From where I sit, we are already well past the "tipping point" and everyone is engaged in the long slide downward - many enjoying the ride - not yet to the inevitable dogpile at the bottom in which many will be crushed. Afterward, those who survive will extricate themselves - some asking " What happened ? " while others continue to deny that anything happened, and for a while still, everyone will be "brushing themselves off" ...
As a friend rightly says, " Something fundamental will change in the American economy when the corruption and the political failure to offer effective leadership gets bad enough. " - only our democratic MISrepresentation and / or "representative misgovernment" are already MORE than "bad enough" as our elected officials are not only NOT doing what they were elected to do, but are in fact going outside the entire system to create a "new and improved" system of their own, using our tax dollars to do it, so that not only are we not getting the "product" we expect and which we contracted for delivery, we are likely to take delivery of a product we may very well find has no utility whatsoever.
As I see it, "widespread public action" has been intentionally defused by such a barrage of wrongdoing that there is no possibility to ever fully investigate even a portion of any of it, and " Why should we try ? " is a calculated response. The American public is constantly and continually kept off balance so that if anyone mentions even a possibility that public energy is being subverted, the speaker is instantly labelled a conspiracy nut since, logically, rationally, no person or group could possibly go to such lengths to fulfill an agenda ...
... yet the beauty of the plan is that no great effort needs expended to bring the plan to fruition. Just as in 12 years of watching extremists ( regardless of their religion ) operate with increasing ease within U.S. borders, federal agencies shared that information with each other, and shared knowledge that some of those agencies were in one way or other making it easier not only for those extremists to operate within U.S. but to travel in and out of U.S. AND to get through customs and INS, etc. - in essence *training* them to operate here at U.S. taxpayer expense ...
... that those same agencies were jockeying to see which one could better justify receiving tax dollars for its "effectiveness" while at the same time slapping down any agent who sounded an alarm ( such as that an attack was imminent ); that at least one of those agencies continued to be so preoccupied with its "no mobster left on the street" mission that it totally failed to take in any way seriously some "little brown men" who sometimes wore robes and adorned their heads with what some called "towels" even though that same agency knew in vivid detail not only that those same men were skilled in manufacturing explosives, but in assembling undetectable explosive devices - because the agencies had the plans in their own hands ! ... and because the extremists had already used those devices within the U.S. more than once ...
... that in the 12 years of knowing those extremists had plans to do severe damage within U.S. borders and that with each passing day the inevitability of executing those plans was more sure - just a matter of time - at some point a decision was made not only to not stop them, nor simply "allow" them to continue either - instead to do whatever could be done to ensure their success, to augment and facilitate their plans, so that when they finally succeeded, the damage done would be even worse than they would have been capable of creating on their own.
In the same way, an "obstacle" to the greater plan was eliminated by infiltrating and subverting the so-called "militia" or "white power" movement ( whether or not one agrees that movement should have been slowed or stopped ) and using individuals associated with that movement in such way as to implicate them in an "internal" plot ( which was actually an external plot ) to strike at the heartland of the country, in Oklahoma City - thus suppressing a wide range of "voices of dissent" and taking down at the same time any similar threat "of colour" or of a religious nature. Have you noticed how quiet on those fronts ever since ... ?
In the very same ways, the "inevitable" corrupt nature of our elected and appointed "officials" is now used to ensure the destruction of our own government and of our way of life as a nation, and when that government is destroyed, it will be the fault of The People who voted those corrupt, elected officials into office, even though the very same officials were not "elected" in any recent years by a "popular" vote ... thus evidencing once again the stupidity of The People and their need for better "governance" ...
... but of course that is all *theory* which makes "plausible deniability" an innocent kiss between two kindergartners ...
The kicker is that there is no way out, because the *political people* who still want to "work from within" ( as I still did when I joined TS ) do not yet understand that what they want to change no longer exists - that not only has Democracy been written off as a failed experiment ( which only makes people fat and lazy and more likely to argue among themselves ), but that the only place on earth where Democracy flourished freely for any length of time in the whole history of humankind to date has already been sold to the highest bidder.
John also says in essence, I believe ( correct me if I am wrong John ) as I have said previously, that if we are going to say we live under Rule of Law, then it is all or nothing - NO ONE is above the law, not for any reason.
I saved this for last, because I still intend to count sunrises: "Perhaps the solution is here on the Internet. A public investigation that produces the questions and many of the facts. Finally perhaps civil action against corrupt officials needs to be taken in the courts by some public action coalition. One small conviction might be all you need to change the tide. Prove that the guilty can't hide."
For quite some time I have held hope that the Internet is a tool which will help us achieve the "critical mass" in thinking ( assuming we can avoid offending each other with a remark that is misinterpreted ) which might help us survive. It is going to take some sharp minds to keep the Internet free of profiteers who can so easily deny our access to this survival tool.
Thank you if you read this entire rant : )
