This is a remarkably perfect piece that manages to collect everything wrong with what the US is doing in one small spot. There are a couple of things I disagree with:
"We now have to count Biden an ineffectual bumbler" No. Bumbler, yes. Ineffectual, no. He is, either by intent or default, continuing the policies of Donnie Murdo's regime as well as the policies of the Deep State. These policies may or may not be effective (your opinion on this will probably depend on what effect you think we should have) but they are all deleterious. They are a great way to piss the rest of the world off.
My second disagreement is with the assumption that democracy is a desired end state for all societies. Other societies may find democracy unacceptably difficult to control if, for example, not everybody in the society thinks they are a part of it, or more to our current world situation, if you have some external actor's actively trying to subvert your government.
PS: About apartheid Israel... One should remember that Nelson Mandela (designated as "terrorist" by US government until recently) stated many times that apartheid in South Africa ended MAINLY due to Cuba's decisive help in liberation wars in Angola and Namibia.
Many experts believe that this is the main reason for US endless economic war against Cuba.
I watched footage of the 1943 Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere (aka Japan and other puppets) and I might as well have been watching the "Democracy Summit ".
I think you are missing the zombie elephant in the room. That financial feedback loop that has everyone chasing the dollar, whether it's waiters, or mercenaries. The enormous, metastatic monetary tumor that cannot be questioned. The tool that became the god. The medium that became the message. In which everyone has become hamsters running on their wheels. The only difference being some wheels are much larger than others.
Anyone in the way of the herd must be run over.
The only sure bet is that it will crash, though taking as much with it as it can.
Biden could become popular by making recreational marijuana legal. He could declare the drug war lost and set up clinics to get people off of drugs. If the addict likes drugs too much the government could become their supplier. Cartels make money, so could the government. Addicts would get metered doses, you knock out money for the gangs, and get rid of the need for guns on the street. The ATF could look for those trying to undersell the state in drugs. I think it is beyond the purview of most of the dinosaurs in government like Biden.
Professor, you say there is popular democracy and a variation, elite democracy. The election of Trump was a usurpation of the elite prerogative by the population (half). I think this was of immense importance and makes the Trump phenomenon a very good thing. Populist democracy won: is this the first such victory in American history?
But the election of an unauthorized President changed everything, it enraged the elite into a broad based censorious authoritarian mania that colours everything. Trump will be a candidate in 2024.
Please help us understand. Populist democracy, good, Trump incompetence and rude affect bad, who should we vote for? I prefer the ignoramus Trump to the lying scum bags of the elite.
Patrick: As always you elegantly outline the situation, contexts - and gather all the strands of your argument, your thesis into a coherence which is irrefutable. And given that many of us here reading your words have lived a similar span of decades we know the truth of your perception. Just now I have come from reading two essays from the John Menadue political blog "Pearls & Irritations" on Australia's nonsense re China - from Teow Loon Ti and Allan Patience (who beautifully draws parallels between the present Australian PM Scott Morrison and the Great War/Versailles Peace Treaty era PM Billy Hughes - both prodding East Asia (now China, then Japan) on behalf of the great powers - while thinking their puny selves are/were on a par with them! Delusional and very dangerous. May the New Year see a diminution of ignorant hubris among those who would selfishly destroy our world.
This is a remarkably perfect piece that manages to collect everything wrong with what the US is doing in one small spot. There are a couple of things I disagree with:
"We now have to count Biden an ineffectual bumbler" No. Bumbler, yes. Ineffectual, no. He is, either by intent or default, continuing the policies of Donnie Murdo's regime as well as the policies of the Deep State. These policies may or may not be effective (your opinion on this will probably depend on what effect you think we should have) but they are all deleterious. They are a great way to piss the rest of the world off.
My second disagreement is with the assumption that democracy is a desired end state for all societies. Other societies may find democracy unacceptably difficult to control if, for example, not everybody in the society thinks they are a part of it, or more to our current world situation, if you have some external actor's actively trying to subvert your government.
PS: About apartheid Israel... One should remember that Nelson Mandela (designated as "terrorist" by US government until recently) stated many times that apartheid in South Africa ended MAINLY due to Cuba's decisive help in liberation wars in Angola and Namibia.
Many experts believe that this is the main reason for US endless economic war against Cuba.
As usual, Patrick -- another masterpiece. Bravo !!
We all know CIA did absolutely horrible crimes against humanity for seventy+ years.
But -- CIA is now completely different... And also - the Earth is flat.
The Murderous History and Deceitful Function of the CIA
https://youtu.be/BhkxQRsmMQM
PS: In Indonesia, unlike Vietnam, the US victory was total. “The Jakarta Method” — population is terrified to this day.
I watched footage of the 1943 Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere (aka Japan and other puppets) and I might as well have been watching the "Democracy Summit ".
I think you are missing the zombie elephant in the room. That financial feedback loop that has everyone chasing the dollar, whether it's waiters, or mercenaries. The enormous, metastatic monetary tumor that cannot be questioned. The tool that became the god. The medium that became the message. In which everyone has become hamsters running on their wheels. The only difference being some wheels are much larger than others.
Anyone in the way of the herd must be run over.
The only sure bet is that it will crash, though taking as much with it as it can.
Biden could become popular by making recreational marijuana legal. He could declare the drug war lost and set up clinics to get people off of drugs. If the addict likes drugs too much the government could become their supplier. Cartels make money, so could the government. Addicts would get metered doses, you knock out money for the gangs, and get rid of the need for guns on the street. The ATF could look for those trying to undersell the state in drugs. I think it is beyond the purview of most of the dinosaurs in government like Biden.
Professor, you say there is popular democracy and a variation, elite democracy. The election of Trump was a usurpation of the elite prerogative by the population (half). I think this was of immense importance and makes the Trump phenomenon a very good thing. Populist democracy won: is this the first such victory in American history?
But the election of an unauthorized President changed everything, it enraged the elite into a broad based censorious authoritarian mania that colours everything. Trump will be a candidate in 2024.
Please help us understand. Populist democracy, good, Trump incompetence and rude affect bad, who should we vote for? I prefer the ignoramus Trump to the lying scum bags of the elite.
Patrick: As always you elegantly outline the situation, contexts - and gather all the strands of your argument, your thesis into a coherence which is irrefutable. And given that many of us here reading your words have lived a similar span of decades we know the truth of your perception. Just now I have come from reading two essays from the John Menadue political blog "Pearls & Irritations" on Australia's nonsense re China - from Teow Loon Ti and Allan Patience (who beautifully draws parallels between the present Australian PM Scott Morrison and the Great War/Versailles Peace Treaty era PM Billy Hughes - both prodding East Asia (now China, then Japan) on behalf of the great powers - while thinking their puny selves are/were on a par with them! Delusional and very dangerous. May the New Year see a diminution of ignorant hubris among those who would selfishly destroy our world.
Just So. Perfect brief;
lamentably, "in the X-Ring"