Ok... Plain and simply....... I don't see this recession thing I continue to hear about happening.  People make it Sound like an Atom Bomb is dropping!

Yes, times get a little tough every now and then -  but they always have.

I think we're in a phase right now, where the guise that has been draped over much of reality in this country, is being removed. Today I heard that we're "officially" in a recession, but many people and institutions agree that we've already been in a depression for the past year. Needless to say we haven't heard much from our recession because the current Republican Administration wants to keep everyone in the belief that things are just fine.

Things are absolutely fine for Dick Cheney for example who has already completed the  move of Halliburton from Texas where it pays US taxes, to Dubai where it does not pay US taxes. The same guy who sends people to die in a war to supposedly "protect the American Way" is or has taken all his assets and moved them to an Arab country where it essentially won't be part of the American economy - how patriotic. 

In the meanwhile, in the United States, more and more people are losing their jobs or are having a hard time regaining employment. Since our social system is way below the standard of most other industrialized nations, we're faced with various problems from inflation, to unemployment and if things continue down the path we're currently on, we're going to see more fallout of this economic down turn. Maybe it's just me but it seems like bank robberies and Dunkin Donuts raids are becoming more and more frequent which I believe is closely related to the fact that people are going broke everywhere you look. 

Yesterday I was listening to the Thom Hartmann show, which is one the best objective sources of information and they were talking about the possibility of the US currency completely collapsing. Throughout history there have been a few occurrences of such types and every time it ended in sheer disaster for the population. From what I can tell, most of the predictions of what's to come have been accurate. I heard last year that we're going straight for a depression and nobody in Government wanted to admit it. Now we're in that depression and we're still being told by financiers such as Paulson that the US economy is going to be fine. I believe strongly that we're at a point were things are going to get a whole lot worse, before they get better. 

I believe that in the months and the next few years to come we are all going to be tested for our true communityh spirit and whether we are really made up of what we claim to be. I know it's more fun to keep looking into the future and believing how rosy everything is going to be, but I think it's important that people get into the mind set of what's to come next. There is no way to really prepare yourself other than to be smart in the decisions you make in your life.

My hope is that all of us are made up of what it takes to be called a true community. An example of the compassion we have in this group is when Biggaman needed a temporary shelter and DJ Simplex kindly opened his apartment to accommodate his needs and made his situation that much more bearable. I hope each of us is spared of having to call on other friends to help them out, but it's good to know that we do have this kind of Samaritan spirit present in our group.