Have we seen the worst of the bush years, or will it get even worse?

[Philosoraptor]

I'm not too optimistic right about now, and there are two years to go. Has the worst occurred already, or is it yet to come?

Some might ask, "How could it possibly get any worse"? Just think about it, did you ever think it would get THIS bad?

[Vincardog]

1. When we regain control in November we can slow the slide.

When the people realize everything the NeoConvicts have done their evil political philosophy will be eradicated from our government.

[mavoix]

2. Funny you should ask...

I just posted something from Truthout about "Blowback from a Bad War" on DU.

I think this is the link: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x1834963

I guess that's how much worse it can (and will) get.

[eallen]

3. It depends on the 2006 elections. Things will be better with split govt.

If the GOP retains the House and Senate, things will get worse. Bush will feel very little restraint, and likely will get to appoint a third Supreme Court justice along the lines of Roberts and Alito.

[Arkham House]

4. These are the Good Old Days...

...believe me. Middle East war, oil prices, economic shock, political extremism, the rape of the Constitution at home...you ain't seen nothin' yet. And don't forget the wild card--John Paul Stevens is 86. Bush will probably appoint one more Supreme Court justice...try and sleep at night contemplating *that*...:scared:

[mavoix]

7. Oy vey!

[Arkham House]

11. Welcome to DU!

:hi:

[mavoix]

12. Thank you!

:D

[theoldman]

5. I never thought it would get this bad.

Therefore I think it will probably get worse. Think about what Bush did during his first two years. Now he is experienced.

[brentspeak]

6. I'm not looking forward to the actual deficit figures the next president

will be presented with once he takes office. He (and we, the nation) will be left holding the bag of Bush's fiscal corruption and irresponsibility for years to come.

[rubberducky]

8. This is by far and away the worst

political climate I`ve seen in my lifetime. But, I think the `08 election is going to be a blood bath(figurativly,I hope!). The mud will be knee deep. The nation is so divided and each side feels so strongly about thier own party. I think Hillary would be smart not to run, don`t think she can win, But I also think she would be torn apart.

[Jim__]

9. It will get worse.

I really thought they would learn a lesson from Iraq. Major fuck up - didn' go at all the way they expected. But, the lesson they seem to have learned is that they need to start a bigger war. I think that's what they're trying now. A bigger war will be worse.

[liberal N proud]

10. If they manage to steal another election, it will just get worse

MUCH WORSE.

They will escalate their plan to move the country into fascism. They will come after Social Security again and continue to rape and plunder the country.

[ThoughtCriminal]

13. Like getting past the worst of the Radiation Exposure

The exposure dosage may be down, now we can look forward to the physical effects of radiation poisoning. And you children and their children can "enjoy" the effects as well.

[fasttense]

14. It will get worse even if the democratic party takes congress.

The bushes and their corporate masters have ruined the fiscal solvency of this country. All but the most menial jobs have been shipped out of the country, the jobs that remain are being given to temporary foreign workers at slave wages, our national assets have been sold off to foreign interests, deficits abound, corporation are not investing in the USA, our tax dollars are pouring into a select group of bush's' friends' bank accounts, and the rich are hiding their money from the tax-man with a wink from our government. They have already set into motion a major recession. It will happen in 2007 and there is nothing a democratic congress can do except try to put band-aids on the wounds.

[madokie]

15. pretty bleak picture but an honest one IMO

[spindrifter]

16. You bet it can get worse--

first of all, they will retaliate in their own way when we take back Congress. I think they probably have one contingency plan that KKKarl has worked on--and that would be the strategic placement of croneys and incompetents. No matter how much we win and when we do it, the sheer magnitude of the federal government means that it will take a while to replace the idiots that are currently in various positions--whether it is commissions and committees or heads of agencies and other discretionary political appointees. I am hoping that a Democratic majority can start planning to avert as much of that contingency plan as possible.

[El Supremo]

17. Worse.

I am fully expecting war with Syria and Iran. The only way to stop it will be to take congress with good majorities, impeach the two SOBs then install Nancy Pelosi as at least an interim President.

I'm serious! These incompetent ass-holes are bent on the destruction of America and its system of government.

[laura888]

20. Absolutely!

They are itching for more war.

[FreeStateDemocrat]

18. We will pay for this maniac's mis-administration for the rest of our lives

Iraq alone will end up costing trillions and your grandchildren will still be paying it off.

[Mountainman]

19. I wish someone could answer my question here, please.

KKK Karl, Cheney, Bush and whom ever are making laws such as spying on Americans, building detention centers, planning to inter American citizens without trials.

These are all long term planning actions. Why would they do that if they only have 2 more years in power? If the Dems win in November they could begin to do the over site that the repukes refuse to do. That makes me think that this administration does not intend for that to happen. If a Dem becomes president he/she would not follow Bush's lead and keep these anti democratic practices going would they.

Why do you think the administration is making long range plans that another administration would dismantle in a couple of years?

[Peace Patriot]

26. Mountainman, I just caught up with your question, and I think that it's a

very, very, very important one.

I tend to think that this cabal are more looters than Nazis. Also, their support is VERY thin--quite different from the situation in Germany in the 1930s, and there are other big differences--for instance, we're a much, much bigger country, with much more culturally diverse population--VERY difficult to Nazify and maintain control of. So if they try the Nazi mode, it will be short term and for the purpose of a final looting. They cannot maintain it. Hitler built up a great industrial war machine. The Bush junta is a wrecking crew by contrast. They've bankrupted our country already--we're already tapped out. Our manufacturing capability has been outsourced. Millions and millions of jobs are gone. The Nazis did the opposite--they put people to work. They BUILT something. They were very efficient at it. However diabolical it was, they took a broken country and recreated it as a great economic engine. Well, look around you. What do you see? Something more like Germany 1929, than Germany 1939!

We're slipping in power--in manufacturing, in jobs, in debt, in infrastructure, in everything--NOT gaining in power. The U.S. is on the decline, not on the rise.

And however evil Nazism was, it was based on NATIONALISM--a perverted LOYALTY to the German people. It was NOT an international oil cartel with no loyalty to anything or anyone! (Caveat to Israel: Watch your back! You've chosen, as your only ally, the most treacherous people on God's earth!)

Along with this theory of the Bush junta--more looters than Nazis--what we see them doing is pushing policy to the extreme fascist right, and then having to snap back--when there is a reaction--to merely the fascist right. They are looting the Social Security fund (also the government pension fund) as we speak. They wanted to assault it frontally. There was pushback. They are using their secrecy powers to bust it another way. So, if the Democrats edge into power, they will be faced with a busted Social Security system (which WASN'T busted before), and will be forced to take THAT--and many other deficits--out on the poor.

They are LOOTERS. This is not Nazi policy. It is THEFT. Where is the money going? Two places--into the pockets of the super-rich, and into the pockets of war profiteers. Not to the efficient implementers of war policy--the military. To war PROFITEERS--to the INEFFICIENT, THIEVING PRIVATE contractors who have TAKEN OVER many military functions. (And I think this is the core of a developing military revolt against the Bush junta.)

Concurrent with all this--the election fraud, and corporate news monopoly collusion, that empowered the Bush junta and extreme rightwing policies--has been a gradual corruption of the Democratic Party leadership, starting way back in the Reagan junta, when the Democrats did not exact appropriate punishment of Reagan and his henchmen over the Iran-Contra treason. At that point, it became obvious that the Democrats were deeply embedded in the "military-industrial complex" (that Eisenhower had warned us against). They furthermore went along with the Reagan tax code re-write (end of the progressive tax). I remember taking special trouble to hear the V-P debate between Geraldine Ferraro and Daddy Bush in 1984. (Top of the ticket was Reagan vs. Mondale.) I was anxious to hear what the first major party female candidate for V-P had to say, and very hopeful about it. Instead, I was treated to a debate about whose personal accountant was better. Well, that's an exaggeration. But she did play to the millionaire-would-be-billionaire Democratic Party elite. It was disgusting.

So much for the unions, the poor, the middle class, the elderly, the sick, and the cannon fodder. And the Iran-Contra hearings were just the same. The investigators smiling and joking and wrist-slapping the mass murderers of Central America.

Maybe this accounts for the Democratic Party leadership's MIND-BOGGLING SILENCE as Bushite corporations took over our election system--with TRADE SECRET, PROPRIETARY programming code, in the new electronic election theft systems, during the 2002-2004 period--and why most of them voted for Bush's war. Corruption--and also, in some cases, fear.

But it DOES give us some clue as to what might happen next--which could be Diebold's installation of a War Democrat in '08. It would be a pretty shrewd move on the part of the fascist corporate cabal that is running things. By that time, the Bush junta will likely have manufactured the "Gulf of Tonkin"-type incident that they will use as the excuse for jumping into "Israel's war." The Democrats--in their military-industrial complex embeddedness, and kneejerk support for Israel--are letting them set it up. The War Democrat will have to oversee a widened Mideast war--something that EIGHTY-FOUR PERCENT of the American people oppose (they oppose any U.S. participation in a widened war; about 45% support Israel's bombing of Beirut; the rest oppose it or think it's excessive--but the HUGE majority want nothing to do with it!).

So, the Iraq disaster, a yet worse disaster in the widened war (no way the US/Israel can "occupy" the entire Middle East--the Bushite/NeoCon scheme), and a $10 TRILLION DEFICIT (and that's just the part we know about), will be the DEMOCRATS' problems on Day #1 of any such Diebolded Democratic regime. The veterans' protests, the antiwar protests, the food riots, the grannies-in-wheelchairs Social Security/Medicare protests, and all the civil unrest, bankruptcy, and associated problems will fall on the Democrats and will be blamed on "liberalism." Can't you just hear it now? It's all THEIR fault. And any attempt to soften the blow on the poor will be ridiculed and reviled.

1929. Not 1939.

But instead of Coolidge and Hoover taking the heat, it will be Hillary Clinton, or whomever the cabal designates of the Democratic would-be's, who can be counted on to keep the war profiteering at high levels, to CONTINUE the war, to prevent serious investigation of the Bush junta, and to repeal only a tiny bit of the tax advantage to the super-rich. Also, to MAINTAIN de-regulation of global corporate predators, and to get a military Draft.

THIS may pave the way for the real Hitlerian takeover. Our country may be so LOOTED by then, that people will be desperate--as the Germans were in the early 1930s. The MAIN TARGET all along has been the American middle class, which has the wherewithal to oppose Corporate Rule and to demand progressive policy. Remember that huge anti-globalism protest in Seattle in 1999? 50,000 people in the streets--all of them white and well-off!--10,000 of them committing civil disobedience to shut down the WTO very effectively and efficiently and WITHOUT HARM TO ANYONE (--the most slandered protest action in US history! --a police riot! I was there!). That protest was about CLINTON and his broken election promise to include labor and environmental protections, and democratic in-put, in free trade agreements. It was a MIDDLE CLASS revolt! (--environmental, human rights, religious and labor groups banding together.)

Impoverish the middle class. Shut them up. And recruit the poor as cannon fodder. The "plan" couldn't be clearer. And, unfortunately--tragically--our Democratic Party leadership is collusive with it, and, in its next manifestation, will again take the heat of the protests against it, which are likely to get a whole lot uglier than Seattle.

The real problem here--the one we MUST address, and fast, while we have a window of opportunity--is this new electronic voting system by which the fascists can keep (s)electing fascists or semi-fascists.

It's as plain as it could be that the vast majority of Americans have almost no representation in Congress. Half the Democrats routinely vote against our best interests, combining with the far rightwing fascists to give us war we don't want and to loot us into poverty. We have to start by getting out power back--our right to vote--while we still can. We need to throw these Diebold and ES&S election theft machines into 'Boston Harbor' NOW!

How do we do that? I think the Absentee Ballot protest is the way. Flood local/state election officials with MOUNTAINS of Absentee Ballots. BOYCOTT the machines! Create a CRISIS in the election theft industry, and FORCE them to the table.

AB votes are NOT "safe," and will NOT result in accurate vote counts this fall. But massive AB voting DOES have the potential to bring this rigged election system to its knees.

If we wait for Congress to "give" us a "paper trail" and some semblance of transparency in the election system (decent auditing)--something they DELIBERATELY took away in the 2002-2004 period with the "Help America Vote Act" coup--we can kiss our democracy goodbye.

We would be idiots to wait for Congress to act. We have to pressure the system NOW--by refusing to vote on their goddamned, diabolical, democracy-killing, electronic vote-stealing machines!

These machines enable massive vote-stealing--the switching of millions of votes, by a couple of insider hackers, leaving no trace.

They are the ultimate in fascist rule--totally non-transparent, highly manipulable, untrackable vote stealing. The machines must go! That's the start. And the only way I can see of getting rid of them quickly is to NOT VOTE ON THEM. Electronic voting is the Bastille. And we storm it with Absentee Ballot votes! Now!

[fordnut]

21. It could get a lot worse

[Peace Patriot]

22. It depends entirely on us, the people, the sovereigns of this land.

Are we correctly analyzing the situation? Do we understand it? Are we devising effective strategies to get our country back?

This is one of the great--and critical--values I see in DU. It gives us a place to put our heads together outside of all the corridors of corrupt and collusive power, and on a national basis, with participants here from all over the country. The war profiteering corporate news monopolies have denied us this--a national discussion, both generally, and from the point of view of the opposition (most of us are grass roots Democrats, but many of us also see the broader picture, and have the common good in mind). I think this discussion board is far, far more representative of MAINSTREAM America than any of the "mainstream" media corporations--and the polls overwhelmingly bear that out. So it's like the Great American Conversation.

And this kind of national community discussion is very needed for analysis and understanding, also for strategy and action. This is the heart and soul of "things getting better."

One of the tremendous items of understanding of our situation came from the DU 2004 Election Forum. Without the work at that forum--on the election stats and analysis--we would not understand why Democrats and progressives keep losing. It is almost entirely a consequence of stolen elections, with the latest and most devious of all election theft methods being the recent entrenchment of electronic voting systems, run on TRADE SECRET, PROPRIETARY programming code, owned and controlled by Bushite corporations. With this secret, untraceable election theft capability, fascism can keep "re-electing" itself. And if that keeps happening, surely things will get worse. In truth, it is absolutely terrifying how much worse things could get, given this circumstance.

Vote counting under a veil of Bushite-controlled corporate secrecy IS tyranny. We're already there.

When the corporate news monopolies, and the Dem Party leadership, and even some other leftist blogs (notably Daily Kos) BLACK-HOLED the subject of election fraud, DU permitted the discussion and the collective investigation to continue and to reach conclusions. Whole books have been written about it now, and Rolling Stone articles, and the Conyers report, and the GAO report, and the Common Cause report, and major lawsuits are in the works. The vigilant public is ON THE CASE. That's what an open forum national discussion can do. (Bradblog.com, Freepress.org, Solarbus.org, UScountvotes.org, verifiedvoting.org, and votersunite.org, and others, have also done great work on this all-important matter.)

Prognosis on this issue: For various reasons--among them that the Bush junta's support is so thin, and they therefore have to keep up an appearance of democracy--we have a window of opportunity to reform our election system at the state/local level. Did you notice the other day that Bush wants control of the state National Guards? Some Repub governors oppose it, but you see the trend. Everything under federal control. The so-called "Help America Vote Act"--that diabolical piece of legislation from the Anthrax Congress, engineered by Tom Delay and Bob Ney (and abetted by Bilderberg 'Democrat' Christopher Dodd), which provided a $4 billion boondoggle for electronic voting (Bush's buds at Diebold and ES&S)--ALSO moved us a step closer to federal control of elections, but we're not quite there yet. State/local jurisdictions still make the decisions about voting systems, and could, for instance, chuck these election theft machines and go back to paper ballots, hand counted at the precinct level (the best, most reliable, and transparent form of voting). The HAVA billions and lavish lobbying by these Bushite corporations (Diebold, ES&S and others) brought vast corruption and secrecy to election system. Still, local/state reform is the most feasible and doable.

This is MY analysis of our situation. We have suffered a fascist coup, and our War Democrats and Corporate Democrats have gone along with it. There is no other way to explain their MIND-BOGGLING SILENCE about Bushite corporations now "tabulating" all of our votes in secret. It's all about the war, war profiteers, a permanent war economy, the corporate oil war and (decidedly unimportant to the Bush junta, but they're using it) Israel.

You have only to watch the Diebold Congress for a day to know that it's not just Bush--it's a thorough fascist coup involving Congress as well. These people don't represent our interests. What a joke!

So, our first priority is to restore our right to vote. There are wonderful developments in the election reform movement, but nothing on the horizon to prevent Stolen Election III in November.

I propose a citizen rebellion in the form of Absentee Ballot voting--to panic the election theft industry and jumpstart reform. Flood them with MOUNTAINS of paper ballots and force them to deal with it. Boycott the machines! Let these expensive, new election theft devices sit idle! Mock the corrupt fools who purchased them! AB voting is already up to 50% in Los Angeles. This protest could work--could create conditions for reform at the state/local level--and it's very involving of many people. It will help overcome voter cynicism and despair. Make voting into a positive protest, aimed at un-rigging the system.

AB voting is not "safe," and it will NOT result in accurate vote counts in the fall. Accurate vote counts are NOT possible. But it DOES have the potential to bring the system to its knees and to get good election reformists "at the table."

Voting is the mechanism by which we exercise our sovereignty as a people. Without it, we have no power over anything our government does, and we cannot reform it. They have no reason to listen to us. So we MUST get that power back--if we are going to prevent things from becoming far worse, and change our nation's course.

There has been a lot of corruption and collusion among our Democratic leaders. That will change with TRANSPARENT vote counting. They will become more accountable, by necessity. We can jettison the worst, and start getting better representation. Transparent, verifiable vote counting is only the beginning of needed changes. But it's an essential first step, and priority #1.

Bust the Machines! Bust Bush! Bust the War! Bust Corporate Control! VOTE ABSENTEE!

[Swamp Rat]

23. "Something wicked this way comes"

Within the next two months we will see where this nation is headed.

[The Gunslinger]

24. Wait till it's Jeb's turn...............nt

[bananarepublican]

25. Q1. A: Does a bear play chess in the woods? Q2. First there was Dumb...

... and then of course along came Dumber!

We all need to be aware of the fact that the War Party is now ruling the Chickenhawk roost.

Billions of people are hoping that those in power who really know what is going on behind the scenes do what they can enlist others in the fight to weaken and then flush this evil down the historical toilet of failure.

:hurts: