We explore real-life reformation here in this informed, online community.
Historian Niall Ferguson likens the US situation circa 2024 to a “late, Soviet America.”
He notes that in 1990, observers were noticing a “ghastly and tragic... loss of morality” within the USSR. “Apathy and hypocrisy, cynicism, servility, and snitching,” were running wild. Nearly half the population thought that theirs was an “unjust society.” USSR leaders were old party hacks...
The Soviet economy was largely fake... almost all of it directly or indirectly controlled by the Communist Party. The government ran chronic deficits... supporting a bloated military that looked powerful, on paper, but couldn’t win a war.
“Sound familiar?” asks Ferguson:
"Look at the most recent Gallup surveys of American opinion and one finds a similar disillusionment. The share of the public that has confidence in the Supreme Court, the banks, public schools, the presidency, large technology companies, and organized labor is somewhere between 25 percent and 27 percent. For newspapers, the criminal justice system, television news, big business, and Congress, it’s below 20 percent. For Congress, it’s 8 percent. Average confidence in major institutions is roughly half what it was in 1979."
Bill Bonner
Today's assymetrical warfare: Iran's cheap munitions are taking out American's most expensive aircraft.
One internet observer:
"Iran, still using their pawns, while Israel and the US out there, with only their King n Queen left. Who will fall first?
"5 pawns and a king versus a king and queen in a chess end game, the side with the 8 pawns always wins. 5 pawns is enough. That’s standard.
"In a way, you could call it asymmetrical warfare."
Well, it's not "A quart of wheat for a denarius, and three quarts of barley for a denarius."
It's $400,000 Bentley automobiles. A lot of them. Of all the dealerships in Europe, the one in Kiev is in third place for sheer volume.
Take note of this tragic truth:
"Foreign aid is a mechanism by which poor people in rich countries are taxed to support the lifestyles of rich people in poor countries. The aid primarily serves three Ms—: munitions, monuments, and Mercedes for leaders and cronies."
--- Peter Thomas Bauer, a Hungarian-born British development economist:
Donald Trump this morning announced that “VERY GOOD AND PRODUCTIVE CONVERSATIONS REGARDING A COMPLETE AND TOTAL RESOLUTION OF OUR HOSTILITIES IN THE MIDDLE EAST” have taken place between the U.S. and Iran over the past two days.
As a result, the president has “INSTRUCTED THE DEPARTMENT OF WAR TO POSTPONE ANY AND ALL MILITARY STRIKES AGAINST IRANIAN POWER PLANTS AND ENERGY INFRASTRUCTURE FOR A FIVE DAY PERIOD.”
