“A sane society cannot debate its way out of psychosis. It must diagnose the patient with lethal precision and restore the ancient boundary between the mad and the free.” —LHGrey on "X"
Help me understand how republicans are any different? Dems are as Kunstler described, but the GOP is a mess of useless liars and grifters who are quite satisfied to take their bribes from the Lobby and work towards a second place finish where expectations of doing nothing are always rewarded.
I like to joke, as a small-government type, that the Democrats promise bigger government, and they deliver every time. The Republicans promise smaller government, and they never deliver---but they're slightly less bad than the Dems.
We've been the floating carcasses for a very long time, Gwennie.
Excellent write up today, Mr. Kunstler. I appreciate your optimism at the end. I don't share your optimism as I believe the country is too far gone to be saved, but I definitely do appreciate your optimism.
"Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is that she’s a mere opportunist with nothing inside except some skill at middle-school girl games"
Not a better description of the horse toothed political latina have I ever read. It's also a great representation of America's election system. Very reminiscent of high school student body elections. The candidates make promises they cannot keep the student body votes for the one with the greatest promises and the prettiest faces.
I would suggest all of the offshored factories and call centers, closed power plants and refineries that offend the woke hoity toity class are the horses. They of course have their own horses (Embraers, Bombardiers, Lears) which are exempt as they are used to attend conferences on how to deal with those of us deplorable riff raff wishing to have "horses."
This is funny, given the rumours that it's sailors on board the USS Abraham Lincoln who are literally throwing themselves overboard.
Those rumours might be completely false, I dunno. But it's 100% true that Iran won the war, the USA lost it, and the sailors on board the Abe Lincoln are suffering through an extended deployment with broiling heat and bad hygiene because of it. So it's amusing to me how MAGA seal themselves off from what's actually going on. Kunstler's delusion that Iran has been "neutralized", when in fact it has gained control over a tremendously important waterway and the USA has no military option to change that fact, is another case in point.
The great convenience of rumor is that it requires neither evidence nor the embarrassment of being true. One may begin with sailors “literally throwing themselves overboard,” concede in the next breath that the story may be entirely false, and then proceed, with admirable confidence, to conclusions presented as “100% true.”
That is not argument. It is clairvoyance with punctuation.
Perhaps Iran won the war. Perhaps the United States lost it. Perhaps Iran now controls a “tremendously important waterway” beyond the reach of American military power. These are rather large claims, and large claims, like large hats, generally benefit from something underneath them.
What is particularly charming is the accusation that others have “sealed themselves off from what’s actually going on,” delivered immediately after citing an unverified rumour as evidence of what is actually going on. There is a certain elegance in condemning delusion while furnishing one’s own.
I am perfectly willing to be persuaded that Kunstler is wrong. But persuasion traditionally involves evidence. Simply announcing that one possesses reality while one’s opponents possess only MAGA is not analysis. It is theology, and rather fundamentalist theology at that.
Still, I admire the certainty. Facts are so tiresome. Conviction travels much lighter.
The blind rodent undoubtedly believed the Russia Hoax, that Fauci was sent from heaven to save us, that Trump committed impeachable offenses, that the three letter fraudsters were protecting us, that the news media and academia were not and are not on the CCP payroll, Comey and Wray are honorable men, a wealth tax will fund heaven on earth, you can change your gender...........
I'm quite capable of navigating truth versus rumour, thank you, and I specifically set up my remarks as a contrast between rumour on the one hand (sailors leaping off the aircraft carrier like horses) and clear fact on the other (Iran having handily won the war Trump started in late February, and now controlling the strait of Hormuz for the foreseeable future).
Interesting fact: America's ships should be able to dock and resupply at the Fifth Fleet headquarters in Bahrain, which is right in the middle of the warzone. But they can't, because Iran destroyed it, or at least rendered it unusable. Were you even aware of that fact? They're having to resupply the fleet from the British airbase on Diego Garcia, 2000 miles to the south. That's a long way to go for toilet paper.
Trump is helpless to change the outcome of the war he started. He made this perfectly obvious on Easter Sunday when he posted "Open the Fuckin’ Strait, you crazy bastards, or you’ll be living in Hell". The poor fellow, to rant such an empty threat! He must have been beside himself with frustration. And nothing of significance has changed in the months since.
Like the military-industrial complex that puppets him, Trump can never, ever be made to admit defeat. It was true in Vietnam, it was true when the USA spent twenty years pounding lives and money down a rathole in Afghanistan, and it's true now. At least there's fun to be had watching people share in his mulish delusion. Reality will descend eventually, though. It always does.
Ah, I see. We have progressed from rumor to certainty, and apparently all that was required for the transformation was your assurance that you are quite capable of telling the difference.
That certainly simplifies things.
The difficulty is that you continue to confuse events with the conclusions you wish them to prove. Iran damaged the American facilities in Bahrain, quite seriously in places. That is a fact. “Destroyed it,” “rendered it unusable,” and therefore “won the war” are rather more ambitious propositions. The reporting I can find says the base was extensively damaged, including the Fifth Fleet headquarters, but that American military officials said operations were not significantly affected. A damaged headquarters is a military success. It is not, by some mysterious law of metaphysics, a peace treaty signed aboard the USS Missouri.
The Diego Garcia point is equally charming. A military adapting its logistics after an enemy damages a supply hub proves that the enemy inflicted damage. It does not prove that the adapting military has been defeated. Armies have been moving supply depots since someone first discovered the rather inconvenient habit enemies have of shooting at them.
But the most delightful feature of your victorious Iran is that, as of today, it is threatening further offensive action specifically to break an American naval blockade. This is an unusual definition of “handily won.” Normally, when one has handily won a war, one does not announce plans to break the blockade being maintained by the helpless nation one has just defeated. Perhaps warfare has changed. Or perhaps adjectives have.
As for Trump’s Easter profanity, I am quite prepared to accept it as evidence that Donald Trump is capable of vulgarity. I had thought the matter settled some years ago. What it does not establish is that the United States possesses “no military option.” A politician shouting obscenities is evidence of a politician shouting obscenities, not an order of battle.
Then come Vietnam, Afghanistan, the military-industrial complex, puppetry, delusion and, finally, reality itself descending from the heavens to vindicate you. It is an impressive procession, although an argument appears to have missed the parade.
You began by informing us that a rumor might be completely false, followed immediately by something you called “100% true.” You have now expanded “100% true” into a collection of contested strategic judgments and presented the whole confection as “clear fact.”
There is a name for the habit of treating one’s interpretation as reality and everyone else’s interpretation as delusion. It is not analysis. Still, I do admire the confidence. Evidence can be terribly cumbersome, whereas certainty fits very comfortably into a comment box.
And yes, Reality does eventually descend. One only hopes it remembers your address.
The Persians have inhabited that land since before Alexander the Great went about the Mediterranean wreaking havoc on his neighbors. They aren't going to be bullied into doing what a young, bankrupt nation like the USA wants. They know their land. They know their people. They know how to survive not a few bombs.
Indeed, the Persians have occupied their land since time immemorial, rather as the Germanic peoples and the Japanese had occupied theirs for a very long time before 1941. Antiquity is impressive, but it has never been much of a defense system.
A curious thing happened some eighty years ago. A nation an ocean away, still emerging from profound economic distress, harnessed its industrial capacity, manpower, technology, and resources, built fleets on an almost unimaginable scale, transported armies across the globe, and defeated two powers that had themselves spent years demonstrating an emphatic unwillingness to be “bullied” by anyone.
The Germans certainly knew their land. The Japanese knew theirs. Both regimes possessed formidable militaries, considerable industrial capacity, and populations conditioned to endure extraordinary hardship. If the bombing campaigns over Europe and Asia proved anything, it was that neither government intended to surrender merely because matters had become unpleasant.
And yet history did not consult their intentions.
They endured until endurance ceased to matter.
So I quite accept that the Persians are ancient, resilient, familiar with their country, and capable of surviving hardship. What I cannot quite see is how any of this proves the proposition you have attached to it.
Civilizations may be ancient; military circumstances are distressingly contemporary.
Your argument, if we may indulge it with the title, is rich in confidence but rather poor in evidence. History has an unfortunate habit of being least impressed by those who invoke it most confidently.
You assume the country is a single entity, and not a Zoroastrian nation conquered by a now widely-hated Islamic sect. Some large segment of the country cheers the American bombs.
Imagine a world where people talk about the USA the same way they talk about the USA's official enemies. "You assume the United States is a single entity, and not a land of hunter-gatherers conquered by widely-hated Caucasian colonizers. Some large segment of the country cheers for America to be bombed."
Interestingly, the American counter-example happened much more recently and in that sense is likely to be that much more accurate.
Lots of people here at CFN cheer the American bombs. See JohnAZ and many many others. Afterall, war is very profitable for the likes of Lockheed and Raytheon.
Our author no doubt goes along with the Trumpian cry that the purpose of the war is to open the Strait of Hormuz; that, in other words, we are fighting the was and spending billions to restore the conditions that were in place before we started fighting it.
The other illusion is that Iran is the "bad guy" here. The real problems is the oppressors of the world who seek to enslave humanity so they can create the largest Golden Calf in history once they destroy the USA.
As we maneuver through the dog days of August, let us nonetheless continue to resist efforts to remove our freedoms as they will relentlessly continue unabated. Each time you refuse to give in to data mining (be it another 'smart' appliance or discounts for being a 'member' of a grocery or hardware store) you help others.
I'm a snow bird and a few weeks back a rental organization wanted me to allow a third party to have a photo (front and back) of my DL, then use facial recognition via my phone to 'identify' me, simply for the 'privilege' of applying... - I let them know that I do not risk my personal information in such a way and instead signed on with another organization. - These types of actions may not help you personally, but each time you do not comply, you help to starve the beast.
Thanks Lisa, so true. Last week I clicked on a "Job listing service for Seniors". It's taken many hours to remove the malware and phishing. Thankfully I have Bitdefender that caught it early. It could have been much worse.
Ai has only made it easy for the hackers to invade.
Even the smart meters which - beyond the health concerns - are similar to a burglar casing your home 24/7. They record all of your daily habits: when you're normally at home, how long you generally stay up during the evenings, how many hours you usually watch tv or are on the internet, etc. - Once the smart meters are in, the next thing on the agenda is often a data center (though thankfully there is growing resistance to them). - Definitely Orwellian...
To what freedoms are you referring? The freedom to watch the teevee, go to the grocery store and buy salty chips or go to Disneyland to stand in long lines for a lame-ass Princess Tiana DEI ride? Or are you referring to the freedom to own property in America? The pseudo freedom that actually, for all intents and purposes, DOES NOT EXIST. You know what I am talking about. Property taxes. You know that pesky little tax that prohibits each and every one of us Americans from actually owning property we paid for with money that was already taxed. We also paid sales taxes on it when we bought the property as well but, I digress.
If we Americans cannot own property, free and clear from government intrusion, we are no more free than those poor saps living in Great Britain where the monarchy and lords own all the land and the citizens pay rent.
Property taxes. Are we truly free? Not a chance babe. So you keep resisting those efforts to remove our freedoms.
I'm not sure people really understand the implications of property taxes.
Real estate taxes (property taxes) are a scheme to keep government in power. Admittedly roads need repair and if one lives where it snows those same roads need to be plowed when the snow reaches a certain depth.
However, using individuals' means of shelter (their home) as the sledge hammer to extract the funds for the public works projects I mentioned is servitude by another name.
I do not mean this disparagingly, but I will not go quietly into the night and simply allow the Transhumanist Agenda to unfold. This is a spiritual battle of Good vs Evil. - Churchill's quote to British citizens when they'd learned that the Germans had broken through the French line is fitting: "It would be foolish to disguise the gravity of the hour. - It would be still more foolish to lose heart and courage."
Thank you, Gwennie! - I'm in the situation where I have to work during the winters so I've seen similar overreach with job applications, and I feel sorry for all of the young folk who feel desperate enough to comply with things like (and this is just for an interview, not a job offer) taking a 'personality assessment,' or 'virtual interviews' where you're being recorded during an 'interview' with an AI bot... I'd never heard of the virtual interview and when I checked online I saw many comments where people felt violated by the interview because it's out there forever 'somewhere' with a third party and can never be retrieved...
A very good point. An adverse interview with a “bozo” AI would be entrenched in the NSA, forever, damning you for all further interviews. I do not believe the effect of AI on privacy has been ascertained.
BTW, how about the NSA, how are they going to store all the data from AI? Are the data centers being built tools for federal surveillance? AI reminds me of a child growing up. As the child programs its mind, more and more storage is required. What is a mature AI going to look like?
"Are the data centers being built tools for federal surveillance?" ~ JohnAZ
JAZ - Of course. That's exactly what they are for. Of all the investment hype about Data Centers, how many people have asked that question? They deserve the prison they are funding for themselves. Insanity and stupidity reign.
Glenn Greenwald - who staunchly defended Snowden from the get-go - has succinctly stated that the surveillance state is a multi-pronged collaboration between silicon valley, the MIC, and the neocons.
I'm right there with you. At best it is impertinently invasive and at worst it is pre-compliance training for the beast system. I don't give my zip code at checkout to store clerks who ask for it. Don't go to restaurants where I have to scan a barcode to see the menu. Don't go to places that don't take cash. Don't do self-checkout. Don't let the doctor's offices or gyms take pictures. Don't use biometric phone unlock. One place I worked wanted all employees to sign something that said they had the right to search our cars in the employee parking lot...nope. It is the modern day variant of unlawful search and seizure and it bothers me that people give up their rights and privacy so carelessly...
There is no such 'thing' as a free lunch, a concept constantly being suppressed. Making life easier with the 'conveniences' such as you mention do have a price. The price is 'loss of freedom' and its partner 'loss of privacy' . Is it laziness? Possibly. Is it poorly developed critical thinking skills? I'd place this high on the list.
In simpler times having a washing machine to take care of clothes freed the owner to do other tasks. The expense, beyond up-front cost, was the energy used to run the machine (electricity). The electricity has associated costs. One could choose to use the machine sparingly. Likely the owner still had a washboard.
Choice is being eliminated. It is a control issue. Unfortunately, the items on your list are all control items. They might seem convenient. The convenience has those hidden costs summarized as infringement upon, to outright theft of, personal liberty.
There are moments when a civilization reveals its exhaustion not through defeat, but through its inability to distinguish strength from sickness, truth from fashion, creation from resentment.
What you describe is less a political realignment than a struggle over values themselves. The old institutions stagger on, repeating formulas in which more than a few of their own believers no longer believe, while new forces gather beneath them.
Meanwhile, the decent men and women who work, produce, raise families, build businesses, obey the law, and ask little more than to be left in peace are discovering that even patience has its limits. For years they have watched their prosperity, customs, security, and ordinary standards of life treated not as achievements worth defending, but as things to be taxed, dismantled, mocked, or morally condemned. Exhaustion eventually hardens into resistance.
A culture that has lost confidence in its own standards eventually calls decadence compassion, weakness virtue, and resentment justice. As the preamble to your essay states, it cannot be argued back to health. It must recover the courage to judge, to choose, and above all to create.
The decisive question, then, is not which party survives. It is whether those who still build, work, produce, and preserve have enough vitality left to rise, reject the forces that would diminish them, and drive those forces from political and cultural power.
A civilization survives when its creators finally refuse to apologize to its destroyers.
“when a civilization reveals its exhaustion not through defeat”
This civilization have been invaded by dissidents that are destroying it from within. It is more than inability, it is being destroyed by outsiders. As we have a federal government that thinks it is above the interests of the states and their people, the globalists do the same with nations around the world.
One wonders if certain states within our Union may ultimately decide to act unilaterally on a host of issues should things reach a breaking point. Am not advocating for this, but sometimes events take on their own momentum. The insane and satanic left believes that our system of government is tantamount to a buffet, where one can select or reject what is on the menu (see their stance on immigration law as well as ICE, among many other things). If I had known that this was a legitimate course of action for a state or city (or the Federal government, for that matter), then I would have declared by income to be subject to "sanctuary" from taxation long ago. Funny how that works, isn't it?
First , compliments on your writings style . That out of the way , I think you are referring to nullification as a response to taxation without representation . The deal was that we funded the government and in turn the government was supposed to represent our interests . That aint happenin .
And when the creators are no longer subject to the tyranny of the created. Our government, the created, can do things that we the people, the creators, cannot do. This cannot continue. Until the people figure this out, nothing is going to change.
I was hiking through a forest over the weekend when I made a rather disturbing discovery: some trees are taller than others.
At first I assumed this was merely an oversight on the part of Nature. But the longer I walked, the more appalling the inequalities became. Some trees possessed considerable girth, while others were positively slender. Certain poplars stood straight as arrows, whereas nearby elms leaned at angles that suggested either moral uncertainty or inadequate supervision.
The injustice was everywhere.
Beside a stream stood an enormous old oak, broad of trunk and magnificently crowned, enjoying every advantage of sunlight, water, and position. Not fifty yards away, beneath the oppressive shade of its neighbors, a pine of approximately the same age had been reduced to a miserable, stunted thing.
One could hardly imagine a more glaring example of unequal outcomes.
Why should the oak be permitted such extravagant growth merely because its roots happened to find water? Why should the poplar enjoy vertical privilege while the elm is condemned to crookedness? And what possible justification can there be for one tree possessing thirty branches while another struggles along with twelve?
Clearly, something must be done.
We cannot continue allowing the forest to perpetuate such arbitrary disparities under the sentimental pretext of “nature.” Nature, after all, has never demonstrated the slightest commitment to fairness. It distributes sunlight unevenly, rains without regard to need, and permits the strong to spread their branches wherever they please.
Fortunately, mankind possesses what Nature conspicuously lacks: policy.
The solution is obvious. The saw must be applied.
Every tree shall henceforth be reduced to the same height, regulated to the same trunk circumference, and permitted precisely the same number of branches. Roots will be monitored for excessive acquisition of nutrients. Trees receiving disproportionate sunlight will surrender a portion of their canopy. Particularly vigorous specimens may require periodic pruning in the interests of forest cohesion.
There will, naturally, be some complaints from the oaks.
But privilege so often mistakes itself for achievement.
When the work is finished, no tree shall tower above another, no trunk shall boast an indecent superiority of girth, and no branch shall reach farther toward the sun than its neighbor’s allotted share.
"What you describe is less a political realignment than a struggle over values themselves."
Values? Values are nothing more than fleeting talking points to demonstrate you have some foundation, but as I say, they are fleeting and change easily. Let's talk principals. Principals are the foundation of a civilized society and values without principals are built on a bed of shifting sand. What's missing is the principals that once guided us and have been shredded under the weight of un-enlightened self-interest.
I see the dog days are also being used to describe these August days. Just like the “horse latitudes” in the oceans, which I remember studying in seventh or eighth grade. The “bloated horses” is the symbol for the recessed senators and the inactive Congress, except for the ‘pro forma’ sessions intended to prevent presidential appointments. About JHK’s positivity towards the ME, it’s going to happen because Trump does what he says.
Yes, the Grand Jury in Miami will shock every institution when justice and truth are revealed. That, I believe. And the other part of the decapitation of which Trump spoke is the destruction of the City of London, the banking system with its hold on Iran as in Professor David Clements’ recent stack, Ascension, when he writes about this proscribed event and quotes President Trump.
Let us no longer be polite about "mental illness" problems and separation. These are decades long marxist power plays coming to fruition. Check out Christopher Rufo.
Lol I had a commenter here on these threads who's spent the last 4 or 5 days doing just that . I finally told him to GF himself , I was immune to his Jedi mind tricks .
If, for example, you use the Edwardian/early Victorian definition, as "our betters", "the gentry", "Society" means one thing. It meant something similar in the glory years of the 1920's pre-depression era.
Today, of course, the term is often used more inclusively.
But, power has always, and probably will always, co-exist in an unholy alliance with the "transnational gangsters" of the day.
All fine & dandy, but if Trump doesn’t begin accountability, I don’t see how the game continues past the mids.
We have an immigration law; we have a scotus holding (v. AZ) that immigration is purely federal. Transporting, hiding, etc., of an illegal is a felony. So why aren’t ALL “sanctuary” governors, mayors, city councils, and Mayorkas being charged with felonies? As with Hillary, Brennan, Clapper, Biden, Obama, Wray, McCabe … a two-tier justice system .. isn’t. If they are free, we are not.
One of your best. Time of revelation. People and things are being exposed for who and what they really are. GOD is fulfilling HIS promises of exposing things done in the dark to the light which is truth. Let HIM do HIS works. Trust GOD. Believe HIM.
That talking turd Thune, the "Marlboro Man," apparently would rather have a proto-socialist government elected than help Trump get anything done, despite almost all of Trump's goals being the stated goals of the Republican Party for decades. The same sort if thing happened to Reagan, just not as blantantly. Kinda makes you realize the Establishment never really meant a damn thing they ever said.
It’s good to see both parties recognized today as The Problem. They have been enabled for far too long in their Good Cop/Bad Cop routine by millions of credulous Americans of both persuasions who can’t let go of the delusion that their team is the Good Guys. Granted, Democratic psychosis seems more disturbing at this juncture than good old Republican avarice, but neither team has what it will take to save our nation.
The most effective propaganda apparatus in history continues to prevent most Americans from understanding that we have lost the Iran War, but that stark fact will be undeniable in a few more weeks when our Strategic Petroleum Reserve runs out, airlines can’t fly for want of jet fuel, trucking grinds to a halt without diesel, and lemming Wall Street speculators finally face the fact that they’ve bid the Dow up to several times the value of the hollowed-out economy that it supposedly represents.
The epic realignment suggested in today’s post is indeed taking place, but there will be no place in it for the US of A. Being driven out of West Asia will be a harsh lesson for our failing empire. Plenty of nut jobs in Washington will want to push the Big Red Button out of spite, but we will all have no choice but to learn how to build a future for ourselves, while minding our own damned business.
Reality does not require your recognition. Your view of this five day war has been delusional from the start. Soon the facts on the ground will be undeniable.
FWIW "...Strategic Petroleum Reserve runs out, airlines can’t fly for want of jet fuel, trucking grinds to a halt without diesel..." The SPR is a book-keeping practice that sets the floor for inventories. Yes, there are storage tanks associated with it, but oil comes in many shades and not all of the SPR (if any) is refinable into specialty gardes such as diesel, jet fuel, etc.. "Releasing" it merely allows more supply into the aggregate market.
I do not recall your narrative claiming the same when it was drawn down a few years ago as a stopgap to the inflation spike....
"Iran War"??? Try WEFI (World Economic Forum Instigations). Why do you think Lloyds of London stepped onto the stage?...because they want to mess with fuel and people as they sit in their "bankers' suits & polished shoes."
The Iran war has minimal influence on American petroleum supplies as, from what I have read, only 7% of America's crude oil supplies come from the middle east. If this is true, I don't see why the USA's strategic petroleum reserve would be tapped. The truth is, the petroleum companies are making record profits in the tens of billions of dollars for a product that is costing Americans nearly double to buy but costs big oil the same to refine.
My hope is that people, this election cycle at least, will go back to choosing who and what to vote for based on truth instead of feelings. There's the problem, though. Whose truth, what truth? How can you even define the meaning of 'truth' anymore to make an informed decision based on it. Those waters have been made very murky, on purpose.
The left has made a concerted effort to confuse what the truth is and is always trying to replace it with emotional coercion getting everybody upset at everything--except for the proposals they themselves present! The right uses truth just as badly by ignoring the necessity of it in the decision-making process until a thorough examination is completed on it, which just means kicking that can down the road so as to make no decision at all.
We the people are those dead horses floating in a listless sea and until we make as big a stink about our situation as those animals must have in the water, we will never see change. So maybe just hold your nose and vote accordingly, which if done correctly, can become the wind that finally picks up and blows your ship to safer seas. Otherwise, we might as well join those floating horses, our fate isn't much different.
We civilians are the horses.
Insane leadership, propaganda, and people being pressured to deny what they can plainly see…the New Democratic Party🤔
Help me understand how republicans are any different? Dems are as Kunstler described, but the GOP is a mess of useless liars and grifters who are quite satisfied to take their bribes from the Lobby and work towards a second place finish where expectations of doing nothing are always rewarded.
I like to joke, as a small-government type, that the Democrats promise bigger government, and they deliver every time. The Republicans promise smaller government, and they never deliver---but they're slightly less bad than the Dems.
We've been the floating carcasses for a very long time, Gwennie.
Excellent write up today, Mr. Kunstler. I appreciate your optimism at the end. I don't share your optimism as I believe the country is too far gone to be saved, but I definitely do appreciate your optimism.
"Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is that she’s a mere opportunist with nothing inside except some skill at middle-school girl games"
Not a better description of the horse toothed political latina have I ever read. It's also a great representation of America's election system. Very reminiscent of high school student body elections. The candidates make promises they cannot keep the student body votes for the one with the greatest promises and the prettiest faces.
Such is America's political system.
Keep up the good work Mr. Kunstler!
I would suggest all of the offshored factories and call centers, closed power plants and refineries that offend the woke hoity toity class are the horses. They of course have their own horses (Embraers, Bombardiers, Lears) which are exempt as they are used to attend conferences on how to deal with those of us deplorable riff raff wishing to have "horses."
This is funny, given the rumours that it's sailors on board the USS Abraham Lincoln who are literally throwing themselves overboard.
Those rumours might be completely false, I dunno. But it's 100% true that Iran won the war, the USA lost it, and the sailors on board the Abe Lincoln are suffering through an extended deployment with broiling heat and bad hygiene because of it. So it's amusing to me how MAGA seal themselves off from what's actually going on. Kunstler's delusion that Iran has been "neutralized", when in fact it has gained control over a tremendously important waterway and the USA has no military option to change that fact, is another case in point.
MAGA, man. You guys are endlessly hilarious.
The great convenience of rumor is that it requires neither evidence nor the embarrassment of being true. One may begin with sailors “literally throwing themselves overboard,” concede in the next breath that the story may be entirely false, and then proceed, with admirable confidence, to conclusions presented as “100% true.”
That is not argument. It is clairvoyance with punctuation.
Perhaps Iran won the war. Perhaps the United States lost it. Perhaps Iran now controls a “tremendously important waterway” beyond the reach of American military power. These are rather large claims, and large claims, like large hats, generally benefit from something underneath them.
What is particularly charming is the accusation that others have “sealed themselves off from what’s actually going on,” delivered immediately after citing an unverified rumour as evidence of what is actually going on. There is a certain elegance in condemning delusion while furnishing one’s own.
I am perfectly willing to be persuaded that Kunstler is wrong. But persuasion traditionally involves evidence. Simply announcing that one possesses reality while one’s opponents possess only MAGA is not analysis. It is theology, and rather fundamentalist theology at that.
Still, I admire the certainty. Facts are so tiresome. Conviction travels much lighter.
The blind rodent undoubtedly believed the Russia Hoax, that Fauci was sent from heaven to save us, that Trump committed impeachable offenses, that the three letter fraudsters were protecting us, that the news media and academia were not and are not on the CCP payroll, Comey and Wray are honorable men, a wealth tax will fund heaven on earth, you can change your gender...........
Indeed. Such fantasies were once evidence of insanity. Now they're talking points.
I'm quite capable of navigating truth versus rumour, thank you, and I specifically set up my remarks as a contrast between rumour on the one hand (sailors leaping off the aircraft carrier like horses) and clear fact on the other (Iran having handily won the war Trump started in late February, and now controlling the strait of Hormuz for the foreseeable future).
Interesting fact: America's ships should be able to dock and resupply at the Fifth Fleet headquarters in Bahrain, which is right in the middle of the warzone. But they can't, because Iran destroyed it, or at least rendered it unusable. Were you even aware of that fact? They're having to resupply the fleet from the British airbase on Diego Garcia, 2000 miles to the south. That's a long way to go for toilet paper.
Trump is helpless to change the outcome of the war he started. He made this perfectly obvious on Easter Sunday when he posted "Open the Fuckin’ Strait, you crazy bastards, or you’ll be living in Hell". The poor fellow, to rant such an empty threat! He must have been beside himself with frustration. And nothing of significance has changed in the months since.
Like the military-industrial complex that puppets him, Trump can never, ever be made to admit defeat. It was true in Vietnam, it was true when the USA spent twenty years pounding lives and money down a rathole in Afghanistan, and it's true now. At least there's fun to be had watching people share in his mulish delusion. Reality will descend eventually, though. It always does.
Ah, I see. We have progressed from rumor to certainty, and apparently all that was required for the transformation was your assurance that you are quite capable of telling the difference.
That certainly simplifies things.
The difficulty is that you continue to confuse events with the conclusions you wish them to prove. Iran damaged the American facilities in Bahrain, quite seriously in places. That is a fact. “Destroyed it,” “rendered it unusable,” and therefore “won the war” are rather more ambitious propositions. The reporting I can find says the base was extensively damaged, including the Fifth Fleet headquarters, but that American military officials said operations were not significantly affected. A damaged headquarters is a military success. It is not, by some mysterious law of metaphysics, a peace treaty signed aboard the USS Missouri.
The Diego Garcia point is equally charming. A military adapting its logistics after an enemy damages a supply hub proves that the enemy inflicted damage. It does not prove that the adapting military has been defeated. Armies have been moving supply depots since someone first discovered the rather inconvenient habit enemies have of shooting at them.
But the most delightful feature of your victorious Iran is that, as of today, it is threatening further offensive action specifically to break an American naval blockade. This is an unusual definition of “handily won.” Normally, when one has handily won a war, one does not announce plans to break the blockade being maintained by the helpless nation one has just defeated. Perhaps warfare has changed. Or perhaps adjectives have.
As for Trump’s Easter profanity, I am quite prepared to accept it as evidence that Donald Trump is capable of vulgarity. I had thought the matter settled some years ago. What it does not establish is that the United States possesses “no military option.” A politician shouting obscenities is evidence of a politician shouting obscenities, not an order of battle.
Then come Vietnam, Afghanistan, the military-industrial complex, puppetry, delusion and, finally, reality itself descending from the heavens to vindicate you. It is an impressive procession, although an argument appears to have missed the parade.
You began by informing us that a rumor might be completely false, followed immediately by something you called “100% true.” You have now expanded “100% true” into a collection of contested strategic judgments and presented the whole confection as “clear fact.”
There is a name for the habit of treating one’s interpretation as reality and everyone else’s interpretation as delusion. It is not analysis. Still, I do admire the confidence. Evidence can be terribly cumbersome, whereas certainty fits very comfortably into a comment box.
And yes, Reality does eventually descend. One only hopes it remembers your address.
Seek your own evidence and then you can sure of what is taking place that you still can't believe.
The Persians have inhabited that land since before Alexander the Great went about the Mediterranean wreaking havoc on his neighbors. They aren't going to be bullied into doing what a young, bankrupt nation like the USA wants. They know their land. They know their people. They know how to survive not a few bombs.
Indeed, the Persians have occupied their land since time immemorial, rather as the Germanic peoples and the Japanese had occupied theirs for a very long time before 1941. Antiquity is impressive, but it has never been much of a defense system.
A curious thing happened some eighty years ago. A nation an ocean away, still emerging from profound economic distress, harnessed its industrial capacity, manpower, technology, and resources, built fleets on an almost unimaginable scale, transported armies across the globe, and defeated two powers that had themselves spent years demonstrating an emphatic unwillingness to be “bullied” by anyone.
The Germans certainly knew their land. The Japanese knew theirs. Both regimes possessed formidable militaries, considerable industrial capacity, and populations conditioned to endure extraordinary hardship. If the bombing campaigns over Europe and Asia proved anything, it was that neither government intended to surrender merely because matters had become unpleasant.
And yet history did not consult their intentions.
They endured until endurance ceased to matter.
So I quite accept that the Persians are ancient, resilient, familiar with their country, and capable of surviving hardship. What I cannot quite see is how any of this proves the proposition you have attached to it.
Civilizations may be ancient; military circumstances are distressingly contemporary.
Your argument, if we may indulge it with the title, is rich in confidence but rather poor in evidence. History has an unfortunate habit of being least impressed by those who invoke it most confidently.
You assume the country is a single entity, and not a Zoroastrian nation conquered by a now widely-hated Islamic sect. Some large segment of the country cheers the American bombs.
Imagine a world where people talk about the USA the same way they talk about the USA's official enemies. "You assume the United States is a single entity, and not a land of hunter-gatherers conquered by widely-hated Caucasian colonizers. Some large segment of the country cheers for America to be bombed."
Interestingly, the American counter-example happened much more recently and in that sense is likely to be that much more accurate.
Lots of people here at CFN cheer the American bombs. See JohnAZ and many many others. Afterall, war is very profitable for the likes of Lockheed and Raytheon.
Iran has had it coming since 1979.
Our author no doubt goes along with the Trumpian cry that the purpose of the war is to open the Strait of Hormuz; that, in other words, we are fighting the was and spending billions to restore the conditions that were in place before we started fighting it.
Iran to Trump: "No takesie-backsies".
The other illusion is that Iran is the "bad guy" here. The real problems is the oppressors of the world who seek to enslave humanity so they can create the largest Golden Calf in history once they destroy the USA.
Good insight.
Ahhhh. The JHK with literary panache! "...now marshaling into an insectile host of predatory Marxists."
Bravo, Sir.
That whole paragraph is golden.
I was picking cherries at the gilded fruit bar.
Putting those cherries in an expertly crafted manhattan one hopes!
Wait, what? I wanna go!
As we maneuver through the dog days of August, let us nonetheless continue to resist efforts to remove our freedoms as they will relentlessly continue unabated. Each time you refuse to give in to data mining (be it another 'smart' appliance or discounts for being a 'member' of a grocery or hardware store) you help others.
I'm a snow bird and a few weeks back a rental organization wanted me to allow a third party to have a photo (front and back) of my DL, then use facial recognition via my phone to 'identify' me, simply for the 'privilege' of applying... - I let them know that I do not risk my personal information in such a way and instead signed on with another organization. - These types of actions may not help you personally, but each time you do not comply, you help to starve the beast.
Lisa, good for you. Just politely tell them to fuck off.
Thanks Lisa, so true. Last week I clicked on a "Job listing service for Seniors". It's taken many hours to remove the malware and phishing. Thankfully I have Bitdefender that caught it early. It could have been much worse.
Ai has only made it easy for the hackers to invade.
Even the smart meters which - beyond the health concerns - are similar to a burglar casing your home 24/7. They record all of your daily habits: when you're normally at home, how long you generally stay up during the evenings, how many hours you usually watch tv or are on the internet, etc. - Once the smart meters are in, the next thing on the agenda is often a data center (though thankfully there is growing resistance to them). - Definitely Orwellian...
" resist efforts to remove our freedoms"
To what freedoms are you referring? The freedom to watch the teevee, go to the grocery store and buy salty chips or go to Disneyland to stand in long lines for a lame-ass Princess Tiana DEI ride? Or are you referring to the freedom to own property in America? The pseudo freedom that actually, for all intents and purposes, DOES NOT EXIST. You know what I am talking about. Property taxes. You know that pesky little tax that prohibits each and every one of us Americans from actually owning property we paid for with money that was already taxed. We also paid sales taxes on it when we bought the property as well but, I digress.
If we Americans cannot own property, free and clear from government intrusion, we are no more free than those poor saps living in Great Britain where the monarchy and lords own all the land and the citizens pay rent.
Property taxes. Are we truly free? Not a chance babe. So you keep resisting those efforts to remove our freedoms.
I'm not sure people really understand the implications of property taxes.
Real estate taxes (property taxes) are a scheme to keep government in power. Admittedly roads need repair and if one lives where it snows those same roads need to be plowed when the snow reaches a certain depth.
However, using individuals' means of shelter (their home) as the sledge hammer to extract the funds for the public works projects I mentioned is servitude by another name.
I do not mean this disparagingly, but I will not go quietly into the night and simply allow the Transhumanist Agenda to unfold. This is a spiritual battle of Good vs Evil. - Churchill's quote to British citizens when they'd learned that the Germans had broken through the French line is fitting: "It would be foolish to disguise the gravity of the hour. - It would be still more foolish to lose heart and courage."
Yes! Good work, Lisa.
Thank you, Gwennie! - I'm in the situation where I have to work during the winters so I've seen similar overreach with job applications, and I feel sorry for all of the young folk who feel desperate enough to comply with things like (and this is just for an interview, not a job offer) taking a 'personality assessment,' or 'virtual interviews' where you're being recorded during an 'interview' with an AI bot... I'd never heard of the virtual interview and when I checked online I saw many comments where people felt violated by the interview because it's out there forever 'somewhere' with a third party and can never be retrieved...
A very good point. An adverse interview with a “bozo” AI would be entrenched in the NSA, forever, damning you for all further interviews. I do not believe the effect of AI on privacy has been ascertained.
BTW, how about the NSA, how are they going to store all the data from AI? Are the data centers being built tools for federal surveillance? AI reminds me of a child growing up. As the child programs its mind, more and more storage is required. What is a mature AI going to look like?
"Are the data centers being built tools for federal surveillance?" ~ JohnAZ
JAZ - Of course. That's exactly what they are for. Of all the investment hype about Data Centers, how many people have asked that question? They deserve the prison they are funding for themselves. Insanity and stupidity reign.
Glenn Greenwald - who staunchly defended Snowden from the get-go - has succinctly stated that the surveillance state is a multi-pronged collaboration between silicon valley, the MIC, and the neocons.
You asked, "What is a mature AI going to look like?"
I think Orwell summed it up for you:
“If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face—for ever.”
Or, instead of Orwell, it could be more akin to Kornbluth's "The Marching Morons"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Marching_Morons
Good call.
Read that one about 66, 67 years ago.
Kornbluth was prescient!
Skynet from Terminator or Hal from 2001.
I'm right there with you. At best it is impertinently invasive and at worst it is pre-compliance training for the beast system. I don't give my zip code at checkout to store clerks who ask for it. Don't go to restaurants where I have to scan a barcode to see the menu. Don't go to places that don't take cash. Don't do self-checkout. Don't let the doctor's offices or gyms take pictures. Don't use biometric phone unlock. One place I worked wanted all employees to sign something that said they had the right to search our cars in the employee parking lot...nope. It is the modern day variant of unlawful search and seizure and it bothers me that people give up their rights and privacy so carelessly...
There is no such 'thing' as a free lunch, a concept constantly being suppressed. Making life easier with the 'conveniences' such as you mention do have a price. The price is 'loss of freedom' and its partner 'loss of privacy' . Is it laziness? Possibly. Is it poorly developed critical thinking skills? I'd place this high on the list.
In simpler times having a washing machine to take care of clothes freed the owner to do other tasks. The expense, beyond up-front cost, was the energy used to run the machine (electricity). The electricity has associated costs. One could choose to use the machine sparingly. Likely the owner still had a washboard.
Choice is being eliminated. It is a control issue. Unfortunately, the items on your list are all control items. They might seem convenient. The convenience has those hidden costs summarized as infringement upon, to outright theft of, personal liberty.
Eliminating choice is enslavement.
There are moments when a civilization reveals its exhaustion not through defeat, but through its inability to distinguish strength from sickness, truth from fashion, creation from resentment.
What you describe is less a political realignment than a struggle over values themselves. The old institutions stagger on, repeating formulas in which more than a few of their own believers no longer believe, while new forces gather beneath them.
Meanwhile, the decent men and women who work, produce, raise families, build businesses, obey the law, and ask little more than to be left in peace are discovering that even patience has its limits. For years they have watched their prosperity, customs, security, and ordinary standards of life treated not as achievements worth defending, but as things to be taxed, dismantled, mocked, or morally condemned. Exhaustion eventually hardens into resistance.
A culture that has lost confidence in its own standards eventually calls decadence compassion, weakness virtue, and resentment justice. As the preamble to your essay states, it cannot be argued back to health. It must recover the courage to judge, to choose, and above all to create.
The decisive question, then, is not which party survives. It is whether those who still build, work, produce, and preserve have enough vitality left to rise, reject the forces that would diminish them, and drive those forces from political and cultural power.
A civilization survives when its creators finally refuse to apologize to its destroyers.
“when a civilization reveals its exhaustion not through defeat”
This civilization have been invaded by dissidents that are destroying it from within. It is more than inability, it is being destroyed by outsiders. As we have a federal government that thinks it is above the interests of the states and their people, the globalists do the same with nations around the world.
One wonders if certain states within our Union may ultimately decide to act unilaterally on a host of issues should things reach a breaking point. Am not advocating for this, but sometimes events take on their own momentum. The insane and satanic left believes that our system of government is tantamount to a buffet, where one can select or reject what is on the menu (see their stance on immigration law as well as ICE, among many other things). If I had known that this was a legitimate course of action for a state or city (or the Federal government, for that matter), then I would have declared by income to be subject to "sanctuary" from taxation long ago. Funny how that works, isn't it?
Oh those Dems. Their answer to income inequality is to make everyone poor.
Except themselves. In the USSR, everyone was poor, unless you were the 2% inside the Communist Party.
First , compliments on your writings style . That out of the way , I think you are referring to nullification as a response to taxation without representation . The deal was that we funded the government and in turn the government was supposed to represent our interests . That aint happenin .
+100
And when the creators are no longer subject to the tyranny of the created. Our government, the created, can do things that we the people, the creators, cannot do. This cannot continue. Until the people figure this out, nothing is going to change.
I was hiking through a forest over the weekend when I made a rather disturbing discovery: some trees are taller than others.
At first I assumed this was merely an oversight on the part of Nature. But the longer I walked, the more appalling the inequalities became. Some trees possessed considerable girth, while others were positively slender. Certain poplars stood straight as arrows, whereas nearby elms leaned at angles that suggested either moral uncertainty or inadequate supervision.
The injustice was everywhere.
Beside a stream stood an enormous old oak, broad of trunk and magnificently crowned, enjoying every advantage of sunlight, water, and position. Not fifty yards away, beneath the oppressive shade of its neighbors, a pine of approximately the same age had been reduced to a miserable, stunted thing.
One could hardly imagine a more glaring example of unequal outcomes.
Why should the oak be permitted such extravagant growth merely because its roots happened to find water? Why should the poplar enjoy vertical privilege while the elm is condemned to crookedness? And what possible justification can there be for one tree possessing thirty branches while another struggles along with twelve?
Clearly, something must be done.
We cannot continue allowing the forest to perpetuate such arbitrary disparities under the sentimental pretext of “nature.” Nature, after all, has never demonstrated the slightest commitment to fairness. It distributes sunlight unevenly, rains without regard to need, and permits the strong to spread their branches wherever they please.
Fortunately, mankind possesses what Nature conspicuously lacks: policy.
The solution is obvious. The saw must be applied.
Every tree shall henceforth be reduced to the same height, regulated to the same trunk circumference, and permitted precisely the same number of branches. Roots will be monitored for excessive acquisition of nutrients. Trees receiving disproportionate sunlight will surrender a portion of their canopy. Particularly vigorous specimens may require periodic pruning in the interests of forest cohesion.
There will, naturally, be some complaints from the oaks.
But privilege so often mistakes itself for achievement.
When the work is finished, no tree shall tower above another, no trunk shall boast an indecent superiority of girth, and no branch shall reach farther toward the sun than its neighbor’s allotted share.
It may no longer resemble a forest.
But at last it will be fair.
"What you describe is less a political realignment than a struggle over values themselves."
Values? Values are nothing more than fleeting talking points to demonstrate you have some foundation, but as I say, they are fleeting and change easily. Let's talk principals. Principals are the foundation of a civilized society and values without principals are built on a bed of shifting sand. What's missing is the principals that once guided us and have been shredded under the weight of un-enlightened self-interest.
I see the dog days are also being used to describe these August days. Just like the “horse latitudes” in the oceans, which I remember studying in seventh or eighth grade. The “bloated horses” is the symbol for the recessed senators and the inactive Congress, except for the ‘pro forma’ sessions intended to prevent presidential appointments. About JHK’s positivity towards the ME, it’s going to happen because Trump does what he says.
Yes, the Grand Jury in Miami will shock every institution when justice and truth are revealed. That, I believe. And the other part of the decapitation of which Trump spoke is the destruction of the City of London, the banking system with its hold on Iran as in Professor David Clements’ recent stack, Ascension, when he writes about this proscribed event and quotes President Trump.
The crown wants its colonies back. The brits never got over the original 13 telling old George to go pound sand.
Best thing I've read in a year. Thank you.
Look at John Beukemann's art on Facebook, please.
Let us no longer be polite about "mental illness" problems and separation. These are decades long marxist power plays coming to fruition. Check out Christopher Rufo.
“The world will not be destroyed by those who do evil, but by those who watch them without doing anything.
Link, please.
Why are the Transnational gangsters allowed to operate in this country?'
How do they benefit our society?
“The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.”
— George Orwell, 1984
Lol I had a commenter here on these threads who's spent the last 4 or 5 days doing just that . I finally told him to GF himself , I was immune to his Jedi mind tricks .
No no no, it's how society benefits them!
You asked, "How do they benefit our society?"
Depends how you define "society", doesn't it?
If, for example, you use the Edwardian/early Victorian definition, as "our betters", "the gentry", "Society" means one thing. It meant something similar in the glory years of the 1920's pre-depression era.
Today, of course, the term is often used more inclusively.
But, power has always, and probably will always, co-exist in an unholy alliance with the "transnational gangsters" of the day.
You had me at AOC...has "some skill at middle-school girl games." Good one. Thanks for the laugh.
It is amazing how many adults never matured past their middle school years!
All fine & dandy, but if Trump doesn’t begin accountability, I don’t see how the game continues past the mids.
We have an immigration law; we have a scotus holding (v. AZ) that immigration is purely federal. Transporting, hiding, etc., of an illegal is a felony. So why aren’t ALL “sanctuary” governors, mayors, city councils, and Mayorkas being charged with felonies? As with Hillary, Brennan, Clapper, Biden, Obama, Wray, McCabe … a two-tier justice system .. isn’t. If they are free, we are not.
One of your best. Time of revelation. People and things are being exposed for who and what they really are. GOD is fulfilling HIS promises of exposing things done in the dark to the light which is truth. Let HIM do HIS works. Trust GOD. Believe HIM.
A truly great essay
That talking turd Thune, the "Marlboro Man," apparently would rather have a proto-socialist government elected than help Trump get anything done, despite almost all of Trump's goals being the stated goals of the Republican Party for decades. The same sort if thing happened to Reagan, just not as blantantly. Kinda makes you realize the Establishment never really meant a damn thing they ever said.
It’s good to see both parties recognized today as The Problem. They have been enabled for far too long in their Good Cop/Bad Cop routine by millions of credulous Americans of both persuasions who can’t let go of the delusion that their team is the Good Guys. Granted, Democratic psychosis seems more disturbing at this juncture than good old Republican avarice, but neither team has what it will take to save our nation.
The most effective propaganda apparatus in history continues to prevent most Americans from understanding that we have lost the Iran War, but that stark fact will be undeniable in a few more weeks when our Strategic Petroleum Reserve runs out, airlines can’t fly for want of jet fuel, trucking grinds to a halt without diesel, and lemming Wall Street speculators finally face the fact that they’ve bid the Dow up to several times the value of the hollowed-out economy that it supposedly represents.
The epic realignment suggested in today’s post is indeed taking place, but there will be no place in it for the US of A. Being driven out of West Asia will be a harsh lesson for our failing empire. Plenty of nut jobs in Washington will want to push the Big Red Button out of spite, but we will all have no choice but to learn how to build a future for ourselves, while minding our own damned business.
No place for the USA in it, Skillington?
Bombastically wrong, as usual.
Reality does not require your recognition. Your view of this five day war has been delusional from the start. Soon the facts on the ground will be undeniable.
Thanx for that....
FWIW "...Strategic Petroleum Reserve runs out, airlines can’t fly for want of jet fuel, trucking grinds to a halt without diesel..." The SPR is a book-keeping practice that sets the floor for inventories. Yes, there are storage tanks associated with it, but oil comes in many shades and not all of the SPR (if any) is refinable into specialty gardes such as diesel, jet fuel, etc.. "Releasing" it merely allows more supply into the aggregate market.
I do not recall your narrative claiming the same when it was drawn down a few years ago as a stopgap to the inflation spike....
Short selling is only 1/2 the arbitrage.
"Iran War"??? Try WEFI (World Economic Forum Instigations). Why do you think Lloyds of London stepped onto the stage?...because they want to mess with fuel and people as they sit in their "bankers' suits & polished shoes."
The Iran war has minimal influence on American petroleum supplies as, from what I have read, only 7% of America's crude oil supplies come from the middle east. If this is true, I don't see why the USA's strategic petroleum reserve would be tapped. The truth is, the petroleum companies are making record profits in the tens of billions of dollars for a product that is costing Americans nearly double to buy but costs big oil the same to refine.
Correct me if I am wrong. I welcome it.
Trust the plan, eh?
Where have I heard that before?
My hope is that people, this election cycle at least, will go back to choosing who and what to vote for based on truth instead of feelings. There's the problem, though. Whose truth, what truth? How can you even define the meaning of 'truth' anymore to make an informed decision based on it. Those waters have been made very murky, on purpose.
The left has made a concerted effort to confuse what the truth is and is always trying to replace it with emotional coercion getting everybody upset at everything--except for the proposals they themselves present! The right uses truth just as badly by ignoring the necessity of it in the decision-making process until a thorough examination is completed on it, which just means kicking that can down the road so as to make no decision at all.
We the people are those dead horses floating in a listless sea and until we make as big a stink about our situation as those animals must have in the water, we will never see change. So maybe just hold your nose and vote accordingly, which if done correctly, can become the wind that finally picks up and blows your ship to safer seas. Otherwise, we might as well join those floating horses, our fate isn't much different.
If the Left isn’t dividing it would cease to exist! It offers nothing but division and continuous misery!