Götterdämmerung -- The Twilight of the Gods

[PoliTalker]

Hello Dutch Uncle,

Trump should certainly be held accountable for the actions of the Executive branch as should those in the Legislative branch for America's failure to respond to a national crisis. A good part of that fault goes back to our national government in the early 90s when they started dismantling the Civil Defense network and preparing for such a national catastrophe. 9/11 was one result of this trend and Katrina was another. Now we can't even afford to pay our way out of this crisis; our government is printing money like they would Monopoly money and a shockingly high national debt as a result.

All due to breaking a common Boy Scout rule: Be Prepared. We, the People, fucked up by not paying attention to where our government was taking us. Instead, we let them divide us and push themselves towards extremes.

Well, I have to be reminded how Clinton handed over a government which was paying down the debt, no deficit, running a surplus, to W, and told him to 'pay down the debt.' But W turned around and decided to send out free stimulus checks, which were not really needed. The surplus quickly became a deficit again and has never been covered a single year since. We know what the economy was like when Obama came in. So Obama spent most of two terms nursing the economy back to health after what the Republicans did before he got it. Finally, by the time Trump came in, the economy was just getting back up to full speed. Economists remind us THAT IS THE TIME TO PAY DOWN THE DEBT. You do it when the economy is good. Because you can NEVER do it when the economy is bad. Good economy, pay the debt down. Bad economy, you have to let it rise. You want to keep the economy stable!

So we finally got the good economy, and what does Trump do? Runs the debt even higher! Totally irresponsible!!! He spent the rainy day fund for chocolate, basically.

That's not 'Being Prepared.'

Now it's raining and the rainy day fund got spent. WE HAVE TO BORROW EVEN MORE.

Borrowing cannot go on forever. That is irresponsible. There has to be some paying some time.

It's time for the adults to take over. Democrats are going to have to clean up yet ANOTHER Republican budget mess.

 

[Bill]

In a dark season of pestilence, COVID has reduced to tatters the illusion of American exceptionalism. At the height of the crisis, with more than 2,000 dying each day, Americans found themselves members of a failed state, ruled by a dysfunctional and incompetent government largely responsible for death rates that added a tragic coda to America’s claim to supremacy in the world.

For the first time, the international community felt compelled to send disaster relief to Washington. For more than two centuries, reported the Irish Times, “the United States has stirred a very wide range of feelings in the rest of the world: love and hatred, fear and hope, envy and contempt, awe and anger. But there is one emotion that has never been directed towards the U.S. until now: pity.” As American doctors and nurses eagerly awaited emergency airlifts of basic supplies from China, the hinge of history opened to the Asian century.

https://www.rollingstone.com/politi...19-end-of-american-era-wade-davis-1038206/amp

& who better to usher that in than the gold standard of bankruptcy & corruption..........

This is really the beginning, none of us will live to see the end~end result........

Incompetence & failure~ the pandemic would seem to epitomize that failure & lay naked the slop, the downward trajectory of our nation.....

The corporations, mostly have been preparing themselves & in the open-laying off Americans & moving their fat golden asses on to communist soil..

The rats are always the first to flee the sinking ship they say......

Sadly most of the country still doesn't realize what happen........

 

[Matt Dillon]

In a dark season of pestilence, COVID has reduced to tatters the illusion of American exceptionalism. At the height of the crisis, with more than 2,000 dying each day, Americans found themselves members of a failed state, ruled by a dysfunctional and incompetent government largely responsible for death rates that added a tragic coda to America’s claim to supremacy in the world.

For the first time, the international community felt compelled to send disaster relief to Washington. For more than two centuries, reported the Irish Times, “the United States has stirred a very wide range of feelings in the rest of the world: love and hatred, fear and hope, envy and contempt, awe and anger. But there is one emotion that has never been directed towards the U.S. until now: pity.” As American doctors and nurses eagerly awaited emergency airlifts of basic supplies from China, the hinge of history opened to the Asian century.

https://www.rollingstone.com/politi...19-end-of-american-era-wade-davis-1038206/amp

Those awaited supplies from China were defective. We need to not depend on China for manufacturing anything.

 

[Matt Dillon]

Ra-men, Brother Dutch, ra-men. "We have met the enemy, and he is us." -- Pogo

Pogo's brain is consumed by TDS. It's a sad thing, I have witnessed the progression of it.

 

[Bill]

The rot was already in the heart of our culture. It took #TRE45ON only a couple of swings to split the bark and expose it. How can we repair our nation? Can it be repaired?

Yep......... I recall Obama's response after ppl(including many in the gop) were blaming him for trump....

"Don't blame me for trump, I didn't create him, you did"........... (something to that effect)

 

[PoliTalker]

Hello Bill,

& who better to usher that in than the gold standard of bankruptcy & corruption..........

This is really the beginning, none of us will live to see the end~end result........

Incompetence & failure~ the pandemic would seem to epitomize that failure & lay naked the slop, the downward trajectory of our nation.....

The corporations, mostly have been preparing themselves & in the open-laying off Americans & moving their fat golden asses on to communist soil..

The rats are always the first to flee the sinking ship they say......

Sadly most of the country still doesn't realize what happen........

Actually the pandemic has served as a wake-up call. It has brought attention to the crucial difference between real leadership and pretending.

In a crisis a nation needs a real leader. A fake one can't cut it.

There is no amount of media manipulation that will make it go away. Just saying one day it will go away like a miracle has not produced the miracle.

Now is the time to beware of false prophets.

 

[ThatOwlWoman]

& who better to usher that in than the gold standard of bankruptcy & corruption..........

This is really the beginning, none of us will live to see the end~end result........

Incompetence & failure~ the pandemic would seem to epitomize that failure & lay naked the slop, the downward trajectory of our nation.....

The corporations, mostly have been preparing themselves & in the open-laying off Americans & moving their fat golden asses on to communist soil..

The rats are always the first to flee the sinking ship they say......

Sadly most of the country still doesn't realize what happen........

To know is to be cursed.

 

[Minister of Truth]

Thanks for contributing, Sparky.

Which country is more great? PRC?

 

[Bill]

From the OP article:

The end of the American era and the passing of the torch to Asia is no occasion for celebration, no time to gloat. In a moment of international peril, when humanity might well have entered a dark age beyond all conceivable horrors, the industrial might of the United States, together with the blood of ordinary Russian soldiers, literally saved the world. American ideals, as celebrated by Madison and Monroe, Lincoln, Roosevelt, and Kennedy, at one time inspired and gave hope to millions.

If and when the Chinese are ascendant, with their concentration camps for the Uighurs, the ruthless reach of their military, their 200 million surveillance cameras watching every move and gesture of their people, we will surely long for the best years of the American century. For the moment, we have only the kleptocracy of Donald Trump. Between praising the Chinese for their treatment of the Uighurs, describing their internment and torture as “exactly the right thing to do,” and his dispensing of medical advice concerning the therapeutic use of chemical disinfectants, Trump blithely remarked, “One day, it’s like a miracle, it will disappear.” He had in mind, of course, the coronavirus, but, as others have said, he might just as well have been referring to the American dream.

Very, very well said, thank you..............


Feel rather sad about it but it is what it is

Howard Zinn the late great Historian use to ask, "why can't we just be #2" in this or that, like military, we can still destroy the planet two or three times...

Now we are @ the doorstep looking in, not how I envisioned it, & honestly not gave it a lot of thought up till the last several months.

Que sera sera...

For most of recorded history Asia, & more specifically China & India have been responsible for about half the world's GDP, arguably.. So perhaps it was inevitable??

It seems likely to late to alter the trajectory of their economies~or our own..

Hopefully it will come about peacefully..

The USA/west spent the last 20+ years wasting treasure in the ME/Central Asia while ASEAN, China & India have continually expanded their economies, ironically w/ the help of US & other corporations.........

 

[Bill]

It is dishonest to perpetuate the notion that Trump ever called the virus itself a hoax. You are trying to marginalize the fear mongering that was really what Trump was calling a hoax.

It is a valid point IMHO that a president should do his upmost to avoid panic but he failed in doing that by playing it into his political narrative, essentially politicizing it & creating yet another fault zone/division in the country~INSTEAD OF UNITING THE COUNTRY..

 

[Bill]

Yes. I think this article rings true for me because it puts into words thoughts that I have been having since 2016, and even more so since the pandemic began. The cult of individualism in this country is a deadlier disease than COVID-19. It is the reason why a selfish corrupt egotistical moron was selected president. It is the reason why there was no coordinated national response to the disease, and the reason why even before the extent of the plague became evident, we had stupid ppl with guns invading state capitols and demanding their right to spread it. It is the reason why we have idiots crowding into restaurants and bars without PPE. It is the reason why we have both politicians and citizens demanding that schools open in the fall even though it means more deaths -- of our own children, no less.

The coronavirus is the worst enemy we have faced since WWII. Back then we worked together to defeat the Axis world. Today? We are fighting with each other while this uncaring, sightless pathogen sends us spiraling into third world status. All because of individualism triumphing over community.

Very well put, thank you................

 

[Bill]

From the OP article:

"For many years, those on the conservative right in the United States have invoked a nostalgia for the 1950s, and an America that never was, but has to be presumed to have existed to rationalize their sense of loss and abandonment, their fear of change, their bitter resentments and lingering contempt for the social movements of the 1960s, a time of new aspirations for women, gays, and people of color. In truth, at least in economic terms, the country of the 1950s resembled Denmark as much as the America of today. Marginal tax rates for the wealthy were 90 percent. The salaries of CEOs were, on average, just 20 times that of their mid-management employees."

We should go back to that tax set-up, and that compensation regime.

Yep......... They want this & that, they just don't wanna pay for it.........

If you proposed those rates today these fools would have a heart attack from moving so fast for their guns.....

Then they'll drive to work on the roads our parents & grandparents built w/ those taxes & bitch about potholes when they are to fuckin stingy to pay to fix them..

 

[Bill]

Here's a sobering fact:

"Since the 1970s, China has not once gone to war; the U.S. has not spent a day at peace." (OP link)

"President Jimmy Carter recently noted that in its 242-year history, America has enjoyed only 16 years of peace, making it, as he wrote, “the most warlike nation in the history of the world.” Since 2001, the U.S. has spent over $6 trillion on military operations and war, money that might have been invested in the infrastructure of home. China, meanwhile, built its nation, pouring more cement every three years than America did in the entire 20th century."

AMEN........... Totally distracted & nothing to show for it.......... SUre some made out very well & the rest of the planet??

We can't pay for schools & roads but we got $$$$ for war........ Smedley rolls in his grave!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Bill]

It is not covid or Trump that has beat up our country, it is lefty violence, MSM disinformation, a marxist revolution, people who think it is funny that Gandhi suggested that western civilization should become civilized, and radical lefty politics.

Sadly you rely so much on your own strawmen to keep the country divided, just as our advisories like it..

Because other "Americans" have a different opinion than you on this or that it does not make them a marxist or your enemy..... We are on the same team w/ the vast majority of things in common-you sir should never forget that............. Nor should we all..............

 

[Dutch Uncle]

Hello Dutch Uncle,



Well, I have to be reminded how Clinton handed over a government which was paying down the debt, no deficit, running a surplus, to W, and told him to 'pay down the debt.' But W turned around and decided to send out free stimulus checks, which were not really needed. The surplus quickly became a deficit again and has never been covered a single year since. We know what the economy was like when Obama came in. So Obama spent most of two terms nursing the economy back to health after what the Republicans did before he got it. Finally, by the time Trump came in, the economy was just getting back up to full speed. Economists remind us THAT IS THE TIME TO PAY DOWN THE DEBT. You do it when the economy is good. Because you can NEVER do it when the economy is bad. Good economy, pay the debt down. Bad economy, you have to let it rise. You want to keep the economy stable!

So we finally got the good economy, and what does Trump do? Runs the debt even higher! Totally irresponsible!!! He spent the rainy day fund for chocolate, basically.

That's not 'Being Prepared.'

Now it's raining and the rainy day fund got spent. WE HAVE TO BORROW EVEN MORE.

Borrowing cannot go on forever. That is irresponsible. There has to be some paying some time.

It's time for the adults to take over. Democrats are going to have to clean up yet ANOTHER Republican budget mess.

Do you really believe that a single President can wave a wand and, within two terms as President, can fix the entire nation's budget? It doesn't work that way, IMO.

In a lot of ways we do get the government we deserve. If so, why do you think we deserve it? Just by voting for one party or another? I don't think so.

 

[Bill]

What an article that OP link is:

"Finns live longer and are less likely to die in childhood or in giving birth than Americans. Danes earn roughly the same after-tax income as Americans, while working 20 percent less. They pay in taxes an extra 19 cents for every dollar earned. But in return they get free health care, free education from pre-school through university, and the opportunity to prosper in a thriving free-market economy with dramatically lower levels of poverty, homelessness, crime, and inequality. The average worker is paid better, treated more respectfully, and rewarded with life insurance, pension plans, maternity leave, and six weeks of paid vacation a year. All of these benefits only inspire Danes to work harder, with fully 80 percent of men and women aged 16 to 64 engaged in the labor force, a figure far higher than that of the United States."

No, this can't be, we are the greatest of all time, the richest, the best God is on our side, a city on a hill, a light to the nations, only we, & we alone are exceptional........

 

[Bill]

I've never understood why so many Americans have the mentality that America has to be #1 (in what, I don't know).
I'm just happy I live in a democracy and not California.

Okay you can forget about that invite to the Redwoods & Yosemite..........

 

[Evmetro]

Sadly you rely so much on your own strawmen to keep the country divided, just as our advisories like it..

Because other "Americans" have a different opinion than you on this or that it does not make them a marxist or your enemy..... We are on the same team w/ the vast majority of things in common-you sir should never forget that............. Nor should we all..............

There was once a time when we all could get along, even if we were from opposite sides of the aisle. Political identifiers like Democrat, progressive, centrist, moderate, Republican, socialist, communist, commie, and such actually meant different things back in those days too. In our current political landscape, we only have two sides of a civil war, and everybody is either a lefty or a righty. I know what all the old political identifiers mean, but they are now meaningless in our polarized politics. It only takes a moment to see if a person is on the side of Marxism, violence, defunding police, BLM, violent protests accompanied by "peaceful" accomplices, fake news, welfare, and overblown pandemic panic to destroy the economy. When I hear a lefty who sounds like he is going to vote for this chaos, I know in an instant that he is effectively voting for ALL of it.

 

[Bill]

Hello Bill,



Actually the pandemic has served as a wake-up call. It has brought attention to the crucial difference between real leadership and pretending.

In a crisis a nation needs a real leader. A fake one can't cut it.

There is no amount of media manipulation that will make it go away. Just saying one day it will go away like a miracle has not produced the miracle.

Now is the time to beware of false prophets.

True, but he will try to make it go away, he has never stopped.......

NOVEMBER..........

 

[Bill]

There was once a time when we all could get along, even if we were from opposite sides of the aisle. Political identifiers like Democrat, progressive, centrist, moderate, Republican, socialist, communist, commie, and such actually meant different things back in those days too. In our current political landscape, we only have two sides of a civil war, and everybody is either a lefty or a righty. I know what all the old political identifiers mean, but they are now meaningless in our polarized politics. It only takes a moment to see if a person is on the side of Marxism, violence, defunding police, BLM, violent protests accompanied by "peaceful" accomplices, fake news, welfare, and overblown pandemic panic to destroy the economy. When I hear a lefty who sounds like he is going to vote for this chaos, I know in an instant that he is effectively voting for ALL of it.

Well back to the strawman....... There are far more than two sides.... We have well over 300 million ppl & to say we get only two choices is ludicrous.. Small countries like Japan, Israel, Germany etc get a lot more choices.... THAT IS A LIE PERPETUATED BY THOSE TWO PARTIES....... fuck them both!!!

There is no civil war, you been listening to to much hate radio & tv.......... Get out on your own side of the road & make up your own damn mind.........

The world aint black & white......

Sad you listed off all the forces you believe are destroying the economy, but left off the one that has repeatedly destroyed it-wallstreet, the bankers etc.... The same ones that sold our jobs to china...........

Smell the roses along the way, enjoy your journey, one never knows when it may end..........