Wow, and Thanks, Walrus! Very well stated, and I strongly agree. IMO, there are three root causes of the hole(s) we have dug for ourselves:
1. “Natural” decline (organizational senescence).
Lotsa ways to phrase it: “Good Times create Weak Men”; “Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely”, etc, but these factors didn’t have to lead to such a quick decline.
2. The MBA Revolution.
Promoting “Shareholder Value” as an almost theological moral tenet destroyed the economic and social fabric of the USA in only a few decades. Once Upon a Time, hourly workers in the USA could support a family, buy a house, and send their kids to college. Wall Street made a few $T lending China money to build factories, because they didn’t want to pay US Union wages.
Walrus mentions Boeing, which was destroyed by MBAism after the bean-counters wrested control from the Engineers. Private Equity (Vulture Capital) killed Toys-R-Us and lots of other companies.
And as Millionaires became Billionaires, they were able to purchase more “influence” in our Governments (Fed, State, Local), grabbing no-bid contracts, and neutering agencies like OSHA, EPA, and FDA. (don’t eat meat from Boar’s Head…)
3. The NeoCons.
IMO, “the NeoCons” were a Cabal that slowly gained control of every aspect of US Foreign Policy decision making across the last few decades. I don’t believe that it’s a coincidence that their policies always seem to benefit Israel (or its most right-wing factions).
They ingratiated themselves to Reagan by supporting right-wing forces in Latin America (see: Iran-Contra). Bush Sr. had enough FP experience to resist their radicalism; he refused to occupy Iraq, and was probably sincere when he promised Gorbachev that NATO wouldn’t expand eastwards to Russia borders.
It seems likely to me – though I have no proof – that NeoCon disappointment with GHWB’s lack of enthusiasm for their Projects contributed to the election of Clinton in 1992. But [most of?] the NeoCons from the Reagan-Bush years retreated to cushy jobs in various Institutes until 2001, when Dick Cheney brought them back into power. The Invasion and Occupation of Iraq was their crowning achievement; it was also our Crossing of the Rubicon, the point when the USA changed from Republic to Empire.
Part of the NeoCon “Project for a New American Century” was to replace the people in US FP bureaucracies with their own ideologues. During the Iraq mess, people in the State Department, the CIA, the Pentagon, etc, who actually understood the countries and cultures of the Middle East – and who spoke the local languages – were sidelined and replaced by NeoCon loyalists with no such knowledge. (This is the clearest example of *intentional destruction* of institutional wisdom – bring it all back to Walrus’ lamentation of how & why our FP is now so stupid & counter-productive).
Americans came to view our Invasion & Occupation of Iraq as a complete failure, but from the NeoCons perspective, it was a great success. Iraq was destroyed – economically, socially, technologically – so it would no longer be able to assist Palestinians with funds or weapons, much less threaten Israel with missiles. Muslims and Arabs now saw the USA as an even bigger threat than Israel. The USA was locked into being a National Security State; our soldiers are now Warriors, our diplomats are now ignored.
I didn’t recognize it at the time, but looking back, it appears that Hillary Clinton – as Secretary of State – became a conduit for NeoCons to insinuate themselves into Democratic administrations (Victoria Nuland is the obvious example, but the takeover seems pretty complete now). This is probably correlated with the Clinton’s financial power within the Party.
One of the reasons that Trump was able to capture the GOP in 2016 was that he was not saddled with loyalty to the traditional GOP financial base – nor the NeoCon policies which had proved so disastrous under Bush/Cheney. But Trump is not immune to, ah, “financial incentives”, so Sheldon Adelson was able to rent a Cabinet seat for John Bolton. Luckily, Trump & Bolton couldn’t get along; sadly, the MSM has used that as a way to rehabilitate Bolton. Bottom line: I have no faith that Trump can protect us from the NeoCons.
There is one factor which kinda unites the three above – the one that President Eisenhower warned us about in his Farewell Speech. The Military-Industrial-[Congressional] Complex is in some ways the nexus of (1) inevitable collapse of huge complex organizations, (2) the corrupting power of Big Money, and (3) a Cabal that wants to use US military power for their own purposes.
I wish I saw a way out of all this. I am deeply pessimistic about the future of my country and the world, and the fact that I won’t live to see the worst of it provides me little solace.
Comment: Obviously this a response by elkern to Walrus’ post entitled “It’s over; Pogo Was Right” from earlier in the month. (https://turcopolier.com/its-over-pogo-was-right-by-walrus/). Both F&L and I found elkern’s response insightful.
I agree with elkern’s dismissal of the idea of “natural” decline (organizational senescence). That’s a path of deliberate neglect. No one has to lose their gumption without giving it up voluntarily.
I also agree with elkern’s critique of the MBA Revolution. I had to take a business course as an ROTC requirement. Without a hint of shame, our professor told us that if we take nothing from this course take this. “The business of business is to make money.” He repeated it several times. Walrus gave the recent example of Boeing where the business whiz kids.
The NeoCons go much further back in our history than the last few decades. It is inherent in our belief in Manifest Destiny as we expanded across the continent. McKinley and Roosevelt pushed it all the way to China. Our periods of isolationism were fleeting. Elkern laments the loss of craftsmanship and artistry in our statesmanship. That condition was also fleeting in our long history… and it is sorely missed.
What say the members of this committee of correspondence? Are you all as sad and despondent about our future as Walrus and elkern? What are your solutions to our vast dilemmas.
TTG
Yes, it is a pessimists view that checks all the boxes. You can only truly destroy a country from within and we are artfully rubbing everyone in the wrong way in order to placate the Israelis, to calm the wealth managers of the extremely rich, to succumb to the marketing of influence as the source of new ideas. The Ugly American was motivated by the exceptionalism saying the something must be done, in Vietnam it was Brown & Root leading the charge through their man LBJ, Iraq was Halliburton led by their man Cheney, Ukraine is the MIC unloading all of that equipment by generating a fake Use By Date. It will go on until we’re out of blood and treasure. Birth rate is in the toilet. Treasure is finding new places to hoard. The rest of us will live in the detritus for lack of imagination, of will to find out how to extricate ourselves from a leadership that is purblind.
I agree with the problems and (mostly) their causes but I remain optimistic that legislators like Elizabeth Warren who really understands the distortions these problems have caused to our economy and our nation will have an opportunity to craft some legislation to address them. Of course, that depends upon a Blue wave and a repudiation of Trump’s pack of panderers.
Ms. Wilson thank you for your comment. I truly think that you are putting too much faith in Elizabeth Warren, during 2008 Financial crisis Ms. Warren and Pres Obama talked the big talk but never walked the walk. I still remember Obama proudly telling the Wall street bankers that he was the only person standing between them and pitch forks. Now I don’t think the bankers need that kind of treatment, but please tell me how many bankers were prosecuted for their fraudulent activities, oh sorry I forgot they found that Brown guy and threw him in Jail but how many real culprits were at least prosecuted never mind jailed. In all these affairs where was Elizabeth Warren (she was in the senate in 2009)? I am afraid I am just as pessimistic as Elkern we as a nation bit too much that we can’t swallow, picked on too many people to fight. Even as a kid I quickly figured out I need to have some friends so people don’t bother me. Now look at the current stack of leaders vying for power, I didn’t see not one of them, I mean not one of our Glorified Leaders who proclaim on top of their lungs that we are the indispensable nation and look around who follows us? Just our hangers on, but the Global South and they do constitute the majority has moved on. I do hope we will come to our senses and instead of threatening we try to be more humble and try to make peace with atleast our strongest adversaries. Sorry for my long babbling,Thanks
Muralidhar Rao,
I just want to note that Sen. Warren was elected in 2012, and took office in 2013.
I agree with your larger point about peace.
Thanks for correcting me. Some how I got confused and thought she ran for election at that time. Thanks again
Mr Rao — indeed it’s as you say but there’s only one thing anyone needs to know about Elizabeth Warren. Namely that until 1996 she was a registered Republican. Both US political parties are disgraceful, I grant that, and I personally regret voting for Bill Clinton, but it means she was in the camp of the big money power for an astoundingly long time.
I’m flattered to be quoted The destruction of the West and perhaps many previous empires, seems to me to mimic the growth and extinction of biological species. In my crude thinking, species flourish through finding and occupying an evolutionary niche that provides them superior growing conditions – they out compete other species through adaptation to their environment. However, over time, what was once a survival trait becomes a vulnerability as the species specialises to the point where its evolutionary niche becomes first a prison and then an execution chamber. An example of this would be a species that flourished by adaptation to one food source but then perishes when that food source declines because it can now no longer eat anything else.
What I am thinking of in this respect is our entire financial system which was once our strength but is now our source of weakness, once a source of resilience and renewal it’s now become a source of our weakness and stagnation.
Banking and the corporation in Westrn usage began life in the 13th century In Italy after Luca Pacioli invented double entry book keeping. This acknowledgement of the duality of money as an asset and a liability made possible the joint stock corporation which allowed Venetian merchants to better spread and manage risk by allowing them instead of having all their wealth tied up in one vulnerable trading ship, to instead spread their risk by owning a ten percent share in ten different ships. It also allowed merchants to pool their wealth to build something bigger than any individual could afford and equitably share the profits of the same.
And that was the function of the financial markets folks – to build capital and manage risk. The perversions market fell prey to were well known by the fourteenth century – speculation – buying something that wasn’t needed, engrossing – trying to corner a market, forestalling – attempting to buy goods before they reached a market stall, etc. These simple rules for fair trading were enforced by market courts – some still stand in the Netherlands and Europe.
That system worked pretty well until after WWII when the general decline in public moral standards finally infected the financial markets and they became, as they are today, engines of financial destruction and short term thinking – driven by quarterly results. WE are about to discover just how badly our markets have decayed by whatever is going to be revealed in October’s meeting of BRICS in Kazan.
To put it another way, greed isn’t good as the cautionary tales of Gordon Gecko and the movie “Margin Call” demonstrate. WE cannot bootstrap ourselves back to a resileint economy without re engineering the financial markets back into an engine for capital accumulation, not capital destruction and one that seeks to minimize, not maximise, financial risk.
The second problem we have is also a feature of financial markets – the increased mobility of capital has made possible the global corporation that owes fealty to no one. These amoral vultures are the source of most of the worlds misery today. They are the drivers of globalisation and the purveyors of the “woke” society that enables it.
Being “woke” means you are no longer an American or German, you are an individual somewhere on the LGTBQ spectrum. You thus have no foundation from which to build a coherent picture of your world- you are a plaything of Google, Ticktock and Facebook, nothing more. That by the way is the source of the Globalised lefts fear of right wing nationalism. They want you pliable and ashamed of your uprbringing and background, the better to manipulate you.
walrus,
I’m with you on what capitalism has morphed into, but your definition of woke is way off. I see the main message of “wokeness” as being a revival of the message of the New Testament, “do unto others as you would have them do unto you” and “Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.” The message of right wing nationalism seems to be the exact opposite of that.
TTG,
Woke is a revival of the message New Testament? It’s certainly a religion. “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” Woke is not reviving that message, it is supplanting it.
right wing right wing squawk squawk repeat the mantra maintain political power. It’s not working too well these days. Perhaps an actual return to truth rather than repeat the marxist messaging of wokism
Fred,
The right wing mantra of hate the other is certainly not God like. It’s not even traditionally conservative.
TTG,
Yet another day with a beam in your eye.
I suggest that we need a whole new post to discuss what “woke” means, though it’s likely to be, ah, contentious.
To me, the fight over “wokeness” – and social issues in general – is used by both major Parties to distract us from the real political, economic, ecological, etc, problems that our country faces. Culture Wars issues win votes – for both sides – but they destroy the civility which society depends on.
So I reject “wokeness” – and “anti-wokeness” (“fascism”?) – as core explanations of our obvious decline. OTOH, fighting about social issues rather than fixing practical ones could be both/either a symptom and/or cause of further decline…
TTG,
This explains your appreciation of socialism/communism. You don’t understand economics and economic systems – never even studied the topics – and you think it is godly to just share everything, especially with the least “brothers” and “sisters” – even if they least are slackers and criminals and moved half way around the world just to get their hands on what some of us worked hard for.
It’s an easy attitude to adopt when one can make loaves and fish out of thin air, or one works for the government one’s whole life where one is insulated from job loss and fiscal concerns + a receives a pension – all via confiscation of taxes, ultimately, at gun point if need be, from hard working citizens.
Way too much moral posturing in the woke and christian political agendas.
TTG, Walrus,
McWhorter appeared as a YouTube suggestion video during a wormhole session. He has the best definition of woke liberalism: Social activism as a stand-in for religious belief and redemption. His focus is on African Americans but you can substitute skin tone for nationality, sexuality, etc. The percentage of young Americans identifying as non-religious increases every year yet they can’t escape the need to be adherents of a cause. Some of them need to return to church and address their guilt in the pews.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kPE6whtgyr4
I agree with the shareholder mentality even as I’m an investor. IMO, we need a hard economic reset. We need to accept the fact that apart from some commonly shared considerations and fair, equal treatment, we aren’t owed anything, including a retirement.
Lesly,
Yes. When the incentive to work hard and maximize your abilities is removed, society declines. When values and mores that evolved for centuries, even millennia, are thrown away in a generation, society becomes chaos. When the symptoms of mental illness are accepted and celebrated as “brave” and normal, society becomes insane and dysfunctional.
Tulsi Gabbard recently stated that the woke movement/government elites seek to put themselves in the place of God. I agree with her. Wokeness has nothing to do with spirituality. It is a con run by psychopaths and narcissists who can only destroy in their drive for power over others.
Really?
Then why not adopt it as is, rather than inventing whole new pseudo-languages and jargon to state something that fits in a single sentence?
How is that reviving anything?
That wokeness is some type of neo-Christianity is the most incredible thing I have ever read on this site.
That is about as fair as saying that ISIS is all about Muslim charity after watching one of their beheading videos…
How does someone observe the scars from so-called “top surgery” or the grotesque results of so-called “bottom surgery” and see the Christian commandment?
Are soldiers the most gullible of the gulliblest of persons? Can one even be as gullible as that and still somehow achieve procreation?
I think it is not possible.
Therefore, I will give you hint, TTG: when you look into a mirror that’s yourself you are seeing, not the rest of us.
A Portuguese Man,
Woke has come a long way from Lead Belly’s original use of it. His use of the term meaning to be aware of the social and political injustice around us has been altered to mean anything that is not liked by the right. Sex change surgery is part of that.
The Roman Catholic Church does not support any form of sex change surgery. I don’t know if that includes hormone treatments. They also don’t approve of surgical treatment of those born as hermaphrodites as is a common practice. However the Church teaches tolerance and acceptance of transgendered people.
TTG,
You’re just gliding right past the part of “woke” that says white people are born racists and that all societies created by white people are systemically racist and need to be torn down.
Then there is all of the equality of outcome (socialism) in wokeness, instead of equality of opportunity (freedom).
Eric Newhill,
No definition of woke Ive seen says white people are born racist, but they usually do say there is systematic racism in our society. And they do stress the equality of opportunity, not equal distribution of wealth or outcomes.
They want you pliable and ashamed of your upbringing and background, the better to manipulate you.”
There was a campaign of demonization and defamation when I was at Brandeis University from 1967 to 1973
that was unlike anything I had heard before.
1. Cops were pigs.
2. U.S. soldiers were baby killers.
3. America was spelled Amerika or AmeriKKKa.
4. The bourgeois was deplorable.
It was really an example of what David Gelertner wrote:
“During the 1960’s and early 70’s,
the intelligentsia’s hatred for middle-class society was something fierce.”
Those views were especially expressed by the SDS,
but they weren’t the only ones expressing them.
What motivated these people to be so hostile?
Yeah, I think there was a reason.
And it had nothing to do with financial gain,
but fear of strong coherent Christian societies.
What some wanted to do was divide those societies,
persuading women they were victims of the patriarchy, and glorifying homosexuality.
It was divide and conquer,
combined with demonization of traditional America.
Keith, That’s where it started and it was the Soviet and Chinese affiliated leftists who promoted it.
Walrus,
“They want you pliable and ashamed of your uprbringing and background, the better to manipulate you.”
Yes they do, here and abroad. Lots of shills for the marxist rubbish of wokism abound in my Republic. Teachers unions are full of them. As to bootstrapping back to a resilient economy, we can’t do it by rearranging financial regulations. We must restore moral virtue (no easy task) and remove form our civilization those who reject it outright. It will take a couple generations.
Fred I totally agree with you “We must restore moral virtue (no easy task) and remove form our civilization those who reject it outright. It will take a couple generations.” For that to happen, unfortunately we need a total collapse of the economy and a societal revival. Strange as it might sound, I think poor people are more honest than the rich.
Muralidhar Rao,
I actually agree that moral virtue must be restored, but how is moral virtue defined?
Sir, it is not that we humans just came around. We humans irrespective of race and culture have some basic values. Actually the essence of religions be it Christian, Hindu, Muslim, Budhist, so on so forth they all teach us not covet the wealth of our neighbors. So if we practice that one simple principle with our neighbors in the country(which we do, otherwise we call it stealing) but extend it to nations by paying a fair price to the coffe farmer in Colombia or say the mining companies pay a fair price to the African countries so the people in those countries are not impoverished etc. Honestly I think most people will agree to that but the MBA guys who are tutored in shareholder returns will abhore such practices. I think that greed is the problem and like it is said “What profiteth a man that he gained all the wealth and lost the soul”. Thanks
Muralidhar Rao,
Now that’s a good and practical explanation of moral virtue. Thank you for that.
TTG,
They didn’t teach you Cicero in that Jesuit school you went too? Start with this, and ditch the idea that woke is the new testament. https://www.amazon.com/Moral-Ends-Quintus-Curtius/dp/0578409674/
Fred,
Most of the Cicero taught was in Latin. As Muralidhar Rao opined earlier, the common tenets of moral virtue are present across most religions. I would include Cicero’s “On Moral Ends” as part of the eternal discussion of moral virtue. None of that detracts from what the New Testament says. And it’s all “woke.”
TTG,
I’m not sure you understand “woke” to mean what it means – which is social justice via identity politics. I challenge you to show us where Jesus talked about any of that. In fact, he was 180 degrees from identity politics.
TTG,
Bearing false witness is still a sin.
Fred,
Someone should tell Vance and Trump about their lies about the Haitians in Springfield. Trump would have been fine if he said, “they’re straining the social services, they’re driving up the housing prices.” Instead he had to blather on about eating cats and dogs.
TTG though we have different perspectives of the world affairs I really appreciate your courteous replies to my comments. Tell you the truth the guys I studied with during my college years I can’t even talk to them if I say something that contradicts their opinion. They just tell me not to talk to them. Sorry to say that education has not broadened views and self reflection of some people. Thank you again for your polite comments.
TTG,
Russia Collusion, Charlottesville, Ivermectin, Hunter’s Laptop, Biden is perfectly competent; Command Sergeant Major, Border Czar, migrants, ‘friends’ of migrants (who said that?). “The are eating the dogs, they are eating the cats.”
Don’t think illegal immigration, Which is what line is all about.
How did 20,000 Haitians arrive in Ohio and why do they get benefits homeless Americans don’t? Better change the subject.
Fred,
The Haitians began arriving in Springfield and other cities back in 2018. They went to these cities because there were jobs to be filled and cheap housing to be had. No government program sent them there. Word of mouth brought more in. Bidens renewal of the humanitarian parole programs did bring a lot more into the US in the last three years.
Haitians began filling the jobs vacated by residents moving out of Springfield. Because of the growing work force of eager and dependable workers, other businesses moved in and Springfield benefited because of that. Housing was initially cheap because of so many residents moving out. The employed Haitians snapped up a lot of that vacant housing. There is no longer a depressed housing market and that’s going to be a problem going forward for both Haitians and long time residents. Because the Haitians have a lot more children, Springfield schools are now strained. Add in the need for ESL and interpreter services and Springfield’s social services are doubly strained.
The Haitians in Springfield are not illegal immigrants or asylum seekers. And they’re not eating the pets. They’ve saved Springfield from becoming a dying city. Trump’s lie about eating cats and dogs was just that… a lie. I’m sure there are other cities where immigrants and especially illegal immigrants are causing real problems. Why he chose the cats and dogs story is an unforced error/lie.
TTG,
I believe I mentioned bearing false witness is a sin.
“The Haitians began arriving in Springfield and other cities back in 2018. ”
What advertising was done in Haiti and what type of visa was used to allow non-Americans to obtain these jobs starting 6 years ago?
“No government program sent them there.”
What is an NGO and which ones were involved and where did they get their funding?
“Word of mouth brought more in.”
How many was that? One, one thousand, twenty thousand? What type of visa did they qualify for?
“Because of the growing work force of eager and dependable workers…”
Springfield is how many miles from Dayton? Let me help you: 26 miles. A thirty-minute commute. Are there no eager and dependable workers there or anywhere else in Ohio. Or even say some where far, far, away like Baltimore, or East St. Louis?
“that’s going to be a problem going forward for both Haitians and long time residents.”
Are Haitians citizens of the US? How about “long time residents”?
“Because the Haitians have a lot more children,”
The visa recipients and word of mouth people started having babies in the US (not anchor babies no no no) So the employers who could find no eager and dependable workers – at what wage rate? – are fully paying for ESL and interpreters? Did they factor that ongoing obligation into their wage and benefit calculations or know they could force the cost onto others, like “greedy capitalists” do?
“Springfield’s social services are doubly strained”
So the employers pay the cost of social services, or is that the ‘long time residents’? Did anyone tell the people of Springfield, Ohio, or the US that this was happening?
Don’t think illegal immigration. Think they are eating the dogs, eating the cats, and blame Trump. Open borders, just not for Fredricksburg or Martha’s Vineyard.
Fred,
No advertising was done in Haiti that I know of. The humanitarian parole program started with the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 (IIRIRA) and was delegated to DHS when DHS was created. Parole has been an immigration category long before that. The 1996 Act allowed immigrants admitted under humanitarian parole status to work while here. Afghans and Ukrainians do not have to apply for a work permit. It was a popular way to get Cubans here. In 2023, Biden expanded the humanitarian parole program for Cubans, Venezuelans, Haitians and Nicaraguans requiring financial sponsors for those paroled and their families. This process can be initiated by the financial sponsor rather than the person requesting humanitarian parole.
This is from the Springfield News-Sun from a year ago:
Rocking Horse Community Health Center board member Victoria Sorg cited data and said non-profits are struggling to meet the needs of immigrants. Data from 2018 showed only three Creole-speaking pediatric patients received services from Rocking Horse over the entire year. In 2022, more than 400 Haitian pediatric patients received care.
One of the major costs to Rocking Horse and other non-profit organizations serving immigrants is translation costs, Sorg said. “In 2018 the cost of translation services for Rocking Horse was a total of $4,000. Those costs so far this year are $344,000,” she said. “That increase is not sustainable for the nonprofits in the area.” She asked if the city could do anything to support local nonprofits. “If this is happening to Rocking Horse, it’s probably happening to the food bank, churches, to others. We have a mission in these organizations to serve the most vulnerable,” Sorg said, “but we need help.”
The Rocking Horse Community Health Center receives federal HHS grants through the HRSA health center program. It’s been serving Springfield since 1999 and became a fully qualified health center in 2009. Federal funding became available through an Obamacare program and now operates four centers in the Springfield area. It also receives donations from various local businesses and health care providers as well as through annual fund raising events.
I’ll post a story about the Haitians in Dayton in the next day or two.
TTG,
Parole is a temporary state for noncitizens without the promise of long-term residence. The wonderful program created in 1999 served zero Haitians until what year? Delegated to DHS? Where in the Constitution is delegation of immigration assigned to a department of the Executive Branch?
Rocking Horse? So they went from refugees to migrants plus friends of same to eager and dependable workers to just what? Including all those Covid years when Ohio was not as open as Florida? You’ve done more dancing than a bunch of angels on the head of a pin. One thing is for certain, they are not American citizens, they don’t have a right to remain here, and they should remigrate back to Haiti. That being the Island nation that received such help from the Clintons and the UN.
Fred,
Haitians began receiving temporary protective status (TPS) in 2011 and were granted several other TPS and legal permanent residency status over the years. Even those who are now under humanitarian parole are free to seek other immigration status. I’m sure some have sought green cards and citizenship over the years and will continue to do so. BTW, the Constitution does not address immigration at all.
https://www.everycrsreport.com/reports/RS21349.html
Rocking Horse operates free health and dentistry clinics. They serve poor and uninsured in the area, not just Haitians and other immigrants. I’m sure they provided treatment through the Covid years.
TTG,
The 20,000 Haitians we are talking of did not receive refugee status in 2011. They were not here. You yet again change the subject when your error is pointed out.
The constitution enumerates the power of the Executive Branch. DHS has none nor are they ‘delegated’ lawmaking authority any more than the agencies in the now overturned Chevron doctrine were.
Fred,
I’ve patiently explained the humanitarian parole system and the evolution of that system and how Haitian began arriving long before this year or even last year. Springfield leaders and businessmen are generally happy with them and credit them with saving the city. Sorry none of that coincides with your pet eating fantasy promulgated by Vance and Trump.
Much of the parole policy enforced by DHS is the result of laws passed by Congress beginning with the Haitian Refugee Immigration Fairness Act of 1998 and the Help HAITI Act of 2010. It’s not just something thought up by Biden and DHS last year.
Walrus,
Perhaps the loss of preeminence is not the same as “destruction”. After WW2 the US was the only undamaged industrial nation, but sooner or later the world would catch up. I recall some egg-head meetings during the Clinton years in which the One Worlders, those who accepted this as inevitable, rationalized the problem of cheap overseas goods as temporary due to them all eventually having to pay their people higher wages too. This is a logical assumption, as they would eventually want a better lifestyle. All things being equal, the US and the West would still have certain advantages. Perhaps.
Entropy and change are givens for all systems. Entropy ebbs when problems crop up and flows when they do not. The existence of it does not equate to doom. Change is inevitable. As Tolkien put it: “The wide world is all about you: you can fence yourselves in, but you cannot for ever fence it out.”
TTG,
Religion? There’s a cat that doesn’t meow. Doesn’t get taught in school either. Which part of the political spectrum also not mentioned was responsible for that? Another non barking dog, the movement and party responsible for opposition to traditional American culture since the turn of the last century, whose presidential spouse also thought she should be running the country?
Don’t think immigration. Especially not after 1965. Busyness. So much busybodyness. Who in which island nation capital helped found the council on foreign relations and influence US foreign policy for generations? No influence there. Or LIBOR
Birth rate decline? Planned what? Terminating what is health care now? It’s not rare either. Promises, ah slogans slogans. Don’t think a baby. Or part sales in which state get reporters prosecuted by cackling candidates. Veritas. Now MIA.
Bit your coins to see if they are real, like the money of the next Warren Buffet
https://www.forbes.com/sites/chasewithorn/2021/10/21/the-worlds-richest-29-year-old-just-got-a-lot-richer-thanks-to-new-ftx-funding-round/
Which university do mommy and daddy still teach at? Which party of Pocahontas (don’t think affirmative action fraud ) collected millions of dollars of donations of investors money not the billionaires’ (not any longer) money? Ask Lizzy the legislator. She’ll change the subject for you.
Boxers? Poor victims of, who was playing the great (blame America first) game during the rebellion? See the wonderful documentary (whose civilization brought cinema to the world? ) 55 days in Peking. Count the countries. BTW the Rough Rider wasn’t a Kamala VP then. But he was a Trust Buster. (Not to be confused with trusting the word of a Biden) He also did what with the money?
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boxer_Indemnity_Scholarship
so Un-Slava Ukraine like. EU. (Variously pronounced) Russia Russia Russia money connection for you
Don’t decry big money. $400,000,000 of it “fortified ” the last election. All from the ‘can’t be racist greedy capitalist’ since it fortified the Build Back Better duo. I believe he just wrote a letter about that duo forcing him to censor. Of course they did. Apparently caving to corruption was, to paraphrase Evelyn Waugh, his personal manifest destiny. Diddy? Cave, not rave with rapper. Nobody did that. Just like Epstein and Weinstien. NoBoDy knew nothing.
The other now wealthy (Martha’s Vineyard) millionaire’s destiny, bringing slavery back to Libya. With NATO’s help. Sure kept those MBAs from building an oil pipeline to Italy and giving that country low cost energy and less reliance on Brussels. And further income for Libya. Great job gals.
Craftsmanship and artistry in statesmanship? Perhaps remembering the advice of the first and best president, Washington, and avoid foreign entanglements.
Fred,
But the deep state has come out in favor of Kamala. The IC, the neocons…all of them. This kind of makes me chuckle. All the people here who claim to hate the evil CIA, MIC and CIA and what they do around the world, but will vote for the candidate that the Borg wants elected.
Fools and their money (and country) are soon parted.
I see Oprah made an infomercial for Kamala just after Diddy got busted. Which makes me wonder why Kamala never prosecuted him all those years ago.
Fred — As the first comment to this brief video says – this video would get you locked up for hate speech in the UK. And now Australia as Walrus explained. Of course I do not endorse the views presented.
Gigglin’s Isle |
https://tinyurl.com/ftd2frav
@Fred: “Religion? …. Doesn’t get taught in school either. Which part of the political spectrum also not mentioned was responsible for that?”
The gent that wrote the First Amendment, James Madison, was a member of the Republican Party, which was later referred to as the Democratic-Republican Party by historians and modern poltical scientists.
Obviously there is a way forward.Donald Trump must be elected,Kelly Ayotte must be made vice president and Vance moved to homeland security.
That’s it.
mcohen
The man of the eternal grift? He will only supercharge the Gordon Gecko crowd at the expense of the rest of us. However he might be an answer to the power of the neocons unless he sees a profit in it.
Possibly.Last time around it was Epstein and this time it is Diddy.I think Ayotte is a better choice than Kamala.Trump will not pass go unless Kelly ayotte is his running mate.I know it is a stretch for you but I believe.
mcohen,
I agree that Ayotte would have been a far better choice for VP. She would have been a far better choice for President than Trump. The only thing she does not offer is the creative destruction that Trump will very likely cause. That destruction may be desired by some. Others think that destruction is a necessary condition for creating a better Union. I don’t ascribe to either of those views.
TTG sir can you kindly explain the attempts Trump made at creative destruction? One thing I know is that he was as much a Zionist as Biden is (his son-in-law is a prime example) as far as I can see his policies regarding Israel wouldn’t be much different than they are now. Ukraine is a lot of talk I don’t think he has any influence on Putin and unfortunately Putin is going for the kill (he has been fooled too many times). Tariffs you say now those guys in China don’t want to sell us antimony mineral and Russia is thinking of banning Titanium and Uranium exports. True we can produce them ourselves, but where is the work force? It takes time to train these guys. No matter who becomes the President we are in for real hard times in my opinion. I sincerely hope and pray I am 200% wrong.
Muralidhar Rao,
The creative destruction I’m talking about is domestic. I’m referring to the plans laid out in Project 2025 and Trump’s own Agenda 47. I know Trump tries to disavow Project 2025, but his own Agenda 47 in his own words pretty much mirrors Project 2025. I agree with you about Trump’s foreign policies. They won’t be that different or effective.
Funny story.One Friday night I was just scrolling the news before the Trump election and a thought came into my head that someone with an unusual surname,a woman as opposed to clinton,and the Kelly ayotte popped for some reason and brain said that’s the one.Now I am not American, know nothing about us politicians and I started to follow her on twitter.Then she had a falling out with Trump and that did it for me.The perfect counter balance.
Now she is going for governor in Hampshire or somewhere and I think this is her time to step up.
Got a family,husbands a pilot,2 kids grown from what I read.
Weird because I don’t know why she is important or whatever.In fact I know nothing about her except the usual social media stuff that is accessible.
Strange but true.
mcohen,
She should be part of the rebirth of the Republican Party or whatever more conservative party arises after the downfall of Trumpism.
TTG,
So while in office he did not creatively destroy anything but the myth of the left. But, now that the Heritage Foundation put out some document like they do every election cycle, Danger!
Agenda 47:
War on the Cartels? How dare he!
End Veteran Homelessness in America? How dare he!
No Welfare for Illegal Aliens? How dare he!
Death Penalty for Human Traffickers? How dare he!
Terrible? Better stuff flyover country with ‘refugees’ flown in by executive order of the guy not capable of being a candidate and whose wife runs cabinet meetings. Reality 2024 thanks to the Democrats.
mcohen,
Yes.
Only the willfully blind do not see that truth. The IC, MIC and Neocons have now all publicly thrown in with support for Kamala. She is clearly their puppet.
I can’t imagine that the USA can do much about (1) and (2) short of a complete collapse of the existing ruling-regime and its replacement with…. something else.
I’m talking full-on French-Revolution stuff, a period of anarchy, and then a strong-man taking the reins of power and building a Whole New Republic.
Not gonna happen.
But the one thing the USA body-politic can do is to purge itself of the neocon infestation by so vilifying them that nothing – overt or covert – will tempt a politician to stand next to the stench.
The key is that the neocon cabal are also so joined at the hip with Israel and Zionism.
A few videos of Congress-critters accepting plain paper bags from what they believed to be Someone From The Israeli Embassy would be a start. Wire taps of Israel-lobby bigwigs taking instructions from “personal representatives of Bibi Netanyahu” would also do nicely.
Basically, a serious attempt to do a re-run of the “Russia-gate” scare campaign, only this time it would be an “Israel-gate”.
Such a campaign would be certain to bag a huge number of neocons, and a huge number of Israel-firsters, and if the effort is pushed hard enough then both the neocons and the Israel-first crowd (really, one and the same) might just crash and burn.
YR,
Well no one here wants to accept it, but there is an answer – and the answer is the MAGA movement. MAGA is internal facing; building the infrastructure of the country, classical education, reviving the work ethic, reviving industry, removing foreign influence, breaking away from NATO and the UN and being reticent of foreign adventures. It also involves shrinking government and purging the neocons and associated promoters of foreign adventures, which are a bad idea at face value and worse because the dopes in charge will most assuredly bungle the whole thing.
But we are told lies, by the very people you don’t like and who you even call lairs, that MAGA is racist, “nationalistic” (like pride in your country is a bad thing), prone to dictatorship (like the democrats/deep state are pushing towards dictatorship). Sure, they lie about everything, except MAGA. They tell the truth about that, Uh huh.
Many – at least half – of Americans are more or less aware and also don’t want the crap you don’t like. Probably another 30% aren’t even following the bouncing ball and just want handouts promised by democrats/deep state politicians and to be social aware (“woke”) per mainstream media (neocon/deep state propaganda). Very few Americans outside of the circles of power in DC want what you don’t like. The US is not a democracy and barely any longer a constitutional republic. The A-holes in DC just do whatever they want to. They do not represent the American people and they control what the people have available by way of information with which they could even make decisions, which don’t matter to those in charge.
Anyone who votes for Harris and any other democrat really can’t then complain about everything you complain about because they voted for exactly that. I know you’re not American, but it is your fellow travelers in the US who perpetuate the problem by voting for the people responsible for the problem in the first place.
Short of MAGA, it just gets worse. That said, if you think the world with a destroyed US is going to be a better place, you are thoroughly delusional. China is not too big on human rights and they seek to control just about everything. Your muslim buddies establish miserable societies with truncated rights, at best, for approved people, like straight, male, religious adherents and much worse for everyone else. Latin American banana republics suck. Africa is a disaster in all facets of society. All that sh!t is going to have a field day without the US. You don’t like that fact and deny it. You do so at your own peril.
For what has gone wrong,
I strongly recommend this article by David Gelertner:
How the Intellectuals Took Over
(And What to Do About It)
The new American elite differs radically from the old,
and the social and cultural damage it has done may be…
https://www.commentary.org/articles/david-gelernter/how-the-intellectuals-took-over-and-what-to-do-about-it/
A view expressed by Hillary Clinton: “the deplorables”.
Gelertner was one of the Unabomber’s victims who survived.
George Formby meets Gilbert and Sullivan (?)
Anyway – this humorous.song is definitely on topic.
I Want to be in the Illuminati | Dominic Frisby Comedian.
https://tinyurl.com/mrxj8t2c
Ha, love it! I wish they’d had the budget for some special effects at the end, showing him zapped by Space Lasers, or maybe getting hoovered up by a flying saucer…
No, that dude has no idea what he is singing about.
Reptiles! Rubbish. Utter rubbish.
The word is run by the slightly-buzzed rosy-cheeked
There is no Illuminati. It doesn’t exist.
There is just the Inebriati, and it controls everything
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zmp_–Oow5o
I think this British politician hit it with “democracy is the worst form of Government except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.” I don’t dismiss the issues raised by Walrus and Elkern on problems created by oligarch capitalism and their new-conservative influencers. Where I disagree, is that they are unique to us here in the United States, or where in Australia, New Zealand or Europe most contributors live. These are maybe a bit better hidden, but exists in most countries. Russia for example has its own issues with their oligarchs, neo-cons, erosion of birthrates, skill levels and so on. At least we have a way to discuss and address these challenges, and I am slightly hopeful when meeting those who just graduated as I see that the culture of maximising profit, referred to as the “MBA Revolution” is less dominant than in the 1980s when I was in that age group.
“What say the members of this committee of correspondence? Are you all as sad and despondent about our future as Walrus and elkern? What are your solutions to our vast dilemmas.”
Solutions? Humorous section.
Entry 1: Several 1 megaton hydrogen bombs dropped on 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, .. n.
You’ll be pleased to learn that n is a fairly small integer. (The good news).
The identities of 1 through 5 are top secret, but Moscow and St Petersburg are not on the list.
Entry 2: All the atomic weapons ever manufactured detonated 600 ft above ________
Entry 3: Half the atomic weapons detonated 600 ft above the answer in Entry 2 and the remainder over ________ and _________.
Entry 4: King Kong and Godzilla are resurrected and sent to attack Washington DC. Successfully as it turns out. Mothra devours Tel Aviv. The 500 ft tall Tomato that ate Chicago goes grocery shopping in Haifa. Bisexual Superboy is shown tapes of Lois Lane being repeatedly raped by residents of Buckingham palace. It isn’t very pretty what happens to London after that, no it sure isn’t.
Entry 5: The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion is introduced as mandatory reading material in all US schools including universities.
Entry 6: 75% of all the buildings in Israel are destroyed over a 10 month period of bombings and assorted terrorism, including all clinics, hospitals, schools, universities, synagogues, museums, and much else. Simultaneously a blockade of the state of Israel is put into effect which starves to death most of the population.
No?
Ok in that case I’ll settle for just one of the above.
Solutions: Serious vengeful deity version.
1: The Human race is wiped out by global warming. It’s unspeakably horrific and lasts 150 years. But finally all of the worthless scum are destroyed. God appears and says “I told you morons I am a vengeful God but you never listened.”
2: Same as in 1 (serious vengeful deity version) but several hundred thousand people of F&L’s choice are spared. Not one single American, UK resident or Israeli is among them. However Ireland is exempted and spared as is Russia – – minus the abhorrent cretins in the Kremlin (Maria Zakharova is of course spared).
Solutions III:
The staff and ownership of the entire international media conglomerate is publicly executed in a place to be determined. Includes the NY Times staff and ownership, The Times of London, The Guardian and all the major TV news staffs etc. And the NY Stock exchange is dynamited sky high. “The City of London” (finance capitol) is infected with an antibiotic resistant strain of bubonic plague. All gold everywhere is collected and dropped into an active volcano.
Does it sound a bit harsh any of it?
Well, as TTG might say, then you are naive and unacquainted with the dark arts of war.
Spare me the change
Big brother
Roving around in your range
Hate to be a bother
But what’s that foot
Sticking out your boot
Would be just another
One of your statistical
In the wrong place
Would be hysterical
If it was the human race
Eisenhower did not dare to name the exact problem, because he saw Patton’s assassination. He also witnessed the normalization of machine politics.
The end of the McCarthy inquisition probably marked the end of the WASP regime in America.
I want to clarify a couple things in response to TTG’s commentary in OP.
First, I didn’t mean to “dismiss” Natural Decline as a cause of our current mess; I do think it’s a real problem, but it’s inevitable and invisible, so it’s not really worth much discussion. OTOH, without the other factors, I’d guess that Natural Decline would have run much slower – we likely wouldn’t have gotten to this point for at least another generation.
Second, I need to clarify what I meant by “NeoCons”. Yes, there have been factions in the USA who have advocated expansionist/colonial/militaristic policies since the 1800’s, but “the NeoCons” refers to a specific group which has cropped up only in the last half century.
When I say “NeoCons”, I am essentially claiming that there has been a Cabal – a group of people working together, with a significant level of organizational secrecy, to influence/control US Foreign Policy. AFAIK, the core of the group originated with [some] members of Sen. (D-WA) Henry Jackson’s staff in the early 1970’s and the “Coalition for a Democratic Majority” – generally described at that time as “liberal hawks”. Most of the active politicians in that group went on to participate in the Democratic Leadership Council which helped Bill Clinton become President; but many others switched to the Republican Party and became part of the Reagan and/or Bush (I/II) Administrations, including…
– Richard Perle
– Paul Wolfowitz
– Richard Pipes
– Irving Kristol
– Jeanne Kirkpatrick
– Joshua Muravchik
…and many others.
In the 1970’s (and 80s?), the people who eventually coalesced into what I’m calling the NeoCon Cabal would have been more properly described as Hawks associated with the MIC (based on the funding for the think-tanks where they worked when their Party was out of power); perhaps more a Book Club than a Conspiracy…
IMO, the point at which this loose coalition began to qualify as a Cabal was the connections between two projects in the late 1990’s:
1. “A Clean Break: A New Strategy for Securing the Realm”, a policy document for the (first) Netanyahu Government of Israel, by a group led by Richard Perle (an including many other NeoCons).
2. The “Project for a New American Century”, particularly their 1998 Letter to Bill Clinton advocating “removing Saddam Hussein and his regime from power”.
The (s)election of GWBush in 2000 paved the way for Dick Cheney to appoint many of those NeoCons to important positions in the US Government; from those positions, they were able to bring more like-minded people into the bureaucracy *and* sideline people who didn’t agree with them.
This was especially destructive at the Dept of State, where they pushed aside many experienced diplomats, essentially eliminating anybody who spoke Arabic and/or understood the cultures and histories of the Middle East. This point is particularly relevant to the OP – it is a specific example of how experts were *intentionally* removed from State, leaving the USA blind and stupid about the rest of the world.
IMO, the US Treasury Dept – or at least the section which set the details of US Sanctions – was also intentionally stacked with NeoCon insiders.
Luckily, this process has not been so effective at the Pentagon. There, the pool of candidates for top positions is limited to people who have spent *decades* in their branch of the Armed Forces; even a seriously NeoCon SecDef couldn’t parachute some loyal geek from a pet Think Tank into a seat on the Joint Chiefs. While Cheney was in charge, they found ways to manipulate policy and personnel, but that has had less long-term repercussions than at other Agencies.
NeoCons have also gained power over many of the NGO’s which advise us about Foreign Policy issues (for example, Elliott Abrams is “Senior Fellow for Middle Eastern Studies” at the Council on Foreign Relations).
Even worse, NeoCons have somehow managed to influence traditional Media sources to promote their endless plans for more wars. The creepiest evidence for this is the career trajectories of OpEd writers who advocated for or against the invasion of Iraq: pro-invasion pundits got rich and famous, while those who spoke out against the invasion were all pushed off the pages and airwaves.
My point is that almost all organizations with any input to or influence over US Foreign Policy are now infested with and/or dominated by NeoCon people and ideologies.
Dear Elkern –
The neocons throw hundreds of thousands and millions of perfectly decent people into the infernal abattoirs of war for the wealthy and powerful. It’s a spectacle, a gruesome, fearsome display. It is on the exact same level as the jackals who made themselves rulers over the Aztecs who butchered up to 50,000 victims every year atop their cannibal altars.
The bodies of the victims, often virginal children were boiled and eaten with peppers and tomatoes — it’s vitally important that the most absolutely pure and innocent are violated by methods which defy sane comprehension. Killing a murderer or other criminal is obviously insufficient because the audience will say the criminal deserved it. In other words it would represent justice. That is forbidden.
It is the crucifixion of Christ writ large and iterated onto infinity. Christ in the myth is the finest, wisest, most innocent human being who ever lived or could possibly live — so it is vitally important and essential that he, above all, be killed in the most gruesomely abhorrent manner possible — crucifixion. And the “Cristian” religion perpetuates the cannibal sacrifice every day by eating the body — the host — and consuming the victim’s blood as red wine.
Scroll through and imagine millions of beautiful innocent young Varkas administered to by these creatutres of the infernal abyss, so they can build the pyramidal monuments of blood drenched filth that they call money and property.
Варька (Varka) 1971
https://tinyurl.com/mree6nt8
@F&L
Technical question, why do you feel the need to wrap-up your links in a tinyurl?
It is bothersome to me (and probably others) because to avoid overcrowding my cookies I most often open links in a private window but this fails if the link is Twitter and is awkward for videos, so I would like to know where the link goes.
jld:
The YouTube links come with a source identifier string attached to the usual portion of the link to the YouTube server. That’s why I use the tinyurl lately for linking to YT vids. I don’t want poison food delivered to me or to wake up to find my cell phone or TV remote has been swapped with an explosive copy. Women all over the world have started to not allow their children to watch plasma TV sets, and they’ve removed those electric crib attachments that do things I don’t even understand. I’ll try to tinker around and find another solution. It’s probably silly because the authorities of several intelligence agencies have been harassing me continually since 2013 or 14. Btw — there are reports of Zionists calling posters on X who they consider antisemitic and threatening to kill their children and similar. It’s no longer necessary to wear tinfoil. It’s really happening. Snowden had to flee the country and Assange was imprisoned illegally and treated barbarically.
“The YouTube links come with a source identifier string attached to the usual portion of the link to the YouTube server.”
True.
That’s why, whenever I copy a YouTube URL into this blog,
I just delete the “si” part, including the “?”.
Like this:
https://youtu.be/BvFu7Z5cc88
elkern:
What an excellent commentary.
As to media figures currently pushing for war, might I nominate
Max Boot and Josh Rogin at the Washington Post.
Sorry, should have included this in my previous comment.
Here are two references which I believe support your points:
https://responsiblestatecraft.org/2022/03/18/iraq-war-lesson-the-seduction-may-be-sweet-but-hangover-is-hell/
https://responsiblestatecraft.org/national-security-endorse-harris/
this Haitians Are Coming thing is just a trump gop campaign operation. the kindling is all over the country (you guys don’t follow small Southern town news much) where Haitians fleeing murder in the homeland were sponsored by businesses needing labor… for all the meat we consume at fast-food restaurants.
same deal w/ Mothers For Liberty taking over libraries. all political operations … the BS will recede when campaign funding ceases, like trump’s infrastructure plan & Walling Off America. concepts of plans… nothing to get too exercised over. unless the reverb gains a strength of its own. then it could get tough on small & medium-sized town’s businesses, actual library users & those evil Librarians.