Before getting into glowering threats to our future, let me offer you something that could lift your spirits... a tribute to my friend Frederick Turner, who was among the finest epic poets since Byron, and possibly Homer. And almost always with bold science or future-aimed or even science-fictional themes. I'll miss him, a lot.
Last month - before we were all yanked away by insipidly stupid war - a few in the press had finally started asking about the "Eyes Wide Shut" (EWS) orgies that Madison Cawthorn and two other GOP congressmen publicly - years ago(!) - called 'routine' in the GOP establishment. Of course, this led to the vast blackmail ring that keeps RP pols & pundits in line, as the most-disciplined political force in US history.
And yes, this is related to the Epstein Files, which showed conclusively that Moscow's lipstick-relabeled KGB was long involved with Jeffrey Epstein, supplying both cash and pretty young Russian gals to help serve as kompromat bait. But, according to Cawthorn and others, Epstein's Island was not the only locale, nor were he and Robert Maxwell's daughter the only pimps.
NOW a new twist, prompting further hope that the dike may soon break. When (finally!) a reporter grilled Nancy Mace about the reported orgies, she writhed and evaded the question by mewling "I don't get invited to parties. I have no friends. I live all alone with my dog."
Say…what!? And what does that have to do with the question? Note that she did not deny it’s going on!
Alas, it may be an isolated case of actual-investigative journalism, with this reporter quickly told to veer back to “Quiet piggie” and other superficial outrages. Have any of you seen reporters or dem-pols following up about this? Which could prove Epstein a mild offshoot eddy in something vastly deeper and wider and murkier. A giga scandal, waiting to smash the GOP? (Including - alas - some Democrats and that may explain why this part is moving slowly.
I've only been talking about this (in vain) for a decade.
== Keep us focused on contrived horizons ==
They aim to render us dizzy with distractions. And certainly it succeeds. But I'm not just talking about this particular, current war... or Trump's chain of them.
In fact, the left has been ironically complicit in the distraction strategy.
How?
Take the widespread incantation that MAGA is all about racism.
Sure the depredations of ICE garner applause across Redland and horror in the eyes of all decent people. But learn to recognize a deliberate distraction! Because anti-immigration stuff has no pertinence to POWER. And power is what the GOP oligarchs seek. Power to neutralize the laws and terrorize the inspectors and civil servants who have long thwarted the planned return to feudalism.
Sure, there ARE racists and Nazis and Klanners among the MAGA lumpenprols But try asking the average Fox viewers, like your basically decent neighbor across the street. They will reject the ‘racist!’ accusation resentfully. “I don’t feel racist.” They’ll cite many black faces on Fox and all the adverts they now see there featuring inter-racial couples. And Clarence Thomas. And proclaim: "I love the good ones!" And yes, that's awful And that doesn't make them non-racist by your standards. But it does let them rationalize resentment toward the accusation.
Moreover, again, the oligarch masters couldn’t care less about race. It serves as a useful dog whistle to rile some of their worst confederate troops. But dig it: The powerless are not the ones who oligarchs worry about.
== So, let's go through those rationalizations for betraying the American Experiment ==
1. You’ve heard me say it before. There is one force in society that stands in the way of resumption of 6000 years of feudal rule by inheritance brats. That force is the fact professions, from science and civil service to the FBI/intel/military officer corps who won the Cold War and the War on Terror., to teachers and strong journalists. And accountants. Especially the Inspectors and JAGs and auditors who the Trumpists have fired, in droves.
It started with Newt Gingrich demolishing the Congressional Office of Science and Technology Assessment, because the OSTA civil servants dared to tell fanatics “sir, that just isn’t true.” And every successive GOP administration has carried that battle further. Against scientists and others – like neutral and qualified judges - who know stuff and can block the worst depredations of oligarchy.
Again, tune into Fox! Fact folks are the ones most hated-on… plus the universities that were the pride and joy of the GI Bill generations.
But not all Republican apologists are onboard with all that, and so we get to rationalizations #2 and #3.
2. “I know my party and my movement has gone stark, jabbering insane. But… but… but democrats are worse!
"Yeah, that’s the ticket. I can retain my old loyalties and hold my nose and support these Horrible Trumpists because Fox tells me that ALL Dems are far worse. All of them are just like the screeching 0.001% sanctimony yowlers of the far, far left! And hence, while my side has gone totally corrupt/perverted/crazy, at least they aren't Dems!"
Of course that incantation is trivially disproved by comparison of OUTCOMES. Which are almost always diametrically better across the spans of Democratic administrations. From deficits to GDP growth, to employment, to scientific advances, to healthy international alliances...
...to rates of every turpitude – from gambling, domestic violence and addiction to child predation and murder and crappy education… to net parasitism sucking taxes from the rest of the nation… ALL of which are more rife on average in red-run states (except Utah) than blue ones.
And yes, this is where my proposed tactic of demanding wagers comes in. Because it makes them realize you aren’t just matching howled assertion vs. howled assertion. (They love that!)
Rather, they know that a wager demand shows that you know you have actual, objective facts on your side. Hence, the less-insane among them know they can only go so far with the objectively false "Democrats are even worse!" chant. It doesn't hold up in the face of stark, raving Trumpian insanity and perversion and treason.
And so... some of them settle upon theories of historical teleology.
In other words... this is all destiny at work.
These are decadent times!
But it will all work out, after lots of pain.
Because a Hero Generation is coming to save us!
== The rationalizations get ever-more monstrous ==
3. I have elsewhere shredded the core mythology clutched by the ‘intellectual’ wing of today’s gone-mad Right. The mythology that almost always lures in the conservative wing of social thought.
It's called Cyclical History. And its most recent, US-centered cult manifestation is called The Fourth Turning. A capering series of pareidolia incantations, all of which are trivially disproved. But how can mere factual disproof compete with a lusciously masturbatory sense that all the recent betrayals of civilization by their own cult were fore-ordained anyway. And hence not their fault. So… let the kids in the next ‘hero generation’ figure it out!
If you know any members of that cult, get them help! You could start with this tragi-comic by Zack Weinersmith’s Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal series. Or some of the links in the previous paragraph.
Only then there’s an even worse sickness among some elites…
4. Those who are busily building prepper-bunkers fantasizing that, upon surviving a coming, society-collapsing “Event,” they’ll emerge after the dust and poisons settle, to be worshipped as demigods by ragged survivors.
Only, there is (as always) a flaw in their circle-jerk fantasy story... because this aftermath won’t resemble either Mad Max or A Canticle For Liebowitz.
Sorry, guys, but the survivors won’t go burning books and lynching nerds. Rather, they will innovate and use science and technology to save however many folks remain. And they'll wait eagerly to greet you, when you emerge, blinking like cicadas, into the sunlight. (Go to this YouTube song! It conveys the spirit they need to hear.)
Anyway, we nerds have the schematics and locales of every deep or mountaintop ‘prepper’ compound. (Want proof?) And those hidey-holes will not have the desired outcomes. Especially after you do what I’ve heard some of you (like J.D. Vance) openly say… that you expect to deliberately trigger “The Event.”
Think I am exaggerating? Get Douglas Rushkoffs book about this circle-jerk - this mutal stroke-pleasuring of sick twats who chant semi-erotic fantasies to each other: justifications to accelerate a civilizational collapse that never had to happen. And here's a further article about the very real accelarationism cult. Those who want to ‘accelerate the Event’. Murdering you and all of yours, so they can get to be lords of the ashes.
But then… for some, the attraction is being in-the-know! “I’ve done my own research! And me and just a few others know what’s going on, you foooools!
== The ultimate self-stroke ==
5. I have no time here to go into conspiracy fetishism. But there’s hardly a word I’d change from this earlier missive of mine about this all-too human allure and addiction.
Distilled: YES! There ARE conspiracies! But there are ways to evaluate them by plausibilitiy. Like how few or how many skilled people it would take to pull one off, especially years later, when some 80 year old participant gets an attack of conscience… or patriotism… or just the notion to ‘let me go out by spilling-all and causing a ruckus!” (And sure, that applies to JFK and UFOs and all the rest.)
There are many other aspects and ways to evaluate conspiracy theories. And yes, I have one of my own. That today's madness in DC cannot be explained by ideology or mere ‘corruption.’ It can only be coercion of some kind, enforced by a small cabal – likely based in a foreign nation – doing what that nation’s spy services have done for 150 years. Sure, some assassinations and death threats. But a far more efficient form of coercion is Blackmail.
That one satisfies all of the evaluation criteria. And still, I have the sanity to say “My imagination and ego might - maybe - encourage me to believe something that’s not there.” Perhaps because... like Nancy Mace, I never get invited to that sort of parties? Or because all the personality profiles suggest that - like Popeye, "I yam wut I yam, And dat's just a family man."
== Are we done? ==
Getting there, I promise.
Okay, this next one I’ve touted before. At first sight it looks like a cycle of history! But no. It is simply that there have long been two Americas. And the cultural divide is not just regional. It can run through families, like yours. Though regions do influence it. So I am talking about a long, long cultural tussle between citizens who are fascinated by and welcome modernity in all its rapidly changing (if sometimes dangerous or disturbing) forms…
...versus those of our countrymen and countrywomen and others who deeply lament and regret modernity’s disturbances, yearning for a yesterday that never was.
And this manifests in a pattern… not a cycle but a recurring sibling tussle…
6. In every phase of the recurring U.S. Civil (culture) War, going back to 1778, the fiery anti-urban, anti-modernity, anti-equality, 'confederate' faction won initial victories with aggressiveness, always assuming that wimpiness on the part of 'northern epicures' would ensure their victory. And they did win 3 phases - in the 1830s, 1870s and 1920s. Never heard of em? Well, they won those by not pushing too hard.
Four other - bigger - phases - were total victories for the Union and modernity, for reasons that Sam Houston expressed perfectly in 1861, in urging fellow Texans not to secede:
“Let me tell you what is coming. After the sacrifice of countless millions of treasure and hundreds of thousands of lives, you may win Southern independence if God be not against you, but I doubt it. I tell you that, while I believe with you in the doctrine of states rights, the North is determined to preserve this Union. They are not a fiery, impulsive people as you are, for they live in colder climates. But when they begin to move in a given direction, they move with the steady momentum and perseverance of a mighty avalanche...”
Oh, it's not purely North vs South, this time, though look at a map… and ponder those ‘turpitudes’ I spoke of.* Anyway, the deepest cultural divide is the same, going back to 1778. And today's 'red' anti-modernity passions are fully 1860s in vehemence - only this time with more foreign backers than even Jeff Davis could wish for.
Alas, there is no Sam Houston chiding for satiability. No recognition that machismo stands little chance, if it wages all-out war vs ALL fact using professions, from science and teaching, medicine and law and civil service to the heroes of the FBI/Intel/Military officer corps who won the Cold War and the War on terror.
I mean, seriously? How do you expect it to go when an ’avalanche’ of nerdy fact folks get really mad?
The folks who know cyber, bio, nano, nuclear and all the rest?
The list of rationalizations for betraying the Enlightenment Experiment – especially the 80 year Rooseveltean era of the Greatest Generation, that truly Made America Great – goes on and on. Just as the Olde South concocted one justification after another (states rights, a ‘lost cause’, etc.) to evade the pure fact that their treason was absolutely about slavery. And slavish devotion to the plantation lords.
Likewise this time it all still boils down to slavish devotion to those aiming to restore feudalism.
That is, unless you aim to skip that darkness and jump to the penultimate phase described by Karl Marx, which is…
7. Monarchy or neo-monarchism. In many ways the most noxious of them all. Because the neo-monarchy guys want to keep modernity! Since many of them are tech bros. They just want to get rid of da few teensy aspects of modernity: emocracy, regulations, neutral courts and flat-fair markets, now that they are on top. Keep the nerds and boffins busy inventing toys and ways to make the lords immortal. And the best way to do that is to create a king-like ‘top CEO.
Forgive a little pedantry as I show you how far back these guys go, in justifying resistance to ‘government by consent of the governed. You might look up a fellow by name of Edmund Burke, who initially supported the American revolution but turned hard right when he saw what I freely avow was a typical mad excess of the left… the Terror taking place across the Channel. In Paris, 1789.
In Burke’s Reflections on the Revolution in France, published in November 1790, he wrote:
“We fear God; we look up with awe to kings; with affection to parliaments; with duty to magistrates; with reverence to priests; and with respect to nobility. Why? Because when such ideas are brought before our minds, it is natural to be so affected; because all other feelings are false and spurious, and tend to corrupt our minds, to vitiate our primary morals, to render us unfit for rational liberty.”
Of course, such jabber often devolves down to flattering-the-boss. Burke did very well when King George and the regent read his unsupported eloquence.
But we did one better. in Common Sense, where Thomas Paine wrote dismissively about the murky origins of monarchy:
“… could we take off the dark covering of antiquity and trace them to their first rise, we should find the first of them nothing better than the principal ruffian of some restless gang, whose savage manners of pre-eminence in subtlety obtained him the title of chief among plunderers; and who by increasing in power and extending his depredations, overawed the quiet and defenseless to purchase their safety by frequent contributions.”
But at least the monarchy touted by Burke had some institutional limits, unlike the versions proposed by favorites of Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin. While the latter is pushing hard a New Russian Ideology that combines Soviet imperialism (complete with red banners and a volcanically toxic KGB) with every resurrection of Czarist romanticism…
...Donald Trump is appointing frothing microcephalics to every position in the US government. Like the notoriously worst Roman emperor, Caligula, who appointed as the new Consul… his horse.
Which takes us to the latest version of monarchism that has none of Burke’s eloquence or IQ. Incel neo-monarchist dopes like Mencius Moldbug… or Curtis Yarvin… who would quash flat-fair-creative competition forever, just like every insipidly stoopid king or lord of the last 6000 years. (Shall we tally the exceptions and wager over howfew kings were measurably wise? Were there even ten, across 60 centuries?)
Yammering - despite the last 80 years of spectacular success under the Rooseveltean Pax - that we need a king (or benevolently-dictatorial "CEO") to finally crush all hope of the flat-fair-creative-even-joyful competition that gave us so much and was the brainchild of the Father of Liberalism, Adam Smith.
Even worse than their ingrate hatred of all the Enlightenment miracles that gave them everything in their spoiled lives, these jerks would end all competitive accountability forever and ever. And, of course, they would likely end all of our lives.
== The Confederate Threat ==
Sure, but you all draw the wrong lessons from this.
For a century, all these dark red zones suffered a recurring trauma. And here comes my personal, crackpot theory for why Red/Gray Americans so hate their urban, university-graduate neighbors.
Dig it: in rural or semi-rural America, the local High School is the center of all life, with the bight young heroes everyone adores, from classroom to prom to singers in the drama class performance of Oklahoma! to the stars of the football team. Only what happens in June? Every summer, the best and brightest kids kick off the local dust and hurry toward bright city/university lights, leaving behind... a kind of desolation of abandonment, as depicted in the film: The Last Picture Show.
And when they return (if at all) they come back changed! Transformed into snooty know-it-alls.
Can you pause and recognize the Changeling Theme from almost all ancient mythologies? Faerie/e/f beings steal your children and replace them with cuckoo demons. Is it any wonder that they hate us, despite absolutely depending on our skills and inventions and services and vast productivity and taxes, every hour of every day? And despite it being their own children who are making a choice?
No I'm not excusing that ingrate rage. Sure it's hypocrisy for all those counties to shrug off the vast good that was done for them by their generous neighbors, led by FDR and LBJ and the rest, aho came like Santa to build every road and clinic and - yes - High School - that transformed hillbilly hellscapes into decent places to live.**
Sure, the ingratitude and hate are fucked and I am explaining, not excusing, the ease by which Kremlin 'ex' commissars combined with Fox shills to rile spite toward nerdy knowledge folks...
...turning it into all-out war vs ALL fact using professions, from science and teaching, medicine and law and civil service to the heroes of the FBI/Intel/Military officer corps who won the Cold War and the War on terror. It shows how dismally suicidal and hypocritical the cult has become. Has always been, in fact.
Still, one step forward will be to at least understand where much of it comes from. Whether or not it is logical or fair, they feel robbed! And if you come from such a place, maybe you could visit more often? And take that pain into account.
== The Military Role ==
At last, some are paying heed (too late?) to the real issue, which is NOT races/genders/immigrants. They suffer, sure, but the powerless are not the ones that aristocracy must destroy, in order to seize total power.
What they seek is all out destruction of the one clade who can and will block dictatorship, if they survive.
“Over the weekend, NBC News revealed that the Trump transition team is reportedly compiling a list to investigate and potentially court-martial senior military officers involved in the Afghanistan withdrawal. This move highlights the regime’s use of intimidation to enforce loyalty, exact retribution, and silence any dissent. The chaotic 2021 withdrawal was undeniably tragic, but the groundwork for it was laid by Trump’s 2020 agreement with the Taliban.” Trump’s Taliban pact led generals in the Afghan Army to abruptly betray their US allies and our departing forces. (Try actually looking into that.)
“To now suggest treason charges against officers who followed orders—despite the flawed execution—distorts justice into a tool of retribution. This is not about accountability. It’s about sending a warning: dissenters and perceived enemies of the regime, even in the military, will be publicly humiliated and potentially ruined. This move also undermines trust in military leadership, a vital institution for any democracy.” --O.Lautman
Want irony? MAGA/Putinists deride folks like paratrooper/special-forces hero Mark Milley as “procurement and NATO-doctrine ladder-climbers.” In fact, ALL US officers must spend some time doing procurement. Meanwhile, right now, over in Ukraine, every US & NATO weapon system and combat doctrine is proving vastly more effective than even optimists had believed. So much for deriding ‘procurement and doctrine ladder-climbers.’
But look at Mark Milley's uniform. Understand the badges - paratrooper, ranger, marksman, combat infantryman, 101st Airborne, and medals for... his yowling critics aren't worthy to shine those shoes, nor Hegs, who screeched "You are all to woke and fat to fight!" at 500 generals and admirals and top sergeants who accomplish more for America and the world, in any day than old Filthy Fingers has, across his entire life.
Oh, and NATO is now so strong that Putin knows it will smash him even if his White House servant abandons the alliance. Unless... unless a new war can change the picture.
Which Trump has done.***
===================================================
*If we set aside Utah and Illinois as outliers (or even if we don’t) average rates of almost every turpitude are far higher across Red-run states than Blue-led ones: from gambling, addiction, STDs, domestic violence and murder to teen sex, divorce and net tax parasitism on the rest of the nation.
That is a huge, easily-proved fact and it should discredit all ‘conservative’ claims of good governance, especially when you add in the fact that national Republican administrations are always spendthrift wastrels, sending deficits skyrocketing, while Democratic ones are always far more fiscally responsible. Always. And I welcome $$$ wagers on any of that.
Throw in the failure of a single Rightist 'supply side economics’ prediction ever, ever to come true, with the sole outcome of rocketing wealth disparities, along with the deliberate war on science and the planet, and the stench gets overwhelming, even before we go on to all the lies and treason and their war against the US military officer corps and Trump's deliberate disbanding our ant-terrorism agents (*remember that one!*)... plus an ongoing list of other insanities, a mile high.
But the turpitude gap. That is what says it all.
** Infrastructure: Pete Buttigieg warns us in advance to be ready: most of the tens of thousands of essential projects that were started by the Biden administration will not be finished until during or after the coming Trump administration. Lots of people who are opposed those projects will be taking credit for them.
A. Destroy and politicize the Military Officer corps. . Hitler did this in stages:
1) Eliminating his in-party rivals (the Night of Long Knives), Trump has eliminated all in-party dissent.
2) Reichstag Fires and other faked pretexts,
3) Getting German soldiers to swear the Hitler Oath (1934),
4) Ream-out and execute any politically unreliable officers, esp. in 1942 after the German army lost the battle of Moscow.
Afterwards, with few exceptions, Herr Hitler and his military were crushed in battle after battle.
B. Smash the 150 year old Civil Service Act that (along with science and the New Deal) truly Made America Great (direct cause & effect.) Destroy the independence of a professional civil service and fill it with hacks owing allegiance to glorious leader.
Beckwith concludes, alas, with panic: “And this brings me up to the final point: Democracy in the USA is dead, and Trump is busy killing it. Organizing and signing petitions and all that is as effective as using a Kazoo to counter a bayonet in a duel to the death. Wake up . Playtime is over.”
Well, yes. And I have been offering tougher tactics, for years. You might start here: Polemical Judo.
75 comments:
Here’s what normal people are seeing https://redstate.com/streiff/2026/03/15/president-trump-made-a-courageous-and-correct-call-on-hormuz-and-irans-actions-prove-it-n2200247
https://hotair.com/generalissimo/2026/03/14/donald-trump-checkmates-iran-on-day-14-n3812843
We’re still having fun theviews.org/Life%20at%20the%20Views/2026/march-2-2026-persian-rug.html
There is such a thing as an anti-science technophile. The love what technology brings them. But they get greedy in their desire for control over nature. They don't like it when science tells them that there are limits to their control over nature. They feel that respecting the environment diminishes humanity. I've seen this in so many climate change denialists. It shows up in other fields as well.
Apparently, Trump is asking (formerly/formally) allied nations to help in the Persian Gulf. You know, those nations he spit on, threatened, derided their sacrifices, and comforted their enemies.
@ Blogpost: I lean myself out of the window and say there is a change on the horizon. Both the GOP and adjacent "institutional" Democrats are loosing in the polls, while Outsiders like Talarico gain popularity. A takeover of the Senate is even in play.
But much of the damage is already done, and we will see If you will have fair and free November elections this year.
Another thing I'd like to mention:
The main mistake of the Biden administration was the incredible leniency towards the crimes of the first Trump administration, including January 6th.
If the same level of law enforcement had been applied to Trump, he would not have been a free man again from 12:01, January 20, 2020 to this day..
Leniency towards criminals of this caliber is an invitation to repeat or do worse the next time.
Thus, if they get away with it again, they will just refine their methods the next time.
Repeating that mistake would not only be aiding and abetting the down Fall of American democracy, but endanger human civilisation in the Level of the Bronze Age Collapse, the Plague or the 30 years war.
Nuremberg was mentioned, but that was only possible due to certain outside factors which are unlikely to return, and the narration about their effectiveness was exaggerated.
You will need to go far above and beyond in the effort to battle fascism. You will have to go for the roots. You will need to salt the earth on which it grew, and sterilize the womb from which it crept.
"Moderate Reforms" won't be of any good.
Der Oger:
"Apparently, Trump is asking (formerly/formally) allied nations to help in the Persian Gulf"
Trump thinks everything is a tv show, which means that the plot elements from last week don't always affect anything happening this week.
"You will need to salt the earth on which it grew, and sterilize the womb from which it crept."
I honestly thought that had happened, or at least had become inevitable, after the twin Republican disasters of Hurricane Katrina and the 2008 market collapse. Apparently, we also have to sever the head from the corpse and bury the pieces at separate crossroads.
Dr Brin in previous comments:
..."neverthekess Trebeard is becoming much more... interesting."
Imagine a chart with "Support for Trump" on the x-axis and "Support for the Enlightenment" on the y-axis. I used to imagine TB firmly in the bottom right quadrant, but whether or not that was ever true, it's definitely not now
Strictly speaking, I don't think there have been fair and free elections in the US for more than 20 years. Of course it's a matter of degrees. There is likely some shenanigans going on in any large scale election in any country. A certain amount is not a problem, it's lost in the noise. What I mean though with respect to the US is, to a problematic degree.
"A certain amount is not a problem, it's lost in the noise. What I mean though with respect to the US is, to a problematic degree."
US Elections are like loaded dice. The party not doing the rigging can win, but there has to be enough enthusiasm to overcome stacked odds.
Also, election rigging here isn't so much about messing with the totals as it is about strategic suppressing of the vote.
As Dr. Brin noted previously, the fight against voter ID lets our side write this:
"When you look at how hard the Democrats are fighting the idea of having to show any kind of identification when voting, it's obvious that they would prefer that the system have no guardrails whatsoever. The Democrats go on and on about how hard it is for people to get a state-issued ID for purposes of voting, but keep freely admitting how easy it is for illegal immigrants to get driver's licenses in blue states. [ https://pjmedia.com/stephen-kruiser/2026/03/16/the-morning-briefing-dems-arent-even-hiding-their-election-shenanigans-now-n4950678 ]"
From a newsletter of Paul Krugman's:
...
A stunning poll from Politico — just released, but taken last month — confirms what I and other observers strongly suspected: America is now widely despised, despised like nobody has ever been despised before.
I don’t mean that we’re disliked, although that too. But this isn’t a case of "oderint dum metuant" — let them hate so long as they fear. Instead, the world increasingly holds America in contempt.
Our former friends no longer consider us trustworthy
...
Sadly, we already knew that.
continuing:
...
Pete Hegseth has built his brand around the notion that “warrior ethos” and “lethality” are what make a nation strong. Admitting that being smart and having allies are more important than macho posturing would be an implicit concession that he’s been wrong about everything.
The truth is that America used to be respected, not simply because we were a superpower, but because we were a different kind of superpower — a nation that stood by its allies, that mostly obeyed the rules of the system we created, that possessed an army that was professional, smart and incorruptible. Now Trump has thrown all that away. And I don’t know how or when we can ever get it back.
We live in the stupidest timeline.
A driver's license doesn't indicate citizenship unless it is a RealID. And as seen in Oklahoma vs trans people, states are free to revoke such licenses on a whim. The US government can do the same with passports.
Liberals' argument against the SAVE act isn't about allowing non-citizens to vote. It's about not requiring very specific documents which hostile state or federal officials are free to make acquisition difficult or to invalidate.
With Trump and the right-wing media keep blaming Biden for everything from high gas prices to terrorist reprisals for the Iran war, I'm thinking that Biden is playing the role of Goldstein in "1984".
"Oderint, dum metuant"
You know, that's how rumpT is controlling the GQP. very few of the high ranking members actually like him. They just fear being primaried at his whim.
It's funny, I recalled that same phrase. It's not a stable base for either politics or foreign policy - the Mongol Empire broke apart very quickly and the phrase has been attributed to the guy with the little boots, whose stint as Emperor of Rome was also blessedly short. Lucky for our Caligula that we don't have a Praetorian Guard.
Pappenheimer
Was "Bud" Holland showing the warrior ethos when he hotdogged a B-52 into the ground?
Redstate?
Breitbart and Stormfront weren't available?
Driving is a privilege that is granted to citizen and non-citizens.
RealID doesn't indicate citizenship in California. Providing a birth certificate is one document that you can use to get a RealID, but you can also submit a copy of your green card or other legal resident documentation. In CA, you can't tell what document was used to establish realID by looking at it.
There are a handful of state where the realID indicates citizenship (Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Vermont, and Washington). These are enhanced driver licenses and these are acceptable for land/sea border crossings (i.e. crossing into Canada).
"RealID doesn't indicate citizenship in California"
Yes, I suppose it doesn't here either. It just proves that the federal government believes you are who the license says you are.
IIRC, the SAVE act requires either a birth certificate or a US passport as proof of citizenship in order for one to be allowed to vote. Aside from the fact that many citizens no longer possess such documents, and that the process for obtaining them is time-consuming and costly, neither document establishes identity. You also have to prove you are the person indicated on the document.
Married women often have a different surname from the one they were born with. So do many trans people. If the legal requirement to prove citizenship is that you must have the same name that you had at birth, well, that's an insurmountable problem (or "feature" if one is designing or defending the SAVE act). Depending on when you acquired it, a passport may have your more up-to-date name, but a corrupt administration like the one you have now can revoke your passport at will. So again, the obvious point of the SAVE act is to let the administration decide who can and who cannot vote, not based on actual citizenship status, but at its own will.
Of course, I'm for requiring that proof of citizenship demands that your weight match that on your birth certificate. Dave Sim called that "Jumping on the bandwagon to demonstrate that the wheels have fallen off."
* Anyone using "Institutional Democrats" is a shill (knowing or unknowingly) for the enemy, There is no major evidence for that crap. Which is disproved by the Miracle Bills Pelosi/Schumer/Biden/Sanders/Warren/AOC and the rest passed in 2021-22. See http://davidbrin.blogspot.com/2019/08/five-devastating-rebuttals-to-use-with.html
It is a lie-meme spread by those who know their only chance is to divide the one coalition that stands a chance to save America and the world. And Talirico in Texas shows every sign of being a 'mainstream' Democrat and that is no insult. But indeed, the leftists did vote for Crockett in the primary. Fortunately, they seem to be uniting behind him.
LF: Those fools deny climate change in order to excuse science hatred, not the other way around.
Oger: The rioters WERE prosecuted and juries convicted. The four cops who died should have been avenged with murder charges. But your 'leniency' narrative is wrong. The BIg Mistake by Biden was believing the civil service would have the strength and resilience to obstruct anything truly horrible. He should have set up 'deep state' institutions like the proposal I have made for a super-independent office of Inspector General of the United States. (See
https://davidbrin.blogspot.com/2025/11/the-contract-part-three-aggressive.html
No one imagined Trump would start by firing the JAGs who had a legal right to tell officers 'that order is illegal..' And Biden's folks should have seen that coming.
MCS is as usual a goddam insane liar. Many democrats have shouted "I am fine with voter ID... so long as you stop closing all the DMV and other ID offices in blue parts of Red states, or purging voter rolls without notification just a week before polling. Or trying to station masked/armed thugs at voting stations. Or refusing an election day holiday. And refusing to admit that VOTER FRAUD SIMPLY DOES NOT HAPPEN. 30 audited cases across 30 years and over a billion votes.
Do COMPLIANCE ASSISTANCE sso folks can GET the ID that could help their lives in all ways? We'll be FINE with Voter ID. You stunning liar, hypocrite deeply-evil momzer.
Pappenheimer "They just fear being primaried at his whim." I AM SO TIRED OF THIS BS! Primaries explain only a very small part of this. Freshly re-elected GOP senators with SIX YEARS of safety and plenty of cred in their home state were utterly safe from being primaried for a very very long time, yet ALL of them passed ALL of Trump's horrible appointments while taking turns vomiting in the toilet just outside Senate chambers.
JESUS can no one grasp COERCION when you see it? I am talking true dread and bone-quaking fear. Which is the only thing that can explain such uniform discipline in the face of nauseating toxicity.
I truly find such obduracy incomprehensible.
When dealing with complex delusions of this magnitude, modern psychology tends to emphasize 'Form over Content', the Form being the overriding structure of said delusion and the Content being the individual items of supportive enumeration.
In Form, the above post by our fine host appears to represent a common
Delusion of Persecution (also known as a 'Paranoid Delusion') wherein the sufferer is beset by legions of unseen & often poorly defined enemies, along with certain grandiose elements that allow the sufferer to 'see through' (and/or 'fully perceive') the hidden machinations of these enemies.
In Content, these enemies mostly consist of Political Conservatives, Feudalists, Oligarchs, Aristocrats, Confederates, Putinists & other 'Demonic Jews' like Epstein who are intent on world domination, the enslavement of humanity & the destruction of an incredibly heroic Fact-Using minority with whom our fine host identifies.
Of course, such content often contains many discordant elements, as our fine 'fact-using' host routinely attacks the very same hard-working red state rural common man who he claims to defend, while simultaneously insisting that only his particular 'Fact-Using' urban blue state identity group deserves to rule the world & dominate everyone else.
We therefore confirm the 'Form over Content' approach, as this rather complex delusion is revealed as simple paranoia with grandiose components, even though it is a virtual truism that one's lack of paranoia doesn't necessarily indicate that people are not out to get you.
Some may even argue that the flip-side of paranoia is COMPETITION, as competing 'with' someone is often confused with competing 'against'.
Best
Canada is preparing.
https://youtu.be/zWSKlYjD8vU?is=eGM8_Zl5WZJ-qzJQ
What a pile of yammer. Yes, all humans spin subjective incantations and nearly all humans spin them in ways that support their worldview. Alas, he will never grasp that scientists who are trained with "I might be wrong" and the massively reinforcing pleasure of incrementally better models of the world - and the hundreds of millions who have been influenced by science - are capable of revision in the face of fresh facts.
Which poor locum is not, and never will be. Tho much to my surprise, Treebeard appears to be able to do, slightly and incrementally
It's intrinsically hilarious that Canada must rely on both its honkers & wide-open beavers for its own defence, even though I personally find the many faecal landmines laid by its 'flocks of gheets' to be far more off-putting.
https://pjmedia.com/jamie-wilson/2026/01/27/amelia-victorious-how-to-lose-the-culture-war-with-a-video-game-n4948811
For your edification, I therefore offer up the above Amelia & Maria memes on how the Free West is also 'preparing'.
Enjoy
Ok, it's wryly amusing, and pathetic in the way I find I have to root for other countries when they defy my own.
I've got a story, though. It's a true one that I've mentioned before to long time residents here. In my twenties and thirties, I had a very good friend who was in fact the older sister of my first college girlfriend. Older sister and myself were never romantic--it would have been way awkward--but she was pleasant company to my introvert self from the first we met, and a source of comfort and sanity when her sister decided to no longer be interested in me. In turn, I graciously acted at her husband's best man at their wedding because he was from Virginia and she wanted the wedding with her family in Illinois, and he didn't know anyone here. I had never even met the guy until I stood up at their wedding. After that, I visited them a few times in Richmond, VA, even driving there myself once in a rental car from Champaign, Illinois. It was a good friendship that I thought would last all our lives.
But we had a few heated moments. First, I made at thoughtless remark on the occasion of her mother's death, and she lambasted me for it. That was on me. A few years later, after one of my visits, she wrote me an angry letter accusing me of trying to French kiss her. I couldn't imagine where she got that idea, but there too I figured I must have done something. She was attractive, after all, and I was single and maybe got too grabby or something. We were still ok after a few years. The third time, we all (my friend, her husband, and myself) were visiting the younger sister who had been my former girlfriend, and the older sister said some disparaging things about her sister's new boyfriend. I was inwardly pleased, but did not think it was productive for me--the ex-- to join in and agree publicly. This was apparently enough of an offense that my friend was done with me. That was July 1992. Three years later, I wrote to tell her I was getting married and that I wanted her and her husband at the wedding. She wrote back with a list of demands to be met before we could be friends again. I wasn't playing that game any more, and I haven't communicated with her since.
For years--decades--I still thought we might get back in touch, but it's now been 30 years with too much water under the bridge. And that's probably the worst regret of my life.
Point being, I cannot be anything but forlorn at the thought of that sort of permanent loss of friendship between my country and her former friends. I hope to the God I don't believe in that it doesn't turn out that way.
LH a sad - moving and all-too typical story. And just you wait till we come back after Appomattox. The world will go dizzy in celebration.
Meanwhile back at the ranch....
Morgan Stanley and Black Rock have told their investors that they cannot withdraw their funds?
WTF?!?!
So tell me, is this the modern day private equity equivalent of a good old fashioned bank run?
And the real estate values in Dubai just crashed by 1/3 over night.
Apparently the economies of the gulf states are becoming unraveled.
Heh. The geese don’t need missiles. Never met one that wasn’t an ornery cuss willing to bite me. Y’all can keep them.
It is the DFMREI (Stock Market Index) that's down by 30%, not the real estate market, that's doing fine https://sherwoodsproperty.com/dubai-real-estate-index-vs-property-prices/ .
Larry, I've come to see Trump as a catalyst, accelerating processes that were already long in the making and were inevitable in their conclusion. Civilizations can take a long time to die.
But death isn't the end. To quote Historian Will Durant, "Death is life's greatest invention, it makes new life possible." And in commenting on the fall of Rome, Durant stated, "The wheel of history came full turn; the beginning and the end were the same. But the end was always a beginning."
Nothing about our current civilization was sustainable, either financially, environmentally, demographically, politically, or culturally. The rot was too deep. If we were not rotted from the inside out we never would have elected Trump in the first place. His elections prove that we Americans are no longer a great people or a great nation.
We should be looking past the coming crash as the death of the petrodollar wrecks world finances and American hegemony just as global warming and climate change wrecks its ability to promote life.
What matters now is what happens after Ragnorok. After Ragnarök in Norse mythology, the world is cleansed, reborn, and fertile, rising again from the sea to be repopulated by two human survivors. Surviving and returning gods meet to rebuild, while the sun brings forth a daughter to take her place.
As Durant noted, ends are just beginnings.
Something better can come from this.
Celt, I always saw Trump that way. Another analogy is a seed crystal dropped into a supersaturated solution.
The US may have to split apart, which would be a pity. It will take a disaster to bring some people to their senses.
Celt,
already long in the making and were inevitable in their conclusion
This is your bias talking. The cleavage planes have been with us a long time, but a break sufficient to split us isn't inevitable. Others have only been predicting this event since the nation was born.
Nothing about our current civilization was sustainable,...
Ugh. See the bias? You assume much.
Larry,
This isn't the first time we've been the psychotic neighbor.
To be rather blunt, I don't think they have much of a choice but to make up once we come to our senses for a while. What are their options? Seriously.
As least we have some good news.
https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/5786565-judge-blocks-kennedy-vaccine-changes/
Federal court blocks Kennedy’s vaccine changes, invalidates vaccine advisory panel
Now can someone explain to me why parents who refuse to vaccinate their kids are not arrested and imprisoned on child endangerment charges?
And before you say, "but they believe...", I'd like to say:
Fuck their beliefs.
Beliefs don't mean shit, only scientific fact matters.
Kids can die from measles.
People are still dying from Covid-19 or suffering long-Covid brain and heart damage.
Anti-vaxxers have a lot of blood on their hands.
And just you wait till we come back after Appomattox. The world will go dizzy in celebration.
Don't count on both.
No one imagined Trump would start by firing the JAGs who had a legal right to tell officers 'that order is illegal..' And Biden's folks should have seen that coming.
Lack of imagination coupled with unwillingmess to do things differently is a malady of our current consultocratic democracies.
"The truth would have unsettled the citizens." - Thomas de Maiziere, former Minister of the Interior, Cabinet Merkel II
No bias Alfred, just common sense.
Would a healthy society free of deep rot elect and then reelect trump in the first place?
Let the dead bury the dead.
Time to look beyond our current sick society to build a better future.
A drop in a property price index—particularly a well-regarded repeat-sales index like Case-Shiller—is often considered the first major indicator or "first step" signaling a wider, broad-based decline in property prices.
Property price indices are typically "lagging indicators," meaning they reflect home sales that closed 1–3 months ago, rather than immediate current market sentiment.
Realtor.com
Realtor.com
Significance: Because of this lag, a drop in the index usually means that the decline is already well-underway, even if it is just now becoming apparent in the data.
Repeat-Sales: Indices like the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller use a "repeat sales" method (tracking the same home over time), which is considered one of the best ways to measure true market price changes.
The data from commercial building suppliers in the Southeast US currently is that residential building is very slow right now. That's not necessarily a sign of a serious issue as 4th and 1st quarter often, usually even, are relatively slow. But it could be.
And in commenting on the fall of Rome, Durant stated, "The wheel of history came full turn; the beginning and the end were the same. But the end was always a beginning."
A beautiful sentiment as expressed by our Celtic hothead, but one amicable to the CYCLIC HISTORY MODEL that is anathema to our fine host's main post & his WEIRD belief system.
Die?? How could the Mighty West & Pax America die when it is the 'Pinnacle of Human Achievement' and the 'Greatest Ever' ? Why, any educated individual would have to be INSANE to believe in a recursive, cyclical or recurring U.S. Civil (culture) War, going back to 1778, would they not ?
The Cognitive Dissonance is strong here.
Best
Asimovians take the long view. On detritus:
“Hence that state of mind at once gloomy and euphoric which one associates with carrying out the rubbish; and the way we see the men who go by emptying the bins into their pulping truck not just as emissaries for the chthonic world, gravediggers of the inanimate, Charons of a beyond of greasy paper and rusty tin, but as angels too, as indispensable mediators between ourselves and the heaven of ideas in which we undeservedly soar (or imagine we soar) and which can exist only in so far as we are not overwhelmed by the waste which every act of living incessantly produces (even the act of thinking: these thoughts of mine that you are reading being all that been salvaged from the scores of sheets of paper now crumpled up in the bin), heralds of a possible salvation beyond the destruction inherent in all production and consumption, liberators from the weight of time’s detritus, ponderous dark angels of lightness and clarity.”
- Italo Calvino, The Road to San Giovanni
A missile interception in Bagdhad. https://x.com/thestevennabil/status/2033635056754069653
Trump's contrived Iranian Conflict is going splendidly as it has nearly achieved its true goal of ending NATO with the full cooperation of our false, feckless & cowardly EU allies who have already done the following:
(1) They refuse to offer even token participation in the current conflict;
(2) They have uniformly failed to maintain their own military effectiveness;
(3) They are back-pedaling hard in terms of their Ukrainian support;
(4) They have unilaterally withdrawn from NATO's 40 year 'special relationship' with Israel without US permission; and, most importantly,
(5) They are actively ingratiating themselves to Putin at this very moment for more of Russia's sweet sweet crude.
Surprisingly, it appears that California Governor Newsom's gag gift of *Knee Pads* will come in quite handy for our false EU friends as they precipitously drop to their knees to provide their new 'best friend' Putin with oral pleasure in exchange for oil & petrol.
The worse the current Iranian Conflict goes for the US, the better, as every US casualty (and/or loss) is just another nail in the coffin of our false NATO allies, but there is light at the end-of-the-tunnel for the EU, as any movement closer to Putin is a godsend for European right-wing nationalists & the survival of their indigenous populations.
And, what Woke Leftist doesn't just LOVE them some Indigenous Rights ?
Best
Half idiotic lies and half wishing out loud for doom for the West. And proud... distinctly proud... to be an evil person and traitor.
And disgusting rhetorical flourishes as well. One wonders who locum is even trying to convince, at this point. This isn't just lies anymore; the presented perspective is both internally contradictory and delusional. Whether its flaws are from individual or collective dysfunction is nigh impossible to tell. The only thing even close to reality is that the regime certainly does want to be rid of NATO obligations (though not NATO arms sales). The rest betrays the underlying belief that the Europeans are not allies at all, but unruly vassals incapable of full agency.
Far from collapsing into easily dominated right-wing puppet regimes, the Europeans are banding together. Whether formally or not, NATO will live on... centered on Europe. And despite the expressed desire for the destruction of every form of the West other than authoritarian (Judeo?-) Christian nationalism, the West will live on as well. The supposed 'periphery' of democratic nations are building a peer-to-peer network to replace the burned-out central node; a band of brothers wrapping the world -- Mercosur, the UK, India, Japan, ASEAN, ANZAC, and more all moving to coordinate. China and the US will continue to try to build poles, but we may see the first serious test of the proposition that civilization doesn't necessarily need a central hegemon.
There's a through-line from the Christianized imperium of Constantine, to the pre-Westphalian conception of a notional universal dominion by Pope and Emperor, to the Holy Alliance autocracies of Prussia, Austria, and Russia, to the falangists and fascists of Spain, Germany, and Italy, and onward to Putinism, Orbanism, and MAGAism. Someone has always been trying to build a Holy Empire out of the West. It has never, ever, ever worked. Orban is staring into a dummymander nightmare. Putin is hoping an adrenaline shot of crude cash will at least slow the autophagy of his Uruk-hai war machine. And here, delusions are required to fend off the manifest odors of failure.
"...explain to me why parents who refuse to vaccinate their kids are not arrested and imprisoned on child endangerment charges?
Because it is VERY hard to overcome the presumption that parents have agency as well as responsibility for their children. It can happen, but there's a very steep burden to overcome, which does unfortunately lead to abusive situations.
Because who would you trust to determine what is and is not appropriate for your children? The Trump administration and his suborned supreme court? The liberals who insist that circumcision of Jewish males is child abuse? Robert F Kennedy Jr?
I don't want anyone to have the authority to declare that raising my daughter to be a liberal is child abuse. Unfortunately, we have to take the bad (parents) with the good. Who watches the watchmen?
Someone has always been trying to build a Holy Empire out of the West. It has never, ever, ever worked.
Not sure how you can say that. Some of those lasted a long time—certainly longer than liberal democracy. It does seem like someone is always trying to build a holy empire out of the West—and that includes the “liberal international order” that fought so many wars and dropped so many bombs in its crusades for democracy and freedom. And don’t forget a key element of the latest crusade—Greater Israel—another imperial project of Europeans claiming to be God’s chosen.
I don’t know what’s in the cultural or genetic makeup of WEIRDs that makes them like this, but it’s a gene/meme I don’t share. I used to get offended when I heard brown or black people say “white people are crazy” (a common refrain); now I just smile, nod along and think of some of the people at this blog.
I get locum’s point about Iran: by failing so epically, Trump is doing a good job finishing off the old order and resetting the board. This will bring new problems and pain, but it will also open up opportunities that didn’t exist when the liberal imperium was in full force. A lot of us looked at the trajectory of that particular train ride, saw that it was headed from some place repellent to their most basic human instincts, and decided they wanted off. Trump offered them a chance, and they jumped at it, for better or worse. At least it will be different.
… we may see the first serious test of the proposition that civilization doesn't necessarily need a central hegemon.
Civilization has never had a “central hegemon”. What kind of WEIRDo thinks such a thing is needed? If the West breaks up into different, incompatible sub-civilizations, so what? If countries you conspicuously omitted go their own way, who cares? Once get this and lose the “we are the world” attitude, congrats: you’ll be ready to join the multi-polar world as a normal, non-WEIRD citizen.
Catfish & Dr Brin make excellent moral arguments about the ongoing importance of an American Pax & US-dominated NATO -- and this is exactly where we part ways -- as my entirely reasonable, logical & non-delusional arguments are completely amoral, being completely stripped of the morally prescriptive shackles of what America 'must', 'should' and 'ought to' do.
My items of enumeration about the intransigence of our many European NATO allies are entirely accurate & factual, stripped from international media headlines, as many of our European NATO allies have refused to participate in our current siege of Iran, continue to purchase Russian & Iranian oil in a roundabout covert manner despite ongoing NATO embargoes and now openly revile & condemn the historical NATO protectorate of Israel.
Additionally, our European allies have failed to maintain adequate military forces, even though they now promise to do so (soon?) in Agenda 2030, having also failed to maintain the democratic principles of free speech & majority rule, all of which are required by the NATO charter.
Furthermore, when I speak of "ending NATO", I refer to the ending US participation in NATO, and I really don't give a whit if our 'stunning & brave' European allies manage to muddle on as 'NATO' in name only like a second rate tribute band, as long as the US is no longer required sacrifice its monies, energies & men to protect those ingrates.
The Mecour Treaty & Europe's new 'approachment' to China & India, both of which are BRICS members and close allies of Putin, along with Canada's new favoured trading partnership with China, are a direct betrayal of the EU's NATO obligations, a big FU to the USA & most decidedly NOT the acts of a 'Band of Brothers'.
The next logical step is for the USA to completely DESTROY Iranian Oil production & blockade the Strait of Hormuz, as the continued existence of either aids BRICS & our global competitors from the EU to Asia, now that the USA has gone & achieved true energy independence as the world's top oil producer.
Welcome to Fortress America
Best
Locum twists and bends to obscure the facts that
1) He is a fascist and supports the US &the Western World becoming a fascist regime
2) Trumps Iran policies are already a geostrategic debacle that has produced some short-time gains but might shatter the US long-term;
3) That the Irans US policies on the other hand have been much more successful;
4) NATO is a defensive partnership, and the attack on Iran is clearly a war of aggression, as loathsome the Mullah regime might be
5) That "Free speech" is far less in danger over here than in the US
6) That by now, the number one rule of making deals with Donald Trump is "Don't make deals with Donald Trump, because he will screw you over".
7) the much maligned Ukraine has offered expertise, ressources and manpower to Combat drones; thus far, the US have declined to accept it or even say "thank you"
8) That DJT betrayed and broke NATO first by giving aid and comfort to Russia, levying tariffs and damaging our economies, and threatening to invade two NATO partners.
The Number One rule of making deals with Donald Trump is also "Bring lavish gifts, or binders with kompromat, preferably both".
And disgusting rhetorical flourishes as well. One wonders who locum is even trying to convince, at this point. This isn't just lies anymore; the presented perspective is both internally contradictory and delusional.
I think there are two possibilities:
The first is he knows he is lying, and it is just trolling with a large dose of clinical sadism.
The second option is he actually believes what he is saying, but reality is creeping into their dream world, and kognitive dissonance as well as clinical narcicism forces them to become bolder and more insane each day.
We see it at the current admin which lashes out against nearly everyone.
Either way, I wouldn't be too surprised if our good wannabe camp doctor had lived out his urges in other, more physical ways.
"5) That "Free speech" is far less in danger over here than in the US"
Well, what the right-wingers usually mean by "free speech" is their own ability to freely offend others without negative consequence of any kind. It goes way beyond a restriction on government. Someone looking at them funny or correcting a factual error is considered "a threat to free speech".
It goes without saying that this applies only to themselves. Opposing speech is met with cancel culture or violence.
Der Oger said...
"6) That by now, the number one rule of making deals with Donald Trump is "Don't make deals with Donald Trump, because he will screw you over"."
This is the perfect example of something that has been driving me to drink to drown my frustration ever since Trump rode down that escalator. "That by now" time was decades ago. Very clearly for all to see, well known, long before he took that escalator ride.
The worst thing I can say about my fellow USians is that enough of them were too stupid / gullible to see that, too biased to believe it or too shitty to think it should exclude him from office, and so they voted for him and he ended up in the White House.
"too biased to believe it or too shitty to think it should exclude him from office,..."
There are two different things going on here.
It doesn't surprise me that MAGA voters whose main motivation seems to be "owning the libs" continue to support him irrespective of character flaws.
It does surprise me that people do continue to make deals to placate him and don't understand that he will renege at will.
Der Oger please do not go over that line... accusing people of physical crimes without a scintilla of cause.or evidence.
He didn't accuse. He just said he wouldn't be surprised.
Mr. Nobody vs. Putin --- stay past the Oscar award to the trailer. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SKTViOwZz0w
A brief history of the Quest of the Holy Western Empire:
1) Constantine starts the effort to make a state religion out of Christianity at Nicaea. The Roman state merely switches from oppressing all Christians to oppressing 'heretics'; this is actually worse, as 'heresies' track cultural norms and thus enhance regionalism.
2) The former auxiliary tribes take over the western provinces. Centuries of Roman bishops -- "popes" -- scheme to consolidate enough authority to crown a Western Emperor. They finally succeed -- only to have the new Holy Roman Empire rapidly split into pieces and fight. A much-reduced core of Germany and the Alpine lands are all that stick with the project.
3) Unable to corral the fractious Christian kingdoms into a temporal union, the Papacy tries to build "Christendom" -- with the Pope as "Vicar of Christ" and superior to all rulers -- using the Crusades as a joint project to cement the deal. The Holy Roman Emperors strenuously disagree, and after a few iterations, so too do the crusaders.
4) The next attempt at Holy Empire comes in the forms of financial and information control: police the permissible ideas and restrict the funds available to dissenters. This almost works, briefly, but it all depends on a predictable economy and infotech. Plague ruins the former and Gutenberg upsets the latter. The ensuing Renaissance and Reformation wipe out intellectual unification moves.
5) The Papacy's tapped out, but the wealth from exploring the Americas and literally circumventing the Med-Arab-Silk trade system opens a new line for the claimants to Imperium. Spanish and then Austrian Habsburgs flood Europe with mercenaries, paid for by the treasure fleets. Charles V's holdings are the high-water mark -- but the attempt pushes France and the Protestant nations to build their own colonies and trade nets to fund resistance, and the Habsburg solidarity falls apart.
6) France then makes its own bid for dominance -- first as a Catholic power, then as the Napoleonic French Empire. Again, it almost works, until overreach collapses the attempt... and the effort of resistance restores Britain's imperial strength after the masterstroke of assisting the rebellion of thirteen fractious colonies.
7) Britain tries a different tack with under-the-table diplomacy and "scientific" racism, while the Holy Alliance tries to hold back all this 'enlightenment' and 'democracy' talk. European imperialism is built to sustain this competition, until the two sides -- evolved into the Allied and Central Powers -- blow the whole thing to smithereens. An attempt to impose the now Anglo-American paradigm half-works, half-fails at Versailles, and slightly different versions of the same sides blow up the world again.
8) And then the American attempt now in the process of collapse... an attempt Americans really didn't want to make in the first place. Unable to maintain their empires on their own, Europe's fading powers dumped their problems on their cousins' laps while Russia under Stalin promptly betrayed everyone the second they saw their chance. America managed to keep their empire as light and rational and secular as possible, but the logic of empire has finally found its way to the heart of power. Few Americans seem to like it.
Civilization has never had a “central hegemon”. What kind of WEIRDo thinks such a thing is needed?
Ask China. Or the dar al-Islam, which paid lip service to the unifying figure of a Caliph for centuries after that dream proved impractical. Or the Mongols, though they had no interest at all in the "Holy" part.
Better yet, try calling any of them WEIRD and see how far that gets you.
"In life, unlike chess, the game continues after checkmate" - Isaac Asimov
Most adults, especially geopolitical strategists, know this.
Most.
Prediction market manipulation involves direct threats to journalists.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/mar/18/polymarket-gamblers-threaten-israeli-journalist-missile-strike-wager
Money laundering has moved into the prediction markets and other gambling sites at quite a quick pace. It will be interesting to see if Polymarket revokes the accounts of those responsible for the threats e.g. is market manipulation via threatening journalists a feature or bug for the owners of the market.
Locum wants his America to be free of the shackles of 'ought', but he's happy to place them on Europeans. They 'ought' to support the ally that has belittled, insulted, snubbed, sneered, lectured, and ignored them while demanding tribute and even territory. They need 'permission' to reject a 'special relationship' they never had or agreed to -- in other words, they're not fully sovereign, and NATO is not an alliance but a contract of vassalage. And the leader doing Putin the most favors lives west, not east, of the Atlantic... even as Putin provides material aid and comfort to an enemy in active combat with the United States.
Locum is entirely right that the Europeans are building a world order that excludes America (or at least the version of America he supports). He might even be right that we will achieve vast savings by shutting down much of our worldwide military infrastructure. The mystery is why he thinks that provides more benefits than pride. Prosperous fortress nations are rare, and our domestic carbon-lords are not likely to generously share the profits they make off our hubristic death-grip on expensive energy inefficiency. Meanwhile, the interest on Treasuries will inevitably rise, and the broligarchs have no intention of actually paying for all the credit they borrowed in the name of We The People (and then extracted by tax cuts and corrupt contracts).
Then again, as long as they get to forcibly impose his visions on the rest of us, maybe he doesn't care.
Even though I appreciate our recent discussions, I have things to do & places to be, so I must wind things up for now.
What I preach is 'Disengagement' from our participation in TA World Police & NATO and, since I have absolutely no interest in conquest, this is a position that renders the relative degree of my supposed 'fascism' immaterial, as the APA specifies that Disengagement is the only appropriate response to an abusive relationship.
And, make no mistake about it, the USA is currently involved in an abusive relationship with the EU & the world at large, as evidenced by the EU's constant 'gaslighting' about how US self-interest & its increasing reluctance to provide unlimited aid, support and concessions to the world-at-large is the equivalent of 'causing harm'.
The 5 D's follow:
(1) Disengagement from said abuser;
(2) Deterrence through strong boundaries & borders;
(3) De-escalation by not engaging on the abuser's terms;
(4) Deception in order to manage risk & buy exit time**; and, then,
(5) Defense & the protection of what value remains.
I'm describing an international divorce due to abuse, even though the same principles apply to domestic separations too, in which the abuser is the one who constantly DEVALUES the contributions of the designated other in an insane attempt to force the other to 'stay engaged with' & reliant upon the scant praise of their abusive partner.
Also remember this:
Turnabout is fair in matters of relational abuse, as Divorce is the only prudent & civilized option going forward, regardless of the relative guilt or innocence of either party, so don't let the door hit your bums on the way out.
Best
______
**(4) Deception in order to manage risk & buy exit time, this is were Trump really excels with umpteen bazillion business (plus 2 domestic) divorces under his belt.
This is where we are now:
The EU states "I'm NOT HAPPY with US policy";
The US states "I'm NOT HAPPY with EU policy";
DIVORCE.
The Blues state "I'm NOT HAPPY with the Reds";
The Reds state "I'm NOT HAPPY with the Blues";
DIVORCE.
The civilized response to irresolvable marital discord is DIVORCE.
Or, is it now the general consensus here that Divorce should be IMMORAL, ILLEGAL & FORBIDDEN under any & all circumstances, including abuse, misogyny & rude tweets?
""In life, unlike chess, the game continues after checkmate"
Also unlike the game of Monopoly. In real life, what happens after someone acquires all of the money?
Matthew that is interesting information. Thanks.
WHile MCS remains a resolute spouter of treason, both Treebeard and lopcumranch have made interesting migrations. Not conversions or recantations. It would be smugly intolerantly pushy to demand that. But both now admit th US Right to be spectacularly/volcanically vile and toxic. The ent appears (correct me if I'm am mistaken) to hold a very slender hope that the treason party can be defeated by something at least slightly less horrible, while doubting it is likely or that it would stave off dire outcomes for long.
locum appears to be saying: "Dire outcomes? Bring em now!' And who the f never needs friends, anyway?"
And that expends the time I'll spend on them.
But if we divorce where will the Red states get the money they need to function if not by stealing it from Blue states who pay more in Federal taxes than they get in Federal benefits?
I prefer twister.
"The ent appears (correct me if I'm am mistaken) to hold a very slender hope that the treason party can be defeated by something at least slightly less horrible, "
I took him as being glad that MAGA is accelerating the decline of America's place in the world, believing that outcome to be inevitable and happy to jump to the finish line.
"locum appears to be saying: 'Dire outcomes? Bring em now!' And who the f never needs friends, anyway?'"
The Sour Grapes fable.
Maybe more to the point, if Red and Blue states divorce, neither can actually go live somewhere else. We're kinda stuck where we are.
Also it looks to me like the bigger split is between rural and urban regions within states. Separating states won't fix that.
onward
onward
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