"Barring nuclear war, a government biowarfare agent let loose by accident on purpose, or an asteroid strike, people living in the territory of the US will cope with their insane government as best they can, and they will constrain it through quiet-quitting the state, calm disobedience of state authority, and rejuvenation of community. Actually, nuclear explosions, bio-warfare, and asteroids will be dealt with in much the same way. The problem is that our extremely vulnerable ruling class, and the state itself, are both wholly unprepared for emergencies, and have all the cohesion of a wet Kleenex.
"Realism requires we recognize that the ruling classes and the US government have no durable community and no internal integrity. The state is a pirate gang writ large. It is unified by criminal circumstance, functions by fear and tribute, and is surrounded by enemies who would see it stripped, drawn and quartered at first opportunity. It’s almost enough to make one pity the state, and mourn the ruling classes!
"Realism reminds us that desperate, declining states don’t fix themselves. They quickly become dangerous to innocent bystanders, enemies, and its own citizens – and these three categories become indistinguishable just as quickly. It’s happening right now in Ukraine, in Israel, and ready or not, in the United States."
Karen Kwiatkowski, Ph.D. is a retired USAF lieutenant colonel and farmer
“Fact check; not locking down at all (like Sweden) would have saved lives in UK. Hard to believe how much money the UK spent on its sham covid inquiry.”
--Jay Bhattacharya
The UK Covid-19 Inquiry cost millions. It finally released the core political chapters of its long-awaited report. After nearly three years of hearings, millions of documents, and tens of millions of pounds spent on legal fees, the conclusion is now unmistakably clear.
They’ve learned nothing, even while watching millions suffer from lockdowns and vaccination.
Worse, they may not want to learn. The Inquiry’s structure, its analytical frame, even its carefully curated narrative all point in the same direction: away from the possibility that Britain’s pandemic response was fundamentally misguided.
Bill Madden writes, "Refusing illegal orders in the military is difficult to do because they normally are generated high in the chain of command and very few officers in the chain really know what is or is not a legal order. Immediate superiors can be very demanding and the orders are usually given in high pressure environments. Refusing an illegal military order is tantamount to whistleblowing and, as much good as it does for the concept of truth, the whistleblower’s life is made miserable as a punishment for his honesty and a warning to others."
I watched this happen with Army Spec Michael New during the Clinton years. He disobeyed an illegal Clinton order, was arrested on base in Germany, was then given an unjust, unconstitutional trial, and then a Bad Conduct Discharge. But he stood his ground the whole time and has been proven right since.
Not the personal sub;
the private American car. Americans owe $1.66 trillion in auto debt. Delinquencies just hit levels not seen since the Great Financial Crisis. Nearly 30% of all trade-ins are underwater. Average amount owed: $7,000 more than their cars are worth.
Auto loans are now a bigger consumer debt category than student loans (8.9%) and significantly larger than credit cards (6.6%).
So is that shiny late model vehicle a blessing, or a curse?