If I wanted America to fail

[missouriboy]

The fall of Seattle

unherd.com/2022/12/the-fall-of-seattle-2/?tl_inbound=1&tl_groups[0]=18743&tl_period_type=3&mc_cid=c8e0bbe8a3&mc_eid=1e7483f7ef

[Sigurdur]

www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/congress-guts-budget-rules-and-misses-chance-to-cut-spending/ar-AA15Ihbs

Congress guts budget rules and misses chance to cut spending

[missouriboy]

Dec 28, 2022 0:35:48 GMT Sigurdur said:

www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/congress-guts-budget-rules-and-misses-chance-to-cut-spending/ar-AA15Ihbs

Congress guts budget rules and misses chance to cut spending

The usual cast of traitors.  We have long memories.

[Sigurdur]

www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/the-bad-news-2023-is-already-shaping-up-to-be-a-very-very-bad-year/ar-AA15OrvV?ocid=msedgntp&cvid=5e4452fd9bd04bf08a2e9fd3b7edc8f0

The bad news: 2023 is already shaping up to be a very, very bad year

[gridley]

thehill.com/opinion/white-house/3792321-the-bad-news-2023-is-already-shaping-up-to-be-a-very-very-bad-year/

"Few would call 2020, 2021 and 2022 “good years” for America. Some might call them disasters — and 2023 may well be worse."

I do have a hard time seeing any reason for optimism about the coming year. The much-heralded "Red Tsunami" hit the breakwater of election fraud and fizzled. Despite ever-increasing evidence that the Covid "vaccines" are at best useless and at worst counterproductive they continue to be pushed by the .gov. Despite the inevitable crash of Canada's single-payer healthcare system it continues to be the ultimate objective of the statists here in the US.

While a few free states (FL and TX being notable examples) continue to push back, they're increasingly being invaded by refugees from liberal hellholes... who promptly vote for the same things that made their old states into liberal hellholes in the first place. Sure, Gov Abbot rightly clobbered Beto, but the donkey of donkeys still got 43% of the vote. How many Californians will flee eastward in the next few years? And what if the Dems find someone who has even one redeeming feature to put on the ballot?

Happy New Year... enjoy what you can while you can.

[ratty]

Dec 31, 2022 20:26:16 GMT gridley said:

thehill.com/opinion/white-house/3792321-the-bad-news-2023-is-already-shaping-up-to-be-a-very-very-bad-year/

"Few would call 2020, 2021 and 2022 “good years” for America. Some might call them disasters — and 2023 may well be worse."

I do have a hard time seeing any reason for optimism about the coming year. The much-heralded "Red Tsunami" hit the breakwater of election fraud and fizzled. Despite ever-increasing evidence that the Covid "vaccines" are at best useless and at worst counterproductive they continue to be pushed by the .gov. Despite the inevitable crash of Canada's single-payer healthcare system it continues to be the ultimate objective of the statists here in the US.

While a few free states (FL and TX being notable examples) continue to push back, they're increasingly being invaded by refugees from liberal hellholes... who promptly vote for the same things that made their old states into liberal hellholes in the first place. Sure, Gov Abbot rightly clobbered Beto, but the donkey of donkeys still got 43% of the vote. How many Californians will flee eastward in the next few years? And what if the Dems find someone who has even one redeeming feature to put on the ballot?

Happy New Year... enjoy what you can while you can.

Well said! Australia is now almost wall-to-wall liberal "progressives" with New South Wales almost certain to fall that way at their next election, due in March.

Rudi Dutschke's long march through the institutions is nearly finished and I don't see a way back (at least, through the ballot box).


PS: 'The much-heralded "Red Tsunami" hit the breakwater of election fraud and fizzled.'

That is a great line, Gridley!

[blustnmtn]

Too bad he wasn’t a “white supremacist”, the FBI surely would have had him in custody already:

www.zerohedge.com/political/machete-attack-times-square-injures-three-nypd-cops-fbi-investigates-possible-terror

[blustnmtn]

And then there’s this from a US senator:

jonathanturley.org/2022/12/31/sen-cardin-hate-speech-is-not-protected-by-first-amendment/#more-198631

I’m not advocating “hate speech”. But people are supposed to be able to say whatever they want in this country. Who determines what constitutes “hate speech”…hmm.

[ratty]

Jan 1, 2023 19:47:06 GMT blustnmtn said:

And then there’s this from a US senator:

jonathanturley.org/2022/12/31/sen-cardin-hate-speech-is-not-protected-by-first-amendment/#more-198631

I’m not advocating “hate speech”. But people are supposed to be able to say whatever they want in this country. Who determines what constitutes “hate speech”…hmm.

Banning something is almost always counterproductive, needs policing, needs definition and we know what happens when bureaucrats get hold of anything: They breed!

[ratty]

Jan 1, 2023 19:37:31 GMT blustnmtn said:

Too bad he wasn’t a “white supremacist”, the FBI surely would have had him in custody already:

www.zerohedge.com/political/machete-attack-times-square-injures-three-nypd-cops-fbi-investigates-possible-terror

The machete might have been a kukri.

[missouriboy]

Jan 1, 2023 23:44:56 GMT ratty said:

Jan 1, 2023 19:47:06 GMT blustnmtn said:

And then there’s this from a US senator:

jonathanturley.org/2022/12/31/sen-cardin-hate-speech-is-not-protected-by-first-amendment/#more-198631

I’m not advocating “hate speech”. But people are supposed to be able to say whatever they want in this country. Who determines what constitutes “hate speech”…hmm.

Banning something is almost always counterproductive, needs policing, needs definition and we know what happens when bureaucrats get hold of anything: They breed!

That question itself.  They breed ... we bleed.

[gridley]

nypost.com/2023/01/01/its-a-new-year-but-nothings-new-except-for-the-decline-in-good-journalism-and-real-leaders/

"At the start of a new year, I like to look back a century ago to see what has changed and what hasn’t.

"In 1923, America had finally recovered from the Spanish flu, which killed 675,000 in the United States and an estimated 50 million worldwide. If we learned anything from that plague, it wasn’t enough to have protected the 1.08 million Americans who have died from COVID-19 (through November, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)."

Of course, the US population in 1923 was 111 million, vs. 333 million today, so COVID was half as deadly as the Spanish Flu even if you believe the CDC.

But this is a very interesting point I hadn't run across before:

"In the early 1920s, Rowell’s Directory calculated that there were more than 20,000 newspapers published in the United States, including dailies, weeklies, monthlies and quarterlies. As of 2018, there were 1,279 daily newspapers in the United States. One-third of large US newspapers experienced layoffs in 2020, more than in 2019. More than eight in 10 Americans now get their “news” from digital devices, including social media. If we get the leadership we deserve, the decline in good journalism might have something to do with it."

And, of course, how many of those 1,279 newspapers are owned by a tiny number of megacorps? And how much do most of those handful of megacorps collude to decide what Pravda is?

Last but not least, an important reminder:

"One hundred years ago, the USSR was born. By the time of its collapse, an estimated 61 million people had been murdered, with Joseph Stalin said to be responsible for 43 million."

[ratty]

Jan 2, 2023 23:36:34 GMT gridley said:

nypost.com/2023/01/01/its-a-new-year-but-nothings-new-except-for-the-decline-in-good-journalism-and-real-leaders/

"At the start of a new year, I like to look back a century ago to see what has changed and what hasn’t.

"In 1923, America had finally recovered from the Spanish flu, which killed 675,000 in the United States and an estimated 50 million worldwide. If we learned anything from that plague, it wasn’t enough to have protected the 1.08 million Americans who have died from COVID-19 (through November, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)."

Of course, the US population in 1923 was 111 million, vs. 333 million today, so COVID was half as deadly as the Spanish Flu even if you believe the CDC.

But this is a very interesting point I hadn't run across before:

"In the early 1920s, Rowell’s Directory calculated that there were more than 20,000 newspapers published in the United States, including dailies, weeklies, monthlies and quarterlies. As of 2018, there were 1,279 daily newspapers in the United States. One-third of large US newspapers experienced layoffs in 2020, more than in 2019. More than eight in 10 Americans now get their “news” from digital devices, including social media. If we get the leadership we deserve, the decline in good journalism might have something to do with it."

And, of course, how many of those 1,279 newspapers are owned by a tiny number of megacorps? And how much do most of those handful of megacorps collude to decide what Pravda is?

Last but not least, an important reminder:

"One hundred years ago, the USSR was born. By the time of its collapse, an estimated 61 million people had been murdered, with Joseph Stalin said to be responsible for 43 million."

That's a WOW from me wrt the newspaper figures! Probably worse here in Oz:

Nearly all major metropolitan newspapers are owned either by News Limited, a subsidiary of News Corporation, or Nine Entertainment Co., with notable exceptions including The West Australian and The Sunday Times in Perth, and The Canberra Times in the nation's capital city.

[ratty]

[missouriboy]

Jan 3, 2023 0:31:08 GMT ratty said:

Jan 2, 2023 23:36:34 GMT gridley said:

nypost.com/2023/01/01/its-a-new-year-but-nothings-new-except-for-the-decline-in-good-journalism-and-real-leaders/

"At the start of a new year, I like to look back a century ago to see what has changed and what hasn’t.

"In 1923, America had finally recovered from the Spanish flu, which killed 675,000 in the United States and an estimated 50 million worldwide. If we learned anything from that plague, it wasn’t enough to have protected the 1.08 million Americans who have died from COVID-19 (through November, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)."

Of course, the US population in 1923 was 111 million, vs. 333 million today, so COVID was half as deadly as the Spanish Flu even if you believe the CDC.

But this is a very interesting point I hadn't run across before:

"In the early 1920s, Rowell’s Directory calculated that there were more than 20,000 newspapers published in the United States, including dailies, weeklies, monthlies and quarterlies. As of 2018, there were 1,279 daily newspapers in the United States. One-third of large US newspapers experienced layoffs in 2020, more than in 2019. More than eight in 10 Americans now get their “news” from digital devices, including social media. If we get the leadership we deserve, the decline in good journalism might have something to do with it."

And, of course, how many of those 1,279 newspapers are owned by a tiny number of megacorps? And how much do most of those handful of megacorps collude to decide what Pravda is?

Last but not least, an important reminder:

"One hundred years ago, the USSR was born. By the time of its collapse, an estimated 61 million people had been murdered, with Joseph Stalin said to be responsible for 43 million."

That's a WOW from me wrt the newspaper figures! Probably worse here in Oz:

Nearly all major metropolitan newspapers are owned either by News Limited, a subsidiary of News Corporation, or Nine Entertainment Co., with notable exceptions including The West Australian and The Sunday Times in Perth, and The Canberra Times in the nation's capital city.

We probably have more today.  Primary difference is that they are overwhelmingly on-line, and employ a lot fewer people.  The range of trash is probably comparable.