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#Post#: 15420--------------------------------------------------
Vexit?
By: Surly1 Date: January 30, 2020, 5:53 am
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The rest of the country has likely not heard of this. But state
conservatards who have had things their own way for the last 30
years, knuckling the cities for revenues while building four
lane roads through the middle of nowhere because they could, are
restive about the future of life in a now-blue state. As you
read some of the quotes, the spluttering hysteria is palpable.
I say, let them go. Let them get a taste of self-sufficiency and
public service, West Virginia-style. I lived in WV for five
years; the state is broke, and things have only done downhill in
the last 40 years. Those four lane roads will be the last they
see.
[img
width=750]
HTML https://i.ytimg.com/vi/9u_L0aWMby0/hqdefault.jpg[/img]
When you drive across Virginia, you generally travel Rt. 522. It
is four lanes in Virginia, and immediately narrows to two lanes
when it hits the WV state line. Get used to it, Vexiteers!
What the Hell Is Vexit?
HTML http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2020/01/get-to-know-vexit-a-really-bad-idea.html
[img
width=750]
HTML https://pixel.nymag.com/imgs/daily/intelligencer/2020/01/29/29-jim-justice.w700.h467.2x.jpg[/img]
West Virginia governor Jim Johnson. Photo: Chris
Jackson/AP/Shutterstock
Sarah Jones Jan. 29, 2020
In a partnership that befits our deeply stupid time, Governor
Jim Justice of West Virginia has teamed up with Jerry Falwell
Jr., Liberty University president and Florida hotelier, to
advance a new project. Both men have come out in support of
Vexit, an effort to expand the state of West Virginia by
convincing some parts of Virginia to secede. According to
Justice, Virginians unhappy with their Democratic state
government ought to join their counties to West Virginia, where
the GOP still holds sway. “If you are out there, no matter where
you may be, Virginia or wherever you may be, as an individual or
as a business or whatever, West Virginia is waiting for you with
open arms,” he said. A charming proposal!
Falwell, meanwhile, mostly seems concerned about his
university’s bottom line. In his remarks, he singled out a
legislative proposal that would, in his words, end public aid to
“thousands of online students attending private colleges, while
increasing aid for more affluent resident students.” As Religion
News Service noted in a piece on the press conference, online
students make up a massive portion of Liberty’s overall student
body, and a reduction to their numbers would have significant
financial consequences for the university, and for Falwell
himself.
Obviously, there is a lot going on here, and it is all bad. As a
product of southwestern Virginia, I do not regard our brothers
and sisters across the border with any sort of hostility. West
Virginia is a beautiful state with a proud history of militant
labor action — a lot to celebrate! But Vexit itself is best
understood as the symptom of a broader reactionary backlash to
Virginia’s new status as a blue state. I’ll explain:
Why Is This Happening Now?
Republicans in the West Virginia legislature have introduced two
separate resolutions encouraging Virginians to secede. As
reported by the Richmond Times-Dispatch, one resolution
resurrects a 158-year-old invitation to Frederick County in
northwestern Virginia. Another, which awaits further action by
the House of Delegates, encourages Virginians at large to vote
to make their counties West Virginian territory.
Vexit draws on real history. Before the Civil War, the two
states were actually one. After Virginia seceded, West Virginia
split off in order to remain in the Union. But now West Virginia
Republicans are capitalizing on pockets of regional hostility to
the Virginia’s Democratic-controlled state government. In rural,
predominantly white areas of Virginia, President Trump remains
extremely popular, and recent proposals to tighten state gun
laws have provoked outrage. In an interview with Glenn Beck
recounted by the West Virginia MetroNews, Gary Howell, a West
Virginia delegate who backs Vexit, described these areas as
natural extensions of his state. “If you look at a lot of the
people in the Shenandoah and the Blue Ridge and even the south
side of Virginia, they’re very similar culturally,
demographically, and a lot of the geography is the same,” Howell
said. Put more directly, Vexit is a plea for Herrenvolk
democracy, a territory where one ethnic group and one ethnic
group alone holds power unchallenged.
Do West Virginians Want This?
Obviously some of them do, but most Vexit supporters seem to
serve in the state legislature or occupy the governor’s mansion.
West Virginia is not home to a mass movement calling for the
expansion of its borders. The last time West Virginians
organized en masse, it was to demand fair pay and better
benefits for public school teachers. The priorities of the
voting public thus appear to be at odds with those of Governor
Justice.
Do Virginians Want This?
At least two: Falwell, and right-wing activist Rick Boyer,
described by the Times-Dispatch as an attorney and former
elected official. But support hasn’t spread to the state
Republican party. Emmett Hanger, a Republican state senator,
asked the Richmond paper if Vexit supporters were performing “a
comedy routine.”
The idea could be popular with some voters. The sense of
alienation some Virginians feel in relation to state government
is not new, and there is some validity to the sentiment.
Communities in western Virginia — like the one I grew up in —
are often markedly poorer than those in northern Virginia. The
decline of the coal industry left the state’s westernmost
counties, which border West Virginia and Kentucky, in
particularly dire shape. But that doesn’t mean the people who
live there are ready for Vexit. Though there is no polling on
the matter, the lack of any mass movement again indicates that
most people prefer to remain part of Virginia. A few may want
separation of some kind, but they tend to have more creative
suggestions. As one gentleman commented on the Facebook page of
my hometown news station, “I’d make the cut off line right up to
the outskirts of Roanoke County and push the rest of the state
boundaries into parts of DC and parts of Maryland and there you
go, a 51st state to govern as Demo-comunistic [sic] as you
please! Leave Virginia and the original laws and amendments
alone!”
Vexit may yet catch on in some extremist circles, especially
online. We’ve seen something similar with Calexit, a proposal to
make California its own independent country, and with the New
California movement, which the Guardian recently described as “a
far-fetched initiative to have rural conservative counties
declare independence from the rest of the state.” Neither effort
can boast much popular support. Virginia’s urban-rural divide is
significant, and Democrats should be worried about bridging it.
But there’s no reason right now to think that rural Virginians
are ready for a clean break.
Is Vexit a Good Idea?
Absolutely not. I could get down with, say, the People’s
Republic of Greater Appalachia. But that project requires some
consultation with our friends in Kentucky, Tennessee,
Pennsylvania, North Carolina, and Georgia. And it shouldn’t be a
white homeland, which is what goblins like Gary Howell seemingly
want. A thumbs down for Vexit. Goblins out!
#Post#: 15422--------------------------------------------------
Vexit is a Tea Party (desperation) Gambit
By: AGelbert Date: January 30, 2020, 10:58 am
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It sounds like an act of desperation by the [emoji83] Fascist
Republican Reactionaries now that Virginiia has sane government.
8)
#Post#: 15542--------------------------------------------------
The American Dream
By: Surly1 Date: February 11, 2020, 7:40 am
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Not sure Yves Smith is "naive."
Developing Countries Showing America Up
HTML https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2020/02/developing-countries-showing-america-up.html
Posted on February 11, 2020 by Yves Smith
A cynical school of thought holds that one reason America makes
borders so unpleasant is to deter US citizens from traveling so
as to preserve our sense of exceptionalism in the face of
countervailing evidence. For instance, one colleague, a former
city planner, came back from a vacation in the south of France
and raved about how terrific the roads were. The Gilet Janues
would assure him that in rural areas, they were neglected, but
my contact’s point was that even in affluent parts of the US,
you couldn’t find ones on a par with the ones he drove on his
holiday. And I suspect that even the roads that are impediments
to safe, fast driving in the depopulating parts of France are
still better than those in Michigan.
But America is slipping even further. It used to be that it
would come up short in infrastructure and social well being
indicators compared to most European countries. We now have
readers who are looking at what they see in the better parts of
the developing world and are finding America coming up short.
Costa Rica has admittedly long been depicted as the Switzerland
of Central America. It has become more and more popular with
expats for at least the last 15 years. I visited there briefly
on a client project in 1997. While the downtown section of San
José looked worn, even there, the people on the street were
neatly if modestly dressed. And when you went out to the
suburbs, the country looked comfortable to prosperous, and it
seemed as if citizens made an effort to keep their neighborhoods
well kept, even in non-tourist sections. Oh, and the food was
terrific, particularly the fish.
A more recent sighting from Eureka Springs:
[quote]Just returned from deep southern rural Costa Rica to
rural N.W. Arkansas. Peace and quiet almost everywhere I go now.
Unless it’s my own noise (music) which could not bother another.
The entire trip was quite the reminder of just how third world
we the peeps are nowadays.
Internet was so much better there. No satellite dishes, except
as modifications to them for use as roadside trash receptacles.
Still no rural wired net in the U.S.. Cell signals were strong
everywhere, yet I never saw people glued to a phone.
Public trans, brand new buses all up and down the countryside.
Even many miles down dirt roads. Fantastic bus stops. No such
thing as public transit in rural U.S.
A lot of people drive efficient 150cc motorcycles. The large bus
stops seem intentionally oversized by design to co-serve as a
place to pull under during rain. How civilized.
Grocery stores with real food everywhere. No chain stores best I
can tell. Unless in larger cities. And a shockingly smaller
amount of trash packaging. I would say for the same amount of
weekly grocery consumption I generate at least three if not five
times more trash in the U.S. Seemingly every few hundred people,
never more than a mile, usually much less, have a store with
produce and meats. I’m seven miles from a dollar store, two more
miles to actual groceries. About the same population density in
both places.
And then there is health care for all vs give me all you got, we
don’t give a fk.
Don’t know but would wager their water tests much better across
the board as well. Nobody consumes plastic water bottles. Even
very remote beaches had little shards of plastic all along the
water line though. No escaping it.
Schools did not look like prison at all. Kids were kids, with
cookie stands, a work ethic, bicycles, laughter, no apparent
phones, lots of soccer, some dirt on their fingers and toes. And
laughter.
Poor to middle working class people did not look miserable,
unhealthy, guarded and or afraid.
The chickens, dogs and cats were abundant though not overly so,
well fed, healthy, roaming free.
Police were calm, not dressed to kill with body language fitting
the peace officer description. CR has no military.
We have a choice and we are making so many bad ones. I feel like
so many of my fellow US citizens don’t get this fact. And it’s a
shortcoming of Sanders types by failing to paint this
vision/picture. Even they are trapped in the downward spiral,
knowing no other way from experience.[/quote]
And Expat2uruguay seems to have adapted well to her big
relocation. Ironically her big lament seems to be the cuisine
isn’t terribly inspired and fish is hard to come by, but other
advantages of living there seem to more than make up for it.
From a recent report:
[quote]Since relocating to Uruguay I was diagnosed with Stage 2B
breast cancer. There was no bill whatsoever for the surgery. The
entire cost of my entire treatment, including my monthly
membership fee of $60 a month, was under $2,700.
That total includes 16 months of the monthly fee and all of my
treatments, including six months of chemotherapy, 6 weeks of
daily radiation, co-pays for medications and tests, $7 co-pays
for doctor visits, and additional testing and consultation for
heart damage caused by the chemotherapy. I also had a couple of
problems during the chemotherapy that required visits to the
emergency room, a four day hospital stay because of ultra-low
defenses, and consultation in my home a couple times. They did a
really good job, and they’re very good at cancer treatment here.
But the very best thing about Uruguay is the peacefulness, the
tranquility, the laid-back approach to life. My stress levels
are way down from when I lived in the US.[/quote]
Several factors are likely at work. One is, as we’ve pointed out
from the very outset of this site, that unequal societies are
unhappy and unhealthy societies. Even those at the top pay a
longevity cost due to having shallower social networks, having a
nagging awareness that most if not all of their supposed friends
would dump them if they took a serious income hit (can’t mix
with the same crowd if you can’t fly private class, can’t
support the right charities, can’t throw posh parties) and
having to think about or even building panic rooms.
Another is the precarity even at high but below top 1% levels:
job insecurity, the difficulty of getting kids into good
colleges and then paying for it when they do, along with
attempting to save enough for retirement. Even with steering
clear of costly divorces and medical emergencies, the supposed
basics of a middle or upper middle income lifestyle add up in
light of escalating medical, education, and housing costs. And
then some feel they are entitled to or need to give their kids
perks in line with their self image of their status, like fancy
vacations.
And we don’t need to elaborate on how hard it is for people who
are struggling to get by. But it’s not hard to see that the
status and sometimes money anxiety at the top too readily
translates into abuses of those further down the food chain to
buck up their faltering sense of power and self worth.
Anglo-style capitalism is often mean-spirited and that tendency
seems particularly strong now.
Specifically, which developing countries that readers know well
give the US a lifestyle run for the money? And I don’t mean for
for US expats bearing strong dollars but for ordinary people.
And where do they fall short?
#Post#: 15543--------------------------------------------------
Happiness and The American Dream
By: Surly1 Date: February 11, 2020, 7:44 am
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[html]<p style="text-align: right;">
href="
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bal/"><img alt="gc2sm" height="auto"
src="
HTML http://www.doomsteaddiner.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/gc2sm.gif"<br
/>style="float: left;" width="105" /></a>From the keyboard of
<em>Surly1</em>
href="
HTML https://twitter.com/Doomstead666"
target="_blank"
title="Diner Tweets">@doomstead666</a></strong>
us on<strong> <a href="
HTML https://www.facebook.com/DoomsteadDiner"<br
/>target="_blank" title="Diner
Facebook"><strong>Facebook</strong></a></strong> </p> <p
>
</p> <p>
center;">
class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img alt="" class="size-full
wp-image-41886 wp-caption aligncenter" height="600"
src="
HTML http://www.doomsteaddiner.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/freda4-e1581302915489.jpg"<br
/>width="460" /><p class="wp-caption-text">Illustration by Antho
ny
Freda</p></div> </p> <p style="text-align:
center;">
February 9, 2020 </p> <p style="text-align:
center;">
one laughed or smiled yesterday, but how one feels about the
course of one’s life." </strong> </p> <p
style="text-align: center;">
co-creator, World Happiness Survey</strong> </p> <hr
/> <p>
define porn but said he'd know itn when he saw it, most of us
don't have a specific definition of happiness; we know it when
we feel it, and often use the term to describe a range of
positive emotions, including joy, pride, contentment, and
gratitude. If someone asks you on a scale of one to ten how
happy you are in six different areas, would you be able to
accurately respond? That's what we're discussing this week.
We're not talking about global temperature measurements, or oil
exports, GNP, P&L, or anything that can be measured, mapped and
plotted on a spreadsheet; we're talking about how people report
satisfaction in their lives. </p> <p>
think a subject like "happiness" could be contentious. Happiness
might seem an elusive concept to quantify, but there is a
science to it backed by thousands of individual assessments and
statistical analysis. </p> <hr /> <p>
Tuesday, I published an article in the Doomstead Diner Daily: <a
href="
HTML https://www.businessinsider.com/sanna-marin-finland-nordic-model-does-american-dream-better-wapo-2020-2">Finland's<br
/>millennial prime minister said Nordic countries do a better jo
b
of embodying the American dream than the US.</a> In the article,
Sanna Marin, the 34-year-old prime minister of Finland, was
quoted as saying her country and other Nordic nations were
actually the best equipped to provide citizens with a chance to
achieve "the American dream." This as <a
href="
HTML https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2020/02/03/bernie-sanders-is-fan-nordic-model-finlands-leader-says-its-american-dream/">recently<br
/>told to The Washington Post</a> on the sidelines of the recent
World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. </p> <p
style="text-align: center;">
class="aligncenter size-full"
src="
HTML https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-apps/imrs.php?src=https://arc-anglerfish-washpost-prod-washpost.s3.amazonaws.com/public/LSOTZTB5YQI6VL7CBEHLG63AWE.jpg&w=1440"<br
/>style="width: 500px; height: 324px;" /> </p> <p
style="text-align: center;">
Marin </p> <blockquote> <p>
American Dream can be achieved best in the Nordic countries,
where every child no matter their background or the background
of their families can become anything, because we have a very
good education system,” she said. “We have a good health-care
and social welfare system that allows anybody to become
anything. This is probably one of the reasons why Finland gets
ranked the happiest country in the
world.”
justifiably proud, as this is the second year in a row Finland
has claimed the top spot in this UN survey, followed by Denmark,
Norway and Iceland. These assertions caused as minor uproar in
the Diner Forum. One respondent harrumphed,
</p> <blockquote> <p>
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