A Grotesque Bulvan. However...
There is no question that Mr. Trump is one of the most repulsive human beings on the planet today. One cannot say enough awful things about him. But the one thing you can’t call him is “warmonger”; which is clearly what Mr. Biden is. On the domestic front, Biden is OK. He is kind of a mild version of FDR, and has instituted some important changes in the direction of giving Americans a better life. Oddly enough, these Americans fail to notice this, or fail to care. What they see is a senile fuddy-duddy, and they are not far wrong. The stats are that most Democrats would prefer a different candidate in 2024. However, as a senile fuddy-duddy, when it comes to foreign policy, the man has no imagination at all. It just consists of reviving the Cold War, which now means carrying on a proxy war with one nuclear superpower, and making threatening noises in the direction of the other one. It’s the height of stupidity, and it could have disastrous consequences.
posted by Morris Berman at 7:22 AM
96 Comments:
To repeat what the GSWH said: “You see common words on government signs misspelled. This blows your mind away.”
Doctor & Wafers, it gets even better than New York State misspelling the Jackie Robinson Parkway ( spelled “Jakie”) in Queens, New York. For example, check out this Congressional hearing on CSPAN at the 13 minute and 25 minute marks. You’ll see the word “sheriff” spelled “sherriff”. This is the United States Congress! LOL!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zAI7Ru9Vdb4
From the “Once a buffoon, always a buffoon” department: A recent Gallup poll found that two-thirds of Americans still want the U.S. to manage a rules-based global order, whatever that means in their poopy heads (Russia and China bad, U.S. good, thank you for your service GIs, etc). The report by Sputnik touted that this was the lowest level of support ever, but note that even Independents supported U-S-A! U-S-A! by a margin of 61 percent:
https://sputniknews.com/20230304/number-of-americans-who-want-us-to-manage-global-affairs-drops-to-lowest-its-ever-been-poll-shows-1107998930.html
Meanwhile, a short-legged vulgarian looms to give Trumpi some competition for oligarch money as the curtain lifts for the theater of U.S. Presidential primaries. The Baffler in its latest issue 67 just published a worthwhile recounting of the political ambitions of Ron DeSantis, he the JAG legal affairs officer at Gitmo who participated laughing at torture sessions, and now the Presidential contender. As author Jasper Craven says, “DeSantis’s contradictions are so apparent that it becomes difficult to separate spin from sincerity. It may be that he genuinely believes a strongman can run a free world.” A potential DeSantis versus Biden electoral “choice” pitting covert versus overt warmongers, with DeSantis offering the declinist bonus of domestic authoritarianism?
https://thebaffler.com/salvos/the-sunshine-imperium-craven
Dr. Berman,
The following article refers to an "outsider" military group bent on the decline of Western Civilization. Besides having typical right-wing beliefs, they're also pro-jihadist. One wonders how many of these groups exist in the United States and what kind of damage they might do. What we do know is that crimes against the State (i.e. USA) are met with the severest punishments.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/former-army-private-sentenced-to-45-years-in-neo-nazi-plot-to-kill-soldiers/ar-AA18cfOv?ocid=hpmsn&cvid=0f6422cc3d354ba8abcd19825ce92330&ei=12
Medieval monks took extreme measures to focus on God and vanquish distraction. Some monasteries allowed regular baths, but others restricted them to periods of illness or certain times in the liturgical year—or discouraged them entirely. Sleeping with anyone was always a no-no, but that prohibition was straightforward compared with the labyrinthine regulations on sleeping in general. Some monks in Mesopotamia had no beds at all, only reclining seats, wall straps, and ceiling ropes for suspending themselves by their armpits. Eating was contentious, too. Monasteries restricted the use of condiments, to make sure that all monks ate the same thing, or prohibited monks from looking at one another while eating, so that they couldn’t argue about portions. In spite of these regulations, monks still found paying attention devilishly difficult. Read more about a new book that explores the centuries-long war against distraction: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2023/01/30/what-monks-can-teach-us-about-paying-attention-wandering-mind-jamie-kreiner
New (old?) Monastic Option in the New Yorker! To live in these true Dark Ages, we need something like what MB regularly has referred to as the New Monastic Individual, w practices contemplation. Do not expect this to catch on w many of your friends, but it is the Way to a spiritual emigration from these bad lands...
Last August I told a few friends that if a Biden vs Trump election were going on then, it would be a tough call. But now? I'm just about ready to bite that bullet. I understand that a person can SAY anything but, in this case, he's the only one even SAYING it, as far as I know.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gNf-kl6xrYY&ab_channel=AlJazeeraEnglish
A lot can and will happen in the next two years but, unless and until I have a better option, I'm saying yeah, and may The Force be with him.
(That I should live so long...)
Heidi-
It's a crazy world when Tulsi, MT Greene, and Trumpi are the sane ones, and the Biden admin is off its rocker.
mb
Apple is slam-dunk No. 1 with teens: 87% own an iPhone, 72% own AirPods
This is a shocking statistic to me. Is there another single product that has such dominance in this age group? Teenagers don't have a fully developed prefrontal cortex, and they don't even realize the commercial pressures that are influencing them. Corporations have targeted youth for a long time, but this seems like something else entirely.
When a product is this dominant, are parents expected to buy their kids this stuff? If you try to resist, you're in an ever shrinking minority. With some teenagers, having a nice iphone is the most important thing in the world.
Our society is going to shit, and it will only get worse as these teenagers become adults.
Phones-
No argument with yr last line.
mb
“These are your neighbors. They borrow sugar from you.” -GSWH
Forget about one of our daily mass shootings for a moment, even if this one took place at a church. Check out these great mugshots. In this example they’re from that great family values red state of Louisiana. Ya just gotta love that 95 year old dirty old man—a former sheriff’s deputy—and the mugshot of the guy who attacked emergency room personnel.
https://710keel.com/four-shot-during-drive-by-shooting-at-shreveport-church/
https://truecrimedaily.com/2023/01/26/otis-leroy-allen-pleaded-guilty-sentenced-child-sex-crimes-bossier-county-sheriff-deputy-louisiana/
Here’s a bonus. Check out more of the many shootings down there. Go Louisiana!
https://k945.com/shreveport-21-year-old-arrives-at-hospital-with-shooting-injuries/
And while we’re at it, let’s take a scenic drive in what looks like an abandoned war zone in the so called “greatest country in the world”. LOL!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ztxRJfJMqac
What a country! What a society! What a people! U.S.A.!, U.S.A.!, U.S.A.!
A Vietnam vet is just now getting his dues for being cannon fodder. Bonus PC pts for this guy also being Black. Who knew you could get medals for killing strangers in foreign lands? Though it's ironic cuz those jokers got their asses handed to them. On top of the medal he probably also has mental illnesses from seeing BBQ'd napalmed corpses & the deaths of his buddies. What a deal!
https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2023/mar/03/decades-later-black-army-officer-receives-medal-of/
Fly-
Check out Nick Turse. Better this guy shd apologize to the Vietnamese.
mb
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jezjhPQH1ms
I'm going to be brutally honest here.
As an avowed declinist and WAFer, I can't get enough of the Powerslap League. Americans giving each other permanent brain damage for only $2,000 (yes, that's what this 'league' pays) can only accelerate the downward spiral.
This isn't some weird niche thing you'll find on an esoteric channel. This is broadcast NATIONWIDE on TBS.
I know. Not enough urine, Dr. B. We'll get there, though. Have faith in Americans.
Wafers-
I'd like to make some predictions regarding the war in the Ukraine. Keep in mind that America is a very sick, and dying, society--really on its last legs--and that from the W.H. to the man in the street, it's not a very intelligent population. (I don't have exact figures, but apparently a large % believe we won the war in Vietnam.)
1. Russia will defeat the Ukraine.
2. The US gov't, and the MSM, will spin it as a victory for the Ukraine.
3. In keeping with our other military losses, such as Vietnam, the gov't will not learn anything from the defeat. This habit was pointed out yrs ago by Gore Vidal, that America never learns from its mistakes.
4. The whole affair will fade into oblivion on the part of the American people. Their attention will then be captured by the 'danger' posed to the US by China, over Taiwan and anything else the gov't can dredge up.
5. The MSM will continue to run propaganda on the front page as 'news'. Real journalists like Ritter, Mearsheimer, Pilger, Hersh, et al. will continue to give us the truth, but will be marginalized and ignored. Jimmy Dore will also be ignored.
6. If Trumpi wins in 2024, all of this warmongering will evaporate. On the domestic front, however, this will be a grim 4 years.
7. If Schmiden wins, he might die in office, bringing Kamala Schmamala into the presidency. Late night comics will have field day. Foreign leaders will hafta pretend they are dealing w/a serious person.
8. The fact that the US is irrelevant on the world stage, and is otherwise full of hot prunes, wh/even our allies know today, will be planet-wise public knowledge by 2030.
9. A few Chinese historians, digging thru the ruins of the NY Public Library yrs later, will wonder why the country paid no attention to the writings of Belman.
10. The epitaph on Belman's grave will read: I KEPT TELLING THEM, BUT DID THEY LISTEN? NO!
mb
Xen-
I am in favor of Americans slapping the shit out of each other. This is a gd declinist development. It's quite wonderful, that they can't think of anything better to do, really. Meanwhile, chew on this:
(1) INTERVIEW: UKRAINE has no chance of winning #ColDouglasMcGregor - YouTube
mb
After Calexit, we now have Texist.
https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/texas-republican-bill-secession-referendum-1234691622/
Many on twitter are laughing at this. But Such things always started on the margines before turning into an unstoppable tsunami.especially when the social context is favorable. Or as chaos theorists say, it is the flap of a butterfly's wing that triggers a tornado much, much later.
French-
I have predicted secession as a future possibility for a long time now. It wd be a gd way to terminate the American empire. Hopefully, Texas, but also Vermont, Alta California, and then other sections of the country. For an even earlier predictor, see Ernest Callenbach, "Ecotopia."
mb
Wafers-
I recently read some podcast or whatever by Michelle Obama, as to how the inauguration of Trumpi in 2017 broke her heart. Why? Because as she looked around, there were no people of color. Identity politics wd play no role in the new admin, and this, she said, was the very opposite of what she and Barack stood for. She didn't say anything abt what she and Trumpi had in common, namely that they were both keen supporters of capitalism, wh/had made both of them well off.
Shortly after the inauguration, she and Obama bought a house in the HQ of the elite in DC, the Kalorama Triangle, for $8 million. That millions of her soul sisters live in ghettos, eating cat food just to stay alive--why, this doesn't bother her at all. And the irony is that many, if not most, of those soul sisters *also* think the issue is skin color, not the relations of power or the (mal)distribution of wealth. But was it really necessary to spend $8 million on a house? Was it really necessary to live in Kalorama? This doesn't bother Michelle even slightly. The truth is that no amount of slapping, or urine, will wake her up. Or wake up her soul sisters, for that matter. Or the rest of the wokes, whatever color they are.
We live in such an intelligent country, eh?
mb
ps: a douche baguette speaks:
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/mar/08/michelle-obama-the-light-podcast-trump-inauguration
Dr. Berman—
Glad to see you point out the diversion of diversity politics vs. class politics. Here's Christian Parenti explaining the principle thoughts of his recent article, Diversity' Is a Ruling-Class Ideology:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-x3cS0GtSE&t=1437s
Oops-
I guess we shd sign him up for the Wafer Slapping Team (WST). Honestly, I can't get over how blind Americans are, how easily sidetracked onto irrelevant pathways. Of course the ruling class is pro-diversity; no skin off their nose. Michelle Obama is turkey, but really only one turkey among millions of turkeys.
mb
Doctor, Speaking of slapping, check out this newest “sport” in this pathetic USAin society.
https://theconversation.com/power-slap-league-a-brutal-sport-that-may-leave-contestants-with-brain-damage-198290
Maybe come the next airplane fight USAins can practice it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YILwnX5PM6I
And perhaps the ladies here also can take part in it. LOL!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=62gRyusegtY
It’s great to sit back and enjoy the fun here in this debased violent shithole.
U.S.A.!, U.S.A.!, U.S.A.!
For millions of Americans, this is important news:
https://news.yahoo.com/justin-biebers-performance-rolling-loud-211245463.html
“Movin’ on up” Obama style
In 2021, they left their Kalorama home ($8 millions) for a new $11.75 million-dollar place on Martha’s Vineyard, where they had traditionally vacationed during Obama’s presidency:
https://www.homesandgardens.com/news/president-obama-new-house-marthas-vineyard
Jas-
This cool cat owns millions in real estate. Now where did that $ come from?
Radical social chg thru diversity; no doubt abt it!
mb
The American grip on the world is slipping away before our eyes.
First China comes out swinging, basically saying they have had enough and won't take anymore.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4laXMaMhbPo&t=1290s
Then Amlo in Mexico states what has been obvious for so long... America is not a democracy and it is time for them stop meddling where in other countries in other countries internal affairs. If he survives his honesty it will prove even more how the Empire is weak. I hope he does.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fbx5iLjSGsI&t=177s
The channel that made these videos is one of the best documenting the crimes of the Empire and its decline as the world changes around it. I would especially recommend their series on American Exception... some 18 videos and counting. All are worth watching.
Anjin-
The thought that an entire country could be slapped, and have its shoes peed on, is an interesting one. This has already happened to England. Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak are little more than jokes, as the country floats in nowhere land. But we, too, are floating in nowhere land. As our efforts fail in the Ukraine, the American public is getting bored w/that whole shtick. And is it anything more than theater at this pt? Consider this:
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2023/mar/09/oscars-volodymyr-zelenskiy-appearance-turned-down
I mean, WTF, man? Is there no upper limit to the buffoonage we are drowning in?
mb
Dumbass alert: a lady attempted to rob some folks in their car while preggo. She's below room temp now. Probably played too much Grand Theft Auto in her spare time
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/chicago-shooting-leaves-21-year-old-pregnant-woman-dead-in-belmont-cragin-neighborhood/ar-AA18idEu
Compare other USA presidential homes to the home of Jimmy Carter. I guess this is telling of the man and the values of the rest of the country.
How Jimmy Carter’s House Embodies The 39th President’s Humble Spirit
“Jimmy Carter’s house doesn’t look like much from the outside. Tucked down a wooded lane in Plains, Georgia, it’s valued at less than a Secret Service vehicle. But the humble home says a lot about the man who built it.”
Linh Dinh is a fascinating and talented writer. He's funny, observant, merciless, while also uniquely compassionate. And he often writes from the perspective of downtrodden people so degraded even Bukowski wouldn't go near them. That said, Professor Berman isn't the first to label him an antisemite (merely one label given Dinh, including racist and fascist among other things no one wants to be labelled).
So, talented and interesting though he may be, Dinh is generally considered beyond the pale. Then again, so is Morris Berman. It's just that Dinh's pale is a couple of pales further afield than Berman's and lands a reader in territories one is never supposed to venture into with one's questions about what is wrong with American culture.
In any case, here is Dinh's response to this kind of criticism of both his writing and his character. Worth reading, even if you walk away wanting to affix such labels to him more firmly than ever:
https://www.unz.com/ldinh/plastic-recycling-and-jousting-jews/
Pol-
What he has to say abt Jews in this clip and elsewhere is completely disgusting; shameful, really--the Protocols revisited. As for his being beyond my pale: cd be, but you offer not a shred of proof (unless yr talking abt 9/11, in wh/case I don't subscribe to any conspiracy theory).
Rose-
Check out my discussion of Jimmy in DAA and WAF. He offered Americans reality, a chance to repudiate the false track we were on. Reagan offered them Disneyland. The rest is history.
mb
Breaking News: The Pentagon is blocking the U.S. from sharing evidence on Russian atrocities in Ukraine with the International Criminal Court, officials said. Military leaders fear setting a precedent that might pave the way for it to prosecute Americans.
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/08/us/politics/pentagon-war-crimes-hague.html
Good God, who can possibly take the US seriously anymore? What we see as evil in Russia we cannot confront w/in ourselves. Russia has evil in its own way, but what the hell is this?
In a recent interview with Seymour Hersh. He says the actors in the White House are "crazy" and "stupid" with regard to foreign policy. I appreciate these terms and I just wish he added that they are buffoons!
It takes some Hi-IQ buffoons to execute the bombing of the Nord Stream pipleine and then blame it on some Ukrainian fishing boat.
https://youtu.be/2s9aDEwfnsY
Hope you all are staying sane out there. Remember this if your still in the states-there will never be enough urine or slapping to fix the required amount of Americans for a populist rising.
Krak-
Amen. Fact is, America is a joke; truly, truly a joke.
Lou-
See my reply to Krak. The MSM is big on showcasing Russian atrocities; for some reason, it tends not to say anything abt the Ukrainian ones. This proxy war is completely phony, and US foreign policy is being guided by total morons.
mb
Greetings MB and Wafers,
Juxtaposing MB's work w/that of Linh Dinh is laughable. Dinh is a notorious and dishonest demagogue who traffics in anti-Jewish attitudes and tropes, as indicated by Politically Correct Russian Spy and a whole host of others. MB, on the other hand, is the greatest Jew since Spinoza! Where is my proof for this statement?: It was revealed to me in the Shema prayer.
In addition, the ADL documented in an October 2018 report that the Unz Review publishes, "racist and antisemitic content" and its founder Ron Unz, "has denied the Holocaust, endorsed the claim that Jews consume the blood of non-Jews, and has claimed that Jews control the media" among other tropes:
https://www.adl.org/resources/blog/california-entrepreneur-ron-unz-launches-series-rhetorical-attacks-jews
I would be very cautious about taking anything seriously that derives from Linh Dinh, or the gutter journalism of the Unz Review.
Jeff
Jeff-
Right on. Linh is a piece of dog excrement. As for me: I may be the greatest Jew since Maimonides (12thC)! I'm happy to say that the Sh'ma has been updated. Modern version:
"Hear O Israel, the Berm is our God, the Berm is one. And as for you, you shall love the Berm with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your might."
The fact that millions of Jews and Gentiles get up every morning and recite this prayer, is a source of great comfort to me. If Spinoza were alive today, he'd tip his hat and be saying (in Dutch): "Berm, yr the hottest thing since canned tuna!"
mb
Wafers-
Pls appreciate the fact that it is given to only a few generations in history to watch an entire civilization beating off. If there is something appalling abt what America is doing these days, there is also something hilarious abt it as well. I'm going to attempt a bit of hip-hop; pls feel free to add verses of yr own.
"Walkin' down the street while the country beats its meat
Mah bitch mah hoe mah hoe mah bitch
US in a ditch no time to scratch an itch
Biden Schmiden on a donkey ridin'
To hell! It's swell!
Washin' his hair with Prell
It's all a soft sell
He sayin' Do tell!
Star Spangled Motherfucker
No time for Carson Tucker
Orange head nearly dead
Kanye West he da best
Anti-Semite fully dressed
Lost two billion but not distressed
Mah bitch mah hoe..."
mb
Note on my Linh Dinh comment yesterday about MB being also "beyond the pale". I should have qualified that with "from the perspective of mainstream American media." If the New York Times was forced to comment on why they wouldn't dream of publishing an editorial (or even a letter to the editor) from MB, they'd probably claim something like, "Morris Berman is a minor, discredited, anti-American gadfly." Of course, they've done their very best to make that appear the case, even though they know it isn't true.
Further, I do my own reading in trying to figure out what is true, and the ADL has published enough transparent horse-crap over the years that I wouldn't simply take their word for anything. Rob Unz does set off alarm bells because he will extrapolate wildly based on limited/dodgy sources (see https://www.unz.com/ishamir/the-bloody-passovers-of-dr-toaff/), as many a true antisemite is wont to do.
Dinh I refuse to make any excuses for either, though I do like his travelogues. In a lot of ways, he writes about America with the exact same biting contempt MB does, but he can't stop himself from crapping in the punchbowl with attacks on Judaism. He claims he gets nothing out of doing so but grief, and is only telling the truth. God forbid he is telling the truth, but as with Unz, I suspect he raced off into the weeds and got himself lost.
Dr. Berman—
If you are looking for a significant marker of the imperial shift of global capitalism away from the US and US decline as world hegemon, I present the agreement negotiated in Beijing to restore relations between Saudi Arabia and Iran. Please note that the NY Times headline originally said that the US had been "Sidelined".
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/11/us/politics/saudi-arabia-iran-china-biden.html
This signals a great danger worldwide, since the US is daily more unhinged and armed to the teeth. Saith the arm-waving robot: "Danger, Will Robinson! Danger!!" But for most Americans it's, "what's for lunch?"
Pol-
Linh is indeed beyond the pale, and rt into the garbage pail. 2nd: the NYT probably does believe their own shit abt me. When they published a hatchet job review of DAA, it was obvious that Michiko Kakukaka hadn't really read the bk. Easy to smear a bk when you cherry-pick a few rhetorical lines here and there. I guess that made her an honest liar. Finally, I respect the ADL and the work that they do. If you are going to say that they publish horseshit--prove it! Where is your evidence?
mb
Pol-
Are you not aware of this blog's guidelines? 2 of them are: Post only once every 24 hrs, max; limit your posts to half a page, max. We appreciate your cooperation.
Thank you.
mb
Adolescents giving their fair share of the disintegration in the U.S.A.!, U.S.A.!, U.S.A.!
Look at what happens in a normal school day here in this shithole.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g7gzojBtQbU
https://www.audacy.com/1010wins/news/national/school-safety-concerns-aired-after-california-fatal-stabbing
The prejudiced Karens are doing their part.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NtCzwGf0bJo
And here’s a video, literally just one of many “scenic tours” you can take in the “greatest country in the world”—in the land of capitalist opportunity. For starters, let’s check out that great state of Arkansas. Many of the former business owners of these boarded up former businesses certainly now are living in Milton Bradley’s Game of Life “Millionaire Acres”.
A good quote is shortly after the 6 minute mark: “You wonder what life is like in a place like this.”
Doctor, You should come back up here and take one of these joy rides. LOL!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9mQKLZe3WVE
Greetings MB and Wafers,
Ma-Ma Mia, this is disgusting:
https://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/local/award-winning-national-city-teacher-arrested-on-suspicion-of-child-sex-abuse/3181429/
However, in terms of American decline, go Jacqueline Ma!
Jeff
MB's hip-hop verse cont.:
Her juicy caboosey sheeny as a glass of whisky
Generate premature twerking of my beef Zelensky...
MB,
So, it seems that Biden is about the to open the North Slope of Alaska to an $8 billion drilling project, and this news is something that even the New York Times isn't suppressing:
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/10/climate/biden-willow-oil-alaska.html
I hope this isn't behind a paywall for you.
Gee, aren't we supposed to believe that Biden is the guy to deal with global warming? I'm pretty sure I saw Paul Krugman say something to that effect in writing recently. And wasn't the inflation reduction bill originally supposed be called the climate bill? What a farce all of this is.
ccg-
Yeah, what a horror. The GOP can be characterized as insane, and the Dems as farcical.
Jeff-
Continuing yours:
But he's a weenie! He's a weenie!
Keeps tellin' us Putin's a meanie!
mb
Oklahoma folks who've endured the recent tornado are now possible targets of repair scams, involving fake crews looking to clean up. But I'm sure it was still worth it, right? The ones who fell for this mythical Amerikkkan "dream" likely didn't do a cost benefit analysis b4 saddling themselves with debt.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/autos/news/oklahoma-tornado-victims-are-targets-of-repair-scams/vi-AA18cij6
Then u have this lady whose house was listed 4 rent after someone looked @ it. The dimwittedness of Amerikkkans is kinda pitiful
https://www.news4jax.com/i-team/2023/03/01/i-was-flabbergasted-jacksonville-homeowner-says-she-learned-her-house-was-listed-for-rent-when-someone-came-to-look-at-it/
Duh Dept.:
https://edition.cnn.com/2023/03/13/americas/mexico-us-amlo-intl-latam/index.html
It's also, narcotraficantes aside, a *decent* country with generous, community-oriented people. This reality hits me in the face every day. It is not a buffoon country filled w/assholes.
mb
ps: See?
https://edition.cnn.com/2023/03/13/us/girl-shoots-sister-texas/index.html
Here comes a big one! Granted it took a year after the collapse of Lehman brothers in 2008 for things to get bad, though this one could be very much a recession of the rich.
https://www.npr.org/2023/03/13/1163028280/2-bank-failures-have-the-federal-government-taking-extraordinary-action
My guess is between the give away to the banks in decreasing regulations under Trump and the hopelessness of the Biden administration will interact to ensure a new disaster for this ailing country.
Wafers-
I need to confess my ignorance and change my opinion regarding the ADL. Apparently, I naively bought into their public face/mythology. One Wafer just sent the following link to my email address: pretty ugly, muchachos. In any case, mea culpa; I was deluded.
https://mondoweiss.net/2022/07/dismantle-the-adl-the-anti-defamation-leagues-record-of-racist-counterinsurgency-and-espionage/
mb
Pronouns seems to be the great cause of american woke at the moment. We know he, she, they etc. Now we've git things like:
dem/demon/demons/demons/demonself
or
🖍️/🖍️/🖍️'s/🖍️'s/🖍️self (yes, people use emojis as their pronouns)
Here's a full list of such nonsense
https://pronouny.xyz/pronouns/list/public
These are the things children used to do, now grown ass people refer to themselves with emojis and consider this cause equal to such struggles as decolonisation or women rights or labour rights.
Another issue, therapists are not doing the minimum of psychological investigation when it comes to children who claim they are trans. These kids are given hormone treatments and are going under surgeries and many are regretting it, even going suicidal. I know very little about the trans issue and I don't really care as long as people are happy. But stories like this one, and many others on the same subreddit about kids whose lives were ruined, is really heartbreaking.
https://old.reddit.com/r/detrans/comments/yrr2c8/my_life_was_destroyed_and_i_suffer_every_single/
https://old.reddit.com/r/detrans
Americans are detroying everything at all levels in the name of good. From a declinist POV it's all good, but, at a personal level, it s sad.
French-
Clearly, pronouns are the battlefield on which the struggles for great social changes will be fought.
mb
Ah the kindness of USAins on the road.
https://www.wsmv.com/2023/03/13/elderly-woman-thrown-into-traffic-during-alleged-nashville-road-rage-incident/
https://www.wfmz.com/news/area/southeastern-pa/man-charged-with-homicide-in-road-rage-hit-and-run-in-mcdonalds-parking-lot/article_03efee08-c1b0-11ed-b1c7-3f97514df4bc.html
Speaking of the road, here’s another “scenic” stop on a tour of the U.S.A.!, U.S.A.!, U.S.A.! Look at these ghost towns in the Texas Panhandle. Dilapidated and abandoned houses and buildings that look like a war zone. T.S. Eliot could have been inspired to write The Wasteland right here. You especially have to watch at about the 22 minute mark. You’ll get quite a laugh. It’s some junkyard in ( the fitting name) “Nazareth”, Texas. LOL! The junkyard’s highlights: a huge Christmas creche in some huge rotting old oil tank; Lady Liberty in another old oil storage tank; and a gigantic Ten Commandments! Praise the Lord! LOL! And a little further down are some of the usual misspellings and grammatical errors on some huge posted “free speech” signs.
I hope, Doctor, that videos like these in your opinion can be included in your blog’s theme here. One can say they show the effects of failed capitalism, the myth of the American Dream, and the dumbing down of America. This You Tuber is showing us in real time and in different geographical areas this piece of shit country falling apart before our very eyes. Forget the Oscars. He deserves some sort of award for his own large unique documentary. Maybe it should be called “Declinists’ Dreamscape 2030 Coming True”.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qJMug1Ss1WA&t=2074s
Greetings MB and Wafers,
Re: ADL
Well, it appears that nothing escapes corruption in the US, sad to say. Is this a case that given enough time, an agency such as ADL will eventually turn into its antithesis? Or is something more sinister at work here? While I believe it is true that antisemitism is definitely on the rise in the US and throughout the world, and that Ron Unz (who is Jewish, BTW) is a dangerously deluded individual, as reported by the ADL and other publications, I had no real idea of the conservative origins of the ADL. And the fact that Jewish defense agencies like the ADL essentially supported the execution of the Rosenbergs is heartbreaking. In any case, I also found this piece which supports many of the findings found in the Mondoweiss article:
https://jewishcurrents.org/the-anti-democratic-origins-of-the-jewish-establishment
Jeff
Jeff-
Killing the Rosenbergs was part of the Cold War frenzy. Ethel's brother, David Greenglass, perjured himself to save his marriage, and sent Ethel to the electric chair:
https://www.amazon.com/Brother-Untold-Greenglass-Rosenberg-Electric/dp/0375500138/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3DFFW6K9ECIRA&keywords=the+brother+david+greenglass&qid=1678815529&s=books&sprefix=the+brother+david+greenglass%2Cstripbooks%2C269&sr=1-1
She was, in fact, completely innocent. As for Julius: as I understand it, what he stole were not atomic secrets, but industrial ones--not worthy of the death penalty. In any case, Klaus Fuchs had already blown the lid on atomic secrets in 1945. A # of historians believe the Rosenbergs were the victims of antisemitism. Not the US gov't's finest hr, in any case. The Rosenbergs maintained their innocence to the very end; their sons, surname Meeropol, have written in defense of them.
mb
MB,
It might be worth recalling the case of historian Tony Judt running afoul of the ADL as is discussed on his Wikipedia page:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony_Judt
There's also this from the NY Review of Books:
https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2006/11/16/the-case-of-tony-judt-an-open-letter-to-the-adl/
The ADL has quite successfully, or so it seems to me, gotten much of the public to buy into the notion that anyone supporting the BDS movement against Israel's treatment of Palestinians is, de facto, an antisemite. This comes up a lot in the City University of New York for which I work. I've seen lots of accusations like this being tossed around, no doubt to shut down any criticism of Israel. And it's largely been effective.
ccg-
The smokescreen that Judaism = Zionism has served Israeli propaganda very well. As with all woke shit, it's got everyone walking on eggshells. Not me. One is a great ethical system; the other, an oppressive ideology. I doubt Hillel would have admired Zionism.
mb
Wafers-
For yrs, the MSM railed on abt Brexit. My comment proved to be the correct description: Brexit, Schmexit.
Now, the MSM is reporting that Rachel Bilson didn't have an orgasm until she was 38. This, they regard as news. My comment: Bilson, Schmilson.
Meanwhile, Republicans are starting to trend toward not continuing to supply the Ukraine w/arms and $, Trumpi and DeSantis in particular. My comments regarding this: Ukraine, Schmukraine, and Zelensky, Schmelensky. When Trumpi says he will avoid WW3, if elected--he's rt. We need to get the warmongers outta the W.H. Biden, Schmiden.
Stay tuned to this station for the most accurate rdg of starlet orgasms and potential nuclear war. Talk abt a dumbass country.
mb
Greetings MB and Wafers of the world,
For no particular reason, I would like to give a shout-out to all the multi-orgasmic women out there. God bless you, truly!
Jeff
A poem read by Roger Waters from Pink Floyd. I believe you Wafers will like it
https://youtu.be/8i-TMG7k_QM
I searched for the whole poem. It is an english translation from a palestinian poet
https://www.jstor.org/stable/40346498#:~:text=Come%2C%20let's%20split%20the%20light,go%20back%2C%20stranger%2C%20to%20your
(use scihub to gain access)
After the drone crash yesterday, Russia demanded that american drones stay away from its boarders. The US response was more warmongering as usual.
https://edition.cnn.com/2023/03/15/politics/lloyd-austin-russian-aircraft-us-drone
GO TRUMP! GO GOP! at least we'll have a decline without a world war.
Jeff-
I guess I shd ask Rachel Bilson out, yeah? MSM headline:
"That Berm, he's the best!"
mb
Wafers-
I keep reading essays on how America is going to revitalize itself. The favorite word is 'turbocharge': we are going to turbocharge our streets, our cities, the entire country. But what if what is really going on is that we are turbocharging ourselves into the toilet? Wafers are asked to comment on this possibility.
mb
Baron-
Cdn't run it. You failed to provide a link or reference. (We're big on evidence here.)
mb
Note to bb-
Some guidelines for this blog. 1st, always send messages to most recent post; no one reads the older stuff. 2nd, we are a discussion forum, not a bulletin board. Along with a link, provide a para of yr own commentary. Thanks.
mb
Sorry Professor.
https://www.thenation.com/article/culture/malcolm-harris-palo-alto-interview/
I found this interview relevant to the question of American revitalization, or” turbocharging”. America always over promises and underdelivers due to our DNA. The mythology of techno optimism is also discussed (Californian perspective). I agree that the thoughts that somehow America will revitalize itself amounts to no more that doing more dumb things faster, or to your point, a faster flush.
USAins have such miserable lives. So they escape them via various means: Drug Addiction. ( Mainly women) Smoking. Drinking. ( Mainly teenage males) Playing video games. Watching television. ( Mainly teenage girls) Fumbling with their smartphones all day long. ( Mainly men) Watching pornography. And of course the REAL national pasttime: Gambling! USAins now, via their smartphones, can gamble away their paychecks; or, they can put themselves into and add to the massive credit card debt that will be part and parcel of this shithole’s capitalist collapse when its economic Day of Reckoning comes.
https://apnews.com/article/sports-betting-march-madness-c8b6d663a992ca4e7c616d8c3af8d585
That being said, what better way to add to the mix than to entice our college students.
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/rise-of-sports-betting-brings-concerns-some-colleges-are-too-involved-in-its-promotion
And don’t forget about the omnipresent anger here. Here’s a creative first. A flight was delayed because the flight attendants were fighting with each other! LOL!
https://www.foxnews.com/lifestyle/flight-attendants-skywest-airplane-reportedly-fight-delay-passengers-hour
Greetings MB and Wafers,
Marianne Williamson, the self-help guru who has built a career preaching love and forgiveness, exhibits abusive and mercurial anger toward her staff. Gee, what a shock:
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/mar/16/marianne-williamson-former-staffers-abuse
Perhaps Marianne should join Rachel Bilson on her podcast to discuss ways to discover her orgasm. Oy vey, what an absurd country this is.
Jeff
Jeff-
She's another Oprah type, i.e. telling people that it's yr attitude that matters, and that w/the rt attitude, anything is possible. I've also heard stories abt Oprah being abusive, but it's 2nd-hand. Anyway, almost all of these gurus have feet of clay, and wd certainly benefit from a vigorous waterboarding.
Joe-
Have you calculated the # of Americans that need to be slapped?
bb-
All promises made re: an American renaissance ignore the fact that 99% of Americans are douche bags. This makes it hard to do anything at all, except go down the toilet. It's no accident that the entire country is stuck in Nowhere Mode.
mb
Dr. Berman,
How do you think the United States should be dealing with Russia and Ukraine? Obviously, you disagree with President Biden's policies dealing with it. I would like to see the war end and Russia and Ukraine live in peace. I don't like Putin and what he has done. Yet, I don't know that Biden is approaching it in a good way.
--James
P.S. Sorry if I come across a little incoherent. I did not sleep well last night.
Jas-
Well, we've discussed this issue many times here, so I dunno what to tell you. Read previous posts? Think abt US' resurrection of the Cold War? Read my essays in QOV regarding America's endless need for an enemy? Etc.
mb
Roboto-
I guess you don't understand how this blog works. It is not a bulletin board, where people post their opinions. Opinions are like assholes: everyone has got one. Why wd anyone care what you think, really? We are a discussion forum, and in the future, if you'd like to participate in it, I suggest using the following format:
1. State your argument regarding the collapse of the American empire, and be specific.
2. Defend that argument with evidence, in the form of links or reliable references.
All of us look forward to your careful observation of these guidelines. Thank you.
mb
The grotesque Bulvan has struck again... but this time making more sense than Democrats and Republicans.
https://www.newsweek.com/trump-video-greatest-threat-ripped-ex-pence-adviser-horrifying-1788381?amp=1
If I was an American and I had to vote for either the great orange grifter or the ones who want war with both China and Russia, I would vote for the grifter every time. After all everyone in politics down there is on the make so he's no different and he wouldn't kill us all.
On another tangent I assume almost everyone on the blog knows Bob Dylan's classic Masters of War. It is so discouraging that it is so relevant 60 years on. I listened to it again today and so I thought I would share it.
https://youtu.be/K4uMQRQzVmc
Anjin-
America needs to be punished, and it will be punished. This is happening rt now. Except that Americans are too stupid to understand that they have done anything wrong. This cluelessness is also part of their punishment.
mb
ps:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/mar/17/mexico-president-fentanyl-hugs-children-amlo
He's rt: Americans are cold, alienated douche bags. Karma is hitting them from all directions.
Check it out:
https://www.noemamag.com/the-emotional-state-of-nations/
Just another normal “peaceful” day on the roads here with your average USAins. LOL!
First off is today’s mugshot: What’s funny is that this doofus had three kids in her car and ended up driving into a ditch. Ha!Ha!Ha!
https://www.wcax.com/2023/03/17/pownal-woman-arrested-road-rage-incident/
This creep had a two-year old in his car as he fired away 11 bullets at another driver and shot an innocent bystander.
https://www.wsbtv.com/news/local/hall-county/hes-trying-kill-me-man-recalls-being-shot-twice-terrifying-road-rage-battle/URYQBBFBFFGN5IDDW76Z3DKCYI/
This so called “life saving/first responder” didn’t think twice at trying to kill somebody.
https://www.clickondetroit.com/news/local/2023/03/17/detroit-fire-department-medic-arrested-in-suspected-road-rage-shooting-in-redford-township/
And heaven forbid if you’re a pedestrian walking too slowly in a parking lot. You may get knocked unconscious and unable to “turn the other cheek” to receive a roundhouse right as our buddy Jesus advises us to do.
https://www.10news.com/news/local-news/disabled-senior-uber-eats-driver-describes-road-rage-attack-in-rancho-san-diego
THE CHOICE:
1. Horse's Ass #1: A vile buffoon who will re-establish a kleptocracy.
2. Horse's Ass #2: A senile fuddy-duddy who will play games of brinksmanship with nuclear war.
Bright days ahead for America!
mb
Profile of a very stupid country:
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/mar/18/middle-east-ukraine-washington-iraq-kyiv
MD,
Today the New York Times outdid itself in the idiocy department. They have a front page article pushing the idea that the covid virus came from the Wuhan wet market via an animal called a raccoon dog, whatever that is. Gee, I "wonder" if this connected with fact that the lab leak theory is gaining traction. This is laughable. Here's a good take-down of this awful piece of propaganda, um, "journalism":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJm8D1QTNm4
The Times gets worse by the day.
ccg-
1. I never went to med schl.
2. The Times is a joke. But then, so is America. So is all of the MSM, and so is this phony war in the Ukraine. So is the Supreme Court, and so is the Vice President.
3. What are not jokes? China and Russia.
mb
How America Manufactures Poverty
The sociologist Matthew Desmond identifies specific practices and policies that consign tens of millions to destitution.
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2023/03/20/matthew-desmond-poverty-by-america-book-review
I liked Desmond's first book "Evicted" a lot.. Great sociology.
It's incredible how industrialized our system is at keeping people impoverished. Apparently something like $135 billion allocated for the deprived every year never makes it to them. Then of what the rich evades in taxes, there's some $175 billion that could theoretically lift everyone out of poverty.. Only in this country!
Miles, MB-
https://www.politico.com/newsletters/women-rule/2023/01/13/katie-porters-bad-boss-problem-00077874
https://importantcontext.substack.com/p/jimmy-dore-anti-worker-contracts
^^There've been very similar headlines about Katie Porter and Jimmy Dore too. None of these people give a damn. Just some rich assholes telling us all what's wrong w America while they can't even walk the walk in their professional and personal lives.
Brick-
This is why, when I say that Americans need to be beaten to w/in an inch of their lives and then thrown on a dunghill, I mean *all* Americans, except for Wafers and Native Americans.
mb
Dr B, have you ever been to South Korea? Your blog makes for interesting reading, because I see some similarities between my home nation & the US, minus the gun violence. Both nations both populations are worked like dogs, both nations are obsessed w/ technology, have abysmal judicial systems, etc. I'd say Korea is probably as rotten as the States, since America had control over that part of the peninsula around the time of WW2. It's no wonder people are killing themselves in droves over there, when you consider the immense pressures. I emigrated in 2014 & never looked back. Some of your readers have done the same in their abandonment of the US. I live in Costa Rica now and couldn't be more content:)
Take care
Members of the Reagan 1980 team sabotaged Jimmy Carter’s effort to release American hostages in Iran, likely costing him re-election @ nytimes.com
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/18/us/politics/jimmy-carter-october-surprise-iran-hostages.html
Well I'll be dammed. The Reagan Administration really was something else, huh? I think Trump's ilk's the only thing that comes close to it...
Eisley-
Not news, really. This has been known for some time.
Choi-
Thanks for writing in. "Why America Failed" exists in Korean translation, if you want to check it out.
mb
Col. Macgregor: Ukraine is CRUMBLING Under Putin's Military Offensive - YouTube
Cd it be that the US is finally prepared to stop beating off, now that it appears that its Ukrainian caper has blown up in its face? That the MSM might stop its absurd propaganda campaign? This cd be a major Suez Moment: Russia and China emerge as strong and clear, and a pathetic America sits there w/egg on face, while its banking system might heading toward a repeat of 2008?
The product of a nation of douche bags is a douchebag nation! Now, we see the results. What's next on the buffoon agenda? Taiwan? The stupidity of America is off the charts. Not only is it going down the drain; it is actually *rushing* to go down the drain.
I predicted the end of America in 2000, while everyone else was singing its praises. But never did I imagine that the end would be silly, and pathetic.
mb
ps: Karma w/a huge capital K. Don' tell me we're not getting what we deserve.
ps2: according to the NYT, the next Cold War target of the US is Chad. Yes, Chad. And when that goes bust, perhaps Antarctica, after which the Fiji Islands. And then...
When a nation is spiritually empty, it always needs an enemy to feel it has a purpose.
Chad, fer fuck's sake!
Wafers, today is the 20th anniversary of the war on Iraq. THis war was the beginning of the era of chaos in the middle east. The arabs knew, as it is stated in the article that "The Gulf Arab states thought the plan was crazy". Lots of nations opposed, some supported and others even participated. Those latter nations are the ones in which I've lost all hope. They've exchanged sanity for the american way.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-64980565
These days don't feel like good days too, and I have an ominous feeling. Some nations still haven't recovered from the 2008 crisis and it seems we may have a new one. Right wing populists and blatant fascists are on the rise everywhere. Ppeople are cheering and actively participating in limiting their own freedom, they are also becoming dumber. In France, and many other places, they want people to work to their graves. There is hope in some places, say in Brazil or mexico for example, but the general trend is worrisome. May you live in uninteresting times.
This little-noticed study found that certain neighborhoods in Chicago are more dangerous than being deployed to Iraq during the height of the war: https://www.newsnationnow.com/crime/parts-of-chicago-more-dangerous-than-wartime-iraq-study/
A headline like this can just float by in the news stream bc it's just taken for granted here!
Two Genocidal Buffoons:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/mar/20/iraq-war-destroyed-uk-trust-politicians-labour-turmoil-tony-blair
I just finished a good book that I would recommend here. https://www.amazon.com/Slouching-Towards-Utopia-Economic-Twentieth/dp/B0B2F3WWQL/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1R45WLQ5ADQT7&keywords=slouching+towards+utopia&qid=1679378961&sprefix=slouching+to%2Caps%2C93&sr=8-1
In the book, he makes a good case for the fact that research labs and corporations are responsible for many basic improvements ("essentials like washing machines, computers, etc) and quality of life. That part is hard to argue with. It is a though-provoking book, written with a leftist slant. But he is in favor of globalization. If one is against globalization, or favors limited globalization, it is a good book to test your ideas against. Still, I never see any economist making the link between hyper-corporatism, and cultural decadence. Perhaps because "decadence" is hard to quantify. But Facebook, Twitter, the Multi-billion dollar porn industry, cell phones, etc. are all things that, in my view, contribute heavily to our cultural and spiritual decadence. Certainly, the rise in conspiracy thinking and rabid tribalism could be quantified and traced to social media. I wonder if any model would be able to contain the contradictions between extreme corporate growth, and an utterly dumbed-down, sensation-seeking, spiritually dead society? I'm skeptical! But it is still a good book worth reading.
Just another mundane day in the U.S.A.!, U.S.A.!, U.S.A.! A mass shooting:
https://www.cbs58.com/news/15-year-old-killed-5-others-hurt-in-milwaukee-mass-shooting
A deadly road rage in that great gun-toting conservative state of Texas:
https://www.nbcdfw.com/news/local/woman-30-dies-after-being-shot-crashing-in-suspected-road-rage-incident-in-east-dallas/3219384/
But we always get a good laugh at the ongoing daily comedy show. This latest stop shows a few Trumpers. Click on the various pictures for a few good laughs! LOL!
https://apnews.com/article/trump-indictment-republican-desantis-2024-ecba40f2ec9f56732ff0476f3842e23a
Wafers: A glimmer of hope:
By Michael J. Lee, Professor of Communication, College of Charleston. Originally published at The Conversation
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Republican from Georgia, wants a “national divorce.” In her view, another Civil War is inevitable unless red and blue states form separate countries.
She has plenty of company on the right, where a host of others – 52% of Trump voters, Donald Trump himself and prominent Texas Republicans – have endorsed various forms of secession in recent years. Roughly 40% of Biden voters have fantasized about a national divorce as well. Some on the left urge a domestic breakup so that a new egalitarian nation might be, as Lincoln said at Gettysburg, “brought forth on this continent.”
The American Civil War was a national trauma precipitated by the secession of 11 Southern states over slavery. It is, therefore, understandable that many pundits and commentators would weigh in about the legality, feasibility and wisdom of secessionwhen others clamor for divorce.
But all this secession talk misses a key point that every troubled couple knows. Just as there are ways to withdraw from a marriage before any formal divorce, there are also ways to exit a nation before officially seceding.
I have studied secession for 20 years, and I think that it is not just a “what if?” scenario anymore. In “We Are Not One People: Secession and Separatism in American Politics Since 1776,” my co-author and I go beyond narrow discussions of secession and the Civil War to frame secession as an extreme end point on a scale that includes various acts of exit that have already taken place across the U.S.
Scaled Secession
This scale begins with smaller, targeted exits, like a person getting out of jury duty, and progresses to include the larger ways that communities refuse to comply with state and federal authorities.
Such refusals could involve legal maneuvers like interposition, in which a community delays or constrains the enforcement of a law it opposes, or nullification, in which a community explicitly declares a law to be null and void within its borders. At the end of the scale, there’s secession.
From this wider perspective, it is clear that many acts of departure – call them secession lite, de facto secession or soft separatism – are occurring right now. Americans have responded to increasing polarization by exploring the gradations between soft separatism and hard secession.
These escalating exits make sense in a polarized nation whose citizens are sorting themselves into like-minded neighbhorhoods. When compromise is elusive and coexistence is unpleasant, citizens have three options to get their way: Defeat the other side, eliminate the other side or get away from the other side.
Imagine a national law; it could be a mandate that citizens brush their teeth twice a day or a statute criminalizing texting while driving. Then imagine that a special group of people did not have to obey that law.
This quasi-secession can be achieved in several ways. Maybe this special group moves “off the grid” into the boondocks where they could text and drive without fear of oversight. Maybe this special group wields political power and can buy, bribe or lawyer their way out of any legal jam. Maybe this special group has persuaded a powerful authority, say Congress or the Supreme Court, to grant them unique legal exemptions.
These are hypothetical scenarios, but not imaginary ones. When groups exit public life and its civic duties and burdens, when they live under their own sets of rules, when they do not have to live with fellow citizens they have not chosen or listen to authorities they do not like, they have already seceded. (continued below)
Schools to Taxes
Present-day America offers numerous hard examples of soft separatism.
Over the past two decades, scores of wealthy white communities have separated from more diverse school districts. Advocates cite local control to justify these acts of school secession. But the result is the creation of parallel school districts, both relatively homogeneous but vastly different in racial makeup and economic background.
Several prominent district exits have occurred in the South – places like St. George, Louisiana – but instances from northern Maine to Southern California show that school splintering is happening nationwide.
As one reporter wrote, “If you didn’t want to attend school with certain people in your district, you just needed to find a way to put a district line between you and them.”
Many other examples of legalized separatism revolve around taxes. Disney World, for example, was classified as a “special tax district” in Florida in 1967. These special districts are functionally separate local governments and can provide public services and build and maintain their own infrastructure.
The company has saved millions by avoiding typical zoning, permitting and inspection processes for decades, although Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has recently challenged Disney’s special designation. Disney was only one of 1,800 special tax districts in Florida; there are over 35,000 in the nation.
Jeff Bezos paid no federal income taxes in 2011. Elon Musk paid almost none in 2018. Tales of wealthy individuals avoiding taxesare as common as stories of rich Americans buying their way outof jail. “Wealthier Americans,” Robert Reich lamented as far back as the early 1990s, “have been withdrawing into their own neighborhoods and clubs for generations.” Reich worried that a “new secession” allowed the rich to “inhabit a different economy from other Americans.”
Some of the nation’s wealthiest citizens pay an effective tax rate close to zero. As one investigative reporter put it, the ultrawealthy “sidestep the system in an entirely legal way.”
One Nation, Divisible
Schools and taxes are just a start.
Eleven states dub themselves “Second Amendment sanctuaries” and refuse to enforce federal gun restrictions. Movements aiming to carve off rural, more politically conservative portions of blue states are growing; 11 counties in Eastern Oregon support seceding and reclassifying themselves as “Greater Idaho,” a move that Idaho’s state government supports.
Hoping to become a separate state independent of Chicago’s political influence, over two dozen rural Illinois counties have passed pro-secession referendums. Some Texas Republicans back “Texit,” where the state becomes an independent nation.
Separatist ideas come from the Left, too.
“Cal-exit,” a plan for California to leave the union after 2016, was the most acute recent attempt at secession.
And separatist acts have reshaped life and law in many states. Since 2012, 21 states have legalized marijuana, which is federally illegal. Sanctuary cities and states have emerged since 2016 to combat aggressive federal immigration laws and policies. Some prosecutors and judges refuse to prosecute women and medical providers for newly illegal abortions in some states.
Estimates vary, but some Americans are increasingly opting out of hypermodern, hyperpolarized life entirely. “Intentional communities,” rural, sustainable, cooperative communes like East Wind in the Ozarks, are, as The New York Times reported in 2020, proliferating “across the country.”
In many ways, America is already broken apart. When secession is portrayed in its strictest sense, as a group of people declaring independence and taking a portion of a nation as they depart, the discussion is myopic, and current acts of exit hide in plain sight. When it comes to secession, the question is not just “What if?” but “What now?”
Wafers-
I was recently rdg an article online abt a deadly fungus threatening America. But what if America is, and has been, a deadly fungus threatening the world? What if its way of life, its value system, and the American 'Dream' have poisoned the planet socially, economically, culturally, politically, and certainly in terms of genocide? What if its imperial brutality is off the charts? Well, widespread secession might put the brakes on all of that. Let's hope!
mb
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