“JESUS WEPT! Turn it off, Jerry, I’ve seen enough!”
“Don’t you touch that remote, barman! Me and my friends are enjoying watching the President beat the living crap out of Sleepy Joe Biden, senile old bastard.”
Jerry sizes-up the huge man in front of him. The bulging biceps, the impressive amount of ink, the MAGA cap on his head, and nods.
“Sorry, Carl”, he says, moving down the bar and pouring his old friend a free glass beer by way of apology.
“No, no, it’s alright, Jerry. I shouldn’t have asked you to deny your patrons their gladiatorial sport.”
“Gladiatorial? Doesn’t that imply two evenly matched fighters? Not much evidence of equality in this contest. More like a face-off between a Christian and a lion.”
“What does it say about this country, Jerry, that this is the choice we’ve been given? Between a septuagenarian grifter and a septuagenarian dotard. Three hundred and thirty million Americans and the best candidates we can come up with for President of these United States are Donald Trump and Joe Biden!”
“What it says, Carl, is that the people of this country are hoping that a Democrat Dad or a Republican Pop will sort everything out. Not themselves, they don’t really trust themselves. And certainly not their kids. The younger generation are a complete mystery to them. They’re reaching back to those times in their lives when they turned to Mom and Dad for help. When their first marriage crashed and burned. When their second business failed. When their eldest daughter got pregnant to that drug dealer. When the factory closed and they lost their job. Those moments when they were at a loss. When they were scared. When they needed help.”
Carl throws back his beer and brings the glass down on the bar with a crack.
“Another?”
“Thanks, Jerry.”
A great cheer goes up from the MAGA men. Carl looks up at the big screen and turns away quickly from the bewildered expression on Sleepy Joe’s face.
“Poor old bastard really is getting a shellacking – as Obama used to say. And all those guys in the caps: why in God’s name are they cheering-on a New York billionaire who pays $750 a year in taxes? Jeez, that’s less than half what those guys pay the IRS. Dammit! They’re all working stiffs, just like you and me. Why can’t they see that Trump is not their friend?”
“Oh, come on, Carl, you know that ain’t true. He’s been a better friend to them than Hilary Clinton would ever have been. He gets them, Carl. He knows them. They’re the guys he used to josh around with on his daddy’s building sites when he was a teenager. Remember Nixon’s Hard Hats from the 1970s? The guys who beat the living shit out of those anti-war hippies outside the New York Stock Exchange. Trump’s always known that the American working-class ain’t exactly full of liberals.”
“Oh, don’t, Jerry. Don’t say that – not when it’s true.”
“And I’ll tell you something else. At some place, deep, deep down, they get him, too. They know that only Fat Cats can get Fat Cats. Guys like them, working stiffs, as you call them, they worked out long ago exactly how much power they don’t have. The guys who worked for Trump senior, their unions were all run by the Mob. Look the wrong way at those wise-guys – let alone stand against one of them for the presidency of the union – and likely as not you’d end up in the foundations of one of old man Trump’s tenement buildings.”
“Yeah, well, it wasn’t always like that, was it?”
“Wasn’t it? What was Franklin Delano Roosevelt, if not a Fat Cat from upstate New York? What else was Jack Kennedy? Jesus Christ, Carl, the guy went to Choate and Harvard! You know what his daddy told him, Carl? As he was preparing to send his little boy to the White House? He said, ‘Son, to become President of the United States you only need three things. The first is, money. The second is, money. And the third is, money.’ And, guess what, Joe Kennedy had plenty of all three!”
“Yeah, well, Clinton wasn’t from a rich family, and neither was Obama.”
“And didn’t it show, Carl? Didn’t it show! They couldn’t do enough for the big boys on Wall Street. Look at Obama, when he summoned the big bankers to the White House. Man, they were quaking in their boots. They thought Obama was going to go after them with an axe. Did he? Like hell he did! He told them not to worry. He bailed out their banks. He rescued Wall Street. What about Main Street? Fuck Main Street! Ordinary folks – like those guys in the caps – they have never been too big to fail.”
“Oh my God! Did I just hear Trump tell the Proud Boys to ‘stand back and stand by’?”
“Judging by the cheers and the fist-pumping, Carl, I think that’s exactly what you heard.”
“Jesus Christ! What they hell is it with this guy? Does he really want a civil war?”
“Isn’t it obvious, Carl? Of course he wants a civil war. It’s what he’s wanted from the very beginning. Not just because he’s broke. Not just because he owes the IRS. Not just because he’s likely to be indited on multiple charges if Biden beats him. But because the United States is all played out. He knows it. Those guys in the MAGA caps know it. Wall Street knows it. The military know it. About the only people who don’t know it are the Democratic National Committee and the mainstream news media.”
“Jeez, Jerry, lighten-up will ya. It’s not that bad.”
“Actually, Carl, it is that bad. This country’s tired, bone-tired, of pretending to be something it’s not. It’s tired of trying to live up to Lincoln’s “better angels”. Everybody knows that the stories America tells herself are the worst kind of lies. We’re a vicious, rapacious people: always have been, always will be. How does Bob Dylan put it in his song, Blind Willy McTell? ‘Well, God is in his heaven, and we all want what’s his. But, power and greed, and corruptible seed, seem to be all that there is.’”
“Man, you need a drink!”
“Carl, I’m just getting started. You know I love to read history.”
“Oh yeah. We all know about you and your history books, Jerry.”
“Well, let me tell you something about the Roman Republic. It was brought down by wealthy men. Not aristocrats, mind you, but plutocrats. And do you know how these Fat Cat Romans, brought it down? By siding with the plebs against the aristocrats. By promising to look after them – and keeping their promise. By pledging to expand the Empire – and making Rome great again. By sharing with the plebs the wealth which the Senate and People of Rome plundered from the tribes and cities they conquered. I tell you, Carl, the American republic is going to end exactly the same way. It’s going to be brought down by an unholy alliance of the very rich and the very poor. It’s going to be destroyed by an American Caesar.”
Carl’s response is drowned out by the guys at the end of the bar breaking into a chant:
“USA! USA! USA!”
Good read. And I’d be surprised if you haven’t met an American in the USA who you haven’t actually liked..but that’s serendipity…maybe.
Try, “Deer Hunting With Jesus”, Joe Bageant, dispatches from America’s class war. There’s lots of talking with Bageant back in his redneck root town of Winchester, Virginia, little with in-depth interest. This is ‘white trashonomics”, gun culture, massively ill- educated, jobs constantly at risk, serious health problems with little or no health care, and the people who carried George W Bush to victory. Like you, Bageant, sees war.
Not totally dissimilar to here in New Zealand, except those like Marama try to make it into a race issue, and those like Judith add another insidious dimension by publicly targeting citizens like the good man Hager, and here we lure in foreign nationals to enable the exploitation of our people by exploiting them when we are all in this together.
I can send you the book if you like, if you can set it up. I shall reread it, in one night, maybe want to read it again, but such happens.
( I am purposely not mentioning the ‘magical thinking’ of the Christian Right for fear of triggering the secular country, I am an atheist warriors.)
Yes, well America is going to be brought down by the very institutions it celebrates so much -Wall Street, the over-extended military, the out-of-touch entertainment sector, the ‘food’ industry that uses oil to force overproduction from depleted soils, the effects of planetary overheating that so-called leaders say isn’t happening and, of course, by GDP growth (or more recently lack of) that encourages and rewards bad behaviour.
By manipulating interest rates, by issuing junk bonds, by financing otherwise unviable fracking etc., the American Empire has managed to extend its run by a few more years. But now the gig is up, and the great collapse is underway.
So the only real questions are: how fast? how much damage to the rest of the world will it cause?
Very insightful and most likely very true. Especially the last paragraph.
Trump: The first president in 40 years NOT to invade another country.
That’s one reason why the big end of town don’t like him – he’s bad or business.
You seen a film called ‘Idiocracy’ @ CT?
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0387808/
How about ‘Team America World Police’ ?
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0372588/
Well, the heading could just as well have been, “Conversation in a New Zealand Bar”. NZ have sunk just as low in their debates with Collin’s rude and abrasive debate performances. It would have been excusable if commentators reflected on her poor behavior and suggested a more civil approach to stick to the facts and policy and refrain from derision, but no, it seems NZ is heading to all out deplorable, without realizing it. Judith’s been considered the “winner” by so called “political” commentators, go figure Kiwi’s think rude obnoxious behavior is a winner. Sigh, says more about them than than they realize, celebrating deplorable behavior. It makes NZ look just as bad as the US. Just think how bad these debates reflect on the world stage for NZ image, by now you can ask what image? for it is surely eroded to nothing! I always thought the Kiwis had more class, finesse a bit more Royal in their culture, but sad how they denigrated and eroded into a US styled red/blue death spiral of tribalism. How sad, very sad and disappointing!
I hope the team of 5 million reject this deplorable person and send her and Winston to where they belong, oblivion!
I agree it was deplorable. But I have just read a very interesting, which confirms some of what I already knew and provides new insights into the ‘circuses’ that the media orchestrate.
Although written for the US perspective, it applies equally well in NZ.
https://tomluongo.me/2020/09/30/trump-biden-election-debates/
‘Last night’s debate was universally panned as many things not suitable for virgin ears. Honestly, I don’t disagree.
I had no plans on watching it because they are almost always uninteresting, low-information theater. Last night was no exception.
Both camps are doing their best to put the best spin on it they can but a couple of observations I think are salient:
Biden was as good as he was ever going to be
Trump was as bad as he could possibly have been
Chris Wallace was there to make sure Biden stayed on script
The format and questions were all softballs for Biden
In that context here’s the big question for partisans (of which I’m one), “Do these debates even matter?” And my cynical answer is, “No. They don’t.”
But the more nuanced one is that yes, they do. They matter for one important reason.
People don’t vote based on what candidates say but how they say what they say.
That’s why televised debates are such an important part of a campaign and why they can be turning points in an election.
Jonathan Haidt in his book, The Righteous Mind, laid out a metaphor for how the brain processes information and communicates it to the world.
It boils down to the Elephant and the Rider. Your hindbrain or right-brain is the Elephant. It’s the unconscious mind which makes all the real decisions.
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The Rider is the forebrain or left-brain and it’s like the press secretary for the Elephant. It thinks it’s in charge, pulling on the reins of what it’s convinced itself is a quarter-horse directing your behavior and your decisions.
It tells you, and more importantly the world, that you’re rational and that you are consciously in control of your decisions.
But the reality is The Rider sits on top of The Elephant who is charging ahead because it’s already made its decision.
The Rider then just makes up why as The Elephant tramples forward.
Why is this important to the debates?
This is, in essence, why debates matter. Elephants vote.
And this take on last night’s “shitshow” is the correct one.
There is an army of DNC operatives out there today trying to tell you that Trump lost the debate or that he lied and here are the fact-checks to prove it and all that rotten nonsense.
Those are riders desperately talking to those whose elephants already decided they hate Trump for whatever reason they have. Trump Derangement Syndrome is real.
It won’t change one vote.
What Trump did last night was to project competence and strength. His best moments were when he looked at Biden and said, “Joe what are you talking about? I just had this guy in my office last week….”
Those moments translate to the Elephants on all sides of the political spectrum that Trump is in control of his office, is informed and despite all of his faults as a person is right on top of the issues.
This is strength of leadership. It’s alpha male stuff. Trump made the case loud and clear in the first 30 minutes of the debate that he is President, does the job well, and won’t apologize for running the country the way he does.
In a time when there’s crazy violence in the streets, millions unemployed and rightfully worried about tomorrow not ten years from now, that’s pretty much all he had to do.
All Biden could do was mumble about raising taxes and being fearful of more COVID-19.
Elephants look at that and see weakness not leadership.
All the talk about decorum and shouting over each other is irrelevant. Decorum is for dinner parties. People tune in to the debates to decide who will lead them not who will play by some arbitrary set of rules.
And the more Chris Wallace tried to put Trump in his place the more obvious it was to everyone’s Elephant that this was not a level playing field.
Now, as far as this election goes we may not need anymore of this events for one simple reason. Ratings.
The ratings for the 2016 debates were record-setting. They needed to be. So few people had actually seen more than a sound-byte of Trump that they needed to tune in to allow their Elephants to get a measure of him.
By the end of the first debate Trump went from Nazi to ‘pretty ok’ in a lot of voters’ minds.
By the end of the last debate and the five words that won him the election, Trump sealed the deal with millions of undecided Elephants. He moved them with those words and that pugnacious attitude he has.
This year all he has to do is show those same people that he’s just as much a fighter today after four years of endless screeching and lying as he was then.
This adds to an observation I saw on Twitter yesterday about the ratings which struck my Elephant as correct.
Brian may not like what I’m about to report.
The poor ratings for last night’s debate tell me that there are a lot of Elephants out there that didn’t need reassuring.
The first presidential debate of 2020 was widely panned by most observers — and is on track to draw a far smaller audience than the record-setting first debate four years ago.
Fast national ratings for the broadcast networks show the debate gathering 28.82 million viewers across ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox — a decline of 36 percent from 2016. Four years ago, the big four networks tallied 45.3 million viewers in the preliminary ratings, rising to 49.33 million after time zone adjustments for the live broadcast.
And if that CBS Poll is an anomaly in this election cycle, namely that it’s in any way accurate, then there is little need to go forward with any more of these because it only gets worse for Joe Biden from here…
… no matter what the Riders in the Twitterati have to say about it.
Join my Patreon if your Elephant isn’t asleep at the wheel’
“What Trump did last night was to project competence and strength.”
“This is strength of leadership. It’s alpha male stuff.”
Rubbish and I know something about leadership after decades working as a manager & company director in multinationals. The only people who would believe that are those that want to carry MSSAs as their penis substitutes.
You need to change your user name because your post is not accurate, RNZ had something on morning report that Biden had slightly improved support after the debate, you neglect that Trump lost the popular vote & needed an unfair voting system to win in 2016
If you believe what RNZ tells you then you are very susceptible to being misled. RNZ is a propaganda outlet of the BAU community. I recognised that about 15 years ago when Chris Laidlaw and Kim Hill dominated the scene and churned out endless bullshit.
RNZ gave high prominence to climate-change-deniers Augie Auer and David Bellamy, and pounded the listeners with nonsense about GDP growth. I stopped listening long ago and started to get news and commentary from less biased, more reliable sources.
Bonnie, both side are as rotten as can be in American politics (much the same as in NZ).
Biden has more dirty laundry than a Chinese laundry, going back decades, and is just the latest of a series of utterly corrupt exploiters of the American public and warmongers. Biden has so much dirt on him he makes Lady Macbeth look like an angel, particularly when you consider all the dirty dealings that went on in Ukraine.
Jams Howard Kunstler is the latest of many Americans to highlight the utterly corrupt nature of the Democrats and their unstinting support for the industrial-military-financial-complex that keeps them in the money.
It’s all hypocrisy and lies. America has been running on hypocrisy and lies for decades, at least as far back as the Kennedy assassination by a cabal of gangsters who later acquired high positions in government. Arguably back to the time of the Lincoln assassination.
‘The matter was neatly laid out a year ago during the impeachment ploy: After the color revolution in Ukraine, 2014, Mr. Biden was designated not just as “point man” overseeing American interests in that sad-sack country, but specifically as a watchdog against the notorious deep corruption of Ukraine’s entire political ecosystem — as if, you understand, the internal workings of Ukraine’s politics was any of our business in the first place.
The evidence aired publicly last year suggests that Mr. Biden jumped head-first and whole-heartedly into the hog-trough of loose money there, netting his son Hunter and cohorts millions of dollars for no-show jobs on the board of natural gas company, Burisma.
And then, of course, Mr. Biden stupidly bragged on a recorded panel session at the Council on Foreign Relations about threatening to withhold U.S. aid money as a lever to induce Ukraine President Petro Poroshenko to fire a prosecutor looking into Burisma’s sketchy affairs.
Naturally, the Democratic Party impeachment crew accused Mr. Trump of doing exactly what Mr. Biden accomplished a few years earlier.’
https://dailyreckoning.com/civil-war-two/
Well Pierre, Collins may be rude and abrasive. But then so are half the farmers, tradies and many other fellow citizens I deal with. I don’t mind at all, good honest and upfrontness is sort of part of our country’s character.
It’s a lot better than this new ‘personality politics trend, this contrived, well rehearsed and PR engineered ‘smiling kindness’ employed by Jacinda and her cronies. “Hi…we love you…so here is new law for freedom of speech.” “Hi we love you, so why don’t you pay more tax.” ” Hi…we love you, that’s why we kneecaped the oil and gas industry” “Hi, we love low income earners, that’s why we invented Kiwibuild where nobody can even afford the houses we’ll never build.” “Hi, we love farmers that’s why we’ll make it even harder to be one.”
See what I mean?
Well Pierre, Collins may be rude and abrasive. But then so are half the farmers, tradies and many other fellow citizens I deal with. I don’t mind at all, good honest and upfrontness is sort of part of our country’s character.
What being an arrogant asshole is part of this countries character? You must deal with a large number of twats. But this alone is not an issue.
It’s a lot better than this new ‘personality politics trend, this contrived, well rehearsed and PR engineered ‘smiling kindness’ employed by Jacinda and her cronies.
You may want to live a life full of nasty bullshit but I don’t. Maybe Jacinda and co overreach on occasion but their heart (do you know what this is?) is in the right place. The right wing are absolute experts on PR BS – look at how long Key was in power.
“Hi…we love you…so here is new law for freedom of speech.”
Hate speech is divisive and can lead to a range of negative outcomes – are you okay with this? Sorry, that was clearly a rhetorical question as anyone that bleats about freedom of speech to allow for hate type speech is an asshole.
“Hi we love you, so why don’t you pay more tax.”
If you are referring to CGT then this is LONG overdue. Why should those wealthy enough to own more than one property pay no tax on massive capital gains that have been enjoyed here for ever – overseas there are very few countries that have no CGT.
Of course, your beloved National party spent years cutting taxes in largely successful efforts to return to power. Of course, the gutless prats knew it is much, much, easier to reduce than to increase taxes and they knew when they cut taxes, that somewhere down the line this would need to be corrected.
” Hi…we love you, that’s why we kneecaped the oil and gas industry”
You probably don’t give a shit about children and their children and the future in general, but unless we start making some big changes, we will all be destroyed by the ravages of global warming – hell it is almost too late now, but not quite. The oil and gas industry is toast – we need to rethink our energy needs to be much more environmentally friendly or there won’t be anything to look forward to.
“Hi, we love low income earners, that’s why we invented Kiwibuild where nobody can even afford the houses we’ll never build.”
I will admit that Kiwibuild was a ‘fustercluk’ but the need for many new houses is due to years of complacency from previous administrations, including that of Helen Clark and David Lange – but all National administrations since Rob Muldoon. This was made worse by wonton selling off of state assets, including State Housing, despite the knowledge there would soon be a massive demand for it. Total assholes.
“Hi, we love farmers that’s why we’ll make it even harder to be one.”
Boo effen hoo. Nobody has a gun to their head to be a farmer. I recollect about 10 years ago that Real Estate ‘professionals’ (I use the term loosely) were going to the wall due to the economic circumstances of the time – now only 10 years later not even a wimper – why? Because they are now creaming it – partially due to the lack of a CGT and partly due to a massive shortage in housing that is compounded by large numbers of NZers returning home from overseas due to Covid-19. Given that farm products are currently valuable on the world market, if farmers are struggling I would suggest they look at other career options.
See what I mean?
All your ‘so-called’ examples are BS – so, no I can’t.
Well said Bob.
Pierre, so much of what you wrote is so true. “Kiwi’s think rude obnoxious behavior is a winner.” Yes this is true for a section of NZ, I call them Natz voters. That’s just my experience. I live and work in a true blue province, Taranaki, and see this macho bullshit every single day of my life. It’s a type of caveman behaviour I reckon and is also the main driver behind our appalling child abuse/domestic abuse statistics IMHO. Don’t read too much into that statement but there’s a definite link there. We should NOT be broadcasting this deviant behaviour on prime time TV or at all really, and especially from Politicians like Jude Collins. It just feeds the sickness that is out in part of our community. Plenty of commenters on this site would fall into this category with there views.
Pierre -Oui. RNZ’s debate opinion piece was so trite it stunned me. I couldn’t continue reading it. Brigitte Morten makes an analogy between debating, and reality television show, “ The Bachelor”, which she was clearly well acquainted with. I suppose I should admire her publicly admitting that she watches rubbish. Demeaning rubbish. And here’s the crunch : the females in “The Bachelor “compete to get something for themselves, a man. (Groan.) The politicians in the leaders’ debate, are persons competing to theoretically represent the country, not themselves, and there’s a mighty big difference – and a different skill set, as it were.
I scrolled down to see who Morten was – works or worked as consultant for a law firm. Worked as an advisor to the National Party. Suddenly it became clear where her ideas may have come from, about the nature of politics. Now she volunteers for Wellington National MP Nicola Willis.
Is this pedestrian level of comment what RNZ believes that it’s audience wants? Or is RNZ purposefully part of the dumbing down of New Zealanders? Or, are they just dumb themselves?
Good, honest and upfront Herman that’s bullshit many NZers are online gutlessly backstabbing behind their keyboards. Good manners and respect was something we once prided ourselves on but not anymore.
I am of the belief, that American oligarchs would love to see their nation become a failed state.
No more regulations, no more laws to circumnavigate, no more responsibility to the environment, or worker health and safety. And tax would obviously become optional. And Trump is making it happen for them.
standalone complex – “The American oligarchs would love to see their nation become a failed state.” Possibly.
But it would be failed states, and chances are they don’t even think in those terms.They are motivated entirely by self interest, which can be hard for some of us to begin to understand.
Any widespread societal breakdown would bring in the armed forces and cement their control. As usual, it is the people at the bottom, who do the work of production, who will be crushed or killed, but they don’t matter; much of the work can be outsourced, and there are always replacements queuing to get into the USA, ironically often from already exploited and downtrodden people seeking the American dream.
It is class warfare, and in this context, Ardern’s advocacy of “kindness”, which angers some people, brings a constructive and urgent message to do some socks-pulling-upping on our home patch. Here we have people
trying to cause division by fomenting race issues, and we are idiots if we let them, and they are idiots too, because the winners may well be invisible others; if “dreadful martyrdom must run its course”, it should be by choice.
I made a personal decision not to travel via the USA again, when Trump became POTUS. If everyone, globally, made a similar decision, it would impact. Obviously some just can’t, and others simply won’t – and a lot of us won’t be going anywhere anyway in our foreseeable futures, assuming that there is much of a future.
The protagonists, the Orangutan & the 180 years old are outwitted and disarmed ‘unwittingly’ by each others IQ & EQ and by the subject matter truth, honesty and integrity. Politicians huh!?
This is the best youve done yet Chris – scary accurate. If trump wins (and its hard to believe the senile sleepy muppet running against him can win) the far left will go nuts – they will not accept him for four more years and we will have a civil war exploding out of the almost civil war we see burning away now.
So different over here (hopefully JLR and winston dissappear) to have quality leaders in Judith and Jacinda and a decent second debate, how could USA end up with such clowns fighting for the presidential crown.
Do you not remember Regan?
Reminded me of Laurie Andersons’s “O Superman” back in 1981 I think.
The words kept coming back to me,
“O Superman. O judge. O Mom and Dad. Mom and Dad.”
right through to
“Here come the planes”,
possibly the best aural artistic lyric ever.
It was about the Iran Contra BS but seemed very poignant for today’s world, the US in particular.
I feel sorry for those US citizens affected by this upcoming civil war, the left will be smashed and the right will prevail.
I still don’t want them coming here.
O Superman. O judge. O Mom and Dad. Mom and Dad.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vkfpi2H8tOE
China is smiling.
Be careful all you who cheer for America to implode.
Meanwhile in NZ herds of Karen’s cheer for Jacinda !
If the white, female, middle class, meaningless “ live, laugh, love” had a literal personification she is it.
We are being led by at best a catchy billboard, at worst an amusing internet meme.
Our future is not rosy.
Keepcalmcarryon – Karens are among the least likely category of persons to be cheering for Jacinda.
Keepcalmcarryon Few would want America to implode. It’s not a state of mind, it’s people, and only the malevolent or the sick, wish harm upon other people.
Ain’t nothing wrong with living, laughing, and loving either. In an ideal world, everybody would be.
I suppose it’s quite nice though, that you see white middle-class ladies – My pearls ! My pearls ! – as being as community focused as Maori. If this is so, then contrary to what you claim, our future is rosy. Rosier.
But well done, anyway, for reading bill boards and keeping up with internet memes.
‘only the malevolent or the sick, wish harm upon other people.’
Okay, so we know that the government of America is malevolent and sick and does wish harm for other people. Just look at what they are attempting to do in their illegal and unjustified persecution of Julian Assange -and his ‘crime’ was exposing the criminal activities of the American Empire in Iraq and other places. And we know that the American lifestyle has been totally dependent on inflicting harm on others for decades, indeed centuries.
Practically everything that America stands for and represents is predicated on massive levels of harm to others. And the ultimate in the American malevolence and harmfulness is the American stance on the environment -which amounts to trashing it as quickly as possible in an orgy of self-indulgence and greed.
So, i do wish for America to fall, and fall quickly because no other nation has achieved anything like the level of harm to others that America has achieved, particularly since the middle of the Second World War. The death toll from America meddling cannot be determined exactly but we are talking in terms of 30 million deaths, unmitigated poverty and misery foisted on the world by America. We are talking about the only nation to use nuclear weapons as weapons, and it used them on civilians, both as an experiment and as a blatant threat to the USSR; there was no military justification whatsoever because Japan was finished as a fighting nation (couldn’t put a ship to sea or launch an air defence because it had almost no fuel) and was already starting to starve when the bombs were dropped.
You may find it hard to accept but the sooner America collapses, the better off we will all be. 4% of world population using 25% of world resources and generating humungous levels of life-threatening pollution. Go figure, as the saying goes.
Of course responses to unwelcome information are generally emotional, rather than logical, which is why America has been able to get away with so much murder and mayhem over the years: they were the first to use the mind-control work of Freud against the general populace via Bernays and company.
As George Carlin (one of the best Americans because he was totally anti-establishment and called a spade a spade) said: Ask a Native American. That’s if you can find one.”
Afewknowthetruth. Apres moi, le deluge.
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