Occupy Wall Street Yes, it’s about domestic Outlaw US Empire politics as we near the 2024 election in November, roughly 41 weeks away. Is it shaping up as badly as 1860? No, the issues are very different and thus the dynamics too. The only real similarity is the refusal to place all candidates onto each state’s ballot. I hear a question coming from the back of the room: If the USA’s a democracy, then why are only a few allowed onto the ballot in each state, and why are the restrictions so restricting? Isn’t that an excellent question? Whose interests does this state-of-affairs serve? A few are aware of what the courts have already ruled about both the D & R Parties: That they are both private corporations and have no legal duty to listen to what the public wants through elections and conventions—they can put whoever they want as their nominees for President and Vice-President. Yes, you read that correctly.
I couldn't care less, being an anarchist. Watching this country and its society fall apart is both amusing and educational.
And as for the ridiculous talk-up of a "civil war" - even spawning an idiotic movie - this is obviously intended to serve the PTB agenda of breaking down what little remains of so-called "civil rights" - which don't exist and never have - and expanding the power of the state even further. And of course, all this will be welcomed by both "sides" - which are in reality one side: morons.
There's zero chance of any "civil war" anyway, primarily because there is no one to fight it. The stupid "militias" are riddled with Federal informants and the instant they get out of line, they'll end up like the Branch Davidians and Ruby Ridge. The US military may not be able to win a war anywhere outside the country but even with a bunch of "woke" recruits, they should still be able to suppress any excessive urban violence. And as we've seen in Ukraine, rural insurgency is no longer possible in the age of drones and thermal vision.
What is far more likely than "civil war" is the imposition of dictatorship, however camouflaged by legalistic niceties and "bi-partisan" support. Censorship is now total except for the Internet and that can be easily imposed. Criticizing Israel is already a "hate crime" subject to prosecution. This will easily be extended to anyone criticizing any moves the government makes to repress any alleged "insurgency". January 6 was merely a first run.
People are advised to start reading up on "Gray Man Theory" and tradecraft. Sticking your head out will land you in prison. Been there, done that, not happening again.
Can I ask you a question Karl? I get that the democracy in my little subset of NATO is a fiction, like a carnival game made to look plausible but angled enough to never really give out the good rewards. Purposeful lack of education, lack of impartial journalism, too much corporate interference and government structured apparatus that is unwilling to be responsive to actual organic demand and change.
What terrifies me is the idea that if we go one higher step up the ladder to the international stage its still going to be more of the same, the NATO party leader and the Eurasian party leader are going to offer to different rhetoric but now behind their curtain the same small circles of "elites" meaning the people who control the planets wealth are still just going to keep profiting hand over fist packaging and selling to different sides of the same divide a conquer game. In your research/knowledge of the eastern communities, is anyone espousing such possibilities or anything tangible evidence of such.
I use to ask COVID deniers, yeah I agree with you we cannot trust our own government but for the COVID crisis to have been a total lie it would have had to have been a lie that all NATO, EU, Russia & China would have had to have held up together. Why then do you think Russia and China would play along with that? I use to think that was a pretty solid safeguard, but is it?
Was the Pandemic a False Flag? No. Why do I say that? Because it inflicted damage on China's economic drive as it was meant to and disrupted the entire global economy. Who profited is answered by looking at all the fiat injected into the system by the Fed to keep the zero interest rate policy afloat. Then there are other aspects like the refusal to this day of Russia's extremely effective Sputnik-V vaccine to enter the global market, while the deadly mRNA vaccines were allowed without any of the required trials. Big Pharma and Neoliberal Finance are the two massive economic/political factions that won bigtime. Russia decided against mandatory vaccination while China opted for it. Both were correct in their choices. At the time, I did a close examination of the policy direction chosen by Trump, which amounted to a Do Nothing policy as he was clearly out-of-the-loop. That changed when he was informed he needed to alter his Do Nothing policy. I wrote about all that at the time at my VK and those essays remain there.
As for the current Big Picture Geopolitical conflict and its direction, look again at Xi's four major global initiatives and the two joint declarations made by Russia/China and the continuing behavior of those two nations. Then look at the behavior of the nations gathering together with them, particularly the former colonized nations. The goal is to change the international order into what it was devised/envisioned as becoming after WW2. But how to do that without there being a kinetic WW3? The way out of the current paradigm has been known for quite awhile but until recently wasn't acted upon because the scales of Geopolitical power have only recently been tipped into the non-Western world's favor. The key is to remove the global financial structure from the West's control and make it such that no one nation can use it as its tool. The Outlaw US Empire has had a grip on that system since the end of WW1 and was able to make its main hegemonic tool with Bretton Woods in 1944.
The two most dynamic nations on earth currently are China and Russia, with a slew of nations right behind them. It's important to know that 1/3 of the Outlaw US Empire's reported GDP is actually a tax on the system lowering real GDP to about $15 Trillion, meaning China is the #1 global economy by any measure and it will remain that way for a long time with India being the only nation with a real chance at parity, perhaps by 2050. What becomes of the Neoliberal Bloc of nations depends on their internal politics. I expect the Bloc to eventually shrivel as most of Europe frees itself from its Colonial dependency status. But that's not going to happen anytime soon. More will certainly be written and examined here at the Gym. Many arrows are pointing at 2030 as the possible big inflection point.
The answer to your question is going to determine how the coming century unfolds. There definitely was almost universal international cooperation which I agree does not bode well for the future. That said, the past was irreparably corrupt even if it did make for a small number of wealthy countries for not much more than a century, mainly due to a sudden shift in technology from the Western-invented Industrial Revolution before which most of the Gold & Silver plunder from the Americas was filling Asian coffers via Maritime trade.
It's all very well painting rosy pictures of the future, especially when up against an unjust Tyrant, which the Hegemonic Money Power has become. But at some point there have to be clear Rules, aka Law, enforced when necessary by Authority in the event that some choose not to obey such Law. Historically, this system involved creating Emperors in whom was invested final authority over the various nations, and their national leaders, within that Empire. Under socialist-inspired doctrine, setting up human authority figures like this is anathema so now we have to have Rule by Committee (aka Soviets), which is the old Round Table idea. But then at some point from that Round Table is chosen a Primus inter Pares, a First among Peers/Equals, which is the Emperor again.
If China becomes the Emperor again, possibly all could be well. Possibly not. But if there is no Central Authority, will a single, coordinated world order such as we saw in Covid be the Next Great Thing? Judging from the Covid phenomenon, surely the answer must be 'No'. It had an extremely totalitarian feeling, like we were living in 1984 or Brave New World, or maybe a World War of sorts - which is perhaps what all this really is. In any case, I for one share your concern.
The deception in all of these 'screw Trump' shenanigans is that people will mass to defend this scoundrel, this good for nothing fraudster. Its just so USA for it all to go to sh!t this way - red herring diversion. Occupy Wall Street is the way to go but in the warm up, people could occupy R or D party HQ in whatever state they like.
I am sure I do not share Tom Fitton's confidence in the US Supreme Court but then it is worth a try - just to watch the circus and the breathless venting of the msm breakfast broadcast vomitocracy..
Yeah, two known criminals supposedly at the tip of the POTUS campaign heap. As I wrote, continuity of policy and thus people. In the comparison with 1860, there's a UNSC connection of importance--Dred Scott Decision. Nichols weaves its importance into the political blender in his excellent book as it impacted Douglas's position on Slavery which split the American Democracy as the Ds were known at the time.
"Lincoln ... Stephen A. Douglas .... John Breckinridge... John Bell"
What strikes me is the difference in calibre between the giants of the past and the shrivelled politcal pigmies of the current dispensation.
And the same contrast is to be found, I suspect, in the membership of the Supreme Court. To say nothing of the Congress. Is there a man or woman in the House fit to share Thad Stevens' washroom? As to the Senate...!!
Yes, as I wrote in another reply, the political eras are vastly different not just because of the players but because of the system--what it was then in 1860 is no more.
Giants arise from a context, a medium, a culture. What we have today, at least in the West, is Babel. The only possible Giant to emerge from such a confused mayhem will be a War Lord who will unify the entire mess. If it is a benevolent War Lord, fine; if not, a benevolent one will arise to overthrow the malevolent Tyrant. But either way, war is the only possible unifying principle now - at least in the West.
In Chinese I Ching philosophy, the trigram Heaven (three unbroken yang lines) symbolizes primordial creativity, leadership and, interestingly, War. War has a way of wiping the old slate clean, although if not conducted impeccably of course it can make things worse than they were before. Worse maybe, but at least less muddled with all speaking the same language - groans and cries!
Without due process & trial, I don't see how Shenna & Co. can declare Trump guilty & get away with it.
I do hope a red state or 2 will join the game, if only to free USSC from charges of bias.
I've given up on elections. I will be write-in voting for my deceased dogs. Even dead, they would make better "leaders" than whichever bought & paid for thugs they shove in our faces.
I feel like I'm re-living my childhood, writ large. Parents in perpetual war, dependents' lives as cannon fodder. I hid in the woods in summer, in the back of the attic in winter.
I'm still struggling to move from this shithole of a neighborhood to safer, more hideoutable digs. Any "civil war" will amount to breakdown of order with score-settling. And my neighbors hate me for the same reason as my parents & sisters. Cuz I was born. 🤷
As I wrote, the game is only beginning and much more is to come. I felt the article did a good job of explaining the current constitutional dynamics. But there's much more at issue than ballot access as I pointed out.
Not only written but well enough known that corrupting Google to make it impossible to find with a search or even just 20 pages back in search returns isn't going to go unnoticed.
This new year is shaping up to be more "interesting" than happy.
Pandering like this is not good for a functioning democracy. Making 'virtue signaling' decisions waiting for a SCOTUS overrule is a waste of time and money and an insult to what remains of public intelligence.
I see the issue being used to shift the narrative from incompetence to legalities. Perhaps if the Rs got serious and Impeached Biden so a Trial could commence by Easter.
To me, just an attack of the nasties and competing for positions in the DNC hierarchy.
Kathy Hochul, when not considered for Lt Gov second term by Andrew Cuomo, was angling for an Ambassador position of significance, Lichtenstein not being on the wish list. She is still angling which to me explains outlawing gas stoves in New York State and other DIE virtue signaling.
karl.. thanks for this and other article on china.. you have a typo in the last paragraph - " It once mattered globally who one" - one = won... you might want to change that... cheers..
Thanks for the FYI. The problem with editing articles after they're sent is that they're resent, and that's something I don't do unless the typo is detrimental to understanding.
I see it as more complex as Constitutionally, who is to regulate elections? And then there's the court decision I mentioned that defranchised every citizen, although too few are aware of that fact.
Thanks for the download info (TheDisruptionOfAmericanDemocracy.pdf).
2024 is going to be a very interesting year WRT to political processes. As far as I know there will be lots of elections in many places. Whether one assumes that elections are a sham or a reflection of popular opinion, the results of the elections will have an effect on 'the public mood'.
As a guess I would suggest that the degree of public dissatisfaction by the end of 2024 election cycle will be at least equal to the brief episodes we saw in the early summer in France and else where.
Here in the UK it feels like being in a satrapy of the Outlaw empire, so without wishing you harm, I hope the s**t does hit the fan over there.
Understood. We're well away from population centers that might erupt. A majority of the public here is already dissatisfied with the electoral process and the Constitutional dysfunction was in-built to make positive reform capable of upsetting Class relations virtually impossible. Given the intense focus of Imperial policy against the interests of Russia, China and the wider world, of course all those players will affect the US elections, but of course the policy makers can't admit it's their policy that causes that equation. I'm certain you'll enjoy the book. It provides an excellent look at the conduct of US national politics before the industrial and financial Age that eventually captured and destroyed it.
Is it just a rumour that the original Constitution was re-written more than once to "... make positive reform capable of upsetting Class relations virtually impossible."?
Meanwhile, best wishes to you and yours for 2024 and beyond.
When you look at the size of the super-majorities needed to even commence talk about reform, and realize how the states also conformed to the national Class structure, it's easy to see. I have the multivolume texts on the so-called constitutional debates whose notes were never to be made public. Think about that last fact and what it entails and suggests--the citizenry wasn't ever to know how their supposedly democratic-republican form of government was arrived at. And what did it oust, and how much study is devoted to the Articles of Confederation to try and divine the real reasons for the Philadelphia Coup of 1787--an historical interpretation that's hard to find in any publication, thus begging the question why that's the case.
More discussion of this will occur in the new year. Do have an enjoyable holiday!
Hiya, i can't rustle up any interest in US elections, we all know who rules the roost. Your spell check let through 'It once mattered globally who one,' i think. It doesn't matter who wins and it's gone quiet on RFK since health freedom realised he supports Israel.
"2024 will see a record number of elections globally with those within the Outlaw US Empire being merely one of many. It once mattered globally who one (WON!), but foreign and domestic policy now is continuous and is merely tinkered with at the margins. It’s that big problem that actually pisses off most likely US voters—policy is rarely ever changed to favor the 99%. I wrote about the roots of this problem during the 2020 election and will likely revisit them again."
I look forward to reading your thinking on this. I have given up on US politics and the entire socio-political arena. All it engenders is cognitive dissonance at this point, which I suspect is the desired effect, in which case the best political action is to boycott participating in what has clearly become a huge fraud.
I was thinking of writing a comment the other day about truth and falsehood relative to the oft-repeated phrase that 'threat to our democracy.'
What's false about this statement is most citizens' notion of what is meant by 'democracy', a nation of sovereign individuals who together choose their laws and leadership, Athens writ large etc. That's what most people mean when they say the word 'democracy' but as regards what America now is, that idea is false.
What is true is that America is some sort of pathocratic plutocracy with a democratic front wherein every few years ritual elections are performed to provide the illusion that the peoples' (false) idea of democracy is alive and well. In any case, when someone says 'Trump is a threat to our democracy' they are telling the truth, for whether or not Trump is a fraud, buffoon or simply outmatched, he represents a populist movement that desires to 'drain the swamp' and restore their sincerely held, if naive, notion of what American Democracy should be. Theirs is a vision of America with flags flying proudly down Main Streets in Glorious Small Town America where the most important thing is which High School Quarterback in the region gets the MVP Trophy and who is his gleaming Sweetheart. Somewhere in the distance there is a strong Military with a Big Stick to keep out the Bad Guys providing good jobs for those who serve their country, but it's far away on the horizon only vaguely discerned - because Main Street is really where it's at, so-called 'fly-over country'.
Such populist yearnings for a return to original 'democracy' is anathema to the plutocratic Powers that Be. So when they say 'Trump is a threat to Democracy' they are telling us the truth, albeit their sense of the meaning of that word is far different from that employed by most Americans. Perhaps this is why there is so much cognitive dissonance: America - and thus the West in general - is become a Tower of Babel. That which knit us together as a civilization is no more.
And the hard truth we must one day face is that even when we were knit together our elites kept generating endless wars. It's been a mess for well over a millennium.
Asia will rise, as per your other latest post. They will be far more authoritarian and less love-and-lighty than they now appear, but they will also prove more stable and less belligerent because they have authentic experience of running large population civilizations going back to the time of Christ. Genghis Khan is the one who upset their apple cart; he expanded China too far too fast and the hidebound Mandarins got their revenge by kicking out his great grandchildren and imposing a Maritime Ban for a couple of centuries. China slipped as piracy became the Way in the busiest maritime trade routes of the world which didn't disappear but did lack law and order, into which lawless free-for-all Jewish banking houses from the Middle East and Europe, long involved in international commerce, slipped in creating later European Empires based on plunder and resource arbitrage, aka 'colonialism'.
Well, the Maritime Ban is no more, and the West's plunder is increasingly that of its own elites devouring its own people, the natural end point of so nakedly materialist a ruling ethos. We shall see what transpires, but quite possibly 2024 will end up a veritable feeding frenzy, both groups - populists and kleptocrats - having at it in some sort of End Times frenzy. Or not. Time, as always, will tell.
I couldn't care less, being an anarchist. Watching this country and its society fall apart is both amusing and educational.
And as for the ridiculous talk-up of a "civil war" - even spawning an idiotic movie - this is obviously intended to serve the PTB agenda of breaking down what little remains of so-called "civil rights" - which don't exist and never have - and expanding the power of the state even further. And of course, all this will be welcomed by both "sides" - which are in reality one side: morons.
There's zero chance of any "civil war" anyway, primarily because there is no one to fight it. The stupid "militias" are riddled with Federal informants and the instant they get out of line, they'll end up like the Branch Davidians and Ruby Ridge. The US military may not be able to win a war anywhere outside the country but even with a bunch of "woke" recruits, they should still be able to suppress any excessive urban violence. And as we've seen in Ukraine, rural insurgency is no longer possible in the age of drones and thermal vision.
What is far more likely than "civil war" is the imposition of dictatorship, however camouflaged by legalistic niceties and "bi-partisan" support. Censorship is now total except for the Internet and that can be easily imposed. Criticizing Israel is already a "hate crime" subject to prosecution. This will easily be extended to anyone criticizing any moves the government makes to repress any alleged "insurgency". January 6 was merely a first run.
People are advised to start reading up on "Gray Man Theory" and tradecraft. Sticking your head out will land you in prison. Been there, done that, not happening again.
Can I ask you a question Karl? I get that the democracy in my little subset of NATO is a fiction, like a carnival game made to look plausible but angled enough to never really give out the good rewards. Purposeful lack of education, lack of impartial journalism, too much corporate interference and government structured apparatus that is unwilling to be responsive to actual organic demand and change.
What terrifies me is the idea that if we go one higher step up the ladder to the international stage its still going to be more of the same, the NATO party leader and the Eurasian party leader are going to offer to different rhetoric but now behind their curtain the same small circles of "elites" meaning the people who control the planets wealth are still just going to keep profiting hand over fist packaging and selling to different sides of the same divide a conquer game. In your research/knowledge of the eastern communities, is anyone espousing such possibilities or anything tangible evidence of such.
I use to ask COVID deniers, yeah I agree with you we cannot trust our own government but for the COVID crisis to have been a total lie it would have had to have been a lie that all NATO, EU, Russia & China would have had to have held up together. Why then do you think Russia and China would play along with that? I use to think that was a pretty solid safeguard, but is it?
Was the Pandemic a False Flag? No. Why do I say that? Because it inflicted damage on China's economic drive as it was meant to and disrupted the entire global economy. Who profited is answered by looking at all the fiat injected into the system by the Fed to keep the zero interest rate policy afloat. Then there are other aspects like the refusal to this day of Russia's extremely effective Sputnik-V vaccine to enter the global market, while the deadly mRNA vaccines were allowed without any of the required trials. Big Pharma and Neoliberal Finance are the two massive economic/political factions that won bigtime. Russia decided against mandatory vaccination while China opted for it. Both were correct in their choices. At the time, I did a close examination of the policy direction chosen by Trump, which amounted to a Do Nothing policy as he was clearly out-of-the-loop. That changed when he was informed he needed to alter his Do Nothing policy. I wrote about all that at the time at my VK and those essays remain there.
As for the current Big Picture Geopolitical conflict and its direction, look again at Xi's four major global initiatives and the two joint declarations made by Russia/China and the continuing behavior of those two nations. Then look at the behavior of the nations gathering together with them, particularly the former colonized nations. The goal is to change the international order into what it was devised/envisioned as becoming after WW2. But how to do that without there being a kinetic WW3? The way out of the current paradigm has been known for quite awhile but until recently wasn't acted upon because the scales of Geopolitical power have only recently been tipped into the non-Western world's favor. The key is to remove the global financial structure from the West's control and make it such that no one nation can use it as its tool. The Outlaw US Empire has had a grip on that system since the end of WW1 and was able to make its main hegemonic tool with Bretton Woods in 1944.
The two most dynamic nations on earth currently are China and Russia, with a slew of nations right behind them. It's important to know that 1/3 of the Outlaw US Empire's reported GDP is actually a tax on the system lowering real GDP to about $15 Trillion, meaning China is the #1 global economy by any measure and it will remain that way for a long time with India being the only nation with a real chance at parity, perhaps by 2050. What becomes of the Neoliberal Bloc of nations depends on their internal politics. I expect the Bloc to eventually shrivel as most of Europe frees itself from its Colonial dependency status. But that's not going to happen anytime soon. More will certainly be written and examined here at the Gym. Many arrows are pointing at 2030 as the possible big inflection point.
The answer to your question is going to determine how the coming century unfolds. There definitely was almost universal international cooperation which I agree does not bode well for the future. That said, the past was irreparably corrupt even if it did make for a small number of wealthy countries for not much more than a century, mainly due to a sudden shift in technology from the Western-invented Industrial Revolution before which most of the Gold & Silver plunder from the Americas was filling Asian coffers via Maritime trade.
It's all very well painting rosy pictures of the future, especially when up against an unjust Tyrant, which the Hegemonic Money Power has become. But at some point there have to be clear Rules, aka Law, enforced when necessary by Authority in the event that some choose not to obey such Law. Historically, this system involved creating Emperors in whom was invested final authority over the various nations, and their national leaders, within that Empire. Under socialist-inspired doctrine, setting up human authority figures like this is anathema so now we have to have Rule by Committee (aka Soviets), which is the old Round Table idea. But then at some point from that Round Table is chosen a Primus inter Pares, a First among Peers/Equals, which is the Emperor again.
If China becomes the Emperor again, possibly all could be well. Possibly not. But if there is no Central Authority, will a single, coordinated world order such as we saw in Covid be the Next Great Thing? Judging from the Covid phenomenon, surely the answer must be 'No'. It had an extremely totalitarian feeling, like we were living in 1984 or Brave New World, or maybe a World War of sorts - which is perhaps what all this really is. In any case, I for one share your concern.
The deception in all of these 'screw Trump' shenanigans is that people will mass to defend this scoundrel, this good for nothing fraudster. Its just so USA for it all to go to sh!t this way - red herring diversion. Occupy Wall Street is the way to go but in the warm up, people could occupy R or D party HQ in whatever state they like.
I am sure I do not share Tom Fitton's confidence in the US Supreme Court but then it is worth a try - just to watch the circus and the breathless venting of the msm breakfast broadcast vomitocracy..
Yeah, two known criminals supposedly at the tip of the POTUS campaign heap. As I wrote, continuity of policy and thus people. In the comparison with 1860, there's a UNSC connection of importance--Dred Scott Decision. Nichols weaves its importance into the political blender in his excellent book as it impacted Douglas's position on Slavery which split the American Democracy as the Ds were known at the time.
"Lincoln ... Stephen A. Douglas .... John Breckinridge... John Bell"
What strikes me is the difference in calibre between the giants of the past and the shrivelled politcal pigmies of the current dispensation.
And the same contrast is to be found, I suspect, in the membership of the Supreme Court. To say nothing of the Congress. Is there a man or woman in the House fit to share Thad Stevens' washroom? As to the Senate...!!
Yes, as I wrote in another reply, the political eras are vastly different not just because of the players but because of the system--what it was then in 1860 is no more.
Giants arise from a context, a medium, a culture. What we have today, at least in the West, is Babel. The only possible Giant to emerge from such a confused mayhem will be a War Lord who will unify the entire mess. If it is a benevolent War Lord, fine; if not, a benevolent one will arise to overthrow the malevolent Tyrant. But either way, war is the only possible unifying principle now - at least in the West.
In Chinese I Ching philosophy, the trigram Heaven (three unbroken yang lines) symbolizes primordial creativity, leadership and, interestingly, War. War has a way of wiping the old slate clean, although if not conducted impeccably of course it can make things worse than they were before. Worse maybe, but at least less muddled with all speaking the same language - groans and cries!
Without due process & trial, I don't see how Shenna & Co. can declare Trump guilty & get away with it.
I do hope a red state or 2 will join the game, if only to free USSC from charges of bias.
I've given up on elections. I will be write-in voting for my deceased dogs. Even dead, they would make better "leaders" than whichever bought & paid for thugs they shove in our faces.
I feel like I'm re-living my childhood, writ large. Parents in perpetual war, dependents' lives as cannon fodder. I hid in the woods in summer, in the back of the attic in winter.
I'm still struggling to move from this shithole of a neighborhood to safer, more hideoutable digs. Any "civil war" will amount to breakdown of order with score-settling. And my neighbors hate me for the same reason as my parents & sisters. Cuz I was born. 🤷
As I wrote, the game is only beginning and much more is to come. I felt the article did a good job of explaining the current constitutional dynamics. But there's much more at issue than ballot access as I pointed out.
Which is why I feel the urgent need to move to "more hideoutable digs."
I live in Maine. There is a lot more going on here than ballot access.
True. There's the perpetual Class War that's actually the Main Event.
Excellent, Karlof.
You can't make LONG TERM INVESTMENTS if "the little people" are allowed to randomly CHANGE THINGS.
Sure you can, although the investments need to follow the rationale provided in the Constitution's Preamble to constantly improve the Union.
What, THAT scrap of paper?!
(#extreme sarcasm)
Yes, and a good thing it's written not oral as it makes creating a contrary Rules based system more difficult.
Happy New Year!
Not only written but well enough known that corrupting Google to make it impossible to find with a search or even just 20 pages back in search returns isn't going to go unnoticed.
This new year is shaping up to be more "interesting" than happy.
Well, in my experience, your closing sentence has always been the case.
Pandering like this is not good for a functioning democracy. Making 'virtue signaling' decisions waiting for a SCOTUS overrule is a waste of time and money and an insult to what remains of public intelligence.
I see the issue being used to shift the narrative from incompetence to legalities. Perhaps if the Rs got serious and Impeached Biden so a Trial could commence by Easter.
To me, just an attack of the nasties and competing for positions in the DNC hierarchy.
Kathy Hochul, when not considered for Lt Gov second term by Andrew Cuomo, was angling for an Ambassador position of significance, Lichtenstein not being on the wish list. She is still angling which to me explains outlawing gas stoves in New York State and other DIE virtue signaling.
NY State politics are beyond my ken, sorry.
State of schizophrenia- The Big Apple vs. pretty much everywhere else.
karl.. thanks for this and other article on china.. you have a typo in the last paragraph - " It once mattered globally who one" - one = won... you might want to change that... cheers..
Thanks for the FYI. The problem with editing articles after they're sent is that they're resent, and that's something I don't do unless the typo is detrimental to understanding.
well - leave it then! that makes sense given the dynamic.. cheers..
Shows how much confidence there is in Biden . . .
Effect will be to destroy trust in state judiciaries
I see it as more complex as Constitutionally, who is to regulate elections? And then there's the court decision I mentioned that defranchised every citizen, although too few are aware of that fact.
Of course, it's not fair. Nobody of influence and authority cares, as long as they win, in which case Muh Democracy Is Saved!
Thanks for the download info (TheDisruptionOfAmericanDemocracy.pdf).
2024 is going to be a very interesting year WRT to political processes. As far as I know there will be lots of elections in many places. Whether one assumes that elections are a sham or a reflection of popular opinion, the results of the elections will have an effect on 'the public mood'.
As a guess I would suggest that the degree of public dissatisfaction by the end of 2024 election cycle will be at least equal to the brief episodes we saw in the early summer in France and else where.
Here in the UK it feels like being in a satrapy of the Outlaw empire, so without wishing you harm, I hope the s**t does hit the fan over there.
Understood. We're well away from population centers that might erupt. A majority of the public here is already dissatisfied with the electoral process and the Constitutional dysfunction was in-built to make positive reform capable of upsetting Class relations virtually impossible. Given the intense focus of Imperial policy against the interests of Russia, China and the wider world, of course all those players will affect the US elections, but of course the policy makers can't admit it's their policy that causes that equation. I'm certain you'll enjoy the book. It provides an excellent look at the conduct of US national politics before the industrial and financial Age that eventually captured and destroyed it.
Is it just a rumour that the original Constitution was re-written more than once to "... make positive reform capable of upsetting Class relations virtually impossible."?
Meanwhile, best wishes to you and yours for 2024 and beyond.
When you look at the size of the super-majorities needed to even commence talk about reform, and realize how the states also conformed to the national Class structure, it's easy to see. I have the multivolume texts on the so-called constitutional debates whose notes were never to be made public. Think about that last fact and what it entails and suggests--the citizenry wasn't ever to know how their supposedly democratic-republican form of government was arrived at. And what did it oust, and how much study is devoted to the Articles of Confederation to try and divine the real reasons for the Philadelphia Coup of 1787--an historical interpretation that's hard to find in any publication, thus begging the question why that's the case.
More discussion of this will occur in the new year. Do have an enjoyable holiday!
Thanks for the additional information. I look forward to those discussions and hope to have contributions to those discussions.
Hiya, i can't rustle up any interest in US elections, we all know who rules the roost. Your spell check let through 'It once mattered globally who one,' i think. It doesn't matter who wins and it's gone quiet on RFK since health freedom realised he supports Israel.
Damn! Thanks for the FYI. Well, it matters, but it doesn't as the status quo won't be altered in any meaningful manner.
"2024 will see a record number of elections globally with those within the Outlaw US Empire being merely one of many. It once mattered globally who one (WON!), but foreign and domestic policy now is continuous and is merely tinkered with at the margins. It’s that big problem that actually pisses off most likely US voters—policy is rarely ever changed to favor the 99%. I wrote about the roots of this problem during the 2020 election and will likely revisit them again."
I look forward to reading your thinking on this. I have given up on US politics and the entire socio-political arena. All it engenders is cognitive dissonance at this point, which I suspect is the desired effect, in which case the best political action is to boycott participating in what has clearly become a huge fraud.
I was thinking of writing a comment the other day about truth and falsehood relative to the oft-repeated phrase that 'threat to our democracy.'
What's false about this statement is most citizens' notion of what is meant by 'democracy', a nation of sovereign individuals who together choose their laws and leadership, Athens writ large etc. That's what most people mean when they say the word 'democracy' but as regards what America now is, that idea is false.
What is true is that America is some sort of pathocratic plutocracy with a democratic front wherein every few years ritual elections are performed to provide the illusion that the peoples' (false) idea of democracy is alive and well. In any case, when someone says 'Trump is a threat to our democracy' they are telling the truth, for whether or not Trump is a fraud, buffoon or simply outmatched, he represents a populist movement that desires to 'drain the swamp' and restore their sincerely held, if naive, notion of what American Democracy should be. Theirs is a vision of America with flags flying proudly down Main Streets in Glorious Small Town America where the most important thing is which High School Quarterback in the region gets the MVP Trophy and who is his gleaming Sweetheart. Somewhere in the distance there is a strong Military with a Big Stick to keep out the Bad Guys providing good jobs for those who serve their country, but it's far away on the horizon only vaguely discerned - because Main Street is really where it's at, so-called 'fly-over country'.
Such populist yearnings for a return to original 'democracy' is anathema to the plutocratic Powers that Be. So when they say 'Trump is a threat to Democracy' they are telling us the truth, albeit their sense of the meaning of that word is far different from that employed by most Americans. Perhaps this is why there is so much cognitive dissonance: America - and thus the West in general - is become a Tower of Babel. That which knit us together as a civilization is no more.
And the hard truth we must one day face is that even when we were knit together our elites kept generating endless wars. It's been a mess for well over a millennium.
Asia will rise, as per your other latest post. They will be far more authoritarian and less love-and-lighty than they now appear, but they will also prove more stable and less belligerent because they have authentic experience of running large population civilizations going back to the time of Christ. Genghis Khan is the one who upset their apple cart; he expanded China too far too fast and the hidebound Mandarins got their revenge by kicking out his great grandchildren and imposing a Maritime Ban for a couple of centuries. China slipped as piracy became the Way in the busiest maritime trade routes of the world which didn't disappear but did lack law and order, into which lawless free-for-all Jewish banking houses from the Middle East and Europe, long involved in international commerce, slipped in creating later European Empires based on plunder and resource arbitrage, aka 'colonialism'.
Well, the Maritime Ban is no more, and the West's plunder is increasingly that of its own elites devouring its own people, the natural end point of so nakedly materialist a ruling ethos. We shall see what transpires, but quite possibly 2024 will end up a veritable feeding frenzy, both groups - populists and kleptocrats - having at it in some sort of End Times frenzy. Or not. Time, as always, will tell.