It IS a painful time. We can't ignore what's happening, it will be hard to stem the tide against us

as selfish as this may sound, I am glad I am in the fourth quarter and maybe at the two minute warning in my life. I cannot imagine how my beautiful Daughter will manage over the next 50 years if the RepubliCorp party succeeds in destroying this Country. I'm not going to go into a long rant, others here do it better than I. It's just sad that we've come to this. Wide eyed, you betcha (as the queen grifter would say) and weakly, yup worse that I would have ever predicted.


Try and have a nice weekend. The news everywhere stopped being good a long time ago. Do things that make you happy, we are no longer in control.

i will be in grocery store and get the total, see how much stuff cost and say... damn

at least i am dying and not going to have to live this. you kids, you have to live it. i so feel for you

i dont know how the young ones, making so little, make it

I'm happy to be in the "4th quarter" as well, as this fucking planet is turning into a real shit-hole, due to the strangle hold on wealth and power that the regressives have achieved. :banghead:

And with the assault on the rest of us as well as on women in particular I worry for my daughters and their future. I wish I could save some money for them. They'll be lucky if they have our house to split up when my husband and I are gone. Part of me gets the urge to flee to somewhere sane where they will have a chance. But part of me wants to fight. It seems like such a tough fight what with so many people who think the thing we are fighting about is whether public workers should be getting pensions or not. Or how teachers are living it up with those golden parachutes. UGGHH!!! the corporate media is just depressing. and people seem more upset at who got kicked off of survivor or american idol than what is going on in this country.

Sewing, gardening, working with tools, simple home repair, putting up foods, etc. Make them experts.

And then build for them the most solid community of people you can in their lives. Long-term, solid relationships with people of your generation and older and younger.

exactly! I'm trying to do the same...

all those hours tinkering in my dad's workshop and wrenching on cars pays off too...my kids are so impressed that MOMMA knows these things ;)

building a garden over the past few years. going to learn canning. gotta get a freezer and going to be freezing stuff too. got to get another sewing machine. never really sewed much and never knew much more than the basics. but i have siblings who could help me. Wish I'd paid attention when my mom tried to show me this crap when I was a kid. But I wasn't really interested. I do bake though. As for relationships... I suck at that. not good at making friends. I have always been bad at that. But I have been meaning to get involved more at the school. Just tough as a stay at home mom with a toddler.

And there are things called Common Security Clubs where neighbors meet to talk about how to share things and support each other in these times. Some of those are sponsored by Unitarian churches. They are exceptionally open and friendly and supportive. You can learn more about these by googling.

Some of the things that are going to be needed are ways to live that don't require electricity. Hand sewing. Drying foods.

I think it's really important too (especially with daughters) to keep the consumerism in check. So many girls these days are programmed to shop shop shop and to be vain and materialistic. Those traits won't serve them well as times get harder.

A girl can take a lot of pride in being able to live like it's 1860s on the prairie! Build a fire, chop wood, find clean water, cook simple foods, gather hay to stuff a mattress, mend a shirt, etc.!

they don't complain either. I am so glad we ditched the satellite and went off air and internet streaming. The kids even ask for less stuff! We have an outdoor wood burner so we cut and stack wood. I won't cut the wood but I will stack. We live in the country so we don't have a lot of neighbors. I'll look into the moms groups... I was in MOPS, but it was too religious for me.

I worry sometimes that I should be teaching my kids more about survival than talking about college, because college and the 'norm' we grew up with is crumbling fast...

There is no doubt in my mind that the next decade will be very bumpy indeed. Compared to my sister, who has a house, car, and just got laid off...her ride will be bumpier because she has followed all the 'rules' ...those type of folks are just gonna keep getting the rug pulled out from under them. I am lucky, i have never owned anything, never had credit, and have struggled as a single mom my whole life making next to nothing - it has taught me how to live 'outside' the normal boundaries. So the crumbling is not hitting me as hard

The new paradigm is not gonna be about making our country better and fixing corporate evils...they will continue to run the ship aground as long as they can....
What we CAN do is work on the ground with our friends and neighbors, re-learn how to plant our OWN gardens, re-learn how to take care of ourselves and one another, grow our communities on a small scale...and stop thinking that the PTB have our best interest at heart.
It's about personal choice, choosing out battles... I choose to stay out of the crossfire, and just work on my own backyard with friends...

good luck....Mr. Toad's Wild Ride is just beginning...

We have been building our garden year by year and are hopeful to be teaching our kids (as well as ourselves) these basic skills. I remember my parents had a big garden when I was a kid, but honestly I don't remember how to do any of that. How many of us don't remember how to even grow things! I have been making a lot of things like my own sauces, breads and even my own laundry soap. We do have credit, but I know what you mean about knowing how to get by. I know many people who haven't had to really learn how to do that who are now struggling. I have always said I'd rather be with my husband and struggling than with a rich person any day of the week. That man knows how to fix anything! and together we have managed to get through a lot of tough years together when we had cars that broke all the time and never had two nickels to rub together long. Money comes and goes... but the ability to survive is something that is a priceless ability to have.

Unfortunately that guy didn't move into the WH...

for quality of life. When you compare our children's lives with those of other civilizations throughout history - they will still be getting a pretty good deal.

Much like my personal life, however, the part that hurts the most is not the reality of the lives we will lead, which may not be all that bad by historical standards, but the knowledge of what might have been. (Should have been.)

kind of RW country and society our ggrandchilden, grandchildren, and daughters will face. Hopefully one of those generations will do what is required to have a government, of, by, and for the people, wherein the rule of law is re-established, corporate criminals are held accountable, and imperialistic global hegemony is discarded. :patriot:

I do remember the 60s. It takes a fight and I hope your kids will fight back too.

I always said that if the button was pushed that I would grab a lawn chair and a bottle of vodka, sit down in the front yard and guzzle as much booze as I could before the :nuke: came.

I am pretty much at that point now. It is just going to happen more slowly.

I am happy Du provides us with the X factor.

I just don't think its the end of the country or anything close.

:eyes:

I wonder if my grandsons will ever really understand what America was.

Why not go out fighting?

I wouldn't want to come of age with the economy the way it is, and the way people's attitudes have changed. It is so "every man for himself". We are no longer one people. It's sad, and everything, everything seems to be going the wrong way.

nt.

I truly fear for this country, young people in it, and the young people of the world. :scared: