The End Of Grifts

Eric Hoffer famously said that what starts out in America as a mass movement ends up as a racket, a cult, or a corporation. As we saw with Covid, it can often be all of these things at the same time. When Hoffer made this observation, mass media was still in the analog age, so things moved slower. A movement would linger for while in the corporate stage before devolving into a racket. In the digital age, these things can happen simultaneously and instantaneously.

The reason for this is America is not an actual country, like France or Sweden, but an open outdoor bazaar held together by a merchant class. As Coolidge supposedly said, the business of America is business. That means everything is treated as a business, even things that should never be a business. It is the worship of the marketplace where everyone assumes the right answer will magically arise from the transactions that occur in the marketplace. The invisible hand is our god.

The trouble is, there are things that are true that people would like to think are not true, so those market results will be at odds with reality. There are things in every society that should never be exposed to market forces. They are too important to let the fickle mobs in the marketplace decide. In theory, this is supposed to be a bedrock assumption of the American form of government. There are things like natural rights that are beyond the reach of the political process.

The corrosive effect of marketism on the political process is clear in the political industrial complex that has consumed the political system. Billions are made every election cycle in politics. What should be a straightforward process whereby the parties and candidates make their case to the voters, is instead run by a massive political industry of consultants, advisers, technicians and the media. All of these people are in the process to make money from politics.

Here is a useful example in a legacy site called the American Spectator. The post is an argument in favor of something called rank choice voting. This a system that requires voters to list their preferred candidates in order of preference. The first choices are then counted up and you get the normal total. In some systems, if no candidate gets fifty percent of the vote, then the second choices are tallied up and added to the candidates total. In other systems, this is automatic.

There are two rather obvious problems with this system. One is it adds a layer of complexity to the voting system. A central tenet of all democratic systems, even those that limit the role of voting, is that voting is clear and open. In the rank choice voting systems, you can get a minority candidate winning the election, despite most people voting for some other option. Put another way, it is not clear to the users of the system how their inputs will affect the outputs of the system.

Therein lies the other problem. This added complexity becomes a bonanza for the army of grifters in the political system. Now that the social media consultant racket has run its course, they get to jump on the ranked choice voting scam. You can be sure that all of the pinheads with “social media influencer’ in their bio are now thinking about removing the Ukraine flag so they can make room for the letters RCV. This “innovation” is quickly becoming both a racket and a business.

The proof of this assertion is the man behind that post. According to his bio, Eric Wilson is a digital-first political strategist based in Washington, DC. He was a Technology and Democracy Fellow at the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation, located at the Harvard Kennedy School. In other words, his post at The American Spectator is simply advertising for his services. Ranked choice voting, according to Eric Wilson, is good for the people, because it is profitable for him.

It cannot be emphasized enough just how terrible ranked choice voting is for a country that is quickly losing trust in its systems. With normal voting it takes some jurisdictions weeks to count the vote. The Alaska election he holds up as a great example took weeks to sort out after the election. Imagine that in a big corrupt state like California or New York. It will take years to resolve an election. There are still court cases going on over the 2020 presidential election.

Of course, this can only add to the sense that voting is rigged. Every innovation, like mail in voting, early voting, ballot harvesting and drop box voting has come with an observable increase in shenanigans. The states at the center of the 2020 election scandal were states that suddenly embraced innovated voting methods. Imagine a state like Pennsylvania suddenly switching to ranked choice voting a week before the election and you have the beginnings of armed revolt.

Of course, the promise of chaos is exactly why the consultant class want yet another way to muddy the waters on election day. Chaos is good for business. The fact that it is bad for the health of society is besides the point. Those racks of donuts are not going to buy themselves, so that means Eric Wilson needs steady work. If that work is bad for the people, well, too bad for them. They should have figured out a way to grift on the collapse of their country like Eric Wilson.

This is the problem with marketism. When everything must be exposed to the marketplace, everything quickly becomes a racket. When the governance of your country becomes a racket, you no longer have a country. That is why the people at the top of the racket so fiercely oppose anything that looks like community. It offers an alternative morality to that of marketism. If people begin to put something ahead of making a quick buck, the market could collapse.

That is where things are headed. Politics is a massive racket run by conmen, grifters and sociopaths who care only about a quick buck. The system staggers on because of the cultural inertia behind it, but eventually, it must succumb. There are also ideologues that take advantage of this to push their agenda. We see that with the neocons and their efforts to blow up the world. With no one in power interested in the wellbeing of the system, the system will eventually collapse.


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Nick
Nick
2 years ago

Ranked choice voting does something else that is corrupt at its very core. The old rule is “One man, one vote,”. Now it’s one man, multiple votes. There is no risk in voting for your favorite because you then get to vote for your next favorite (or against someone else).

That hag in Alaska and the corrupt gope set this up so that she would win. It also says, vote for the gope candidate or get a liberal.

The concept is anathema to America, but since America is collapsing anyway, well, I suppose it’s just fine to burn.

trumpton
trumpton
Reply to  Nick
2 years ago

It is also from the outside extremely difficult to audit.

The issues of complexity seem intent on promoting vote fraud in multiple ways.

Whiskey
Whiskey
2 years ago

Grifting and the vast amount of campaign, PR, and other consultants that make money off grifting may be the only thing saving us from brutal rule by fear and terror. Its clear from the Dark Brandon speech that the people running Biden want to rule by fear and terror and to quote Z-Man want the purging of the Kulaks to begin. Immediately per Jen Rubin. But that ends the grift. If it is a uniparty then there is no reason for the grifters. No PR consultants, no campaign consultants, no war rooms nor spin zones. Its just the ruling faction… Read more »

Pozymandias
2 years ago

America is like a rich junkie with lots of fake friends. They take turns recommending that she try this or that fad diet, go to some “wellness” class (that they happen to run as a side hustle), take up knitting, join a gym, hire a life coach (“did I mention I’m a life coach?”), etc… None of them ever dares to suggest quitting heroin.

Mycale
Mycale
2 years ago

When did the political system become such a rotten grift? My first thought is when the Clintons slithered out of Arkansas with his gang of charlatans, paired with an end to the Cold War. I know these two seminal events have been discussed before on this site. Less than a decade prior, Reagan won with 49 states, indicating a broad consensus amongst the people that this guy was selling something everyone wanted (the wisdom of that is, of course, a different story). However, by the mid-90s, that seemed an impossibility as these charlatans said the way to win was to… Read more »

fakeemail
fakeemail
Reply to  Mycale
2 years ago

Reagan massive victories were the American people stating that they were fucking over the 60s hippie bullshit and civil rights shakedown. They wanted AMERICA again! It was a happy time and a lot of people thought it was just the beginning.

But the real Powers that Be were appalled at the happiness and success and vowed to never let that happen again. And so it hasn’t.

Bourbon
Bourbon
Reply to  fakeemail
2 years ago

It’s very difficult to overemphasize the act of meta-treason which was W-41 reneging on his solemn “No New Taxes” oath. I can clearly & vividly remember the moment I walked past a newsstand in the summer of 1990, and saw that headline, and experienced the instinctual feeling of impending doom, as though a ton of bricks were piling up on my chest, and my windpipe were restricting, and I couldn’t breath. It’s fascinating how our instincts – the genetic memory of hundreds of millions of years of our ancestors’ sacrifices – scream out to us at these crucial points in… Read more »

miforest
Member
Reply to  Bourbon
2 years ago

you missed his “1000 points of light ” speech introducing “the new world order ” ? He basicly told us all that “hey rubes, we’re tired of being secretive, there’s nothing you can do now to stop us anyway” . which was much more an admission of treason as the no new taxes crap.

Hemid
Hemid
Reply to  fakeemail
2 years ago

It was the first time any children of ’60s parents were old enough to vote. I was too young to know the polls, but I remember that the stereotypical conservative in fiction was a college student, son of rich hippies, who was portrayed as betraying his family/The American Dream/etc. by being a preppy Reaganite (a pro-war libertarian, basically). The son’s riposte to his parents was always that they had committed the *primal* betrayal by selling out and becoming a wealthy “power couple”—as if that lifestyle is the default and only morality can prevent it—and so how could he have grown… Read more »

Andy Texan
Reply to  fakeemail
2 years ago

Four words: George Herbert Walker Bush. This SOB happened. I still wonder whether the relationship of this demon with John Hinckley’s pappy has something to do with Hinckley shooting President Reagan.

mderpelding
mderpelding
2 years ago

Someday, I hope that the so called “right” stops worshipping the Constitution. Along with the Declaration of Independence, a wartime document penned by Jefferson to appeal to leftist French sensibilities. Both are enshrined as holy documents in D.C. Once we start to realize that all the high minded nonsense memorialized in these “holy founder” documents was due more to the avarice of the “founders” more than any profound wisdom, the sooner we can affect changes. I know, all leftists are crazy “harpies”, but maybe, just maybe, some of these people have a point. Sooner or later, some adults have to… Read more »

NoOneAtAll
NoOneAtAll
Reply to  mderpelding
2 years ago

The constitution isnt magic but its just fine. It wont civilize twerking hottentots, human sacrificing mayan tribesmen, or scheming middle eastern bazaar eddlers and really – it shouldnt be expected to.

Eloi
Eloi
Reply to  mderpelding
2 years ago

Personally, of the founders, Jefferson is my favorite. Burr being the true favorite, but whether he is a founding father is contentious. I say this as I agree with Mike. Just look at the crooked new York banking that Washington and Hamilton schemed. That’s why I like Burr, as he scammed the scammers woth that water company scam. In short, the founders created de facto monopolies that benefitted them. And yes, if I recall Jefferson even signed his letters as “Citizen” for a while to lend support to French revolution. I do not think the founders are really that far… Read more »

trackback
2 years ago

[…] ZMan turns over a rock. […]

Greatvampire
2 years ago

It is assumed that the wealthy are smarter, more knowledgeable, than the rest on account of their ability to succeed in the one sector closest to the hearts of men in North America.

Because the rich are “smarter”, there is no revolt against them. Common jealousy doesn’t operate. You would think that the poor and middle class would feel a burning hate in their gut for all those yachts and sports teams owned by a select few. But because the rich are “smarter” you can’t begrudge them that.

fakeemail
fakeemail
Reply to  Greatvampire
2 years ago

Are they richer cause they’re better or better cause they’re richer?

NoOneAtAll
NoOneAtAll
Reply to  Greatvampire
2 years ago

Intelligence and wealth are highly *correlated* so be happy or unhappy about this as you wish.

Intelligence is largely inherited anyway as is wealth as is height and good looks and sports ability and just about everything else.

Hierarchy and inequality are good things… we just have a sorry class of foreign oligarchs rather than a well bred class of native aristocrats on top. The physiognomy of a Schumer, Nadler, Zelensky, Kissinger, Garfinkle etc is enough to tell you that smart or no, these people cannot deserve to rule anything but a peddlers cart.

fakeemail
fakeemail
Reply to  NoOneAtAll
2 years ago

Ruling has nothing to with deserve; just force.

Those you mentioned above have created a world in which they deserve to rule.

NoOneAtAll
NoOneAtAll
Reply to  fakeemail
2 years ago

“Ruling has nothing to with deserve; just force.” Sorry to tell you this but whatever your other merits youve taken on one of the central assumptions of primitives and degenerates. There is no virtue but power is an idea for jews like Marx and degenerate kiddie diddlers like Foucault. Your ancestors, OUR ancestors believed in hierarchy and recognized God given natural superiority AND the framework of accompanying reciprocal obligations to the inferior. The idea that its all just self interested power scheming is the free market idea generalized applied to all human relations. Because many of us think like this… Read more »

Mike
Mike
2 years ago

I was home a few minutes for lunch and I saw your Substack review and could anly readu the first couple of paragraphs. But thank you for telling me that I’m not the only person who thinks Will Ferrell is the exact opposite of funny. When he was seemingly everywhere I just had to keep my mouth shut when one of his movies came up in conversation. Everyone else thought he was the funniest ever. He’s not only unfunny but he always came across as kind of mean and as a bully. Thank you for that.

AntiDem
AntiDem
Reply to  Mike
2 years ago

Also not funny: Adam Sandler and Jim Carrey

Falcone
Falcone
Reply to  Mike
2 years ago

Will Farrell seems to appeal to white guys who lived in the suburbs in the 1980s. I lived in c steal tampa, but I get the appeal. All his movies are some kind of nostalgia trip imo And he’s sort of the gentile answer to Jewish comedy. That said, I think he’s funny as shit. He is one of the few guys both my son and I like, which is probably a lot of it. But I didn’t like him at first when he was on SNL where I thought he was weird and had some kind of psych issues… Read more »

NoOneAtAll
NoOneAtAll
Reply to  Falcone
2 years ago

Norm MacDonald has become kind of a meme on the right but deservedly so. He was the real gentile’s comedian which is probably why they got scared and drummed him out.

Check out his clips on youtube

Falcone
Falcone
Reply to  NoOneAtAll
2 years ago

Macdonald never made me laugh, to be blunt

I’m surprised people don’t think Farrell was funny. Step Brothers had me laughing for years.

But is what it is

Mike
Mike
Reply to  NoOneAtAll
2 years ago

MacDonald is the GOAT as far as I’m concerned. He was brave for a comic, he would try anything and if it worked it was wonderful. If not, move on to the next one. His comedy was not mean either.

There are several Conan clips that are classics: the Courtney Thorne-Smith interview, the porpoise joke (made up on the fly) and the moth joke.

Falcone
Falcone
Reply to  Mike
2 years ago

I never watched the simpsons or family guy either, could never be bothered, so I wonder if there is some overlap in the style of comedy. Comedy is a matter of taste. And Macdonald never appealed to me, as with simpsons, family guy, etc. but I loved beavis and butthead. Thought step brothers was hilarious. Liked the first anchorman. Thought elf was ok.

What can I say

KGB
KGB
Reply to  Mike
2 years ago

It’s not just Norm, but this comedic premise is 100 times funnier than anything SNL has broadcast in decades. In the 70’s/early 80’s you could do actual humor like this: Good Will Smith

https://youtu.be/WJxBkE9d-TA

fakeemail
fakeemail
Reply to  Mike
2 years ago

These guys are funny for a couple of movies or shows, but they all have the expiration dates which they go way, WAY beyond. Why wouldn’t they though? They get PAID!

If you look at Hollywood, it’s amazing how it’s the same actors over and over again; not just the leads/stars.

Bartleby the Scrivner
Bartleby the Scrivner
Reply to  fakeemail
2 years ago

Once upon a time I had a gig that allowed me to sit on my ass and Wiki movie stars for long periods of time.

Almost all, men and women, are Juice or have Juice ancestry, or are homosexuals.

Or both.

The Wild Geese Howard
The Wild Geese Howard
Reply to  Bartleby the Scrivner
2 years ago

And they’re all on drugs, just like pro sportballers.

AngeloMozillow
AngeloMozillow
2 years ago

Is Youngkin any good? I’m on the opposite coast so it doesn’t necessarily affect me, but Beltway-based conservative-movement busy bees sure like to worship him, perhaps angling to get on his payroll.

That kind of politician might be fine for NoVA but personally when I see someone with ties private equity, let alone having the run of the Carlyle Group, that’s automatically disqualifying (yes, Vance and Masters too). I will not support our billionaire class’s adventures as if they were a bunch of doughty Ayn Rand children’s-fiction heroes– these guys are essentially thieves and welfare queens.

Falcone
Falcone
Reply to  AngeloMozillow
2 years ago

He’s probably the Scott walker for the northeast crowd

I remember how the midwestern guys were all slobbering over walker

NoOneAtAll
NoOneAtAll
Reply to  AngeloMozillow
2 years ago

Master’s is as close to the real deal as anyone can be and get as close to office as he is. Even if he finked it would be a huge symbolic victory for him to win, he’s much worse/better than Trump and represents significant overton window shift Vance is almosr certainly an insincere grifter but it would probably be a good thing if he won too. Republicans even giving lip service to the real right and winning opens major doors for better and better candidates in future And sure the voting process itself might fail and turn out to not… Read more »

Falcone
Falcone
Reply to  NoOneAtAll
2 years ago

That Masters is affiliated with a homosexual billionaire doesn’t give one some pause?

Does for me. What kind of red blooded american hangs around a rich foreign born queer? Inquiring minds want to know.

NoOneAtAll
NoOneAtAll
Reply to  Falcone
2 years ago

One who needs gifts of multiple millions of dollars. Who else is going to write those checks?

James J. O'Meara
James J. O'Meara
2 years ago

Whatever happened to R. Emmett Tyrell? He was the Richard Spencer of the late 70s and 80s. Rich, patrician type (real or not I don’t know), started a college magazine called The Alternative (cf. Alternative Right), bought the rights to The American Spectator at an estate sale or something. Benefited from/took credit for Reagan, gave P. J. O’Rourke a perch after he got too “conservative” for the National Lampoon, etc. Both cultivated a “the new cool is right wing” kind of vibe. For example, it was published as a tabloid, like Rolling Stone. Interestingly, both eventually became standard glossy 8×11… Read more »

Hemid
Hemid
Reply to  James J. O'Meara
2 years ago

Now that you mention it, he did play a Spencer-like role during the Clinton years. He was the public face of the vast right-wing conspiracy, and he embarrassingly self-immolated.

His name still appears on a Spectator column every couple weeks. The last few I’ve seen end with a ritual “Glory to Ukraine!” It’s him in spirit if not in fact.

David Wright
Member
Reply to  James J. O'Meara
2 years ago

Tyrell was a Buckley wannabe. Sixty four dollar words to boot.
I subscribed to that oversized mag in the 80s.

JR Wirth
JR Wirth
2 years ago

San Francisco has had ranked choice voting for years……..mic drop.

fakeemail
fakeemail
2 years ago

I gotta believe America was a country at least somewhere before the 1960s; or maybe I’m just too brainwashed by TV/movies of that age. But I still dig Leave it Beaver and John Wayne. My feeling is that a country is worth fighting and dying for is one that gives a shit if I believe in God, get working, get a home, get married/kids (young), and doesn’t throw me in with a bunch of aliens. Maybe it’s too much to ask from any mass society. People are very limited and can barely get their own shit together. I admire to… Read more »

Wkathman
Wkathman
Reply to  fakeemail
2 years ago

You touch upon something of paramount significance: the Global American Empire does not give a damn about anybody outside of the rather tiny power & influence class. You and I are just numbers to those who rule the GAE. We are no more than taxpayers/consumers to them. We are not genuine human beings with hearts and souls. As such, we merit not an ounce of loyalty from them. That of course begs a question: considering that they demonstrate no loyalty to us, are we not fools if we maintain any loyalty to them? When enough Dirt People wake up to… Read more »

fakeemail
fakeemail
Reply to  Wkathman
2 years ago

There was a funny meme I wish I could find.

It showed Uncle Sam graciously giving a sack of cash to a black hoodlum who replies, “Fuck you, cracka motherfucker.”

Then Uncle Sam graciously gives a sack of cash to a Mexican illegal who replies, “Fuck you, gringo.”

Then Uncle Same sternly takes a sack of cash from an old white boomer who salutes and replies, “God Bless America.”

Wkathman
Wkathman
Reply to  fakeemail
2 years ago

Touche! Never underestimate the blindness/denialism of boomer patriots.

fakeemail
fakeemail
Reply to  Wkathman
2 years ago

“American Empire does not give a damn about anybody outside of the rather tiny power & influence class. You and I are just numbers to those who rule.”

They don’t even feign caring any more. They just want us all suicided with vaccines, weed, crack pipes, and porn!

But it begs the question: how can they care? I just don’t grok how a mass society can work in the way we’re talking about. At a certain amount of people; we’re all just strangers.

Wkathman
Wkathman
Reply to  fakeemail
2 years ago

fakeemail: You’re absolutely right. What incentive do our rulers have to look out for our welfare? The kindness of their hearts? Various traits help rulers obtain and preserve power; kindness can rarely be counted among those traits. The only thing that would motivate them to look out for our welfare is if they somehow perceived that it was in their own interests to do so. We are not even in the same stratosphere of such a scenario. At best, our elites will be indifferent to us. At worst — and closer to the actual reality in more cases than not… Read more »

fakeemail
fakeemail
Reply to  Wkathman
2 years ago

It’s even worse than all that even. Imagine a virtuous man runs for high office because he does care about others, cares about the truth, he does want to uplift his country spiritually and materially. At least half of the population will HATE him. They will hate him because the media tells them to, for sure. But there’s something else. A large amount of people are simply nasty and vicious. They WANT to be fucked over and ruled by criminals. They WANT to see the good guy lose and get crucified even if it means they will be damned as… Read more »

NoOneAtAll
NoOneAtAll
Reply to  Wkathman
2 years ago

“Non jewish whites” are literally the only kind of whites

Din C. Nuttin
Din C. Nuttin
2 years ago

How can you rail against free markets? Do you think prices should be set be a committee instead? A commissar?

PeriheliusLux
PeriheliusLux
Reply to  thezman
2 years ago

Someone has to decide who the, “prudent”, men are. I think what you describe brings us back to the dilemma of the American Founders. Once you give centralized power to a select few, they will abuse it. However, someone has to have some authority to make decisions that protect the polity, (the nation), from hostile outside actors and benefit the people who make the nation a nation. This is true whether those given that power are the same people in terms of race and culture, or a different people as evidenced by the original central bank of the US and… Read more »

Horace
Horace
Reply to  PeriheliusLux
2 years ago

“… someone has to have some authority to make decisions that protect the polity, (the nation), from hostile outside actors …”

This is another notion in favor of the ethnostate. If you have “outside actors” inside your country and you are foolish enough to allow them into the control nodes of your civilization (finance, elite education, media, etc) then they will inevitably become “hostile outside actors.”

Some minorities will behave more badly than others when they get into control nodes, but it is human nature that all will make the attempt if they have the cognitive aptitude for it.

PeriheliusLux
PeriheliusLux
Reply to  Horace
2 years ago

Having everyone of the same ethnicity is not a guarantor. If that were enough the American Founders would have dispensed with the political discourse, made it only Anglican and called it good. Indeed, Biden is of white ethnicity, yet he cheers and accelerates the demographic replacement of his own race in its own homeland. Countless times, traitors have acted from within to help a hostile foreign power and/or peoples to usurp the existing state. Ethnicity is not enough. However, it is clear that Progressive America first gave up on any notion of a common identity – being an American. At… Read more »

Horace
Horace
Reply to  Horace
2 years ago

“Biden is of white ethnicity…” I don’t consider ‘white’ to be an ethnicity, but as a term that indicates European race. I use the term race to describe variation in the large scale genomic structures. Europeans have some Neanderthal alleles, Asians have a different but overlapping set of Neanderthal alleles, and Africans don’t have any. Ethnicity is more granular and manifested over time as racial elements settled in different locations and differentiated through disparate local natural selection forcing and local drift uncorrelated with that experienced by distant members of the same race. Dutch, German, and English are different ethnicities all… Read more »

PeriheliusLux
PeriheliusLux
Reply to  Horace
2 years ago

Hi Horace – You clearly have a stronger handle on genomics than I do. Thank you for the explanations. I am learning. The clarification you and I are doing is critically important as a means of helping people who, whether they know it or not, have been repudiated by their ruling elite. Heck, it is helpful to me. I think another thing we can do is use the proper terms as you did by pointing out that Biden, and the entire ruling regime, has repudiated his race, his ethnicity and his nation. Repudiation is the perfect term. Well said. That… Read more »

Wkathman
Wkathman
Reply to  thezman
2 years ago

Zman, if you had written today’s piece ten years ago and I had read it back then, my reaction would have been the same as Din C. Nuttin’s. I used to worship devoutly at the altar of the so-called free market. These days, I am reminded of Matthew 7:16: “Ye shall know them by their fruits.” While Christ was speaking of false prophets in that verse, the same reasoning can apply to systems. Though the fruits of marketism have been greatly beneficial at times, they increasingly appear poisonous on net balance. Civilization won’t last once it has become little more… Read more »

Din C. Nuttin
Din C. Nuttin
Reply to  thezman
2 years ago

Free markets. like the bill of rights, and the 10 commandments, don’t work if they aren’t enforced. When they are enforced (were enforced) they caused the greatest prosperity the world has yet known. The Magna Carta was also a good idea, invoked by the threat of swords to limit the avaricious and capricious actions of a despotic king. It lasted an entire month before said king colluded with the church, the other authority, and voided the document. The Constitution was a great idea. It just needs enforcing. Someone said the lawyers (and their paymasters the politicians) look at the constitution… Read more »

fakeemail
fakeemail
Reply to  Din C. Nuttin
2 years ago

Pat Buchanan understood that “free markets” have doomed the West.

There must be protectionism economically just as a protected border or else there is no country.

Mow Noname
Mow Noname
Reply to  fakeemail
2 years ago

“Designed in San Jose/ Texas/ Boston.”
“Made in China / Philippines/ Taiwan.”

Translation: I’m smart because I design things and buy overpriced coffee.
You, who make things, are icky and dumb. You get to compete against 1.5 billion third-world peasants so my firm can leverage the global labor arbitrage.
“The Free Market”

Altitude Zero
Altitude Zero
2 years ago

Good Lord, is the American Spectator still around? I thought that it disappeared some time in the late 1990’s. Talk about a living fossil – they should have a copy of that web page printed and hung in the Smithsonian, next to a coelacanth and Laotian Rock Rat.

Marko
Marko
Reply to  Altitude Zero
2 years ago

So is Time, Newsweek, Chrysler, Kodak, and Emperor Palpatine.

Nothing dies anymore.

Compsci
Compsci
2 years ago

“ The only function voting serves today is to provide a patina of legitimacy to decisions made by an oligarchy,…” Arshad Ali Yep. RCV is a shiny object pointed to in order to distract from the present (corrupt) process. It’s lipstick on a pig. There are at least half a dozen serious flaws identified in the current ballot process that were used to “fix” the last election. All that’s needed is to address those flaws and we’d achieve: 1) a much more transparent, and understandable process, 2) a much less corrupt process, or at least one where cheating would be… Read more »

imbroglio
imbroglio
2 years ago

Ideology frequently opposes marketism. For example, detestable as it may be, wokery is not looking to persuade the market of the value of its wares aside from the D.I.E. mantra which most wokesters don’t believe. The BLM signs on wealthy white lawns are virtue signals meant to proclaim virtue not to promote it in any sort of market sense. Dictatorship needs no market savvy in a command economy. The failure to take market forces into account frequently spells the demise of dictatorship as may happen here amid the general ruin of each against all being the primary value dictatorship nurtures… Read more »

Mr. House
Mr. House
Reply to  imbroglio
2 years ago

I think if you went door to door where those signs inhabit a yard, you would find almost all of them work in healthcare, higher education, government (local/state/federal). Wonder why that is? Explains the “divide” between left and right. As the left as slowly taken over the country they tilted every playing field in their favor via laws and regulations until all you have left are overpriced degree’s and unaffordable healthcare along with money printing because its all an abstraction 😉 Also i’d add if you asked whats for dinner, because all those signs say all are welcome here, i’m… Read more »

Bilejones
Member
2 years ago

Inevitably, somebody found the clip
https://youtu.be/FJ3N_2r6R-o

Reziac
Reziac
2 years ago

The real problem with ranked choice is that it tends to exclude the majority candidate in favor of someone nobody likes. So in order to always elect Democrats, you wait for the Rs to flush out their single “winner” then flood the ballot with crappy Ds, and lo and behold, one of the lower-ranked Ds will win, every time. Exactly as happened in Alaska. (California’s “two highest vote getters make the ballot, regardless of party, so always two Democrats” might be regarded as a form of RCV.) RCV only “works” to extract a candidate everyone likes when there is already… Read more »

pyrrhus
pyrrhus
Reply to  Reziac
2 years ago

Yep…In this case, it will be used exclusively to eliminate populist candidates in favor of otherwise unelectable neocons and communists…

Mud Person
Mud Person
Reply to  Reziac
2 years ago

RCV = Rectal Colo Voting. They’re already giving it to you in the azz, and want to give you a little more.

Arshad Ali
Arshad Ali
2 years ago

“Politics is a massive racket run by conmen, grifters and sociopaths who care only about a quick buck.” When was it different in the USA? There have been times when populist sentiment held sway but these have been the exceptions that prove the general rule. Today the only question we need to ask of any American politician is what constellation of special interests owns him (or her). The “political-industrialist complex” is there to manufacture consensus and to get votes from the marks and rubes who bother to vote. But as Emma Goldman pointed out over a century ago, if voting… Read more »

Member
Reply to  Arshad Ali
2 years ago

“When was it different in the USA?” The answer to that question is, just like so many others, “before 1865 and the Industrial Revolution”. In the Old Republic, politics was generally the preserve of landed gentlemen. They were private gentlemen first, as an identity. Politics was something they did, not who they were. Politics was not a means to become wealthy, because there was no mechanism to do so. Men like Washington, Jefferson and Madison actually lost money by becoming President, because the burden of public service interfered with running a plantation. In the Old Republic, there were no Robber… Read more »

Arshad Ali
Arshad Ali
Reply to  Pickle Rick
2 years ago

Yes, I can buy that point of view. Same in England. What brought about mass politics (which is all about mass propaganda, misdirection, and infotainment) was extending the franchise to all adults, coupled with the development of mass media (initially newspapers but then radio and television). As long as politics was the preserve of the landed gentry and the urban merchant class, it was a very different beast.

Maus
Maus
Reply to  Pickle Rick
2 years ago

Indeed, long before the current grifters feasted on Obama’s ethanol subsidies or salivated at the prospect of more solar, wind and EV subsidies, the Lincoln Republicans were drifting down South with their carpet bags to grift the nascent Reconstruction. Noblesse oblige only works in a society that accepts the reality of aristocracy and inherent human inequality. The irony is that political grifting relies on that reality too, but simply divides the mass of humanity into marks and cons. And the majority of Americans have been sold a bill of goods. It’s long past time for the return of a yeomanry… Read more »

James J. O'Meara
James J. O'Meara
Reply to  Arshad Ali
2 years ago

As I’ve commented many times, America was always a nation of con men. America’s greatest literature revolves around The Big Con. From Poe’s “The art of diddling” to Melville’s The Confidence Man to Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby to William Burroughs to Mad Men’s Don Draper. to Saul Goodman

As Americans say, if you don’t know who the con man is, you’re the mark.

Hey, don’t worry, ‘sall good, man.

c matt
c matt
Reply to  James J. O'Meara
2 years ago

I thought it was if you don’t know who the mark is, it’s you.

Falcone
Falcone
Reply to  Arshad Ali
2 years ago

Voting mattered before the federal government became too big and overreaching. Because the federal government had little sway over your area of the country, and so voting meant voting for people who directly affected your locality. all that mattered happened within 10 or 20 miles of where you lived. Incidentally, I was reading up on one of the last living confederate soldiers. He was one of the few ever recorded in terms of an audio recording. And he didn’t even know he was a Virginian! It was news to him when he signed up. “I go to sign up and… Read more »

TomA
TomA
2 years ago

“Chaos is good for business.” It’s also a necessary prerequisite for remedy. Chaos does many things. It creates a fog of civil unrest typically in the form of street protests and mass demonstrations. In the case of Antifa mobs, it also includes wanton violence and destruction of property; typically via arson, smashing windows, and looting. What does this do? Well, it ties up nearly all of the existing emergency services in the big cities where this occurs. Typically police and fire departments are quickly overwhelmed, and if protests persist for days, those resources deplete due to overwork and being spread… Read more »

Anonymous
Anonymous
Reply to  TomA
2 years ago

Hey guys TomA wants you to commit domestic rightwing white terrorism. He REALLY REALLY WANTS it since he has posted variations on the same theme literally hundreds of times and does so almost every single day Im sure the regime would be really upset if someone was radicalized on a right-wing website and then commited domestic right wing white terrorism. I mean how could they ever fit this into their narratives? Imagine how upset the fine folks at the FBI and the DOJ and the mainstream media would be upon hearing about it. This would probably foil their plans for… Read more »

TomA
TomA
Reply to  Anonymous
2 years ago

Congratulations! You are the first troll to ever afflict me. I guess I’ve led a charmed life up until now. Speaking of repetitious, you have used this very same libel against me every single time you have posted here. Therefore, in honor of repetition, I’m going to restate my prior position. Censorship via internet intimidation does not work here. Have you noticed that I have not yet been intimidated by you? Yeah, I didn’t think so.

Bilejones
Member
2 years ago

I Liked this:
“an open outdoor bizarre held together by a merchant class.”

But you probably meant this
“an open outdoor bazaar held together by a merchant class.

3 Pipe Problem
3 Pipe Problem
Reply to  Bilejones
2 years ago

Either is perfectly descriptive!

WCiv911
WCiv911
Reply to  3 Pipe Problem
2 years ago

It’s a bizare. It’s a bizarre bazaar.

Stranger in a Strange Land
Stranger in a Strange Land
Reply to  WCiv911
2 years ago

and politics is show biz for ugly people

Citizen of a Silly Country
Citizen of a Silly Country
2 years ago

Reminds me that a Japanese politician – remarking on Coolidge’s quote – said the business of Japan is the Japanese. We are controlled by a group who were bred to parse and manipulate words. It’s why they so hate simplicity. They want to debate every word until their is no meaning other than what they want at that moment. The Japanese know that Japanese means one thing and one thing only – the ethnic people living in Japan. No clever wordsmith can get around that. The marketplace – both economic and political – has taken over because we never had… Read more »

Chet Rollins
Chet Rollins
Reply to  Citizen of a Silly Country
2 years ago

In a confident society, there are certain tenets you do not question, not because of some authority but because, regardless of pedantry, there are things you simply know in your bones. Once a people put these core pieces of identity and seeing the world open to debate, it’s only a matter of time before it all collapses. It’s not because the new way of thinking is better either, but often simply because it’s more subversive, a sort of mind virus that acts like those flies that burrow into a beetle’s skull and convinces the creature to drown itself. The people… Read more »

Citizen of a Silly Country
Citizen of a Silly Country
Reply to  Chet Rollins
2 years ago

Intellectuals are the most easily manipulated because they don’t feel a connection with regular people and because they do feel a connection with other intellectuals who are spread around the world.

An intellectual’s world is global and works just fine for them. The faculty are from around the world and their college town is very nice, so they can’t understand why the whole world can’t be like their little world.

Paintersforms
Paintersforms
Reply to  Citizen of a Silly Country
2 years ago

Thinkers should be required to be worldly before they sequester in the academy. It’s a global network of the most provincial places.

JerseyJeffersonian
JerseyJeffersonian
Reply to  Paintersforms
2 years ago

This reiterates the ancient Greek dictum (Plato?) that one should not begin the study of philosophy until a years-long exposure to varied life experiences.

Felix Krull
Member
Reply to  Citizen of a Silly Country
2 years ago

I suspect intellectuals are easily manipulated because it’s expected of them to think big thoughts. And if your thoughts are no different from those of the hoi polloi, you’re not much of an intellectual, are you?

So they deliberately go in search of thoughts that fly against common sense, thoughts that only fellow intellectuals can understand: any pleb can argue that there are only two sexes, it takes real intellectual edge to argue there are 72 because that’s a much harder argument to make.

Compsci
Compsci
Reply to  Felix Krull
2 years ago

Exactly. Your insight also explains the current trend towards “deconstructionism” in the academy (I think that’s the correct term for my observation). No one prints articles of the known “dog bites man type”, but they do notice and publish “man bites dog”. Years ago as a budding undergrad, I took a “developmental” psych course and was immersed in such topics are child development which lead to reading about breast feeding infants. There was a large review article I encountered which looked at the last 50 years of publications for and against breast feeding and their recommendations. They ranked the articles… Read more »

Felix Krull
Member
Reply to  Felix Krull
2 years ago

Yep, “big thoughts” replacing last years “big thoughts”. And endless cycle, producing promotion and tenure, but not necessarily extending scientific knowledge. Yes. If you browse the library of any institute of sociology or political theory, you’ll find fifty plus different models of society on the shelves, all from the last 100 years. If you ask the librarian, he will tell you that none of them are wrong or disproven, they’re just no longer used. But if you can find a professor willing to examine you in the subject, you could write a dissertation grounded in any of these old theories… Read more »

KGB
KGB
Reply to  Felix Krull
2 years ago

I was speaking to a woman about a decade ago with two young children. She said that when the first one was born, she was warned against peanuts and potential allergies. Just over a year later, when the second one came, the same doctors told her to expose the newborn to peanuts immediately in order to condition him. If she had a third one, I suspect she was told to avoid nuts again.

The Wild Geese Howard
The Wild Geese Howard
Reply to  Citizen of a Silly Country
2 years ago

I would only add that the intellectuals are hugely aided by the fact their college towns are drowning in cash thanks to government subsidies via research grants, guaranteed student loans, and tax breaks.

Nice work if you can get it.

Bilejones
Member
Reply to  The Wild Geese Howard
2 years ago

There are billions of State Dept dollars “Aid to Ukraine” that never make it fifty miles from DC. Same with DoD “military contracts”.
It’s one big funding scam for the Deep State.

AntiDem
AntiDem
Reply to  Citizen of a Silly Country
2 years ago

Yeah, well, as Elon Musk pointed out, if the business of Japan was really the Japanese, then they wouldn’t be going slowly extinct via failure to reproduce. The Japanese corporate state has put outdated societal rules and corporate profits above family formation, and will soon be paying the price for it. It seems that Admiral Halsey was right, though perhaps a century or so early, when he predicted that one day the Japanese language would be spoken exclusively in Hell.

Stranger in a Strange Land
Stranger in a Strange Land
Reply to  AntiDem
2 years ago

It appears the Japanese are unwilling, and now unable to do anything about the demise of their culture simply by the fact that eventually – no Japanese will show up for the future. As to why they have…achieved this point is a mystery wrapped in an enigma. In Kyoto years ago and amidst all the Shinto shrines, I asked my host to explain Shintoism. He more / less stated a Western, or non-Japanese mind is incapable of comprehending it. Perhaps they get it and are willing to live (and die) with it.

3g4me
3g4me
Reply to  AntiDem
2 years ago

AntiDem: Still sore about Pearl Harbor, eh? Talk about holding grudges based on false premises. The Japanese live in extraordinarily crowded conditions with minimal personal space. Rather than crowding even further together like the Chinese, they’ve embraced a bit more individualism and privacy as a result of decades of western influence.

Japan will still exist 25 years from now, and it will still be filled with Japanese people, albeit fewer than today. The remnants of AINO will not last out the decade.

KGB
KGB
Reply to  3g4me
2 years ago

I’m not sure I concur that the alarming demographic trends, the atomization and dehumanization of the typical Japanese, is the result of a conscious desire for space. There’s something else at play. And maybe as a gaijin, I can’t understand it, just as I may not be able to understand Shinto, but I think it’s baked into what it means to be Japanese. I don’t think they can help themselves.

Horace
Horace
Reply to  KGB
2 years ago

As long as they don’t fill their land with genetic aliens, they have many generations left to figure out what’s wrong and fix it. The collapse of the GAE may accelerate the process.

wj
wj
Reply to  3g4me
2 years ago

Yes, Japan will still be Japan in 25, 50 or 100 years. Demographic decline is the hot thing these days. People like Musk and Caplan and many other clowns think we should live like sardines packed on top of each other and that is the only way to have national power.
Japan perhaps is sub-consciously downsizing but they will be fine. I would take it over the metastatic cancer that is a country like Nigeria.

Maus
Maus
Reply to  AntiDem
2 years ago

Say what you want about Elon Musk (I’m no fan); but, with ten children, he’s certainly proven his fecundity and dispelled any hypocrisy regarding that particular critique of Japan.

NoOneAtAll
NoOneAtAll
Reply to  AntiDem
2 years ago

“outdated societal rules” is not a phrase I expected to encounter unironically here of all places.

Do japanese not know that its the current year?

Chet Rollins
Chet Rollins
2 years ago

Probably the most ubiquitous mindset that shows most people are just a bunch of spiritual merchants is when you ask them about solutions to problems. Lousy schools? Lack of funding. Water Treatment Plants failing? Lack of funding. Mass homelessness? Lack of funding. They never ask how schools operated when the local literally built the schoolhouse themselves and hired a teacher themselves, all while being poor farmers. They never ask why the Water Treatment Plant worked fine on a fraction of the budget when it was a culturally cohesive group of white guys running it. They never ask why funding homeless… Read more »

KGB
KGB
Reply to  Chet Rollins
2 years ago

Back then, the teachers accepted corn, apples, or other truck as a salary. Today’s blue-haired cross dressers are too entitled to make such a sacrifice.

Carrie
Reply to  KGB
2 years ago

*And* the children were disciplined, and not pumped full of fake food, so they could actually sit for nearly 1 full hour and learn something.

Followed by at least another full hour of being outside, running around, and creating social interactions and more cohesion that led to them running said water treatment plant.

JerseyJeffersonian
JerseyJeffersonian
Reply to  Carrie
2 years ago

I have also heard that, in the times of one-room schools, the older students would, when instruction was being given at a lower level, help those younger students with that material. There is no better way, in my experience, to firm up your knowledge of some subject matter than to be tasked to teach it to neophytes. The essence of acquisition of knowledge is served by this, rather than being treated as a passive recipient of a deluge of soon-to-be forgotten factoids.

Compsci
Compsci
Reply to  Chet Rollins
2 years ago

They never ask/answer, “How much funding?”; “How is success measured?”; “When do we see such result?”

I have never undertaken a private contractural purchase or arrangement that has not answered these questions, nor did the the contractor expect not to answer these questions—contracts are often pre-typed “forms” with blanks left to fill in such information as it is expected *before* down payment.

I used to have a saying when there was hesitancy at my university in answering the “…how is success measured…” question, “If you can’t measure it, it doesn’t exist.” It usually made for shorter discussion of the issue.

Evil Sandmich
2 years ago

With no one in power interested in the wellbeing of the system… — Just like “power comes from the wall socket” and “food comes from the grocery store” the political system comes from the buildings it occupies. They keep assaulting the back-end supports for everything and yet they show up every day and there’s still power coming out of the socket, food at the store, and government in the buildings…at least until there isn’t. (A meta-issue of course is that all these clowns had to be as semi-functional and their descendants would be able to grift far into the future,… Read more »

David Wright
Member
Reply to  Evil Sandmich
2 years ago

Reminds me of the female Ceo of GM demonstrating and talking about their electric car and more importantly the advantages of electric. Someone asked where does the power come from? Meaning it doesn’t miraculously power itself without the grid and all the repercussions to the environment.

She said it comes from the building behind her. That’s where they charged it.

The Wild Geese Howard
The Wild Geese Howard
Reply to  David Wright
2 years ago

Here is the clip of the incident described:

https://www.bitchute.com/video/RoHYtP7Uory6/

Eventually they find a stale pale male who explains the local grid is, “…about 95% coal.”

mikey
mikey
2 years ago

Politics is a massive racket run by conmen, grifters and sociopaths who care only about a quick buck. Maybe you mean adjuncts like David Axelrod or Jim Messina. But even these electoral mercenaries aren’t temporary figures in politics. Success makes them, and perhaps their offspring, wealthy over the long haul. The actual officials that they engineer into office establish dynasties with influence over many years. The degenerate Kennedys are a great example, as are the Gores, Longs, Adams, Bushes and now the dumpy Chelsea and the soon-to-be incredibly influential and electable Obama progeny. The quick political buck can exist for… Read more »

Mike
Mike
Reply to  mikey
2 years ago

I’ve got to say that in two cases, the Kennedy progeny seemingly turned out ok, RFK Jr. and JFK Jr. had the opportunity to be ok. The rest who have tried politics are loathsome though.

(((They))) live
(((They))) live
2 years ago

In Ireland we have a voting system like the zman describes, but we also have multi seat constituencies, it more or less works for us. But I don’t see it working in the US

When I say it more or less works, I mean our problems run along deeper than the voting system. We still have a terrible ruling class

Barnard
Barnard
Reply to  (((They))) live
2 years ago

Our problems also run deeper than the voting system. I cannot possibly see a benefit to ranked choice voting in any form of government. The idea that the in a democracy with virtually no restrictions on the franchise and a totally ignorant populace that you would want voters trying to spend the time to rank candidates is insanity.

Evil Sandmich
Reply to  thezman
2 years ago

Something I don’t think mentioned yesterday in regards to the haunting Jennifer Rubin bit about starting the pograms “now” after the Biden Red Square speech was if anyone, in the history of mankind, had been able to vote their way out of genocide. The idea is so ridiculous as to cause a brain cramp in even the most pro-vote normie.
(And don’t let them give you that “who is Jennifer Rubin?” bit, she’s one of the premier columnists for one of the two big regime mouth pieces.)

ProZNoV
ProZNoV
Reply to  (((They))) live
2 years ago

Paper ballots, filled out in person with ID (and purple finger ink while we’re in fantasy land) fixes all the corruption. Which is why it will never happen.

Japan rejected electronic voting machines a few years back. They have auditable paper ballots with results in under a day.

It’s so incredibly obvious that the US voting system is designed from floor to ceiling to be corrupted it’s a wonder any thinking person ever votes.

Anonymous
Anonymous
Reply to  (((They))) live
2 years ago

Did you finally get rid of the monkey pox indian? Personally I like when politicians are openly homosexuals, only time theres some real honesty about them actually wanting to screw their constituents right up the heine.

Glenfilthie
Glenfilthie
Member
2 years ago

Nonsense. Blame the market for grift, corruption and cheatery? You may as well blame white gun owners for black crime. Criminals thrive in a society that tolerates them. We are seeing increased criminality because guys exactly like you and I tolerate it. We sit on the sidelines and maybe gripe about it on the internet. Not to fed-poast… but things will not change until there is a downside to engaging in this behavior. Joe, Hilary, Romney, Kerry – every single rat bastard one of them would not do the things they do if there were a good chance of winding… Read more »

TomA
TomA
Reply to  Glenfilthie
2 years ago

It’s kinda like blaming “breathing” for inhaling the virus that made you sick.

Carrie
Reply to  Glenfilthie
2 years ago

@Glenfilthie is spot-on.

It is only when the men of our West decide enough is enough, and take action.

But alas, the money is still being printed, things still function (mostly), and bellies are still full.

3g4me
3g4me
Reply to  Glenfilthie
2 years ago

Glen: Do you honestly believe that the former US constitution, if followed to the letter, would not result in something very similar to today’s Clownworld a few centuries later? Sure, if citizenship and voting was limited to free White men of property, we wouldn’t be a third world abattoir, but unregulated capitalism – even amongst solely White men – would still lead to a search for ever greater centralization and monopoly and global profits.

Horace
Horace
Reply to  3g4me
2 years ago

Merchants have no country. The mere spot they stand on does not constitute so strong an attachment as that from which they draw their gains. Thomas Jefferson If we end up (I’m sure I won’t live to see it) with a 2nd American Republic or other American-only polity, we need to put great restrictions on property ownership to circumvent the rise of another oligarchy. Corporations should have an employee cap and have primary operations limited to one state only. I recall reading years ago that Russian Federation senior officials are not allowed to own any foreign property. Having skin in… Read more »

Filthie
Filthie
Member
Reply to  3g4me
2 years ago

Hmmmmm. I am not a constitutional scholar, 3G. If you look at the third world, their countries have bills of rights, declarations, and constitutions as flowery and pretty as their American counterparts, with soaring rhetoric… and their peoples live in squalor. I believe the American constitution framed and enacted by men and women that revered God, and shared faith and values that – when combined with a good work ethic, allowed them to prosper beyond anyone’s wildest dreams. Americans agree on those values and shared the responsibility of safe-guarding them. Your nation was founded by men that wanted free and… Read more »

Ploppy
Ploppy
Reply to  Glenfilthie
2 years ago

It’s an impossible situation since power only attracts wicked people. No matter how you set up the system, it eventually is full of sociopaths squeezing all the gold out of the peasants.

DR folks push Monarchism out of the assumption that if the king is a random dice roll you might get a non-psycho. Problem is it doesn’t take much time reading European history to notice just how many Richard IIIs there were.

Barnard
Barnard
2 years ago

Haven’t read The American Spectator in awhile. I didn’t realize they were publishing paid for content like National Review. Their comments section, which I assume is regular readers were not interested in what this shill is selling.

One of the many opportunities Trump missed was not attacking the third world vote counting in California. Especially after the 2018 midterms when they were still counting votes after Thanksgiving, this should have been low hanging fruit for his administration.

Jack Boniface
Jack Boniface
Member
2 years ago

RCV also a year ago produced the simpleton vegetarian mayor of NYC, Eric Adams.

Evil Sandmich
Reply to  Jack Boniface
2 years ago

I haven’t read the article, but it needs to be asked what issues does the current system have and will RCV help address those issues. I seriously doubt anyone pushing RCV is honest about the issues in the current system which renders any “fixes” it’s supposed to deploy meaningless. As your example points out, it appears it actually only serves to make a bad situation worse.

ProZNoV
ProZNoV
Reply to  Jack Boniface
2 years ago

RCV is peddled as a way to give 3rd party candidates a chance. You’re not “wasting your vote” by voting green, or libertarian, or communist, or whatever…because when they don’t win, your “second choice” (i.e., the D or the R) gets the vote.

Alaska really proved how sneaky this is : More Republicans actually voted, but the Democrat won the seat.

RCV: Good on paper, not so good in real life. Democracy in America as a dating app. How appropriate.

Mycale
Mycale
Reply to  Jack Boniface
2 years ago

Eric Adams likely would have won in a regular vote as well. He was the guy that the supremely corrupt NYC machine system was pushing for years, despite the fact that he is a easily distracted and corruptible dim bulb who is more interested in using his status to attend fancy clubs than governing. Wait, not “despite”, “because.”

NYC is a one party city with absolutely no accountability and all that entails.

Falcone
Falcone
2 years ago

I’ve said before, but I think it has already collapsed, at least for all intents and purposes. I have not travelled outside of the country in some time, but my sense would be if I were suddenly on the Uris de looking man I would see the country in its true state. And part of this is that we are becoming a prison, and even the general aesthetic has prison overtones, namely where else are there tons of dykes in charge and the only woman a man could ever hope for is a man in a dress? I mean they’re… Read more »

Falcone
Falcone
Reply to  Falcone
2 years ago

* If I were suddenly on the outside looking in

Whitney
Member
Reply to  Falcone
2 years ago

Yeah and I think as the collapse becomes more apparent our ‘leaders’ will become more authoritarian to usher in the slave state they’re so excited about. And their war to destroy Russia has spectacularly blackfired. if Putin succeeds with BRICS it’s going to take them off the top of the hill and isolate them. Yeesh. This is gonna get worse and be bad for while. Oh well. Where’s the challenge in a peaceful death?

The Wild Geese Howard
The Wild Geese Howard
Reply to  Whitney
2 years ago

What the morons in control fail to realize is that there can be no innovation in a slave state.

That said, they will push for nuclear war as soon as they internalize the reality the GAE is so de-industrialized it has no hope of winning a conventional war against Russia or China.

I believe the weird nuclear attack PSAs eminating from NYC were the first signs of this realization.

Pozymandias
Reply to  The Wild Geese Howard
2 years ago

Trump saw the situation vis a vis Russia/China pretty clearly. The US standard of living is entirely dependent on Chinese industry and the regime there is about as far ideologically from what our nation is supposed to be as possible. The CCP also clearly has military ambitions towards Taiwan. It also would have made sense to get cozy with Russia if only to keep her mineral and oil riches from China. Trump’s efforts to bring industry back to the US may have been halfhearted and ineffective but at least they were something. Now we’ve got Brandon’s Buffoons (think Hogan’s Heroes… Read more »

Jack Dobson
Jack Dobson
Reply to  Pozymandias
2 years ago

“In other words even they can’t be this stupid as to plan a war where victory requires the enemy to shoot himself for you.” Maybe it’s delusion rather than stupidity, but, yes, they really believe this. The European leaders who are funding the war against Russia simply could not believe Putin would turn the gas off spigot in response. It doesn’t compute and doesn’t register with them that such a thing could actually go against the narrative they firmly believe. The same with North American NPC’s. I actually replied, “do you think?” when one at a Labor Day party suggested… Read more »

KGB
KGB
2 years ago

“An open outdoor bizarre held together by a merchant class.” Nice turn of phrase, but I think Modern Heretic 3000 nailed it when he describes the United States as a “globalist Kosher bodega”.

AntiDem
AntiDem
Reply to  KGB
2 years ago

“Bazaar”, though it also is bizarre.

The Wild Geese Howard
The Wild Geese Howard
Reply to  KGB
2 years ago

There have actually been a few lib op-eds that argue the ideal version of America is something resembling a Third World souk surrounded by restaurants and temples that serve up copious amounts of alien cuisines and faiths.

Marko
Marko
Reply to  The Wild Geese Howard
2 years ago

That is a curious irony that is lost on the lefties in my life. They love seeing the foreigners and the foreign restaurants in their suburban towns. For a lefty, if you can’t be rich, then at least be well-travelled. Lefties love travelling and “expanding their minds” which is why they love having foreigners and diversity within their midst: they don’t have to travel to eat that street falaffel they gushed about in Berlin. So now they can gush about that modest Arab street food they found 15 minutes away. I might bring up the fact that that food exists… Read more »

3g4me
3g4me
Reply to  Marko
2 years ago

Marko: From what I’ve read, one can dine on just about any type of cuisine in Japan . . . all prepared by Japanese. Rather than importing Tunisians or Moroccans, they send Japanese chefs overseas to lean how to cook various national foods, and then said chefs return home. I may not be a native of ‘x’ but with the aid of common sense, basic cooking skills, local cook books, and imported ingredients, any White can cook any sort of food. It’s hardly rocket science. You don’t have to import the locals for that. And as far as being well… Read more »

Paintersforms
Paintersforms
Reply to  3g4me
2 years ago

Some people experience diversity and come to appreciate it, good and bad. Others experience diversity and want to make the world a brown puddle, for some reason.

Marko
Marko
Reply to  3g4me
2 years ago

I’ve lived abroad as well, and the fellow non-natives I met were as race-realist as you could get, even if they had girlfriends or wives of said country. It’s easy to fall in love with a country or people if you only stay there a few weeks. If you stay there a year, then it gets real.

Mycale
Mycale
Reply to  3g4me
2 years ago

I know even when I traveled in Europe, for the most part, restaurants were staffed with natives speaking the local language. My guess is that it would still be true, as we know that the “refugees” Europe has brought in the past 5-7 years are all working as doctors, lawyers, and rocket scientists, not lowly cooks.

Also, in the US, it must be said, step in any restaurant, any cuisine, and there’s a pretty high chance the cooks are speaking Spanish. Nobody has ever explained to me why Juan can make a bowl of pho but John cannot.

NoOneAtAll
NoOneAtAll
Reply to  3g4me
2 years ago

Good observation about japanese chefs cooking foreogn food… but we miss it right in front of our noses

Even looked in the kitchen? In Texas and California this side of four stars – pretty much all the “exotic food” from anywhere is cooked by five foot tall illegal mayans who barely speak spanish (much less english).

I think MAYBE a white guy could learn to make tabouli or aloo gobi too.

Zaphod
Zaphod
Reply to  3g4me
2 years ago

You can get better French food in Japan than in France — especially if you’re after classic Gastronomie Larousse fare and not deconstructed nouvelle wankery.

Where they fall down a bit is other Asian cuisines which they tend to make rather bland — spiciness and anything ‘smelly’ (one Japanese girlfriend couldn’t tolerate the mint and herbs aroma from a bowl of Pho FFS) flips them out.