It's really going to come down to SAVE act or emergency order. There won't be nearly as much mischief this time around and many fewer Dems will be elected as a result. This is not prognostication, it's just obvious - the country hangs on the precipice and Trump won't let it fall and neither will the people. In the unlikely event I'm wrong, turn the lights off. There will be nothing left
You're wrong. The country is finished. Get your generator and some back up diesel fuel. The SAVE Act won't pass and an EO will be undone with the next President's pen swipe. At most, we got us about two years left.
You underestimate Trump. He knows the country’s at stake, as well as his legacy. A Democrat will not win in 2028 because their party will be a smoking crater long before then.
Mr. Trump only has so much influence over his legacy. Unlike the election process, where the commie candidates seeking and winning elections are successful because the process is rigged, not because they represent more than a sliver of voters. It's a no win situation, until DC is swept clean of corruption, and that isn't happening.
We do have quite a bit of domestic issues to deal with, while on the world stage I am dubious of any long term success in the Middle East. The Puppet Masters have figured out that "police actions" are just as profitable as real wars, with the added benefit of little (and often fake) damage. Project Hormuz still has economic repercussions that remain TBD, and I sense a feeling of many waiting for the next shoe to drop. GD II is on deck.
Meanwhile, the Long Emergency continues to unfold. Relentlessly. Distractions abound, and priorities for addressing the Predicament of Our Time remain on the back burner. The U.S. will be like Wiley Coyote holding up a MAGA sign all the way down to the bottom of the canyon. Poof!
I think Trump has a lot of control over his legacy. His opponents have been getting away with countless violations of federal law. The Trump DOJ can and will crack down on a lot of corruption. The feds have many powers regarding elections to federal office, and even some regarding local/state elections. E.g. a rigged local election is arguably a conspiracy to deprive civil rights.
Only time will tell. The Trump DOJ has failed to even bring charges for the guilty in the Covid fiasco and Epstein Psyop, so I doubt much comes of that direction.
Trump is positioned in the middle of too many high profile factors which will affect how he's remembered, mostly negative. His sexual assault payoffs, his profits with digital assets, being at the helm of a (potential) economic collapse, being at the helm of a (potential) outbreak of WWIII, his narcissistic tendencies similar to Obama, being at the helm and continuing to keep the country highly polarized, etc. His accomplishments have been few, and with little impact. He says many things that conservatives agree with, but when it comes to real accomplishments - the majority of Americans get only crumbs.
His battle to reel in the Lefty Leftists is verbal and via trolling in social media. He is clearly not in charge of the government, and reflects the middle management status of his role. His gains/boasts in keeping gas prices low, electricity prices low, and the border secure are offset by the Hormuz Adventure, AI gone wild, and failure to deport more than a fraction of the 10-15 million illegals shipped in under Biden.
He's on course to eclipse Hoover, Carter and even Biden for worst President ever, and will need a miracle to avoid that legacy.
I say this with all sincerity PapayaSF. I HOPE YOU ARE RIGHT. I'm tired of being black pilled. Been reading a lot of predictions about Trump since 2016 and not many, if any, of those predictions have come to past. I will happily and eagerly eat crow when and if it happens.
His first term had some good parts but was disappointing in some ways. To be fair the attacks on him were relentless, underhanded, and helped by RINOs and the Swamp. However, term #2 has been very different. From the start it’s been clear to me that he has thought things out and has a multi-year plan to MAGA and defeat his enemies. If I can see the vulnerabilities of Democrats and the left, so can Trump and his team. Then add in his large ego and desire for a legacy, and it all seems certain to me.
You're not making any sense today, Elysianfield. I'm trying to engage you but I can't follow what you are trying to say. I'm not the sharpest tool in the shed, self admitted, so your insults won't hurt my feelings. But for the love of God, please make a point or stop wasting my time. If you have an accusation against me then throw it out there. Otherwise, move on to someone who understands what you are trying to say.
Judging by the number of desperate demands for my money by all things Republican - individuals, Congressional and Senatorial Committees, and all the others, I'm assuming they are all wanting to enrich their coffers before the end! Sadly, the do-nothing attitude by the Senate is making the end via fraud almost a certainty.
Money quote for Monday, 07/20/2026. The American Sheeple, Normies, Cucks, Mall Zombies, and Remoras are very susceptible to the power of suggestion by the Marxist MSM/Hollywood cabal. My money is on the Dead Elephant Party receiving a very unpleasant wake-up call after the November Mid-terms. Should that happen, 2027 will be the Congressional Clown Show of all Congressional Clown Shows. Since I am not and never have been part of the "Big Club", I am preparing for the worst. Plan accordingly, my friends. Bleib ubrig.
Yep, Dweezil, how often have we seen the republicans snatch defeat from the jaws of victory? And then they blame us for not electing enough of them (how many Thunes would that take) and not giving them enough donations. Republicans are all holograms to be seen through and lacking substance.
Sir: I use the term "Bleib Ubrig" in the context as it was used by Berliners in early 1945. A colloquial translation would be: "Survive". In the great non-fiction novel by Cornelius Ryan-THE LAST BATTLE, he documents this expression and the translation. I usually end my posts with Bleib Ubrig because I want my fellow citizens and I to survive. Given what is currently transpiring in the world, vis-a-vis the actions of those in charge at Mordor-On-The-Potomac, a more pertinent observation, "auf Deutsch" would be: "Jetz, wir sind wieder in der scheisse." Bleib ubrig, mein freund.
Diesel? For a generator? Omg! Just when I think your avatar can't get any more silly! Obviously more info/ Declass is coming. Long time left before the Midterms, duh!
As others have noted, look at all of the hoops you have to jump through just to board an airplane yet somehow there are State 'officials' who get away with claiming that it's discriminatory to require strict photo ID's for voting...
You have to show photo ID at Olive Garden each time you want to use the Never Ending Pasta Pass that you paid for. Military installations, nuclear power plants, airport security, Obummer’s library, Olive Garden — you have to show photo ID for all life’s most important activities (except voting, of course).
The world, not just America, is free wheeling towards disaster. Crony capitalism is driving everywhere towards income inequality that is driving the apparent stupidity of Joe Average to look for an answer to a declining quality of life. So here comes Bernie’s mob promising all good answers, steal from the rich and give to the poor, the government will save you bullshit. How many times this bullshit has happened and failed? The problem at this point is socialism makes things even worse, it greases the skids towards disaster. The government control is even more insane, corrupt, incompetent than the crony capitalists because the real problem, inequality is something they cannot fix with central control, they only aggravate it.
The solutions, go the other way. Encourage entrepreneuers, encourage small business formation, finance new development, go to space, create job growth in the private sector, abolish the onset of AI destroying jobs.
The latter is important, the destruction of jobs by AI may convert the world to socialism and one world globalism. If it happens, the USA is toast.
I share your pessimism on this one. AI isn't the buggy whip.
If you get a chance, listen to Matt Walsh's recent podcast regarding the subscription economy, and how it's dragging the whole economy down. He cites some egregious examples that show the slow bleed that is pulling the young to the fairy tale of Socialism.
There is no Radical Islam, there is just Islam - and yes, it's bad.
Likewise, there is no crony Capitalism, there is just Capitalism - and yes, it's bad.
No, the small guys (like you) are eager to get their sweaty little paws on AI to make a buck. Thus they will help the Big Boys in their quest to unify everything.
It makes profit and therefore it is GOOD for the owners and stockholders. Nobody else matters under Capitalism. And profit isn't just the best thing, it's only thing.
Listened to a black lady on Patriot 125 radio who went into the natural progression of capitalism, and she was saying this is the natural progression of wealth accumulation.
It is easier to take from a couple of hundred billionaires than 300 million people.
It made some sense, but her reasoning was from a very angry black person perspective, and at times it was difficult to listen to.
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Exactly. Capital centralizes. Take from them? Go ahead and try it! That's Communist thinking. Why don't people try and understand everything first and then do what must needs be done.
One thing you are right about, Lugh, people have not figured out a good alternative to Adam Smith. As socialism never succeeds, neither does capitalism into cronyism. The problem always is, what do you do with the competitive losers in capitalism, the folks with not as much talent or luck to come out on top. The result is invariably income inequality leading to yes, socialism.
Simply put, capitalism brings ambition and inequality, socialism brings apathy and stagnation. Both are losers.
Did you notice the summation of what the DSA wants in Jim’s opening. A recipe for the destruction of America. It is simply put, the advent of a communist dictatorship.
He was a total moron who thought people should be straightening pins all day long. See the famous Charlie Chaplin skit. Why? Because that was good for the owners and shareholders to maximize profits. Now, such human machines are no longer needed and are to be gotten rid of. Adam Smith's God wills it.
Smith thought people were naturally scum - which is correct. Christianity concurs. But he thought the "invisible hand of the market" would keep them in check, which is as wrong as wrong can be. It's like believing that space in not influenced by mass - which we know now is wrong. Adm Smith a Newtonian and is far surpassed by what well informed people know today.
They remind me of the guy who stripes the roads, just going through the motions and not even bothering to move a dead animal, but instead stripes right over the dead animal and keeps going.
Nothing gets in the way of them doing their "job" of pushing stupidity and Communism.
Which of these two would your average Cult Blue member acknowledge as having transpired this past week? 1) The confused son of Meatloaf in drag running for the Senate on a DSA platform that wants to abolish the Senate. 2) Trump exposing intelligence where an FBI deputy assistant director in the Counterintelligence Division admits to "basically" running a shadow government that hid vital voter fraud data from the executive branch?
That dude running as a "woman" for Senate in the state of Maine looks like a linebacker. Don't people realize how stupid and idiotic they look? Or do they just not give a damn anymore. What I find amazing is this "dude" will probably collect a fair number of votes back there in Maine.
The quickest way to notoriety among the mentally ill and deranged left is portraying yourself as a victim. The fashionable victim of choice today, is trans. There is black fatigue, Islam fatigue, Zionist fatigue, feminist fatigue, but Tans is new, makes money for pharma and if you like costume "balls" then drag events are for you to parade your victimhood and sagging testicles.
I am glad that James acknowledged the Clown Posse staring the incredible bleeding Ashley Webb because few people would actually believe that such a character exists, let alone that he is presented as a serious candidate.
Yes, the Democrats are completely insane but when did that ever stop them? Which brings up the obvious question, what the hell are the dopey Republicans going to do about it?
I am looking at our own state of NY where we have the most important gubernatorial election in our history taking place in a few short months.
Why isn't REP candidate Bruce Blakeman painting the Bucktooth Bimbo from Buffalo, aka Kathy Hochul, with the same brush that we use to paint Platner, Webb and other Commies?
For that matter, EVERY Republican running for ANY office should be forcing the Dems to own the crazies just as Alinsky suggests in Rules for Radicals.
That goes for every local race including our County Execs, town boards, legislature, et al. Any Democrat candidate who will be on the ballot should be forced to formally renounce and denounce the Democrat/Socialist/Communist branch of their party. Make them go public by demanding that they sign a pledge not to support the DSA principles or platforms. Even in small towns like mine, local Dems do not want to be branded a Socialist, let alone a Communist.
If I didn't already know how f******d up the Repubs I would be shocked that they aren't playing this for all it's worth, but then again they didn't lose NY state by accident. It took generations of stupid for the Empire State to become another Democrat Caliphate.
"what the hell are the dopey Republicans going to do about it?"
The same thing they always do. They play the valiant vocal opposition to those evil Democrats but when they actually have the House, Senate and Executive they can't help but step on their own dicks and fritter away that opportunity. The Republicans are hypocrites. All of them. "Give us the power and we will save America" they all say in their campaigns. So the people give them the power. They then look at the American people and say "fuck you" we're going to keep doing what the Democrats have been doing. "Vote for us again in 2 years, it'll be different" they say. And we, like bleating sheep, gleefully vote for them again but the result is always the same.
Not this American. I won't participate in this lunacy anymore. I won't vote in Federal elections. I won't be counted among the insane who keep doing the same thing over and over again but expecting different results each time.
Neither one of you will quit voting. You'll find yourself at the polls voting for Mayor, school millage or Sherriff; might as well check the other boxes too. If you're NOT voting local then you're foolish indeed.
Ah yes, but your response was to Cankerpuss who was talking about national elections. Not that some local municipalities aren’t just as corrupted.
But I agree one has a better chance of being heard at their local city council or school board meeting. Though as one who has done this, “they” have some creative ways of limiting your voice even at the local levels.
I will always vote local because in local elections votes do matter. Federal? Pfft! The candidates are already selected. Republican, Democrat, Independent......doesn't matter. Surely you know this. You can't be this naive.
In an honest electoral system where votes are appropriately tabulated and taken seriously. We don't have that system and you know it. Until the system is reformed and confidence in the voting system is again re-established, I will no longer participate in the shenanigans. I'm not going to play the insane games of Republicans vs. Democrats any longer. It's pure insanity.
I have not been a Rubio fan, but... that speech he gave last week calling out the communists blew me away. If only all Republicans would speak so boldly, fiercely, and honestly!
Good piece. Traveling the upper Midwest this week. My new moniker for Iowa is IOWacky. eg. You can't smoke at the highway rest stop but you can bring your kids to the sports betting parlor where you CAN smoke.
Which brings up this from your post this AM: "...a firm majority of Americans are not insane ..."
Hmmmmm. How's that old adage go regarding [societal] change? It only takes less than 10% to make it happen? That's because the other 90% don't care enough to do anything about it. That 10% makes up crazy rules and the rest just go along to get along.
A firm majority of Americans just don't care. FIFY.
Can't legislate a utopia. The more they try to do so the more the contradictions and insanity mount.
I think most Americans are sick, depressed and suffering from anxiety of various forms. Why? Because we are not living as we were intended to live. This life of spending our days doing jobs we dislike so we can have fake money to acquire cheaply manufactured STUFF is not the source of happiness. Yet that is what we pursue. Fancy cars. Big houses. All the latest tech gadgets. Money money money. In the meantime our relationships suffer and our families become even more dysfunctional as we continue to isolate ourselves from our loved ones in our quests to earn more money and acquire more junk that we really don't need.
Looked at a primitive campground with hundreds of Oak Trees and spent the day drinking water and cooking food while reading a Kindle under the oak trees.
The only sounds were the ravens and my dog.
It was so quiet I could hear the bugs scratching around.
Amazing and beautiful place to hang out even in the 95-degree heat.
One of my favorites to do is don a back pack, a weeks worth of freeze dried foods and head to the High Uintas Wilderness Area in NE Utah. Back packing deep into the wilderness area essentially isolates me from the weekend rap music thumping booze hounds infesting the canyons. Nothing but isolated solitude. Absolutely stunning.
On one long 70+ mile excursion along the Highline Trail I came across a spring in these isolated mountains called pigeon milk springs. Named such because the minerals dissolved in the water give the water a milky appearance. The spring comes straight out of the side of a mountain and is the head waters for the Duchesne River. After hiking for 15 miles I was pretty parched and needed a drink when I found this spring. After drinking the water the term "living waters" finally made sense to me. I was energized and felt life return to me immediately.
Nothing but the wind, the gurgles of the water and the occasional moose. Absolute perfection.
Sitting a 10,000 feet and hearing the thunder from a passing storm reverberate off the mountain walls is utterly awe inspiring and terrifying at the same time. I always tell my sons that God's hungry and the thunder is his stomach growling.
Cank, You really over generalize people. I know many people who don't chase the buck and actually enjoy life in the USA. I take on debt all the time but never pay interest. Many people do the same including yourself. Actually the credit companies pay me to use their plastic. I pretty much get a 5% discount on everything. I open new accounts all the time and get $500-900 bucks for it. My FICO has been 850 for years. I thought that was impossible. Kinda like scoring a 10 in the Olympics like Comăneci. Shouldn't be possible , but there it is. The banks throw money at me and I take it. Am I a Unicorn? I doubt it. I started from scratch and have my little piece of paradise even though I live in a shit state. The Berkshires are nice and all my neighbors are red.
There are 335 million people in this country, RR. Of course there are outliers to all generalizations. Do you really think I believe my generalizations apply to ever single mother trucking American?
Your post is odd and I don't have anything else to say in response to it other than to say I am glad you have found a way to milk the banking and credit system though I don't know why you thought it pertinent to tell me about it.
Cank, you are always negative. Lighten up man. I really like Utah. I live in Western MA. We're surrounded here in the hills.It's like a forgotten red island compared to the Boston.
Read my previous post about back packing in the Uintas. Is that too negative for you? I'm pontificating on the boundless beauty of Utah's mountains and I am too negative?
I'm positive where positivity is warranted. There is much beauty in this world and we can get it back if people would simply awaken and choose to make it right again.
I'm sorry you see my comments as being "too negative." I suppose I could recommend that everyone just walk around and pick marigolds and pat themselves on the head while convincing themselves that they are special, but I don't see a point in that. I'm a realist, RR. I see and describe things as I see them. Realism, unfortunately, bears great similarity to negativity.
Never been to Massachusetts. It's certainly on my "to do" list. My wife and I have a goal to visit every State Capitol and the entirety of New England has evaded me. Now that the kiddos are grown and we are awash in cash we are making plans.
Red areas in Massachusetts? Surely you jest, and no, I am not calling you Shirley.
The Dems are truly deranged and thus an existential danger to any not kowtowing to their insanity. The fact that they are our enemies best weapon against our nation seems to be getting a pass. They, and their wannabe storm troopers, antifa and blm, are a very real threat of violence, destruction, and even death, and all part of their plans. The few accusing me of being paranoid are the spawn of those who called warnings of Hitler over-reaction. Like maintaining insurance for an event that you hope never occurs, and may never occur, better to prepare and remain vigilant. Best wishes for all non-leftists grounded in reality.
After 9-11 a million+ Iranians took the streets of Tehran (named after Abraham's father, Terah) to express empathy for America's loss. (compare to "the five dancing Israelis")
Putin's Russia sent a huge memorial monument, with the names of every victim, to America to express the same. "They" couldn't even find a place for it in NYC so they put it in New Jersey. (Jersey, a miniscule island off the coast of Brittainy famous for it's cows.)
The truth is...there is really no good reason for America to have ANY "enemies." Only "we" (who?) insist on it. How else would the Epstein Class Destroyers get rich?
Most people, presented with a choice between a sharp stick in the eye and an ice cream cone, will choose the latter. Substitute a choice between getting bit by a Doberman Pinscher or a Timber Rattlesnake and the decision is more difficult to make, but ultimately clear: get badly mauled, or die.
Yes, the Donkeys have lost their minds, and their prescription for our nation’s future is an incoherent mess, but the alternative is the doberman, not the ice cream cone, and plenty of not-insane voters still find it troubling.
Mr. Trump does not represent the Republican Party. He was elected despite it. Yes, a handful of decent, principled legislators can be found among the Republicans, but they can’t even deliver the SAVE Act for us. Who will the RNC permit to run for President next time – Marco Rubio, or worse?
It is disingenuous, to say the least, to suggest that Iran’s choice is between continuing to get mauled by our missiles and embracing an amicable partnership with the US in building a bright (preferably non-Islamic) future for its people. The Iranians are not stupid. Having observed the US Empire reduce one country after another to failed states for the purpose of plundering their resources, the Iranians have chosen the doberman. Which is to say, they will accept the damage, but will not accept having their nation destroyed.
Readers here who believe that US casualties after five months of war still number in the teens may still buy our propaganda that we are doing fine in this unnecessary conflict, but we are not. Iran’s strikes against our tiny vassal states in West Asia are steadily rendering them unusable as stages from which we can reach Iran to attack it. We are not capable of launching a ground attack that wouldn’t be a suicide mission. And we cannot control the Strait of Hormuz.
Our host's recent podcast guest, Eric Metaxas, remarked that the colonial fighters knew that if they could manage to not lose, they would win. The British Empire, overextended and outlasted, finally gave up and went home.
You are confusing a political theocracy with a people. Last I heard, many people don’t want the ancient land of Persia to be forever in the thrall of a totalitarian religion.
Many people - in fact, a large majority of the human race - relish the idea of both the US and Israel dissolving.
You may have heard that people like you want regime change in Iran, but millions of people in the streets, not only in Tehran, but across that large country, are entirely supportive of their leaders' determination not to permit the US to turn their nation into another failed state.
Surely you don't believe the old bullshit about our attacking Iran to promote "democracy?" Democracy isn't even permitted here any more.
Very entertaining post, JHK! 👍👍 Indeed the DSA will destroy the Democratic Party, likely this year. The hapless Schumer and Jeffries (among others) appear to be unaware that they are first on the menu for the DSA, to be consumed/eliminated even before the DSA imbeciles attempt to overcome the Republican Party (where the majority of Americans possessing a reasonable degree of common sense now reside).
While the DSA/Democratic Party cat 🐈⬛ fight will be amusing, an important underlying issue remains unsolved - the primary and secondary education systems in the US are incompetent and corrupt. It’s taken a generation or so for this to happen, but it’s here now and the crazies in the Dem Party are the manifestation of this educational malpractice.
Meanwhile, let’s stock up on popcorn 🍿, anticipating the DOJ finally punishing the Dem miscreants who abused the US justice system against their political rivals.
EXACTLY. Donna, you and I seem to be the only ones here who see that!
But it's also true that the commies don't even NEED to take over the Democrat party. The Bolsheviks were a tiny, crazy minority... and yet they managed to take over an empire representing 1/6 of the land mass of the earth. It only takes a few people if those people are sufficiently ruthless and so lacking in normal human morals that they are willing to commit any imaginable atrocity in order to secure absolute power. That is the lesson of 1917-1922. People need to study history!
Trump insisted that the Iran war was over months ago. He told us repeatedly that the Iranians were begging for a deal. He bellows that the Strait of Hormuz is open even as ships are burning. He told us that the Iranian nuclear program was "obliterated" but still claims that Iran is seeking nuclear weapons.
It's amazing that, after a lifetime of failed U.S. military adventures in Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia and Ukraine there are still fanboys who believe that the U.S. military can defeat anyone anywhere. We can't and we won't. Get over it.
JohnAZ anyone? He's so bad I had to block him to get away from his pro-war rhetoric. The USA has a dismal success record at spreading "democracy" and nation building. Intentionally so. They don't want to win shit. The wars exist to feed the military/industrial complex and keep them awash with cash. Can't justify a trillion dollar military budget if there aren't any wars to fight. And the troops are plenty happy to go to some shithole country like Afghanistan and throw their weight around for no tangible purpose other than to piss people off and blow shit up. And them people be called "heroes."
I call it 20th century thinking. Primarily a product of us Boomers and our immediate progeny, who caught the bug from the so-called "Greatest Generation" before us. Truth is, they were drastically overrated too; the Russians actually defeated Germany and would have defeated Japan as well had Truman not rushed in to claim credit with the bomb. And if that wasn't all bad enough, we now know that the US was playing both sides in the European war, actively recruiting Nazis for high positions long before the war even ended, not to mention staging a "Green Flag" event at Pearl Harbor to widen the war into the Pacific. The DC/London/Tel Aviv alliance has been at the heart of pretty much all of the mischief in the world for the past 100+ years, and like the devil they emulate, their greatest achievement has been convincing the public they don't exist.
Whew! I felt kind of sorry for the woman on the right for being so fat and ugly and for wearing a really awful dress. But when you pointed out that It was a man, I felt a lot better.
Mamdani, Brandon Johnson, Katie Wilson, Michelle Wu, Karen Bass, Claire Valdez, Darializa Avila Chevalier, Brad Lander, Melat Kiros, AOC, Jayapal, Pressley, and Tlaib. Notice that the overwhelming majority of these brain fried political lunatics are......WOMEN! 11 out of the 14 are women and of the males one is a muslim and the other black. Glaringly absent in this list of nutjobs are any white males.
Vote for women and "minorities" and this is the pile of stinky shit that you get.
"Somehow, somewhere, someone must've kicked you around some". Try reading some Norman Vincent Peale. I'd tell you to have a nice day but it seems you have other plans.
Never been kicked around before. Been around for 52 years and have observed much.
Since you won't tell me to have a nice day as you apparently know what my plans are, I'll return the favor to you. Have a nice day, sir. Go pick some marigolds and find someone to pat you on the head. You'll feel better.
So this begs the question. What election larger than school class president has been determined by your individual vote? A nationwide boycott on voting would likely do more to wake up the cesspool on the Potomac than any scheduled election.
This is not personal, many agree with your position though I’m reminded of who? George Carlin maybe?
“If voting mattered they’d find a way to outlaw it”.
Our entire election system is nothing more than a high school like popularity contest. And from this popularity contest we select people to lead us. Once these people win the popularity contest we treat them as if they are suddenly endowed with knowledge. Case in point, AOC. A barista in her former life. Now she is treated as an expert in all things. Transportation logistics? Ask AOC. Immigration difficulties. Ask AOC. Need to drill wells for water? Ask AOC.
The truth is, these people who win the elections know nothing more than you and I and should absolutely not be treated as if they are endowed with knowledge on everything simply because they won a popularity contest.
The entire American system is doomed to fail because of this.
Carlin is like Zappa or John Stewart, a midwife smart assistant who people conflate with a genius. But please, try and convince the Democrats to abandon any grip on the levers of power.
Try to think voting will convince the UniParty duopoly to abandon the levers of power. As the saying goes, “no matter who wins we always end up with John McCain”.
No one is going to vote their way out of this mess. The national security state holds the power and they don’t care who wins. Things will change by events other than elections.
Candidates are pre-selected and then thrown at us. We dupes then march to the polls with our stars and stripe flags draping our souls for doing our civic duty. We cast the levers of the election for the "good guy" or the one who will save us from ourselves. The "good guy" with the R wins and we have hope that the dastardly legislation and taxes foisted upon us by the Democrats will now be undone and the wars will end and the troops come home. Then.....crickets. Nothing happens. The wars continues. The debt ceiling is expanded. The taxes remain as onerous as ever. The money printing continues. And still I get to come onto comment threads like these and get told by obtuse jugheads like Mark Livingston that voting is the answer. What on God's green Earth will make these people see reality instead of fantasy?
The border is closed, trannies are out of the military, ActBlue is moribund, Affirmative Action and DEI are dead. But yes, you still have to pay taxes. Do you use roads? Do your grandchildren go to school? Do you enjoy safety from marauding gangs and can you put gas in your precious car?
An economic collapse is coming within the next month or thereabouts.
Before February 28th, about 20 million barrels per day were exported from the Persian Gulf region. The war cut off pretty much all ship traffic, amounting to about 13 million BPD. The remaining 7 million flows through pipelines instead, which has been unimpeded so far. There was a brief respite shortly after the MOU was signed in which some oil tankers passed through, but that ended when Iran forcefully rejected Trump's attempt to establish a separate American-led shipping corridor along the southern lane. Iran maintains the position that they have the sole right, whether under the MOU or just in general, to control shipping in the Gulf. Kunstler's belligerence notwithstanding, Iran has the missile and drone batteries to back up that assertion and the USA's military capabilities are woefully insufficient to dislodge them. That, as they say, is a hard f---ing fact of life, no matter Kunstler's bluster.
I'm hazy on the exact figure, but let's say the world uses 100 million BPD of petroleum for various purposes: fuel, plastics, fertilizers, other products. The 13 million shortfall has been made up basically by the USA and China tapping into their reserves. China is no longer doing so, and the USA's strategic petroleum reserve is nearly tapped out. In short order there will be no more papering over the shortfall and the price of oil will go stratospheric. We all know what follows: massive demand destruction, shuttering of productivity, millions of people jobless, asset values tanking. The Trump Depression is now visible, this side of the horizon. Hug your gold close, bugs.
With all that in the offing, Trump has resorted to a futile tit-for-tat bombing campaign which will do nothing but enrage the Iranians and further empower their hardliners to take no prisoners, in what they correctly see as an existential fight. This means more bases, more oil production facilities, more ports, and crucially, more desalination plants are going to be taken out. There are few things less negotiable for human life than fresh potable water, and if desalination plants get taken out in large numbers then the Gulf countries will simply no longer be habitable, full stop. That means millions of people will be looking for a new place to live. If Trump plans to keep bombing, he'd better be ready for that flow of refugees to show up on his doorstep as well.
If I wanted world disorder and chaos, I would cheer on every forever war the USA undertakes. The USA regularly overthrows governments, or failing that spends decades pouring lives and money down a rathole refusing to accept defeat. What more could one want in the way of chaos and disorder?
I have a personal stake in this matter. The most predatory force of disorder and chaos for many years now has been the USA itself, and as its empire contracts and its ability to project power overseas wanes, it will turn its attention to victims nearer at hand. Within its sphere of influence, it has mainly been the people of Latin America and various Caribbean islands who have enjoyed American attentions for many years, while Canada has gotten off largely scot-free. Those days are over now.
The forces of predatory disorder and chaos sense that the noontide of American power is ebbing, and needs propping up. This time they're not being so fastidious about their minor but wealthy northern neighbour. Trump being Trump, he largely gave away the game in the most blatant possible way by calling us the 51st state and our prime minister, 'governor'. This blatant slap in the face united Canadians in anger and likely cost Trump the election of his would-be ally Pierre Poilievre -- not that Trump values allies as anything more than victims he hasn't cashed in yet.
There is nothing more dangerous than a failing empire, flailing around in its death throes.
American citizens experienced proof of concept for a totalitarian state during "Covid." There is no dysfunction that I would rule out as a dark possibility here, to your south, either.
Until Iran decided it had been insulted by "insert country and reason" and finally closed down the strait, or decided they had enough ordnance and delivery systems to threaten everyone in the region.
It looks like they were very close; ignoring this reality is foolish.
So much for Net 0 mania, and the push to replace petroleum and natgas with 'Renewables' i.e, windturbines and solar panels. Oddly enough it appears Just Stop Oil' activists blocking city traffic and vandalizing artwork in museums hasn't done much -- if anything-- to curb fossil fuel use.
Currently unused pipelines are being reopened which will transport oil to the Red Sea. Pipelines for water are not out of the question either. Pakistani nukes and the Pakistani aircraft to deliver them sit in Saudi Arabia as we speak. I guess how it all works out depends on how bad the hardliners want to see their "Hidden Imam?"
This image you have of Iranian leadership as death-seeking nihilists isn't reality. Given the resources they have, they have played their hand very intelligently and have taken significant ground against the USA. Every day the Strait remains closed increases the pressure on Trump to accede to their demands.
As for the Red Sea, Iran and their Houthi allies in Yemen have the ability to close that to traffic as well. They can do this both by targeting ship traffic at the Bab el-Mandeb strait and by destroying Red Sea ports such as Yanbu. Pipelines, meanwhile, aren't even mobile targets -- one hit and boom, done. Iran doesn't need to do an amphibious landing at Annapolis to ruin Donald Trump's day. All it needs to do is within its already demonstrated capabilities.
As for nukes, I hope and pray the U.S. military is insubordinate enough to refuse to carry out any order to use them. It would be futile anyway. The Iranians' missile and drone capabilities are sufficiently well-distributed that even a massive salvo of nukes would be unable to prevent them destroying most of the oil infrastructure in the Gulf in retaliation. All Trump or Netanyahu would accomplish by launching nuclear mass murder would be to secure their place among the great criminals of history.
Every hidey-hole they have stored stuff in will eventually be found and closed.
The Middle East and the world can't abide by an offensive Iranian Shiite 12'er death cult with a missile platform. Anyone that gets oil from this region should be invested in shutting down Iran's goal of dominating the Middle East.
It won't be long before the Yemeni-Saudi conflict boils over into other Sunni nations.
You talk a big game about Iran's hidey-holes. Are you volunteering? Bombing won't do the trick, and the USA already failed once when it tried a ground landing. Iran is mainly mountainous territory, notoriously difficult for an invading army, giving them a major home field advantage. Right now the USA has ~50,000 troops in the Middle East altogether, of whom maybe a fifth are for actual combat. That's about 10% of the amount of cannon fodder that would actually be needed for a successful ground invasion.
Try to learn the lesson of George W. Bush's invasion of Iraq, which was also done with inadequate personnel. They toppled the government handily enough, but were completely unprepared for the completely foreseeable insurgency that followed. The result was years of chaos. And Iran is far less of a pushover than Saddam turned out to be.
Got a couple of million young, deluded, patriotic White Men in good health? Like the poor saps who destroyed National Socialism and Fascism in order to pave the way for the New World Order and it decultured and deracinated denizens?
Don't underestimate the stupidity of American voters, or the mostly non-existent voter fraud!
It's really going to come down to SAVE act or emergency order. There won't be nearly as much mischief this time around and many fewer Dems will be elected as a result. This is not prognostication, it's just obvious - the country hangs on the precipice and Trump won't let it fall and neither will the people. In the unlikely event I'm wrong, turn the lights off. There will be nothing left
You're wrong. The country is finished. Get your generator and some back up diesel fuel. The SAVE Act won't pass and an EO will be undone with the next President's pen swipe. At most, we got us about two years left.
You underestimate Trump. He knows the country’s at stake, as well as his legacy. A Democrat will not win in 2028 because their party will be a smoking crater long before then.
Mr. Trump only has so much influence over his legacy. Unlike the election process, where the commie candidates seeking and winning elections are successful because the process is rigged, not because they represent more than a sliver of voters. It's a no win situation, until DC is swept clean of corruption, and that isn't happening.
We do have quite a bit of domestic issues to deal with, while on the world stage I am dubious of any long term success in the Middle East. The Puppet Masters have figured out that "police actions" are just as profitable as real wars, with the added benefit of little (and often fake) damage. Project Hormuz still has economic repercussions that remain TBD, and I sense a feeling of many waiting for the next shoe to drop. GD II is on deck.
Meanwhile, the Long Emergency continues to unfold. Relentlessly. Distractions abound, and priorities for addressing the Predicament of Our Time remain on the back burner. The U.S. will be like Wiley Coyote holding up a MAGA sign all the way down to the bottom of the canyon. Poof!
I think Trump has a lot of control over his legacy. His opponents have been getting away with countless violations of federal law. The Trump DOJ can and will crack down on a lot of corruption. The feds have many powers regarding elections to federal office, and even some regarding local/state elections. E.g. a rigged local election is arguably a conspiracy to deprive civil rights.
Only time will tell. The Trump DOJ has failed to even bring charges for the guilty in the Covid fiasco and Epstein Psyop, so I doubt much comes of that direction.
Trump is positioned in the middle of too many high profile factors which will affect how he's remembered, mostly negative. His sexual assault payoffs, his profits with digital assets, being at the helm of a (potential) economic collapse, being at the helm of a (potential) outbreak of WWIII, his narcissistic tendencies similar to Obama, being at the helm and continuing to keep the country highly polarized, etc. His accomplishments have been few, and with little impact. He says many things that conservatives agree with, but when it comes to real accomplishments - the majority of Americans get only crumbs.
His battle to reel in the Lefty Leftists is verbal and via trolling in social media. He is clearly not in charge of the government, and reflects the middle management status of his role. His gains/boasts in keeping gas prices low, electricity prices low, and the border secure are offset by the Hormuz Adventure, AI gone wild, and failure to deport more than a fraction of the 10-15 million illegals shipped in under Biden.
He's on course to eclipse Hoover, Carter and even Biden for worst President ever, and will need a miracle to avoid that legacy.
Your last name must make you believe you’re an intellect🤔
I say this with all sincerity PapayaSF. I HOPE YOU ARE RIGHT. I'm tired of being black pilled. Been reading a lot of predictions about Trump since 2016 and not many, if any, of those predictions have come to past. I will happily and eagerly eat crow when and if it happens.
His first term had some good parts but was disappointing in some ways. To be fair the attacks on him were relentless, underhanded, and helped by RINOs and the Swamp. However, term #2 has been very different. From the start it’s been clear to me that he has thought things out and has a multi-year plan to MAGA and defeat his enemies. If I can see the vulnerabilities of Democrats and the left, so can Trump and his team. Then add in his large ego and desire for a legacy, and it all seems certain to me.
CP,
At long last, your optimism is beginning to piss me off. Take off those rose colored glasses and smell the instant coffee.
I prefer staring through the bottom of a rose colored shot glass.
Please elaborate. I don't have an effing clue what you are pissed off about?
Yeah, I am black pilled. Prove me otherwise?
Hope not but could be…
Get a dual-fuel genset, propane has no shelf life.
CP,
Have you no sense of irony? At long last, sir, have you no sense of irony?~Joseph Welsh (paraphrased).
You're not making any sense today, Elysianfield. I'm trying to engage you but I can't follow what you are trying to say. I'm not the sharpest tool in the shed, self admitted, so your insults won't hurt my feelings. But for the love of God, please make a point or stop wasting my time. If you have an accusation against me then throw it out there. Otherwise, move on to someone who understands what you are trying to say.
Exactly- H.L. Mencken's quote was "nobody ever lost money underestimating the intelligence of the American public."
It was "lost a buck. . . ."
Judging by the number of desperate demands for my money by all things Republican - individuals, Congressional and Senatorial Committees, and all the others, I'm assuming they are all wanting to enrich their coffers before the end! Sadly, the do-nothing attitude by the Senate is making the end via fraud almost a certainty.
4 states analyzed, 250,000 illegal or dead voters. Trump posted the data: go educate yourself.
You missed the nuance of his comment. Read it again with your cynic's spectacles.
Sadly, I am not cynical enough, I've been told...
"mostly non-existent voter fraud!"
Sounds a lot like mostly peaceful protests.
The word “mostly” does a lot of heavy lifting lately.
Kind of like: 'mostly peaceful' ?
Money quote for Monday, 07/20/2026. The American Sheeple, Normies, Cucks, Mall Zombies, and Remoras are very susceptible to the power of suggestion by the Marxist MSM/Hollywood cabal. My money is on the Dead Elephant Party receiving a very unpleasant wake-up call after the November Mid-terms. Should that happen, 2027 will be the Congressional Clown Show of all Congressional Clown Shows. Since I am not and never have been part of the "Big Club", I am preparing for the worst. Plan accordingly, my friends. Bleib ubrig.
Yep, Dweezil, how often have we seen the republicans snatch defeat from the jaws of victory? And then they blame us for not electing enough of them (how many Thunes would that take) and not giving them enough donations. Republicans are all holograms to be seen through and lacking substance.
Bleib übrig = stay behind, according to DeepL translater.
Sir: I use the term "Bleib Ubrig" in the context as it was used by Berliners in early 1945. A colloquial translation would be: "Survive". In the great non-fiction novel by Cornelius Ryan-THE LAST BATTLE, he documents this expression and the translation. I usually end my posts with Bleib Ubrig because I want my fellow citizens and I to survive. Given what is currently transpiring in the world, vis-a-vis the actions of those in charge at Mordor-On-The-Potomac, a more pertinent observation, "auf Deutsch" would be: "Jetz, wir sind wieder in der scheisse." Bleib ubrig, mein freund.
https://substack.com/@professordavidclements/note/c-296335934
Diesel? For a generator? Omg! Just when I think your avatar can't get any more silly! Obviously more info/ Declass is coming. Long time left before the Midterms, duh!
As others have noted, look at all of the hoops you have to jump through just to board an airplane yet somehow there are State 'officials' who get away with claiming that it's discriminatory to require strict photo ID's for voting...
You have to show photo ID at Olive Garden each time you want to use the Never Ending Pasta Pass that you paid for. Military installations, nuclear power plants, airport security, Obummer’s library, Olive Garden — you have to show photo ID for all life’s most important activities (except voting, of course).
Come full circle to what they are trying to tell us.
Voting is not important.
Ben,
Probably never was.
I wonder if it's because Democrats are stone cold liars???
Security is higher to gain entry to the Obama monolith than to some polling places. Why is that?
Watching the Democrats is like watching those highway safety films we saw in driver's ed 50 plus years ago. Kinda funny, always sobering.
I need to add a sour note.
The world, not just America, is free wheeling towards disaster. Crony capitalism is driving everywhere towards income inequality that is driving the apparent stupidity of Joe Average to look for an answer to a declining quality of life. So here comes Bernie’s mob promising all good answers, steal from the rich and give to the poor, the government will save you bullshit. How many times this bullshit has happened and failed? The problem at this point is socialism makes things even worse, it greases the skids towards disaster. The government control is even more insane, corrupt, incompetent than the crony capitalists because the real problem, inequality is something they cannot fix with central control, they only aggravate it.
The solutions, go the other way. Encourage entrepreneuers, encourage small business formation, finance new development, go to space, create job growth in the private sector, abolish the onset of AI destroying jobs.
The latter is important, the destruction of jobs by AI may convert the world to socialism and one world globalism. If it happens, the USA is toast.
Perhaps that is what it will take for strong men to raise up and reestablish order - feminization of America didn’t work
I share your pessimism on this one. AI isn't the buggy whip.
If you get a chance, listen to Matt Walsh's recent podcast regarding the subscription economy, and how it's dragging the whole economy down. He cites some egregious examples that show the slow bleed that is pulling the young to the fairy tale of Socialism.
There is no Radical Islam, there is just Islam - and yes, it's bad.
Likewise, there is no crony Capitalism, there is just Capitalism - and yes, it's bad.
No, the small guys (like you) are eager to get their sweaty little paws on AI to make a buck. Thus they will help the Big Boys in their quest to unify everything.
Do you even read my posts. I am dead set against the de-humanization of AI.
Did you ever consider that AI and a Democratic Socialist state are not very different? De-humanized.
It makes profit and therefore it is GOOD for the owners and stockholders. Nobody else matters under Capitalism. And profit isn't just the best thing, it's only thing.
You need to get right with your God.
Who is your God?
His God is Jehovah Profit.
Lughie has no God, he’s a godless communist, period.
Listened to a black lady on Patriot 125 radio who went into the natural progression of capitalism, and she was saying this is the natural progression of wealth accumulation.
It is easier to take from a couple of hundred billionaires than 300 million people.
It made some sense, but her reasoning was from a very angry black person perspective, and at times it was difficult to listen to.
Sonnie's Corner
Next Airs Saturday at 10 am
2 hrs
Sonnie Johnson is a Tea Party activist who speaks to conservative groups around the country. Her power as a speaker is her ability to synthesize policy ideas with street level tactics in a way that engages and inspires audiences of all races. Her show, every Saturday at 1:00 ET, will mix conservative principles with hip-hop culture.
Exactly. Capital centralizes. Take from them? Go ahead and try it! That's Communist thinking. Why don't people try and understand everything first and then do what must needs be done.
One thing you are right about, Lugh, people have not figured out a good alternative to Adam Smith. As socialism never succeeds, neither does capitalism into cronyism. The problem always is, what do you do with the competitive losers in capitalism, the folks with not as much talent or luck to come out on top. The result is invariably income inequality leading to yes, socialism.
Simply put, capitalism brings ambition and inequality, socialism brings apathy and stagnation. Both are losers.
Did you notice the summation of what the DSA wants in Jim’s opening. A recipe for the destruction of America. It is simply put, the advent of a communist dictatorship.
He was a total moron who thought people should be straightening pins all day long. See the famous Charlie Chaplin skit. Why? Because that was good for the owners and shareholders to maximize profits. Now, such human machines are no longer needed and are to be gotten rid of. Adam Smith's God wills it.
Smith thought people were naturally scum - which is correct. Christianity concurs. But he thought the "invisible hand of the market" would keep them in check, which is as wrong as wrong can be. It's like believing that space in not influenced by mass - which we know now is wrong. Adm Smith a Newtonian and is far surpassed by what well informed people know today.
Bullshit, Lugh, if there were well-informed people today, we would not be discussing the futility of humanity.
The answer is?
There is no answer. One side leads to eventual destruction as does the other. Fourth Turning, over and over.
The Party of Avarice and the Party of Envy accuse each other, and they are both right.
And they are both wrong.
IMO, D and R are obsolete. It is now Progressive Left vs. MAGA (middle right)
RINOs will go to Ult-Left to support Deep State and moderate-Dems will split between MAGA and Progressives. Interesting times. Suggested reading.
“April 1865, the month that saved America” by Jay Winik. Similar times talked about.with similar people.
One is reminded of the answer to the question of what is the difference between capitalism and communism?
A: With the first it it is the oppression of one group of people by another group of people, with the second it is the other way around.
Hmmmm? The State in communism owns everything, in capitalism it is the elite.
So I guess it depends on whether to trust the very incompetent and corrupt government or the greedy elite.
Going through the motions so to speak.
They remind me of the guy who stripes the roads, just going through the motions and not even bothering to move a dead animal, but instead stripes right over the dead animal and keeps going.
Nothing gets in the way of them doing their "job" of pushing stupidity and Communism.
The Democratic Signal 30 of America.
I remember. I couldn’t look.
Elizabeth Nickson is deserving of thousands of quotes.
Which of these two would your average Cult Blue member acknowledge as having transpired this past week? 1) The confused son of Meatloaf in drag running for the Senate on a DSA platform that wants to abolish the Senate. 2) Trump exposing intelligence where an FBI deputy assistant director in the Counterintelligence Division admits to "basically" running a shadow government that hid vital voter fraud data from the executive branch?
Neither.
That dude running as a "woman" for Senate in the state of Maine looks like a linebacker. Don't people realize how stupid and idiotic they look? Or do they just not give a damn anymore. What I find amazing is this "dude" will probably collect a fair number of votes back there in Maine.
The quickest way to notoriety among the mentally ill and deranged left is portraying yourself as a victim. The fashionable victim of choice today, is trans. There is black fatigue, Islam fatigue, Zionist fatigue, feminist fatigue, but Tans is new, makes money for pharma and if you like costume "balls" then drag events are for you to parade your victimhood and sagging testicles.
I wonder if it's because Democrats are stone cold liars???
So, I'm not the only one wonder why Meatloaf is running for Senate in Maine.
Were Meat still with us he'd be running in Texas. I believe he's from Lubbock, along with Buddy Holly and Mac Davis.
I am glad that James acknowledged the Clown Posse staring the incredible bleeding Ashley Webb because few people would actually believe that such a character exists, let alone that he is presented as a serious candidate.
Yes, the Democrats are completely insane but when did that ever stop them? Which brings up the obvious question, what the hell are the dopey Republicans going to do about it?
I am looking at our own state of NY where we have the most important gubernatorial election in our history taking place in a few short months.
Why isn't REP candidate Bruce Blakeman painting the Bucktooth Bimbo from Buffalo, aka Kathy Hochul, with the same brush that we use to paint Platner, Webb and other Commies?
For that matter, EVERY Republican running for ANY office should be forcing the Dems to own the crazies just as Alinsky suggests in Rules for Radicals.
That goes for every local race including our County Execs, town boards, legislature, et al. Any Democrat candidate who will be on the ballot should be forced to formally renounce and denounce the Democrat/Socialist/Communist branch of their party. Make them go public by demanding that they sign a pledge not to support the DSA principles or platforms. Even in small towns like mine, local Dems do not want to be branded a Socialist, let alone a Communist.
If I didn't already know how f******d up the Repubs I would be shocked that they aren't playing this for all it's worth, but then again they didn't lose NY state by accident. It took generations of stupid for the Empire State to become another Democrat Caliphate.
"what the hell are the dopey Republicans going to do about it?"
The same thing they always do. They play the valiant vocal opposition to those evil Democrats but when they actually have the House, Senate and Executive they can't help but step on their own dicks and fritter away that opportunity. The Republicans are hypocrites. All of them. "Give us the power and we will save America" they all say in their campaigns. So the people give them the power. They then look at the American people and say "fuck you" we're going to keep doing what the Democrats have been doing. "Vote for us again in 2 years, it'll be different" they say. And we, like bleating sheep, gleefully vote for them again but the result is always the same.
Not this American. I won't participate in this lunacy anymore. I won't vote in Federal elections. I won't be counted among the insane who keep doing the same thing over and over again but expecting different results each time.
You can go home, but you can't take the ball and the game goes on.
Your vote is your only *actual* voice. It would be foolish to give that up.
When you see the game is rigged it is foolish to keep playing in it. And a perfectly acceptable response.
Neither one of you will quit voting. You'll find yourself at the polls voting for Mayor, school millage or Sherriff; might as well check the other boxes too. If you're NOT voting local then you're foolish indeed.
Ah yes, but your response was to Cankerpuss who was talking about national elections. Not that some local municipalities aren’t just as corrupted.
But I agree one has a better chance of being heard at their local city council or school board meeting. Though as one who has done this, “they” have some creative ways of limiting your voice even at the local levels.
I will always vote local because in local elections votes do matter. Federal? Pfft! The candidates are already selected. Republican, Democrat, Independent......doesn't matter. Surely you know this. You can't be this naive.
Yes!
In an honest electoral system where votes are appropriately tabulated and taken seriously. We don't have that system and you know it. Until the system is reformed and confidence in the voting system is again re-established, I will no longer participate in the shenanigans. I'm not going to play the insane games of Republicans vs. Democrats any longer. It's pure insanity.
Nailed it like a hammer!
I have not been a Rubio fan, but... that speech he gave last week calling out the communists blew me away. If only all Republicans would speak so boldly, fiercely, and honestly!
I think Hochul looks like Bugs Bunny in drag.
Good piece. Traveling the upper Midwest this week. My new moniker for Iowa is IOWacky. eg. You can't smoke at the highway rest stop but you can bring your kids to the sports betting parlor where you CAN smoke.
Which brings up this from your post this AM: "...a firm majority of Americans are not insane ..."
Hmmmmm. How's that old adage go regarding [societal] change? It only takes less than 10% to make it happen? That's because the other 90% don't care enough to do anything about it. That 10% makes up crazy rules and the rest just go along to get along.
A firm majority of Americans just don't care. FIFY.
Can't legislate a utopia. The more they try to do so the more the contradictions and insanity mount.
I think most Americans are sick, depressed and suffering from anxiety of various forms. Why? Because we are not living as we were intended to live. This life of spending our days doing jobs we dislike so we can have fake money to acquire cheaply manufactured STUFF is not the source of happiness. Yet that is what we pursue. Fancy cars. Big houses. All the latest tech gadgets. Money money money. In the meantime our relationships suffer and our families become even more dysfunctional as we continue to isolate ourselves from our loved ones in our quests to earn more money and acquire more junk that we really don't need.
Drove out to Warner Springs yesterday.
Looked at a primitive campground with hundreds of Oak Trees and spent the day drinking water and cooking food while reading a Kindle under the oak trees.
The only sounds were the ravens and my dog.
It was so quiet I could hear the bugs scratching around.
Amazing and beautiful place to hang out even in the 95-degree heat.
https://www.fs.usda.gov/r05/cleveland/recreation/ataxam-mamtaash-campground
One of my favorites to do is don a back pack, a weeks worth of freeze dried foods and head to the High Uintas Wilderness Area in NE Utah. Back packing deep into the wilderness area essentially isolates me from the weekend rap music thumping booze hounds infesting the canyons. Nothing but isolated solitude. Absolutely stunning.
On one long 70+ mile excursion along the Highline Trail I came across a spring in these isolated mountains called pigeon milk springs. Named such because the minerals dissolved in the water give the water a milky appearance. The spring comes straight out of the side of a mountain and is the head waters for the Duchesne River. After hiking for 15 miles I was pretty parched and needed a drink when I found this spring. After drinking the water the term "living waters" finally made sense to me. I was energized and felt life return to me immediately.
Nothing but the wind, the gurgles of the water and the occasional moose. Absolute perfection.
Sitting a 10,000 feet and hearing the thunder from a passing storm reverberate off the mountain walls is utterly awe inspiring and terrifying at the same time. I always tell my sons that God's hungry and the thunder is his stomach growling.
Cank, You really over generalize people. I know many people who don't chase the buck and actually enjoy life in the USA. I take on debt all the time but never pay interest. Many people do the same including yourself. Actually the credit companies pay me to use their plastic. I pretty much get a 5% discount on everything. I open new accounts all the time and get $500-900 bucks for it. My FICO has been 850 for years. I thought that was impossible. Kinda like scoring a 10 in the Olympics like Comăneci. Shouldn't be possible , but there it is. The banks throw money at me and I take it. Am I a Unicorn? I doubt it. I started from scratch and have my little piece of paradise even though I live in a shit state. The Berkshires are nice and all my neighbors are red.
There are 335 million people in this country, RR. Of course there are outliers to all generalizations. Do you really think I believe my generalizations apply to ever single mother trucking American?
Your post is odd and I don't have anything else to say in response to it other than to say I am glad you have found a way to milk the banking and credit system though I don't know why you thought it pertinent to tell me about it.
thanks,
CP
Cank, you are always negative. Lighten up man. I really like Utah. I live in Western MA. We're surrounded here in the hills.It's like a forgotten red island compared to the Boston.
Read my previous post about back packing in the Uintas. Is that too negative for you? I'm pontificating on the boundless beauty of Utah's mountains and I am too negative?
I'm positive where positivity is warranted. There is much beauty in this world and we can get it back if people would simply awaken and choose to make it right again.
I'm sorry you see my comments as being "too negative." I suppose I could recommend that everyone just walk around and pick marigolds and pat themselves on the head while convincing themselves that they are special, but I don't see a point in that. I'm a realist, RR. I see and describe things as I see them. Realism, unfortunately, bears great similarity to negativity.
Never been to Massachusetts. It's certainly on my "to do" list. My wife and I have a goal to visit every State Capitol and the entirety of New England has evaded me. Now that the kiddos are grown and we are awash in cash we are making plans.
Red areas in Massachusetts? Surely you jest, and no, I am not calling you Shirley.
You need to get “laid” in the Berkshires! Or somewhere soon!🤔🤔🤔
The 10% that make up the crazy rules require 1% of their ilk to be paid enforcers.
Lune Moon just went out the door.
Huh. Think he'll be back?
He has been kicked several times in the last two weeks.
I suggested Lunatic Moonatic for his next name.
Wonder if he will use it?
The Dems are truly deranged and thus an existential danger to any not kowtowing to their insanity. The fact that they are our enemies best weapon against our nation seems to be getting a pass. They, and their wannabe storm troopers, antifa and blm, are a very real threat of violence, destruction, and even death, and all part of their plans. The few accusing me of being paranoid are the spawn of those who called warnings of Hitler over-reaction. Like maintaining insurance for an event that you hope never occurs, and may never occur, better to prepare and remain vigilant. Best wishes for all non-leftists grounded in reality.
Re. the photo "Iran...message received"
Yeah, yeah, let's turn Iran into Gaza.
That will help.
After 9-11 a million+ Iranians took the streets of Tehran (named after Abraham's father, Terah) to express empathy for America's loss. (compare to "the five dancing Israelis")
Putin's Russia sent a huge memorial monument, with the names of every victim, to America to express the same. "They" couldn't even find a place for it in NYC so they put it in New Jersey. (Jersey, a miniscule island off the coast of Brittainy famous for it's cows.)
The truth is...there is really no good reason for America to have ANY "enemies." Only "we" (who?) insist on it. How else would the Epstein Class Destroyers get rich?
Great comment, the US doesn't have any real enemies, only the ones the elites manufacture to keep their grift going.
And why were they dancing?
Answer they knew they no longer had to fight Iran alone.
Most people, presented with a choice between a sharp stick in the eye and an ice cream cone, will choose the latter. Substitute a choice between getting bit by a Doberman Pinscher or a Timber Rattlesnake and the decision is more difficult to make, but ultimately clear: get badly mauled, or die.
Yes, the Donkeys have lost their minds, and their prescription for our nation’s future is an incoherent mess, but the alternative is the doberman, not the ice cream cone, and plenty of not-insane voters still find it troubling.
Mr. Trump does not represent the Republican Party. He was elected despite it. Yes, a handful of decent, principled legislators can be found among the Republicans, but they can’t even deliver the SAVE Act for us. Who will the RNC permit to run for President next time – Marco Rubio, or worse?
It is disingenuous, to say the least, to suggest that Iran’s choice is between continuing to get mauled by our missiles and embracing an amicable partnership with the US in building a bright (preferably non-Islamic) future for its people. The Iranians are not stupid. Having observed the US Empire reduce one country after another to failed states for the purpose of plundering their resources, the Iranians have chosen the doberman. Which is to say, they will accept the damage, but will not accept having their nation destroyed.
Readers here who believe that US casualties after five months of war still number in the teens may still buy our propaganda that we are doing fine in this unnecessary conflict, but we are not. Iran’s strikes against our tiny vassal states in West Asia are steadily rendering them unusable as stages from which we can reach Iran to attack it. We are not capable of launching a ground attack that wouldn’t be a suicide mission. And we cannot control the Strait of Hormuz.
Our host's recent podcast guest, Eric Metaxas, remarked that the colonial fighters knew that if they could manage to not lose, they would win. The British Empire, overextended and outlasted, finally gave up and went home.
The Iranians understand that, too.
You are confusing a political theocracy with a people. Last I heard, many people don’t want the ancient land of Persia to be forever in the thrall of a totalitarian religion.
Many people - in fact, a large majority of the human race - relish the idea of both the US and Israel dissolving.
You may have heard that people like you want regime change in Iran, but millions of people in the streets, not only in Tehran, but across that large country, are entirely supportive of their leaders' determination not to permit the US to turn their nation into another failed state.
Surely you don't believe the old bullshit about our attacking Iran to promote "democracy?" Democracy isn't even permitted here any more.
Very entertaining post, JHK! 👍👍 Indeed the DSA will destroy the Democratic Party, likely this year. The hapless Schumer and Jeffries (among others) appear to be unaware that they are first on the menu for the DSA, to be consumed/eliminated even before the DSA imbeciles attempt to overcome the Republican Party (where the majority of Americans possessing a reasonable degree of common sense now reside).
While the DSA/Democratic Party cat 🐈⬛ fight will be amusing, an important underlying issue remains unsolved - the primary and secondary education systems in the US are incompetent and corrupt. It’s taken a generation or so for this to happen, but it’s here now and the crazies in the Dem Party are the manifestation of this educational malpractice.
Meanwhile, let’s stock up on popcorn 🍿, anticipating the DOJ finally punishing the Dem miscreants who abused the US justice system against their political rivals.
My concern is that that DSA is not destroying the democrat party but metamorphosing it into their own party with the power of the unaware D voters
EXACTLY. Donna, you and I seem to be the only ones here who see that!
But it's also true that the commies don't even NEED to take over the Democrat party. The Bolsheviks were a tiny, crazy minority... and yet they managed to take over an empire representing 1/6 of the land mass of the earth. It only takes a few people if those people are sufficiently ruthless and so lacking in normal human morals that they are willing to commit any imaginable atrocity in order to secure absolute power. That is the lesson of 1917-1922. People need to study history!
I’m not holding my breath on accountable action by the DOJ.
Amen!
THIS
Trump insisted that the Iran war was over months ago. He told us repeatedly that the Iranians were begging for a deal. He bellows that the Strait of Hormuz is open even as ships are burning. He told us that the Iranian nuclear program was "obliterated" but still claims that Iran is seeking nuclear weapons.
It's amazing that, after a lifetime of failed U.S. military adventures in Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia and Ukraine there are still fanboys who believe that the U.S. military can defeat anyone anywhere. We can't and we won't. Get over it.
JohnAZ anyone? He's so bad I had to block him to get away from his pro-war rhetoric. The USA has a dismal success record at spreading "democracy" and nation building. Intentionally so. They don't want to win shit. The wars exist to feed the military/industrial complex and keep them awash with cash. Can't justify a trillion dollar military budget if there aren't any wars to fight. And the troops are plenty happy to go to some shithole country like Afghanistan and throw their weight around for no tangible purpose other than to piss people off and blow shit up. And them people be called "heroes."
I call it 20th century thinking. Primarily a product of us Boomers and our immediate progeny, who caught the bug from the so-called "Greatest Generation" before us. Truth is, they were drastically overrated too; the Russians actually defeated Germany and would have defeated Japan as well had Truman not rushed in to claim credit with the bomb. And if that wasn't all bad enough, we now know that the US was playing both sides in the European war, actively recruiting Nazis for high positions long before the war even ended, not to mention staging a "Green Flag" event at Pearl Harbor to widen the war into the Pacific. The DC/London/Tel Aviv alliance has been at the heart of pretty much all of the mischief in the world for the past 100+ years, and like the devil they emulate, their greatest achievement has been convincing the public they don't exist.
Attn Ben Strange Fellow
Whew! I felt kind of sorry for the woman on the right for being so fat and ugly and for wearing a really awful dress. But when you pointed out that It was a man, I felt a lot better.
That dress did nothing for him!
Mamdani, Brandon Johnson, Katie Wilson, Michelle Wu, Karen Bass, Claire Valdez, Darializa Avila Chevalier, Brad Lander, Melat Kiros, AOC, Jayapal, Pressley, and Tlaib. Notice that the overwhelming majority of these brain fried political lunatics are......WOMEN! 11 out of the 14 are women and of the males one is a muslim and the other black. Glaringly absent in this list of nutjobs are any white males.
Vote for women and "minorities" and this is the pile of stinky shit that you get.
Don't vote and this is what happens.
Look at it this way. Vote, and THIS is what HAS happened.
"Somehow, somewhere, someone must've kicked you around some". Try reading some Norman Vincent Peale. I'd tell you to have a nice day but it seems you have other plans.
Never been kicked around before. Been around for 52 years and have observed much.
Since you won't tell me to have a nice day as you apparently know what my plans are, I'll return the favor to you. Have a nice day, sir. Go pick some marigolds and find someone to pat you on the head. You'll feel better.
So this begs the question. What election larger than school class president has been determined by your individual vote? A nationwide boycott on voting would likely do more to wake up the cesspool on the Potomac than any scheduled election.
This is not personal, many agree with your position though I’m reminded of who? George Carlin maybe?
“If voting mattered they’d find a way to outlaw it”.
Our entire election system is nothing more than a high school like popularity contest. And from this popularity contest we select people to lead us. Once these people win the popularity contest we treat them as if they are suddenly endowed with knowledge. Case in point, AOC. A barista in her former life. Now she is treated as an expert in all things. Transportation logistics? Ask AOC. Immigration difficulties. Ask AOC. Need to drill wells for water? Ask AOC.
The truth is, these people who win the elections know nothing more than you and I and should absolutely not be treated as if they are endowed with knowledge on everything simply because they won a popularity contest.
The entire American system is doomed to fail because of this.
Carlin is like Zappa or John Stewart, a midwife smart assistant who people conflate with a genius. But please, try and convince the Democrats to abandon any grip on the levers of power.
Try to think voting will convince the UniParty duopoly to abandon the levers of power. As the saying goes, “no matter who wins we always end up with John McCain”.
No one is going to vote their way out of this mess. The national security state holds the power and they don’t care who wins. Things will change by events other than elections.
Candidates are pre-selected and then thrown at us. We dupes then march to the polls with our stars and stripe flags draping our souls for doing our civic duty. We cast the levers of the election for the "good guy" or the one who will save us from ourselves. The "good guy" with the R wins and we have hope that the dastardly legislation and taxes foisted upon us by the Democrats will now be undone and the wars will end and the troops come home. Then.....crickets. Nothing happens. The wars continues. The debt ceiling is expanded. The taxes remain as onerous as ever. The money printing continues. And still I get to come onto comment threads like these and get told by obtuse jugheads like Mark Livingston that voting is the answer. What on God's green Earth will make these people see reality instead of fantasy?
The border is closed, trannies are out of the military, ActBlue is moribund, Affirmative Action and DEI are dead. But yes, you still have to pay taxes. Do you use roads? Do your grandchildren go to school? Do you enjoy safety from marauding gangs and can you put gas in your precious car?
I certainly agree with you about that!!
Yeah, i don't know. The deep distrust of the system is likely to produce unexpected results.
When does the system collapse? Maybe soon. Add a great financial crisis and it may be fait a compli.
An economic collapse is coming within the next month or thereabouts.
Before February 28th, about 20 million barrels per day were exported from the Persian Gulf region. The war cut off pretty much all ship traffic, amounting to about 13 million BPD. The remaining 7 million flows through pipelines instead, which has been unimpeded so far. There was a brief respite shortly after the MOU was signed in which some oil tankers passed through, but that ended when Iran forcefully rejected Trump's attempt to establish a separate American-led shipping corridor along the southern lane. Iran maintains the position that they have the sole right, whether under the MOU or just in general, to control shipping in the Gulf. Kunstler's belligerence notwithstanding, Iran has the missile and drone batteries to back up that assertion and the USA's military capabilities are woefully insufficient to dislodge them. That, as they say, is a hard f---ing fact of life, no matter Kunstler's bluster.
I'm hazy on the exact figure, but let's say the world uses 100 million BPD of petroleum for various purposes: fuel, plastics, fertilizers, other products. The 13 million shortfall has been made up basically by the USA and China tapping into their reserves. China is no longer doing so, and the USA's strategic petroleum reserve is nearly tapped out. In short order there will be no more papering over the shortfall and the price of oil will go stratospheric. We all know what follows: massive demand destruction, shuttering of productivity, millions of people jobless, asset values tanking. The Trump Depression is now visible, this side of the horizon. Hug your gold close, bugs.
With all that in the offing, Trump has resorted to a futile tit-for-tat bombing campaign which will do nothing but enrage the Iranians and further empower their hardliners to take no prisoners, in what they correctly see as an existential fight. This means more bases, more oil production facilities, more ports, and crucially, more desalination plants are going to be taken out. There are few things less negotiable for human life than fresh potable water, and if desalination plants get taken out in large numbers then the Gulf countries will simply no longer be habitable, full stop. That means millions of people will be looking for a new place to live. If Trump plans to keep bombing, he'd better be ready for that flow of refugees to show up on his doorstep as well.
You give the Iranians far too much credit. You show what you would like them to do? Why? Do you want world disorder and chaos?
If I wanted world disorder and chaos, I would cheer on every forever war the USA undertakes. The USA regularly overthrows governments, or failing that spends decades pouring lives and money down a rathole refusing to accept defeat. What more could one want in the way of chaos and disorder?
It's remarkable how many brainwashed USAers still believe that we invade and destroy other countries for good in this world.
They also believe that we will always be able to do so in the future.
I have a personal stake in this matter. The most predatory force of disorder and chaos for many years now has been the USA itself, and as its empire contracts and its ability to project power overseas wanes, it will turn its attention to victims nearer at hand. Within its sphere of influence, it has mainly been the people of Latin America and various Caribbean islands who have enjoyed American attentions for many years, while Canada has gotten off largely scot-free. Those days are over now.
The forces of predatory disorder and chaos sense that the noontide of American power is ebbing, and needs propping up. This time they're not being so fastidious about their minor but wealthy northern neighbour. Trump being Trump, he largely gave away the game in the most blatant possible way by calling us the 51st state and our prime minister, 'governor'. This blatant slap in the face united Canadians in anger and likely cost Trump the election of his would-be ally Pierre Poilievre -- not that Trump values allies as anything more than victims he hasn't cashed in yet.
There is nothing more dangerous than a failing empire, flailing around in its death throes.
American citizens experienced proof of concept for a totalitarian state during "Covid." There is no dysfunction that I would rule out as a dark possibility here, to your south, either.
Just like the Communists! Now it makes sense why the Capitalists funded them.
So Iran, playing with the output of oil from the Gulf, creates order in the world? Nice try.
The output of oil from the gulf was just fine until who started bombing them?
Until Iran decided it had been insulted by "insert country and reason" and finally closed down the strait, or decided they had enough ordnance and delivery systems to threaten everyone in the region.
It looks like they were very close; ignoring this reality is foolish.
Lunatic moonatic.
Feel free to use that one next.
The World is up to about 103 million bpd,
So much for Net 0 mania, and the push to replace petroleum and natgas with 'Renewables' i.e, windturbines and solar panels. Oddly enough it appears Just Stop Oil' activists blocking city traffic and vandalizing artwork in museums hasn't done much -- if anything-- to curb fossil fuel use.
Currently unused pipelines are being reopened which will transport oil to the Red Sea. Pipelines for water are not out of the question either. Pakistani nukes and the Pakistani aircraft to deliver them sit in Saudi Arabia as we speak. I guess how it all works out depends on how bad the hardliners want to see their "Hidden Imam?"
This image you have of Iranian leadership as death-seeking nihilists isn't reality. Given the resources they have, they have played their hand very intelligently and have taken significant ground against the USA. Every day the Strait remains closed increases the pressure on Trump to accede to their demands.
As for the Red Sea, Iran and their Houthi allies in Yemen have the ability to close that to traffic as well. They can do this both by targeting ship traffic at the Bab el-Mandeb strait and by destroying Red Sea ports such as Yanbu. Pipelines, meanwhile, aren't even mobile targets -- one hit and boom, done. Iran doesn't need to do an amphibious landing at Annapolis to ruin Donald Trump's day. All it needs to do is within its already demonstrated capabilities.
As for nukes, I hope and pray the U.S. military is insubordinate enough to refuse to carry out any order to use them. It would be futile anyway. The Iranians' missile and drone capabilities are sufficiently well-distributed that even a massive salvo of nukes would be unable to prevent them destroying most of the oil infrastructure in the Gulf in retaliation. All Trump or Netanyahu would accomplish by launching nuclear mass murder would be to secure their place among the great criminals of history.
Every hidey-hole they have stored stuff in will eventually be found and closed.
The Middle East and the world can't abide by an offensive Iranian Shiite 12'er death cult with a missile platform. Anyone that gets oil from this region should be invested in shutting down Iran's goal of dominating the Middle East.
It won't be long before the Yemeni-Saudi conflict boils over into other Sunni nations.
One way or another, this needs to be put to bed.
You talk a big game about Iran's hidey-holes. Are you volunteering? Bombing won't do the trick, and the USA already failed once when it tried a ground landing. Iran is mainly mountainous territory, notoriously difficult for an invading army, giving them a major home field advantage. Right now the USA has ~50,000 troops in the Middle East altogether, of whom maybe a fifth are for actual combat. That's about 10% of the amount of cannon fodder that would actually be needed for a successful ground invasion.
Try to learn the lesson of George W. Bush's invasion of Iraq, which was also done with inadequate personnel. They toppled the government handily enough, but were completely unprepared for the completely foreseeable insurgency that followed. The result was years of chaos. And Iran is far less of a pushover than Saddam turned out to be.
"...Good job, Brownie...."
Been there and been shot at have you?
Got a couple of million young, deluded, patriotic White Men in good health? Like the poor saps who destroyed National Socialism and Fascism in order to pave the way for the New World Order and it decultured and deracinated denizens?
And then Israel get nuked. It's been promised that.