“. . . The real security crisis today, for the entire world, is the campaign in the West to vitiate the essential idea of nation-states with secure borders and sovereignty. This is both a domestic and an external security struggle for America. It’s part of the same crisis that is our current politics.”
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Yes…like the idea of centralized economic planning, the idea that we just need to have a Borderless World is superficially attractive. Problem is, when you interconnect entities tightly, bad things as well as good things can flow across the intersection. I discussed this in my post Coupling:
https://chicagoboyz.net/archives/58361.html
America and its system, and the systems of most of western society, are derived from old ideas of privilege, and are dedicated to creating wealth. As that will always stratify any society, it must create at least the illusion of the ability, for anyone to become wealthy. As that is getting harder and harder to do, as the successful occupy what high ground there is, and play the system to their advantage, the system becomes an Emperor With No Clothes. ;)
The Chinese with their twist on Marxism, are going in a new direction really. Using old ideas certainly, but mashing together what fits into the Chinese reality, with communism is a very useful thing to do. Especially if you actually do want an alternative to capitalism. The various statements the CCP have made do indicate Xi’s firm resolve to elevate the ordinary people to a high level. The quite draconian moves against the rich, and the largest companies in China, do indicate some resolve in this endeavour. ;)
}}} As that will always stratify any society, it must create at least the illusion of the ability, for anyone to become wealthy
Tell that to Lonny Johnson, you blathering twatwaffle.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lonnie_Johnson_(inventor)
Johnson was born in Mobile, Alabama.[4] His mother, who finished high school, worked as a nurse’s aid
In 1969, shortly after graduating from high school, Johnson attended Tuskegee University, obtaining a B.S. in mechanical engineering in 1973 and a master’s degree in nuclear engineering in 1975.
Poor kid from a far from well-to-do family.
How did he become rich? He invented two famous toys almost every kid has played with:
Johnson first conceived the Super Soaker while doing work with the U.S. Air Force. Initially called the “Power Drencher” when it first appeared in toy shops in 1990, it eventually got its trademark name after some tweaks and remarketing. Selling between $10 to $60 depending on the model, the Super Soaker took off, generating $200 million in sales in 1991. Shortly after making the deal for the Super Soaker with the Larami Corporation, Larami became a subsidiary of Hasbro Inc. in February 1995.
Johnson tweaked the design of the water gun, replacing the water in the Super Soaker with a “toy [Nerf] projectile.” In 1996, Johnson received A U.S. Patent 5553598 A for “Pneumatic launcher for a toy projectile and the like”, thus inventing the modern Nerf gun.
Yes, many of those who are “rich” come from wealth, but often, their parents were “well off” after they came up from nothing. Not every rich person is a Vanderbilt or a Rockefeller, born into generations of it. LOTS of people’s families earn their way up across multiple generations.
One thing about America is that it is very very much about income mobility. Most people move up at least two quintiles in their lifetime, if they are at all serious about being functional and have any ability at all. I am certainly two quintiles higher than my mother was. And while I am smart, I have zero connections to boost me up.
Of course, the liars you parrot never pay attention to that mobility, acting as though no one ever is any better off than they were born.
Some amazing findings on income mobility in the US including this: the image of a static 1 and 99 percent is false
https://www.aei.org/carpe-diem/some-amazing-findings-on-income-mobility-in-the-us-including-this-the-image-of-a-static-1-and-99-percent-is-false/
Income Mobility is Much More Important Than Rising Income Inequality or Stagnating Household Income, and We Have a Lot of It (Mobility)
https://mjperry.blogspot.com/2011/10/income-mobility-is-more-important-than.html
As the saying goes, the best way to make a small fortune is to start with a large fortune.
OBH’s comment triggered a thought.
I’m not sure if there’s correlation or causation but it is interesting that as non-white immigrants to the US being to move up the income ladder and gravitate to the aspirational party that there is a sudden interest in segmenting society politically by the immutable category of race rather than wealth or income.
Complete OT, you guys seem to be avoiding the Rittenhouse Story of the Week, but this is suggested reading for anyone interested in the background behind the case, rather than the specifics:
For those of you seeking to understand the issues of the Rittenhouse case, this is of substantial value — it is written by a man with many years of experience with both weapons of all sorts used by non-military (including police) as well as teaching creds for both concealed weapons and use of force (including to police). It is not a LEGAL opinion, but it is a general summary of the issues which generally apply to the general situation — use of lethal force, including the one which Rittenhouse found himself in:
https://monsterhunternation.com/2014/11/25/the-legalities-of-shooting-people/
I doubt we’re avoiding the story, I expect most of us see it about the same way. If the jury was made up of Chicagoboyz, the verdict would have been returned not guilty as soon as the paper work could be filled out with a recommendation that the prosecutor be indicted for abuse of office. If I’m wrong, now’s your chance.
The way I see it, Rittenhouse’s situation is another marker on the way to a hell of our own making. The fact that he had to act, given the abandonment of duty by the “authorities” of Kenosha, up to and including the Governor of that sad state? In and of itself, that’s a marker; the fact that he was assaulted by the mob, who felt safe in doing so, in the face of the fact that he was armed and acting in support of civil society? That’s another. The prosecution? Still more.
If Rittenhouse is acquitted, as I feel he should be, we may pull out of the steep decline we’re in. If he isn’t, then that’s a fork in the trail leading downwards into perdition. My belief is that they’re going after him, as they are the so-called “January 6th” participants in an attempt to cow and discourage anyone who might act for civil order and the rule of law–You’ll note that the actual rioters and arsonists from that night are not being prosecuted, and are indeed, cutting deals with the illegitimate authorities persecuting Rittenhouse.
Rittenhouse did better and acted with more restraint than most of the young men I had working for me in the Army would have, under similar circumstances. Had I been there, and had to deal with the crap that was going on around him, I’d have felt comfortable in authorizing and ordering the use of deadly force by all under my command, up to and including anyone in those crowds not submitting to authority. It was a riot; the rioters were violent, they were destroying public property and bordering on insurrection. Lethal force would have been appropriate across the board, and I’d have felt no qualms in putting that entire crowd pursuing Rittenhouse down. About all I’d have been concerned with, had I been there and tasked with maintaining public order? Collateral damage and the chance of hitting innocents, of whom there were vanishing few. The rest of them I’d have been very comfortable with shooting down like the dogs they were.
People fail to understand the dangers of tolerating riot and destruction. You don’t allow that crap to take root, as it has in Portland. The men and women who participate in that crap, roaming the country and subsidized by the literal forces of evil like all of George Soros’s little cats-paws? They are the harbingers of civil war and mass destruction the likes of which you can’t even comprehend. Civil society breaks down, and you’re looking at Somalia. That’s the risk; it’s worth a hundred thousand of those scumbags that Rittenhouse killed to avoid it. You might call me crazed for saying that, but once you’ve lived a week under the mob conditions they want to bring into being, you’ll change your tune.
When the system goes as far out of whack as it has with Rittenhouse, the “authorities” are actually a considerable part of the problem. He never should have been prosecuted for what he did; that entire mob that went after him should have been shot down by the police, period. Hell, the situation never should have gotten that far out of hand in the first place–When normal citizens have to act, and the authorities refuse to do their jobs? Whatever happens isn’t the fault of those normal citizens, as they are untrained and ill-equipped to deal with riot; Rittenhouse ought to be acquitted simply on the fact that the duly-elected and sworn “authorities” were not doing their jobs, the ones they swore to uphold.
Well, there ya go… I hit “Post Comment”, and the news pops up with the fact that Rittenhouse has been acquitted of all charges. Now he just has to worry about the corrupt Federal processes he’s no doubt going to be subject to, likely on charges of violating the civil rights of a pedophile to grope a minor…
We may manage to eke out a “muddle through” on all of this, but I kinda suspect it’s gonna be rough going for everyone.
Well, NOT Guilty, all counts. Can’t see why it took four days instead of four minutes, I suppose juries gota jury.