General Chat

Phillip, Don,t forget to tug your "Forelock" and Bow,if ever you see Tony Blair.Or he might send you to one of his "Gated Estates"for upsetting him. Hal.

I forgot to mention, an extension of their contempt for their fellow-Americans who haven't been successful in their lives is their belief that the US (governed by them, of course) is God's own country, and has the right to use whatever force is necessary to dominate and control the global economy in favour of themselves and their own wealth, lifestyle and power. It follows from this that the citizens of other countries (including Europe) are second class peons, whose role in life is to gratify the neocons needs, hence their treatment of Arabs, Moslems, folks who diagree with them etc, via places like Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. Ditto world oil etc. They have the right to guzzle world resources at rock bottom prices, by dominating and exploiting the major world oil fields. Iraq's now in the bag (in their view), so watch this space in West Africa, where they're engineering a number of political heists to open up new sources of cheap fuel for the US car industry. Sorry to rabbit on, I'm not generally a conspiracy theorist, cock-up is the more normal cause of most issues, but the progressive stack up of all the evidence is increasingly compelling! Philip

Yes Philip, I find the rise of the neo-conservatives scary, as for the 'moral values, family and faith' angle - EUCHH! Seems they only want to have morals selectively! I've got a book called 'America - What Went Wrong' which I bought when I lived in California about 8 years ago, might be worth a read now, to put into context of today!

Yes, it chimes in with a lot of other stuff I've picked up recently on the rise of the US neocons. Pretty scary, too. In particular a book (whose name I can't recall just now, have lent it to a friend). Well written, it charts their rise from the late JFK/ LBJ era of the '60s. They espouse an extreme version of the American deam, no man should be beholden to government, having escaped west from tyranny in Europe, and all that stuff. US govt is just as bad in their eyes, every trueblood American has the right to create his future, and has no responsibility for others who fail in their quest. So inevitably it becomes the credo of wealthy and powerful fat cats, and has led to things like the creation of gated villages in many of the states, where the residents have opted out of local and national life, pay a small due to the federal govt for defence etc, but no taxes to their state. Instead they employ their own security guards, to protect then from contact with other (less worthy) members of the working masses! Since the '60s, they have fronted Ronald Reagan for a while to support their dream, have sought to overthrow Clinton (fairly successfully!), and now have Dubya as their window dresser. Veep Cheney is one of their best known examples. Also, of course, they have formed this unholy alliance with the Moral Majority (a pseudonym for the Christian fundamentalists), which has given them the electoral base to preserve them in power for ever. God help us all! Philip

Found it fascinating, and very well made.

Absolutely right, Sheila, that was the name of the series. Philip

Just been watching a trilogy of programmes on BBC2 on the rise of American neoconservatism and Islamic fundamentalism. Fascinating! The final prog last night was showing that the whole international paranioa over global terrorism since 9/11 is largely fuelled by the US neocons building on their original propaganda, just as they did when they rigged the intel during the final years of the "Empire of Evil". Apparently there is no global network controlled by Bin Laden, they set out to carry out one or two media attracting big stunts in order to trigger uprisings in Islamic countries against various corrupt regimes. Now the US and GB are hooked on their own propaganda, and it's a suitable way of controlling their electorates (us!) by persuading us that we need to be paranoid too. Any comments? Philip

Hi Philip - did you see 'The Power of Nightmares' - series of 3 which ended on Weds?

Just been watching ......