“. . .a political party doesn’t lose 95 percent of a registration advantage because voters are kinda annoyed. Something much, much deeper is going on.” — Richard Landwirth
"Advocating to destroy American society is a poor sales pitch." Not when one considers that many supporters of the contemporary American left seek, to one degree or another, to dismantle significant aspects of the existing political and cultural order. It seems a fair assumption that many on the left would like to see portions of America's institutions and traditions abolished or fundamentally transformed, not least among them long-standing constitutional interpretations and, in some cases, the Constitution itself.
Accordingly, they align themselves with those advocating the most sweeping changes, seemingly confident that, once power is attained, the revolutionary impulse will moderate and the resulting reforms will prove limited, measured, and even surgical. Or perhaps they believe they will be able to withstand the political and social upheaval that inevitably follows the dismantling of established institutions. I do not pretend to know. It is, however, an interesting question.
I have neighbors who are extraordinarily affluent, even by New York metropolitan standards. They are white-collar professionals with impeccably restored historic homes, beautifully landscaped properties, and every outward indication of considerable wealth. Maintaining such a lifestyle requires a stable society that protects private property, contracts, and accumulated capital. Yet their homes are festooned with symbols supporting causes and movements that, at least rhetorically, call for sweeping structural change.
It occurred to me that, if the revolutionary vision some of these movements espouse were ever realized - not in diluted or compromised form, but in its fullest expression - these individuals would stand to lose a great deal, perhaps nearly everything they presently enjoy. That, in turn, led me to another possibility: perhaps they believe they would occupy a privileged place within whatever new order emerged. Like so many educated professionals and intellectuals before them, they may assume they would become members of the new elite, helping shape the institutions that replace those they helped dismantle.
History offers little encouragement for such confidence.
During the French Revolution, many moderate reformers supported the overthrow of the Ancien Régime believing they could guide events toward a constitutional settlement. Instead, figures such as Georges Danton and Camille Desmoulins eventually found themselves condemned by the very revolutionary government they had helped create, both dying beneath the guillotine during the Reign of Terror.
A century later, numerous liberals, socialists, and professionals initially welcomed the Russian Revolution, expecting to participate in the construction of a more just society. Many instead became victims of the new regime. Even prominent Bolsheviks such as Nikolai Bukharin, once among the revolution's principal architects, were later imprisoned and executed during Joseph Stalin's purges.
The same miscalculation appeared in Germany. Influential industrialists and conservative politicians believed they could harness Adolf Hitler's popular appeal while controlling him once he entered government. Men such as Franz von Papen famously assumed that Hitler could be "boxed in." Instead, Hitler rapidly consolidated power, marginalized his conservative allies, and established a dictatorship that answered to no one.
The lesson is not that every movement seeking profound change culminates in tyranny. Rather, it is that those who advocate the dismantling of an existing order frequently assume they will help shape - and ultimately prosper within - the one that replaces it. History suggests that this confidence is often misplaced. Revolutions have a habit of consuming not only their opponents, but also many of their earliest and most enthusiastic supporters.
Your comment is an excellent postscript to Jim's post. A modicum of historical literacy is a bracing antidote to the modern left's fascination with deconstruction and revolution. I daresay your well heeled neighbors should take a moment to acquaint themselves with both the French sans cullottes and the Maoist Red Gurads to see what would be their fate under the "enlightened" regimes of which they so glibly--and gullibly--approve.
Or they suffer the illusion that most people do to varying extent , normalcy bias . They imagine things will go on as they have for most, if not all of their lives , swimmingly , effortlessly ( their normal ) going forward in perpetuity no matter what they do. Because they are far removed from the proverbial sausage factories , the sausages just magically appear in the coolers at their local whole foods . They are there by,( in analogy of course because there are many more things between heaven and earth than just sausages lol ) so removed from the process's of reality they don't understand the associated costs involved in them and mistakenly take it all as a given . Prolly Kunstler would relate this to something he is in to thinking about that I am as well , and that is taking things , systems , institutions etc, past peak efficient complexity and scale along with over centralization .Everything seems to have some indeterminate golden ratio where any less is not enough and any more is too much . I say' indeterminate' only because we never seem to be able to know when to leave 'well enough the hell alone '. But' the rot in a nation '( other peoples money ) does indeed have some final limitation to its quantity, as much as it seems it could go on forever, it will run out one day and that's when things will, stop working just fine .
You have described the consummate “useful idiot”. Since these privileged idiots presume themselves to be so much better and smarter (and DEFINITELY more successful!) than the distasteful MAGA or conservative voter, they naturally assume that they will be lauded and rewarded for their contributions to
“The Revolution“.
Not so. They will find themselves second in line for the guillotine — behind only the citizens who openly resisted the tyranny. You cited several appropriate examples. There are many more.
How to get through to these idiots in time to avert disaster? I haven’t a clue. No amount of factual or historical evidence penetrates their vanity. So, if persuasion is not an option, we must seek to (legally) minimize their voting power. That seems to be President Trump’s strategy — dismantle the “money laundry” which provides most of their funding and pass election and immigration laws that minimize fraud. I think that is our only hope.
Following the Russian Revolution, Joseph Stalin systematically eliminated many of the very Bolsheviks who had made the revolution possible. Untold tens of thousands of prominent and rank-and-file "Old Bolsheviks" were liquidated during the Great Purge.
The Khmer Rouge became notorious for executing its own cadres. The Cambodian killing fields encompassed not only perceived class enemies - a category interpreted with extraordinary breadth - but also loyal and fervent members of the Communist Party who were accused of fabricated conspiracies. In some instances, entire regional party organizations were wiped out.
Communist China likewise witnessed the destruction of many veteran revolutionaries during the Cultural Revolution, when party officials and longtime supporters who had helped establish the People's Republic were denounced, imprisoned, tortured, or killed.
These are only a handful of examples. History repeatedly demonstrates that revolutionary regimes often turn upon their own adherents once power has been consolidated. The zeal that helped bring a movement to power frequently offers little protection once suspicion, factionalism, and the pursuit of absolute authority become the regime's overriding priorities.
And let's be realistic. If there is one thing the Democrat Party is expert at, it is eliminating anyone and anything that may potentially threaten its stranglehold on the levers of power.
"Since these privileged idiots presume themselves to be so much better and smarter (and DEFINITELY more successful!)..." ~ Debbie Wagner
Excellent full comment on useful idiots. Nine out of ten times, if you were to look into the sources of their wealth and prestige, the Limousine Liberals are beneficiary of some form of Government subsidy or tax supported graft. As the Magic Negro said, they didn't build it.
They raise their glasses in a toast to their success on the back of the American Taxpayer. They are all insufferable parasites. They just feed at different levels.
I think the lawyers I used to work for in NYC are an example of this. It was a small, successful law firm for the first 14 years when I was office manager. I moved to ABQ and a few years later the Covid psyop hit. They were shut down. Enter the Biden Show.
I would look at their website once in a while to see how they were doing. They had more employees than ever, one partner and multiple associates. I wondered at how they made payroll. I did all that. I knew what came in and what money went out.
Then I noticed the photo of one of the "women" associates showed a really thick, masculine neck. Then I noticed the array of pronouns.
I figure they have benefited from some grant helping them to pay for some alphabet soup, pronoun people associates.
Probably one grant of many. People fail to realize that during "Covid", the Biden Administration punched $5.2 Trillion dollars into the US economy (that's how you cause inflation via dollar devaluation), which was on the brink of collapse, in the CARES (Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Stimulus) Act.
Much of this money was through PPP (Paycheck Protection Program) Loans to small businesses to keep personnel. The loans were forgivable - meaning free money. It was a predator's ball - billions of taxpayer dollars were spent with reckless abandon - the infusion as intended, to prevent economic collapse.
I will bet you my bottom dollar, the firm had one (or multiple) PPP loans that were used, not only to carry the firm, but to go on a diversity hiring spree. The loans will never be paid back.
We paid for them. Well, our kids and grandkids, anyway.
The beneficiaries of a perverted incentive system of spoils to those who adhere to it , and so maybe they feel a bit guilty, at the subconscious level they understand their 'importance ' is actually highly over rated because " they (really )didn't build that ". Or something like that .
Something set me to thinking about some of my nieces this morning , one in particular "writes grants "for a living . Well what kind of grants are we talking about ? Most definitely federal or state ? To do what exactly , NGO some cause ?I had more respect for her when she crewed on board the Sea Sheppard ( Greenpeace )
The point was she has an impressive sounding job title that she went to college to prepare herself to do ,but in reality she probably helps people bilk the taxpayers and use the proceeds to further destroy our republic . Left wing NGO's get funding approval via some process I never bothered to think much about because I'm just a carpenter damnit !!!lol.
It's a shell game process, money cascading down through multiple "non-profits", hard to trace that way, with no accountability (on purpose), and many times kickbacks or "kickups" to the highest level grifters that make the rain. Think Somalian childcare centers, non-medical transportation companies, etc..
Others, too many to list - all taxpayer funded, usually in the form of grants. It occurs at all levels of government Federal, State and Local - same playbook. It you live in a municipality that collects taxes, it's happening there. Guaranteed.
Well said, Thomas. I am constantly surprised at the elites fomenting famine. They seem to forget that they---and everyone they love--are made out of meat.
Nice post Thomas. I have often asked if the wealthy people that vote for and support the madness of the left believe that they themselves will be exempt from the madness, chaos and depression their inept policies will create. I believe they do. That, or, they are so out of touch with reality they give no consideration to what they are doing and the resulting consequences of such actions. However, I do believe that nobody will be exempt from the tidal waves of destruciton produced by significant economic and societal decline brought on by their "leaders" and their policies. Everyone will be impacted. Unless they can afford to go build a bunker on an isolated island somewhere in the Caribbean Sea with a water filtration system and food supply that lasts 50+ years. In the advent of an economic collapse the masses will climb any walls, kill any private security and mow down the wealthy who stole it all from them.
Good point. In the even of an economic collapse money will essentially be useless so with what do the wealthy pay the security that will be valuable enough to keep the security there, risking life and limb to protect them? A normal security guard, in the absence of law and order, may decide to take it for himself and why not? Might actually welcome it because their wealthy boss declined to pay for his health insurance.
In fact, when you really think about it, the wealthy will become a target of the angry masses when the shit hits the fan. Some might have their bunkers but most will be strung up.
Exactly , in line with a general theory I have about" the servant becoming the master " when it occurs to them that they are doing all the heavy lifting . Crazy idea , I know , but I'm a crazy guy see .
Thank you. Our species seems incapable of true revolutionary change without going through a cataclysmic stage of Mass Formation Psychosis. It's probably fatuous for us to hope that this Fourth Turning will have a tidy resolution.
Excellent work. One of your very best. So true that “the party of algae” is beyond embarrassment. My late grandfather, who was a wise man born in the 19th century, often said “you can’t embarrass a goat.” He was a registered democrat until LBJ’s brand of democratic politics persuaded him to jump ship & swim over to the Republican side. Certainly some interesting times we live in. Thanks so much for your wryly humorous look at the situation.
Well, they have pictures of nuts cutting the rubber base of the pool. Experts are saying that if water gets between the concrete and the rubber, it will peel. The algae build-up was too fast, giving it away as a nefarious act. Just pour in fertilizer with lots of phosphorous and voila, algae bloom.
Just get it folks, these people are anti-Trumpers but more, they are America haters.
Note the grass burned with 8647. More nuts. But no more than the ex-FBI director. It is as simple as the Deep State favoring the gimmes as they try to take power from the people and the Constitution that protects them.
Most Americans of the non-crazy sort just keep on keeping on: working, raising children, keeping the property pretty and productive. They don't have time for such time-wasting activities as the Lefty-Left indulge in. And when they vote, it counts.
One of the striking outcomes of the FIFA soccer aka Football matches that continue through July, is the European and other FIFA tourists, who want to know what’s wrong with us? They love America! Why can’t you American’s see a good thing when you have it! The social media pages are filled with people who like the fried chicken in the south, got a kick out of drinking Boston dry (3 times) singing at Fenway and totally bamboozling Mayor Michelle Wu and the Green Governor who needs 40% of fossil fuels and 20% of Hydro Quebec hydro electricity to make up for the Wind “farms” in inside the 200 mile limit around Martha’s Vineyard to keep the lights on the empty city of Boston. Indeed what is wrong? It’s not the vast majority of American’s it’s 10% of the creepiest people in the world with a spot light and microphone in a nonstop hand waving freak out that hijack the news cycle 24/7. As Winston Churchill opined America will eventually do the right thing, but only after they have run out of every other option.
This writer can’t wait for Mamdani to head back to Brunswick Maine home of his college Alma Mater Bowdoin College and campaign for this freak of nature and giant fraud Graham Platner. What a dem/islamo/facist/furries wet dream. Two maybe more nut bags on a stage in one of the poorest states in the Union telling the poor how it’s gonna go…get your iPhone recorders ready it’s gonna be legion!
As Duval Patrick former governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts used to say…”we’re gonna be fine!” Yes Duval! Despite all your efforts to the contrary we are going to be just fine. Now someone hand me that bottle of Hoppes Gun Oil, the range is closed and need to clean weapons…just in case…perfect practice make perfect…
Ha ha, I watched a video showing the reaction of many of these tourists visiting the USA. They were amazed at the stocked shelves in the stores, the selection of items to be purchased, the endless refills of sugary laden soft drinks, the massive serving sizes in our restaurants. They were completely amazed at the USA and loved the American people they encountered.
Fact is, we still have it pretty damned good in the USA. We really do. I thank God every day for the life that I live and the comforts that I enjoy and believe me, I am not a wealthy individual. I hope it lasts until I am in the ground and forgotten for eternity but something tells me that it isn't going to last, at least, in the form that currently enjoy.
As I was watching these tourists pour praises upon my homeland it dawned on me. They are talking about the real America. It's people. Not its filthy government. It's you and I and the rest of us that make this place great. The American government is a cancer that is eating us alive and if it isn't purged from the system, eventually we will be like the Europeans who are currently visiting us.
Look and see where American education stands globally. It is all because of the government involvement with education plus the invasion of immigrants who do not speak English and cannot be educated. Both Democrat introductions. The term is stupidification, the indoctrination by government of people to make them subservient to the power mongers in DC.
Kids from overseas see Air Conditioning when Europe is cooking and dying from heat. Maybe FIFA will show Europeans that America is not so bad after all.
It is still Deep State against MAGA. I am still waiting for the “real” parties to re-align with the Lefty-Lefts as one and the Mod-Rights as the other. ModDems are already drifting right toward MAGA as RINOs are drifting Left toward the L-Ls. Each election will divide Deep State vs. MAGA OR capitalist independents vs. gimmes. OR cities vs. everyone else. OR coasts vs. mainstream, which might be the same .
Not sure how the re-alignment will play out or even if it happens. It would be a good thing.
Either way, compliments for being the first to recognize the unstated point of JHK this morning.
While complaining that Carlson may be interested in starting a new political party, he spends his entire column explaining why someone(s) needs to start new political parties.
As a former soldier there is nothing more contemptible than senate 'republicans'. Donald Trump as been in literal battle for 10 years now on behalf of the American System that Hamilton built. The rest are globalist idiots.
Time to do an honest evaluation of our primary political institution; it’s not what congress says, it’s what it does - in terms of work product (vague, self-serving laws), out-of-touch leaders (Thune, et al) and procedures (silly / bizarre / embarrassing “hearings”).
Perhaps the problem starts with letting congress write its own rules and then gets acerbated but letting them spend so much money on things other than infrastructure and national defense.
The lack of responsiveness to the needs and wants of the people that they supposedly “represent” is nothing less than criminal, and yet . . .
When it comes to US senators, it's not the primary system that is the problem... it is the 17th Amendment. Until the 17A is repealed and the election of US Senators is returned to the respective state legislatures, nothing changes. We will continue to have a US Senate with senators who put the federal government's interests ahead of their own state, and red US states with blue senators representing them (or far more rarely, vice versa).
Hear hear! The US Senate was created as a compromise between the Federalists and the Jeffersonian States' rights people.
The Federalists had the bureaucracy (Executive branch).
The people had the House of Representatives (Controls the money).
The States had the Senate (created to represent the interest of the state, not the people).
Since the 17th Amendment the States no longer have any representation and are nothing more than small administrative districts of the federal leviathan.
The system is no longer in balance.
Woodrow Wilson was a rotten sack of shit. Other than Abe Lincoln and FDR, no President has done more damage to the USA than that meat-sack.
I'd add Nixon for taking us off the gold standard and introducing inflation into the economy, and Clinton for gutting our manufacturing base with the NAFTA trade agreement.
What does Congress do, continually, every session, regardless of who has the majority?
1. Spend money we don't have.
2. Refuse to audit the Fed.
3. Refuse to stop the spending.
4. Never pass a budget.
5. Extend the debt ceiling and increase the national debt.
6. Fund and wage never ending foreign wars.
7. Grow the government.
8. Tax us into oblivion.
By their fruits ye shall know them. Not by their words.
The US Congress is a dismal and abject failure. Who cares about the Presidency. Technically the Congress is the sovereign. They control the money. They can override a Presidential veto. Instead of flexing their authoritative muscle they spend their times bickering with each other and verbally abusing some poor idiot they summoned to one of their fucking useless committee meetings so they can get on tik-tok with their sound bites (see that moron Jasmine Crockett out of Texas).
The US Congress should be obliterated and completely and entirely re-worked. Instead of a popularity contest to select Congress-critters, there should be a lottery of net taxpaying native born US citizens, drafted to serve ONE two year term including only ONE 3 month legislative session. No elections. No campaigns. No campaign contributions. Once the session is over they go back to their jobs. No more life time careers in a defunct and corrupt money sucking Congressional seat.
The US Congress should have far more representative seats in it than 435. There should be 1000, 5000 or 10,000 seats to provide far better representation to rural areas, suburban areas and urban areas. There is no reason a session of Congress can't be held in a basketball or ice hocky arena. The US Constitution doesn't limit the House to 435 seats. In Utah one representative represents nearly 750,000 people. Impossible. Laughable. Totally absurd to call these people "representatives."
Until we the people get fed up with the mess that is the US Congress, nothing is going to change. Who cares about Trump, Biden, Obama or Bush. What matters is a do nothing Congress that has, over the years, pissed away all of its authority and Constitutional responsibilities, punting it all to the bureaucracy. Most people, most Americans, don't even know what the US Congress is but they all have an opinion about President Trump. They should be pissing and farting in rage over the abject failure that is the US Congress. We got it all wrong in the USA. Our focus is in the wrong place.
To characterize opposition to Israel as “Jew Hate” is disingenuous. It would be like having a vicious pit bull ripping children to shreds in your neighborhood, and opposing putting it down as “dog hate.” The stratagem is losing its power, as more good people who do not hate Jews find the courage to express hatred of Zionist aggression.
BTW: Netanyahu’s war is far from over, but just taking a staged breather so the U S of A can celebrate its quarter millennium birthday. Also, stratospheric gas prices are still ahead. They are just being postponed by The Market’s irrational exuberance over A I. The bursting of that bubble will be a whopper.
Spot on comments about antisemitism vs anti-Israel....and the fact is that we are a LOOONNNG ways from being done with rising oil prices or this Middle East debacle.
I've noticed a lot of Trump supporters really like to spike the football before the opening kickoff.
It’s good to see the grotesque dysfunction of both political parties targeted today. Yes, at this moment it would be more gratifying to see the Donkeys go down the political shitter, but we know from experience that Republican hegemony is just as horrible in its own way.
The problem, of course, is that there is no party to represent the people in this era. It’s inevitable that there will always be a party organized to represent the interests of Capital. To prevent eventual enslavement of everyone else, it’s necessary that there be a party to represent Labor. Reagan set off class warfare on behalf of Capital in 1980, and Clinton devised the winning political strategy of having the Democrats desert Labor three election cycles later.
Historically, the US economy has only remained robust when there was a strong Middle Class, and the health of the Middle Class has always closely tracked the strength of Organized Labor. Having either party dissolve would be a prerequisite to restoring balance, but only if the new party was explicitly committed to representing Labor, and that seems to be unfashionable in today’s America.
I'm not the only one who thinks this? Thanks for seeing it, Ben R.
I am an aging body builder and as such I spend a lot of time in the gym. I usually visit the gym during the 1:00 to 3:00 p.m. hours (I take a late and extended lunch break) as that is when there are the fewest people there. What amazes me is how many young, able bodied men and women are at the gym pumping iron and flirting with each other during prime work day hours. They are there when I start, they are there when I finish. Why are they not working? How are these people making a living? Are they all working swing or graveyard shifts? Or are they all youtube influencers making a living fucking around and producing nothing?
Not only are they all NOT working but they are all driving around in cars much newer than mine, living in houses much larger than mine, taking trips to Disneyland every year, covered with enough tattoos that in total cost more than my mortgage, and gawking at $1300 I-Phones.
I seriously don't get it. Am I missing something? My wife always says they are in debt to their eyeballs and she's probably right, but, they still have to finance that debt with monthly payments. Are they all trust fund babies living on the inheritance received from their baby boomer parents and grand parents?
The party to represent labor is a joke. The Union led Democrats led the ignorant masses down the path that made them non-competitive in the world labor market and eventually created the rust belt. Now, we are seeing an even bigger blast as AI destroys the white collar labor market. Thanks, Dems. Thanks for the rise of Trump and MAGA.
The Union movement and the middle class? Yeah, right. The current residual of the middle class is the high tech labor pool, which has not been unionized from its onset. In the meantime, unions continue to destroy American industry’s competitiveness.
Your screed against organized labor was as predictable as the sunrise. The fact remains that the Middle Class was at its greatest strength when Organized Labor was defending it. If you like things better now, that's only because the Oligarchs have not yet put you in steerage. It will still happen.
No advanced economy can compete with labor arbitrage in Bangladesh. That's what tariffs are for. Don't like higher prices? Here we are. That high tech labor pool is about to be extinguished post haste by A I. Then this country will have no Middle Class at all.
I am not in steerage because I worked my way up the ladder, on my own. No unions, no government welfare. The Oligarchs had no hold on me.
Unlike the Gimme you seem to favor who have been manipulated to be dependent on the government. You want to see how crappy socialism becomes and how dependent on oligarchs, just look west. California has become a shit farm under Leftist tutelage.
Before Trump went to war with Iran, he had his foot on the throat of the Democratic Party. Gas was selling for $2.50 a gallon, inflation was a memory, the US was at peace and Trump was quite popular. It looked like the midterms would be great for the Republicans. Then he decided to go to war with Iran, and threw it all away. Gas soared to $4.50 a gallon, inflation hit a three year high, and Trump responded to the growing concerns of the voters by declaring that "I love the inflation". I think the Democrats will probably recapture a majority in the Senate, and make gains in the House, in this new atmosphere. It's not that Republican, and formerly Republican voters will vote for Democrats, they just won't vote at all. After losing the midterms, Trump will likely be impeached again, and be a lame-duck president presiding over yet another failed US war in the Middle East. It's a shame. He chose to start an unnecessary war and seize defeat from the jaws of victory.
Agreed. Your first sentence should be "Iran" not "Iraq".
I guess my only point is that Trump is constantly his own worse enemy so to bet on him is a risky endeavor that comes with lots of downsides to any upsides you might want to point to.
I strongly supported him right up until he launched this idiotic war. A LOT of his former supporters are furious that their cost of living has skyrocketed due to his stupid, reckless decisions, and he has openly said that he loves the inflation and does not care how badly it affects US citizens and businesses. It is insane, yes, he is indeed "constantly his own worst enemy".
I think the biggest difference between Trump 1.0 and 2.0 is the lack of a guardrail he has in 2.0. All of his worse instincts in 1.0, were thwarted or attenuated by his cabinet members who were mostly talented and experienced people.
In 2.0, he has surrounded himself with far less experienced sycophants...and the bad fruit of this is showing up all over the place.
Outstanding summary... and fleering? Haven't seen that one used outside of a typo in at least a decade. Love it.
Also love this: "...pure enmity to President Trump’s personality than necessarily to ideas or policy." Pretty much speaks for itself. I got into a sidebar 6 years ago with what I thought was a completely rational philosopher. He refused to accept that there was any cult but the Trump cult. It was impossible to convince him that the MAGA base is not the only cult to exist now or ever. He's not alone, still.
Living in the People's Republic of Ann Arbor, I see no sign of a "Trump Cult". There's definitely an "Anti-Trump Cult" with all the misinformation, slander and violence that a crazy person could want. What these sad sacks will do, when they don't have Trump to bash around anymore is a mystery. They won't get what they want, thank goodness. Maybe put themselves out of misery at our pot-shops-on-every-corner, or overdose on weight-loss miracle drugs...
Yup, imagine the country without Trump in the blame light. The Deep State will actually have to do something, to say something instead of HateTrump. The haters will be lost without Trump.
Perhaps some of us have forgotten that EVERY Republican or non-Democrat upon running for office is branded an extremist, anti environment, Islamaphobe, homophobe, and until recently, an Antisemite. The best recent example is the cranky Neocon Republican John McCain. The very Democrat and liberal news media figures always praising him and encouraging him to run for President immediately turned on him when he received the Republican nomination. He was instantly transformed in the media to an Islamaphobe, homophobe, Antisemite,................
Are you sure you're not confusing organizations with cults? Besides...if the Democratic "cult" were as powerful and aligned as you all claim (or at least "allude") them to be...Trump wouldn't be POTUS, the Senate and House wouldn't have the GOP as the majority party.
Trump, at his last rally, has gone from claiming that he will lower drug prices by 600% to claiming that he already has and that the US has the lowest drug prices in the world.
The Dems would never allow a leader to blatantly lie like that. That's not just lying...it's absurdity on steroids. He's mentally unfit for office, but here we are on Kunstler's website saying that really it's the Lefty-left that's the most dangerous thing we have to worry about.
The ship's about to hit an iceberg and you guys are worried about the trans couple you saw on the fan tail.
There's not much that constitutes "news" in the media these days. Fake scandal, slander, sheer lies, but nothing either new and true, important, or useful.
Erika kirk assumed the role of CEO of TPUSA, and like any other CEO should not be immune from examination because she is a widow. Candace and Baron Coleman just want to investigate the WHO HOW and WHY. What country maimed and killed their enemies with exploding devices? What country's leader gave president Trump a golden pager? Here is the HOW. https://www.youtube.com/live/lFPoGSa007M?si=wUYEB8ZWkfyEskCX&t=3291 The WHY is that Charlie would have had a young audience to make a loud case against the IRAN war, and ongoing activities in Lebanon. The WHO will never be fully known, just like JFK. What has been presented with Tyler Robinson is less believable than the Oswald story.
When you are making a presentation that exposes the actions of unaccountable agencies and individuals, you may sound a little crazy to the person who blindly accepts the goyslop presentation from the "authorities" Her numbers show that there are many curious people that are starting to notice and smell and avoid the slop.
Good point. The takedown of Candace is more a defense of Erika which takes the spotlight off…who did it? And why?
Candace is crazy like Jim Garrison was crazy, Ron Paul was crazy, Paul Wellstone was crazy. Funny how those who challenge the established script are always crazy.
Though I disagree with Trump on foreign policy and economics, he is also on the establishment “crazy” list. He should consider hiring food tasters.
I hope You are right, I would love nothing more than to see the commie pervert worshippers go down in flames, or swirling soaking wet down the bowl hole.
The only potential problem I see is the cost of living, plus zero electoral reform, zero stopping of election fraud ( think Pratt ), resulting in a commie pervert worshipper "win" in 26 and 28.
"Advocating to destroy American society is a poor sales pitch." Not when one considers that many supporters of the contemporary American left seek, to one degree or another, to dismantle significant aspects of the existing political and cultural order. It seems a fair assumption that many on the left would like to see portions of America's institutions and traditions abolished or fundamentally transformed, not least among them long-standing constitutional interpretations and, in some cases, the Constitution itself.
Accordingly, they align themselves with those advocating the most sweeping changes, seemingly confident that, once power is attained, the revolutionary impulse will moderate and the resulting reforms will prove limited, measured, and even surgical. Or perhaps they believe they will be able to withstand the political and social upheaval that inevitably follows the dismantling of established institutions. I do not pretend to know. It is, however, an interesting question.
I have neighbors who are extraordinarily affluent, even by New York metropolitan standards. They are white-collar professionals with impeccably restored historic homes, beautifully landscaped properties, and every outward indication of considerable wealth. Maintaining such a lifestyle requires a stable society that protects private property, contracts, and accumulated capital. Yet their homes are festooned with symbols supporting causes and movements that, at least rhetorically, call for sweeping structural change.
It occurred to me that, if the revolutionary vision some of these movements espouse were ever realized - not in diluted or compromised form, but in its fullest expression - these individuals would stand to lose a great deal, perhaps nearly everything they presently enjoy. That, in turn, led me to another possibility: perhaps they believe they would occupy a privileged place within whatever new order emerged. Like so many educated professionals and intellectuals before them, they may assume they would become members of the new elite, helping shape the institutions that replace those they helped dismantle.
History offers little encouragement for such confidence.
During the French Revolution, many moderate reformers supported the overthrow of the Ancien Régime believing they could guide events toward a constitutional settlement. Instead, figures such as Georges Danton and Camille Desmoulins eventually found themselves condemned by the very revolutionary government they had helped create, both dying beneath the guillotine during the Reign of Terror.
A century later, numerous liberals, socialists, and professionals initially welcomed the Russian Revolution, expecting to participate in the construction of a more just society. Many instead became victims of the new regime. Even prominent Bolsheviks such as Nikolai Bukharin, once among the revolution's principal architects, were later imprisoned and executed during Joseph Stalin's purges.
The same miscalculation appeared in Germany. Influential industrialists and conservative politicians believed they could harness Adolf Hitler's popular appeal while controlling him once he entered government. Men such as Franz von Papen famously assumed that Hitler could be "boxed in." Instead, Hitler rapidly consolidated power, marginalized his conservative allies, and established a dictatorship that answered to no one.
The lesson is not that every movement seeking profound change culminates in tyranny. Rather, it is that those who advocate the dismantling of an existing order frequently assume they will help shape - and ultimately prosper within - the one that replaces it. History suggests that this confidence is often misplaced. Revolutions have a habit of consuming not only their opponents, but also many of their earliest and most enthusiastic supporters.
Your comment is an excellent postscript to Jim's post. A modicum of historical literacy is a bracing antidote to the modern left's fascination with deconstruction and revolution. I daresay your well heeled neighbors should take a moment to acquaint themselves with both the French sans cullottes and the Maoist Red Gurads to see what would be their fate under the "enlightened" regimes of which they so glibly--and gullibly--approve.
They don't think it'll ever happen to them. They think they've been promised a seat at the table.
Or they suffer the illusion that most people do to varying extent , normalcy bias . They imagine things will go on as they have for most, if not all of their lives , swimmingly , effortlessly ( their normal ) going forward in perpetuity no matter what they do. Because they are far removed from the proverbial sausage factories , the sausages just magically appear in the coolers at their local whole foods . They are there by,( in analogy of course because there are many more things between heaven and earth than just sausages lol ) so removed from the process's of reality they don't understand the associated costs involved in them and mistakenly take it all as a given . Prolly Kunstler would relate this to something he is in to thinking about that I am as well , and that is taking things , systems , institutions etc, past peak efficient complexity and scale along with over centralization .Everything seems to have some indeterminate golden ratio where any less is not enough and any more is too much . I say' indeterminate' only because we never seem to be able to know when to leave 'well enough the hell alone '. But' the rot in a nation '( other peoples money ) does indeed have some final limitation to its quantity, as much as it seems it could go on forever, it will run out one day and that's when things will, stop working just fine .
Exactly!
You have described the consummate “useful idiot”. Since these privileged idiots presume themselves to be so much better and smarter (and DEFINITELY more successful!) than the distasteful MAGA or conservative voter, they naturally assume that they will be lauded and rewarded for their contributions to
“The Revolution“.
Not so. They will find themselves second in line for the guillotine — behind only the citizens who openly resisted the tyranny. You cited several appropriate examples. There are many more.
How to get through to these idiots in time to avert disaster? I haven’t a clue. No amount of factual or historical evidence penetrates their vanity. So, if persuasion is not an option, we must seek to (legally) minimize their voting power. That seems to be President Trump’s strategy — dismantle the “money laundry” which provides most of their funding and pass election and immigration laws that minimize fraud. I think that is our only hope.
Following the Russian Revolution, Joseph Stalin systematically eliminated many of the very Bolsheviks who had made the revolution possible. Untold tens of thousands of prominent and rank-and-file "Old Bolsheviks" were liquidated during the Great Purge.
The Khmer Rouge became notorious for executing its own cadres. The Cambodian killing fields encompassed not only perceived class enemies - a category interpreted with extraordinary breadth - but also loyal and fervent members of the Communist Party who were accused of fabricated conspiracies. In some instances, entire regional party organizations were wiped out.
Communist China likewise witnessed the destruction of many veteran revolutionaries during the Cultural Revolution, when party officials and longtime supporters who had helped establish the People's Republic were denounced, imprisoned, tortured, or killed.
These are only a handful of examples. History repeatedly demonstrates that revolutionary regimes often turn upon their own adherents once power has been consolidated. The zeal that helped bring a movement to power frequently offers little protection once suspicion, factionalism, and the pursuit of absolute authority become the regime's overriding priorities.
And let's be realistic. If there is one thing the Democrat Party is expert at, it is eliminating anyone and anything that may potentially threaten its stranglehold on the levers of power.
"Since these privileged idiots presume themselves to be so much better and smarter (and DEFINITELY more successful!)..." ~ Debbie Wagner
Excellent full comment on useful idiots. Nine out of ten times, if you were to look into the sources of their wealth and prestige, the Limousine Liberals are beneficiary of some form of Government subsidy or tax supported graft. As the Magic Negro said, they didn't build it.
They raise their glasses in a toast to their success on the back of the American Taxpayer. They are all insufferable parasites. They just feed at different levels.
I think the lawyers I used to work for in NYC are an example of this. It was a small, successful law firm for the first 14 years when I was office manager. I moved to ABQ and a few years later the Covid psyop hit. They were shut down. Enter the Biden Show.
I would look at their website once in a while to see how they were doing. They had more employees than ever, one partner and multiple associates. I wondered at how they made payroll. I did all that. I knew what came in and what money went out.
Then I noticed the photo of one of the "women" associates showed a really thick, masculine neck. Then I noticed the array of pronouns.
I figure they have benefited from some grant helping them to pay for some alphabet soup, pronoun people associates.
Just guessing.
Probably one grant of many. People fail to realize that during "Covid", the Biden Administration punched $5.2 Trillion dollars into the US economy (that's how you cause inflation via dollar devaluation), which was on the brink of collapse, in the CARES (Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Stimulus) Act.
Much of this money was through PPP (Paycheck Protection Program) Loans to small businesses to keep personnel. The loans were forgivable - meaning free money. It was a predator's ball - billions of taxpayer dollars were spent with reckless abandon - the infusion as intended, to prevent economic collapse.
I will bet you my bottom dollar, the firm had one (or multiple) PPP loans that were used, not only to carry the firm, but to go on a diversity hiring spree. The loans will never be paid back.
We paid for them. Well, our kids and grandkids, anyway.
The beneficiaries of a perverted incentive system of spoils to those who adhere to it , and so maybe they feel a bit guilty, at the subconscious level they understand their 'importance ' is actually highly over rated because " they (really )didn't build that ". Or something like that .
Something set me to thinking about some of my nieces this morning , one in particular "writes grants "for a living . Well what kind of grants are we talking about ? Most definitely federal or state ? To do what exactly , NGO some cause ?I had more respect for her when she crewed on board the Sea Sheppard ( Greenpeace )
Bless her heart, but she's suffering from suicidal empathy.
The point was she has an impressive sounding job title that she went to college to prepare herself to do ,but in reality she probably helps people bilk the taxpayers and use the proceeds to further destroy our republic . Left wing NGO's get funding approval via some process I never bothered to think much about because I'm just a carpenter damnit !!!lol.
It's a shell game process, money cascading down through multiple "non-profits", hard to trace that way, with no accountability (on purpose), and many times kickbacks or "kickups" to the highest level grifters that make the rain. Think Somalian childcare centers, non-medical transportation companies, etc..
Others, too many to list - all taxpayer funded, usually in the form of grants. It occurs at all levels of government Federal, State and Local - same playbook. It you live in a municipality that collects taxes, it's happening there. Guaranteed.
Well said, Thomas. I am constantly surprised at the elites fomenting famine. They seem to forget that they---and everyone they love--are made out of meat.
Excellent way to summarise Thomas's post, Gwennie.
Satan doesn't like loose ends, and he always eliminates his tools when he's done with them.
Rancid as it may be in their case .
Nice post Thomas. I have often asked if the wealthy people that vote for and support the madness of the left believe that they themselves will be exempt from the madness, chaos and depression their inept policies will create. I believe they do. That, or, they are so out of touch with reality they give no consideration to what they are doing and the resulting consequences of such actions. However, I do believe that nobody will be exempt from the tidal waves of destruciton produced by significant economic and societal decline brought on by their "leaders" and their policies. Everyone will be impacted. Unless they can afford to go build a bunker on an isolated island somewhere in the Caribbean Sea with a water filtration system and food supply that lasts 50+ years. In the advent of an economic collapse the masses will climb any walls, kill any private security and mow down the wealthy who stole it all from them.
I've often wondered what was going to keep their security from seizing their throne in that type of scenario ?
Good point. In the even of an economic collapse money will essentially be useless so with what do the wealthy pay the security that will be valuable enough to keep the security there, risking life and limb to protect them? A normal security guard, in the absence of law and order, may decide to take it for himself and why not? Might actually welcome it because their wealthy boss declined to pay for his health insurance.
In fact, when you really think about it, the wealthy will become a target of the angry masses when the shit hits the fan. Some might have their bunkers but most will be strung up.
Exactly , in line with a general theory I have about" the servant becoming the master " when it occurs to them that they are doing all the heavy lifting . Crazy idea , I know , but I'm a crazy guy see .
"But, but, but....this time it will be different!"
Thank you. Our species seems incapable of true revolutionary change without going through a cataclysmic stage of Mass Formation Psychosis. It's probably fatuous for us to hope that this Fourth Turning will have a tidy resolution.
Marxist revolutions always turn out the same. It becomes a race among colleagues and peers to be the last man standing. I give you Cuba.
too long. get to the point.
Facebook reels are thataway. —>
Fantastic response Beth.
Be patient. Take the time to read the post.
Like when you try to erase all the cookies on a laptop and you end up erasing all your passwords and bookmarks.
Excellent work. One of your very best. So true that “the party of algae” is beyond embarrassment. My late grandfather, who was a wise man born in the 19th century, often said “you can’t embarrass a goat.” He was a registered democrat until LBJ’s brand of democratic politics persuaded him to jump ship & swim over to the Republican side. Certainly some interesting times we live in. Thanks so much for your wryly humorous look at the situation.
Well, they have pictures of nuts cutting the rubber base of the pool. Experts are saying that if water gets between the concrete and the rubber, it will peel. The algae build-up was too fast, giving it away as a nefarious act. Just pour in fertilizer with lots of phosphorous and voila, algae bloom.
Just get it folks, these people are anti-Trumpers but more, they are America haters.
Note the grass burned with 8647. More nuts. But no more than the ex-FBI director. It is as simple as the Deep State favoring the gimmes as they try to take power from the people and the Constitution that protects them.
Imo the essential division. Haters vs lovers of America
Yup, Haters = Gimmes, who hate anyone who says no. Lovers = people who love the opportunity to get ahead that America offers.
I guess they preferred the pool when it was an algae-infested piss pool. The next democrat will return it to that state.
"More likely it’s a harbinger of the party’s approaching death...".
From your lips (fingers) to God's ears.
Patriots finally have a chance to turn around a century of wrong way politics (far left wing), and get things back on the straight and narrow.
It will be a close run thing.
The Bush GOPe "Country Clubbers"must also be held to account.
It will only be close if Americans go back to sleep. Which they just might.
Most Americans of the non-crazy sort just keep on keeping on: working, raising children, keeping the property pretty and productive. They don't have time for such time-wasting activities as the Lefty-Left indulge in. And when they vote, it counts.
I’ve always wondered how one can sleep when their house is on fire.
One of the striking outcomes of the FIFA soccer aka Football matches that continue through July, is the European and other FIFA tourists, who want to know what’s wrong with us? They love America! Why can’t you American’s see a good thing when you have it! The social media pages are filled with people who like the fried chicken in the south, got a kick out of drinking Boston dry (3 times) singing at Fenway and totally bamboozling Mayor Michelle Wu and the Green Governor who needs 40% of fossil fuels and 20% of Hydro Quebec hydro electricity to make up for the Wind “farms” in inside the 200 mile limit around Martha’s Vineyard to keep the lights on the empty city of Boston. Indeed what is wrong? It’s not the vast majority of American’s it’s 10% of the creepiest people in the world with a spot light and microphone in a nonstop hand waving freak out that hijack the news cycle 24/7. As Winston Churchill opined America will eventually do the right thing, but only after they have run out of every other option.
This writer can’t wait for Mamdani to head back to Brunswick Maine home of his college Alma Mater Bowdoin College and campaign for this freak of nature and giant fraud Graham Platner. What a dem/islamo/facist/furries wet dream. Two maybe more nut bags on a stage in one of the poorest states in the Union telling the poor how it’s gonna go…get your iPhone recorders ready it’s gonna be legion!
As Duval Patrick former governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts used to say…”we’re gonna be fine!” Yes Duval! Despite all your efforts to the contrary we are going to be just fine. Now someone hand me that bottle of Hoppes Gun Oil, the range is closed and need to clean weapons…just in case…perfect practice make perfect…
Ha ha, I watched a video showing the reaction of many of these tourists visiting the USA. They were amazed at the stocked shelves in the stores, the selection of items to be purchased, the endless refills of sugary laden soft drinks, the massive serving sizes in our restaurants. They were completely amazed at the USA and loved the American people they encountered.
Fact is, we still have it pretty damned good in the USA. We really do. I thank God every day for the life that I live and the comforts that I enjoy and believe me, I am not a wealthy individual. I hope it lasts until I am in the ground and forgotten for eternity but something tells me that it isn't going to last, at least, in the form that currently enjoy.
As I was watching these tourists pour praises upon my homeland it dawned on me. They are talking about the real America. It's people. Not its filthy government. It's you and I and the rest of us that make this place great. The American government is a cancer that is eating us alive and if it isn't purged from the system, eventually we will be like the Europeans who are currently visiting us.
One thing is for certain, we'll be a lot thinner!
The cancer is THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA - the corporation.
I love the smell of hoppes in the morning.
They actually have a car fragrance out.
https://www.amazon.com/Hoppes-No-Air-Freshener-Pack/dp/B01AYEJK1Q
Look and see where American education stands globally. It is all because of the government involvement with education plus the invasion of immigrants who do not speak English and cannot be educated. Both Democrat introductions. The term is stupidification, the indoctrination by government of people to make them subservient to the power mongers in DC.
Kids from overseas see Air Conditioning when Europe is cooking and dying from heat. Maybe FIFA will show Europeans that America is not so bad after all.
It is still Deep State against MAGA. I am still waiting for the “real” parties to re-align with the Lefty-Lefts as one and the Mod-Rights as the other. ModDems are already drifting right toward MAGA as RINOs are drifting Left toward the L-Ls. Each election will divide Deep State vs. MAGA OR capitalist independents vs. gimmes. OR cities vs. everyone else. OR coasts vs. mainstream, which might be the same .
Not sure how the re-alignment will play out or even if it happens. It would be a good thing.
Either way, compliments for being the first to recognize the unstated point of JHK this morning.
While complaining that Carlson may be interested in starting a new political party, he spends his entire column explaining why someone(s) needs to start new political parties.
As a former soldier there is nothing more contemptible than senate 'republicans'. Donald Trump as been in literal battle for 10 years now on behalf of the American System that Hamilton built. The rest are globalist idiots.
JHK, you are too good at what you do...and you also have a great sense of humor..
The George Carlin of superior intellect and sarcasm in written form. JHK is irreplaceable, same as Carlin.
John, “looks like a senator”, Thune.
Time to do an honest evaluation of our primary political institution; it’s not what congress says, it’s what it does - in terms of work product (vague, self-serving laws), out-of-touch leaders (Thune, et al) and procedures (silly / bizarre / embarrassing “hearings”).
Perhaps the problem starts with letting congress write its own rules and then gets acerbated but letting them spend so much money on things other than infrastructure and national defense.
The lack of responsiveness to the needs and wants of the people that they supposedly “represent” is nothing less than criminal, and yet . . .
When it comes to US senators, it's not the primary system that is the problem... it is the 17th Amendment. Until the 17A is repealed and the election of US Senators is returned to the respective state legislatures, nothing changes. We will continue to have a US Senate with senators who put the federal government's interests ahead of their own state, and red US states with blue senators representing them (or far more rarely, vice versa).
Hear hear! The US Senate was created as a compromise between the Federalists and the Jeffersonian States' rights people.
The Federalists had the bureaucracy (Executive branch).
The people had the House of Representatives (Controls the money).
The States had the Senate (created to represent the interest of the state, not the people).
Since the 17th Amendment the States no longer have any representation and are nothing more than small administrative districts of the federal leviathan.
The system is no longer in balance.
Woodrow Wilson was a rotten sack of shit. Other than Abe Lincoln and FDR, no President has done more damage to the USA than that meat-sack.
I'd add Nixon for taking us off the gold standard and introducing inflation into the economy, and Clinton for gutting our manufacturing base with the NAFTA trade agreement.
What does Congress do, continually, every session, regardless of who has the majority?
1. Spend money we don't have.
2. Refuse to audit the Fed.
3. Refuse to stop the spending.
4. Never pass a budget.
5. Extend the debt ceiling and increase the national debt.
6. Fund and wage never ending foreign wars.
7. Grow the government.
8. Tax us into oblivion.
By their fruits ye shall know them. Not by their words.
The US Congress is a dismal and abject failure. Who cares about the Presidency. Technically the Congress is the sovereign. They control the money. They can override a Presidential veto. Instead of flexing their authoritative muscle they spend their times bickering with each other and verbally abusing some poor idiot they summoned to one of their fucking useless committee meetings so they can get on tik-tok with their sound bites (see that moron Jasmine Crockett out of Texas).
The US Congress should be obliterated and completely and entirely re-worked. Instead of a popularity contest to select Congress-critters, there should be a lottery of net taxpaying native born US citizens, drafted to serve ONE two year term including only ONE 3 month legislative session. No elections. No campaigns. No campaign contributions. Once the session is over they go back to their jobs. No more life time careers in a defunct and corrupt money sucking Congressional seat.
The US Congress should have far more representative seats in it than 435. There should be 1000, 5000 or 10,000 seats to provide far better representation to rural areas, suburban areas and urban areas. There is no reason a session of Congress can't be held in a basketball or ice hocky arena. The US Constitution doesn't limit the House to 435 seats. In Utah one representative represents nearly 750,000 people. Impossible. Laughable. Totally absurd to call these people "representatives."
Until we the people get fed up with the mess that is the US Congress, nothing is going to change. Who cares about Trump, Biden, Obama or Bush. What matters is a do nothing Congress that has, over the years, pissed away all of its authority and Constitutional responsibilities, punting it all to the bureaucracy. Most people, most Americans, don't even know what the US Congress is but they all have an opinion about President Trump. They should be pissing and farting in rage over the abject failure that is the US Congress. We got it all wrong in the USA. Our focus is in the wrong place.
To characterize opposition to Israel as “Jew Hate” is disingenuous. It would be like having a vicious pit bull ripping children to shreds in your neighborhood, and opposing putting it down as “dog hate.” The stratagem is losing its power, as more good people who do not hate Jews find the courage to express hatred of Zionist aggression.
BTW: Netanyahu’s war is far from over, but just taking a staged breather so the U S of A can celebrate its quarter millennium birthday. Also, stratospheric gas prices are still ahead. They are just being postponed by The Market’s irrational exuberance over A I. The bursting of that bubble will be a whopper.
Spot on comments about antisemitism vs anti-Israel....and the fact is that we are a LOOONNNG ways from being done with rising oil prices or this Middle East debacle.
I've noticed a lot of Trump supporters really like to spike the football before the opening kickoff.
https://substack.com/home/post/p-200794273
Howard,
One of Israel's greatest defeats is that they lost control of the narrative. Credit social media and alternative news outlets.
It’s good to see the grotesque dysfunction of both political parties targeted today. Yes, at this moment it would be more gratifying to see the Donkeys go down the political shitter, but we know from experience that Republican hegemony is just as horrible in its own way.
The problem, of course, is that there is no party to represent the people in this era. It’s inevitable that there will always be a party organized to represent the interests of Capital. To prevent eventual enslavement of everyone else, it’s necessary that there be a party to represent Labor. Reagan set off class warfare on behalf of Capital in 1980, and Clinton devised the winning political strategy of having the Democrats desert Labor three election cycles later.
Historically, the US economy has only remained robust when there was a strong Middle Class, and the health of the Middle Class has always closely tracked the strength of Organized Labor. Having either party dissolve would be a prerequisite to restoring balance, but only if the new party was explicitly committed to representing Labor, and that seems to be unfashionable in today’s America.
Labor?
That requires people to work, have jobs, and have worthwhile skills.
I look around when I manage to get off work early, and there are people everywhere all the time who look like they have not worked.
Wander into a Costco at any hour of the day, and it is packed with working-age people who should be at work, not shopping.
I'm not the only one who thinks this? Thanks for seeing it, Ben R.
I am an aging body builder and as such I spend a lot of time in the gym. I usually visit the gym during the 1:00 to 3:00 p.m. hours (I take a late and extended lunch break) as that is when there are the fewest people there. What amazes me is how many young, able bodied men and women are at the gym pumping iron and flirting with each other during prime work day hours. They are there when I start, they are there when I finish. Why are they not working? How are these people making a living? Are they all working swing or graveyard shifts? Or are they all youtube influencers making a living fucking around and producing nothing?
Only God knows.
I ask this everywhere I go now.
What do all these people do for a living?
They can't all be on government welfare.
Not only are they all NOT working but they are all driving around in cars much newer than mine, living in houses much larger than mine, taking trips to Disneyland every year, covered with enough tattoos that in total cost more than my mortgage, and gawking at $1300 I-Phones.
I seriously don't get it. Am I missing something? My wife always says they are in debt to their eyeballs and she's probably right, but, they still have to finance that debt with monthly payments. Are they all trust fund babies living on the inheritance received from their baby boomer parents and grand parents?
The party to represent labor is a joke. The Union led Democrats led the ignorant masses down the path that made them non-competitive in the world labor market and eventually created the rust belt. Now, we are seeing an even bigger blast as AI destroys the white collar labor market. Thanks, Dems. Thanks for the rise of Trump and MAGA.
The Union movement and the middle class? Yeah, right. The current residual of the middle class is the high tech labor pool, which has not been unionized from its onset. In the meantime, unions continue to destroy American industry’s competitiveness.
Your screed against organized labor was as predictable as the sunrise. The fact remains that the Middle Class was at its greatest strength when Organized Labor was defending it. If you like things better now, that's only because the Oligarchs have not yet put you in steerage. It will still happen.
No advanced economy can compete with labor arbitrage in Bangladesh. That's what tariffs are for. Don't like higher prices? Here we are. That high tech labor pool is about to be extinguished post haste by A I. Then this country will have no Middle Class at all.
I am not in steerage because I worked my way up the ladder, on my own. No unions, no government welfare. The Oligarchs had no hold on me.
Unlike the Gimme you seem to favor who have been manipulated to be dependent on the government. You want to see how crappy socialism becomes and how dependent on oligarchs, just look west. California has become a shit farm under Leftist tutelage.
Before Trump went to war with Iran, he had his foot on the throat of the Democratic Party. Gas was selling for $2.50 a gallon, inflation was a memory, the US was at peace and Trump was quite popular. It looked like the midterms would be great for the Republicans. Then he decided to go to war with Iran, and threw it all away. Gas soared to $4.50 a gallon, inflation hit a three year high, and Trump responded to the growing concerns of the voters by declaring that "I love the inflation". I think the Democrats will probably recapture a majority in the Senate, and make gains in the House, in this new atmosphere. It's not that Republican, and formerly Republican voters will vote for Democrats, they just won't vote at all. After losing the midterms, Trump will likely be impeached again, and be a lame-duck president presiding over yet another failed US war in the Middle East. It's a shame. He chose to start an unnecessary war and seize defeat from the jaws of victory.
Agreed. Your first sentence should be "Iran" not "Iraq".
I guess my only point is that Trump is constantly his own worse enemy so to bet on him is a risky endeavor that comes with lots of downsides to any upsides you might want to point to.
I strongly supported him right up until he launched this idiotic war. A LOT of his former supporters are furious that their cost of living has skyrocketed due to his stupid, reckless decisions, and he has openly said that he loves the inflation and does not care how badly it affects US citizens and businesses. It is insane, yes, he is indeed "constantly his own worst enemy".
I think the biggest difference between Trump 1.0 and 2.0 is the lack of a guardrail he has in 2.0. All of his worse instincts in 1.0, were thwarted or attenuated by his cabinet members who were mostly talented and experienced people.
In 2.0, he has surrounded himself with far less experienced sycophants...and the bad fruit of this is showing up all over the place.
When I came to President Trump, I told him, 'We are going into Iran. I did not ask permission. I simply informed him.'"
- Benjanmin Netanyahu, June 24th at a conference for local officials in Tel Aviv.
Outstanding summary... and fleering? Haven't seen that one used outside of a typo in at least a decade. Love it.
Also love this: "...pure enmity to President Trump’s personality than necessarily to ideas or policy." Pretty much speaks for itself. I got into a sidebar 6 years ago with what I thought was a completely rational philosopher. He refused to accept that there was any cult but the Trump cult. It was impossible to convince him that the MAGA base is not the only cult to exist now or ever. He's not alone, still.
Let’s face it: they’re embarrassing.
Living in the People's Republic of Ann Arbor, I see no sign of a "Trump Cult". There's definitely an "Anti-Trump Cult" with all the misinformation, slander and violence that a crazy person could want. What these sad sacks will do, when they don't have Trump to bash around anymore is a mystery. They won't get what they want, thank goodness. Maybe put themselves out of misery at our pot-shops-on-every-corner, or overdose on weight-loss miracle drugs...
Yup, imagine the country without Trump in the blame light. The Deep State will actually have to do something, to say something instead of HateTrump. The haters will be lost without Trump.
Perhaps some of us have forgotten that EVERY Republican or non-Democrat upon running for office is branded an extremist, anti environment, Islamaphobe, homophobe, and until recently, an Antisemite. The best recent example is the cranky Neocon Republican John McCain. The very Democrat and liberal news media figures always praising him and encouraging him to run for President immediately turned on him when he received the Republican nomination. He was instantly transformed in the media to an Islamaphobe, homophobe, Antisemite,................
Yup.
There will be a new "enemy." There must always be an enemy.
Are you sure you're not confusing organizations with cults? Besides...if the Democratic "cult" were as powerful and aligned as you all claim (or at least "allude") them to be...Trump wouldn't be POTUS, the Senate and House wouldn't have the GOP as the majority party.
Trump, at his last rally, has gone from claiming that he will lower drug prices by 600% to claiming that he already has and that the US has the lowest drug prices in the world.
The Dems would never allow a leader to blatantly lie like that. That's not just lying...it's absurdity on steroids. He's mentally unfit for office, but here we are on Kunstler's website saying that really it's the Lefty-left that's the most dangerous thing we have to worry about.
The ship's about to hit an iceberg and you guys are worried about the trans couple you saw on the fan tail.
There's not much that constitutes "news" in the media these days. Fake scandal, slander, sheer lies, but nothing either new and true, important, or useful.
Erika kirk assumed the role of CEO of TPUSA, and like any other CEO should not be immune from examination because she is a widow. Candace and Baron Coleman just want to investigate the WHO HOW and WHY. What country maimed and killed their enemies with exploding devices? What country's leader gave president Trump a golden pager? Here is the HOW. https://www.youtube.com/live/lFPoGSa007M?si=wUYEB8ZWkfyEskCX&t=3291 The WHY is that Charlie would have had a young audience to make a loud case against the IRAN war, and ongoing activities in Lebanon. The WHO will never be fully known, just like JFK. What has been presented with Tyler Robinson is less believable than the Oswald story.
Candace still comes off as a nutcase even if the above is all true
When you are making a presentation that exposes the actions of unaccountable agencies and individuals, you may sound a little crazy to the person who blindly accepts the goyslop presentation from the "authorities" Her numbers show that there are many curious people that are starting to notice and smell and avoid the slop.
Good point. The takedown of Candace is more a defense of Erika which takes the spotlight off…who did it? And why?
Candace is crazy like Jim Garrison was crazy, Ron Paul was crazy, Paul Wellstone was crazy. Funny how those who challenge the established script are always crazy.
Though I disagree with Trump on foreign policy and economics, he is also on the establishment “crazy” list. He should consider hiring food tasters.
TDS alert.
Hmmm. So there’s nothing for him to worry about huh?
Ah, just knives and box cutters in the pool along with a bunch of fertilizer.
Remember fertilizer and OK City, maybe that will be next from the Leftist nuts that you in your Trump blindness seems to excuse.
I hope You are right, I would love nothing more than to see the commie pervert worshippers go down in flames, or swirling soaking wet down the bowl hole.
The only potential problem I see is the cost of living, plus zero electoral reform, zero stopping of election fraud ( think Pratt ), resulting in a commie pervert worshipper "win" in 26 and 28.
They dont need wide support to steal elections.
Shadooby
One of your absolute best takes on this cultural moment. God is teaching us myriad lessons through this difficult period.