This policy had put a huge number of people on the Roman payroll notably the Attacotti, Franks, Vandals, Alans and the Visigoths (western Goths).

http://www.lewrockwell.com/case/case16.html

It is hard for old guys to be anything other than sad at the opportunities squandered. It is harder yet to generate enough energy to get out and protest this nonsense any more -- the criminals have beaten us down for good.

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AlanfromBigEasy on August 24, 2008 - 7:43pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

The Alans are now the Ossetians that do not want to be part of Georgia.

Alan

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sgage on August 24, 2008 - 8:32pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

Does "Ossetia" mean "fromBigEasy" in some Eastern European language? ;-)

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NeverLNG on August 24, 2008 - 8:44pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

whose payroll are they on now? Not the Romans', it would seem.

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AlanfromBigEasy on August 24, 2008 - 10:23pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

Putin's

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dissident on August 25, 2008 - 10:00am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

OK, smart ass, following your "logic" the Kosovo Albanians are on NATO's payroll. NATO even held joint military exercises with the KLA in northern Albania before the 1999 attack on Serbia. So much for all of your "humanitarianism" and professed belief in the "freedom of choice" and "democracy".

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snuffy on August 24, 2008 - 10:40pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

Never,I am at 53,and getting sorta old.I see the opportunities lost+,be I see many on the horizon,that,If the knowledge is not lost,may work society in ways we can only dream

I think the next great step will be biological,as that science can in many ways be done with smaller energy inputs than others I am aware of...and yes I remember the threads discussing this.

We may have a dark age ahead of us as a result of overshoot,but when we humans get our act together I still have faith we will reach the stars....ad astra

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NeverLNG on August 25, 2008 - 12:29am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

Hold that thought!

It will take huge effort to clean out the criminal element that runs our world. Of course, it can be done if people will only wake up. What will it take to throw off the blinders? Not force of reason, that is for sure. And efforts for reform are so often co-opted by the criminals and turned to their advantage.

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karlof1 on August 25, 2008 - 2:54am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

One way I shut people up about my heritage, and that of everyone else, is to say I'm a German, that is a Spaniard, a region settled by/given to the Visigoths, that leads into a discussion/admission that we are all mutts, ethnicly, and then occasionally I end the conversation by bringing up the African Eve hypothesis that forces us all to admit we are black African at our core. This really twists some folks's knickers as they have no rebuttal.

My kin were citus and vineyard ranchers in Southern California before, during, and after the Depression; and I've collected interesting stories from them, although I wish I'd asked more questions before most of them passed away. I made the period a special point of study as I pursued my History degree, because you cannot understand why/where we are today without understanding that period, which for me also includes WW2.

Although I won't concede victory to "the criminals," I do admit they currently have the upper hand, but I do see their demise. Because they want all for themselves and refuse to be cooperative, they will eventually die off and become relics. The depletion rate of fossil fuels even provides a timeline. The coming paradigm change means evolve/adapt to the new circumstances and norms needed to accomodate them or die. A primary factor will be the change from competition to cooperation, a cultural aspect that the US and most OECD countries are illequiped to handle. One of the most famous songs from the Depression Era is Billy Holiday's God Bless the Child, but few today recognize its great satirical aspect. I find comfort in taking the long view and can imagine a great deal of positive change 5 generations (100 years) from now. In the meantime, I'll go fishing and grow my garden, while enjoying one of the best palces to be for the coming change--Oregon.

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269 comments on DrumBeat: August 24, 2008

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