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How'd that age in 10 years? I'm not sure if it's gotten worse, or I've gotten more aware of it, but the level of corruption in the US government appears to me to have reached an extinction level event. They've sold off our proverbial seed corn to our strategic enemies, and are oblivious the suffering they've unleashed on the people they purport to represent from their mansions and yachts.
It's remarkable how even now, when people are starting to realize how truly fucked we are with Russia and China doing breath play with our economy, our elites are still mostly selling out to them. Last I heard all our tariff's on Russian oil have just allowed middle men to buy it at a higher price from Russia, enriching Russia, jack up the price even more enriching themselves, and selling it to Europe and America impoverishing us.
Apparently we've enormously depleted our stocks of many vital munitions sending them willy nilly to Ukraine, with zero accountable or tracking what so ever. Stocks that will take years to even begin un-mothballing the assembly lines for, because apparently we believed we never needed to make stinger missiles ever again?
It's hard for me to even count all the ways our government has fucked us, personally, tactically, strategically. It's like they are trying to end the nation, and our lives as we know it. And that they might be doing it to enrich themselves is literally the best case. The worst case is they are beholden to a cult of fucking Malthusians.
The world to me now is unrecognizable from before 9/11. Before 9/11, political correctness was more or less defeated. Now it dominates my life more than ever. Before 9/11 I actually had some sense of freedom and liberty, even in the most simple of acts of loitering almost wherever I pleased, and nobody had to know my business. Even before COVID, security theatre around shopping and entertainment, to say nothing of travel, was overbearing. The fever pitch of masks and vaccines being mandatory to do nearly anything has passed, but I don't trust it. I feel like after midterms, the D's will bust it right back out again because fuck you, that's why.
Pretty well I'd say. China still needs us more than we need them, Russia is in the process of commiting national suicide, and the US Government while corrupt, remains corrupt in relatively banal and predictable ways that aren't going to surprise anyone who was paying attention back in the 90s.
Meanwhile, the US president has recently decreed that he believes most Republican voters to be 'threats to democracy' and 'national security threats'. He is also apparently moving to have the obvious Republican candidate banned from running for next presidential elections.
This is not at all ominous, and no grief will come out of this.
Sure, you can posit some good outcome out of this if e.g. Trump gets banned but then de Santis wins and nothing happens, but between the tone of the debate and the absolutely bugfuck bonkers election procedures US has, I expect the elections to be deemed illegitimate by whomever loses and fun times to commence.
Does it ? They're getting their own electronics now, just a few years behind the bleeding edge. They are biggest trading partner for almost the entire world. Do they really need you that much ? For what.. credit ?
nope, you are conflating trump fans and republicans. Sure there is some overlap but biden was pretty clearly not making the claim that you are crediting to him.
That is "some" understatement there.
the overlap probably seems bigger when you are inside of it.
I am not inside of anything. Not even an American. I am just able to see that he is the front runner republican candidate by a large margin and the only competition is basically Trump-but-better-at-politics. That says something right?
You can't be a trump fan or pro-US-republican if you aren't american? I disagree with your observation that Desantis (i assume) is Trump-but-different. I also would argue that some quantity of trump voters aren't republicans in the traditional (pre 2016) sense of the word, and probably wouldn't vote if it wasn't for Trump.
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Which for anyone old enough to have clear memories of Clinton's first two years in office comes as no surprise. That's kind of my point.
So, you think it's all a big nothingburger, all the prosecutions, all the extra IRS agents, the new rules on credit card gun payment related data.
Nobody is going to tighten the screws and start kicking the dog till it bites, right, so he can shoot it then.
Basically what @JTarrou said below. Not that this is a "nothingburger" per se, more that this is not my first lap around around this particular course, and that I don't see the point in loosing my shit over something that hasn't happened yet.
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Do you remember Clinton's presidency? Waco, Ruby Ridge, the Federal Building bombing?
We have a ways to go before we get there again. Or take it back to the '70s and the Days of Rage.
That, I think, is the point. Not that things are so good now, but that they were much worse relatively recently. Biden is setting the stage for that sort of repression, but he hasn't actually done much yet. Maybe he'll sack up on the rhetoric and we'll get to fuck around and find out. Or maybe he won't. No sense catastrophizing before the fact. Just keep your head on straight and https://youtube.com/watch?v=O_3_-UrhZH0
Political polarisation is way, way higher than it was in either of these eras.
You're wrong
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Is it? People vent more online, but there was no online really in previous eras. I remember the '90s being pretty polarized, the 80s too. Clinton was impeached, so was Bush. You can still meet old leftists as pissed off about Reagan as modern lefties are about Trump. If political violence is our measure, the '80s and '90s were much worse. Reagan was shot, the feds murdered a bunch of people (Waco saw 76 dead) and some militia terrorists blew up a federal building in retribution (body count 168). And that's just the headlines.
Seems to me that people are pretty angry, but over less and less. The '80s had all the banana republic wars, Iran/Contra, AIDS, homelessness, the Cold War etc. The '90s had the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the Gulf War, Kosovo etc. The oughts had Iraq and Afghanistan. What are people freaking out about now? Neopronouns and hysterical conspiracy theories? The Overton Window has never been smaller, yet people are as pissed off as ever.
I'm open to being wrong here, but your assertion just doesn't ring true to me. If you have a measure of polarization in practical terms, I'd love to see it.
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I think your dislike of political enemies is spilling into your assessment of geopolitics. I can’t see the last few year’s events as anything but a win for US hegemony. Russia’s prestige is at its lowest point since the fall of the USSR, and China, wih its turn to dogmatic authoritarianism exemplified by its zero covid policy, and looming real estate crisis, is losing influence and slowing down. From their tepid response to western sanctions towards their ally, it doesn’t look like they think they have a great deal of leverage in an economic war against the west.
Being self-sufficient, high oil prices shouldn’t concern you, they’re probably good for you relatively speaking, they hurt china and makes europe more dependent on you. Only russia could benefit, but they’ve helpfully decided to waste it all on some lost cause.
You’ve depleted munitions, but unless you were planning on the mother of all land battles against china for control over eurasia in the next five years, I don’t see how that should affect you. Medium term, you’ve gained greater capacity and more committed allies.
Yes, I mentioned back on the previous place that the Ukraine invasion seemed to be benefiting the US most of all -- China is still chasing its tail over its own virus (and honestly calling China an ally of Russia is vastly overstating the case), European industry is crippled by loss of natural gas, and the US proper is relatively unaffected. The US would likely be absolutely better off if the invasion (and certainly COVID) had not happened, but relatively, the US is ahead.
I don't believe the shadowy rulers of the American hegemony planned this; they just ain't that bright. But it sure is curious it worked out that way.
Yeah, I've never been much convinced by that take that the Ukraine invasion is Good For China because, now that Russia is an international pariah, it's more dependent on China. Inasmuch as they had a good relationship before, it would seem like Russia losing ability to pull its own weight wouldn't be a good thing for the two of them.
As an analogy, if the UK made itself an international pariah, would that be Good For America because now the UK was more dependent on it? No, I expect the take would be this would mean a shameful weakening of the entire Anglo power block.
'Anglo power block' is laughable. The entire world has known and been laughing at Britain as America's lapdog since Tony Blair. It became that obvious. Brits have been relegated to America's sinister lackeys in the eyes of non-westerns.
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Perhaps I was overly sensitive, or my youth in Washington State was different, but from my view political correctness has has a pretty near linear rise from the 70s to 20s. I'm curious what convinced you it was dying around the turn of the century after it had recently claimed a senator's career and been the central focus of a president's impeachment?
I'd like to know as well. My impression is that it was rising steadily through the 90s, and while it lost a fair bit of steam in the immediate aftermath of 9/11 it didn't stay down for long.
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You're right, but it's also true that there were periods when PC appeared to be dormant even to people politically savvier than average. Generally speaking, I think the Culture War is waged in relatively short waves, and then remains dormant/hibernated for years. I also think this generally benefits the Left, because it provides an ideal environment for slowly but surely capturing institutions. The usual mistake of Conservative normies is that they become complacent and clueless, because they mistakenly think that their enemies are ludicrous loons. They were prone to think that they are winning, especially after 9/11, and that PC is just a laughingstock to be ignored.
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There are no tariffs on Russia oil. Europeans want to start with a price cap. The US restricted import of Russia oil, which was only a 2-3 % and not for domestic consumption (the US is a net exporter), but for refining (refining is a huge value added industry) and then reexport. You do realize that the US is the world's largest oil producer and the energy industry is making a killing right now? Europe is suffering, yes. Not from tariffs, as they don't exist, but because they just stopped accepting Russian oil and allowed Saudis and Indians to buy and reexport it to Europe. That's not the US government's doing and doesn't affect the US...
The US hadn't bought a stinger in 18 years. The components aren't produced anymore. Raytheon started preparing for production last year due to an international order.
Are there any publicly documented incidents in which US forces have fired a Stinger (introduced in 1981) in anger? In all of the conflicts I can think of, the boots on the ground have basically never encountered low-flying enemy aircraft or helicopters. In all the incidents I can think of -- the Gulf War, Afghanistan, Iraq 2003, even various smaller incidents -- the US Air Force and Navy have completely removed enemy air assets from the equation. Things may be starting to change with drones, but even then it's not clear that MANPADS are the weapon of choice there.
As far as I can tell, Stinger missiles have largely been donated to "friendly causes" (allied nations, and notably Afghanistan against the Soviets and Ukraine more recently). Not that our troops don't carry them, but running low at a time we were already looking to replace the platform is not an existential concern. Similarly for HIMARS: guided MLRS are cool and game-changing for Ukraine, but they aren't really the preferred way for American troops to call in precision bombardment like JDAMS or cruise missiles from high-flying bombers.
High flying bombers and strategic level anti-air missiles: a match made in heaven.
Note that there hasn't been much of an actual conflict involving those, what happens is pretty much unknown unless you are a very canny air defense / air force officer in respective militaries.
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