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zenith

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Re: The Collapse Of America
« Reply #450 on: December 29, 2022, 06:59:14 PM »
this is a really fascinating analysis, the implications of which have spread into every aspect of society including the sciences.

"the natural flowering of modern acting technique, which is the flowering of our modern view of psychology, which is the flowering of the collapse of western civilization".

Dylan Mulvaney's Rise To WOKE Hero EXPOSED | Michael Knowles
Where is reality? Can you show it to me? - Heinz von Foerster

WildFit

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Re: The Collapse Of America
« Reply #451 on: December 30, 2022, 02:19:45 PM »
this is a really fascinating analysis, the implications of which have spread into every aspect of society including the sciences.

"the natural flowering of modern acting technique, which is the flowering of our modern view of psychology, which is the flowering of the collapse of western civilization".

Dylan Mulvaney's Rise To WOKE Hero EXPOSED | Michael Knowles



As much as I share your general angle of views, WOKE is neither an U.S. thing nor will this topic topple the U.S. of A. into oblivion. Once that will happen, WOKE will be almost forgotten for sure.

IMO this is kind of OT because even if it would have an impact on the downfall of the U.S. of A. it would bring half of the world down and then it's another story. BTW this is what's going to happen IMO, the U.S. shall not fall alone but take Europe and a few others with them but as said, not because or related to WOKE or anything of that kind.

Alexander555

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Re: The Collapse Of America
« Reply #452 on: December 30, 2022, 03:23:17 PM »
Woke could do some damage, but probably not to the US. With + 800 billion in military investment in the army every year. But for Europe, they have become part of the social project, to enrich diversity. A mirrow of society. But that's not were you have an army for. They should defend the country.  Maybe that's the result of all these female defense ministers in Europe. They  maybe put the focus on different things. And now they have to scramble some stuff together to help Ukrania.


zenith

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Re: The Collapse Of America
« Reply #454 on: December 30, 2022, 06:55:00 PM »
you're missing the deeper psychology that's at work, it's really about transcending all boundaries. when there are no limits you can be whoever or whatever you want.

it pertains to global domination, transformational technologies (that are going to save the planet), the noosphere, bio-engineering, transhumanism, colonizing space, the singularity and immortality.

there are no limits!

this non-binary/transgender stuff is aimed at children as it blurs the lines and sexuality is our most powerful drive at the root of our identity, debase that and what happens up the 33 vertebrae is fluid (or mentally ill and broken).
Where is reality? Can you show it to me? - Heinz von Foerster

zenith

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Re: The Collapse Of America
« Reply #455 on: December 31, 2022, 01:18:59 AM »
when there are no boundries and you can be anyone or anything you want... you have to be 100% invested to pull off the act.

Tulsi Gabbard Eviscerates Exposed Liar George Santos
Where is reality? Can you show it to me? - Heinz von Foerster

WildFit

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Re: The Collapse Of America
« Reply #456 on: January 09, 2023, 01:15:32 AM »

zenith

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Re: The Collapse Of America
« Reply #457 on: January 20, 2023, 04:10:49 AM »
Think Things Are Bad Now? Just Wait, Says Chris Hedges

Where is reality? Can you show it to me? - Heinz von Foerster

LeftyLarry

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Re: The Collapse Of America
« Reply #458 on: January 22, 2023, 07:53:51 AM »
when there are no boundries and you can be anyone or anything you want... you have to be 100% invested to pull off the act.

Tulsi Gabbard Eviscerates Exposed Liar George Santos


So, I live in George Santos district and met him at least four times this past year, donated money to him, twice, as did many of my friends.
We were able to flip 4  Democrat seats in Nassau & Suffolk counties and Santos pretty much got in on Lee Zeldin’s coat tails even though Lee was defeated by American Pravda and their refusal to even slightly cover his campaign &  candidacy and they wonder why we conservatives view the election “process” as being fixed.
George did indeed pull the wool over our eyes but where were the Democrats also?
Nobody on either side vetted him or anything he said, nobody checked any of his credentials or asked any questions , how could this have happened, it’s so tragic it’s almost funny.

That being said, we have a very slim majority and unless they can prove criminal action here, I’m all for letting him finish his term, rather than risk losing the seat , I mean Democrats have plagiarized, lied about Viet Nam service, lied about a million other things and when it’s brought to light, American Pravda minimizes it, hides it and let’s it die a quick death, after worst case, a finger wag or two and it’s business as usual.
I’m not losing any sleep over the fact the guy was a B.S. artist who was well liked enough to win by a landslide LOL, with many Democrats crossing over to vote for this Gay, Black, Jew LOL , or as one of my friends said the other night, “ he lied to us about his job, he lied about his Race and religion , if it turns out he’s straight and sleeps with women, I’m going over there and I’m going to kick his arse.”


Rodius

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Re: The Collapse Of America
« Reply #459 on: January 22, 2023, 12:32:22 PM »
when there are no boundries and you can be anyone or anything you want... you have to be 100% invested to pull off the act.

Tulsi Gabbard Eviscerates Exposed Liar George Santos


So, I live in George Santos district and met him at least four times this past year, donated money to him, twice, as did many of my friends.
We were able to flip 4  Democrat seats in Nassau & Suffolk counties and Santos pretty much got in on Lee Zeldin’s coat tails even though Lee was defeated by American Pravda and their refusal to even slightly cover his campaign &  candidacy and they wonder why we conservatives view the election “process” as being fixed.
George did indeed pull the wool over our eyes but where were the Democrats also?
Nobody on either side vetted him or anything he said, nobody checked any of his credentials or asked any questions , how could this have happened, it’s so tragic it’s almost funny.

That being said, we have a very slim majority and unless they can prove criminal action here, I’m all for letting him finish his term, rather than risk losing the seat , I mean Democrats have plagiarized, lied about Viet Nam service, lied about a million other things and when it’s brought to light, American Pravda minimizes it, hides it and let’s it die a quick death, after worst case, a finger wag or two and it’s business as usual.
I’m not losing any sleep over the fact the guy was a B.S. artist who was well liked enough to win by a landslide LOL, with many Democrats crossing over to vote for this Gay, Black, Jew LOL , or as one of my friends said the other night, “ he lied to us about his job, he lied about his Race and religion , if it turns out he’s straight and sleeps with women, I’m going over there and I’m going to kick his arse.”

To paraphrase... you are okay with a below standard person representing you because the "other side" is just as bad.

That line of thinking is why the US is in so much trouble in terms of politics and corruption.

Neven

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Re: The Collapse Of America
« Reply #460 on: January 22, 2023, 02:13:35 PM »
I think George Santos would make an excellent American president.
The enemy is within
Don't confuse me with him

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LeftyLarry

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Re: The Collapse Of America
« Reply #461 on: January 22, 2023, 03:15:07 PM »
when there are no boundries and you can be anyone or anything you want... you have to be 100% invested to pull off the act.

Tulsi Gabbard Eviscerates Exposed Liar George Santos


So, I live in George Santos district and met him at least four times this past year, donated money to him, twice, as did many of my friends.
We were able to flip 4  Democrat seats in Nassau & Suffolk counties and Santos pretty much got in on Lee Zeldin’s coat tails even though Lee was defeated by American Pravda and their refusal to even slightly cover his campaign &  candidacy and they wonder why we conservatives view the election “process” as being fixed.
George did indeed pull the wool over our eyes but where were the Democrats also?
Nobody on either side vetted him or anything he said, nobody checked any of his credentials or asked any questions , how could this have happened, it’s so tragic it’s almost funny.

That being said, we have a very slim majority and unless they can prove criminal action here, I’m all for letting him finish his term, rather than risk losing the seat , I mean Democrats have plagiarized, lied about Viet Nam service, lied about a million other things and when it’s brought to light, American Pravda minimizes it, hides it and let’s it die a quick death, after worst case, a finger wag or two and it’s business as usual.
I’m not losing any sleep over the fact the guy was a B.S. artist who was well liked enough to win by a landslide LOL, with many Democrats crossing over to vote for this Gay, Black, Jew LOL , or as one of my friends said the other night, “ he lied to us about his job, he lied about his Race and religion , if it turns out he’s straight and sleeps with women, I’m going over there and I’m going to kick his arse.”

To paraphrase... you are okay with a below standard person representing you because the "other side" is just as bad.

That line of thinking is why the US is in so much trouble in terms of politics and corruption.

No, you missed the point, the other side would NOT remove their liar under the same conditions, it’s a short term, 2 years , Leftist Prosecutors and Judges give shorter sentences to illegal immigrants who rape, torture and kill American citizens,LOL ,the congress is so close in numbers, it’s more important to bite your lip, then it is to remove a guy who lied about his resume , if he is proven to have done something illegal , there will probably be a special election, yes, pragmatically, I will sit quietly and hope his vote is needed to help save my country and he uses it.
« Last Edit: January 23, 2023, 01:23:41 AM by LeftyLarry »

LeftyLarry

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Re: The Collapse Of America
« Reply #462 on: January 22, 2023, 03:16:15 PM »
I think George Santos would make an excellent American president.

Hey we elected Joe Biden………………

Rodius

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Re: The Collapse Of America
« Reply #463 on: January 25, 2023, 02:55:47 AM »
when there are no boundries and you can be anyone or anything you want... you have to be 100% invested to pull off the act.

Tulsi Gabbard Eviscerates Exposed Liar George Santos


So, I live in George Santos district and met him at least four times this past year, donated money to him, twice, as did many of my friends.
We were able to flip 4  Democrat seats in Nassau & Suffolk counties and Santos pretty much got in on Lee Zeldin’s coat tails even though Lee was defeated by American Pravda and their refusal to even slightly cover his campaign &  candidacy and they wonder why we conservatives view the election “process” as being fixed.
George did indeed pull the wool over our eyes but where were the Democrats also?
Nobody on either side vetted him or anything he said, nobody checked any of his credentials or asked any questions , how could this have happened, it’s so tragic it’s almost funny.

That being said, we have a very slim majority and unless they can prove criminal action here, I’m all for letting him finish his term, rather than risk losing the seat , I mean Democrats have plagiarized, lied about Viet Nam service, lied about a million other things and when it’s brought to light, American Pravda minimizes it, hides it and let’s it die a quick death, after worst case, a finger wag or two and it’s business as usual.
I’m not losing any sleep over the fact the guy was a B.S. artist who was well liked enough to win by a landslide LOL, with many Democrats crossing over to vote for this Gay, Black, Jew LOL , or as one of my friends said the other night, “ he lied to us about his job, he lied about his Race and religion , if it turns out he’s straight and sleeps with women, I’m going over there and I’m going to kick his arse.”

To paraphrase... you are okay with a below standard person representing you because the "other side" is just as bad.

That line of thinking is why the US is in so much trouble in terms of politics and corruption.

No, you missed the point, the other side would NOT remove their liar under the same conditions, it’s a short term, 2 years , Leftist Prosecutors and Judges give shorter sentences to illegal immigrants who rape, torture and kill American citizens,LOL ,the congress is so close in numbers, it’s more important to bite your lip, then it is to remove a guy who lied about his resume , if he is proven to have done something illegal , there will probably be a special election, yes, pragmatically, I will sit quietly and hope his vote is needed to help save my country and he uses it.

I didn't miss the point.... my point is both sides are doing it which is why is is such a tragic political situation in the US.

Nobody wants to fix it because everyone in power gains from the bullshit actions.

And the way you talk about immigrants is a perfect example of moving the problem to "others" It is almost as if you don't know people born in the USA commit crimes at a higher ratio than those who immigrate.....

Australia has the same bullshit thinking... the news highlights when people of colour commit a crime which makes them seem like they do it more... but when you dig into the stats to find out which race is more likely to commit a crime and it turns out white people born in Australia are the most likely type of person to commit a crime.
But hey, we all know perception matters more than reality... so keep blaming the "others" and hope your high horse does fall over when you look at the reality close enough.

zenith

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Re: The Collapse Of America
« Reply #464 on: January 25, 2023, 03:23:37 AM »
it's almost though some people don't know what a tragedy manifest destiny and us empire has been in the americas. there would be far fewer illegal immigrants if it wasn't for us policies on latin american countries.

regardless, the chickens are coming home to roost. the us empire is on it's last legs and the mainstream media are noticing.

The End Of The U.S. Dollar Is Here!


hellooo hyper-inflation as all those dollars find their way home. https://www.usdebtclock.org/
it's all completely unsustainable, for all the same reasons every other empire in history collapsed.
greed, decadence, corruption and incompetence.
Where is reality? Can you show it to me? - Heinz von Foerster

Rodius

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Re: The Collapse Of America
« Reply #465 on: January 25, 2023, 05:09:42 AM »
it's almost though some people don't know what a tragedy manifest destiny and us empire has been in the americas. there would be far fewer illegal immigrants if it wasn't for us policies on latin american countries.

regardless, the chickens are coming home to roost. the us empire is on it's last legs and the mainstream media are noticing.

The End Of The U.S. Dollar Is Here!


hellooo hyper-inflation as all those dollars find their way home. https://www.usdebtclock.org/
it's all completely unsustainable, for all the same reasons every other empire in history collapsed.
greed, decadence, corruption and incompetence.

Yep, it is always the Others.

And you are right, greed, corruption, and decadence are the problem... but the people doing it are not immigrants... but those with power will happily redirect you toward them regardless of the evidence that they are not the problem.

And if you think mainstream media are noticing you are kidding yourself... politics and wealth don't give a shit what the media say because the media keeps people to busy to see the bullshit.

Freegrass

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Re: The Collapse Of America
« Reply #466 on: January 25, 2023, 08:51:27 AM »
Yes, the petrodollar is something I talked about before. It's the elephant in the room nobody talks about, and it needs to go, because it's the petrodollar that keeps the oil flowing... If we want to get rid of oil, we need to get rid of the Petrodollar, so I'm not sad this is happening.

But at the moment, the US dollar is still in a strong position, followed by the Euro.

Read more about it on Wikipedia.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reserve_currency

Or on the IMF website, where I got these graphs from with the latest data.
https://data.imf.org/?sk=E6A5F467-C14B-4AA8-9F6D-5A09EC4E62A4
90% of the world is religious, but somehow "love thy neighbour" became "fuck thy neighbours", if they don't agree with your point of view.

WTF happened?

zenith

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Re: The Collapse Of America
« Reply #467 on: January 25, 2023, 10:23:24 AM »
the wealthy own the media and the politicians, they care a great deal about the messaging - see the twitter files. it's non-stop propaganda, the media are stenographers for power.
Where is reality? Can you show it to me? - Heinz von Foerster

WildFit

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Re: The Collapse Of America
« Reply #468 on: January 25, 2023, 11:50:24 AM »

Yep, it is always the Others.

And you are right, greed, corruption, and decadence are the problem... but the people doing it are not immigrants... but those with power will happily redirect you toward them regardless of the evidence that they are not the problem.

And if you think mainstream media are noticing you are kidding yourself... politics and wealth don't give a shit what the media say because the media keeps people to busy to see the bullshit.


No it's not the others, has been the U.S., before that the Brits all the time ( just learn how Japan was pushed into WWII and how Germany was pushed into a situation where Nazis got a grip).

What we nowadays call Neo-Cons is a very old stucture, just study the city plann of Washington and perhaps, with a little good-will, you shall find your answer.

The Walrus

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Re: The Collapse Of America
« Reply #469 on: January 25, 2023, 03:17:02 PM »

Yep, it is always the Others.

And you are right, greed, corruption, and decadence are the problem... but the people doing it are not immigrants... but those with power will happily redirect you toward them regardless of the evidence that they are not the problem.

And if you think mainstream media are noticing you are kidding yourself... politics and wealth don't give a shit what the media say because the media keeps people to busy to see the bullshit.

Alexis de Tocqueville once stated, "Not until I went into the churches of America and heard her pulpits flame with righteousness did I understand the secret of her genius and power.  America is great because she is good, and if America ever ceases to be good, she will cease to be great."

Yes, it is not just the others, but the many.

LeftyLarry

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Re: The Collapse Of America
« Reply #470 on: January 26, 2023, 06:28:42 AM »
it's almost though some people don't know what a tragedy manifest destiny and us empire has been in the americas. there would be far fewer illegal immigrants if it wasn't for us policies on latin american countries.

regardless, the chickens are coming home to roost. the us empire is on it's last legs and the mainstream media are noticing.

The End Of The U.S. Dollar Is Here!


hellooo hyper-inflation as all those dollars find their way home. https://www.usdebtclock.org/
it's all completely unsustainable, for all the same reasons every other empire in history collapsed.
greed, decadence, corruption and incompetence.
Actually, the only problem for the greatest country in the history of the world is the Leftists have won and are destroying the economy, has to do with more government spending every day and until the  Black and Hispanic middle class figure out that the Socialists are destroying everything they fought for , the country will keep going downhill, of course the Republican States like Florida and Texas are booming,  blues states like NY and Cal are where the problems exist.

LeftyLarry

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Re: The Collapse Of America
« Reply #471 on: January 26, 2023, 06:30:12 AM »
the wealthy own the media and the politicians, they care a great deal about the messaging - see the twitter files. it's non-stop propaganda, the media are stenographers for power.
The media is controlled by the Left, not to see that is to have your head up your butt.

The Walrus

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Re: The Collapse Of America
« Reply #472 on: January 29, 2023, 03:54:43 AM »
the wealthy own the media and the politicians, they care a great deal about the messaging - see the twitter files. it's non-stop propaganda, the media are stenographers for power.
The media is controlled by the Left, not to see that is to have your head up your butt.
Of course.  That is what prompted outlets like Breitbart to counter biases on the left.  Almost all news is slanted today.  Finding unbiased news is a real challenge these days.

Human Habitat Index

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Re: The Collapse Of America
« Reply #473 on: January 31, 2023, 01:33:27 AM »
Many are unaware that US citizens are allowed to have guns to protect themselves against possible Government tyrrany.

There is a principle which is a bar against all information, which cannot fail to keep a man in everlasting ignorance. That principle is contempt prior to investigation. - Herbert Spencer

LeftyLarry

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Re: The Collapse Of America
« Reply #474 on: January 31, 2023, 05:32:03 AM »
the wealthy own the media and the politicians, they care a great deal about the messaging - see the twitter files. it's non-stop propaganda, the media are stenographers for power.
The media is controlled by the Left, not to see that is to have your head up your butt.
Of course.  That is what prompted outlets like Breitbart to counter biases on the left.  Almost all news is slanted today.  Finding unbiased news is a real challenge these days.

Agreed but most of the outlets are hard left.

sidd

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Re: The Collapse Of America
« Reply #475 on: March 16, 2023, 08:42:07 PM »
Poor and old ? Fuck you.

"you lose your dignity."

"hundreds of thousands of nursing home residents are locked in a wretched bind: Driven into poverty, forced to hand over all income and left to live on a stipend as low as $30 a month."

"The personal needs allowance is meant to pay for anything not provided by the home, from a phone to clothes and shoes to a birthday present for a grandchild."

"Congress hasn’t raised the allowance in decades."

"residents are dressed in ill-fitting hand-me-downs or hospital gowns that drape open. Some have no socks or shoes. Basic supplies run low. Many don’t even have a pen to write with."

"A 1972 amendment established the personal needs allowance, set at a minimum of $25 monthly ... cost-of-living increases were not built ... Had it been linked to inflation, it would be about $180 today. But Congress has raised the minimum rate only once, to $30, in 1987. It has remained there ever since."

" a bill to raise the minimum allowance to $60 and cement annual increases tied to those for Social Security. It didn’t even get a hearing."

"A majority of states – 28 – have allowances of $50 or less"

"some facilities have been cited for not telling residents they were entitled to an allowance at all, for failing to provide the money, or for spending the funds without their permission."

"Some homes skirt the rules, making residents pay for things like diapers or haircuts that are supposed to be included. "

"the prices of everything that tripled and quadrupled. And the money hasn’t gone up any."

"residents often must cede control of everything from how often they get a shower to what they eat. "

" If not for help from his church, he wouldn’t even be able to afford a phone."

Read the whole thing if you can stomach it.

https://apnews.com/article/nursing-home-medicaid-personal-needs-allowance-poverty-2e0a2d90d7d63d4b476397a50a9cddff

sidd

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Re: The Collapse Of America
« Reply #476 on: March 22, 2023, 08:59:28 AM »
Well, well well: the fucking blowoff valves weren't working

" pressure release valves on some of the tank cars carrying vinyl chloride in the East Palestine, Ohio, derailment of a Norfolk Southern train may have been compromised"

"Officials, fearing that one or more of the tank cars might explode, decided to do a controlled venting and burn"

https://www.trains.com/trn/news-reviews/news-wire/ntsb-some-east-palestine-tank-car-pressure-relief-devices-were-compromised/

So they screwed up axle maintenance, hotbox detection, tank car maintenance and certification ...
thats no way to run a railroad

sidd

SeanAU

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Re: The Collapse Of America
« Reply #477 on: March 28, 2023, 02:51:50 PM »
Kim Dotcom
@KimDotcom
·
23h
A month ago the media didn’t talk about the US losing its reserve currency status and how devastating that would be for Americans. I was laughed at for saying this a year ago. It’s happening… fast.
https://twitter.com/KimDotcom/status/1640341475925069824

First CNN does a segment on de-dollarization, now Fox News also. What is going on here?
It's wealth, constantly seeking more wealth, to better seek still more wealth. Building wealth off of destruction. That's what's consuming the world. And is driving humans crazy at the same time.

Rodius

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Re: The Collapse Of America
« Reply #478 on: March 29, 2023, 04:58:49 AM »
Kim Dotcom
@KimDotcom
·
23h
A month ago the media didn’t talk about the US losing its reserve currency status and how devastating that would be for Americans. I was laughed at for saying this a year ago. It’s happening… fast.
https://twitter.com/KimDotcom/status/1640341475925069824

First CNN does a segment on de-dollarization, now Fox News also. What is going on here?

It is to increase fear in the US.

Russia and China becoming closer, the reserve currency is under threat, what does the US have to do to protect itself from the evil that is out there?

Alexander555

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Re: The Collapse Of America
« Reply #479 on: March 31, 2023, 08:39:11 PM »

gerontocrat

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Re: The Collapse Of America
« Reply #480 on: March 31, 2023, 10:38:45 PM »
China grabs power in the Middle-East. https://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-General/Battle-For-Iraqi-Oil-Heats-Up-After-Iran-Saudi-Deal.html
Having read the article, even it is only half-right it seems safe to believe that the process of disempowering the US and its allies is farther ahead than I thought.

I wonder how long it will take the US to seriously reconsider its relationship with Saudi Arabia and its other "friends" in the Middle East.

Not much point in selling vast quantities of arms to people who have turned their backs on you, and are now at best neutrals in the Real-Geopolitik game and at worst hostile to US interests.

Since this power game is all about power through control over fossil fuels, one logical and already lamentably late response would be for the US and its allies (Europe /Nato) to forge ahead with renewable energy and electrification of the economy by all and every means possible at the fastest possible speed.

Not much sign of that, especially in the US with those wilfully blind Republican and alt-right groups in total denial of scientific and political reality, and well-organised enough to slow up moves away from fossil fuels.

I wonder to what extent the Middle East, China (and Russia) will be able to scupper COP28?

I wonder to what extent Western Big Oil & Big Gas will find themeselves frozen out of these megadeals? That would serve them right.
"Para a Causa do Povo a Luta Continua!"
"And that's all I'm going to say about that". Forrest Gump
"Damn, I wanted to see what happened next" (Epitaph)

Alexander555

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Re: The Collapse Of America
« Reply #481 on: April 01, 2023, 06:55:27 PM »
And it's getting worse fast. The loss of influence is growing. No need for usd for trade between China and Brasil. The question is how bad this is ? The US has a very big trade deficit.  Now everybodies takes these usd because they need them. So the US can just print the money for it's defecits. But who will take these usd tomorrow ? The usd weakens, imports get more expensive. So inflation goes up. In a country ravaged by globalists and imported cheap people. That kept purchasing power at zero for dozens of years for many americans. The money printing tech bank collapsed. So probably the US is not going to have it's best time ever. https://www.thenationalnews.com/business/economy/2023/03/30/china-and-brazil-strike-deal-to-use-own-currencies-for-trade-instead-of-dollar/

SeanAU

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Re: The Collapse Of America
« Reply #482 on: April 02, 2023, 06:02:06 AM »
Jimmy on Trump and the US

I thought that was very powerful and I
think that uh once again The Establishment
is shooting himself in the foot and instead
of trying to help you economically give you
Health Care a living wage fix homelessness
give you infrastructure give you education
that doesn't bankrupt you.

Instead of doing that they'd rather just lock
up the guy who they they think is the threat
they're going to try to lock up the guy who's
a threat to them because they don't care.

Believe me, the military industrial complex
and Wall Street doesn't care if it's Joe Biden
Pete Buttegiege DeSantis Rick Scott. They
don't care if it's any one of those guys.

You know who wins every election? Wall
Street. You know wins every election the
Military industrial complex, big Pharma
and Health Insurance. So that's who wins
every election and that's why we're
living in the country where half the country
can't afford a $400 emergency and people
are living under every bridge and they
won't even fix the bridges. So that's free
housing, that's Communist.

It's wealth, constantly seeking more wealth, to better seek still more wealth. Building wealth off of destruction. That's what's consuming the world. And is driving humans crazy at the same time.

SeanAU

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Re: The Collapse Of America
« Reply #483 on: April 05, 2023, 11:20:51 AM »
By Chris Hedges 2018

extract:

“Chacoan violence, concentrated and brutal, appears to represent government terror: the enforcement of Chaco’s rule by institutionalized force,” Lekson writes in the article “Chaco Death Squads” in Archeology magazine. “Violence was public, intended to appall and subdue the populace. Chacoan death squads (my term, not LeBlanc’s) executed and mutilated those judged to be threats to Chacoan power, those who broke the rules.”

The anthropologist Christy G. Turner, who specialized in osteology, the study of human bones, in his book “Man Corn” cited “cannibalism and human sacrifice as conspicuous elements of terrorism.” In short, as Lekson writes, “the death squad killed you, cut you up, and then ate you in front of your relatives and neighbors.” The term “man corn” comes from the Nahuatl word “tlacatlaolli,” which Turner defined as a “sacred meal of sacrificed human meat, cooked with corn.” Debra Martin goes on to argue in a paper titled “Violence Against Women in the La Plata River Valley, A.D. 1000-1300” (located on the periphery of the Chacoan empire) that there is evidence of battered women who were perhaps slaves.

The Anasazi elites, no longer willing or able to provide social services or competent governance and plagued by shortages of natural resources, kept extracting unsustainable tribute. They resorted to harsher and harsher forms of repression. By the end, they were hated. The civilization suffered a severe drought in the year 1130. It was the final blow. The impressive structures would lie abandoned until they were discovered by the nomadic Navajos some 600 years later. The Navajos did not reoccupy the buildings, many of which contained skeletal remains, because they believed them to be filled with evil spirits.

“Parts of Chacoan society were already in deep trouble after 1050 as health and living conditions progressively eroded in the southern districts’ open farming communities,” David E. Stuart writes in his book “Anasazi America.” “The small farmers in the south had first created reliable surpluses to be stored in the great houses. Ultimately, it was the increasingly terrible living conditions of those farmers, the people who grew the corn, that had made Chacoan society so fatally vulnerable. The farmers simply got too little back from their efforts to carry on. Thus, great-house society emphasized other trade partners and supported new, lower-cost suppliers on its northern tier. This final trade network likely was focused on the continued well-being of the elites rather than the general welfare of its regional society.”

As the economic and social situation deteriorated, the elites accelerated the building of roads and Great Houses. They held more elaborate rituals and built more kivas. This is typical of decaying societies. The great Mayan city of Tikal was constructed over a period of 1,500 years, but its most impressive temples and towers were erected during its final century. These grandiose projects and spectacles were meant to project power and immortality. They exacerbated, however, the suffering of the impoverished farmers and workers and the decline of diminishing natural resources.

“At the bitter end of the Chacoan era, many elites remained in their great houses, probably trying to hold on to the past, rather like Scarlett O’Hara trying to hold on to Tara in Gone with the Wind,” Stuart writes. “But the farmers who had brought in the corn harvests were long departed, like the slaves who had supported Tara before the Civil War. Chacoan society collapsed, the framing pillar of its once great productivity shattered. The beleaguered Chacoan farmers had buried their babies one last time. Then they abandoned Chaco Canyon and most of its outlying great houses.”

“Prosperity, social integration, altruism, and generosity go hand-in-hand,” Stuart adds. “Poverty, social conflict, judgmental cynicism, and savagery do, too.”

Collapse, as Joseph A. Tainter points out, is “a recurrent feature of human societies.” Complex societies create centralized bureaucratic structures that exploit resources until exhaustion and then prove unable to adapt to scarcity. They create more sophisticated mechanisms to extract depleted resources, evidenced in our own time by the decision of the Trump administration to open up the lands around the Chaco Culture National Historical Park to fracking. In the end, the technologies and organization that make the rise of complex societies possible become the mechanisms that destroy them.

The fate of the Anasazi replicates the fate of all complex societies. The collapse came within one or two decades after the peak. As Jared Diamond writes in “Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed,” the trajectories of complex societies “are unlike the usual course of individual human lives, which decline in a prolonged senescence. The reason is simple: maximum population, wealth, resource consumption, and waste production mean maximum environmental impact, approaching the limit where impact outstrips resources.”

“Civilization is an experiment, a very recent way of life in the human career, and it has a habit of walking into what I am calling progress traps,” Ronald Wright writes in “A Short History of Progress.” “A small village on good land beside a river is a good idea; but when the village grows into a city and paves over the good land, it becomes a bad idea. While prevention might have been easy, a cure may be impossible: a city isn’t easily moved. This human inability to foresee—or watch for—long-range consequences may be inherent to our kind, shaped by millions of years when we lived hand to mouth by hunting and gathering. It may also be little more than a mix of inertia, greed, and foolishness encouraged by the shape of the social pyramid. The concentration of power at the top of large-scale societies gives the elite a vested interest in the status quo; they continue to prosper in darkening times long after the environment and general population begin to suffer.”

We in 2018 are beset with signs of impending collapse. The droughts, wildfires, flooding, soaring temperatures, crop failures, poisoning of the soil, air and water, and social breakdown from global warming are leaving huge segments of the world’s poor without adequate food, water and security. Desperate migrants are fleeing the global south. Crisis cults carry out nihilistic acts of terrorism, often in the name of religious beliefs. Our predatory elites, who have retreated to their own versions of Anasazi Great Houses, with access to private security, private education, private medicine, private transportation, private sources of water and food and luxury items that are unavailable to the wider population, have walled out reality. Their hubris and myopia, as well as blind obedience to an ideology—global capitalism—that benefits them but accelerates social and environmental destruction, mean they have only bought a little more time before they succumb like the rest of us.

read in full
https://www.truthdig.com/articles/chaco-canyon-chaco-earth/


It's all poetry.
It's wealth, constantly seeking more wealth, to better seek still more wealth. Building wealth off of destruction. That's what's consuming the world. And is driving humans crazy at the same time.

SeanAU

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Re: The Collapse Of America
« Reply #484 on: April 06, 2023, 04:25:53 PM »
China > Ministry of Foreign Affairs

The State of Democracy in the United States: 2022
2023-03-20

Contents

I. Preamble

II. American democracy in chronic ills

1. American democracy in further decline

2. Political polarization intensified by partisan fights

3. Money politics surged

4. “Freedom of speech” in name only

5. The judicial system blind to public opinion

6. Americans increasingly disillusioned with American democracy

III.  The United States’ imposition of “democracy” has caused chaos around the world

1. Foreign policy held hostage by political polarization

2. Inciting confrontation and conflict in the name of democracy

3. Doubling down on unilateral sanctions

4. Undermining democracy in international relations

5. Foisting a trumped-up narrative of “democracy versus authoritarianism”

[...]
Despite unprecedentedly low ratings of US democracy at home and abroad, the country’s hysteria to export US-style democracy and values continues unabated. The US has not only cobbled together values-based alliances such as AUKUS, the Quad and the Five Eyes, but also attempted to disrupt and undermine normal international cooperation in economy, trade, science, technology, culture and people-to-people exchanges by drawing ideological lines and trumpeting the Cold War mentality. 

Al Jazeera observed that the US insistence on holding a democracy summit and acting as a global democratic leader even when trust in its own democratic system is declining has raised widespread suspicion. James Goldgeier, professor of international relations at American University, said the US has lost its credibility, and that its administration should hold a domestic democracy summit to focus on injustice and inequality, including issues such as voting rights and disinformation. Emma Ashford, senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, questioned how can the US spread democracy or act as an example for others if it barely has a functioning democracy at home.

The South China Morning Post pointed out that the summit reflected two myths about US democracy: First, global advance of democracy since the end of the Cold War is backsliding and it needs the US to reverse it; second, the US is the most important democracy in the world and its global leadership is paramount for other countries.

These two myths completely ignore the democratic backsliding in the US, the rejection of the overwhelming majority of countries to being kidnapped by the hypocritical “concept of democracy” of the US, and the strong desire of developing countries to grow their economies and raise living standards.

IV. Conclusion

Democracy is humanity’s common value; however, there is no single model of political system that is applicable to all countries in the world. Human civilization, if compared to a garden, should be a diverse place in which democracy in different countries blooms like a hundred flowers. The US has American-style democracy, China has Chinese-style democracy, and other countries have their own unique models of democracy that suit their respective national conditions. It should be up to the people of a country to judge whether the country is democratic or not and how to better promote democracy in their country. The few self-righteous countries have no right to point fingers.

Those who have many flaws themselves have little credibility to lecture others. Attempts to undermine others for one’s own profit and destabilize the world must be unanimously opposed. A black-and-white division of countries as democratic or authoritarian is both anachronistic and arbitrary. What our world needs today is not to stoke division in the name of democracy and pursue de facto supremacy-oriented unilateralism, but to strengthen solidarity and cooperation and uphold true multilateralism on the basis of the purposes and principles of the UN Charter.

What our world needs today is not to interfere in other countries’ internal affairs under the guise of democracy, but to advocate genuine democracy, reject pseudo-democracy and jointly promote greater democracy in international relations. What our world needs today is not a “Summit for Democracy” that hypes up confrontation and contributes nothing to the collective response to global challenges, but a conference of solidarity that focuses on taking real actions to solve prominent global challenges.

Freedom, democracy and human rights are the common pursuit of humanity, and values that the Communist Party of China (CPC) always pursues. China commits to and advances whole-process people’s democracy, and puts into action the principle of people running the country in the CPC’s exercise of national governance in specific and concrete ways. China stands ready to strengthen exchanges and mutual learning with other countries on the issue of democracy, advocate humanity’s common values of peace, development, equity, justice, democracy and freedom, promote greater democracy in international relations, and make new and greater contributions to human progress.

Related News:

    Drug Abuse in the United States
    Gun Violence in the United States: Truth and Facts
    US Hegemony and Its Perils
    Rising Economic Polarization in the United States: Truth and Facts


Source url
https://www.fmprc.gov.cn/mfa_eng/wjbxw/202303/t20230320_11044481.html
It's wealth, constantly seeking more wealth, to better seek still more wealth. Building wealth off of destruction. That's what's consuming the world. And is driving humans crazy at the same time.

SeanAU

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Re: The Collapse Of America
« Reply #485 on: April 09, 2023, 03:29:04 AM »
Following on from Seymour Hersh's internal security leaks about the Nordstream pipeline terrorist bombing, is this the start of a non-stop stream (excuse the intentional pun) of push back from US Govt Agency Whistleblowers?

Or could it be more of the non-stop stream of BS Disinformation from the ruling classes of concentrated wealth and their Empire of Lies?

Biden left a bunch of classified document in China Town.  Maybe it's those.  Or the ones he left in his garage. Or maybe a cleaning lady grabbed them out of Mara Lago?

Breaking News: A new batch of classified documents that appear to detail U.S. security secrets from Ukraine to the Middle East to China have surfaced online (on Twitter, but I cannot find them.)
https://twitter.com/nytimes/status/1644455053644767235
NYT no paywall https://archive.ph/NkTVz

The scale of the leak — analysts say more than 100 documents may have been obtained — along with the sensitivity of the documents themselves, could be hugely damaging, U.S. officials said.

US Officials said .... sure, whatever. Post-Wikileaks since when is 100 documents supposed to meet 'the scale' criteria? The NYTs always first with it's finger on the pulse of insider intel information - how do they do it?

and another 'report' on the 'Dangerous Leak' simply using the NYTs as it's source. Brilliant US journalism at it's best! 
https://twitter.com/NEWSMAX/status/1644477655264432129

More BS from the WS 'missing a journalist' J on the earlier Ukraine military plans leak last week
https://mobile.twitter.com/WSJ/status/1644807355723292672

Junior Staffers keeping the stenographers busy everywhere all the time. The only direction is down from here.
It's wealth, constantly seeking more wealth, to better seek still more wealth. Building wealth off of destruction. That's what's consuming the world. And is driving humans crazy at the same time.

johnm33

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Re: The Collapse Of America
« Reply #486 on: May 21, 2023, 05:51:09 PM »
This may be considered a little off topic but judging collapse has more than one facet, here someone looks at what can be achieved by a country which does not have the exhorbitant privilidge of controlling the worlds money system. The advances made should pale in comparison with those possible in the USA and yet exceed them. ?

SeanAU

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Re: The Collapse Of America
« Reply #487 on: May 22, 2023, 03:19:31 AM »
This may be considered a little off topic but judging collapse has more than one facet, here someone looks at what can be achieved by a country which does not have the exhorbitant privilidge of controlling the worlds money system. The advances made should pale in comparison with those possible in the USA and yet exceed them. ?

Probably all lies! AI photo shopped scenes no doubt about it.

And we already know they are all slaves of the autocratic CCP and have no freedumb. They can't be happy because they aren't like America, they don't have 'democracy' like we do and Ukraine does.

One of my bookmarks is for https://dongshengnews.org/en/news-on-china/ as per that 2 minute news video.
It's wealth, constantly seeking more wealth, to better seek still more wealth. Building wealth off of destruction. That's what's consuming the world. And is driving humans crazy at the same time.

LeftyLarry

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Re: The Collapse Of America
« Reply #488 on: May 26, 2023, 06:56:59 AM »
This may be considered a little off topic but judging collapse has more than one facet, here someone looks at what can be achieved by a country which does not have the exhorbitant privilidge of controlling the worlds money system. The advances made should pale in comparison with those possible in the USA and yet exceed them. ?
Wow america is collapsing so quickly nd our non- socialized  healthcare system is so terrible that:

“””The US is home to 97,000 centenarians; the highest absolute number in the world.”””.

sidd

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Re: The Collapse Of America
« Reply #489 on: May 27, 2023, 04:28:41 AM »
Kramer at physics today: flooding at NIST

"In 2018 a combination of heavy downpours and a burst pipe overwhelmed the sump pumps and flooded the chamber. It took until March of this year to complete repairs and allow researchers to refloat the floor."

"a systematic shift in the calibrated mass when the block is floated versus when the block was down"

 “If it gets too warm in here, we’re going to have to break vacuum and bring fans to ventilate the lab. That happens a few times a year.”

"a different flood event destroyed a cesium clock in the lab where voltage standards are set. David Newell, group leader of the fundamental electrical measurements group, says the deluge also drenched racks of servers and capacitor banks, creating electrical hazards for personnel."

"Portable dehumidifiers have been installed in the lab as a stopgap measure."

"Over an 11-month period ending in February 2022, 13 failures occurred in the vertical hot water pipes at the 10-story NIST headquarters building in Gaithersburg, flooding 40% of the offices and affecting 85% of staff. "

"The vast majority of NIST’s labs haven’t been renovated since they were built."

"single-pane glass, uninsulated exterior walls, and original ductwork. "

"our facilities suck"

https://pubs.aip.org/physicstoday/article/76/6/18/2892994/Urgent-measures-are-needed-to-shore-up-NIST-s

As a sometime physicist, this is terrible. I know some who worked there over the decades, and i have used their calibration services and tech. I had no idea that their degeneration was so bad. Sorta reminds me of CDC contaminating their own test prep for COVID.

Collapse may be sooner than we think.

sidd
 

Alexander555

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Paddy

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Re: The Collapse Of America
« Reply #491 on: June 07, 2023, 03:29:20 PM »
This may be considered a little off topic but judging collapse has more than one facet, here someone looks at what can be achieved by a country which does not have the exhorbitant privilidge of controlling the worlds money system. The advances made should pale in comparison with those possible in the USA and yet exceed them. ?
Wow america is collapsing so quickly nd our non- socialized  healthcare system is so terrible that:

“””The US is home to 97,000 centenarians; the highest absolute number in the world.”””.

A fairer measure would be as a proportion of the population, in which case the USA would come about 17th (though data on this statistic is unreliable). https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centenarian

Yet while global life expectancy is increasing, it’s falling in the USA, down 2.2 years from its peak in 2019 https://www.cbsnews.com/amp/news/life-expectancy-falls-again-covid-overdose-deaths-cdc/. That is the truer metric for how the average American is doing today. Currently, 50 countries around the world are doing better than the USA on this metric, with the USA lagging more than 7 years behind the number one country (Japan) and more than 4 years behind its neighbour Canada https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_life_expectancy.

Of course, life expectancy in the USA varies widely by state, from Hawaii with its life expectancy of 80.7 (which would place 33rd in the world if it was a country, just behind Belgium) to Mississippi with its life expectancy of 71.9 (which would place 109th, just behind Bangladesh)
 https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/118271/cdc_118271_DS1.pdf?download-document-submit=Download
« Last Edit: June 07, 2023, 04:21:19 PM by Paddy »

johnm33

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Re: The Collapse Of America
« Reply #492 on: June 09, 2023, 03:25:03 PM »
Centenarians, at least their numbers, largely reflect the quality of food 90 odd years ago.


 A link to Michael Hudson discussing the debt crisis recent cut backs in welfare.
https://globalsouth.co/2023/06/08/michael-hudson-interviewed-by-dimitri-simes-jr-sputnik/
and a partial transcript

Quote
"US President Joe Biden's economic policies have further enriched financial elites at the expense of working class Americans, Prof. Michael Hudson, US economist and former Wall Street analyst, told Sputnik's New Rules podcast.

"There was never any debt crisis at all," Hudson told Sputnik. "The government could have simply continued to pay its bills for projects that Congress had already approved, there is no way that the government was going to default on its Treasury debt because, after all, the Treasury debt is held by the wealthiest 10% and the government is not going to do anything that hurts the 10% and benefits the 90%."

What really happened, as per economist, was a bipartisan agreement on a further redistribution of wealth from the 90% to the 10%. However, the Democrats could not just go for it as they have always positioned themselves as a pro-labor and pro-economic justice party. Hence, there had been a month-long "good guy-vs-bad guy wrestling match" between the president and the GOP, according to Hudson. Eventually, Biden "reluctantly" agreed on cuts to social programs, cancellation of support to the poor.

One should bear in mind that Joe Biden is from Delaware – a "state where most corporations in America have their head offices because the Delaware rules are so pro-corporate and anti-labor that corporations want to be there."

"It's all just a made up," Hudson continued. "When they talk about cutting back the government debt, what they mean is cutting back social services. They would like to do what Biden and [Barack] Obama wanted to do after 2009. They want to cut back Social Security. They want to privatize it as if that will somehow solve the problem. They want to cut back medical care. They want to cut back most social programs, so that the money that the government does spend will be exclusively to support the financial sector, the military sector, the insurance sector, and the real estate sector."

To illustrate his point Hudson referred to the fact that just a day after the debt agreement was struck and social programs were cut, some GOP congressmen, namely Senator Susan Collins from Maine, called for greater military spending to help fund the US proxy war in Ukraine. These military budget increases would come at the expense of US social programs, the economist pointed out.

Unsurprisingly, the debt ceiling deal came under fire from the Progressive Caucus in the US House of Representatives. Caucus leader, Rep. Pramila Jayapal, openly questioned COVID relief "clawbacks" as well as work requirements for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) also known as "food stamps." Jayapal was among 46 Democrats who voted against the debt deal wrapped up as the Fiscal Responsibility Act last week in the House.

"What you're seeing is right now the class war is back in business in the United States," Hudson said. "This is class war with a vengeance that you're seeing and you're seeing labor being squeezed without really much to do. Local city and urban budgets are being squeezed throughout the country. That's one of the big problems -- the budgetary squeeze. You're having the banks being squeezed by the defaults on commercial real estate that they're exposed to, and the rising defaults on the personal debts that they're exposed to. So, the economy is really in trouble and when you have a crisis like this, fortunes are made from other people's distress. You're going to see a huge sucking up of money from the 90% of the population to the richest financial 10%."

"You'll never default because you can just create the credit," explained the economist. "That's what the Federal Reserve did with its zero interest rate policy. It distorts the economy, and the economy can shrink and be torn apart. But the government can always pay its debt by simply printing the money. The problem that is tearing the American economy apart is not the government debt. It's the private debt that is leading to a default. And when you default on your debt, you forfeit your property to the creditors. So, what you're seeing now is a large-scale transfer of property, a transfer of real estate, a transfer of cars that people had bought but couldn't keep up the payments on, a transfer of income from the 90% to the 10%. And that's private debt. That's where the real problem is."

The crux of the matter is that the US government's goal is to help the top 1% at the cost of the 99%, per Hudson: "They want to cut back Social Security, Medicare, local social spending, support for local cities and states – everything that made America more democratic and strong in the past," the economist remarked.

"Finance is really not part of the economy," the analyst said. "Think of there being two economies in every country. You have the production and consumption economy, which often people call the 'real economy', making things and selling them and using them. And then you have the financial sector that provides credit for this. The financial sector lives in the short run."

"If your idea of getting wealthy is the market price of your houses and your stocks and bonds, then America was getting richer financially [over the past couple decades]. But it wasn't getting richer for the real economy. Real wages were not going up. You've had an enormous increase in the wealth of stocks and bonds owned by the wealthiest 10%, but the other 90% of the population owns just 10% of the stocks and bonds. They're dependent on working for a living and getting a paycheck. Their living standards have not gone up and their working conditions have gone way down and become much more tightened and unpleasant," Hudson continued.

"There is no alternative. You're going to have elections bouncing back and forth, from Republicans to Democrats to back. And yet neither of them are an alternative to the whole financialization of the economy that's been taking place really since World War Two and especially since the 1980s."

Both Democrats and Republicans are responsible for the present state of affairs; what's more, they appear to be determined to solve the debt problem by making Americans consume less and less, by living standards going down and down, by real wages going down and down, by social services being cut back more and more, by social security and Medicare being cut back more and more, according to the economist.
"That's the program of both American political parties," Hudson concluded."

Sputnik

Alexander555

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Re: The Collapse Of America
« Reply #495 on: July 25, 2023, 12:18:29 AM »
It's a nail in the coffin of the USD. If it matters, Pakistan is on it's way to become one big desert. So they want be a big usd user in the future anyway.

Bruce Steele

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Re: The Collapse Of America
« Reply #496 on: July 25, 2023, 12:45:51 AM »
From Alexander’s post
“And with China paying for its estimated 13.0 million barrels a day (mbd) of crude imports in petro-yuan, Russia selling its 8.0 mbd of exports in ruble and petro-yuan, Venezuela and Iran already accepting the petro-yuan and India paying in rupees for its 5.0 mbd of crude imports, the petrodollar will certainly lose an estimated 60% of its global oil trade. This could probably lead to a devaluation of the dollar by one third to one half of its current value.”

Losing the petrodollar trade is one thing but is the drop in the dollar a forgone conclusion? Russia probably OK with that but China might take a big hit to exports if the dollar tanks.

SeanAU

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Re: The Collapse Of America
« Reply #497 on: July 25, 2023, 06:09:24 AM »


LOL, you think Putin’s decisions are in any way based on economics?
Hysterical.

All of the Russian Govts (and Putin's) decisions are in some way, form or another based on "economics" and especially global economics.

Only delusional and narcissistic incompetent blow hard morons say otherwise. 


------------

Another #OhNOTMeToo moment

Non-voting House of Representatives member DEM Stacey Plaskett from the U.S. Virgin Islands has become Democrats’ go-to attack dog in recent hearings on social media censorship.

But the additional scrutiny has turned up some less than savory background on Plaskett — specifically that she actively solicited donations from deceased pedophile “financier” Jeffrey Epstein AFTER he’d already been convicted of sex offenses.

 


Could not have happened to a nastier lady than her.
« Last Edit: July 26, 2023, 10:31:50 AM by SeanAU »
It's wealth, constantly seeking more wealth, to better seek still more wealth. Building wealth off of destruction. That's what's consuming the world. And is driving humans crazy at the same time.

SeanAU

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Re: The Collapse Of America
« Reply #498 on: July 27, 2023, 08:07:47 AM »
Quote
Thanks to Powell and his colleagues, the planet now faces multiple crises, and perhaps extinction, by way of corporate hand.

To read the Powell Memo today is deeply disturbing, not just because it was written by a future Supreme Court Justice who was advocating a corporate takeover of American democracy, but also because the actions detailed were so successfully deployed and completed. Powell was prescient. His plan worked. And the average American pays the heavy price today. (As does the entire global south, the Ukrainians and the like.)

In the United States, power no longer lies within the halls of Congress or the White House (if it ever did is questionable), but within the corporate temples.

Our foreign policy, our diplomacy, our war-fighting strategy are all influenced and dependent upon corporate weapons manufacturers with their legions of lobbyists depositing $285 million into the campaign war chests of candidates across the country, spending a total of $2.5 billion in lobbying over the last twenty years. The US Supreme Court opened the doors to such unlimited corporate campaign spending in its Citizens United decision.

Fossil fuel companies turn up the heat on all of humanity such that we literally boil from climate catastrophe, all so they can rake in record profits. Working hand in glove with weapons manufacturers and the media, they foster war and generate enormous revenue for each, using lawyers and lobbyists to implement their cancerous policies.

https://www.commondreams.org/views/2022/12/08/powell-memo-revisited

Quote
The Powell Memo (AKA the Powell Manifesto)

In 1971, Lewis Powell, then a corporate lawyer and member of the boards of 11 corporations, wrote a memo to his friend Eugene Sydnor, Jr., the Director of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. The memorandum was dated August 23, 1971, two months prior to Powell’s nomination by President Nixon to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Powell’s Confidential Memorandum:
Attack of American Free Enterprise System
DATE: August 23, 1971
https://reclaimdemocracy.org/powell_memo_lewis/

Quote
Sheldon Wolin and Inverted Totalitarianism 

(2015) Wolin throughout his scholarship charted the devolution of American democracy and in his last book, "Democracy Incorporated," details our peculiar form of corporate totalitarianism. "One cannot point to any national institution that can accurately be described as democratic," he writes in that book, "surely not in the highly managed, money-saturated elections, the lobby-infested Congress, the imperial presidency, the class-biased judicial and penal system, or, least of all, the media."

Inverted totalitarianism is different from classical forms of totalitarianism. It does not find its expression in a demagogue or charismatic leader but in the faceless anonymity of the corporate state. Our inverted totalitarianism pays outward fealty to the facade of electoral politics, the Constitution, civil liberties, freedom of the press, the independence of the judiciary, and the iconography, traditions and language of American patriotism, but it has effectively seized all of the mechanisms of power to render the citizen impotent.

"Unlike the Nazis, who made life uncertain for the wealthy and privileged while providing social programs for the working class and poor, inverted totalitarianism exploits the poor, reducing or weakening health programs and social services, regimenting mass education for an insecure workforce threatened by the importation of low-wage workers," Wolin writes.

"Employment in a high-tech, volatile, and globalized economy is normally as precarious as during an old-fashioned depression. The result is that citizenship, or what remains of it, is practiced amidst a continuing state of worry. Hobbes had it right: when citizens are insecure and at the same time driven by competitive aspirations, they yearn for political stability rather than civic engagement, protection rather than political involvement."

[...]  Inverted totalitarianism also "perpetuates politics all the time," Wolin said when we spoke, "but a politics that is not political." The endless and extravagant election cycles, he said, are an example of politics without politics.

"Instead of participating in power," he writes, "the virtual citizen is invited to have 'opinions': measurable responses to questions predesigned to elicit them."

Political campaigns rarely discuss substantive issues. They center on manufactured political personalities, empty rhetoric, sophisticated public relations, slick advertising, propaganda and the constant use of focus groups and opinion polls to loop back to voters what they want to hear. Money has effectively replaced the vote.

Every current presidential candidate--including Bernie Sanders--understands, to use Wolin's words, that "the subject of empire is taboo in electoral debates." The citizen is irrelevant. He or she is nothing more than a spectator, allowed to vote and then forgotten once the carnival of elections ends and corporations and their lobbyists get back to the business of ruling.

"If the main purpose of elections is to serve up pliant legislators for lobbyists to shape, such a system deserves to be called 'misrepresentative or clientry government,' " Wolin writes.

https://www.commondreams.org/views/2015/11/02/sheldon-wolin-and-inverted-totalitarianism
It's wealth, constantly seeking more wealth, to better seek still more wealth. Building wealth off of destruction. That's what's consuming the world. And is driving humans crazy at the same time.