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#Post#: 3949--------------------------------------------------
America's Great Unwinding
By: FarmGirl Date: August 8, 2022, 5:34 pm
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An excellent explanation on the Great Unwinding of America
HTML https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2022/08/europe-america-military-empire-decline/670960/<br
/>by the Atlantic. The geopolitical duality of America's role in
the world.
The conundrum facing America’s allies is how to cope with a
great imperial power in decline that is still a great imperial
power.
By Tom McTague
#Post#: 3950--------------------------------------------------
Re: America's Great Unwinding
By: K-Dog Date: August 8, 2022, 6:47 pm
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[quote author=FarmGirl link=topic=121.msg3949#msg3949
date=1659998056]
An excellent explanation on the Great Unwinding of America
HTML https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2022/08/europe-america-military-empire-decline/670960/<br
/>by the Atlantic. The geopolitical duality of America's role in
the world.
The conundrum facing America’s allies is how to cope with a
great imperial power in decline that is still a great imperial
power.
By Tom McTague
[/quote]
The best line:
[quote]From outside the U.S., many now see in America only
relentless mass shootings, political dysfunction, social
division, and the looming presence of Donald Trump.[/quote]
Ya think.
When people start missing meals fun times will begin. What we
see now is the opening act.
And the monkeys have nukes.
#Post#: 4064--------------------------------------------------
America's Great Unwinding
By: K-Dog Date: August 26, 2022, 9:22 pm
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Existing Arrangements
[img
width=200]
HTML https://chasingthesquirrel.com/public/pics/ybctnim.png[/img]
You'll be cold in the winter Because they need it more
Gasoline is down in price. But wage slaves are pushed hard.
Gasoline cost-per-gallon approached the federal
minimum-hourly-wage a month ago. Inflation is serious.
Seven-twenty-five an hour is the federal minimum wage. This is
not a living wage, as most people know. The gasoline price
needed to come down. The natives could become restless. I'm not
sure about that, apathy and American cluelessness blossom in the
summer heat. But four years ago, planned hikes in French diesel
taxes sparked up Paris 'yellow vest' demonstrations. I watched
the protests. The French know how to protest.
American elite do not want that sort of thing here. To avoid
unrest, the gasoline price hike had to be rolled back. Too much
austerity too fast could make the natives restless. Politics is
the fine art of boiling a frog without the frog knowing about
it.
Seven-twenty-five an hour has not been a living wage in America
for about fifty years. An average apartment in Seattle is 691
square feet in size. An average rent for that apartment is
$2,334 a month. Working a 40 hour week generates $1256 a month
at $7.25 an hour. In Seattle, a real minimum wage is considered
to be about $15 an hour. Wage slaves work jobs that start at
about $15 an hour here. Fifteen an hour is a wage that makes $2
an hour more, worth a job change. Gasoline prices jumped in
price by about $1.50 a gallon this year. I watch the miles per
gallon reading on my speedometer when I drive like I never have
before.
Gasoline prices are blamed on Putin in America. Or on Biden if
you are fat, pink like a naked pig, and you wear a red MAGA hat.
Oil companies set prices. Putin can not set gasoline prices. Oil
companies set a price capped by taxes set by government. Putin
does not do these things. Western austerity is planned to
maintain existing arrangements.
The wardog tail wags. The tail wags as long as it is someone
else's war in a land far away, and only far away people die. The
silent fart of the wardog spreads its stench over western media.
Macron tells the French people, austerity is necessary. Boris
Jonhnson pledges unending support and weapons to Ukraine. Boris
makes the winter cold as a patriotic duty. Considering his past,
Boris does not consider personal suffering, excepting how to
avoid it, and pass it on. Boris would like the British people to
do his suffering. So he does not have to.
[quote]
Day after day missiles and bombs continue to rain on the
innocent people of Ukraine In the south and the east of your
wonderful country, Putin continues with his grotesque and
illegal campaign to take and hold Ukrainian soil. His soldiers
no longer have the excuse of not knowing what they are doing.
They are committing war crimes, and their atrocities emerge
wherever they are forced to retreat - as we've seen at Bucha, at
Irpin at Hostomel and many other places. We in the UK will do
whatever we can to hold them to account for these war crimes and
in this moment of uncertainty, of continuing fear and doubt I
have one message for you today Ukraine will win. Ukraine will be
free. -- Boris Johnson[/quote]
The truth is something else. The Russian military has not been
stopped by western arm shipments, but the shipments do kill
thousands. Boris Johnson is notable by attending 16 parties
during the British Covid lockdown. Boris likes to pass suffering
on.
Boris, Macron, Biden, they all use Putin as an excuse to stick
it to their countries' wage slaves. An excuse to justify
austerity as the world runs out of stuff. A planned austerity
where rich people still have big boats and live long. The middle
class squeezed out of existence.
Austerity hurts poor people more than it does rich people. The
Sri Lanka presidential palace takeover found air-conditioned
comfort, and imported food normal people in Sri Lanka can't get.
Sri Lanka now struggles in a severe energy crisis. Food security
for millions in Sri Lanka is threatened. Sri Lanka collapses,
yet their president lived high on the hog.
Existing arrangements created the world as it is today.
Attempting to maintain existing arrangements dooms humanity. New
arrangements are needed. But people in charge benefit from
existing arrangements. This is a problem.
An alien from outer space might see the problem, but not many
people on Earth do. Days of ninety degree heat combined with gas
prices rolling back have people outside chasing summer life with
'live for today' intensity where I live. Everyone is going
nowhere as fast as they can. People are impatient, and
narcissism blossoms. Lies of leaders are accepted with passive
approval. Everybody wants their own cheese and nobody has time
to check things out.
Driving on oil made from crushed rock does not seem to bother
people. Summer heat and a global drought not seen for centuries,
means nothing. A crisis caused by NATO expansion is called an
invasion and across the globe people suffer from it. None more
than the people of Donbass, and the rest of Ukraine.
You'll be cold in the winter because rich people want more.
Don't be confused about this.
HTML https://chasingthesquirrel.com/
#Post#: 4065--------------------------------------------------
Re: America's Great Unwinding
By: RE Date: August 27, 2022, 10:34 am
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Well said.
Indeed, it is the unwinding of the entire Industrial Economy.
Once more the critical question is just how long this can go
before the Great Rioting follows the Great Unwinding?
RE
#Post#: 4136--------------------------------------------------
Hold on here... ; Doomers might be wrong.
By: UnhingedBecauseLucid Date: September 11, 2022, 2:45 pm
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"The end of growth" ?
Not so fast.
Once again, Bloomberg; vanguard of impartial quality content
providers, show us the way forward, and dedicate an entire show
to it :
HTML https://youtu.be/145Cretviws
#Post#: 4159--------------------------------------------------
How 💵😈🎩 billionaires took over democracy
By: AGelbert Date: September 17, 2022, 3:07 pm
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[center]How [img
width=50]
HTML https://soberthinking.createaforum.com/gallery/soberthinking/1-010922192452.gif[/img]billionaires<br
/>[img
width=50]
HTML https://soberthinking.createaforum.com/gallery/soberthinking/1-040622210450-1415528.gif[/img]<br
/>took over democracy[/center]
[center]
HTML https://youtu.be/Pcf_3N-OsbA[/center]
Robert Reich 371K subscribers
The Citizens United disaster, in a nutshell:
In 2008, before the ruling, billionaires contributed $31 million
to federal campaigns.
In 2020, billionaires contributed $1.2 billion.
That’s almost a 40-fold increase.
It never had to be like this.
[font=comic sans ms]AGelbert NOTE:[/font] It's the Social
Darwinism, stupid! And, yeah, our government was already
thoroughly Fascist corrupted by 2008. [img
width=25]
HTML https://soberthinking.createaforum.com/gallery/soberthinking/1-110422141413-627726.png[/img]
March of 2008 Howard Zinn: “The election frenzy…seizes the
country every four years because we have all been brought up to
believe that voting is crucial in determining our destiny, that
the most important act a citizen can engage in is to go to the
polls and choose one of the two mediocrities who have already
been chosen for us [by the [img
width=50]
HTML https://soberthinking.createaforum.com/gallery/soberthinking/1-040622210450-1415528.gif[/img][img<br
/>width=50]
HTML https://soberthinking.createaforum.com/gallery/soberthinking/1-010922192452.gif[/img][img<br
/>width=30]
HTML https://soberthinking.createaforum.com/gallery/soberthinking/1-110422205132-6451602.gif[/img]ruling<br
/>class – P.S.]. It is a multiple-choice test so narrow, so
specious, that no self-respecting teacher would give it to
students.”
[center][img
width=360]
HTML https://soberthinking.createaforum.com/gallery/soberthinking/1-240422195041-948314.jpeg[/img][img<br
/>width=280]
HTML https://soberthinking.createaforum.com/gallery/soberthinking/1-240422195305-9941722.jpeg[/img][/center]
I live in the real world. I understand that human society,
government, business or even a single individual that embraces
unethical behavior as the CORE of their modus vivendi/operandi
(i.e. integral, indispensable, routinely required by their
ideology 👉 SEE: "Apex" predators in general and SOCIAL
DARWINISM in particular) will always behave in a socially
destructive manner.
HTML http://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/gallery/renewablerevolution/3-040718162655-14212306.gif
The reason these bought and paid fors out there don't see a
problem with that is that they honestly believe the Social
Darwinist HYPE that altruism is "for the weak" and wanton
predation, as long as it makes money, no matter how polluting
and/or murderously destructive, is the "OBLIGATION of a
SUCCESSFUL" person.
Regardless of the religious FRONT by those you see below, they
are ALL SOCIAL DARWINISTS to the CORE. Their god is Mammon. They
are the "Christo-Fascists" that are the exact opposite of what a
true Christian actually is.
[center][img
width=640]
HTML https://soberthinking.createaforum.com/gallery/soberthinking/1-190722193217.png[/img][/center]
However, the greedball scum you see above represent only a TINY
percentage of the Social Darwinists destroying our biosphere for
short term profit. Making the above cretins the whipping boys is
missing the mark. The above are covert camp followers of the
Social Darwinist cultural POISON afflicting EVERY ASPECT of
human interactions in the USA today. They are a symptom, not the
THREAT itself.
Social Darwinist Ideology is the greatest material threat
humanity has EVER faced. You CANNOT reason with a person that
actually believes that "it's all good" if we-the-apex-predators
end up causing the demise of 90% of our species (and an even
higher percentage of other mammalian vertebrate species to the
point of inevitable numerous extinctions). It's just, uh,
"NATURAL SELECTION", dontcha know? It's, uh, "SCIENCE". There
"is no good and there is no bad; there is just success or
failure". If the tardigrades replace us, it's "all good";
survival of the fittest evolution and all that. We Apex
Predators just DO what we DO. Ethics? Are you a "weak = unfit"
life form? We are not going to let no silly ethics keep us from
makin' 💰🎩 real money...
REALLY?? How far can these extinction causing true believers go
with their pseudo-scientific magical thinking?
These Social Darwinist true believers KNOW EXACTLY what they are
doing. Yes, they are wrong, but their ideology cannot be easily
countered because it is a RELIGION to them. You will get nowhere
with them using reason and scientific cause and effect logic,
simply because they have swallowed the "we can do WHATEVER WE
WANT" (SEE: "might equals Predators 'R' US Right") Social
Darwinist HYPE.
The INSTANT that a social Darwinist becomes convinced that
ETHICAL BEHAVIOR is NOT optional and must be the cornerstone of
human behavior towards other humans, other life forms and the
environment we all depend on, he is no longer a Social
Darwinist. THEN, and ONLY then, can you talk some sense into
them.
For we-the-humans to climb out of this Social Darwinist
constructed grave we are in, people of good will, whether they
be atheists or not, must clearly communicate with and convince
most everybody around them that all human behaviors MUST be
based on solid ethics, NOT sliding scale '"situational ethics"
UNETHICAL-dial-a-behavior-for-convenience'.
Until we expose the THREAT of Social Darwinism and stop it,
things will continue to get worse.
[center][img
width=640]
HTML https://soberthinking.createaforum.com/gallery/soberthinking/1-120422132944-700780.png[/img][/center]
[center][img
width=640]
HTML https://soberthinking.createaforum.com/gallery/soberthinking/1-190722193007.png[/img][/center]
#Post#: 4162--------------------------------------------------
Re: America's Great Unwinding
By: Phil Potts Date: September 18, 2022, 1:44 pm
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The real driver of depopulation:
HTML https://fiamengofile.substack.com/p/critics-tell-young-men-that-their
#Post#: 4163--------------------------------------------------
America's Great Unwinding
By: K-Dog Date: September 18, 2022, 2:02 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
[quote author=Phil Potts link=topic=121.msg4162#msg4162
date=1663526680]
The real driver of depopulation:
HTML https://fiamengofile.substack.com/p/critics-tell-young-men-that-their
[/quote]
[quote]It is well known that college-educated men who marry are,
on average, likely to work the longest hours, seek promotion
most aggressively, and become high earners focused on supporting
their wives and families (even post-divorce, as too often
happens). A woman who is fortunate enough to marry a man like
this stands to secure a materially better life, often at her
husband’s expense of health and leisure, than she would have had
if she had depended solely on her own earning power and work
ethic (women are famously more interested in “work-life balance”
than men are). Now with these men in the minority, women are
having to compete for the men’s attention, and we’re supposed to
feel sorry for them. [/quote]
Written with an ax to grind but a lot of truth too. If I was
younger I could de-educate myself and be a gold-digger like the
'casanovas' described.
[quote]women could date and marry non-university-educated men.
Why won’t they?[/quote]
Women do not trade down. If they are educated they want an
educated man. My understanding of online dating is that a small
minority of men get all female attention. This leaves 95% of
men dating their right hand.
the Machiavellianism of narcissistic women puts male callousness
to shame.
#Post#: 4165--------------------------------------------------
America's Great Unwinding - nobody onboard
By: K-Dog Date: September 18, 2022, 2:21 pm
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[center]
HTML https://socialism.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/43-5_railroad.jpg[/center]
[center]In 1986 freight trains had a crew of three. In 1999 that
went down to two. Now management wants to cut it down to a crew
of one. Shown: A lonely job on a long coal train in Wyoming.
PHOTO: David Brossard[/center]
If 115,000 angry freight rail workers defy government pressure
and go on strike, commerce in the United States will slow to a
crawl.
These essential workers are furious about their deplorable and
dangerous working conditions. Their anger and readiness to fight
showed when in July, members of one industry union, the
Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen, voted by over
99% to authorize a strike.
Strikers would have to confront both their greedy corporate
bosses, and the U.S. government. The last national railroad work
stoppage was 31 years ago. The U.S. Congress jumped in and
forced it to end within 24 hours. Today, workers will need
determined support from the rest of labor — and from the public
— to keep the same strike-breaking hammer from falling again.
Hell on the rails. Freight carriers have implemented, by edict,
an operating model they call Precision Scheduling Railroading
(PSR). The result? Unsafe trains and crew members with no life
to call their own.
Leading freight companies have used PSR to cut staffing by 29%
in the last six years and to reduce the workforce by 45,000.
Railroad profits soared and allowed investors to pocket $183
billion in stock buybacks and dividends since 2010. But,
resulting understaffing has made insane, unpredictable work
schedules and dangerous fatigue into enormous safety issues for
train operators.
Workers suffer from mandatory overtime. They are often forced to
work between 70 and 90 hours a week. They can be called to work
at any hour, any day of the week, year-round, with an hour and a
half to report in. Many have left the industry because they have
no control over their lives.
Safety has been seriously jeopardized. These trains used to run
with crews of at least three, and up to five people. They
already got rid of the worker on the caboose. The reason? They
eliminated the caboose, which was used for breaks, and for
lookout. Now, railroad companies typically run two-person crews,
an engineer and a brakeman who ride in the cab. Owners want to
go down to one-person crews, even when pulling two miles of
freight cars. Just how dangerous this is was shown in the 2013
Quebec, Canada, rail disaster, when a lone engineer did not
properly tie down a train carrying two million gallons of crude
oil. The result was a wreck that killed 47 people and destroyed
30 buildings in the town of Lac-Mégantic.
This lack of staff is an under-reported major safety issue
affecting the public and workers.
Solidarity builds. The railway workforce is divided into a dozen
different craft unions. But for the first time in decades, they
started out coordinating their bargaining with the employer
representatives.
The ranks have also been coming together. In 2017 members from
the different crafts formed a cross-union solidarity caucus
called Railway Workers United (RWU). Their slogan is
“Solidarity, Unity, and Democracy.”
In January of this year, RWU passed a resolution urging all the
unions to unite to mobilize their membership and prepare for a
strike.
These workers need to stick together. The Biden administration
is using provisions of the 1926 National Railway Act (NRA) to
stymie their right to strike. When mediation required by the NRA
ended in impasse in June, a mandatory 30-day “cooling off”
period was imposed. After that period, the NRA allows for a
Presidential Emergency Board (PEB) to be established to resolve
the dispute. Biden did appoint such a board, which issued its
recommendations in mid-August.
The employer groups were happy to accept the recommendations,
but griped that the wage gains were too high. The unions said
the recommendations were an improvement over the employers’
previous offers, even though it did not address most members’
concerns. They probably knew that the deal would not cut the
mustard with their membership — yet they have done nothing to
prepare for a work stoppage.
Indeed, many rank-and-file workers were outraged when they saw
the recommendations. The proposal failed to address their urgent
demands for fairer policies regarding scheduling, sick leave and
other time off, attendance, safe staffing minimums, and more.
The board left those “minor” issues to the unions and companies
to iron out through further bargaining, even though two years at
the table have resolved nothing.
If the workers turn down the deal offered by Biden’s board,
there could be a strike or employer-initiated lockout on Sept.
16. As of Sept. 12, four of the smaller unions are breaking
ranks and asking their members to approve a tentative agreement
based on the Presidential Emergency Board proposal.
Railway Workers United has urged those members to vote it down,
declaring, “Current conditions provide an excellent opportunity
for victory. Now is the best chance we have had in decades to
win something, not to give in. Vote NO!”
A history of militancy. Several times rail workers have stopped
the movement of goods nationwide — causing significant economic
disruption. In 1946 President Truman threatened to use the
military to roll the trains, forcing a settlement with the
unions. Police, federal troops and the national Guard were used
against strikes in 1922, 1894, and the Great Upheaval of 1877.
The Upheaval was the first national strike in the United States.
It started on July 14, with idled trains in Martinsburg, West
Virginia, and then spread like wildfire. By the end of the
month, a million workers in many industries across 14 states,
from New York City to San Francisco, struck in sympathy. In
Missouri an organized working class took over their city for 24
hours in what became known as the St. Louis Commune.
History shows that today’s rail workers, with enough support
from an increasingly rebellious working class, can stand their
ground and stop the trains. No matter what Congress has to say
about it.
Send comments and questions to the author at
FSnews@socialism.com.
[move]
Profit is king. Capitalism is putting ONE Man on a fucking two
mile a long train. RE ----- get out the chopper. We gots to
nationalize the railroads and take it out of private hands.
Profit to the people come ON !!!!!!!!!!![/move]
[center][img
width=200]
HTML https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fgifimage.net%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2018%2F11%2Fguillotine-animated-gif.gif&f=1&nofb=1[/img][/center]
#Post#: 4166--------------------------------------------------
America's Great Unwinding - Modern trans movement promotion is
the grotesque conclusion of political feminism.
By: K-Dog Date: September 18, 2022, 2:34 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
[quote author=Phil Potts link=topic=121.msg4162#msg4162
date=1663526680]
The real driver of depopulation:
HTML https://fiamengofile.substack.com/p/critics-tell-young-men-that-their
[/quote]
The author also makes vids.
HTML https://youtu.be/s-Rds_LhpQ8
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