If we're able to vote our way out of this mess, and what beautiful literary sense you made of said messes, it's going to be a red tsunami instead of wave. Some people hold out hope for a peaceful succession. No one is under the impression America is very 'united' anymore; we're just trying to remain functional on a state by state basis and looking for impetus and opprotunity. Also just wanted to tell you how much you've encouraged me to drop my old schizophrenia-inducing pal pot. Tired of leaking my brain out like a colander and trying to numb the pain. Truth hurts but denial kills. You're one of several writers I look up to and want to be more like. Forgiving myself for the time lost, for pathetic band-aid solutions and crutches leaned far too heavily upon, and looking ahead without the cloud. Grateful for you, John. You're a whole bang shot.
I can relate to the weed. Used it myself off and on for many years. Gave it up several years back and didn't miss it in the slightest. You get to a point where you realize it isn't helping you, at all.
I appreciate your sentiment, but thinking we can "vote our way" out of this mess is certainly comical at best. And I mean this humbly and with all the respect in the world for you. (And given the author, all the respect on Barsoom thrown in for good measure too.) Voting is a placation for the masses, yet admittedly the final straw holding together this once great nation. Even though 2020 was illegitimate and half the country at least knows this, if it was to be proven and then admitted by those playing pretend in the Whitehouse, the whole uniparty system would have collapsed the very next day. And maybe this is their way out. The system can never be fixed from within. It is a corporation, as also know: USA Inc. And a bankrupt one at that, and certainly not the first version of what they present as 'our govt' to have been bankrupted either.
This all said... The way it does get fixed is to reconstruct our American civilian government, the unincorporated people's lawful govt that has not been operating for nearly 160 years. All historically legit... It's just that Americans have been dumbed down, lazy, and those few in power that were in a position to spill the beans, disposed of... On Ugetube, you can look up: o'believers and 5 types of citizens in America and start pecking away at our true history, look into the TASA site - The American States Assembly - and join us in actually fixing this mess. Yes - there are lots of movements that exist that seem similar... But this is the only one that followed the history and laws perfectly to reconstruct our lawful govt. And we truly do not need a huge population to get their butts off the couch and join, but if even 1/100th of you who voted for Trump - who know something greater is wrong with the system and may be hanging on by a thread at the mass stupidity happening right before our very eyes - jump in and help, join, become a State National then a State Citizen to fill the necessary seats needed to hold a jury on every county across each state, we end this tyranny, this fraud, this corruption, and we rise once again to the great country we always thought America was, the reflection in each of our red, white, and blue bleeding hearts becoming the reality of what America has always been known to each of us. A democracy is evil and leads to Communism (sounds familiar, eh?) But a constitutional republic with limited govt and run by we the people... This is what we need to get back to.
Please... Don't listen to some man rambling on in he comments section of a well authored Substack page... Dig into it. This is the duty of each of you... Stop being lazy, stop waiting for some white knight to ride in and save the day... You are both Ben Holiday and the Paladin, you are your own white knight, grab the reigns, grab your friends, and let's peacefully reconstruct the America we know to be true in our hearts. For Helium! May the Creator bless you all and send each of you love and light.
-A living man sometimes called John, feet firmly planted on the land and soil, a Mainer, a Father of two Sons, and currently an American State National. For freedom, for God, for Country, and for our sons' and daughters' futures.
Elections are a tool, not a solution. We can't succeed without the tools, but if they're not used correctly, we can still lose. Success requires competent candidates and competent platforms. That requires participation by competent citizens, which seem to be in short supply. Just filling out a card, picking one from a list, doesn't guarantee a good list or a good outcome. If you want to win, you have to play to win.
Superb analysis. But keep in mind 2020 hinged on a few thousand votes in a few key precincts. They always cheat, but if its not close it doesn't matter. It only worked because the tally was razor thin going in. The fundamental problem in America isn't that the oligarchs try to gain power, and sometimes succeed, but that roughly half the country falls for it, every time. One wonders if they're just stupid, or are as corrupt themselves as the oligarchs. A happier future depends on teaching them. Otherwise, the future depends on the rest of us learning to fight them.
There's always a certain amount of fraud but the obviousness and audacity on display in 2020 indicates that the ballot stuffing was above and beyond. It's certainly true that the election turned on results in a few key counties; however, the 81 million votes Biden supposedly won represent an absurd sum. They wanted to give the illusion not just of a narrow win, but a landslide that conferred unprecedented popular legitimacy.
When in fact Trump won by a landslide in 2020. America has a history of stolen elections, but in the past it was always close elections that were distorted. I think this was the first time that a landslide was overruled. If that can happen, it means votes don't count at all.
Correct. Also meaning that the only source of legitimacy the ruling class can rely on is perceived competence ... which is directly contradicted by their chosen mascot.
2000 Mules is a good analysis of the known evidence. It wasn't a landslide. It was close without the cheating, and close with it. They just happened to cheat in the right places in the right amounts, this time. Don't worry about the national total, our elections don't work that way. It shouldn't have been close. One candidate with 3 years of success, one with 50 years of grift. Trump deserved to lose for the failure to stop the pandemic panic, but deserved to win for all the other successes. The 4th year, including the campaign, was played badly. Maybe we won't make that mistake again.
2000 Mules demonstrated strong evidence for one form of cheating which, using very conservative assumptions, was enough to tip the vote. However, it is almost certainly the case that numerous other methods were also used. Unless you believe a candidate with no organic support somehow got more votes than Barack Obama?
It was an emotion driven election. Lots of people out of work, nothing else to do, and wanting to punish the incumbent. Big turnout wasn't surprising. The spread is more important than the absolute numbers. Hillary also had more total in 2016 66-63, and still lost electoral college. Joe had 81-74 and almost lost, but for squeakers in a few key precincts. Big numbers in the wrong places don't matter..
That means Trump beat his 2016 tally 17%. So if you assume the increases were even, Trump boosted 11 for 17%, Joe boosted 15, for 23% over Hiliary. Reasonable to assume 11 was bored and emotional voters on both sides, so reasonable to assume Joe's difference, 15 - 11 or 4 million votes was fraud, 2.6% of the total. Which is considered about the limit of election fraud. And they were caught, but protected by corrupt deep state and propaganda media. They wouldn't have gotten away with it if either institution, or the congress, had any integrity. And now we know what to look for, they won't get away with that much in the future.
Great prose. The core sacrament of this evil but dull-witted priesthood are acts of centralization. Their Achilles heel is that they depend on being fed fake money and require obeisance to their corporate retailers. Stop saying yes and the additional oxygen will only burn that fuse sooner. The People ignored them and their depredations, but no any longer. They with their engineered bioweaps and schemes have declared war on the host. These desperate vipers have too few fangs to bite everyone, though their jabs will continue to harm long into the future. They have no brakes. No reverse gear. So careen off the butte they will go like some rainbow-flagged Thelma and Louise.
Well emotions and less logic sway most people. Partisanship is emotional. Trump hatred triumphed in a resounding fashion. Biden hate seems non-existent. So the mighty instruments of propaganda and persuasion protect the current Administration from abject failure and like a Potemkin village present the decomposing governance as a model of rectitude and probity. In my opinion the Oligarchs are winning. They may not be said to have won until the election of 2022 ratifies the one of 2020. And to protect their power they will cheerfully pit American against American. Americans rarely think for themselves, and prefer pre-digested opinions, and one opinion appears to be widely accepted - their vote counts and the President is a father figure. Ironic indeed that father is senile and a dotard but this somehow creates sympathy. I live in San Francisco where the Democrats are seen as Saviors no matter how bumbling. At best I think Americans do view politics like a football game and root for their team to win.
Even if the team is gravely flawed it is "Our Team."
Perhaps. Compared to Trump or say Nixon this does not seem to be a significant factor. Even compared to his VP it does not seem significant. The media reality glosses over his faults and does a reasonably good job of presenting him as an older politician. The many scandals attached to him do not diminish voting for his party, nor dilute his party's power in the eyes of voters. Polls show yes people overall are unhappy but there appears tremendous reluctance to BLAME or scapegoat him. I think further that his job is to hasten collapse of the USA and both party's are complicit in adding fuel to the fire.
An epidemic of monkeypox/shingles. Food shortages. A fair number of 'turbas' and perhaps a pogrom or two.
For my money, perhaps the most accurate cinematic depiction of an imminent future (as it then was) is MASKED AND ANONYMOUS. It is a film starring Bob Dylan set in a future America which has become fully transformed into a multicultural Third World society, albeit with some very US touches such as a collective obsession with entertainment. It is strictly for Dylan fans. Everyone else might find it a bit over the top. It is droll, dry and gets a lot of stuff right. Spares no punches for boomers. You get a distinct sense Bob is no hippy. It was released in 2003 and gets California about right.
If I were a younger man, I might indulge in "hope," which comes in distinctly different forms. False hope, a Pollyannish hope, is extremely dangerous in times like these, sapping the will to face the devils, fight, and at least die honorably. A truer, deeper, sustaining, hope is that God exists and the universe a good place, despite the evidence.
But hope in what? In America? In Western Civ, which does have its glories? I no longer have "hope" for America. The experiment has failed and I spit contempt on the remaining purveyors of the "American Dream" and MAGA. As for Western Civ, my tenuous hope is for preservation through a new dark ages. At the other end of a long, painful dark age, perhaps Western Civ will rebalance and rejoin the world civs that remain.
The issue becomes are we better off with the group that is currently controlling a demented old man running the country or having an ignorant sociopath with whatever admiring sycophants he surrounds himself with running the country? Pick one, but there is no clear answer.
Who are "they"; how "iron" is their control? Seems likely to me that Buttigieg was really their preference summer 2020 for nomination; but they couldn't pull that off - why? Harris might also have been preferred; but she dropped out early with a sub 1% approval rating. Why were they unable to promote another Obama-like figure? Were any of "them" remotely satisfied with a 77 yr old obviously suffering from cognitive decline - was a big flat slap in the face joke their only fall back? What was the quotient of popular will vs deep state factional conflict that produced that outcome?
I only have questions. Two more: will the 99 year old former secretary of state pull them back from the brink in Ukraine? Has it come to that?
“serial violation of the sacred pieties of oligarchical culture” - brilliant! Great write up. Regarding your brief mention of the riots in 2020, I’m waiting for a similar assessment of the use of antifa as a tool. There are plenty of historical analogies where leftist used street thugs to enforce their will, even though no direct connection is made to their rule. I believe that was the case here. Otherwise, why did they stop?
Antifa is pretty obviously funded and managed by private foundations bankrolled by oligarchical interests. I've come across analyses of their command and control structure that did a fairly good job of tracing the lines of communication and logistics back to the same people who run the media etc.
OT: "I feel for you bro. I'm Canadian too - living abroad, and haven't seen my family for almost two and a half years now." - Really!? - I knew a John Carter when I was a grad student at the U of Alberta... nah? - couldn't be - you are likely quite a bit younger, common name, etc. And it works the other way as well, right? - US citizens cannot enter Canada un-vaxed. Two decades before the pandemic I was up there 2,3 times a year (Eastern Canada) - got close to 2K miles of hiking in - Rossport Ont to Fogo Is NFLD - I miss it! ... and I bet whoever is left in all those small towns are missing the tourists dollars. We should have listened closer - the Rulers long said they planned to shut down mass tourism. Places like Cambodia, Egypt, etc - must be closing in on absolute immisseration (I hate the Rulers!).
Outstanding post, John. You capture the absurdity and uselessness of the regime’s public figures perfectly. We certainly appear to be heading for an inflection point of some kind.
But I am not certain that the shortcomings of the regime are entirely a defect. From a certain perspective, they are strengths.
In the army soldiers are expected to take orders from bad officers as well as good ones. The same is true of political systems and a host of other institutions. In large bureaucratic institutions the quality of management varies greatly. But all managers benefit from the routine obedience of those they supervise, even when this has been established or reinforced by bullying from above. There is a trade-off between enhanced control and the enthusiasm/loyalty/goodwill of those taking orders, but the system invariably opts for the former. It is an enduring feature of complex societies.
The regime understands this. The freak show on the Potomac tests the limits of the population. When we reach those limits, the regime will most likely undergo cosmetic reform and continue as beforehand, possibly with a marginally more credible group in charge.
Soldiers are indeed expected to obey officers regardless of the quality of the latter. But it behooves the military to ensure the highest quality possible in the officer cadre. Regulations are one thing; a bunch of pissed off Joes in the field are quite another. Let morale go to shit and officers start having accidents or getting shot from behind "by the enemy".
Perfectly true. Essentially, I was scratching around for an appropriate analogy. Should have done better.
The sinister novelty of the current US model of governance is that one of the central means of control is the normalization of dysfunction. The established order generates aberrant outcomes, even chaos, as a means of control (and enrichment).
Normalisation of dysfunction disables opposition by misdirecting energies of potential opponents into fixing problems the system either created or curated through corruption, neglect and maladministration as well as a general indifference towards competency for the well-connected.
The patience and passivity of the US population for all of this is extraordinary. Also frightening. Sometimes I find it hard to believe that an effective reaction from below is available. Just look at the generation who made the revolutions in Europe in the early twentieth century and compare them with the confused, devitalised and dispirited people of all ages today.
My greatest fear is that the current model (post-liberal democracy, crony capitalism and transhumanist social engineering) is some kind of perverse adaptation for conditions of enduring low productivity growth coupled with scarcity of energy and resources. And you just never know how long any adaptation may last or even thrive. We appear to be seeing a curated dystopia being prepared in anticipation of a meltdown...forward planning and elite-prepping for a controlled demolition of the nation-state.
There's a kind of body horror to the symbiotic relationship between the diseased ideology that's seized society and the mental disease that it induces amongst adherents. The cultists don't just go mad - they get fat, die their hair, get tatted up, pierce themselves ... they become physically repulsive even as their minds are deranged. The ideology harnesses ressentiment and therefore cultivates it amongst adherents.
As to reaction from below, no such revolt has ever or will ever succeed. A sick elite can only be displaced by a healthy elite. Fortunately for us, I believe such a healthy elite is preparing itself as we speak.
All ideologies need to create the conditions that they pretend to be natural. They fabricate a parody of reality. The somatic effects of the regime on the physical and mental health of the people speak for themselves.
The Woke/SJW seek and receive affirmation from the only source of guidance they have ever had: infotainment and social media. Immersion in disembodied or dematerialised experience is clearly a public health hazard.
Blew me away with this political analysis , may just be my lead story in the NEWS category tomorrow unless Mr. Kunstler comes up with something better. He is usually my go to guy for great articles on Mondays and Fridays. Regardless it will be linked @https://nothingnewunderthesun2016.com/
Mr Kunstler may be second fiddle tomorrow. great job!!!!!
Yes he does. There are certain people who write that I can link just about anything they put out if it's in the areas that I cover and am interested in. In the geo-political and social commentary areas Mr. Kunstler is one of them. A list of some of the ones I link frequently over the past few years and currently would also include some excellent writers such as:
My interests are diverse enough that I'd be shocked if they overlapped perfectly with anyone else's. Take what you like, and leave the rest! I'm genuinely flattered you think so highly of it.
Holy sweet Jesus. The most accurate description of the last 4 administrations I've ever seen.
If we're able to vote our way out of this mess, and what beautiful literary sense you made of said messes, it's going to be a red tsunami instead of wave. Some people hold out hope for a peaceful succession. No one is under the impression America is very 'united' anymore; we're just trying to remain functional on a state by state basis and looking for impetus and opprotunity. Also just wanted to tell you how much you've encouraged me to drop my old schizophrenia-inducing pal pot. Tired of leaking my brain out like a colander and trying to numb the pain. Truth hurts but denial kills. You're one of several writers I look up to and want to be more like. Forgiving myself for the time lost, for pathetic band-aid solutions and crutches leaned far too heavily upon, and looking ahead without the cloud. Grateful for you, John. You're a whole bang shot.
Gee, thanks.
I can relate to the weed. Used it myself off and on for many years. Gave it up several years back and didn't miss it in the slightest. You get to a point where you realize it isn't helping you, at all.
I appreciate your sentiment, but thinking we can "vote our way" out of this mess is certainly comical at best. And I mean this humbly and with all the respect in the world for you. (And given the author, all the respect on Barsoom thrown in for good measure too.) Voting is a placation for the masses, yet admittedly the final straw holding together this once great nation. Even though 2020 was illegitimate and half the country at least knows this, if it was to be proven and then admitted by those playing pretend in the Whitehouse, the whole uniparty system would have collapsed the very next day. And maybe this is their way out. The system can never be fixed from within. It is a corporation, as also know: USA Inc. And a bankrupt one at that, and certainly not the first version of what they present as 'our govt' to have been bankrupted either.
This all said... The way it does get fixed is to reconstruct our American civilian government, the unincorporated people's lawful govt that has not been operating for nearly 160 years. All historically legit... It's just that Americans have been dumbed down, lazy, and those few in power that were in a position to spill the beans, disposed of... On Ugetube, you can look up: o'believers and 5 types of citizens in America and start pecking away at our true history, look into the TASA site - The American States Assembly - and join us in actually fixing this mess. Yes - there are lots of movements that exist that seem similar... But this is the only one that followed the history and laws perfectly to reconstruct our lawful govt. And we truly do not need a huge population to get their butts off the couch and join, but if even 1/100th of you who voted for Trump - who know something greater is wrong with the system and may be hanging on by a thread at the mass stupidity happening right before our very eyes - jump in and help, join, become a State National then a State Citizen to fill the necessary seats needed to hold a jury on every county across each state, we end this tyranny, this fraud, this corruption, and we rise once again to the great country we always thought America was, the reflection in each of our red, white, and blue bleeding hearts becoming the reality of what America has always been known to each of us. A democracy is evil and leads to Communism (sounds familiar, eh?) But a constitutional republic with limited govt and run by we the people... This is what we need to get back to.
Please... Don't listen to some man rambling on in he comments section of a well authored Substack page... Dig into it. This is the duty of each of you... Stop being lazy, stop waiting for some white knight to ride in and save the day... You are both Ben Holiday and the Paladin, you are your own white knight, grab the reigns, grab your friends, and let's peacefully reconstruct the America we know to be true in our hearts. For Helium! May the Creator bless you all and send each of you love and light.
-A living man sometimes called John, feet firmly planted on the land and soil, a Mainer, a Father of two Sons, and currently an American State National. For freedom, for God, for Country, and for our sons' and daughters' futures.
Elections are a tool, not a solution. We can't succeed without the tools, but if they're not used correctly, we can still lose. Success requires competent candidates and competent platforms. That requires participation by competent citizens, which seem to be in short supply. Just filling out a card, picking one from a list, doesn't guarantee a good list or a good outcome. If you want to win, you have to play to win.
Superb analysis. But keep in mind 2020 hinged on a few thousand votes in a few key precincts. They always cheat, but if its not close it doesn't matter. It only worked because the tally was razor thin going in. The fundamental problem in America isn't that the oligarchs try to gain power, and sometimes succeed, but that roughly half the country falls for it, every time. One wonders if they're just stupid, or are as corrupt themselves as the oligarchs. A happier future depends on teaching them. Otherwise, the future depends on the rest of us learning to fight them.
There's always a certain amount of fraud but the obviousness and audacity on display in 2020 indicates that the ballot stuffing was above and beyond. It's certainly true that the election turned on results in a few key counties; however, the 81 million votes Biden supposedly won represent an absurd sum. They wanted to give the illusion not just of a narrow win, but a landslide that conferred unprecedented popular legitimacy.
When in fact Trump won by a landslide in 2020. America has a history of stolen elections, but in the past it was always close elections that were distorted. I think this was the first time that a landslide was overruled. If that can happen, it means votes don't count at all.
Correct. Also meaning that the only source of legitimacy the ruling class can rely on is perceived competence ... which is directly contradicted by their chosen mascot.
2000 Mules is a good analysis of the known evidence. It wasn't a landslide. It was close without the cheating, and close with it. They just happened to cheat in the right places in the right amounts, this time. Don't worry about the national total, our elections don't work that way. It shouldn't have been close. One candidate with 3 years of success, one with 50 years of grift. Trump deserved to lose for the failure to stop the pandemic panic, but deserved to win for all the other successes. The 4th year, including the campaign, was played badly. Maybe we won't make that mistake again.
2000 Mules demonstrated strong evidence for one form of cheating which, using very conservative assumptions, was enough to tip the vote. However, it is almost certainly the case that numerous other methods were also used. Unless you believe a candidate with no organic support somehow got more votes than Barack Obama?
I haven’t been following you very long, have you written much about the election? Do you think it was stolen using the dominion machines?
I suspect Dominion played a role. My guess is they used every mechanism open to them.
It was an emotion driven election. Lots of people out of work, nothing else to do, and wanting to punish the incumbent. Big turnout wasn't surprising. The spread is more important than the absolute numbers. Hillary also had more total in 2016 66-63, and still lost electoral college. Joe had 81-74 and almost lost, but for squeakers in a few key precincts. Big numbers in the wrong places don't matter..
That means Trump beat his 2016 tally 17%. So if you assume the increases were even, Trump boosted 11 for 17%, Joe boosted 15, for 23% over Hiliary. Reasonable to assume 11 was bored and emotional voters on both sides, so reasonable to assume Joe's difference, 15 - 11 or 4 million votes was fraud, 2.6% of the total. Which is considered about the limit of election fraud. And they were caught, but protected by corrupt deep state and propaganda media. They wouldn't have gotten away with it if either institution, or the congress, had any integrity. And now we know what to look for, they won't get away with that much in the future.
One of your best, and that's no easy bar to jump.
Great prose. The core sacrament of this evil but dull-witted priesthood are acts of centralization. Their Achilles heel is that they depend on being fed fake money and require obeisance to their corporate retailers. Stop saying yes and the additional oxygen will only burn that fuse sooner. The People ignored them and their depredations, but no any longer. They with their engineered bioweaps and schemes have declared war on the host. These desperate vipers have too few fangs to bite everyone, though their jabs will continue to harm long into the future. They have no brakes. No reverse gear. So careen off the butte they will go like some rainbow-flagged Thelma and Louise.
I'm happy to watch Thelma and Louise drive themselves off a cliff. I'd just prefer to do it from a distance. Bitches want me to stay in the backseat.
Mistake? No. Ukraine war. Great Reset. Probable collapse of USA into warring factions. Mission Accomplished.
Maybe. But for that to be advantageous, the ruling class still needs to be perceived as fundamentally capable of ruling.
Well emotions and less logic sway most people. Partisanship is emotional. Trump hatred triumphed in a resounding fashion. Biden hate seems non-existent. So the mighty instruments of propaganda and persuasion protect the current Administration from abject failure and like a Potemkin village present the decomposing governance as a model of rectitude and probity. In my opinion the Oligarchs are winning. They may not be said to have won until the election of 2022 ratifies the one of 2020. And to protect their power they will cheerfully pit American against American. Americans rarely think for themselves, and prefer pre-digested opinions, and one opinion appears to be widely accepted - their vote counts and the President is a father figure. Ironic indeed that father is senile and a dotard but this somehow creates sympathy. I live in San Francisco where the Democrats are seen as Saviors no matter how bumbling. At best I think Americans do view politics like a football game and root for their team to win.
Even if the team is gravely flawed it is "Our Team."
Biden may not be hated (although I think he deserves it), but he is certainly.despised by a substantial majority.
Perhaps. Compared to Trump or say Nixon this does not seem to be a significant factor. Even compared to his VP it does not seem significant. The media reality glosses over his faults and does a reasonably good job of presenting him as an older politician. The many scandals attached to him do not diminish voting for his party, nor dilute his party's power in the eyes of voters. Polls show yes people overall are unhappy but there appears tremendous reluctance to BLAME or scapegoat him. I think further that his job is to hasten collapse of the USA and both party's are complicit in adding fuel to the fire.
https://read.dukeupress.edu/hahr/article/49/4/735/157387/Pentagonism-A-Substitute-for-Imperialism
I can’t believe it’s just been a year and a half. What fresh horrors await?
An epidemic of monkeypox/shingles. Food shortages. A fair number of 'turbas' and perhaps a pogrom or two.
For my money, perhaps the most accurate cinematic depiction of an imminent future (as it then was) is MASKED AND ANONYMOUS. It is a film starring Bob Dylan set in a future America which has become fully transformed into a multicultural Third World society, albeit with some very US touches such as a collective obsession with entertainment. It is strictly for Dylan fans. Everyone else might find it a bit over the top. It is droll, dry and gets a lot of stuff right. Spares no punches for boomers. You get a distinct sense Bob is no hippy. It was released in 2003 and gets California about right.
Here is a link to the official trailer. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fv2-3MUyy5g
If I were a younger man, I might indulge in "hope," which comes in distinctly different forms. False hope, a Pollyannish hope, is extremely dangerous in times like these, sapping the will to face the devils, fight, and at least die honorably. A truer, deeper, sustaining, hope is that God exists and the universe a good place, despite the evidence.
But hope in what? In America? In Western Civ, which does have its glories? I no longer have "hope" for America. The experiment has failed and I spit contempt on the remaining purveyors of the "American Dream" and MAGA. As for Western Civ, my tenuous hope is for preservation through a new dark ages. At the other end of a long, painful dark age, perhaps Western Civ will rebalance and rejoin the world civs that remain.
But first.. the deluge..
The issue becomes are we better off with the group that is currently controlling a demented old man running the country or having an ignorant sociopath with whatever admiring sycophants he surrounds himself with running the country? Pick one, but there is no clear answer.
Quick update: "Biden’s Approval Rating Is Now Lowest In Gallup’s History…"
https://issuesinsights.com/2022/06/14/bidens-approval-rating-drops-to-lowest-in-gallups-history/'
Who are "they"; how "iron" is their control? Seems likely to me that Buttigieg was really their preference summer 2020 for nomination; but they couldn't pull that off - why? Harris might also have been preferred; but she dropped out early with a sub 1% approval rating. Why were they unable to promote another Obama-like figure? Were any of "them" remotely satisfied with a 77 yr old obviously suffering from cognitive decline - was a big flat slap in the face joke their only fall back? What was the quotient of popular will vs deep state factional conflict that produced that outcome?
I only have questions. Two more: will the 99 year old former secretary of state pull them back from the brink in Ukraine? Has it come to that?
“serial violation of the sacred pieties of oligarchical culture” - brilliant! Great write up. Regarding your brief mention of the riots in 2020, I’m waiting for a similar assessment of the use of antifa as a tool. There are plenty of historical analogies where leftist used street thugs to enforce their will, even though no direct connection is made to their rule. I believe that was the case here. Otherwise, why did they stop?
Antifa is pretty obviously funded and managed by private foundations bankrolled by oligarchical interests. I've come across analyses of their command and control structure that did a fairly good job of tracing the lines of communication and logistics back to the same people who run the media etc.
OT: "I feel for you bro. I'm Canadian too - living abroad, and haven't seen my family for almost two and a half years now." - Really!? - I knew a John Carter when I was a grad student at the U of Alberta... nah? - couldn't be - you are likely quite a bit younger, common name, etc. And it works the other way as well, right? - US citizens cannot enter Canada un-vaxed. Two decades before the pandemic I was up there 2,3 times a year (Eastern Canada) - got close to 2K miles of hiking in - Rossport Ont to Fogo Is NFLD - I miss it! ... and I bet whoever is left in all those small towns are missing the tourists dollars. We should have listened closer - the Rulers long said they planned to shut down mass tourism. Places like Cambodia, Egypt, etc - must be closing in on absolute immisseration (I hate the Rulers!).
This is good content
I hope you are right. A clear and scathing analysis.
Outstanding post, John. You capture the absurdity and uselessness of the regime’s public figures perfectly. We certainly appear to be heading for an inflection point of some kind.
But I am not certain that the shortcomings of the regime are entirely a defect. From a certain perspective, they are strengths.
In the army soldiers are expected to take orders from bad officers as well as good ones. The same is true of political systems and a host of other institutions. In large bureaucratic institutions the quality of management varies greatly. But all managers benefit from the routine obedience of those they supervise, even when this has been established or reinforced by bullying from above. There is a trade-off between enhanced control and the enthusiasm/loyalty/goodwill of those taking orders, but the system invariably opts for the former. It is an enduring feature of complex societies.
The regime understands this. The freak show on the Potomac tests the limits of the population. When we reach those limits, the regime will most likely undergo cosmetic reform and continue as beforehand, possibly with a marginally more credible group in charge.
Soldiers are indeed expected to obey officers regardless of the quality of the latter. But it behooves the military to ensure the highest quality possible in the officer cadre. Regulations are one thing; a bunch of pissed off Joes in the field are quite another. Let morale go to shit and officers start having accidents or getting shot from behind "by the enemy".
Perfectly true. Essentially, I was scratching around for an appropriate analogy. Should have done better.
The sinister novelty of the current US model of governance is that one of the central means of control is the normalization of dysfunction. The established order generates aberrant outcomes, even chaos, as a means of control (and enrichment).
Normalisation of dysfunction disables opposition by misdirecting energies of potential opponents into fixing problems the system either created or curated through corruption, neglect and maladministration as well as a general indifference towards competency for the well-connected.
The patience and passivity of the US population for all of this is extraordinary. Also frightening. Sometimes I find it hard to believe that an effective reaction from below is available. Just look at the generation who made the revolutions in Europe in the early twentieth century and compare them with the confused, devitalised and dispirited people of all ages today.
My greatest fear is that the current model (post-liberal democracy, crony capitalism and transhumanist social engineering) is some kind of perverse adaptation for conditions of enduring low productivity growth coupled with scarcity of energy and resources. And you just never know how long any adaptation may last or even thrive. We appear to be seeing a curated dystopia being prepared in anticipation of a meltdown...forward planning and elite-prepping for a controlled demolition of the nation-state.
There's a kind of body horror to the symbiotic relationship between the diseased ideology that's seized society and the mental disease that it induces amongst adherents. The cultists don't just go mad - they get fat, die their hair, get tatted up, pierce themselves ... they become physically repulsive even as their minds are deranged. The ideology harnesses ressentiment and therefore cultivates it amongst adherents.
As to reaction from below, no such revolt has ever or will ever succeed. A sick elite can only be displaced by a healthy elite. Fortunately for us, I believe such a healthy elite is preparing itself as we speak.
All ideologies need to create the conditions that they pretend to be natural. They fabricate a parody of reality. The somatic effects of the regime on the physical and mental health of the people speak for themselves.
The Woke/SJW seek and receive affirmation from the only source of guidance they have ever had: infotainment and social media. Immersion in disembodied or dematerialised experience is clearly a public health hazard.
Hope you are right about a replacement elite.
Blew me away with this political analysis , may just be my lead story in the NEWS category tomorrow unless Mr. Kunstler comes up with something better. He is usually my go to guy for great articles on Mondays and Fridays. Regardless it will be linked @https://nothingnewunderthesun2016.com/
Mr Kunstler may be second fiddle tomorrow. great job!!!!!
Cool. Kunstler does good work, that's high praise.
Yes he does. There are certain people who write that I can link just about anything they put out if it's in the areas that I cover and am interested in. In the geo-political and social commentary areas Mr. Kunstler is one of them. A list of some of the ones I link frequently over the past few years and currently would also include some excellent writers such as:
CJ Hopkins ( Consent Factory and Substack )
Jon Rappaport ( No More Fake News and Substack )
Brandon Smith ( Alt-Market )
Eric Peters ( Eric Peters Autos )
Gary D Barnett ( garydbarnett.com and Lew Rockwell )
The Good Citizen ( Substack )
el gato malo ( Substack )
Robert Gore ( Straight Line Logic - usually only once or twice a month, but always a good read )
Jim Quinn ( The Burning Platform - another one that's usually only once or twice a month, but like Robert, very good )
Michael Krieger ( Liberty Blitzkrieg ) Unfortunately he no longer writes, used to have great articles!!!
I'm sure I am leaving a few out.
Not all the things you write fits my site's type of coverage, but when they do, I definitely link. Great work!!
My interests are diverse enough that I'd be shocked if they overlapped perfectly with anyone else's. Take what you like, and leave the rest! I'm genuinely flattered you think so highly of it.