I studied in Massachusetts as a girl...and have to say. There have always been two Americas.
The first is the America of the people......where politics are not concerned they are hospitable, friendly and sometimes even informed.
But when it comes to American government, many pundits, Noam Chomsky among them, would likely argue that corporate capitalism has been in the saddle forever. Witness the difficulty they have even imagining single payer health care. Understand why the shooting of that Health insurance CEO generated so much sympathy........for the gunman.
And when it comes to foreign policy, anyone arguing that the support Regan or democrats before him gave the contras in Nicaragua, or the death squads in El Salvador was democratic.......let alone a humanitarian foreign policy......would have to be ignorant of the real reasons so many poor people attempt to cross into America from Latin America tofday.
Domestically America has been mostly a good place to live....though poverty is deeper than most Canadians realize. But as a global force on the planet, Americans haven't stood for self determination or social justice for at least 50 years.
I studied in the states during the Vietnam years. I know the price both countries paid for what Americans are pleased to call democracy. Imperial empires seldom practice that form of government. They do work hard to keep that truth from the electorate.
I haven't read this book, but your post reminds me of "Endless Holocausts: Mass Death in the History of the United States Empire" https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B09X2HMW8G
No. But it sounds interesting. Recently, I've been shocked by how many, without much specific knowledge, bash Russia, but either don't respond, or respond with insults, when I mention how many people around the planet have died horrible deaths because of the American Empire's interference in their affairs....NATO helps in that regard of course, but then we all should know who runs NATO.
It seems that you and Timothy Snyder have sounded the death knell for American democracy here on Substack today. That the President has defied the last branch of the executive that is tasked with holding him in check is chilling but it is no longer surprising as he’s proved without doubt that he has no respect for rules based order, for laws not of his own making, for the sovereignty or integrity of other nations or cultures. Feels more like the final crash of a slow train wreck - you see it coming and try to look away but when you the hear the crash you wince and come to the awful realization that the worst has happened. This is the worst that was predicted for America since his first term, and certainly since the Jan 6th attack on the White House. There were so many signs and so many paths were cleared thanks to social media algorithms that favour hate and made it possible for bad actors to exploit the ignorance of populations that favoured entertainment over information. So to quote your very timely title ….what now? For Canada? For the EU? What is the rest of the world going to do in response to this latest act that has mortally wounded if not ended the world’s largest liberal democracy? Sanctions? What can the rest of the free world do to hold this regime to account? And what happens when the US realizes they really do need our resources, our energy and our water?
You must be some kind of liberal. Ha, ha. Those are the people who think we actually live in a democracy. They usually idealize their delusion about the nature of electoral oligarchy.
You are now seeing America as it always has been. It is a bit like the old picture of Dorian Gray story. It is now dying, the beautiful facade has fallen away, it is self destructing.
We need to forget about the Americans for thirty years. Build a wall at the border. Eventually something new will emerge out of a period of chaos.
Meanwhile, Canadians need to worry about our own shit. We also have no idea what actual democracy entails, but we have our unique problems.
As for Americans being really nice people, yes, everywhere you go most people as individuals are nice people. It is when they get into large groups, without responsible adults in charge, that trouble starts. They start to get into mass delusions, because they become disconnected from reality. This is what makes people, in mass, often very bad.
This can get to be a huge, complicated topic. But basically, the Americans have to move away from Liberalism, especially their kind of Liberalism. It is the most destructive ideology. Individual rights are about privileges. Only collective rights are real rights.
When you move away from liberalism, in what direction do you go??? Because so far, its been to the bellicose right.......where dark money convinces non readers that Putin is going for world domination, and Israel is just defending itself.
Maybe all ideology is the culprit.......all closed rhetorical systems that believe they have the monopoly on how to run the world.
I'm even beginning to wonder if men are too violent prone to be allowed to run for office...but I'm sure there's more than enough right wingers of both genders ( I know, there are only 2) to tell me 'women are just like men but worse'.
Heard that fatalism more than once in our fair Petro Alberta.
So do tell: What is it you'd have us replace liberalism with???
What we need to move to is socialism. Unfortunately, that is heavily suppressed. Real socialists are not just persecuted. Anything left is infiltrated by phony socialists. Phony left. People talking "climate change" and "identity politics", things intended to put most people off.
So, when people are desperate for an alternative to liberal economics, there is no left there, so by default they go to the right wing, who pretend top deal with their concerns, but tie it to things even worse than liberalism. Complete destruction of social system.
Of course ideology is the problem. Over that is the pathocracy. They love to use ideological personalities to deactivate all positive social movements.
As for women, I have noticed that women ideologues can be even more bloodthirsty than the men. They do not have to actually go to ware. Interesting comment. Thanks.
We do need to talk about climate change........but I think the way to do it is with a government subsidizing people who switch off fossil gas....get an EV or panels......
We need to stop subsidizing big extinction boondoggles like carbon capture...the stats on that aren't even liberal........we need to start saying its not government's job to subsidize the wealthy........its government's job to tax those guys.
It's governments job to take care of the people and the society in which we all live. If an enterprise is needed and a good idea...private money should say so be investing. Anything that will only go if the public subsidizes it.....should only be invested in with public dollars, if the benefits come to the commons.
WE ACTUALLY HAVE CORPORATE SOCIALISM NOW....it's the little people who have to make it in the free market. A totally upside down.........inverted socialism, if you will.
Well I'm with you as to socialism....and I think the time to talk about it differently might just be now. For example, we hear fellow ND's tell us they're not socialists...and we haven't known just what to say.
Going forward I'm going to feign disbelief. Really??? You're against single payer health care??? You don't believe in universal free public education??? You want toll booths on all our major highways???
Fact is.....some of what differentiates Canada from that gulag to the south of us, is our universal programs. Even CERB is to the credit of the Liberals...and more of us should have pointed out that it was very like a step toward universal basic income....however brief.
And how much more did Canadians who couldn't work get than their free market American equivalents??? Enough to make our death rate per capita much lower than theirs.
We have many good socialist programs in Canada......time we started to acknowledge them, and maybe even show a little gratitude for the politicians who made that happen.
The other thing we need to talk up is a politics of CARE. Everyone should be able to expect support when they need it..............and the military have to hold a bake sale if they need new armaments. Or better yet.....all Canadians get training in peaceful resistence.
I think we'd be amazed how far willful stupidity and worker minimalism can go to defeat an occupying force. I'm reminded of the Danes...who I believe stood with their Jewish neighbours to a greater extent, and got many more of them to safety in Sweden.
And Canada sandwiched between the 2 corrupt and criminal bro's, Russia and US, has little recourse but to build up our military. Not just double or triple but literally 10x.
Well that should put finis to any plans we might have to improve education or health.....seems the whole world is going crazy just now. Men especially, imagine the weapons of mass destruction.....and overnight bombing campaigns like Israel conducts against civilians.......might be our future. It primarily serves to impoverish families and move the needle further to the bellicose right.
Those plans are just desires, smoke and fantasies now Inga.
Between the orange retard and the heating planet there is a less than even chance of surviving the status quo past half a dozen years. Even for the billionaires; tech and petro.
The whole world HAS [past tense] gone crazy. This is where we live now. Question is what are we going to do about tomorrow? Lament or adapt?
There's no way to adapt to the kinds of wars we're seeing in Ukraine, Gaza....and parts of Africa now. Everywhere men start killing each other....and bombing civilians.........adaptation becomes rhetorical.
What we actually need to do is work for a just transition...peaceful coopeeration and fair trade. The west demonizes those who's competition it fears, or who's resources it wants. Joining that gold rush is an end game, on steroids.
You're right, as usual Inga, there is no adaption to war; you fight or not; you live or die.
The adaption comes in the choices of how to live before the war-mongers come, the preparations you take, the governance you choose, the community you accept or are accepted by.
Yesterday, the US became a nation NOT of the law, NOT of rules. The orange retard will command his white christian nationalist mob to militarily enter Canada. Nothing else will matter then but the aforementioned preparations.
But I think there are a lot of nutjobs in the White House who do. Actively do! And a bunch more there who are too damn stupid to think through to the logical conclusion. And then there are (how many) all the octogenarians in Congress and Senate who lost their thinking ability, and their cojones, decades ago. Not to let off the nutjobs running the show in Albaturda. So, lots of folks who think War is a great way to go.
Problem is Nony, whether you want a war or not, if some dumbasses bring one, you get 2 choices. Die now or go to war.
Thanks for this. It is a sad day when the United States succumbs to the irrational idiocy of a demented fool. I will be curious to see how many Canadians support Trump going forward. I have no doubt the number will be more than expected.
Or by the judiciary. He ignored the court and deported Venezuelans. He has dementia and amoral pychopathy. Someone needs to take him out of his misery. Dum dum bullets work well on sick animals whose meat is too poisoned by disease to eat. They expand in the body.
But you can bet Venezuela (and her oil) are in his sights......he said in his first term that he'd 'TAKE THE VENEZUELAN OIL".....and since the pathetic attempt to get Juan Guido decleared the legitimate president of Venezuela, after an election deemed fair by several Canadian civil organizations who went down to monitor the darn thing...since that failed, inspite of all America and Canada could do.......
I'm afraid that calling a lot of men ICE rounded up Venezuelan, is a prelude to opening up another killing field for American expansion.
But sure: Let's join the frenzy and call for the death of an American wanna be billionaire who's just a symptom........of something more than a little rotten in American society. By all means, let's be a 'player' in this madness.
I find it difficult to fathom that democracy in the USA might have been dealt a fatal blow, but have to admit the situation is looking grim. I doubt this is what most Americans really want to happen to their country, yet seemingly they've allowed it. When they wake up and figure out what's happening, it might be too late to change directions, short of a violent uprising. If the military brass is paying attention to the administration's failure to uphold the Constitution, there could still be some sort of coup in the future I suppose, but unlikely IMO.
Your old friend suffered from an awful chronic disease called Electoral College Syndrome. After many years, he finally succumbed one day to the painful blow of Citizens United. Please bow your heads….
There are some things that have disturbed me about the USA over the last 20 years. I’m 66, so I’ve seen the transition over the years. Compared to today, they may be of little consequence, but I just have to get this out there:
1. The shouting of U.S.A. at any sports competition. Even in golf. Drive me nuts.
2. There was an Australian swimmer who just won an Olympic gold-metal and was asked by an American sports commentator how it felt to beat the American competitor. The Australian swimmer was completely confounded by the question. I just laughed.
3. Doug Ford on Fox News where the commentator was insulted because Ford said he didn’t want to become an American.
4. Trump telling Canadians that he knows what would be best for us. By the way, he wants Canada, not Canadians. Notice that he never says “Canadians would be valued members of the USA”.
5. And, finally, this could be the entire problem: Every 2nd or higher generation USA citizen seems to think that an American life is more important and valued than 10 other non—American citizen.
We have always loved visits to Washington. The art, the museums, the graceful layout of that capital, were inspiring, as well, of course, as the democratic processes it represented and enacted. I especially loved working in the Library of Congress. Now, I shudder every time I hear Washington and Trump in the same sentence. I will not be travelling to the USA until they re-discover civility, order, and the rule of law. I say that we don't say goodbye, but shun them until they recover the world's respect.
That might be harder than we imagine. It's comforting to imagine Trump is an aberration, but what if he's just American foreign policy made explicit??
Canadians have ignored American regime change, unlawful unilateral sanctions and covert agents fomenting proxy wars......wherever America felt threatened.....for decades now.
As a citizen of the Latin American states where America funded right wing militias how much they've enjoyed the wealth of Washington...or the blessed American civility, order and rule of law we saw in the states.
I suspect you'd get a different answer. I know our friends from Chile and El Salvador have some horror stories to share.
So true. What is happening in the United States: It's close to reminding me of what a modern despot acts like and is cloaked in the American flag - with it's institutions in the background which have been used in the past to constrain power-hungry leaders and parties.
He and his new friend, Putin are dividing up the globe. China has been tagging along in the background. If I could only draw a cartoon of it I would.
I studied in Massachusetts as a girl...and have to say. There have always been two Americas.
The first is the America of the people......where politics are not concerned they are hospitable, friendly and sometimes even informed.
But when it comes to American government, many pundits, Noam Chomsky among them, would likely argue that corporate capitalism has been in the saddle forever. Witness the difficulty they have even imagining single payer health care. Understand why the shooting of that Health insurance CEO generated so much sympathy........for the gunman.
And when it comes to foreign policy, anyone arguing that the support Regan or democrats before him gave the contras in Nicaragua, or the death squads in El Salvador was democratic.......let alone a humanitarian foreign policy......would have to be ignorant of the real reasons so many poor people attempt to cross into America from Latin America tofday.
Domestically America has been mostly a good place to live....though poverty is deeper than most Canadians realize. But as a global force on the planet, Americans haven't stood for self determination or social justice for at least 50 years.
I studied in the states during the Vietnam years. I know the price both countries paid for what Americans are pleased to call democracy. Imperial empires seldom practice that form of government. They do work hard to keep that truth from the electorate.
I haven't read this book, but your post reminds me of "Endless Holocausts: Mass Death in the History of the United States Empire" https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B09X2HMW8G
Have you heard of this book? Have you read it?
No. But it sounds interesting. Recently, I've been shocked by how many, without much specific knowledge, bash Russia, but either don't respond, or respond with insults, when I mention how many people around the planet have died horrible deaths because of the American Empire's interference in their affairs....NATO helps in that regard of course, but then we all should know who runs NATO.
We'll have a look at this reference.
It seems that you and Timothy Snyder have sounded the death knell for American democracy here on Substack today. That the President has defied the last branch of the executive that is tasked with holding him in check is chilling but it is no longer surprising as he’s proved without doubt that he has no respect for rules based order, for laws not of his own making, for the sovereignty or integrity of other nations or cultures. Feels more like the final crash of a slow train wreck - you see it coming and try to look away but when you the hear the crash you wince and come to the awful realization that the worst has happened. This is the worst that was predicted for America since his first term, and certainly since the Jan 6th attack on the White House. There were so many signs and so many paths were cleared thanks to social media algorithms that favour hate and made it possible for bad actors to exploit the ignorance of populations that favoured entertainment over information. So to quote your very timely title ….what now? For Canada? For the EU? What is the rest of the world going to do in response to this latest act that has mortally wounded if not ended the world’s largest liberal democracy? Sanctions? What can the rest of the free world do to hold this regime to account? And what happens when the US realizes they really do need our resources, our energy and our water?
You must be some kind of liberal. Ha, ha. Those are the people who think we actually live in a democracy. They usually idealize their delusion about the nature of electoral oligarchy.
You are now seeing America as it always has been. It is a bit like the old picture of Dorian Gray story. It is now dying, the beautiful facade has fallen away, it is self destructing.
We need to forget about the Americans for thirty years. Build a wall at the border. Eventually something new will emerge out of a period of chaos.
Meanwhile, Canadians need to worry about our own shit. We also have no idea what actual democracy entails, but we have our unique problems.
As for Americans being really nice people, yes, everywhere you go most people as individuals are nice people. It is when they get into large groups, without responsible adults in charge, that trouble starts. They start to get into mass delusions, because they become disconnected from reality. This is what makes people, in mass, often very bad.
This can get to be a huge, complicated topic. But basically, the Americans have to move away from Liberalism, especially their kind of Liberalism. It is the most destructive ideology. Individual rights are about privileges. Only collective rights are real rights.
Think about it awhile.
George Carlin… beware of stupid people in large groups!
When you move away from liberalism, in what direction do you go??? Because so far, its been to the bellicose right.......where dark money convinces non readers that Putin is going for world domination, and Israel is just defending itself.
Maybe all ideology is the culprit.......all closed rhetorical systems that believe they have the monopoly on how to run the world.
I'm even beginning to wonder if men are too violent prone to be allowed to run for office...but I'm sure there's more than enough right wingers of both genders ( I know, there are only 2) to tell me 'women are just like men but worse'.
Heard that fatalism more than once in our fair Petro Alberta.
So do tell: What is it you'd have us replace liberalism with???
What we need to move to is socialism. Unfortunately, that is heavily suppressed. Real socialists are not just persecuted. Anything left is infiltrated by phony socialists. Phony left. People talking "climate change" and "identity politics", things intended to put most people off.
So, when people are desperate for an alternative to liberal economics, there is no left there, so by default they go to the right wing, who pretend top deal with their concerns, but tie it to things even worse than liberalism. Complete destruction of social system.
Of course ideology is the problem. Over that is the pathocracy. They love to use ideological personalities to deactivate all positive social movements.
As for women, I have noticed that women ideologues can be even more bloodthirsty than the men. They do not have to actually go to ware. Interesting comment. Thanks.
We do need to talk about climate change........but I think the way to do it is with a government subsidizing people who switch off fossil gas....get an EV or panels......
We need to stop subsidizing big extinction boondoggles like carbon capture...the stats on that aren't even liberal........we need to start saying its not government's job to subsidize the wealthy........its government's job to tax those guys.
It's governments job to take care of the people and the society in which we all live. If an enterprise is needed and a good idea...private money should say so be investing. Anything that will only go if the public subsidizes it.....should only be invested in with public dollars, if the benefits come to the commons.
WE ACTUALLY HAVE CORPORATE SOCIALISM NOW....it's the little people who have to make it in the free market. A totally upside down.........inverted socialism, if you will.
Well I'm with you as to socialism....and I think the time to talk about it differently might just be now. For example, we hear fellow ND's tell us they're not socialists...and we haven't known just what to say.
Going forward I'm going to feign disbelief. Really??? You're against single payer health care??? You don't believe in universal free public education??? You want toll booths on all our major highways???
Fact is.....some of what differentiates Canada from that gulag to the south of us, is our universal programs. Even CERB is to the credit of the Liberals...and more of us should have pointed out that it was very like a step toward universal basic income....however brief.
And how much more did Canadians who couldn't work get than their free market American equivalents??? Enough to make our death rate per capita much lower than theirs.
We have many good socialist programs in Canada......time we started to acknowledge them, and maybe even show a little gratitude for the politicians who made that happen.
The other thing we need to talk up is a politics of CARE. Everyone should be able to expect support when they need it..............and the military have to hold a bake sale if they need new armaments. Or better yet.....all Canadians get training in peaceful resistence.
I think we'd be amazed how far willful stupidity and worker minimalism can go to defeat an occupying force. I'm reminded of the Danes...who I believe stood with their Jewish neighbours to a greater extent, and got many more of them to safety in Sweden.
Absolutely correct Lisa.
And Canada sandwiched between the 2 corrupt and criminal bro's, Russia and US, has little recourse but to build up our military. Not just double or triple but literally 10x.
Well that should put finis to any plans we might have to improve education or health.....seems the whole world is going crazy just now. Men especially, imagine the weapons of mass destruction.....and overnight bombing campaigns like Israel conducts against civilians.......might be our future. It primarily serves to impoverish families and move the needle further to the bellicose right.
Those plans are just desires, smoke and fantasies now Inga.
Between the orange retard and the heating planet there is a less than even chance of surviving the status quo past half a dozen years. Even for the billionaires; tech and petro.
The whole world HAS [past tense] gone crazy. This is where we live now. Question is what are we going to do about tomorrow? Lament or adapt?
There's no way to adapt to the kinds of wars we're seeing in Ukraine, Gaza....and parts of Africa now. Everywhere men start killing each other....and bombing civilians.........adaptation becomes rhetorical.
What we actually need to do is work for a just transition...peaceful coopeeration and fair trade. The west demonizes those who's competition it fears, or who's resources it wants. Joining that gold rush is an end game, on steroids.
You're right, as usual Inga, there is no adaption to war; you fight or not; you live or die.
The adaption comes in the choices of how to live before the war-mongers come, the preparations you take, the governance you choose, the community you accept or are accepted by.
Yesterday, the US became a nation NOT of the law, NOT of rules. The orange retard will command his white christian nationalist mob to militarily enter Canada. Nothing else will matter then but the aforementioned preparations.
PoliticalRanger: A next world war is not what we want.
Nope! No one I know want's one.
But I think there are a lot of nutjobs in the White House who do. Actively do! And a bunch more there who are too damn stupid to think through to the logical conclusion. And then there are (how many) all the octogenarians in Congress and Senate who lost their thinking ability, and their cojones, decades ago. Not to let off the nutjobs running the show in Albaturda. So, lots of folks who think War is a great way to go.
Problem is Nony, whether you want a war or not, if some dumbasses bring one, you get 2 choices. Die now or go to war.
Thanks for this. It is a sad day when the United States succumbs to the irrational idiocy of a demented fool. I will be curious to see how many Canadians support Trump going forward. I have no doubt the number will be more than expected.
Let’s hope you’re wrong about Canadians supporting Trump!
Or by the judiciary. He ignored the court and deported Venezuelans. He has dementia and amoral pychopathy. Someone needs to take him out of his misery. Dum dum bullets work well on sick animals whose meat is too poisoned by disease to eat. They expand in the body.
We don’t even know if they are Venezuelans. They could have been American or Canadian citizens for all we know.
But you can bet Venezuela (and her oil) are in his sights......he said in his first term that he'd 'TAKE THE VENEZUELAN OIL".....and since the pathetic attempt to get Juan Guido decleared the legitimate president of Venezuela, after an election deemed fair by several Canadian civil organizations who went down to monitor the darn thing...since that failed, inspite of all America and Canada could do.......
I'm afraid that calling a lot of men ICE rounded up Venezuelan, is a prelude to opening up another killing field for American expansion.
But sure: Let's join the frenzy and call for the death of an American wanna be billionaire who's just a symptom........of something more than a little rotten in American society. By all means, let's be a 'player' in this madness.
So true.
I wish you wouldn't call it "America."
I am truly puzzled: what should she call it other than by it's name?
I find it difficult to fathom that democracy in the USA might have been dealt a fatal blow, but have to admit the situation is looking grim. I doubt this is what most Americans really want to happen to their country, yet seemingly they've allowed it. When they wake up and figure out what's happening, it might be too late to change directions, short of a violent uprising. If the military brass is paying attention to the administration's failure to uphold the Constitution, there could still be some sort of coup in the future I suppose, but unlikely IMO.
So true.
Is trumpy communist?
Your old friend suffered from an awful chronic disease called Electoral College Syndrome. After many years, he finally succumbed one day to the painful blow of Citizens United. Please bow your heads….
There are some things that have disturbed me about the USA over the last 20 years. I’m 66, so I’ve seen the transition over the years. Compared to today, they may be of little consequence, but I just have to get this out there:
1. The shouting of U.S.A. at any sports competition. Even in golf. Drive me nuts.
2. There was an Australian swimmer who just won an Olympic gold-metal and was asked by an American sports commentator how it felt to beat the American competitor. The Australian swimmer was completely confounded by the question. I just laughed.
3. Doug Ford on Fox News where the commentator was insulted because Ford said he didn’t want to become an American.
4. Trump telling Canadians that he knows what would be best for us. By the way, he wants Canada, not Canadians. Notice that he never says “Canadians would be valued members of the USA”.
5. And, finally, this could be the entire problem: Every 2nd or higher generation USA citizen seems to think that an American life is more important and valued than 10 other non—American citizen.
Am I crazy?
The US president has bit off more than he can chew. It will come to bite him back.
We have always loved visits to Washington. The art, the museums, the graceful layout of that capital, were inspiring, as well, of course, as the democratic processes it represented and enacted. I especially loved working in the Library of Congress. Now, I shudder every time I hear Washington and Trump in the same sentence. I will not be travelling to the USA until they re-discover civility, order, and the rule of law. I say that we don't say goodbye, but shun them until they recover the world's respect.
That might be harder than we imagine. It's comforting to imagine Trump is an aberration, but what if he's just American foreign policy made explicit??
Canadians have ignored American regime change, unlawful unilateral sanctions and covert agents fomenting proxy wars......wherever America felt threatened.....for decades now.
As a citizen of the Latin American states where America funded right wing militias how much they've enjoyed the wealth of Washington...or the blessed American civility, order and rule of law we saw in the states.
I suspect you'd get a different answer. I know our friends from Chile and El Salvador have some horror stories to share.
So true. What is happening in the United States: It's close to reminding me of what a modern despot acts like and is cloaked in the American flag - with it's institutions in the background which have been used in the past to constrain power-hungry leaders and parties.
He and his new friend, Putin are dividing up the globe. China has been tagging along in the background. If I could only draw a cartoon of it I would.
Trump will fiddle with their voting and election rules so as Republicans are a sure bet