The election is getting closer now by the day, and we have a candidate. Who will win the election and why not? Excitement awaits.
Tucker Carlson in 2024? Republicans see a frontrunner (https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/tucker-carlson-in-2024-republicans-see-a-frontrunner/ar-BB16gXUX?)
The main disasters and let downs in the USA essentially do not get dealt with whether Democrats or Republicans take the White House as the system is not something to admire. Oddly although I am not clapping hands for Trump it seems he did reduce unemployment and black unemployment had been reduced to 5%?
Maryland GOP governor who's criticized Trump says he's considering 2024 presidential run (https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/506160-maryland-gop-governor-whos-criticized-trump-says-hes-considering-2024)
So Larry Hogan vs Bernie Sanders in 2024?
I note you like a lot of folk here in Gt Britain have got brained by Yanks. The 'awesome' word and we tend to use the words they use here routinely which I find a groan.
As for Trump I am not a fan of his yet I understand that he did make some progress in jobs and things like lowering the number of black citizens who had been unemployed? Overall it does't matter much to be frank whether Democrats or Republicans running things as in general makes little overall damn difference!
What the Post-Trump Right Will Look Like (https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2020-07-12/post-trump-right-will-focus-on-china-internet-and-the-left)
Conservative intellectuals will end up focusing on China, the internet and the left.
The upcoming U.S. election raises a question also asked the last time around: What will the intellectual right look like a few years from now? Even if President Donald Trump wins re-election, the jockeying for 2024 will begin almost immediately — and the smartest and best-informed thinkers on the right will have to decide which views and attitudes to emphasize.
Here are a few predictions about what might happen, as distinct from claims about what should happen.
In the coming years, three things will dominate the attention of the intellectual right: the main international rival (China), the main domestic rival (the left), and the main thing they stare at all day long (the internet).
Intellectual Right? American Intellectual Right?? where are they? not in Bloomberg fore sure. :lol:
Yew don't here two much from them rite now because their's to much dumb en the party to even bother trying too make since.
Doesn't matter a dashed thing whether Republicans or Democrats running the White house the large and gross negatives continue under both. The giant numbers in prison, tens of millions on food stamps too much spent trying military wise to run the world while too many of their own are in difficulty. Interesting way to spell 'right' there!
"Intellectual" is a wonderfully fluid concept. As is, of course, "right-wing". The Republican party is more clan-based than the Democrats, who are more on a regular left-right scale, but if we leave the parties behind, the intellectuals/"intellectuals" are all over the place.
Tyler Cowen seems to be talking about loud and influential voices here, not necessarily (or even probably) deep thinkers.
I think he's wrong on China being a major topic because he is right that they are primarily motivated by a hatred of the left, and the US left has been, and still is, cool on China. And if the left dislike China then the right can't. Bipartisan collaboration will not be for them. Thus I think "Chyna" will be reminiscent of the right-wing reaction to Covid-19, split between two paths: Covid-19 doesn't exist, and Covid-19 is deep state.. And we certainly could get a pinball effect. If the right hates China, then maybe the left will begin to love it.
Where the left/right will stand on the Internet, depends on the utility of it. Whether it is a medium for information or disinformation will be further down on the list.
As 5 November 2024 is getting closer with every passing day, it's worth noting that the election year 2024 will have a syzygy of sorts. Not only will there be a US presidential election, but a Russian presidential election as well. There will be parliamentary elections in India, the EU, and the UK (and both Koreas and Taiwan).
I have in the past made it abundantly clear that it does not matter a joss whether Republicans or Democrats run the nutjobland as the massive faults on jail numbers execution delays, large numbers on food stamps and son continue. So too does the damnable refusal to leave a military base in a foreign country (Cuba). That the place boasts about how good they are in the world is farcical. Capitalism is basically needed but over there if is a corporate control system. Americans continually in discussion must have that word 'awesome' in use and now here too! Farcism is better and neat word.
Not only will there be a US presidential election, but a Russian presidential election as well.
The first of these is a failure regardless of the outcome because the choice between two is not really a choice and the constitution says the people are not supposed to be involved anyway, except by popular delusion.
The latter has already been decided - Putin for life, until death.
Queen Elizabeth II will be there to comfort his relatives.
Europeans talk talk talk criticizing the rest of the world and everyday it passes we are more out of the map.
I imagine the same happened with the Romans.
Yes, it has been downhill since the
Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie went bankrupt.
Political power grows out of the barrel of a bank.
| Region | %population | %GDP (PPP) | %GDP (nom) |
| USA | 4.2% | 14.7% | 24.6% |
| EU | 5.7% | 13.2% | 18.3%* |
| China | 18.0% | 20.1% | 16.2% |
| India | 17.5% | 8.2% | 3.4% |
Respective IMF/Wikipedia data. The nominal GDP was 2019 numbers pre-Brexit (21.4% otherwise), PPP is 2020 (post-Brexit).
In future share of the world's economy China is expected to level off (China is still growing faster than the rest of the world in GDP/capita, which is catching up, and then fall in population), India is expected to grow both population (at world speed) and economy (above world speed). The US and EU is expected to fall slightly behind in population, and significantly behind in economy (as the world catches up).
If the EU can be considered a single unit, it will be a major player (#2 or #3, long term slated for #4). Long term, after the US has finished squabble with China about who is #1, the US will find it as #3, after India. Even further ahead, on existing trends, India will become #1, with China falling down to the US again, based on demographic trends.
No country, or likely integrated block of countries would beat the EU for #4, but there are several candidates for #5-#8.
Europeans talk talk talk criticizing the rest of the world and everyday it passes we are more out of the map.
I imagine the same happened with the Romans.
Europe already had its Rome a very long time ago. I think right now USA is experiencing its end-of-empire times.
While the US founding fathers had a hangup on the Roman republic, the natural analogy isn't Rome, but London. Sometimes, during the worst excesses of Trump, Moscow springs to mind, but really it is London. The Fall of The British Empire was a rather protracted affair. Hopefully the US will do better.
The US part-obsession with China will pass. While Washington D.C. took the baton from London. Beijing will never get it. The EU will compete with India for the bronze medal, but actually we will have a bunch of frontrunners making more or less permanent alliances.
The US should do rather well as soon as it gets out of the Pax Romana mindset and into a global version of the Concert of Europe. The US mostly has opportunities and few threats. The EU needs to come to some understanding with our neighbours, Russia, the Middle East and the African Union, while the US got this beautiful wall from sea to shiny sea.
"Awesome :faint: e".
A poll back in December (before Biden secured the 2020 win) had Buttigieg as the favourite Democratic nominee.
Axios|SurveyMonkey: 2024 presidential vote for democrats (https://www.surveymonkey.com/curiosity/axiossurveymonkey-2024-presidential-vote-for-democrats/)
Pete Buttigieg: 30%
Kamala Harris: 26%
Cory Booker: 24%
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez: 20%
Oprah Winfrey: 20%
More recently, according to a betting site
AOC leads odds for 2024 Presidential Candidates (https://calvinayre.com/2020/08/20/sports/aoc-leads-odds-for-2024-presidential-candidates/)
I don't recognise the format, but I assume this comes down to:
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez 3:1
Joe Biden 3:1
Kamala Harris 3½:1
Elizabeth Warren 8:1
Bernie Sanders 10:1
Michelle Obama 10:1
Andrew Cuomo 12:1
Pete Buttigieg 15:1
Michael Bennet 20:1
A poll back in December (before Biden secured the 2020 win) had Buttigieg as the favourite Democratic nominee.
A poll where Biden is not present, but somebody like Oprah Winfrey is? Who were being polled? Martians? Gremlins?
'Awesome' is another regular brainless express by Yanks and infiltrated everywherelike other US expressions like' law enforcement' etc. I groan.
I note you like a lot of folk here in Gt Britain have got brained by Yanks. The 'awesome' word and we tend to use the words they use here routinely which I find a groan.
"Awsomesauce" is from a TV commercial (an amusing one, I'll admit...) from, what, eight years ago? But I've never heard an American use it. You do know, RJ, about the Valley Girl dialect? It's similar to Glaswegian, except that it can be translated into English with a savings of half the words; whereas Glaswegian barely admits translation without at least doubling the words... Is it parsimony? Or is Scots nothing but idiomatic usage with a smattering of English to hold them together? :)
[Okay. I'm think I'm back in the mood... Back to the thread! Forgive the interruption.]
Yew don't here two much from them rite now because their's to much dumb en the party to even bother trying too make since.
Wow! I wonder if OpenAI's GPT-3 could digest such a perfect example of autological liberalism? :) No wonder Trump won! I'd bet you weren't even fazed that Hillary still doesn't understand the Electoral College... That's understandable: It ain't Yale. Her dissertation on Alinsky was a hoot! (Did you ever read Michelle dissertation? Bet you she's
still Black.) And good ole Bill talking about the Oval Office, this from the guy who gave us the euphemism "Lewinski," was just too funny for words!
I'd like to read Cowen's article, jax, but I'm unwilling to shell out the $4 for it.... Still, I think I got its gist. (It's not much different from this (https://www.econlib.org/archives/2016/03/my_simplistic_t_1.html), is it?) The idea that cancel-culture and BLM's Marxism is all that's left of the Left is probably too true to prevent Tucker Carlson from becoming the Right's standard bearer....
The neo-Cons have banished themselves, which is a good thing! The cruise-ship pundits at the National Review will recover from their Trump Derangement Syndrome, or they won't. And, as Cowen predicts, the internet will creditably compete with the MSM; and, yes, even with Fox.
Unfortunately, Jerry Pournelle's gone. So, the most articulate (and sensible) Paleo-conservative is unavailable. Trying times...
I'd like to read Cowen's article, jax, but I'm unwilling to shell out the $4 for it.... Still, I think I got its gist. (It's not much different from this (https://www.econlib.org/archives/2016/03/my_simplistic_t_1.html), is it?) The idea that cancel-culture and BLM's Marxism is all that's left of the Left is probably too true to prevent Tucker Carlson from becoming the Right's standard bearer....
Bloomberg has (3 articles a month?) for free. If you have exceeded that quota, either wait or get an additional email account (or browser, VPN). It doesn't add $4 of value beyond the gist.
The authoritarian left is froth. They can create a lot of noise for an extended period of time, and can make trouble for non-authoritarian left and the centre-left, but are not capable of taking and wielding power for themselves.
The authoritarian left is froth.
Soviet Union - from 1922 to 1991.
It seems to me an heavy kind of froth.
Oh, they are in ascendancy, and we can expect notable collateral damage. But on their own they are not in the position to take the reins of power. However, there is a worst case scenario, and in that 2024 will be the inflection point.
The right-wing lunacy in the US has reached its zenith and is terminal decline, while the left-wing lunacy has hardly begun. The right-wing is likely to be crazier (QAnon and beyond), but also more marginal and less influential.
I claim a Sanders horizon. Bernie Sanders is in a highly elliptic orbit around the Democratic party. For much of the election cycle Sanders is an independent outside the Democratic zone, but around the primaries he's in the zone. Those who then consider Sanders a traitor are not only outside the Democratic party, to them that party, not the Republicans, is their real enemy. Not all of them are communists or otherwise authoritarian left, but most of those who are, are outside the Sanders horizon. Their next real target will be 2024, but they will still not be at full strength.
Now the worst case scenario posits that the US will have the right-wing crazies and the left-wing crazies simultaneously, setting the conditions for a US Weimar Republic. This requires Trump to win 2020 and some other adverse events.
The power brokers of the Trump base know they are doomed, when they lose, they will never get power again. For some the past will also catch up with them. The power base for the Democratic party know that they should have power, but they don't. This will radicalise the left, particularly outside the Sanders horizon. This is that very situation that can break countries.
The US would be primed for a Germany 1930 between Nazis and communists type situation. It still need not go really bad, but even a moderately miserable scenario, 8 years with Trump, followed by 4+ years of a far-left radical will pretty much ruin the US for decades to come.
We got a poll of sorts for GOP candidates and voters.
(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EniYE0RXIAIwun4?format=jpg)
Trump and Pence? Good luck mounting a campaign with them ever again.
Wait until you've seen the results of the Biden/Harris administration... :)
If we need to wait to see, then Biden and Harris have already done better. With the Trump administration, its illnesses and evils were in plain sight and its abject failure easily foretold before it took office.
:) TDS, man! You got it bad!
But have no fear: Some other derangement will over-take this in importance...eventually. :)
American friends should understand that 99% of Europeans absolutely don't care about American domestic things. What interests us it's the international American positions. Therefore Biden has already made, just with his announcements, much better than anything Trump ever did.
Not so speak about the lack of class, you just can't present into the world aeropagus with a moron like Trump representing you. Glad that finished.
The massive numbers of poor in tens of millions plus jail numbers the Cuba base death sentence draw outs will ALL continue under the new man in the White House. These things do not matter a damn really and real democracy a fable. Yanks are so easily brained.
To be fair, he did start by giving them more food.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/bidens-food-stamp-executive-order/
Census data show that 30 million households reported periods of not have enough to eat last month, a sharp jump from before the coronavirus pandemic. (https://www.cbsnews.com/news/bidens-food-stamp-executive-order/)
Global Food Waste (https://www.magnet.co.uk/imagevault/publishedmedia/f00cc5wgbgp7ri3iz3l5/Global_food_waste.png)
Contradictions.
To be fair, he did start by giving them more food.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/bidens-food-stamp-executive-order/
That's reverting an earlier Trump executive order. A particularly stupid one that was triggered by the
outrage that poor people might sometimes eat good food.
Contradictions.
They often purposefully make leftover food unfit to eat by spraying it with something gross or worse.
That's reverting an earlier Trump executive order. A particularly stupid one that was triggered by the outrage that poor people might sometimes eat good food.
I remember when someone in America was upset that a poor person on food stamps looked healthy. Which is of course the entire point…
Still does not make a dashed difference whether a Democrat or Republic President the vast numbers on food stamps, jail numbers, horrible death row for ages is the same under both lots. Democracy is waffled about as is that constitution farce stuff. it is also an immature place over need for damn guns.
Trump Emerges From Impeachment Trial With Sturdy Backing From GOP Voters (https://morningconsult.com/2021/02/16/trump-gop-support-impeachment-poll/)
(https://assets.morningconsult.com/wp-uploads/2021/02/15155014/210216_Trump-GOP-Primary_FULLWIDTH.png)
What? Is Trump surviving even this? The Republican Party is irreparable and deserves to die.
Well maybe the Democrat party deserves to die too as the new President is showing he is going to be a damn groan and hopeless. He makes nasty comments about the Russian President when one considers many of the evils America has done and went after ones it could not control. The things I have mentioned like vast numbers of Americans in jail the poverty numbers, log time people on death row the mass gun killings go on under Democrats as well as Republicans and no small wonder it is a nutjobland. The new president is not outstanding nor comes over very capable or sometimes talk right so it is not surprising there are yanks in polls who exercise concerns o their country. Would also say that there was nothing to substantiate Russia was involved in the USA Elections. A load of baloney and that comes in a conutry that has infiltrated and disturbed other countries doing what if falsely claims Russia does. On Friday night I noticed a passing news item on that matter of German importing Russia oil by pipe. Yet the news item intimated America has bought Russian oil?
The US is stuck with two doubtful parties and both with a history of being two-faced and dodgy. Decent and intelligent Americans might live nicely but the country is politically, militarily a two-faced mess.
Decent and intelligent Americans might live nicely but the country is politically, militarily a two-faced mess.
We like to solve our own problems; and have done quite well, considering the state of the rest of the world... YUBBA-nanswer! (Take that!)
The US is stuck with two doubtful parties and both with a history of being two-faced and dodgy.
Were you a student of politics, you'd know such is merely to be expected. That any nation gets more than adequate administration -let alone a Great Statesman, occasionally- is a miracle! :)
(You really should get out more, sir! :)
There should not be an electoral college.
Pray tell, O Sage of Sagacity: WTF Not?! Because it's too hard for a stone domed Scot to ken? (I've always wondered, RJ, do you Barbiei e'ry thin gruel ya kanna ken? :)
I will just passingly put you in the general American bracket of being easily brained. It should just be a straightforward individual vote and utterly daft adding that extra level when you boast so much about democracy. Would also add that it does not natter a straight damn whether a Republican or democrat in the White House the mass poor so many in jail death rows and so on continue no matter which of these two lots are in power.
Whatever faults Trump had the man in the White House now is no great advantage. As a public speaker a groan does not come over very convincing and in some speeches wonder if he can read English. I did agree with Trump on the border control advance as there were too many in the country illegally and now Biden is a mess with even more rises in the illegals along with kids. Just a pity the US is not a more in-depth democracy but the hard facts show something else. Following the style of Trump Biden is no advance and will be a disaster.
I will just passingly put you in the general American bracket of being easily brained. It should just be a straightforward individual vote and utterly daft adding that extra level when you boast so much about democracy. Would also add that it does not natter a straight damn whether a Republican or democrat in the White House the mass poor so many in jail death rows and so on continue no matter which of these two lots are in power.
RJ, RJ... Will you
never learn?
Understand, you Scottish
spurge, I never gave you or any of your ilk leave to "bracket" me and mine, let alone the entire nation of us. We were well quit of your degenerate influence by the late 1700s... Your Mad Georgie cost you dearly, and you know it; and still smart from it!
"Easily brained"? you say, oblivious to your own Tin Man tendencies...:) (At least in the Oz I know, the local accents sound human enough that the locals don't eschew learning to read and write English. They take their natural pride in insularity not for granted but for a given, a natural right.) Your -and here I mean
you in particular, RJ (though
peculiar makes the better appellation)- penchant for derision is widely acknowledged; but not by yersel ( a Yerkish neologism of mine prompted by the lower prim[ii]a[/i]tive (
sic) state you en habit, with your silly badges, ribbons and sash!)! And to see you task poor old Uncle Joe Biden with deficient reading ability: Such rich irony!
(I'm quite sure when you say "it does not
natter" to which party the occupation of the White House falls...you say -without understanding that you do- something both too important for your powers of consideration and too obvious to be seen by such a myope as yersel!:) We're not so beholden to our politicians as your lot seem to be to
yorn.
(Sure, and others too know: You thought you typed "not matter," when you disgorged "not
natter... But words and their proper meanings -as the expression goes, in Miss.- "make you no never-mind".
It's such a common occurrence -you mis-speaking, and accidentally saying something
true!- that someone should coin a term for it!)
As for the blithering blather in your list of
horribles realized, you won't and can't take into account readily available facts and figures -- you'd rather stick with your mythic ken...
There was a time when the Scot had an impressive intellectual stature abroad; you -all by your lonesome- have managed to lower the estimation of same precipitously! A feat that should be regularly acknowledged and celebrated, by your enemies!
What you for chappie is that King George 3rd' help improved. n addition your revolution was not by the majority your rich took over running the place and still do! Voting rights took ages you had a civil war even up into the 20th century and far on blacks still getting done in tens of millions today who are on food stamps and as I also pointed out jail numbers folk on death row for months and years. Your lot create wars all the time and you have a whole expensive list of spy organisations. If not Republican or Democrat then forget politics the monied in both run the place and democracy limited. If real democracy and world principles ever grow then warmest regards but what you basically got after that Revolution was a farce.
Oh I will comcede one thing. Brains are so well controlled over there!! :o
As always, RJ, your blather could well be but copy/pasted anywhere, in any topic... Since I've tried to explain some of the elementary errors you are prone to and found you blind, deaf or dumb -- I'll not spend much time correcting you here. Suffice to say, you are incorrigible; for now I leave it at that.
But when I was a lad we had an expression that aptly "explained" an attitude like yours towards the U.S.: We'd say "he has a hair across his ass" and any honest auditor would know exactly what we meant! :)
After a well-deserved break, I'm off to do some work on my blog. Enjoy the rest of your evening...
Uh oh your description of my stance is amusing as it fits a good description of tens of millions of brain controlled Americans in a dumbed ridiculous political system. Equally also ignoring all the massive failings I mention. Name calling me puts you in same armies who are grey cell controlled. My reminder of the massive negatives on crime, police clowns, tens of millions who are poor the disgusting times on death row and other disgraces. Trying to be smart and ignoring big contradictions to American boasting on principles leans on hypocrisy. Slag away dear ex-colonist but I'm near the truth and will give you a passing pat on the back, That is you know it is true all the nonsense brained into folk over there ignoring factuals! :devil:
I just wrote a nice detailed long and pointed forensic analysis of The Howie Problem (...re: America). "Ctrl-a, delete" was a sensible application of my skill as an editor, and since every trade deserves honorable service I don't regret it at all!
RJ Howie! Shakes head, smiles slightly, and sighs: No True Scotsman, I presume! :)
Remember the earlier guy who won on MAGA platform?
[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=voMW-P9bU8I[/video]
Say what you will -good or bad- about Mr. Clinton, he was a wiley and effective politician; pretty good president, too. (Carter, on the other hand, was the consummate conniver; a skil of little use in the president's office... His securing his party's nomination Peter-Principle'd him out. Luckily, Reagan was waiting in the wings! :)
Good catch, ersi! Thanks.
(Eventually, you'll re-discover enough of reality to realize how right I've been...:)
(Eventually, you'll re-discover enough of reality to realize how right I've been...:)
Eventually I will stop being amazed how little sense of reality (or sense overall) you have.
Ever been anywhere at least two states away?
Unfortunately even allowing for sensible Americans the country has never been great. What it has always had is overdone self appraisal which has been farcical with the state of so many people in the country and the international interfering with other nations. Kind of shows a wide head shaking for the propaganda swallowed. As i say there are positive folk bu generally too many brained.There are many Americans (popped up in polls) who are not that happy just having the Democrats and Republicans and neither of those two solve the massive failings inside the USA and it's smart alec approach to other places. I sigh for sensibles over there.
Ever been anywhere at least two states away?
Yeah: I've been through most of the lower forty-eight; lived and worked in seven or eight, you don't count working just passing through...or just browsing. :) Haven't reached Alaska or Hawaii yet.
Colorado, Texas and Florida are places I'd re-settle down in, if I could bring myself to leave California again. The Carolinas are gorgeous, as are Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont. But they're none of them the kind of temperate clime I need. Same problem with the Dakotas, Montana, Illinois and Wisconsin... Delaware and Connecticut, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and D.C. are much like Massachusetts...where I was raised -though I'm a native Californian. :)
Been seventy-five miles north of Moncton, New Brunswick, Canada. Got family still in B.C. and -perhaps- elsewhere.
If you've gleaned from my stated preferences, you'll note: I don't like the cold; I can no longer take it. And since I am a man of meager means, my home must remain in a temperate zone (similar to southern Italy or Spain...). When I can, I travel some; and I don't expect you to realize the variety of what marvels can be reached from California's Central Valley in a two-hour drive!
Real mountains, forest primeval, rugged or gentle coastland and ocean! A few hours more even gets you high and low deserts...
I confess, the last decade or so, I've seldom gone past the foothills to the east or the coastal towns to the west, the capital, Sacramento to the north and Bakersfield to the south; I haven't been to Los Angeles since my father died. And I haven't been to Reno, Nevada, since I committed the crime of matrimony -the second time...
I'm not much for amusement; play parks and such don't interest me. But I do like our state and national parks, historic places -you know the Spanish founded Missions here four hundred years ago? Many towns and settlements from before our Civil War (1860-1864) are preserved -at least in spirit- for the tourist in each of us!
Howie tells me to walk! I do, when I can... (less so, of course, since my stroke.) But I can drive completely out-of-city, out-of-town, beyond industry and congested commerce, in less than half-an-hour! And even on the way, orchards and crops, dairies and cattle ranches , sheep and pigs and llamas and goats graze or slop as if they belonged here-abouts, because they do.
As much as I've enjoyed big cities and northeastern village life, I prefer the "wide open spaces" of the west; "wide open" is
not a clichè,
ersi: I love the land and the people who live on it...
And the most of my family's here.
So, no, I'm not what would be called well-traveled; certainly not a world traveler. If I'm somewhat cosmopolitan in attitudes the closer to nature life around me is whittling away at that, scraping off the patina of civilization gone too far? Perhaps. I've seem wondrous and amazing things, met and enjoyed the company of various kinds of people, done lots of different kinds of work; I've not secured any academic creds, but I've lived in a few "college towns" and learned much from my brash inquisitivity! And I'm a fan of libraries and bookstores (specially old ones...); one can find tutors and texts galore, and -since the advent of the internet- the opportunities for a determined autodidact are a thousand times greater.
So: I what way am I naive or secluded and sheltered from the "wide" world? How am I unfit to talk seriously with a petty bureaucrat who holds degrees in what are likely the equivalent of Basket Weaving and Self-Esteem (Through Proctology)? :)
the country has never been great. What it has always had is overdone self appraisal which has been farcical with the state of so many people in the country and the international interfering with other nations
In other words: It is on a par with every other nation, except those placid paradises of poverty and pestilence that verge upon a New Stone Age! How droll you are, you piquant paragons of decadence in the Old World who descry the faults of others from afar, and decry their accomplishments and successes... Get off yer duffs and do something useful! Dare something your fathers didn't...
Many a European does, I know. (The same is true of practically everywhere on Earth.) But the forum fidget-bus-ers and fuss-budgeters, the cynical carpers have their solace in
ennui. They're welcome to it.
I'll take what vigorous life and a modicum of adventure offer, anyday!
Nope it is NOT like every other nation whatsoeve, haha!
It boasts about itself and very gung ho. Rabbits on about democracy and being a great nation for folk yet it doesn't matter a hoot who is in the White House the level of poor people, criminality daftness about gun people and so much more is a groan of I am afraid direct hypocrisy! The nonsense of gun ownership from early days going independent is a farce. There are nearly 700,000 police and around 1,300,000 military yet still has this damnable nonsense about right to bear arms??! Even though I allow for sensible Americans that there are so many gun fanatics that do not need to follow that nonsense says much. The general failings I have intimated on crime, poverty, prisoners, people on death row for ages and so on emphasises the unfortunate truth. It is money that runs America not sensible politics. I visited the USA away back in 1980 then again in 1982 as had met a couple on my train between NYC and Washington DC who lived in Philadelphia. They were a pair of retired journalists. The man had edited a magazine for the staff of the now gone Pennsylvania Rail Road (me being a rail fan got on well with him). Were keen to see me again and made a second trip to NY and went down to Philly to stay for a short time with them. Intelligent folk in a sense but asked if we had coloured television in Scotland! Have also visited the Netherlands tw ce and France once.
Met some nice people including a lady who shared coffee and biscuits with me on a train (other times used the restaurant car) chatted to a couple of NYPD officers in the street so though there are intelligent people over there there are far too many been brained into nonsense claims about their country as well as the need to have the nutty country in charge of the world! Politically as a system it fails as a world country sticks it's nose anywhere as the world saviour yet cannot do anything about millions of Yanks at home!! :o :whistle:
So: I what way am I naive or secluded and sheltered from the "wide" world? How am I unfit to talk seriously with a petty bureaucrat who holds degrees in what are likely the equivalent of Basket Weaving and Self-Esteem (Through Proctology)? :)
The fact that you are in a general state of invincible ignorance about most of your favourite topics, such as politics, law, justice, economics, etc. does not need further investigation or demonstration. It definitely is and remains. I have tried my best to discover if you have a valid reason for it.
Having travelled little is not much of an excuse. It is possible to learn about the world from books and the news without having to verify everything in person. All it takes is right thinking. You keep insisting on wrong thinking, particularly projection, e.g. Liberals are evil authoritarians who undermine the constitution - despite January 6, 2021, when the Republican representatives of the executive branch incited a mob attack on the legislative branch after having lost the election. For someone who cared about facts, January 6 would have provided an occasion to question one's own ideology a bit. You absolutely do not care. You prefer your ideological bubble. I doubt you have many like-minded friends, so it is not an echo-chamber, but rather a private comfy dream world that you will never challenge.
The best explanation to your condition is unquestioning faith in American messianic exceptionalism against all facts. It's wilful ideological partisan blindness. As a result, you have betrayed your own class, middle class or whatever they call it over there. From a socialist's perspective, class betrayal is the ultimate sin. But it is a grave sin even under Ayn Rand's Objectivism, because it makes you believe, act, and vote directly against your self-interest.
For example, if you believe in trickle-down economy, then you should welcome taxes on the rich, because (a) it's not you who will get taxed and (b) taxes on the rich is what makes their riches trickle down somewhat; there is no other effective mechanism for that. But instead, you proclaim that private property is a sacred basic human right, a sign of freedom or liberty. And even though you barely have any of this basic human right and liberty, you think you live in the promised land of justice and "pursuit of happiness", where rights are secured, and thank God not in anywhere else where the evil govt is taking all the rights away, despite of you barely having seen any other country.
I could go on. But maybe some other day. Continental Europeans have a great privilege in that they can travel just a few hundred miles in any direction to end up in an entirely different country, but this does not necessarily result in profitable learning. Observing with the right mindset does.
I do not think that Republican representatives wanted the violence that occurred at Washington DC nor did even President Trump want that. I would also remind you that the Democrat opposite numbers went ballistic in cities across America. I can recall one where the trouble makers took over a city centre for days!
Trouble with the country is that there is political control freaky over there. As I have previously pointed out the vast negatives on poverty jail numbers and people on death row for ages works under both those parties. The USA still has a base on Cuba and refuses to leave the place which adds to the hypocrisy. I did feel that routine people like Oakdale are suffering propaganda soaking when you look at all the massive failings in the country. Oh and let us not forget the mass hypocrisy of gun ownership. For tens of millions of the citizenry in nutjobland constant nationalistic flag waving everywhere and not paying a damn heed to the national failings I have said on these forums. It is one thing being loyal to one's country but the US is nationally and internationally a farce I am afraid even allowing for sensible folk! The word 'awesome' is a national word now! :lol:
a general state of invincible ignorance about most of your favourite topics, such as politics, law, justice, economics, etc.
:) Because I didn't have the parochial teachers
you had? Didn't read the same stodgy tomes of ideological-ized theory, and "be a good little prole"? I fear for my country some. But do
you still resent yours, for escaping its (enforced) "socialist" malaise? Not to worry,
ersi: There's room in a market economy -and even room for advancement!- for those who would be minor functionaries!
Regarding "right mindsets" and such, perhaps you think I need "re-education"? I know of no authoritarian government that hasn't resorted to that practice, the aligning of its citizen's beliefs, speech and thought, with the official "party line." Why on earth should I allow politicians -at any level- to presume
they (...or any gaggle of their experts...) know better, how
I should live
my life?
And -if
you don;t mind, sir- I can and will continue to think for myself...
I'm not a ward of the state, a child of the revolution nor the protector of some mercurial "power structure" - I'm an American.
(Did you ever see the film "The Americanization of Emily"? (Paddy Chievski's script is wonderfully wry and worldly!) I highly recommend it. I suspect,
ersi, the world gets you down because it hasn't lifted you up as high as you think it ought... :)
@RJHowie: You should read Taki's homage to Larry McMurtry (Apr. 10 (https://www.takimag.com/article/more-terms-of-endearment/))... It should help dispel most of the awful mis-conceptions you have about America and Americans; if you read it. (If you have half a brain, or more.:) But I won't hold my breath! You, however, are encouraged to do so: If you need it badly enough, there's fresh air to be had...
I have no misconceptions dear ex-colonist! I spoke the strong truth about the tens of millions of poor, numbers in jail length of being in a death cell for ages, interfering in other countries going bananas about how great the place is! And all that nonsense you folk have about the numbers of guns bought. A massive armed forces matter and plenty of police 9 percentage who are nuts). It is not democracy that runs the country it the big money people and as I have laid out no matter whether a Republican or Democrat in the White House those things I say continue under both. Elections are just an exercise so go crazy about how exceptional the place is but in hard practice it is not. My visit years ago was pleasant enough and so to was the couple who suggested I return and visit them for a couple of days. So I did make it obvious there were decent Americans, etc but the country in general is kind of democratic farce with an electoral college thrown in (groan) and neither of the two big money parties can do much with those failings I remind of. Globally it interferes with places across the globe instead of spending on their own people who are in massive millions getting poor. I don't hate Americans I would state but it is niggling so many are being brained into being the greatest place on earth and is directly obvious that is not the case! I'd even treat you to a meal you lucky man! :D :up:
:) Because I didn't have the parochial teachers you had? Didn't read the same stodgy tomes of ideological-ized theory, and "be a good little prole"?
How's the Athenian Constitution going? After school (after university, I mean) I have done about as much reading, studying and learning as at school, probably even more, so I can appropriately consider myself self-taught, not indoctrinated, particularly in the areas that are not my formal expertise. It is good to read a book every once in a while.
I fear for my country some.
What is there to fear for the most powerful country in the world? That the Commies will take it over? I know - the Democrats :lol:
But do you still resent yours, for escaping its (enforced) "socialist" malaise?
Hardly anyone over here has a problem recognising - at least in practice, if not in rhetoric - that the economy should be mixed: state-regulated on the macro level and "free" enterprise on the micro. Drawing the lines between them is of course an eternal debate. "Socialist" is not an issue.
In Estonia the more serious issue is the divide along ethnic lines -
what is the country? For Estonians, the capital is Tallinn. For Russians, the capital is Moscow, Putin is the president, and Estonia is an aberration due to temporary unfortunate geopolitical circumstances. This divide most recently flared up during the vaccination campaign - Russians expect to be vaccinated with Sputnik V, the vaccine hailed on Russian TV, and refuse any western vaccines, which are dangerous according to Russian TV. Again, "socialist" is not an issue.
Regarding "right mindsets" and such, perhaps you think I need "re-education"?
More like self-cultivation to stop making a fool of yourself at dinner parties, official gatherings and such. But if those events are not on your horizon, then perhaps beware of accusing the police of being Commies when they randomly arrest you. Or something.
The right mindset would mitigate most conflicts, not exacerbate them. The fact that USA is the number 1 war criminal in the world demonstrates the wrong mindset. Who is the number 2 war criminal in the world, what do you think? North Korea, Iran, China, Russia? Whichever you pick, it would be a distant number 2, and Russia has the excuse of having undergone shrinking from their perceived identification with Soviet Union or (worse) the (ex-)Communist bloc, while USA has only ever been the aggressor, having never undergone any shrinking and any threat against their country. So, very very wrong mindset.
I know of no authoritarian government that hasn't resorted to that practice, the aligning of its citizen's beliefs, speech and thought, with the official "party line."
The funny thing is that the "party line" problem is very acute in USA. In (continental) Europe, there are always at least two parties who form the cabinet and at least five parties that sit in the parliament, usually more. Whereas in USA you have two indistinguishable parties, yet in rhetoric, against all rhyme, reason, and facts, the Repubs believe that the Dems are authoritarians about to overturn the constitution and whatever (and this "party line" has become mainstream since Tea Party and Trump), at the same time as the Repubs themselves have undertaken actual real-life coups, such as this year Jan 6th and thereafter blocking impeachment of the treasonous president. Looks like impeachment of the president is the weakest point of your constitution: never once has it been successful, meaning that the president is absolutely unaccountable, if he happens to be unscrupulous. Nixon at least had a conscience...
The funniest aspect here is that the policies and platforms of the parties (actual, nevermind mere rhetoric) are indistinguishable from each other. You are the one clearly toeing the party line and dreaming of one-party rule.
Why on earth should I allow politicians -at any level- to presume they (...or any gaggle of their experts...) know better, how I should live my life?
Conversely, why should any politician allow you to have any input on how the country or the city should be run? Politicians welcome politely reasoned input, not silly rhetoric about Commies taking over or stupid extrapolations from first or second or fifth amendment. And they often actually act on input that comes along with some personal benefits. This is how politics works regardless of party.
Furthermore, there are ways to influence politicians without bribing them when there are signs that there is a broader popular cause at issue, but this requires you to recognise your own class and the politician's class. You keep misidentifying these, thus misidentifying what is good for you and what is practicable for the politician.
Overall, for peace of mind it is advisable to let politicians do whatever they are doing - and ignore it. Let them think they know better and that they have some influence over how we regular folks live our lives. Let them. And then occasionally show them what really is the case.
(Did you ever see the film "The Americanization of Emily"? (Paddy Chievski's script is wonderfully wry and worldly!) I highly recommend it. I suspect, ersi, the world gets you down because it hasn't lifted you up as high as you think it ought... :)
Whatever. Get back when you are done with the Athenian Constitution.
Whatever. Get back when you are done with the Athenian Constitution.
Have you finished C. Northcote Parkinson's "Evolution of Political Thought"...? (Or have you resigned yourself to a niggardly existence...:) I'll forgive your churlish presumption that you're my "instructor" and continue to cast my pearls before your swinish rooting inattention.
You've prompted me to loose upon the (wee though it be) world a little poem I wrote yesterday:
The serendipitous coincidence
never fazes me; I take it in stride,
as they say. (Knowing where you're going, lied
the sage, won't make your step quicker...) But sense
says Yes, it will; and longer too! You can
stop and smell more roses if your pace is
brisk; enjoy the scenery, the faces;
your own thoughts! Since you've known since it began
your journey's end, not interruption nor
detour matters much: You'll get where -soon or
late- you're going.
Not to hie when life is
short is folly. But not to take pleasure
'long the way is waste! Trinkets and treasure
abound, despite how oft' this world is strife...
(dej ღ - © 2021)
Your footnote is intriguing evidence of you superficiality and penchant for "motivated" reasoning... So: "Luc-y! Let me 'splain you something..."
While I understand that most people can't not look at a car wreck, I'm not one of them! I've watched a lot of the footage from that day; read many accounts, and various screeds, purporting to place blame and 'scribe consequence. I've no interest in joining the consistory...:) Suffice to say: 'Tweren't no insurrection! (It was -compared to the summer's BLM and
antifa-inspired mayhem hardly a kerfuffle!) Were it not for the preening self-important at the periphery of the events, you nor I wouldn't have heard about it.
When someone from the commentariat gets their panties in a twist, I simply smile my seeming commiseration; thinking: "Fools rush in...".
Do you need more? Or are you incapable of understanding my plain English? :)
Do you need more? Or are you incapable of understanding my plain English? :)
As I suspected: Plain. Factless. And wrong.
Or can you justify your opinion from something that should matter to you, such as the constitution? Well, didn't think so. So, totally worthless opinion.
At a loss for words, I see...: ) have you got a textbook that shews how to dismiss with juvenile derision all that you don't understand? (: Your "sources" of course is your mantra: As if complaining "But look who and how many agree with me!?" brooks all argument. You've not even read enough Aristotle to appreciate fallacies in the wild; text-book example and Mrs Malaprop's unwitting seems all you need to feel smug: A bug in a rug! :)
At a loss for words, I see...: )
When words are cheap, better not even try.
Have you finished C. Northcote Parkinson's "Evolution of Political Thought"...?
I likely never will. The guy is dubious in his preface,
The reader is left with fallacies as well as facts. These fallacies are neither stated nor upheld nor even perhaps deliberately implied. They arise indeed less from the study of any given work than, as a general impression, from all. They are none the less fallacious for that and their refutation is more than overdue.
First of these implicit fallacies is the idea that political thought is confined to authors and denied to everyone else. By this reasoning we must learn the ideas of Plato and Laski and can safely ignore those of Pericles and Churchill. This is surely to give an absurd weight to the accident of authorship.
Who is he calling fallacious here? I assume he is faulting his own professors here. This was not the fault of my own education. I have read Churchill, von Clausewitz, Napoleon, Bismarck, Kissinger, etc.
Moreover, Plato was not a mere thinker, but also a political practitioner - or experimenter rather. He learned first hand that his Republic was impracticable in real life. And Aristotle was the tutor of Alexander the Great. Not something to be ignored.
So there. You have inherited Parkinson's main fallacy: Calling out fallacy too soon when it is not even there.
Over years I tried to live on hope that Americans would get a definitive President who would stop trying to run the dashed world to be run by the monied minds whilst millions of ex-colonists are brained into world dominance whilst being hypocritical about poverty and failings elsewhere in the world INCLUDING in the US. Massive monetary and the massive cost ridicule outer countries whist being champion political controllers. A whole series of security organisations and a military number costing a fortune and no help to the massive numbers suffering. Used to think that Goebbels had a clever way of fooling people but he has been overtaken across the pond. Does not matter a sod whether a Republican or Democrat President the defaults and lacking in America is going to continue. If Dr Goebbels was alive today he would be smiling and clapping hands! :whistle:
I know, RJ: It's like trying to teach a certain Glass-house-ian to craft a simple declarative sentence...:) Trying to say (or answer...) everything at once is too demanding a task for the likes of me?!
Over years I tried to live on hope that Americans would get a definitive President who would stop trying to run the dashed world to be run by the monied minds whilst millions of ex-colonists are brained into world dominance whilst being hypocritical about poverty and failings elsewhere in the world INCLUDING in the US. Massive monetary and the massive cost ridicule outer countries whist being champion political controllers. A whole series of security organisations and a military number costing a fortune and no help to the massive numbers suffering. Used to think that Goebbels had a clever way of fooling people but he has been overtaken across the pond. Does not matter a sod whether a Republican or Democrat President the defaults and lacking in America is going to continue. If Dr Goebbels was alive today he would be smiling and clapping hands! :whistle:
@OakdaleFTL The irony in this gibberish is we do what the original mother country did from 1700-1944. Terms such as “Bretton-Woods” and “hope to keep some degree of soft power through the US” are completely lost on him.
I blame Irn Bru and his hatred of Red Socks all these years.
A likely irony (my own father actually hated the RC Church, for the silliest of reasons...:) that will likewise be lost on the Howling Howie: His litany of lapses and lamentable shortcomings and policy failures applies equally well to his beloved Union! :)
The unfortunate thing is Colonel that you for all your intelligence you practice the gibberish you leave with me. What you do is ignore the hard fact that it does not matter a damn which of the two control freak parties run the US my statement on the crime side with jailed numbers, poverty, gunnings, duff policing etc at the levels they are and massive world interference are unfortunately factual. That yanks so easily brained is unfortunate because the place does not change from the massive negatives I refer to. I stand by the fact you ex-colonists ignore the hard truths and a waved flag keeps you controlled. The failings widely do come from the two parties time after time and sadly there is for too many over there an ease of mind control and the failings in suffering by tens of millions mean sod all. Even for a basic thing the failings continue with the two parties Americans are controlled into. Heavens even middle class people can be strained.
The unfortunate thing is Colonel that you for all your intelligence you practice the gibberish you leave with me. What you do is ignore the hard fact that it does not matter a damn which of the two control freak parties run the US my statement on the crime side with jailed numbers, poverty, gunnings, duff policing etc at the levels they are and massive world interference are unfortunately factual. That yanks so easily brained is unfortunate because the place does not change from the massive negatives I refer to. I stand by the fact you ex-colonists ignore the hard truths and a waved flag keeps you controlled. The failings widely do come from the two parties time after time and sadly there is for too many over there an ease of mind control and the failings in suffering by tens of millions mean sod all. Even for a basic thing the failings continue with the two parties Americans are controlled into. Heavens even middle class people can be strained.
Couple of questions for you:
1. When Northern Ireland leaves the UK, how are you going to feel about that?
2. When Scotland leaves what will soon be known as “rump UK, ‘rUK’ for short) lawfully or you lot get a Catalonia-type situation, how are you going to react and feel about that?
3. Do you actually support Little Englander, Boris Johnson?
4. If so, are you acutely aware that his accomplishments will be the prior questions?
For all of that “brained” commentary you offered, I cannot see how a man of such age who has likely seen much (The fall of the British empire, notably) could support that nitwit.
I’m reminded of that poem Churchill liked to quote, when I’m watching the BBC World News every morning and seeing another moronic decision Blundering Boris has made: “ Who is in charge of the clattering train?
The axles creak,and the couplings strain.
For the pace is hot and the points are near,
And Sleep hath deadened the Drivers ear;
And signals flash through the night in vain
WHO IS IN CHARGE OF THE CLATTERING TRAIN?”
Did passingly muse that you may be a well educated ex-colonist but i ponder on that. Ulster is not going anywhere and i would also inform you that a number of years ago the Irish republic withdrew from it's constitution any claim on the "5 Counties." You could also have come out with that stuff of Scotland leaving the UK at the last vote on it and even with all the guff did not happen. Scotland not in Gt Britain would be a catastrophe as it would lose the annual subsidy via the Barnett Formula and indeed this year an extra sum passed up to Scotland. Nationalists messed up the police by merging all into one force and created a massive debt. The National Health suffered under them as did education. Regarding Boris Johnston he has an eccentric side but I would remind you that he stormed into office and the Labour Party got it's worst result since before the 2nd World War. That included scrubbing Labour's working class position in North England. Passingly amusing a Yank yakking on here when you consider your country's failing internally as well as internationally. You can waffle nonsensical stances but it shows you ignore America's internal history as well as wanting to fight wars all the time. You might have been well educated but vague of using the grey cells properly!
Did passingly muse that you may be a well educated ex-colonist but i ponder on that. Ulster is not going anywhere and i would also inform you that a number of years ago the Irish republic withdrew from it's constitution any claim on the "5 Counties." You could also have come out with that stuff of Scotland leaving the UK at the last vote on it and even with all the guff did not happen. Scotland not in Gt Britain would be a catastrophe as it would lose the annual subsidy via the Barnett Formula and indeed this year an extra sum passed up to Scotland. Nationalists messed up the police by merging all into one force and created a massive debt. The National Health suffered under them as did education. Regarding Boris Johnston he has an eccentric side but I would remind you that he stormed into office and the Labour Party got it's worst result since before the 2nd World War. That included scrubbing Labour's working class position in North England. Passingly amusing a Yank yakking on here when you consider your country's failing internally as well as internationally. You can waffle nonsensical stances but it shows you ignore America's internal history as well as wanting to fight wars all the time. You might have been well educated but vague of using the grey cells properly!
All of this rabbiting on and no substance. You don’t seem to understand some things.
1. I wasn’t referring to RoI claiming N. Ireland. I was referring to the fact that the self-inflicted wound, Brexit, is going to drive N. Ireland into the RoI’s arms. Thus re-uniting Ireland after G. Britain meddled in Ireland’s domestic affairs for hundreds of years.
2. The self-inflicted wound will also drive Scotland out of rUK and into Brussel’s arms again. Barnett formula or no.
3. I do not disagree on the shape of modern Labour. It’s an absolute catastrophe. I keep up with several friends from the UK and a little more than half are (former) Labour and the rest Tories. Labour needs to either clean house or make a manifesto fit for the working class and not the elites.
https://youtu.be/RouB8iUQzTA
4. Yes. I can offer commentary on a topic I actively keep up with and know about. We, the US, are your only hope of keeping an old and excellent country together. We shall have to subsidize you all a lot, but so long as you respect the Irish and the Good Friday decision, we’ll offer the UK the trade deal they so desperately want.
Well, Colonel! It seems that you are indeed smitten! (Again...:) Are you still enamored with the Lost Cause?) GB (can I call it "George Bernard?!) -merrie olde England, etc., is a beautiful country, and home to wonderful people; I agree, and I too think it worth saving -- again :)! (Throw in Wales and Scotland; Ireland will take care of itself. :)) Remind me if you'd like to read (portions...?) of my uncle's memoir, “Bad Night at the Occidental”. He takes the family back to before the New World...
But we have important stuff to deal with in the here-and-now.
Have you contemplated the trajectory of our politics? I'd ask you to read David Cole's "The Curse of Aaron" (https://www.takimag.com/article/the-curse-of-aaron/)? There are few serious thinkers who aren't afraid to write with clarity and cogency...
(If I remember correctly, it was you who chided me for reading Taki's Mag... "An actual fascist...!" I think you said. :) Are you still of the same opinion? -Taki's youth in Greece, what with WW II and everything, is not so very hard to understand.)
You have, I hope, finally realized what a boon Lincoln gave us: By refusing to hobble the south and treat its leaders as the laws of war required, he did an amazing thing: He preserved the union -- as best anyone could.
And then some fool of an actor shot him...
Reconstruction work out well for anyone, without Lincoln's steady hand and stout heart to guide our nation back?! (You know the answer; perhaps you've grown beyond fairy tales...) If only Frederic Douglas's advice had been followed...we might not have the makings of another real insurrection, with our black population presumed to be willing cannon fodder.)
Have I given you enough to chew on, Colonel? :)
I'll only add, you do have a regiment, don't you?:)! (Let's see Howie try to pry into this aspect of the topic...:)
2. When Scotland leaves what will soon be known as "rump UK, 'rUK' for short) lawfully or you lot get a Catalonia-type situation, how are you going to react and feel about that?
By the by,
ruk is Dutch for crappy.
Scotland not in Gt Britain
Moderator message: You're repeating your nonsense again Rj.
https://dndsanctuary.eu/index.php?topic=2927.msg85372#msg85372
https://dndsanctuary.eu/index.php?topic=2927.msg85375#msg85375
What have you been told about that?
Well, Colonel! It seems that you are indeed smitten! (Again...:) Are you still enamored with the Lost Cause?) GB (can I call it "George Bernard?!) -merrie olde England, etc., is a beautiful country, and home to wonderful people; I agree, and I too think it worth saving -- again :)! (Throw in Wales and Scotland; Ireland will take care of itself. :)) Remind me if you'd like to read (portions...?) of my uncle's memoir, “Bad Night at the Occidental”. He takes the family back to before the New World...
But we have important stuff to deal with in the here-and-now.
Have you contemplated the trajectory of our politics? I'd ask you to read David Cole's "The Curse of Aaron" (https://www.takimag.com/article/the-curse-of-aaron/)? There are few serious thinkers who aren't afraid to write with clarity and cogency...
(If I remember correctly, it was you who chided me for reading Taki's Mag... "An actual fascist...!" I think you said. :) Are you still of the same opinion? -Taki's youth in Greece, what with WW II and everything, is not so very hard to understand.)
You have, I hope, finally realized what a boon Lincoln gave us: By refusing to hobble the south and treat its leaders as the laws of war required, he did an amazing thing: He preserved the union -- as best anyone could.
And then some fool of an actor shot him...
Reconstruction work out well for anyone, without Lincoln's steady hand and stout heart to guide our nation back?! (You know the answer; perhaps you've grown beyond fairy tales...) If only Frederic Douglas's advice had been followed...we might not have the makings of another real insurrection, with our black population presumed to be willing cannon fodder.)
Have I given you enough to chew on, Colonel? :)
I'll only add, you do have a regiment, don't you?:)! (Let's see Howie try to pry into this aspect of the topic...:)
Remembering the LC has its uses. In the interesting political times we live in, it seems as though the former Republican Party has forgotten what happened to the Democrats in 1860. It will be interesting to see what happens prior to 2024; will the former Republican Party split into two, or will it hold together.
Sure, I’ll have a look at your Uncle’s book.
I wrote a paper nearly a decade ago stating that by 2050, I felt as though the USA would cease to exist. Domestic terrorism, hyperinflation, and overextending foreign entanglements bring the causes.
Yes, Lincoln did leave us an excellent situation and we’ve bungled what he left us.
I wrote a paper nearly a decade ago stating that by 2050, I felt as though the USA would cease to exist. Domestic terrorism, hyperinflation, and overextending foreign entanglements bring the causes.
Yes, Lincoln did leave us an excellent situation and we've bungled what he left
Us?! I's say you and I have done our part, mostly admirably! As have the vast majority of our countrymen. The Reconstruction was done -however cruelly, crudely and ineptly; and the past is the past. The vexatious Marxist influence in our society is the root of our current peril...
You cited proximate causes. (I won't dispute them...) But it may be too late for half-measures and palliatives: Someone once said something about "a house divided" and that counsel remains valid, as cautionary considerations go.
(Let us pray -if we've a mind to- that Franklin's admonition ("...hang together or...") is not what is needed!)
Moderator edit: You've been told to keep PM conversations off the forum, you've been told to take your repetitive guff elsewhere. You've had enough warnings but you still persist. My patience has now ran out and that's the final straw.
The Capital police have reportedly shelved plans to re-install barriers 'round the Capital... :) See? Just give the mobs what they want and everything's peachy-keen! (Wanna bet?:)
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/y1Rwwb6Qaas
The speaker is Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Republican rightwing nutwoman in US Congress. Everything she mentions in the video, she thinks it's a Democrat authoritarian commie conspiracy that Biden should be impeached for, something she is indeed busy working on at the Congress.
For the rest of the world, those are completely uncontroversial policies. Even so for Biden, who took her speech and used it for his presidential campaign ad.
That's hilarious.
(It's too soon, because several keys are undecided yet, but) Biden is the more likely winner, according to Alan Lichtman who has correctly predicted every presidential election result since 1984 https://politicalpulse.net/us-politics/alan-lichtmans-prediction-for-2024/
Americans with their stupid non-system where the president has the freedom to be a treasonous nepotist election-denying incompetent buffoon and run again without any repercussions to himself while all his lawers and more eager supporters are being jailed left and right. And that this idiotic campaigning takes years in enormous cost of time, money and nerves. Oh Lord have mercy.
Good that this is over and done with now. Except if one of the main party candidates dies and the not the other....
Americans with their stupid non-system where the president has the freedom to be a treasonous nepotist election-denying incompetent buffoon and run again without any repercussions to himself while all his law[y]ers and more eager supporters are being jailed left and right.
Can't even manage to put your frothing-at-the-mouth anger into sentence form! :) But look on the bright side: Michelle Obama might be "drafted" to run...
Trump was a self-inflicted wound. But now it is like "it felt so good when we shot ourselves in the foot, so it must feel so much better if we shoot ourselves in the head". It's beyond parody. Because of the consequences even if he isn't elected, this leans much further into tragedy than farce, but there is plenty of both.
USA is broken, hopefully not beyond repair.
What you really mean is: The EU, Russia and the CCP don't want this... :)
I understand your point of view: Bureaucratic power is the most important thing to maintain!
The U.S. must be cobbled... if it won't accede to its bureaucracy.
Good luck with that!
What you want is something that you can't deal with... A United States that adheres to its original principles.
What you mean is that you have no idea about anything. Russia welcomes Trump. Russia contributed to Trump's election campaign in 2016, significantly so, if not outright decisively. Trump and Putin are best buddies. Not as best as Trump and Epstein, but almost.
CCP also warmly welcomes an erratic American leader once again. The status of the war in Ukraine conveys the following message to the Far East: Westerners don't help even those of their own race, so they definitely won't help Asians. Meaning that Taiwan is entirely on its own, absolutely helpless in case USA gets a pact-ignoring Nato-demolishing president who has no idea about geopolitics, no idea about global trade and does not care to get an idea. For CCP this means: If Trump wins, we have Taiwan in our pocket. Foreseeing this, Japan has decided to remilitarise.
The EU is divided. Ever since the end of Cold War, the western half spearheaded by Germany and France has been working to undermine Nato (as a defence alliance against Russia) and USA's role on the continent. The western half of the EU has been working to approach Russia economically and politically, envisioning Russia's membership for the EU. A part of this policy has been to divest the new members of their voting rights with every new renegotiation of the EU constitution, and the next such step is right now on the lips of all western EU leaders, including Scholz, Macron, and Leyen.
The eastern half has no use for this kind of the EU. The eastern half of the EU sees Russia as an existential threat. They joined Nato and the EU (and Nato first) in order to counterbalance and counteract this existential threat. The current status of the war in Ukraine conveys the following message: Despite all treaties, alliances and memberships, the West does not do anything to hold itself to their declared values and signed commitments. The West sees no problem giving up the eastern countries to Russia. The following action by the eastern EU countries depends on how fast they are able to take this message in and reorient themselves. The fastest one to correctly foresee this coming was Orban who already reoriented Hungary pre-emptively. Hungary is best positioned for the post-Ukraine-war situation by having operable relations both with Russia and the EU biggies and also with USA, whoever the president there be. Hardly anyone else will (be able to) reorient themselves this radically, but at least nobody has any reason to hold to their commitments to the West any longer, since the West has by now clearly dropped all commitments (and even pretension of fairness) to the East which, for the East, held existential value, the most important value of all. The betrayal from the West has been absolutely total and thus reorientation is forced, inescapable. So, even though nobody in the eastern half of the EU welcomes a Nato-demolishing president in USA, realistically nobody can expect any president in USA be capable of saving Nato's reputation either. As a result, nobody in the eastern half of the EU gives a damn who becomes the president of USA. But the western half would welcome a reasonably polished diplomatic figure who would not look too bad to take a photo together with. Trump is not welcome for that reason.
And what is your reason to favour Trump for president, OakdaleFTL? I get it: He is the treasonous nepotist election-denying dictator wannabe with no morals, no principles, and no professionalism. He represents everything near and dear to yourself.