Aug 102020
 


Cy Twombly Fifty Days at Iliam: Like a Fire that Consumes All before It 1978

 

 

Might as well call it a social experiment. Any other name, like “coup” or “fishing expedition” or “hookers peeing on a bed” or “justice being done” would just inflame “passions” and lead away from what should be the actual topic.

Whatever you call it, the fact remains that Donald Trump has been the first US president to be under continued investigation for the entire 4 years of his first term, and for about a year before it as well. And that should be a cause for alarm for anyone who cares even a little bit about the American political system, including those who abhor Trump. Because once you do that, it’s no longer about just one president, it’s about all who will follow him, and inevitably about the integrity and validity of the system as a whole.

In principle, there should be no investigations of a sitting president, and not even of a presidential candidate, because this risks endangering 1) the entire electoral process, and 2) the Office of the President (not for once, but for ever). In principle. If there must be an investigation, it must be based on solid evidence available beforehand, it must be short, and the President must be removed. If all of these three things are not guaranteed, no investigation is warranted, and the accusing parties should be “liberated” from the positions they held when they initiated the investigation regardless. Skin in the game.

 

 

It gets increasingly harder to write about American politics, or express an opinion in any other way, without being dumped into one of two camps, never to be heard from again in the other (except for ridicule or slander). There is no such thing as a neutral or objective viewpoint anymore. You’re either with us or you’re against us – or them.

Seeing -and projecting- the world in black and white is a tempting proposal for anyone afraid of being confused; it should, however, never be an excuse for the media to not present its viewers and readers with a full color palette. But we can see every single day how that went. Black and white it is. And in that environment, too claustrophobic to be put in a box, I might as well paint the picture as I see it. Yes, in color.

 

The “social experiment” I see progressing has two parts:

1) can a political party, aided and abetted by the media and intelligence services, unseat an elected president it has just lost an election to?

2) can a presidential candidate be elected while shunning the media, debates, etc., and only appear at times and in forms that have been pre-selected by her/his handlers for maximum effect, while hiding his/her weaknesses?

 

As for no. 1, it has evidently not succeeded, but that is certainly not for lack of trying. One investigation has followed the other non-stop since 2016, in public and behind the scenes, and they have all come up empty. Of course one side would contest that and still say there was lots of evidence, but if so, it obviously wasn’t very strong, or Trump would have been gone.

People may also claim that the mandate of the Mueller investigation was too narrow, but really, go back and watch the man’s pathetic (sorry, but it was) testimony in Congress after the fact, that should be enough. Adam Schiff and Jerry Nadler and others have promised solid and inconvertible evidence many times, but we never saw any. Rest assured, whatever Trump may have done wrong, you would have heard about it by now.

Or to put it another way: he probably did many things wrong, but not the things he was accused of. In fact, the entire Putin puppet narrative is so idiotic it’s impossible not to ponder from time to time that it was designed from the get-go to support Trump, not hurt him.

As for no. 2, that looks even more experimental. The approach is helped along “wonderfully” by the pandemic, which provides plenty excuses to keep Biden hidden, but it goes against everything presidential campaigns have been built upon throughout American history: contact with voters. That very few people would believe Biden is his own man, and not a sock puppet, can’t help.

But there is more at stake. Presidential campaigns are one element of a much bigger process, and you can’t separate the two. Both parts of the “social experiment” seem to run afoul of the respect that bigger process, and ultimately the entire political system, necessarily demands from all participants, from an individual voter to a President. And that is much more important than either candidate. You can’t temporarily switch off that respect if and when that might suit your purpose, because you risk for it never to be switched on again.

 

You may dislike a presidential candidate, perhaps even intensely so, but that should never make you lose sight of the integrity, if not the sacredness, of the election process, of the political system, of the institutions, of the Constitution, and certainly not of the Office of the President of the United States. Because once you do that, you open the door for everyone to do the same in the future. And no, you can’t blame that on the candidate you don’t like, you do it.

When a candidate is selected through the primaries of his/her party, you must respect that, because if you don’t respect the process, you are lost, the system is lost, and there’s no telling when you’ll see it back, if ever. If that candidate is then elected President, a lot of doors that before allowed you to question and criticize him/her, should be closed. The country at that point has either a new President, or a second-term one. A different phase of the political process starts.

The House and the Senate become the critics, empowered by the system to hold the President accountable. But only the House and the Senate. Not the media, whose role it is, other than in the occasional opinion piece, to report on decisions made; not intelligence services, whose role it is to serve the country, and the new President it just elected; and not the opposition party, whose role it is to prepare for the next election, and to provide a degree of counterbalance, depending on how bad their loss was, on Capitol Hill.

The entire picture is crystal clear. So is everybody’s role in it. But now and then people -try to- refuse to accept their roles, obviously believing that they are more important than the integrity of the political system, and ignoring that in doing so they put the whole system at risk.

 

What was happening first became apparent in late 2015 – early 2016, when the New York Times began running multiple stories every day directed against Donald Trump. Mostly small bits, based on innuendo about his past, with a whiff of truth perhaps, but not more. The word “gratuitous” comes to mind. At a certain point, they did a dozen per day of the stories, it became assembly line work for the writers and editors..

The Washington Post chimed in, and so did CNN, MSNBC and others, including international press. It turned into a feeding frenzy, with all of them completely losing sight, voluntarily or not, of their roles as news providers. They all shape-shifted into opinion-only-makers, confident that their audience would not notice the difference, at least not at first. At that point it became a very Pavlovian thing.

Which is why I was initially going to name this essay “Trump vs Pavlov”. 100+ years ago, Ivan Pavlov “found” that if he rang a bell in front of a dog, and then gave her food, she would start to associate the two. When he increased the time-lapse between first, the bell, and then, the food, the dog would salivate in expectation of food at just the sound of the bell. In the end, all he had to do was ring the bell, with no food around, and the dog would salivate. So he had nothing to offer, no food, no substance, but the reaction was the same.

That is a very accurate description of what a large part of the US media have done -and become-. All they have to do at this point is mention Trump, or just show his picture, and their public will react the same every single time: Orange Man Bad. There doesn’t have to be any substance, any factual journalistic reports of wrongdoing. The “conditioned reflex” as Pavlov described it, has set in.

And their readers and viewers have become addicted to this. How could they not? They’ve been bombarded with 1000s of these bells ringing, and the substance may not be there, but the expectation of it is. If you’re a regular viewer of Rachel Maddow, what are the odds that your opinion is still your own after hearing RussiaRussia a million times? The only way it could be yours is if you switch her off.

I’ve written before that I don’t even think they really set out to do this. Initially, there were probably just some CEOs and owners and editors who didn’t like Trump and/or were affiliated in one way or another with the other party -and later candidate-. Who was counted on to win big anyway, so why not (well, because of the integrity of the political system!).

It was only later that they found out 24/7 anti-Trump “reporting” was a great business model for them. CNN was dying in early 2016, the New York Times was nor far behind, and all of a sudden numbers of viewers and readers and subscribers went through the roof.

Their problem is that if they succeed in making Trump lose in November, they will be back to where they came from before he appeared on the political scene. All of their “reporting” on US politics has devolved into a scheme based on ringing a bell, and on the scandal and anger their non-stop salivating audience have become addicted to, and mistake for substance.

If Joe Biden should win, that scheme is dead. They may hope to last a bit longer on the angry scandal of a possible persecution of Trump if he leaves office, but that would be it, and that’s not a business model. They can’t very well now turn on Biden and his puppeteers.

New York Times writer and editor Bari Weiss said it very well when she left the paper a few weeks ago, she summarized the essence of the MSM problem in just a few words:

“[..] the lessons that ought to have followed the election – lessons about the importance of understanding other Americans, the necessity of resisting tribalism, and the centrality of the free exchange of ideas to a democratic society—have not been learned. Instead, a new consensus has emerged in the press, but perhaps especially at this paper: that truth isn’t a process of collective discovery, but an orthodoxy already known to an enlightened few whose job is to inform everyone else”.


Why edit something challenging to our readers, or write something bold only to go through the numbing process of making it ideologically kosher, when we can assure ourselves of job security (and clicks) by publishing our 4000th op-ed arguing that Donald Trump is a unique danger to the country and the world?

 

That’s the media. Second in line is US intelligence. Which, there’s no other way to put it, conspired against a presidential candidate and, when he was elected, a sitting president. The Strzok-Page “insurance policy”, the Obama Oval Office conversations where Comey, Brennan, Clapper, Susan Rice were present, plus 1,000 other things, the overall picture doesn’t exactly point to that famous seamless transition, and US Intel played a pivotal, because accommodating, role in that.

The best way to show this is perhaps that US intelligence themselves did not (could not) come up with a report on alleged links between the -prospective- president’s team and Russia, but took a dossier paid for by the president’s opposition and used it to discredit and persecute him and people in his team. The dossier was written by a two-bit MI6 hustler who hadn’t set foot in Russia in at least a decade, and whose main ‘Russian source’ wasn’t there either, but sitting in an office in the US.

That source in turn had contacts with a group of Russians whose very business model it was to make up and embellish whatever stories the highest bidder required, while failing to deal with their own severe drinking problems. That dossier was the entire foundation (or 99% of it) behind Rod Rosenstein appointing Bob Mueller as a Special Counsel. The appointment would never have been made, never have been possible, without the Steele dossier.

 

How was the dossier vetted by US intelligence, if at all? It’s very clear now what was wrong with it, but the all knowing and very clever intelligence people could not have figured that out 4 years ago, and instead cleared it for Mueller, for further FBI use, for FISA applications? How about their treatment of Michael Flynn, who they had already cleared only to resurrect the dead corpse of their investigation into his talks with Russian ambassador Kislyak? How would you, personally, spell “in good faith”?

We will see in the near future what the Durham investigation into all Russiagate players will come to. Apparently, Durham has just another three weeks to present at least something, because there is a two-month “no-go-zone” before the election, during which he would be accused of tampering with the election. And the premise for the Democrats and their sympathizers is that if Biden wins, all slates will be wiped clean.

They won’t, by the way. America still has a justice system, even if it is oftentimes crippled and grinding(ly) slow. Just watch Michael Flynn attorney Sidney Powell and her team. They have vowed to not only have their client be exonerated, but to fully clear his name, which according to their view has been besmirched by everyone up to and including Joe Biden and Barack Obama.

 

The third leg of the “creature” is the Democratic party. Who have stepped so far over their boundaries, nobody recognizes anymore that there were any. Or that the political system they are an integral part of, dictates that there are things they cannot do, lest they corrupt that system to the core.

Once you lose a presidential election, you prepare for the next one. You don’t use the next 4 years to try and frustrate the president you just lost to with all you got. The system should not allow it and can not tolerate it. There should be skin in the game for opposition politicians, who when they come with accusations of gross misconduct serious enough to remove a president, should be forced to step down when the accusations don’t lead to the intended result.

It should never be a free for all, in which you can simply try again the next morning. Because the system cannot work if that is possible. It can’t be that if you win a midterm election and get a majority in the House, you can then use that majority to make it impossible for a president to work on the agenda that made millions vote for him/her. That would cause the system to grind to a halt, and the system must always be more important than its temporary participants (even those who “sit” for 40-50 years).

When you look at the speaker’s list for the Democrat -non- convention next week where Joe Biden will be confirmed as their -virtual- candidate, you see that other than AOC, it’s just a long list of the same old people who were already there when they lost in 2016, and co-losers Hillary and Obama still have a very tight grip on the power and the purse strings.

Why they stick with Joe Biden, g-d only knows, and the same goes for whichever highly unpopular black woman they pick as VP who could soon be president. And sorry, but they all are. Kamala Harris was among the first to step down during the primaries because she didn’t get any votes. Susan Rice is not exactly “loved by the people” either, and the rest are no-names, except for Warren, but she’s both too left and much too white.

So you’re thinking: what’s going on there? That’s really the best you can do? But it does seem to be, likely because Barackillary have a small group of confidantes to choose from who they themselves are confident will be willing to cede all actual power to them once elected. And if Harris and Rice don’t get picked as VP, they’ll still exert a lot of power.

As will Pelosi, Schiff, Nadler, there’s more new blood at Madame Tussaud’s than at the upper echelons of the Democratic party. Yes, AOC can come in to represent the squad in a cynical move (no power but brings in lots of votes), but that’s it. For the rest it’s still just the broken left wing of the war party. But you’re right, they’re none of them, Trump. And that at the same time is the sole identity they possess.

 

Anti-Trumpism has become a political religion. Because Trump is the only topic that attracts clickbait and viewers. The only topic that rings a bell. Joe Biden rings no bells whatsoever. A while back Donald Trump jr tweeted:

Trump is really running against the media, Silicon Valley, the establishment, the swamp, Hollywood and maybe Joe Biden.

While investor GreekFire23 did even better:

Trump is running against himself in this election. The vote will come down to those who love him vs those who hate him. Biden is totally irrelevant and not even campaigning. Biden has no platform, no slogan, no stickers, no signs, no rallies, no followers. It’s Trump vs Trump.

What can still sink Trump is obvious: it’s the economy and the pandemic. America’s problem is that no matter who wins, those will still be its main problems by January 2021. And another problem has been added in the course of 2020: protests and violence in the streets.

 

Update: I thought I could leave it at that for now, step out for a moment, have a glass of wine, let it all sink in, and write a closing paragraph. But then I was sitting outside in gorgeous Athens and this popped up, which I very obviously can’t leave out:

Senate Chairman Subpoenas FBI Director Wray For Russiagate Records; Puts Bidens On Notice

FBI Director Christopher Wray has been subpoenaed by the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs to produce “all documents related to the Crossfire Hurricane Investigation,” which includes “all records provided or made available to the Inspector General” regarding the FISA probe, as well as documents regarding the 2016-2017 presidential transition..

[..] The subpoena was issued by Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) as part of his investigation into the origins of Russiagate. It gives Wray until 5 p.m. on Aug. 20 to produce the documents. Johnson also released a lengthy letter on Monday in which he defended his Committee’s investigation and accused Democrats of initiating “a coordinated disinformation campaign and effort to personally attack” himself and Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) in order to distract from evidence his committee has gathered on Joe and Hunter Biden’s Ukraine dealings.

[..] Johnson’s committee has secured testimony from at least one State Department official who worked in Ukraine, and says the Bidens’ conduct created the appearance of a conflict of interest. “The appearance of family profiteering off of Vice President Biden’s official responsibilities is not unique to the circumstances involving Ukraine and Burisma,” wrote Johnson. “Public reporting has also shown Hunter Biden following his father into China and coincidentally landing lucrative business deals and investments there.

“Additionally, the former vice president’s brothers and sister-in-law, Frank, James and Sara Biden, also are reported to have benefited financially from his work as well.

I can’t let that go because it addresses exactly what my closing paragraph would have been about. Which is the risk of the giant divide that has developed in US society, getting even wider, and potentially leading to utter mayhem. Actually, it’s not even ‘potentially’ anymore, there already has been a lot of violence.

The Democrats think they will win easily on November 3, and then push through all of their their policies, after dumping on Trump for 4 years with their media and intelligence friends, but the 63 million Americans who voted for Trump, and most of their family and friends with them, don’t think so. That’s not a threat, it’s an observation.

They feel cheated out of their 2016 victory. They realize (or should I say “suspect”) that Russiagate and the Mueller probe and the Zelensky-linked impeachment “hearings” were empty vessels directed against the election outcome that they won fair and square, and I guarantee you they won’t take it sitting down.

Which means that no matter who wins, polarization will reach levels America has never seen, and, frankly, should never wish to. Because all of the people involved, bar just a precious few, will have to live together in the same country, and share the same society, streets, highways, stores and resources.

And sometimes I wonder: how are they going to do that? If Trump should win, how will the entire so-called left react, from the Democrats through the MSM to BLM? Will they just increase the protests and the violence in the streets?

Alternatively, if Joe Biden wins, how will the Conservative side of America react? Will they all go home and wait for what the DNC has in store for them, or will their reaction be pro-active? I know which reaction I would see them lean towards.

You have these two sides in society who appear further apart than even Moses could have hoped to bring back together again, you have the media who thrive on widening that divide even further, it’s a scary picture.

 

And in the meantime, while everyone’s busy blaming each other, who’s going to take care of the country?

 

 

 

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Home Forums A Social Experiment

Viewing 18 posts - 1 through 18 (of 18 total)
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  • #62009

    Cy Twombly Fifty Days at Iliam: Like a Fire that Consumes All before It 1978     Might as well call it a social experiment. Any other name,
    [See the full post at: A Social Experiment]

    #62011
    Maxwell Quest
    Participant

    One has to ask themselves, how do such incompetent people rise to the highest levels of state office, far surpassing even Peter Principle predictions? And once there, either elected or appointed, go on to serve only the monied interests at the expense of principle, vital institutions, peace, and the common good?

    Since these offices are obviously not attained by merit, I can only come to one conclusion: that they are ‘put’ there by people with far more power. People who prefer to rule from the shadows, while presenting a gullible polity with the illusion that they have a voice in a democratic government. This allows the men behind the curtain to proceed unhindered with their plans of greater wealth and world dominion.

    #62012
    VietnamVet
    Participant

    This is all true in spades. But, the overwhelming fact is that both political parties are complicit in the colossal failure to protect and serve the American people. Donald Trump is a disaster. Joe Biden is a disaster. The incompetence and corruption cannot be unintentional. They are paid to put corporation profits over public health and safety.

    Emma and James Galbraith; “This breakdown can be repaired only by dramatic, radical public action, mobilizing the whole population—effectively, for the duration—as a matter of survival, such as seen on only three occasions in US history: in 1861, at the start of the Civil War; in 1933, at the launch of the New Deal; and in 1941, at the start of World War II.” Until the coronavirus is contained, the Pandemic Depression will continue unabated. The US Stock Market is in fantasy land injected with digital dollars by the FED.

    The only thing left is rebuilding the national public health system, daily testing and containing the virus. If not, America will splinter apart. Last night bridges were raised to protect the Chicago Loop from armed looters.

    #62015
    V. Arnold
    Participant

    A very dark picture Ilargi.
    All too true; so glad I left when I did; I couldn’t possibly have predicted this…
    …all I can hope for now is to win the death bet…

    #62018
    John Day
    Participant

    Michelle Obama!
    What else have the Dems got?
    Early testing every 2 days at home with cheap strips kinda’ like pregnancy tests needs to be followed promptly with something like hydroxychloroquine/zinc (+/- azithromycin) and/or Ivermectin/zinc/doxycycline (but not doxy and azithro together).

    The trouble with coronavirus vaccine experiments for the last 18 years has been that after the vaccine works, and the rats have antibodies, and you expose rats to coronavirus, more of the ones die who got the vaccine, than the ones that did not.

    #62019
    V. Arnold
    Participant

    The trouble with coronavirus vaccine experiments for the last 18 years has been that after the vaccine works, and the rats have antibodies, and you expose rats to coronavirus, more of the ones die who got the vaccine, than the ones that did not.

    That supports my worst fears, of this particular anti-covid vaccine rush.
    It would seem that at this juncture, the best course is to do one’s very best to stay free of the virus for as long as possible.
    The learning curve for this covid-19 virus goes over the visual horizon at present…

    #62020
    Huskynut
    Participant

    I no big fan of Trump, but the fact he’s still standing after all they’ve thrown at him.. well I take my hat off to him on that. OTOH, it’s an excommunication offence amongst half my family and quite a few friends to observe even this tepid praise.
    Part of me is curious what he would do in a second term.. a “Trump Unchained” as it were. Quite possibly whatever he pleased, without regard to his successor or to his donors, which he’d have little loyalty to.
    No doubt there’s a huge number on both sides of the aisle holding their breath that doesn’t happen.
    But… what a spectacle if it does!

    #62021
    V. Arnold
    Participant

    Part of me is curious what he would do in a second term.. a “Trump Unchained” as it were.

    Well, let’s see; he’s wrecked the economy (50+ million unemployed, highest in history), tens of thousands of business failures/closures, proved totally incompetent in the handling of the Coronavirus (150,000 dead and counting), delivered the coup de grace to public education (that might be a blessing), destroying the dollar as reserve currency, destroying relations with China, alienating the EU by sanctioning Nordstream-2 pipeline, generally driving the decline of the U.S. as a world power.
    All politicians lie, but Trump? Hands down the most blatant and prolific…
    Oh, and what about the riots in numerous cities across the U.S. going on for months, basically becuase of his racist policies and injustices…should I continue? 😉

    #62022
    laffin_boy
    Participant

    It’s been an “interesting” year so far – in the same sense of usage as the ancient Chinese curse. I know, intellectually, that we homo sapiens are emotional, irrational & illogical creatures but I wasn’t prepared for not only the staggering degree of ineptitude by virtually all Western governments to the current pandemic but also the bizarre and self destructive reaction to the threat by virtually all of it’s citizens. Including many of whom i’ve long respected as intelligent and usually sensible people. So it’s taken me longer than it should have to see this but I think Kubler-Ross would recognize this collective psychoses as classic denial to the circumstances that are too threatening to deal with when they arrive. It took me too long to get to this point because I saw that the virus *could* have been neutered with relatively little social & economic disruption – as most of Asia has just proved – without destroying our entire Way of Life as all of the Advanced™ countries have just done. But we did the opposite! And this doesn’t make any sense until you put it into context. The crucial context is that our Western Civilization is 40 years into it’s decline and as the last 6 mos have shown we, collectively, seem to have a collective death wish. We’re tired of waiting I guess.

    I’ve been watching our decline for many years now, grudgingly admiring the resiliency of our “Road Runner”culture that’s well into rigor mortis but manages to stagger on by shear momentum. Yes, I understand that collapse is a process and not an event but the process is not linear. It can and will annoy irritate us collapsitarians with it’s stubborn persistence but when conditions are right we’ll get a trigger event that will dramatically and abruptly steepen the downslope. That’s where we are now. There will be no Recovery – “V” shaped or otherwise. What’s ahead of us in the next few years will make us wish it were just a “Depression” that one might suffer through. is And none of us are ready – if by “ready” we mean being able and willing to acknowledge the reality and full significance of this point in our lives.

    For many years I read the “doomers” and studied the causes of civilizational collapse but that was the easy part because it was all somewhat abstract and intellectual. But I notice that none of the prophets seem to be able to rise to the occasion now that it’s turned real. J M Greer has apparently retreated to mysticism. Dmitry and J Kuntsler have become entertainers – pushing our buttons for cash. And Ilargi? Well after decades (?) of sage advice he seems to be stuck in 1st gear – unable to shift up to cope with the terrain we’re on now. What he warned us about is about to kick our door in but all we’re getting on AE now is the minutiae of the degeneration of our social collapse rather than calling it as it truly is and talking about what’s in store for us in the short to mid-term future. If we wanted to follow the antics of Pelosi, Schiff, Clinton, Mueller, Trump or watch videos of cute puppies to distract ourselves from the ugly future then we know where the boob tube is.

    What kicked off this rant was reading today’s editorial. There’s an underlying assumption here that on some level Ilargi knows simply isn’t true. To point out that the (corrupt) opposition is threatening the integrity and sanctity of our (corrupt) system of government and our (AWOL) constitution is to pretend that such things still exist in reality. We have no agreed upon system of government. The constitution joined the Dead Sea Scrolls years ago. We are probably just months or weeks from when the shooting starts for real and most of us are still pretending that we have Rights protected by our Democratic Government. Time to grow a pair and begin to accept that the future we hoped not to see in our lifetimes has just pulled into our driveway.

    #62023
    Huskynut
    Participant

    @V.Arnold
    A chunk of that is indeed true. But..
    – the race riots are as much the fault of the predominantly Democratic-run states (something like 17 of the worst 20 from memory).
    – the Nordstream-2 sanctions are off the back of relentless pressure by the dems to antagonise Russia at all costs, or validate their relentless Russophobic accusations
    – the decline of the US as a world power has been baked in for a couple of decades now via hubris and corruption
    – Trumps lies are indeed coarse and obvious. Obama would have smoothly and glibly avoiding saying anything of substance. If one of those is better than the other, I really can’t see it

    And on the positive, despite continuing Obama’s military foray in Syria, Trump has conspicuously not invaded any new countries in the way Bush and Obama/Hillary before him seemed to have no compunctions.

    So yeah, coarse and vulgar, and often a dick. And if I were from the US, I’d be embarrassed that he was my elected leader. But in terms of douchery, just one in a party-interchangeable conga line stretching quite a while back… 🙂

    #62024
    Huskynut
    Participant

    @laffin_boy
    There’s a few of us here have expressed the same sort of frustrated rage at the way things have played out this year, and the potential bleakness for the future, so I have sympathy for your view.
    Thing is, what’re ya gonna do? The majority of people are in deep denial and are absolutely immune to any “real” conversation. For preppers, there’s only so much prepping you can do. After that, it’s a matter of waiting for things to kick off to have anything to respond to, or to wake up a few sleepers such that they’ll be in any way receptive.
    CJ Hopkins has a good column up today: https://off-guardian.org/2020/08/10/invasion-of-the-new-normals/
    I’m open to any good ideas on what we could be doing, but it feels just like a zombie movie out there, and I don’t see what can be be usefully done right now.

    #62025
    V. Arnold
    Participant

    – Trumps lies are indeed coarse and obvious. Obama would have smoothly and glibly avoiding saying anything of substance. If one of those is better than the other, I really can’t see it

    Frankly, I despise Obama more than Trump for exactly that reason…Trump is the more honest character…
    …but then, thats like asking which you’d rather be bitten by; a cobra or a bushmaster…

    @laffin_boy

    What Huskynut said… 😉

    #62026

    laffin_boy

    Good! If I evoke that kind of reaction from people I think I’m not doing too shabby.

    Different people react differently to changes, and adapt to them in different ways as well. That they don’t all comply with what your particular way is, shouldn’t be all that surprising. It also doesn’t mean they’re wrong. Don’t confuse these matters too easily.

    #62052

    “Will they just increase the protests and the violence in the streets?”
    61% of republicans own guns, vs 16% of democrats. (Statista) This may have consequences if the riots start up and move to residential areas during the Long Interim between Election Day and whenever a “winner” is declared. (by WHOM????)

    #62057
    regionswork
    Participant

    2008 Republicans, each year is now its own vintage, (I’m 1968 when at 21, first voted for Richard Nixon, but as well an Eisenhower Republican from Wisconsin), vowed to make Obama fail. The Southern Strategy conversion of Democrats to Republicans, observed here in Virginia, is a branding switch that took time and money. Advocating for the strong e executive, they complained about Obama, but are happy with Trump’s strong man tactics. Independents are the third party. When I came to Virginia it was primarily Democrat, but moving toward Republican. The got over the bloody flag. Only sane thing was to vote for the better person. Lovers of disruption like to cheer from the sidelines. Few actually acknowledge the necessity and value of civic and civil government. The fighting underlies the fact that resources are depleted, so real growth isn’t possible. The Automatic Earth has begun to renew itself, rebalancing is producing great waves of change. There is no Left in the US. There is Center and Extreme Right. The arrow of time won’t go back to the glory days, but the disappointed don’t want physics, so cry on.

    #62084
    PhillipAllen
    Participant

    “the riots in numerous cities across the U.S. going on for months, basically because of [Trump’s] racist policies and injustices”

    I think that’s a misreading of what’s happening on the ground, though it’s definitely the spin the Dems want to put on things. After all, time reset after January 20, 2017 and nothing that happened before matters.

    The rebellions against police murder have been overwhelmingly in cities long controlled by the Democrat Party. The leadership of both factions (I consider both Dems and Reps to be factions of the Money Party – the ‘two-party system’ being but a prop in the spectacle) have worked hand-in-hand to militarize the police, to immiserate the working class, and make the day to day struggle for existence so difficult as to leave no time or energy for organizing against their owners and masters.

    There is no hope for the working class no matter who is elected. #BITFD

    #62085
    PhillipAllen
    Participant

    Huskynut wrote “I’m open to any good ideas on what we could be doing, but it feels just like a zombie movie out there, and I don’t see what can be be usefully done right now.”

    I’m old and won’t survive the process of collapse (political, economic, environmental) that is working itself out before our eyes. I don’t think there’s a damned thing that can avert said collapse, whether that process completes itself in 10 or 30 years. What I do think is worthwhile and reasonable is to preserve knowledge and skill sets that will be important to the life that will come after collapse. Our future will be profoundly deindustrialized and functioning on vastly reduced energy inputs. We would be best served by preserving knowledge and skills useful in such a setting.

    Any effort spent trying to reform (or even influence) official politics is futile for us in the lower 90%. Better to foster and support local initiatives that grow self-sufficiency, self-reliance, and cooperation – skills and attitudes that will serve us well no matter what our owners and masters would prefer we do.

    #62115
    V. Arnold
    Participant

    PhillipAllen

    Excellent! Thank you…

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