Trump is incapable of second order thinking. He cannot reason; he can only dictate. He believes the last thing he hears but knows next to nothing himself. The latest polls reported by Robert Reich this morning show most MAGA supporters think Tramp is doing a good job.
Ever since the Lewis Powell memo in the 70s, conservatives have been repeating the same tired refrain, that government is bad and needs to be dismantled. After 50 years of trying, they now control all three branches of the US government and are moving rapidly to burn it down.They won't stop until they see some "hot hot blazes come down to smoke and ash" as Joni MItchell once said.
Janis Joplin told us "Freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose," and when Tramp and his thugs are done, there will be nothing left of America. As the US dismantles its universities, China will continue to invest in technology education. The results should be intuitively obvious to the most casual observer.
To paraphrase a familiar quote: "The lamps are going out all across America. We shall not see them again in our lifetime."
4)"To paraphrase a familiar quote: "The lamps are going out all across America."
The better analogy is that of a large pendulum (or the Overton Window - take your pick). The Left shoved it hard in their direction. The voters noticed and decided to move it to the Right.
At some point it may go the other way again but the average always seems to be in the Center. Any stupidity by either side of the aisle gets corrected at a future election time.
3) "After 50 years of trying, they now control all three branches of the US government and are moving rapidly to burn it down."
What we are actually seeing is the attempt to put the Federal Government back into the strictures of the Powers actually enumerated in the US Constitution. At the same time, the Powers that the Feds are now wielding are going to be pushed back to the States (10th Amendment) like with Education and other "functionalities".
No, this is not a "burn it down" - more, if it goes to completion, a re-alignment of Powers to the previous norms. Remember, the Fed was created by the States - it wasn't until the early 1900s when that relationship was turned upside down (I blame, in part, the 16th, 17th, and the 23rd Amendments)
The "burn it down" comment is nothing more than histrionics by liberals against anyone who isn't part of their groupthink. They believe there should be only ONE party, ONE way of thinking, and woe to anyone who would so much as challenge such an ideological mentality.
You know, same as the CCP and communists everywhere. Comply, or else.
2) "The latest polls reported by Robert Reich this morning show most MAGA supporters think Tramp is doing a good job."
As well as other polls. He made campaign promises. He is doing what he promised. The voters are seeing that and are responding to it - a feature, not a bug.
No such thing - the "US" is not dismantling any such thing. What's happening is 1) the population of possible college kids is getting smaller, and 2) that cohort is not enrolling in colleges. To the latter point (college enrollment in millions):
1960 - 1.68
1970 - 8.58
2010 - 21.02
2022 - 15.4 (COVID??)
2024 - 18.58
K-12 enrollment in many US counties are also growing smaller (my town is down 42% in 10 years).
Thus, individual colleges are going out of business because they can't offer a sufficient value proposition to an ever decreasing universe of registrants.
College is overrated. Ask most young people about the perceived value of attending college, and how it is or isn't the key to economic progression and the American Dream. It was inevitable that there were too many colleges offering too many useless degrees for too many jobs that add no value to the economy, nation, or world at large. Their closure is just part of market forces that liberals think shouldn't apply to them because they're pwecious widdle liberals fighting against orange man bad.
>>"Ever since the Lewis Powell memo in the 70s, conservatives have been repeating the same tired refrain, that government is bad and needs to be dismantled."
No, it's BAD government that needs to be dismantled. Our Founding Fathers described their new nation as "THESE United States ARE" until Lincoln, post Civil War, referred to it as "THE United States IS". In other words, the principles of a small, limited federal government that our nation was founded on with primary responsibility for administering governance held by the states themselves has been usurped by a feckless, corrupt, irresponsible bureaucracy whose sole goal is to concentrate more power and money for itself.
Defend, if you don't mind, the necessity of an ever-increasing federal government requiring more and more regulations to comply with more and more laws, many of which those who pass them being exempt from compliance, or why hundreds of billions of dollars were spent on appropriations that expired more than a decade ago, some as far back as 1980. Bureaucracy increases complexity and unaccountability, and with it, so too does our tax burden. The conservative position is to be more efficient with the dollars the IRS brings in, to reduce the depth of bureaucracy, so that administration of our laws can be carried out in a timely fashion and at the least cost. It's a far cry from the liberal position of an all-powerful federalism that controls every aspect of our daily lives where waste, fraud, and corruption are just "part of doing business" and how every problem can be somehow solved by throwing more money at it.
I don't know about you, but I'm fucking tired of being lied to, and used by, corrupt and evil men. That applies to BOTH sides of the political aisle, but damn, those on the left are having fits of hysteria right now with Musk and DOGE exposing the ugly underbelly of how deep the corruption is in our federal government, and that should tell you a ton about their priorities, values, and ethics.
Well, one could start with regulations from all the industrial map. Taxes are playing a part as well. Environmentalism (see also regulations). Policies at all levels of Government.
Well, certainly destroying our dams that were generating electricity (e.g., Northwest region) hasn't helped.
We can thank the environmentalists for that for being able to play checkers as to what happens next. Can't "electrify everything" at a cheap cost without hydro-dams.
Great piece. More than I could have ever previously known about aluminum. Thanks Lloyd.
thank you Mark! Good to hear from you and I hope you are well.
Trump is incapable of second order thinking. He cannot reason; he can only dictate. He believes the last thing he hears but knows next to nothing himself. The latest polls reported by Robert Reich this morning show most MAGA supporters think Tramp is doing a good job.
Ever since the Lewis Powell memo in the 70s, conservatives have been repeating the same tired refrain, that government is bad and needs to be dismantled. After 50 years of trying, they now control all three branches of the US government and are moving rapidly to burn it down.They won't stop until they see some "hot hot blazes come down to smoke and ash" as Joni MItchell once said.
Janis Joplin told us "Freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose," and when Tramp and his thugs are done, there will be nothing left of America. As the US dismantles its universities, China will continue to invest in technology education. The results should be intuitively obvious to the most casual observer.
To paraphrase a familiar quote: "The lamps are going out all across America. We shall not see them again in our lifetime."
4)"To paraphrase a familiar quote: "The lamps are going out all across America."
The better analogy is that of a large pendulum (or the Overton Window - take your pick). The Left shoved it hard in their direction. The voters noticed and decided to move it to the Right.
At some point it may go the other way again but the average always seems to be in the Center. Any stupidity by either side of the aisle gets corrected at a future election time.
3) "After 50 years of trying, they now control all three branches of the US government and are moving rapidly to burn it down."
What we are actually seeing is the attempt to put the Federal Government back into the strictures of the Powers actually enumerated in the US Constitution. At the same time, the Powers that the Feds are now wielding are going to be pushed back to the States (10th Amendment) like with Education and other "functionalities".
No, this is not a "burn it down" - more, if it goes to completion, a re-alignment of Powers to the previous norms. Remember, the Fed was created by the States - it wasn't until the early 1900s when that relationship was turned upside down (I blame, in part, the 16th, 17th, and the 23rd Amendments)
The "burn it down" comment is nothing more than histrionics by liberals against anyone who isn't part of their groupthink. They believe there should be only ONE party, ONE way of thinking, and woe to anyone who would so much as challenge such an ideological mentality.
You know, same as the CCP and communists everywhere. Comply, or else.
2) "The latest polls reported by Robert Reich this morning show most MAGA supporters think Tramp is doing a good job."
As well as other polls. He made campaign promises. He is doing what he promised. The voters are seeing that and are responding to it - a feature, not a bug.
1) "As the US dismantles its universities"
No such thing - the "US" is not dismantling any such thing. What's happening is 1) the population of possible college kids is getting smaller, and 2) that cohort is not enrolling in colleges. To the latter point (college enrollment in millions):
1960 - 1.68
1970 - 8.58
2010 - 21.02
2022 - 15.4 (COVID??)
2024 - 18.58
K-12 enrollment in many US counties are also growing smaller (my town is down 42% in 10 years).
Thus, individual colleges are going out of business because they can't offer a sufficient value proposition to an ever decreasing universe of registrants.
College is overrated. Ask most young people about the perceived value of attending college, and how it is or isn't the key to economic progression and the American Dream. It was inevitable that there were too many colleges offering too many useless degrees for too many jobs that add no value to the economy, nation, or world at large. Their closure is just part of market forces that liberals think shouldn't apply to them because they're pwecious widdle liberals fighting against orange man bad.
>>"Ever since the Lewis Powell memo in the 70s, conservatives have been repeating the same tired refrain, that government is bad and needs to be dismantled."
No, it's BAD government that needs to be dismantled. Our Founding Fathers described their new nation as "THESE United States ARE" until Lincoln, post Civil War, referred to it as "THE United States IS". In other words, the principles of a small, limited federal government that our nation was founded on with primary responsibility for administering governance held by the states themselves has been usurped by a feckless, corrupt, irresponsible bureaucracy whose sole goal is to concentrate more power and money for itself.
Defend, if you don't mind, the necessity of an ever-increasing federal government requiring more and more regulations to comply with more and more laws, many of which those who pass them being exempt from compliance, or why hundreds of billions of dollars were spent on appropriations that expired more than a decade ago, some as far back as 1980. Bureaucracy increases complexity and unaccountability, and with it, so too does our tax burden. The conservative position is to be more efficient with the dollars the IRS brings in, to reduce the depth of bureaucracy, so that administration of our laws can be carried out in a timely fashion and at the least cost. It's a far cry from the liberal position of an all-powerful federalism that controls every aspect of our daily lives where waste, fraud, and corruption are just "part of doing business" and how every problem can be somehow solved by throwing more money at it.
I don't know about you, but I'm fucking tired of being lied to, and used by, corrupt and evil men. That applies to BOTH sides of the political aisle, but damn, those on the left are having fits of hysteria right now with Musk and DOGE exposing the ugly underbelly of how deep the corruption is in our federal government, and that should tell you a ton about their priorities, values, and ethics.
Might you think that perhaps this is just another follow-up action on one of his important issues? That more will be coming on this?
As Steve used the phrase "second order thinking", I'll add "third order". Again, more than what meets the first mentions.
Fascinating! Thank you.
Wonder why we can't make it cheaper.
Well, one could start with regulations from all the industrial map. Taxes are playing a part as well. Environmentalism (see also regulations). Policies at all levels of Government.
That give you a start?
I was thinking more of the environmental reg's, no new dams or dismantling of dams.
Well, certainly destroying our dams that were generating electricity (e.g., Northwest region) hasn't helped.
We can thank the environmentalists for that for being able to play checkers as to what happens next. Can't "electrify everything" at a cheap cost without hydro-dams.