Jim, a concise and brilliant summary of the last several decades of the revolutionary long march through the institutions, yet the slippery underminers of (actual) democracy seem to have evaded much hammer-blowing, as the no-doubt janky elections in California appear to be revealing.
Step One in a return to electoral health would appear to be the passing of the SAVE Act, which several Republicans continue to block.
The cultural and mental rot will take another two generations at least to wash out of the system, of the tide indeed does flow that way.
Wishing will for the USA in its coming 250th. (We know, of course, that mind-scrambled citizens and others are pinning poisoned needles in the voodoo doll of Uncle Sam...)
This. We are watching unbelievable shenanigans going on in the California elections: you can be registered to vote with a library card which requires no proof of citizenship. Reports of homeless being paid to vote. Every single mail in vote in a large batch reported for Nithya Raman, despite the two top vote-getters in the in-person voting being Pratt and Bass. Indeterminate time line for counting votes/certifying elections. And yet, once again, conservatives will whine, cry, stamp their feet - and do nothing.
Nobody in any position of influence cares and certainly the people of California don't care.
We still have it way too good in America for people to consider significant changes in their actions, attitudes and ways of life. Period. People won't change things until they MUST.
By the time they get to that point, 150 million of us will have been sent to the ovens. Hell, it's been too late to stop it since Landslide Lyndon got millions of Americans hooked on money stolen from other Americans.
Let's start with that Voter ID act called SAVE. Use Reconciliation to get it to Trump's desk.
SCOTUS than can...and will...I hope.....restrict the current free-for-all called mail-in ballots and bring them back to what they were intended for.
Than Congress can create money to protect our Democracy by funding installing poll watchers [use TSA agents....better use] to get rid of any poll worker shenanigans.
You Answered my question. I've been Followng Politics since Nixon v Kennedy.
"Than Congress can create money to protect our Democracy by funding installing poll watchers [use TSA agents....better use] to get rid of any poll worker shenanigans."
Speaking of Lost. You Are Aware Elections are all State Run, NOT Federal. Its Called Federalism.
There is only one thing left to do. I'm surprised that it hasn't happened already. I shouldn't say it, lest I wind up on a watch list. But here goes. The only thing left is violence, for better or worse.
Violence isn't necessary. Just trace back to the source, the actual merchants of chaos who create the dangerous environments (wars, poverty, disease, economic turmoil, etc.) and isolate them from society, imprison them for life. Forget the rules and laws they hide behind. No matter the country they are in. Just go get them and throw them in a cell. One international vigilante group, doing this job for the sake of humanity and its future. Simple.
There are better options. This sounds like something one of those embedded FBI agents encouraging January 6 mayhem would and did say. Present company excepted of course.
Passing more laws will not change or save America. We have more than enough laws already. Instead, the Insurrection Act should be invoked to really clean house. Even with that, however, America is done.
There are so many Federal Laws, State Laws, County Laws and City Laws on the books that the average American slob commits 3 felonies a day and doesn't even know it.
There are so many laws on the books that law enforcement agencies do not have the resources to enforce them all so they pick and choose which laws to enforce and which to ignore.
As I have said before the system has become so great, so massive, so incredibly huge that the only solution is to bring it down entirely and start over. This mess we call the American government cannot be resolved by voting. It can only be resolved by staunch rebellion by the American people and Americans, largely obsessed with porn, sex and the teevee aren't in a position to do anything about it.
I believe you are quite accurate in your assessment and everything will come down over time. It is painstakingly slow and I comment often on my feeling of watching a slow motion train wreck. We just had another sudden death at work. Young people in their 30s and 40s who should not be dying. Thirty year olds having strokes. Volunteers in their 50s and upwards dropping like flies. I have lost count of the number of deaths and people leaving on disability. Few people in my department in the city of Albuquerque seem to have any clue that something is deeply wrong.
Much of what you say here is true, Canker, but why is that so? Who is responsible for the outsized number of laws and why? Lawfare? That's a Bolshevik construct to create chaos, sow discontent and drive racial animosity among the goyim, no?
Well the lawyers of course. You see, we have too many lawyers in America so a lot of them can't find work, so, they get into politics where they now get to make laws. Of course they make more laws to benefit their profession so they will never run out of work.
What do you call a failed lawyer? A lawmaker.
Lawyers are like Insurance salesmen. The most useless prescrubbing scum sucking leaches on the planet who only suck you dry of your resources and contribute absolutely nothing to society.
If you're referring to Article 5 authorizing the "convention of states" I would agree with you. The problem is that a large number of states are just as dysfunctional and corrupt as the federal system and cannot be relied upon to resolve anything. There was recently a movement to have a "convention of states" and the organizers of such effort failed to get enough states to participate. In other words, Article 5 is useless.
" ...bring it down entirely and start over." Exactly so. Enabled by an organized effort that x-number don't pay their taxes, bringing the govt to a halt; the next phase of the plan already in place.
I believe I have already stated this. If the people could unite, we could starve the beast by simply refusing to pay our taxes. Property and income taxes. BAM! What are they going to do, throw more than a hundred millions taxpayers and property owners in prison? The people DO have the power but the people are too busy picking sides and won't unite on anything. Democrat v Republican. Fat v thin. Women v. men. Rich v poor. Pretty v ugly. Old v young. Gay v straight. Religious v non-religious. Tall v short. Ruralites v urbanites.
Yes, done. Too much diversity. By definition, a nation is one people and culture. We will fall to never rise again. Outside possibility: An American 2.0 in the White areas of the West and upper plains.
A big problem with that is the Reds you talk about will be overrun by criminality from the Blues, and the resultant violence that goes with it. We are seeing the precursors to it right now as the Blues try their damndest to steal from the Reds everywhere and re-distribute the wealth. The most evil part of this is the Lefty-left portraying themselves as good samaritans when their only motivation is power. They do not give one damn about the people.
"Step One in a return to electoral health would appear to be the passing of the SAVE Act, which several Republicans continue to block."
TV,
You want fundamental change? Simply restore secret balloting in House and Senate. Let men vote their best interests rather than those of their paymasters.
Rescind the Supreme Courts disastrous rulings that large corporations are considered legal individuals and have the right to contribute large sums of money to a candidate's campaign. Get the big money out of politics.
Most of the solutions to what ails America are quite simple when you think about it. There just isn't any will to execute these solutions because the grift is so great by the perpetrators that they will never act. Until the people force them to and, as i mentioned above, the American people are too addicted to drugs, porn, sex, food and the teevee to take such action.
I read all the comments on this thread. And it's like anywhere. Lots of complaints, but no real solutions. The solutions rest with people and institutions who can't be counted on to have a spine. Everybody please weigh in on this idea: what if martial law was declared for a period of time around elections? Nationwide. NG & MIL police all poling places (that require it, and we know where those are). I'm not saying it will or will not work, and not sure its Constitutional, but I'm interested in "Why not?" Talk to me.
I can honestly say Trump is one-half of a truly great president. Even that is remarkable -- I've never known anything like it in many years of watching my country turn sour. It's been a long takeoff run but his determination to undo generations' worth of Lefty-left malfeasance is aloft, at long last. In the face of opposition up and down the line, from faux friends and deep-dyed enemies, he's using pretty much every power allotted to him by law or precedent to destroy the flesh-eating worms that have nearly brought the end to a great constitutional republic. A lot of us have dreamed of this day and always been disappointed, until now.
Wherefore "one-half" of a great president? The other half -- the one involving the US on the world stage -- presents an ugly picture. Bull, china shop kind of thing. Perhaps worst is Trump's divided loyalty, to both Israel and the United States. It's not far-fetched to say his heart belongs to Israel. Or to vary the metaphor, "There's your trouble, there's your trouble, Keep seein' double with the wrong one." (Dixie Chicks, before they cast off Dixie)
Without his attachment to Israel it's unlikely he'd let slip the dogs of war against Iran. That was a stupid, egregious mistake; an act of brinksmanship that threatens to loose fire on the middle east, if not on a wider scope. Trump's blustering threats against Iran are hardly the way to encourage the mullahs to accept a peace agreement. Would you trust a foreign power who says, "We will bury you," enough to sign an agreement with it?
In any case, moving key military personnel and equipment halfway around the world imperils them, weakens our presence elsewhere, and throws a monkey wrench into the economies of many a nation, including ours.
The US has nothing to gain from this folly. The only beneficiary might be Israel, and even that is anything but assured.
" ... but, admit it, an actual peace agreement would be quite a coup." Yes, it would. But much the same effect could be had, with far less trouble for millions of people, at far less cost for a bankrupt country, if our forces simply packed up, left the Strait of Hormuz, Iran's shadow and Israel. "Bye, folks. It's down to you now. We hope you'll play nice, but we're gone, gone, gone and we don't worry. Drop us a line now and then."
Yes – delusions abound, including the notion that we are nearing an agreement with Iran, notwithstanding Iran’s daily reminder that they have quite reasonably found the US and Israel to be agreement-incapable. Then there’s the fact that our terms are entirely unreasonable, especially given the fact that we have failed to win the war.
Another delusion is that the Iranians are driven by some sort of wish for an apocalypse, which is especially amusing, given the fact that it is the eschatology of both Zionist Jews and Evangelical Christians that drives them to bring about the End Times.
As the US war machine continues to exhaust itself against the Iranian Rope-a-Dope strategy, the fog of war will gradually reveal the fact that we have no other option than to slink home and pretend that this horrible mess never happened. Unfortunately, the world economic collapse and subsequent famine which we are bringing about will make forgetting Netanyahu's War quite impossible.
Nonsense. What is the evidence that the US is exhausting itself? And the rope-a-dope. strategy is a City of London scam, just like the one in Ukraine. You lose a war, and keep losing a war, and just pretend you haven't. It's all just Baghdad Bob on steroids, something that cannot go on and so it won't.
$39,216,905,060,894 in national debt. What more evidence do you need? Or are you one of those guys who thinks the debt is actually to ourselves so it doesn't matter?
Look at the value of the dollar and you'll see what the money printing to fund these wars is doing to us. Look at the price of an ounce of gold and you'll see what money printing to fund these wars is doing to us.
We shall see won't we? It has been ninety-nine days since the predicted Five Day War ran past its announced schedule.
Surely we can agree that the US has not yet "won." Let's check back with each other every three months until the facts on the ground obviate argumentation.
The Iranians have let it be known that they're prepared to prosecute the defense of their country for at least two years. I predict that we will have thrown in the towel by then.
The way we know is that Iran has not been able to launch any sustained and significant missile attacks since the first few days. The US (with the help of Israel and everyone else in the ME, now alienated by Iranian attacks on them) is in total control of their military and economy, i.e. oil. Every time they fire something, the source is immediately knocked out.
So, the kinetic war is over, barring a nuke, which would be more destructive to them than anyone else, or sporadic terror attacks, which they have yet to show they can muster. Blather about defending "their country" (by which they mean the IRGC hiding in caves) just shows that the PR war has not yet been decisively won. Why would we throw in the towel when we have disarmed them, are in a position to grab the fissionable material, and have reworked the global oil distribution system to our benefit? We will simply sit tight, continue to knock out any signs of military life, and wait for the internal dynamics to shift. Those will certainly not be pretty, but the IRGC and their globalist handlers will be toast.
There are a lot of people out there that do not want the US (and Trump) to be successful and should not be listened to. I'm not saying we're home free, just that talk of Iranian military capacity is silliness, same as Ukraine, sad as all that is.
Every part of what you think you know about the war so far is balderdash - clearly, nothing more than parroting official US and Israeli propaganda.
Israel has not had effective defense against Iranian attack in many weeks, and Iran continues to clobber them on its own schedule. That's why it's illegal in Israel for photos or videos to be taken of the serious damage there, with prison sentences for those who share them with the rest of the world.
I will not waste pixels on further attempts to convince you. If you were right, the war would long have been over by now. We'll touch base in another three months.
We have spent our strength and means making war in foreign lands. The USA is busted, broke, kaput, bankrupt. The money is gone. There is no money. We are living on the graces of the reserve currency status and the ever whirring printing presses of the US Treasury.
It is going to end and it is going to end far worse than any other nation who has attempted to print their way out of the financial obligations. Buckle up.
Yeah, keep your eyes on the ball, people. Not only the debt continues to go ballistic, but the good image of the United States continues to decay in the eyes of the rest of the world, which is....part of the plan.
JHK wrote: "The outstanding question might be: why do so many in the West continue to believe it?"
My humble opinion is that post WWII the middle class of the United States, then Europe and Japan, grew and amassed fabulous wealth. Wealth that the oligarchs were okay with as long as their wealth also rose even faster. Since 1980 or so, the oligarchs/globalists have decided to recoup that wealth from we-the-deplorables in the Middle Class, and the war on class began. They find the Lefties are the natural stooges for this kind of work, since most grew up not understanding what a hard day's work is all about anyway, and their rose-colored view of human nature was a cinch to exploit.
Now we're at the stage where Lefties are so twisted and insane, it's Germany 1933 again, where we'll be happy to give over the reins of <absolute> power to the lessor of two evils. That is to say, the Right.
Trump may appear to be dismantling the Lefties, but since he's an insider from birth, you know his real role now and who his masters are - and it ain't the American people. He is the exact definition of Controlled Opposition. Short of a Civil War, Constitutional Convention, Convention of States or some other miracle, I don't see a path forward where the Republic survives.
The human mind cannot comprehend the utter immense size of a trillion dollars, it is beyond our ability. Now multiply that by 40 and you're talking a really really really really really really ENORMOUS number that it hard to comprehend. THAT is the US debt and most of the war mongers on this site like JohnAZ and even our gifted host seem to be okay with as long as the USA kicks Iran's ass!
We have so many problems right here in the lower 48 that it infuriates me that Trump is fucking around and spending money we don't have in a shithole country like Iran who has been "3 weeks away from getting a nuke" for the last 30 fucking years.
The likelihood that we will collapse any time now provides succor to all who despise our rogue state - that, and the fact that our collapse will bring Israel down about four minutes later.
What are your sources you keep talking about? There are two, very different renditions of what is going on, one that Iran has been blasted and the other that Israel has been blasted. Looking to the past, I believe the blasted Iran edition as the Iranians have been lying to the world for decades. Shia Islam is a dangerous falsehood itself.
What America’s Lefty-left has proven beyond cavil is the immutability of human nature, which is itself incompatible with their vision of what America should be. It is a sort of endless loop that devolves in much the same manner as it has throughout history, the twentieth century being a particularly bloody example of this paradigm.
Thank you James for your daily dose of truth and facts🙏 “Remember, liberalism was pure live-and-let-live, with an emphasis on minimal government intrusion in our affairs” Liberalism is dead on the left and has naturally evolved into progressive nihilism. Self loathing, mentally unstable individuals who not only despise themselves, but everything good. They look at our God, family and country beliefs as a threat to their mental instabilities and destructive agenda. They embrace darkness and evil because it makes them feel normal. Unfortunately, these most vile creatures have gained much power and influence over the past few decades. President Trump is now reversing the insanity by ending the financial support and hopefully starting to prosecute the criminal cult that supported it. America still has hope as long as the SaveAct passes and the scales continue to weigh in the favor of freedom, humanity and freedom 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸
Trump himself is proof of the migration of the DNC platform to the gimme Leftist organ it has been become. He used to be a Democrat, like JHK, until the DNC lost its sanity. Both now support the USA, the USA that the DNC wants destroyed if favor of the USSA.
I sure hope the hammer is coming down on Iran, Islamic extremists, the Democratic Party, and the deep state because if it doesn’t, and the government falls into Democrat hands, life as we have known it is finished. Be active folks. Enlighten your liberal children and liberal friends.
If he doesn't wrap up this nonsense in Iran and bring fuel prices and subsequent food prices back down the Democrats will re-take the House and Trump will be spending the last two years fighting back sham impeachment charges that the Senate will never convict.
The American people know nothing different that voting Democrat or Republican. Back and forth they go, expecting a different result every time. Insane lunatics, all of them, if you ask me, for continuing to believe in a broken system that hasn't served them well for decades.
Yes but the bottom line is that too many people don’t even know who their Congressman is and midterm elections usually have low turnouts. I tend to vote against the incumbent I don’t want them there too long incumbency is a threat to our system, too many geezers there with too much seniority wielding power for themselves and others not us. When Trump won in 2016 and people lost their minds I went around telling people that the President signs the bill it is our Congressmen spending us in to oblivion. I would then ask who is your Congressman and 90% did not know. I was so disappointed.My hope is that the turnout in November is much higher than usual because of all the issues but we shall see. In 2022 the turnout was 46.8%, we need to do a lot better.
"it is our Congressmen spending us in to oblivion"
Yes sir. Been trying to emphasize this point for a long time. Under the US Constitution the Congress is the Sovereign. The President can veto a bill but the Congress can override a veto. Too many people keep pointing their fingers at the Presidency and demanding permanent change but the President has not the authority to do so. The President doesn't make law, the President executes the law, hence the reason it is called the "Executive branch."
Americans should be pissing razor blades in anger at the abject failure that is the US Congress. The Congress has pissed away its authority, passing vague laws with no clear measures of enforcement and has delegated that authority to the Presidency and the associated bureaucracy.
Evidence is irrelevant to these sickos. One thing not brought up often enough is that should any of this succeed and the D's take the House and Senate, they would, regardless of lack of evidence, impeach and "convict" both Trump and Vance, giving us President Hakeem Jeffries and "Bosnia 2027" coming to a neighborhood near you.
This is correct. The recent Supreme Court redistricting opinions appear to have put some balance back into the system. It remains in a Left/Aright axis, not a good place. There are also those in what is referred to as a 'party' existing as a faction wanting to remove Trump. the term RINO seems somewhat appropriate. Interesting times.
DJT has abandoned his base, gone against just about everything on which he campaigned. This adds more intrigue to the mix.
I'd really like to see RICO put to the test, as you opine, yet also want to know why it has not already happened on some level.
"DJT has abandoned his base,".... Exactly. He seems to have morphed into a deal making politician more interested in Napoleonic international notoriety than focussing on America's pressing concerns--which he campaigned on and now ignores. Not to be mundane, but here in New York we have muslims shutting down Herald Square to pray in the street. Texas has five mosques going up each week and is soon to go blue, their outspoken national goal, replacement through breeding, or beheading. And I highly suspect he has muzzled the media; no talk of ten-twenty million Biden imported muslims, except to reply upon social media. Nothing! Is he still president, in the real sense?
Every time the left opens its mouth, my mind goes back to the message scrawled on the end wall of the big barn in that very prophetic book, "Animal Farm". Which should be renamed to fit today's situation as "Human Animal Farm"! Not many using their 'superior intellect' out there it seems.
But I digress, which is good in that it shows I'm still more human than animal, according to who you ask, of course!
They had set up seven commandments to live by and were written in great white letters for all to read and be inspired by. The seventh one is the one I'm particularly mentioning:
"All animals are equal." Pretty self-explanatory, isn't it? But it eventually got refined to better fit the situation at hand and the seven commandments were reduced to just one, the only one that counted--to those in charge!
"All animals are equal. BUT some animals are MORE equal than others."
Thus we see the lefty-lefts design for total control, their version of 'equity', equality, fairness and truth. Should any of us still possessing a working brain be surprised?
Yes. Well said. And the Lefties and jihadists have formed an unholy alliance. A broken coalition with a common foe, US. Once the Muslims take over, they will execute the lot of useful lefty idiots.
You use the term "Lefty-left" 11 times in this article, not even counting the title.
For context, I'm very anti-Trump and I openly admit that much of the media I consume is critical of him. But what strikes me most about this article isn't your criticism of Democrats. Criticize Democrats all day long if the criticism is accurate. As an independent, I don't have much interest in defending a political party.
What strikes me is the picture you've created of Democrats as an almost all-powerful force that simultaneously controls elections, controls government, controls institutions, controls speech, controls the economy, and yet somehow keeps losing elections. Democrats lose governorships, state legislatures, congressional seats, the White House, and local elections all the time. Republicans currently control the White House, the Senate, the House, and enjoy a conservative Supreme Court majority. The idea that Democrats are secretly running everything simply doesn't match reality.
The same goes for the claim that Democrats "hate America." Do they hate America, or do they disagree with certain policies? There is a huge difference. In a healthy democracy, opposing a policy is not the same thing as opposing the country.
What I find ironic is that I used to be much more sympathetic to conservative media. I listened to Rush Limbaugh in the 1990s. Even when he was criticizing the Left, I don't remember this level of cynicism, apocalyptic thinking, or the constant portrayal of political opponents as enemies of civilization itself. Maybe he evolved in that direction, but I never knew as I stopped listening to him in the early 2000's. What I see today feels like a distorted and much more amplified version of what once seemed to be legitimate criticism of the Left.
Rush often argued that politics had become the religion of the Left. Looking around today, I can't help but notice that many on the Right have blended politics, identity, and religion into a very toxic stew of their own. When every disagreement becomes a battle between good and evil, patriot and traitor, America and anti-America, there's no room left for reality, nuance, or self-reflection.
That's not a recipe for saving the country. It's a recipe for tearing it apart.
"Republicans currently control the White House, the Senate, the House, and enjoy a conservative Supreme Court majority."
And they do diddly poo with that majority. Republicans can't help but step on their own dick, can't they? They are paid vocal opposition to the powers that be, that's all they are. When they are in power they do the same damned things the Democrats do.
Spend money we don't have.
Wage wars in foreign shit hole countries that pose no threat to us.
Grow the government.
Continue to tax us into oblivion.
Get it? I sure do and I won't participate in the fraud anymore.
Being a former GOP guy with years of observation both inside and outside the political fence line...it sure seems like over the last 3 decades that the GOP has traded in it's former political strengths for an "owning the Libs" thing. Being good at that doesn't do a damn thing when you're the one in charge.
They're still owning the Libs even though the GOP is literally in charge. That's 70% of what Trump talks about these days...not the current state of things...but he lashes out at the Dems even though he's in charge with all 3 branches of the federal government.
What's truly ironic is when Trump complains about things being perpetually wrong that no previous administrations fixed...when the fact is that HE is a part of that group of "previous administrations"!
I had great hopes that Mr. Trump would be better than he is. He is an utter disappointment and has demonstrated himself to be just another cog in the federal Leviathan's gears.
Our host keeps predicting that Mr. Trump has big plans and that Democrats are going to finally get their licks for their naughtiness. Yet, what has happened? I'm just a dumb hick jack mormon living in the mountains of eastern Utah so I admit I know very little, only what I read and hear on sites like the CFN. Still waiting for our gifted host to finally tell us about things that are actually happing instead of telling us to wait just a little longer.
Well...I sure appreciate your honest opinion and assessment of the situation.
I'm not even exactly sure how I ended up here...I think that possibly the host liked my comment on another substack and I linked my account to his or something.
It used to be very uncomfortable for me to post against crowd on these type of sites, but not so much any more. I'm trying my best to be honest, speak my mind and to learn...so there's nothing bad about that. If others have an issue with my opinion...great...let's talk.
I have a kid in Utah...it's a great place to live, but it certainly is different from most of country.
This is thoughtful, thanks. Clearly, the center did not hold — and these days political polarization is extreme. The family business of the Democrat-Left is government and to that end the Lefty-left needs a robust revenue flow from the private sector into the public sector but that dynamic only works when the Golden Goose is able to create wealth. Kill the goose — and everything goes down and the Left will resort to ‘zero sum’ thinking (Dr. Zhivago-esque). The Lefty-left is a dependency class which is unfit to be our ruling class.
That's an argument that's been around a LOOOONNNNG time. Do you really think that Democrats don't know where tax dollars come from? That's literally your belief about the Democrats? Are you sure that's not the Right's argument about the Democrats based upon the fact that Dems like to tax and spend? Being pro-tax & spend is not the equivalent of being an economic idiot unsure of where we get tax dollars from.
If you actually take your argument literally...then wouldn't the Dems be all about enabling the private sector to grow and thereby generating more tax revenue? Oh wait...is that the trickle down theory? That theory is about the equivalent on the Right isn't it? The belief that we'll all get richer by letting the billionaires have more tax breaks.
Let's work toward the middle shall we? We need taxes. The level of taxation and how those dollars are spent will ALWAYS be the issue. I just bristle with the old notion that the Dems have no idea where the taxes come from or that they think taxing generates business. That's an old argument that I don't think reflects reality if it ever did about the left's knowledge.
If you need facts about who does better with the economy...it sure seems like the Left has a far better record than the Right in the past 3 decades.
Made me grin: "...or that they think taxing generates business."
A few moons ago, I was working a major acquisition program that was repeatedly on the cutting block. During one of the meetings/conferences I got into a friendly conversation with a Congressional staffer. Her comment still piques my fancy: "We don't care about the product, all we care about is the spending. The more we spend the more we get in [tax] revenue."
Revenue by any means results in more spending which means more taxes which all leads to more power. Remember that the next time your pantheons of virtue mention "investing in our future".
I sure wish I had more context on that conversation, but I will say that a congressional staffer talking in one meeting doesn't reflect an entire party's fiscal policy/knowledge does it? That being said...it was a stupid remark if that's reflective of their reasoning for having "programs".
I can only imagine some MAGA congressional staffers saying during the DOGE surge..."We have to destroy the village in order to save it" as they gleefully endorsed cutting funding to nuclear experts watching over our nukes...
JC - You are too smart to not be more open to a diverse set of political views.
Today, with what is going on around us, being in denial about pre-tax and spend is a mental illness.
Like oil and water, wealth is a limited resource, actually the economic value of that wealth. Musk is a trillionaire. Fifty years ago, there were no billionaires. Today’s wealth is a facade.
And contrary to your opinion, both sides are guilty as both are culpable to following the Deep State’s plunge into the cesspool. The real difference is that the Lefty-Left have their pedal to the metal.
We see eye-to-eye on this being a problem on both sides, but the data doesn't support your last point (i.e. pedal to the metal) ESPECIALLY if you consider that Joe Biden inherited an economic crises and we purposely spent our way out of it. A non-pandemic President Joe would have pushed for increased spending, of course. but not at those levels.
Really...part of the issue here is that Dems want to increase taxes to offset the spending, right? So...to blame them for any deficit spending is really a shared thing between parties where the GOP fights tax increases tooth and nail.
The Lefty-left is not economically illiterate — they just prioritize differently. The Lefty-left sees monetized debt, the government printing of money, in addition to taxation, as revenue sources. The Democrat-Left has always been fond of Keynesian Economic Theory because it gives them a ‘hall pass’ to spend, spend, spend for the sake of spending. So, instead of having a system that allocates resources well, we have politicians fulfilling their hearts’ and their constituencies’ desires at the expense of the greater economy.
There is enduring wisdom in the Tenth Commandment. ‘Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour's.’ KJV
It used to drive me crazy when people brought up that GW Bush was responsible for increasing the debt. I defended him because he was reacting to 9/11 and did a lot of spending to protect the country, etc.
However...it is a true statement that it's the GOP presidents of the last 30 years that have grown the deficit tremendously.
It's also pretty ironic that you are posting this when our current POTUS appears to be increasing the deficit this year through his choices and policies. Not sure there are very clear lessons to be learned from Trump on how to lessen the deficit.
You make valid points though I sponsor a caveat; they “prioritize differently” because they ARE economically illiterate. Nor is this confined to the “lefty-left”.
We are discussing AI over and over. Pertaining to your post, where is the government going to get its taxes from if the folks being taxed are non-productive. Will the federal revenue pie chart be shrunken down to the point that 75% of spending will be financed with fiat money? Where is all this money going to come from to pay for the illegals and homeless? Everywhere.
The trillionaire is a couple of steps away from disaster as we all are if the SHTF. In the meantime, Musk earned everything he had done to create his empire.
Your comments are very enlightening and interesting. I also use the terms lefty and even loony left deservedly, which title you do not fit. It has been my experience with those on the left that there is no nuance or areas of agreement with those on the left, and this has been so for at least the last decade or more. I used to have very good, what were once called liberal friends, and even political banter was good-natured and non-aggressive. The toxic stew you refer to seems to be predominately on the left, which coincides with the Democrats hard shift to the left more in line with the CPUSA Ideology, as so many of congressional Democrats are progressives, outright communists, or at least fellow travelers. In my studied opinion, the Democrats and their far-left supporters have already torn the country apart and Trump and his administration are attempting to repair it to the extent possible. The insurrections in California, Oregon, and Washington are not happenstance, but planned as part and parcel of Democrat resistance. Antifa and blm are wannabe storm troopers for D's. I do appreciate your comments even if I disagree with much of what you post. Best wishes.
Thanks for sharing your viewpoint. We obviously see a lot of this differently, but I do appreciate that you're willing to engage with the arguments rather than just dismiss them.
Since 2017, I've watched CNN and MSNBC/NBC News pretty much daily. Are they biased? Sure. Every outlet has biases. But the version of those networks that I hear described in conservative media often sounds like a completely different channel than the one I actually watch.
They're not spending their days promoting Marxism, Communism, open borders, banning religion, confiscating guns, or teaching people to hate America. Yet if I listened only to conservative media, I'd probably think that's exactly what was happening. As someone who actually watches the programming, I can tell you that isn't the reality I'm seeing.
As for BLM and Antifa, I think this is where our political "inflation machine" kicks in. A fringe group on the left does something stupid, destructive, or violent, and before long it gets inflated into evidence that Democrats as a whole support it. The same thing happens in reverse when people on the left try to portray every Republican as responsible for the actions of the most extreme people on the right.
The problem is that guilt by association is a lousy way to understand politics.
For example, on September 7, 2020, Joe Biden was asked directly whether he condemned Antifa. His answer was simple: "Yes I do—violence no matter who it is."
That doesn't mean every Democrat has always said the right thing or handled these issues perfectly. It simply means that the claim that Democrats embrace or encourage political violence doesn't fit the evidence.
I think both parties have fringe elements. What I resist is the idea that the fringe is the party. That's where a lot of our political conversations seem to go off the rails.
"[...] I don't remember this level of cynicism, apocalyptic thinking, or the constant portrayal of political opponents as enemies of civilization itself."
It's part of the coming technate. There will be no politics. Only 'dissidents' 'terrorists' and 'enemies of the common good', 1984-style, who need to be droned, whacked or otherwise neutralised. The technate needs a new world religion so that it can eliminate heretics. Ergo, no polite disagreements, and eventually no disagreements at all.
I don't think we'll see a single prosecution or conviction for any of the deeds they have done. Judges will claim malicious prosecution and throw out every single case. So if you think as I used to that this will all land before the mid terms sorry to dash your hopes, but it won't. They've won. They stacked the DC courts with operatives who are not going to prosecute anyone and if they do, they certainly won't convict.
OMG...in 2026...you are still bringing up, Hillary? Seriously...how many people have you accused of TDS? At least Trump's actually in office doing stupid stuff to complain about! You're complaining about someone who hasn't been much of a political influence in over a decade.
There have been lots of Trump appointed judges who have not ruled in his favor. You guys act like the deck is stacked against you but it's really just the lack of veracity in many of your claims and arguments. Blaming the judges is just an easy/lazy way of avoiding the fact that you have losing arguments.
The evidence is pretty clear to me, Jeff. The Republicans are NOT the answer. No, I am not saying the Democrats are. Both parties are not worth a big stinky shit and should be wiped out completely.
I'm not saying that the Dems are the answer either, but the GOP has gone off the ledge these days. They are so beholden to a single man that our government has temporarily (hopefully) started operating more like a fascist regime than any other administration in my lifetime.
Thinking that wiping out both parties would help is a nice thing to contemplate, but I'm not sure it's true and it's certainly not going to happen any time soon.
"our government has temporarily (hopefully) started operating more like a fascist regime"
It's been doing this since good ole honest Abe decided to make war upon and devastate the southern states. The constitution of 1788 was over thrown at that time and since then the Presidents have run amok with power the US Congress has pissed away to them.
"Thinking that wiping out both parties would help is a nice thing to contemplate, but I'm not sure it's true and it's certainly not going to happen any time soon."
Jeff: You were doing so well with your previous post appearing to be an actual liberal with an open mind, and now you have trashed that previous thoughtful, but misleading, post. As a retired trial lawyer, yes there are completely corrupt judges in DC and NY, to the shame of the supposedly equal law governing our country. To enlighten you and other readers, like California at present, the 2020 election was stolen from Trump, which China Joe actually admitted to on mike with his comment about the biggest fraud election in history. But never mind, there is no amount of evidence that can overcome a closed deranged mind or a corrupt intent, no matter the black robes or expensive suits hangs on the judges and counselors. Not easy or lazy but matter of fact.
Approximately two decades ago, I read JHK's "Long Emergency". A friend of mine, a successful businessman and whom I would call a moderate conservative, borrowed the book to read. His comment after reading it was this, "The book was interesting, but it got one thing wrong." I asked my friend what that was. He replied, "We'll starve to death from Socialism long before we starve to death because of lack of oil or any other natural resources." As I look at the U.S. (and the rest of the world) today, I believe that my friend's prediction may likely come true.
As for "liberalism," it quit being about freedom with LBJ--the "liberal" welfare state replaced freedom with Socialism's main ideological tenet: owning or controlling the means of production, and using the police power of the state to redistribute wealth from those who earned it and own it to those who did not (the non-productive, non-earners being the major voting bloc for the Democrat "liberals" ever since LBJ).
Author Ayn Rand predicted this decades ago:
"When you see that trading is done, not by consent, but by compulsion - when you see that in order to produce, you need to obtain permission from men who produce nothing - when you see that money is flowing to those who deal, not in goods, but in favors - when you see that men get richer by graft and by pull than by work, and your laws don't protect you against them, but protect them against you - when you see corruption being rewarded and honesty becoming a self-sacrifice - you may know that your society is doomed."
"The difference between a welfare state and a totalitarian state is a matter of time."
"Every government interference in the economy consists of giving an unearned benefit, extorted by force, to some men at the expense of others."
"If you surrender everything to the government and give it total power to plan the whole economy, this will not guarantee your economic security, but it will guarantee the descent of the entire nation to a level of miserable poverty--as the practical results of every totalitarian economy, communist or fascist, have demonstrated."
"The majority of those who are loosely identified by the term 'liberals' are afraid to let themselves discover that what they advocate is statism. They want to keep all the advantages and effects of capitalism, while destroying the cause, and they want to establish statism without its necessary effects. They do not want to know or to admit that they are the champions of dictatorship and slavery."
Eventually, the U.S. must confront a hard reality: Either Socialism in the U.S. must be destroyed, or the U.S. will become an impoverished Socialist dictatorship, with the Constitution and the Bill of Rights incinerated.
The New Prometheans of Capitalism (Dark MAGA) intend to get rid of most of humanity and keep the rest in cyber-space. Their "Socialist" brothers in the WEF understand completely: America needs its own brand of Globalism. After all, once you have all the money, these competing systems means very little, not at the level of the Capstone and the Plateau below it. But in terms that you will understand: The final system will have aspects of both Capitalism and Communism. Heads and Tails. The few and the many. The rubes and the carnies. As Master Klaus Schwab said, You will have nothing and be happy.
I was a GOP for 30 years and, for the life of me, cannot agree with you guys on this dystopian view of the Left. To get to the point, you guys have created a monster that literally doesn't exist.
You apparently are ingesting media and news from sources that feed this narrative.
Trump instituted Tariffs across the board when he entered office. It was a complete economic disaster that ended up needing us to bail out farmers via tax dollars. What exactly did that accomplish?
You post paragraph after paragraph condemning this Lefty-left monster (that doesn't exist) while simultaneously ignoring the guy in office whose insane and non-sensical economic policy (does he even have one?) that has the USA impacting the entire world in an incredibly negative way.
Just play it straight and with the facts...that's all I'm asking.
Everything is coming up roses for the United States of America, thanks to our leader and the MAGA supporters and Patriots who keep moving things forward. Some people see this, and, well, some people don't, and likely never will. The GOP deserves another 16 years in power, at least.
The inability to understand the truth surrounding the "Lefty-left" is on you.
The thing that the GOP is good at is criticizing others...especially the Left and that's why Trump was so popular to you.
Trump's not going to survive this term and I'm not sure he makes through 2026. There's too much shix in the water.
Something's gonna give and the truth will eventually come out. He's going to be finished one way or the other. This is going to be so bad that even the right wing spin machine will not be able to save him.
Oooh. You've got it bad. Try Bluesky for some confirmation. The GOP will retain both the House and the Senate in the 2026 elections as more and more corrupt revelations committed by the Lefty-left come out between now and then. The well is endless. They are corrupt to the core.
The regime change happened. It just didn't happen the way the neocons in their dream state imagined it. The mullahs, the theocracy, has been replaced by the IRGC. Goes to the saying 'be careful what you wish for...'.
The IRGC was always in charge. That's why we're now dismantling all of the global money laundering operations that feeds them and City of London. The kinetic war has been over for more than a month and been replaced by a financial one that is bleeding the old, globalist scheme dry.
The Allies are dying and BRICS is rising. Iran is the tip of their spear. We can continue to impale ourselves on it or not, but as Putin said, The Vampire Ball is coming to an end.
That war won't end even if a peace accord is reached.
Not until the IRGC and the mullahs are punted out of power and not a second sooner.
They will start scheming ways to kick-start their weapons program, both conventional and nuclear, under the radar yet again.
If they manage to start selling oil again, they will also fund every lousy terrorist group they can find willing to work with them on destroying the little Satan and the great Satan.
In other words, back to their business as usual of attacking their neighbors via proxy and imagining the great Shiite caliphate to come.
The real way to mitigate Iran is to break it up into several countries aligned with the people who live in the region.
Straight line borders drawn by the British have been a source of conflict since World War 1.
That would take millions of healthy but very ignorant White men willing to die for alien masters or even the local tyrants of Main St. This group doesn't exist any more in sufficient numbers to succeed. You're too late!
We delayed you long enough to keep your evil plans from coming to fruition. We haven't won and neither have you.
Jim, a concise and brilliant summary of the last several decades of the revolutionary long march through the institutions, yet the slippery underminers of (actual) democracy seem to have evaded much hammer-blowing, as the no-doubt janky elections in California appear to be revealing.
Step One in a return to electoral health would appear to be the passing of the SAVE Act, which several Republicans continue to block.
The cultural and mental rot will take another two generations at least to wash out of the system, of the tide indeed does flow that way.
Wishing will for the USA in its coming 250th. (We know, of course, that mind-scrambled citizens and others are pinning poisoned needles in the voodoo doll of Uncle Sam...)
This. We are watching unbelievable shenanigans going on in the California elections: you can be registered to vote with a library card which requires no proof of citizenship. Reports of homeless being paid to vote. Every single mail in vote in a large batch reported for Nithya Raman, despite the two top vote-getters in the in-person voting being Pratt and Bass. Indeterminate time line for counting votes/certifying elections. And yet, once again, conservatives will whine, cry, stamp their feet - and do nothing.
Nobody in any position of influence cares and certainly the people of California don't care.
We still have it way too good in America for people to consider significant changes in their actions, attitudes and ways of life. Period. People won't change things until they MUST.
By the time they get to that point, 150 million of us will have been sent to the ovens. Hell, it's been too late to stop it since Landslide Lyndon got millions of Americans hooked on money stolen from other Americans.
Ovens? Naw. I think we'll just be starving to death or killing each other.
Until they reach the precipice?
And yet, once again, conservatives will whine, cry, stamp their feet - and do nothing.
Begs the question...Do What?
Are you new to this substack....or just lost?
Do what??
Let's start with that Voter ID act called SAVE. Use Reconciliation to get it to Trump's desk.
SCOTUS than can...and will...I hope.....restrict the current free-for-all called mail-in ballots and bring them back to what they were intended for.
Than Congress can create money to protect our Democracy by funding installing poll watchers [use TSA agents....better use] to get rid of any poll worker shenanigans.
That is a start.
You Answered my question. I've been Followng Politics since Nixon v Kennedy.
"Than Congress can create money to protect our Democracy by funding installing poll watchers [use TSA agents....better use] to get rid of any poll worker shenanigans."
Speaking of Lost. You Are Aware Elections are all State Run, NOT Federal. Its Called Federalism.
There is only one thing left to do. I'm surprised that it hasn't happened already. I shouldn't say it, lest I wind up on a watch list. But here goes. The only thing left is violence, for better or worse.
Ireland has the right idea!
THAT is just what The Left Wants.
Violence isn't necessary. Just trace back to the source, the actual merchants of chaos who create the dangerous environments (wars, poverty, disease, economic turmoil, etc.) and isolate them from society, imprison them for life. Forget the rules and laws they hide behind. No matter the country they are in. Just go get them and throw them in a cell. One international vigilante group, doing this job for the sake of humanity and its future. Simple.
There are better options. This sounds like something one of those embedded FBI agents encouraging January 6 mayhem would and did say. Present company excepted of course.
Something!
?
How long have you been a troll?
You don't seem to be very good at it.
How long have you been an idiot? You're EXCEEDINGLY good at that.
Start dropping them.
*Let's see if the Substack Decider Algorithm corral's this comment like last Monday*
Passing more laws will not change or save America. We have more than enough laws already. Instead, the Insurrection Act should be invoked to really clean house. Even with that, however, America is done.
There are so many Federal Laws, State Laws, County Laws and City Laws on the books that the average American slob commits 3 felonies a day and doesn't even know it.
There are so many laws on the books that law enforcement agencies do not have the resources to enforce them all so they pick and choose which laws to enforce and which to ignore.
As I have said before the system has become so great, so massive, so incredibly huge that the only solution is to bring it down entirely and start over. This mess we call the American government cannot be resolved by voting. It can only be resolved by staunch rebellion by the American people and Americans, largely obsessed with porn, sex and the teevee aren't in a position to do anything about it.
So we wait.....
I believe you are quite accurate in your assessment and everything will come down over time. It is painstakingly slow and I comment often on my feeling of watching a slow motion train wreck. We just had another sudden death at work. Young people in their 30s and 40s who should not be dying. Thirty year olds having strokes. Volunteers in their 50s and upwards dropping like flies. I have lost count of the number of deaths and people leaving on disability. Few people in my department in the city of Albuquerque seem to have any clue that something is deeply wrong.
In a just world, those responsible for Operation Covid would be tried as at Nuremberg, sentenced, and hanged. Publicly, for deterrence.
It's New Mexico.
The Roman historian Tacitus: "The more corrupt the state, the more numerous the laws."
Much of what you say here is true, Canker, but why is that so? Who is responsible for the outsized number of laws and why? Lawfare? That's a Bolshevik construct to create chaos, sow discontent and drive racial animosity among the goyim, no?
Well the lawyers of course. You see, we have too many lawyers in America so a lot of them can't find work, so, they get into politics where they now get to make laws. Of course they make more laws to benefit their profession so they will never run out of work.
What do you call a failed lawyer? A lawmaker.
Lawyers are like Insurance salesmen. The most useless prescrubbing scum sucking leaches on the planet who only suck you dry of your resources and contribute absolutely nothing to society.
WEF/Transnational gangsters
"and which to ignore"
EG outrageously loud Harley Davidson exhausts!
Good to see you back CP
DM! Miss you on these comment threads.
Actually, the Founders provided us, We The People, with a mechanism to revamp the
If you're referring to Article 5 authorizing the "convention of states" I would agree with you. The problem is that a large number of states are just as dysfunctional and corrupt as the federal system and cannot be relied upon to resolve anything. There was recently a movement to have a "convention of states" and the organizers of such effort failed to get enough states to participate. In other words, Article 5 is useless.
" ...bring it down entirely and start over." Exactly so. Enabled by an organized effort that x-number don't pay their taxes, bringing the govt to a halt; the next phase of the plan already in place.
Since you're a self declared pacifist, just how do you propose that this "rebellion" take place?
I believe I have already stated this. If the people could unite, we could starve the beast by simply refusing to pay our taxes. Property and income taxes. BAM! What are they going to do, throw more than a hundred millions taxpayers and property owners in prison? The people DO have the power but the people are too busy picking sides and won't unite on anything. Democrat v Republican. Fat v thin. Women v. men. Rich v poor. Pretty v ugly. Old v young. Gay v straight. Religious v non-religious. Tall v short. Ruralites v urbanites.
Yes, done. Too much diversity. By definition, a nation is one people and culture. We will fall to never rise again. Outside possibility: An American 2.0 in the White areas of the West and upper plains.
A big problem with that is the Reds you talk about will be overrun by criminality from the Blues, and the resultant violence that goes with it. We are seeing the precursors to it right now as the Blues try their damndest to steal from the Reds everywhere and re-distribute the wealth. The most evil part of this is the Lefty-left portraying themselves as good samaritans when their only motivation is power. They do not give one damn about the people.
Indeed. There are millions of lines in the US federal register that need to be completely cleaned out.
"Step One in a return to electoral health would appear to be the passing of the SAVE Act, which several Republicans continue to block."
TV,
You want fundamental change? Simply restore secret balloting in House and Senate. Let men vote their best interests rather than those of their paymasters.
Rescind the Supreme Courts disastrous rulings that large corporations are considered legal individuals and have the right to contribute large sums of money to a candidate's campaign. Get the big money out of politics.
CP,
That is EXACTLY what a private vote would do.
True that!
Most of the solutions to what ails America are quite simple when you think about it. There just isn't any will to execute these solutions because the grift is so great by the perpetrators that they will never act. Until the people force them to and, as i mentioned above, the American people are too addicted to drugs, porn, sex, food and the teevee to take such action.
No, it's big gubmint and crony Capitalism like John says! Get rid of Government and the Corporations will rule as like Philosopher Kings.
How would that be any different than with Government?
The fact that SAVE is being blocked is quite the eye opener.
Nothing changes in Congress until the 17th Amendment is repealed.
You misnumbered the 19th wrong.
Thank you for a great essay.
I read all the comments on this thread. And it's like anywhere. Lots of complaints, but no real solutions. The solutions rest with people and institutions who can't be counted on to have a spine. Everybody please weigh in on this idea: what if martial law was declared for a period of time around elections? Nationwide. NG & MIL police all poling places (that require it, and we know where those are). I'm not saying it will or will not work, and not sure its Constitutional, but I'm interested in "Why not?" Talk to me.
I can honestly say Trump is one-half of a truly great president. Even that is remarkable -- I've never known anything like it in many years of watching my country turn sour. It's been a long takeoff run but his determination to undo generations' worth of Lefty-left malfeasance is aloft, at long last. In the face of opposition up and down the line, from faux friends and deep-dyed enemies, he's using pretty much every power allotted to him by law or precedent to destroy the flesh-eating worms that have nearly brought the end to a great constitutional republic. A lot of us have dreamed of this day and always been disappointed, until now.
Wherefore "one-half" of a great president? The other half -- the one involving the US on the world stage -- presents an ugly picture. Bull, china shop kind of thing. Perhaps worst is Trump's divided loyalty, to both Israel and the United States. It's not far-fetched to say his heart belongs to Israel. Or to vary the metaphor, "There's your trouble, there's your trouble, Keep seein' double with the wrong one." (Dixie Chicks, before they cast off Dixie)
Without his attachment to Israel it's unlikely he'd let slip the dogs of war against Iran. That was a stupid, egregious mistake; an act of brinksmanship that threatens to loose fire on the middle east, if not on a wider scope. Trump's blustering threats against Iran are hardly the way to encourage the mullahs to accept a peace agreement. Would you trust a foreign power who says, "We will bury you," enough to sign an agreement with it?
In any case, moving key military personnel and equipment halfway around the world imperils them, weakens our presence elsewhere, and throws a monkey wrench into the economies of many a nation, including ours.
The US has nothing to gain from this folly. The only beneficiary might be Israel, and even that is anything but assured.
" ... but, admit it, an actual peace agreement would be quite a coup." Yes, it would. But much the same effect could be had, with far less trouble for millions of people, at far less cost for a bankrupt country, if our forces simply packed up, left the Strait of Hormuz, Iran's shadow and Israel. "Bye, folks. It's down to you now. We hope you'll play nice, but we're gone, gone, gone and we don't worry. Drop us a line now and then."
Yes – delusions abound, including the notion that we are nearing an agreement with Iran, notwithstanding Iran’s daily reminder that they have quite reasonably found the US and Israel to be agreement-incapable. Then there’s the fact that our terms are entirely unreasonable, especially given the fact that we have failed to win the war.
Another delusion is that the Iranians are driven by some sort of wish for an apocalypse, which is especially amusing, given the fact that it is the eschatology of both Zionist Jews and Evangelical Christians that drives them to bring about the End Times.
As the US war machine continues to exhaust itself against the Iranian Rope-a-Dope strategy, the fog of war will gradually reveal the fact that we have no other option than to slink home and pretend that this horrible mess never happened. Unfortunately, the world economic collapse and subsequent famine which we are bringing about will make forgetting Netanyahu's War quite impossible.
Nonsense. What is the evidence that the US is exhausting itself? And the rope-a-dope. strategy is a City of London scam, just like the one in Ukraine. You lose a war, and keep losing a war, and just pretend you haven't. It's all just Baghdad Bob on steroids, something that cannot go on and so it won't.
$39,216,905,060,894 in national debt. What more evidence do you need? Or are you one of those guys who thinks the debt is actually to ourselves so it doesn't matter?
Look at the value of the dollar and you'll see what the money printing to fund these wars is doing to us. Look at the price of an ounce of gold and you'll see what money printing to fund these wars is doing to us.
Wake up.
And the Socialist/Democrats/RINOS keep grifting.
We shall see won't we? It has been ninety-nine days since the predicted Five Day War ran past its announced schedule.
Surely we can agree that the US has not yet "won." Let's check back with each other every three months until the facts on the ground obviate argumentation.
The Iranians have let it be known that they're prepared to prosecute the defense of their country for at least two years. I predict that we will have thrown in the towel by then.
The way we know is that Iran has not been able to launch any sustained and significant missile attacks since the first few days. The US (with the help of Israel and everyone else in the ME, now alienated by Iranian attacks on them) is in total control of their military and economy, i.e. oil. Every time they fire something, the source is immediately knocked out.
So, the kinetic war is over, barring a nuke, which would be more destructive to them than anyone else, or sporadic terror attacks, which they have yet to show they can muster. Blather about defending "their country" (by which they mean the IRGC hiding in caves) just shows that the PR war has not yet been decisively won. Why would we throw in the towel when we have disarmed them, are in a position to grab the fissionable material, and have reworked the global oil distribution system to our benefit? We will simply sit tight, continue to knock out any signs of military life, and wait for the internal dynamics to shift. Those will certainly not be pretty, but the IRGC and their globalist handlers will be toast.
There are a lot of people out there that do not want the US (and Trump) to be successful and should not be listened to. I'm not saying we're home free, just that talk of Iranian military capacity is silliness, same as Ukraine, sad as all that is.
Castelletto:
Every part of what you think you know about the war so far is balderdash - clearly, nothing more than parroting official US and Israeli propaganda.
Israel has not had effective defense against Iranian attack in many weeks, and Iran continues to clobber them on its own schedule. That's why it's illegal in Israel for photos or videos to be taken of the serious damage there, with prison sentences for those who share them with the rest of the world.
I will not waste pixels on further attempts to convince you. If you were right, the war would long have been over by now. We'll touch base in another three months.
Castelletto:
Keep in mind Mark Twain's comment about engaging someone like this.
"Never argue with a fool. They will just bring you down to their level and beat you with experience."
Howard is a moron agitator. Always has been. Always will be.
Tel Aviv is in ruins. The Iranians broke the Iron Dome. Goliath beat David this time.
Wars usually don't go according to plan.
$39,216,905,060,894
That is the current US National Debt.
We have spent our strength and means making war in foreign lands. The USA is busted, broke, kaput, bankrupt. The money is gone. There is no money. We are living on the graces of the reserve currency status and the ever whirring printing presses of the US Treasury.
It is going to end and it is going to end far worse than any other nation who has attempted to print their way out of the financial obligations. Buckle up.
And that number has increased by $94,804 per second since you posted.
Yeah, keep your eyes on the ball, people. Not only the debt continues to go ballistic, but the good image of the United States continues to decay in the eyes of the rest of the world, which is....part of the plan.
JHK wrote: "The outstanding question might be: why do so many in the West continue to believe it?"
My humble opinion is that post WWII the middle class of the United States, then Europe and Japan, grew and amassed fabulous wealth. Wealth that the oligarchs were okay with as long as their wealth also rose even faster. Since 1980 or so, the oligarchs/globalists have decided to recoup that wealth from we-the-deplorables in the Middle Class, and the war on class began. They find the Lefties are the natural stooges for this kind of work, since most grew up not understanding what a hard day's work is all about anyway, and their rose-colored view of human nature was a cinch to exploit.
Now we're at the stage where Lefties are so twisted and insane, it's Germany 1933 again, where we'll be happy to give over the reins of <absolute> power to the lessor of two evils. That is to say, the Right.
Trump may appear to be dismantling the Lefties, but since he's an insider from birth, you know his real role now and who his masters are - and it ain't the American people. He is the exact definition of Controlled Opposition. Short of a Civil War, Constitutional Convention, Convention of States or some other miracle, I don't see a path forward where the Republic survives.
The human mind cannot comprehend the utter immense size of a trillion dollars, it is beyond our ability. Now multiply that by 40 and you're talking a really really really really really really ENORMOUS number that it hard to comprehend. THAT is the US debt and most of the war mongers on this site like JohnAZ and even our gifted host seem to be okay with as long as the USA kicks Iran's ass!
We have so many problems right here in the lower 48 that it infuriates me that Trump is fucking around and spending money we don't have in a shithole country like Iran who has been "3 weeks away from getting a nuke" for the last 30 fucking years.
I'm swearing a lot. Sorry.
The likelihood that we will collapse any time now provides succor to all who despise our rogue state - that, and the fact that our collapse will bring Israel down about four minutes later.
"There are none so blind as he who will not see."
(Describes you to a "T".)
I quite agree with you. (you forgot to close your parenthesis)
Yes, massive projection. Nobody ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American people.
The Muslims do have a deep interest in the End, just to be fair. As they say, The Hour approaches. All three Abrahamic religions have this in common.
Including yourself? And Howard.
What are your sources you keep talking about? There are two, very different renditions of what is going on, one that Iran has been blasted and the other that Israel has been blasted. Looking to the past, I believe the blasted Iran edition as the Iranians have been lying to the world for decades. Shia Islam is a dangerous falsehood itself.
Keep voting for those elected representatives, everyone!
What America’s Lefty-left has proven beyond cavil is the immutability of human nature, which is itself incompatible with their vision of what America should be. It is a sort of endless loop that devolves in much the same manner as it has throughout history, the twentieth century being a particularly bloody example of this paradigm.
Thank you James for your daily dose of truth and facts🙏 “Remember, liberalism was pure live-and-let-live, with an emphasis on minimal government intrusion in our affairs” Liberalism is dead on the left and has naturally evolved into progressive nihilism. Self loathing, mentally unstable individuals who not only despise themselves, but everything good. They look at our God, family and country beliefs as a threat to their mental instabilities and destructive agenda. They embrace darkness and evil because it makes them feel normal. Unfortunately, these most vile creatures have gained much power and influence over the past few decades. President Trump is now reversing the insanity by ending the financial support and hopefully starting to prosecute the criminal cult that supported it. America still has hope as long as the SaveAct passes and the scales continue to weigh in the favor of freedom, humanity and freedom 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸
Trump himself is proof of the migration of the DNC platform to the gimme Leftist organ it has been become. He used to be a Democrat, like JHK, until the DNC lost its sanity. Both now support the USA, the USA that the DNC wants destroyed if favor of the USSA.
I sure hope the hammer is coming down on Iran, Islamic extremists, the Democratic Party, and the deep state because if it doesn’t, and the government falls into Democrat hands, life as we have known it is finished. Be active folks. Enlighten your liberal children and liberal friends.
Just wondering if Trump is waiting to be past the midterms to go after the RICO operations of the Democrats.
Step number one: Take down Act Blue and scatter salt among the ashes.
Looks like that is exactly what they are doing now. You are spot on.
Trump is waiting until after the midterms to find out if he will remain in office or be impeached and convicted.
If he doesn't wrap up this nonsense in Iran and bring fuel prices and subsequent food prices back down the Democrats will re-take the House and Trump will be spending the last two years fighting back sham impeachment charges that the Senate will never convict.
The American people know nothing different that voting Democrat or Republican. Back and forth they go, expecting a different result every time. Insane lunatics, all of them, if you ask me, for continuing to believe in a broken system that hasn't served them well for decades.
Yes but the bottom line is that too many people don’t even know who their Congressman is and midterm elections usually have low turnouts. I tend to vote against the incumbent I don’t want them there too long incumbency is a threat to our system, too many geezers there with too much seniority wielding power for themselves and others not us. When Trump won in 2016 and people lost their minds I went around telling people that the President signs the bill it is our Congressmen spending us in to oblivion. I would then ask who is your Congressman and 90% did not know. I was so disappointed.My hope is that the turnout in November is much higher than usual because of all the issues but we shall see. In 2022 the turnout was 46.8%, we need to do a lot better.
Very well said and absolutely true.
"it is our Congressmen spending us in to oblivion"
Yes sir. Been trying to emphasize this point for a long time. Under the US Constitution the Congress is the Sovereign. The President can veto a bill but the Congress can override a veto. Too many people keep pointing their fingers at the Presidency and demanding permanent change but the President has not the authority to do so. The President doesn't make law, the President executes the law, hence the reason it is called the "Executive branch."
Americans should be pissing razor blades in anger at the abject failure that is the US Congress. The Congress has pissed away its authority, passing vague laws with no clear measures of enforcement and has delegated that authority to the Presidency and the associated bureaucracy.
The US Congress is the failure.
Excellent post, Al Gonzales.
If the Democrats win the midterms which is doubtful, they will impeach Trump but they may not have the votes or the evidence to remove or convict him.
Evidence is irrelevant to these sickos. One thing not brought up often enough is that should any of this succeed and the D's take the House and Senate, they would, regardless of lack of evidence, impeach and "convict" both Trump and Vance, giving us President Hakeem Jeffries and "Bosnia 2027" coming to a neighborhood near you.
What happens when Maduro sings like a canary and we get all the goods on Smartmatic and election tampering? They may lose their minds!
"Evidence is irrelevant...." J6 comes to mind. Oh, and covid. And then there's...
This is correct. The recent Supreme Court redistricting opinions appear to have put some balance back into the system. It remains in a Left/Aright axis, not a good place. There are also those in what is referred to as a 'party' existing as a faction wanting to remove Trump. the term RINO seems somewhat appropriate. Interesting times.
DJT has abandoned his base, gone against just about everything on which he campaigned. This adds more intrigue to the mix.
I'd really like to see RICO put to the test, as you opine, yet also want to know why it has not already happened on some level.
Not in Utah. Redistricting here is going to result in one Democrat seat and 3 Republican seats instead of four Republican seats.
"DJT has abandoned his base,".... Exactly. He seems to have morphed into a deal making politician more interested in Napoleonic international notoriety than focussing on America's pressing concerns--which he campaigned on and now ignores. Not to be mundane, but here in New York we have muslims shutting down Herald Square to pray in the street. Texas has five mosques going up each week and is soon to go blue, their outspoken national goal, replacement through breeding, or beheading. And I highly suspect he has muzzled the media; no talk of ten-twenty million Biden imported muslims, except to reply upon social media. Nothing! Is he still president, in the real sense?
If they try to impeach him again, Trump will pretty much ignore them.
How do you know this?
Possible. It would open up an entirely new situation. Look at the way Lincoln dealt with dissent.
No, he'll go along quietly.
The didn't have enough votes to convict him before but they still impeached him twice, I believe.
And I agree they may try again but impeachment has become a joke because removal is very difficult.
Always waiting until this date or that date before they start taking down the bad guys. Always waiting until.......
Hope Not!
Every time the left opens its mouth, my mind goes back to the message scrawled on the end wall of the big barn in that very prophetic book, "Animal Farm". Which should be renamed to fit today's situation as "Human Animal Farm"! Not many using their 'superior intellect' out there it seems.
But I digress, which is good in that it shows I'm still more human than animal, according to who you ask, of course!
They had set up seven commandments to live by and were written in great white letters for all to read and be inspired by. The seventh one is the one I'm particularly mentioning:
"All animals are equal." Pretty self-explanatory, isn't it? But it eventually got refined to better fit the situation at hand and the seven commandments were reduced to just one, the only one that counted--to those in charge!
"All animals are equal. BUT some animals are MORE equal than others."
Thus we see the lefty-lefts design for total control, their version of 'equity', equality, fairness and truth. Should any of us still possessing a working brain be surprised?
I recall the line from "Doctor Zhivago" where some Zampolit is saying "All men will be judged politically, regardless of military record."
Another astonishingly complete summary of the situation.
Yes. Well said. And the Lefties and jihadists have formed an unholy alliance. A broken coalition with a common foe, US. Once the Muslims take over, they will execute the lot of useful lefty idiots.
Understand your point in principle but categorically it’s Not a Good idea to have Jihadist eliminate anyone, it’s better to remove the Jihadist!
"Once the Muslims take over, they will execute the lot of useful lefty idiots."...and all the rest of us - except for those needed for slaves.
You use the term "Lefty-left" 11 times in this article, not even counting the title.
For context, I'm very anti-Trump and I openly admit that much of the media I consume is critical of him. But what strikes me most about this article isn't your criticism of Democrats. Criticize Democrats all day long if the criticism is accurate. As an independent, I don't have much interest in defending a political party.
What strikes me is the picture you've created of Democrats as an almost all-powerful force that simultaneously controls elections, controls government, controls institutions, controls speech, controls the economy, and yet somehow keeps losing elections. Democrats lose governorships, state legislatures, congressional seats, the White House, and local elections all the time. Republicans currently control the White House, the Senate, the House, and enjoy a conservative Supreme Court majority. The idea that Democrats are secretly running everything simply doesn't match reality.
The same goes for the claim that Democrats "hate America." Do they hate America, or do they disagree with certain policies? There is a huge difference. In a healthy democracy, opposing a policy is not the same thing as opposing the country.
What I find ironic is that I used to be much more sympathetic to conservative media. I listened to Rush Limbaugh in the 1990s. Even when he was criticizing the Left, I don't remember this level of cynicism, apocalyptic thinking, or the constant portrayal of political opponents as enemies of civilization itself. Maybe he evolved in that direction, but I never knew as I stopped listening to him in the early 2000's. What I see today feels like a distorted and much more amplified version of what once seemed to be legitimate criticism of the Left.
Rush often argued that politics had become the religion of the Left. Looking around today, I can't help but notice that many on the Right have blended politics, identity, and religion into a very toxic stew of their own. When every disagreement becomes a battle between good and evil, patriot and traitor, America and anti-America, there's no room left for reality, nuance, or self-reflection.
That's not a recipe for saving the country. It's a recipe for tearing it apart.
"Republicans currently control the White House, the Senate, the House, and enjoy a conservative Supreme Court majority."
And they do diddly poo with that majority. Republicans can't help but step on their own dick, can't they? They are paid vocal opposition to the powers that be, that's all they are. When they are in power they do the same damned things the Democrats do.
Spend money we don't have.
Wage wars in foreign shit hole countries that pose no threat to us.
Grow the government.
Continue to tax us into oblivion.
Get it? I sure do and I won't participate in the fraud anymore.
Being a former GOP guy with years of observation both inside and outside the political fence line...it sure seems like over the last 3 decades that the GOP has traded in it's former political strengths for an "owning the Libs" thing. Being good at that doesn't do a damn thing when you're the one in charge.
They're still owning the Libs even though the GOP is literally in charge. That's 70% of what Trump talks about these days...not the current state of things...but he lashes out at the Dems even though he's in charge with all 3 branches of the federal government.
What's truly ironic is when Trump complains about things being perpetually wrong that no previous administrations fixed...when the fact is that HE is a part of that group of "previous administrations"!
I had great hopes that Mr. Trump would be better than he is. He is an utter disappointment and has demonstrated himself to be just another cog in the federal Leviathan's gears.
Our host keeps predicting that Mr. Trump has big plans and that Democrats are going to finally get their licks for their naughtiness. Yet, what has happened? I'm just a dumb hick jack mormon living in the mountains of eastern Utah so I admit I know very little, only what I read and hear on sites like the CFN. Still waiting for our gifted host to finally tell us about things that are actually happing instead of telling us to wait just a little longer.
Well...I sure appreciate your honest opinion and assessment of the situation.
I'm not even exactly sure how I ended up here...I think that possibly the host liked my comment on another substack and I linked my account to his or something.
It used to be very uncomfortable for me to post against crowd on these type of sites, but not so much any more. I'm trying my best to be honest, speak my mind and to learn...so there's nothing bad about that. If others have an issue with my opinion...great...let's talk.
I have a kid in Utah...it's a great place to live, but it certainly is different from most of country.
This is thoughtful, thanks. Clearly, the center did not hold — and these days political polarization is extreme. The family business of the Democrat-Left is government and to that end the Lefty-left needs a robust revenue flow from the private sector into the public sector but that dynamic only works when the Golden Goose is able to create wealth. Kill the goose — and everything goes down and the Left will resort to ‘zero sum’ thinking (Dr. Zhivago-esque). The Lefty-left is a dependency class which is unfit to be our ruling class.
Great comment - one edit - no one is fit to be our ruling class.
Great comment which I regret I could only like once. To the point and accurate.
That's an argument that's been around a LOOOONNNNG time. Do you really think that Democrats don't know where tax dollars come from? That's literally your belief about the Democrats? Are you sure that's not the Right's argument about the Democrats based upon the fact that Dems like to tax and spend? Being pro-tax & spend is not the equivalent of being an economic idiot unsure of where we get tax dollars from.
If you actually take your argument literally...then wouldn't the Dems be all about enabling the private sector to grow and thereby generating more tax revenue? Oh wait...is that the trickle down theory? That theory is about the equivalent on the Right isn't it? The belief that we'll all get richer by letting the billionaires have more tax breaks.
Let's work toward the middle shall we? We need taxes. The level of taxation and how those dollars are spent will ALWAYS be the issue. I just bristle with the old notion that the Dems have no idea where the taxes come from or that they think taxing generates business. That's an old argument that I don't think reflects reality if it ever did about the left's knowledge.
If you need facts about who does better with the economy...it sure seems like the Left has a far better record than the Right in the past 3 decades.
Made me grin: "...or that they think taxing generates business."
A few moons ago, I was working a major acquisition program that was repeatedly on the cutting block. During one of the meetings/conferences I got into a friendly conversation with a Congressional staffer. Her comment still piques my fancy: "We don't care about the product, all we care about is the spending. The more we spend the more we get in [tax] revenue."
Revenue by any means results in more spending which means more taxes which all leads to more power. Remember that the next time your pantheons of virtue mention "investing in our future".
I sure wish I had more context on that conversation, but I will say that a congressional staffer talking in one meeting doesn't reflect an entire party's fiscal policy/knowledge does it? That being said...it was a stupid remark if that's reflective of their reasoning for having "programs".
I can only imagine some MAGA congressional staffers saying during the DOGE surge..."We have to destroy the village in order to save it" as they gleefully endorsed cutting funding to nuclear experts watching over our nukes...
JC - You are too smart to not be more open to a diverse set of political views.
Come 'on man!
Today, with what is going on around us, being in denial about pre-tax and spend is a mental illness.
Like oil and water, wealth is a limited resource, actually the economic value of that wealth. Musk is a trillionaire. Fifty years ago, there were no billionaires. Today’s wealth is a facade.
And contrary to your opinion, both sides are guilty as both are culpable to following the Deep State’s plunge into the cesspool. The real difference is that the Lefty-Left have their pedal to the metal.
We see eye-to-eye on this being a problem on both sides, but the data doesn't support your last point (i.e. pedal to the metal) ESPECIALLY if you consider that Joe Biden inherited an economic crises and we purposely spent our way out of it. A non-pandemic President Joe would have pushed for increased spending, of course. but not at those levels.
Really...part of the issue here is that Dems want to increase taxes to offset the spending, right? So...to blame them for any deficit spending is really a shared thing between parties where the GOP fights tax increases tooth and nail.
The Lefty-left is not economically illiterate — they just prioritize differently. The Lefty-left sees monetized debt, the government printing of money, in addition to taxation, as revenue sources. The Democrat-Left has always been fond of Keynesian Economic Theory because it gives them a ‘hall pass’ to spend, spend, spend for the sake of spending. So, instead of having a system that allocates resources well, we have politicians fulfilling their hearts’ and their constituencies’ desires at the expense of the greater economy.
There is enduring wisdom in the Tenth Commandment. ‘Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour's.’ KJV
It used to drive me crazy when people brought up that GW Bush was responsible for increasing the debt. I defended him because he was reacting to 9/11 and did a lot of spending to protect the country, etc.
However...it is a true statement that it's the GOP presidents of the last 30 years that have grown the deficit tremendously.
It's also pretty ironic that you are posting this when our current POTUS appears to be increasing the deficit this year through his choices and policies. Not sure there are very clear lessons to be learned from Trump on how to lessen the deficit.
You make valid points though I sponsor a caveat; they “prioritize differently” because they ARE economically illiterate. Nor is this confined to the “lefty-left”.
We are discussing AI over and over. Pertaining to your post, where is the government going to get its taxes from if the folks being taxed are non-productive. Will the federal revenue pie chart be shrunken down to the point that 75% of spending will be financed with fiat money? Where is all this money going to come from to pay for the illegals and homeless? Everywhere.
I predict economic chaos within five years.
Meanwhile the trillionaire is doing just fine...
The trillionaire is a couple of steps away from disaster as we all are if the SHTF. In the meantime, Musk earned everything he had done to create his empire.
Your comments are very enlightening and interesting. I also use the terms lefty and even loony left deservedly, which title you do not fit. It has been my experience with those on the left that there is no nuance or areas of agreement with those on the left, and this has been so for at least the last decade or more. I used to have very good, what were once called liberal friends, and even political banter was good-natured and non-aggressive. The toxic stew you refer to seems to be predominately on the left, which coincides with the Democrats hard shift to the left more in line with the CPUSA Ideology, as so many of congressional Democrats are progressives, outright communists, or at least fellow travelers. In my studied opinion, the Democrats and their far-left supporters have already torn the country apart and Trump and his administration are attempting to repair it to the extent possible. The insurrections in California, Oregon, and Washington are not happenstance, but planned as part and parcel of Democrat resistance. Antifa and blm are wannabe storm troopers for D's. I do appreciate your comments even if I disagree with much of what you post. Best wishes.
Thanks for sharing your viewpoint. We obviously see a lot of this differently, but I do appreciate that you're willing to engage with the arguments rather than just dismiss them.
Since 2017, I've watched CNN and MSNBC/NBC News pretty much daily. Are they biased? Sure. Every outlet has biases. But the version of those networks that I hear described in conservative media often sounds like a completely different channel than the one I actually watch.
They're not spending their days promoting Marxism, Communism, open borders, banning religion, confiscating guns, or teaching people to hate America. Yet if I listened only to conservative media, I'd probably think that's exactly what was happening. As someone who actually watches the programming, I can tell you that isn't the reality I'm seeing.
As for BLM and Antifa, I think this is where our political "inflation machine" kicks in. A fringe group on the left does something stupid, destructive, or violent, and before long it gets inflated into evidence that Democrats as a whole support it. The same thing happens in reverse when people on the left try to portray every Republican as responsible for the actions of the most extreme people on the right.
The problem is that guilt by association is a lousy way to understand politics.
For example, on September 7, 2020, Joe Biden was asked directly whether he condemned Antifa. His answer was simple: "Yes I do—violence no matter who it is."
That doesn't mean every Democrat has always said the right thing or handled these issues perfectly. It simply means that the claim that Democrats embrace or encourage political violence doesn't fit the evidence.
I think both parties have fringe elements. What I resist is the idea that the fringe is the party. That's where a lot of our political conversations seem to go off the rails.
Thank you Jeff. Nicely said.
I truly appreciate your comment. Thanks.
"[...] I don't remember this level of cynicism, apocalyptic thinking, or the constant portrayal of political opponents as enemies of civilization itself."
It's part of the coming technate. There will be no politics. Only 'dissidents' 'terrorists' and 'enemies of the common good', 1984-style, who need to be droned, whacked or otherwise neutralised. The technate needs a new world religion so that it can eliminate heretics. Ergo, no polite disagreements, and eventually no disagreements at all.
I don't think we'll see a single prosecution or conviction for any of the deeds they have done. Judges will claim malicious prosecution and throw out every single case. So if you think as I used to that this will all land before the mid terms sorry to dash your hopes, but it won't. They've won. They stacked the DC courts with operatives who are not going to prosecute anyone and if they do, they certainly won't convict.
Hillary won after all.
OMG...in 2026...you are still bringing up, Hillary? Seriously...how many people have you accused of TDS? At least Trump's actually in office doing stupid stuff to complain about! You're complaining about someone who hasn't been much of a political influence in over a decade.
There have been lots of Trump appointed judges who have not ruled in his favor. You guys act like the deck is stacked against you but it's really just the lack of veracity in many of your claims and arguments. Blaming the judges is just an easy/lazy way of avoiding the fact that you have losing arguments.
The evidence is pretty clear to me, Jeff. The Republicans are NOT the answer. No, I am not saying the Democrats are. Both parties are not worth a big stinky shit and should be wiped out completely.
I'm not saying that the Dems are the answer either, but the GOP has gone off the ledge these days. They are so beholden to a single man that our government has temporarily (hopefully) started operating more like a fascist regime than any other administration in my lifetime.
Thinking that wiping out both parties would help is a nice thing to contemplate, but I'm not sure it's true and it's certainly not going to happen any time soon.
"our government has temporarily (hopefully) started operating more like a fascist regime"
It's been doing this since good ole honest Abe decided to make war upon and devastate the southern states. The constitution of 1788 was over thrown at that time and since then the Presidents have run amok with power the US Congress has pissed away to them.
"Thinking that wiping out both parties would help is a nice thing to contemplate, but I'm not sure it's true and it's certainly not going to happen any time soon."
True that, but what's wrong with day dreaming?
Fascism in service of Plutocrats is no real Fascism at all.
Jeff: You were doing so well with your previous post appearing to be an actual liberal with an open mind, and now you have trashed that previous thoughtful, but misleading, post. As a retired trial lawyer, yes there are completely corrupt judges in DC and NY, to the shame of the supposedly equal law governing our country. To enlighten you and other readers, like California at present, the 2020 election was stolen from Trump, which China Joe actually admitted to on mike with his comment about the biggest fraud election in history. But never mind, there is no amount of evidence that can overcome a closed deranged mind or a corrupt intent, no matter the black robes or expensive suits hangs on the judges and counselors. Not easy or lazy but matter of fact.
Approximately two decades ago, I read JHK's "Long Emergency". A friend of mine, a successful businessman and whom I would call a moderate conservative, borrowed the book to read. His comment after reading it was this, "The book was interesting, but it got one thing wrong." I asked my friend what that was. He replied, "We'll starve to death from Socialism long before we starve to death because of lack of oil or any other natural resources." As I look at the U.S. (and the rest of the world) today, I believe that my friend's prediction may likely come true.
As for "liberalism," it quit being about freedom with LBJ--the "liberal" welfare state replaced freedom with Socialism's main ideological tenet: owning or controlling the means of production, and using the police power of the state to redistribute wealth from those who earned it and own it to those who did not (the non-productive, non-earners being the major voting bloc for the Democrat "liberals" ever since LBJ).
Author Ayn Rand predicted this decades ago:
"When you see that trading is done, not by consent, but by compulsion - when you see that in order to produce, you need to obtain permission from men who produce nothing - when you see that money is flowing to those who deal, not in goods, but in favors - when you see that men get richer by graft and by pull than by work, and your laws don't protect you against them, but protect them against you - when you see corruption being rewarded and honesty becoming a self-sacrifice - you may know that your society is doomed."
"The difference between a welfare state and a totalitarian state is a matter of time."
"Every government interference in the economy consists of giving an unearned benefit, extorted by force, to some men at the expense of others."
"If you surrender everything to the government and give it total power to plan the whole economy, this will not guarantee your economic security, but it will guarantee the descent of the entire nation to a level of miserable poverty--as the practical results of every totalitarian economy, communist or fascist, have demonstrated."
"The majority of those who are loosely identified by the term 'liberals' are afraid to let themselves discover that what they advocate is statism. They want to keep all the advantages and effects of capitalism, while destroying the cause, and they want to establish statism without its necessary effects. They do not want to know or to admit that they are the champions of dictatorship and slavery."
Eventually, the U.S. must confront a hard reality: Either Socialism in the U.S. must be destroyed, or the U.S. will become an impoverished Socialist dictatorship, with the Constitution and the Bill of Rights incinerated.
The New Prometheans of Capitalism (Dark MAGA) intend to get rid of most of humanity and keep the rest in cyber-space. Their "Socialist" brothers in the WEF understand completely: America needs its own brand of Globalism. After all, once you have all the money, these competing systems means very little, not at the level of the Capstone and the Plateau below it. But in terms that you will understand: The final system will have aspects of both Capitalism and Communism. Heads and Tails. The few and the many. The rubes and the carnies. As Master Klaus Schwab said, You will have nothing and be happy.
I was a GOP for 30 years and, for the life of me, cannot agree with you guys on this dystopian view of the Left. To get to the point, you guys have created a monster that literally doesn't exist.
You apparently are ingesting media and news from sources that feed this narrative.
Trump instituted Tariffs across the board when he entered office. It was a complete economic disaster that ended up needing us to bail out farmers via tax dollars. What exactly did that accomplish?
You post paragraph after paragraph condemning this Lefty-left monster (that doesn't exist) while simultaneously ignoring the guy in office whose insane and non-sensical economic policy (does he even have one?) that has the USA impacting the entire world in an incredibly negative way.
Just play it straight and with the facts...that's all I'm asking.
Everything is coming up roses for the United States of America, thanks to our leader and the MAGA supporters and Patriots who keep moving things forward. Some people see this, and, well, some people don't, and likely never will. The GOP deserves another 16 years in power, at least.
The inability to understand the truth surrounding the "Lefty-left" is on you.
The thing that the GOP is good at is criticizing others...especially the Left and that's why Trump was so popular to you.
Trump's not going to survive this term and I'm not sure he makes through 2026. There's too much shix in the water.
Something's gonna give and the truth will eventually come out. He's going to be finished one way or the other. This is going to be so bad that even the right wing spin machine will not be able to save him.
Oooh. You've got it bad. Try Bluesky for some confirmation. The GOP will retain both the House and the Senate in the 2026 elections as more and more corrupt revelations committed by the Lefty-left come out between now and then. The well is endless. They are corrupt to the core.
Call me crazy (ok..you're crazy) but i'll take any sliver of hope to end Iran war. Like Lucy holding the football for Charlie Brown.
The unacknowledged but real goal that ends the war is regime change.
The regime change happened. It just didn't happen the way the neocons in their dream state imagined it. The mullahs, the theocracy, has been replaced by the IRGC. Goes to the saying 'be careful what you wish for...'.
The IRGC was always in charge. That's why we're now dismantling all of the global money laundering operations that feeds them and City of London. The kinetic war has been over for more than a month and been replaced by a financial one that is bleeding the old, globalist scheme dry.
The Allies are dying and BRICS is rising. Iran is the tip of their spear. We can continue to impale ourselves on it or not, but as Putin said, The Vampire Ball is coming to an end.
"The IRGC was always in charge." Are there verifiable citations for this?
The Trump administration isn’t clued out like you, thank God.
Where’ve you been? Neocons aren’t in charge.
The Kagan family still controls our foreign policy, so yeah, they are. And Kagan Sr said that we have lost in Iran.
That war won't end even if a peace accord is reached.
Not until the IRGC and the mullahs are punted out of power and not a second sooner.
They will start scheming ways to kick-start their weapons program, both conventional and nuclear, under the radar yet again.
If they manage to start selling oil again, they will also fund every lousy terrorist group they can find willing to work with them on destroying the little Satan and the great Satan.
In other words, back to their business as usual of attacking their neighbors via proxy and imagining the great Shiite caliphate to come.
The real way to mitigate Iran is to break it up into several countries aligned with the people who live in the region.
Straight line borders drawn by the British have been a source of conflict since World War 1.
That would take millions of healthy but very ignorant White men willing to die for alien masters or even the local tyrants of Main St. This group doesn't exist any more in sufficient numbers to succeed. You're too late!
We delayed you long enough to keep your evil plans from coming to fruition. We haven't won and neither have you.
Whoops yet another Lugh post that has not aged well.
The hammer better drop soon, while it is still light enough to go after all the cockroaches that hide in the shadows of legitimacy
“bomb the shit out of them,...”
I'm liking plan A.
One giant 'penetrator' type bomb as they open the next meeting of the Council of Government, and the problems all go away.
And they go to muslim paradise with 72 beautiful virgins, or young beautiful children, awaiting them. Big gain from living in their sand world.
Brilliant analysis. The Democrats ARE the Iranian Mullahs. Once you see it, you can’t unsee it.
They both want…
- an apocalypse
- censorship
- “thought” police
- subjugation of others
- the death of their enemies
They both have a terminal case of “Prentendism” - pretending things that are true, aren’t, and vice versa.
They both would burn it all down as long as they can rule over the ashes.
Well, I guess since I've never seen it, I CAN unsee it. LUCKY ME!