The victory of Donald Trump does not represent a victory of conservative or reactionary political views, policies and programs. Indeed, Trump himself has no real views, policies or programs. For him, is all about The Donald and his brand.
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Götterdämmerung: – Noises Off
Being the first in a planned Twilight series of observations and ruminations on the state of the world and its denizens, past, present and future.
Return On Investment: As ye sow, so shall ye reap.
When I was a teenager, I drove a 1924 Star. It rattled, creaked, squeaked, clinked, clanked, banged, jangled, clattered and protested mightily when called upon to actually move, but it did get me to school and an occasional jaunt into the countryside. We had to scrounge up old tires and spare parts, even machining some pieces in shop class, since Durant Motors was long out of business. Keeping it on the road became increasingly difficult and complicated. I finally decided it wasn’t worth the time, money and cussing. It might have had some value to an antique auto collector, but it had a negative ROI as a useful means of transportation. As I look around, a great deal of what I see reminds me of that old car.
There are a lot of individual pieces that need to work together. And they aren’t.
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Que Sera, Sera
Greece is rebelling in the streets and the halls of government.
Spaniards are following suit in the streets – government’s not onboard but it may not matter.
The Euro is tottering and NATO is a lot shakier than it wants to admit (it’s in denial).
Sanctions are failing. Banksters fear jailing – or poverty or the guillotine.
Control is slipping here at home – it’s desperation that’s making the PTB escalate repression.
Down Or Out
The world in general and America in particular often seems like a house whose owners can no longer maintain it. It just gets more and more messy and run down as time passes. They know that eventually the roof will fall in but they neither fix it nor move out.
I’m sure my outlook is not that uncommon today. Indeed, the way things are going, optimism might well be grounds for a psychiatric examination. It was not always this way, and it may be instructive to examine why.
Ken Smith has been keeping Joe Bageant’s website live and recently posted this.
Go on, read it. I’ll wait.
The takeaway I see in that short article is twofold: the person-to-person connection (which just happens to be father/son) and the whole-different-lifestyle thing.
Choices – Wrong Forking Road
Having arrived at Agonist in December ’09, I missed the early years, so I’ve been reading s lot of the Random Posts that show up in the lower left sidebar. Given the incessant barrage of Newsertainment and Infomercials that inundate us daily, it’s remarkable we are able to turn it off long enough to view current events on any scale broader thatn a week or a month. We recall major things from years past which are particularly pertinent to issues at hand, but the day-to-day experiences of 1990 are usually as remote as those of 1970 (or 1950 or 1940, for some of us).
I find that going back to only as recently as the early Agonist is informative, if depressing. Just a casual browsing of our archives reminds me that howwever grim and screwed up things are today, it’s nothing new. We’re just a bit further down the road than we were ten years ago (and gaining momentum).
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House of Cards
On contemplating some recent posts and comments thereon, I’ve been thinking again about how deeply entangled our lives are in the Great American Lifestyle.
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We’re Doing It….
We’re doing it wrong?
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…into that good night.
“Do not go gentle into that good night,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.”
– Dylan Thomas
The poet was talking of old men, but the American Global Capitalist Empire seems determined to follow his advice. It will not to go gently, but like old men, it will go. We pretty much know what to expect when a person dies, but what can we expect when an empire dies?
Quem deus vult perdere, dementat prius – and the madness is well underway.
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Quo Vadis, Baby.
Chris Hedges has been doing interviews on TheRealNews.com. There are or will be seven in all. Some I could only find in video but I read what transcripts I could find.
They discuss where we’re at, how we got there and where (if anywhere) we go from here.
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The End of Progress
The ArchdruidReport examines the end of progress.
One thing I like about Greer’s posts is that he declares a pox on both houses, progressive and liberal. He respects history more than opinions, which is a helpful reminder for people on both sides of the aisle to be more objective.
The jury is still out on what we do about it, but if you want to know how we got where we are and why we seem to be stuck there, JMG should be required reading
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