Is it OK for me to say that talk of "American Exceptionalism" and "belief" therein makes me ill? It does.
I don't mean to be quoting Don Surber all day here, but he just reviewed the numbers that we've all been tossing around for the better part of two months. It's a handy and useful reminder of what went down.
Does anyone really think this happened without a bipartisan consensus--within the ruling class? I just can't see how this could have happened without a broad consensus within the ruling class that their subjects needed to be slapped down good and hard. Needed to be shown who runs this country.
Excerpted from a much longer blog--Rupert surrenders to the left:. This is the reality of America as a nation:That Democrats stuffed the ballot box is without question. Since giving women the right to vote, voter participation has averaged 55%, topping 60% only in 1964 when 61% of registered voters voted.
Murdoch and the people he bows to would have you believe that suddenly 67% of registered voters voted -- in a year when the media has promote a pandemic panic that has people fearing to go to the mailbox.
We went from 56% participation in 2016 to 67% in 4 years?
Without campaigning, Biden received 16 million more votes than Hillary?
That would be a 25% increase for a man who never finished higher than 4th in the Iowa caucus in his 32 years of running for president.
President Trump's addition of 12 million votes is more typical for a Republican president's second term. Well, a Republican president not named Bush, that is.
55% of the registered voters would be about 135 million voters. Subtract President Trump's 74 million votes and you have a more likely 61 million votes for Biden, a drop off of 4 million from Hillary.
That means Democrats shoved 20 million votes into the ballot box via mail fraud.
Few people in Washington want President Trump re-elected, not even the 3 ingrates he appointed to the Supreme Court. I plan to delve into this tomorrow.
A related way of looking at this is, that in '08 SparkleFarts got 69+ mil. votes, and since then,. the pop. increased by c. 10%.
ReplyDeleteSo, had Biden *actually* been as motivating a candidate as was SparkleFarts in '08, Biden could've expected 69m, + (the pop. increase of ) 10% of that (c. 7m), = c. 76m.
But, we're told, he actually got 81m!
So, at bare bare minimum, they added 5m to his total.
Yeah, their subjects needed to be slapped down, eventually destined to be cannon fodder in the PLA, or some such.
ReplyDeleteI tend not to believe that there is "broad" cooperation/collusion beyond things like turning a blind eye in many corridors. I just do not believe something of such scale could be done without far more paper trail. We can't keep ANYTHING a secret anymore.
ReplyDeleteThat said, I also do not think that the ruling class or their sycophant ideologues in the peasant class need specific instructions on what to do. They are manifestly amoral and their actions, across a variety of diverse fronts that we can now see (every fraud method in the book was employed), were justfied by the end result, in their minds.
You're right. But it really doesn't take much.
DeleteRemember: places like Philly, Detroit, and Atlanta already have reputations for substantial fraud. So their political machines are already fully operational, from leadership down to minion, with corresponding levels of need-to-know.
All it took was a very small handful of people at the national level - an Elias and his inner circle - to harness those machines, simply request the media refrain from calling Trump wins until absolutely necessary, and arrange a signal (Arizona).
It doesn't require a great deal of complexity; it doesn't even require a mastermind. Just pre-existing machines with their willing cogs receiving form and direction.
All military personnel, and I would guess all elected officials, take an oath upon assuming office, enlisting, reenlisting, or with a promotion. Within that oath is the obligation to protect the nation from all enemies, both foreign and domestic. It seems that we have a domestic enemy in those that conducted this gigantic fraud of an election, with those that are currently abetting this fraud also falling into the category of domestic enemies, e.g. the courts and agencies that are willfully ignoring this corruption of the nation's one remaining vestiges of liberty. Additionally, there is likely a foreign component involved in this attempt to deny the American people their choice of who will lead this nation.
ReplyDeleteIt would certainly be the commander-in-chief's obligation to challenge these domestic enemies and render them up for a verdict. If what has occurred is allowed to stand, then we are lost; without a future based on liberty, free will, and one man one vote.
DJL
Oaths are like the constitution: as strong as our will and as weak as the paper they're written on.
Delete"Within that oath is the obligation to protect the nation from all enemies, both foreign and domestic."
DeleteYes, but if you've been brainwashed and propagandized for 4 years that Trump is Hitler, then you would feel righteous in doing whatever you could, even lying and cheating, to get rid of him.
I blame the media most of all, and behind the media sit the Clintons.
House of Cards in real life.
Frank
I'm a Baby Boomer (68). I LOATHE my generation for what it has done to this country. Once we insinuated our way into power at all levels of government, industry, academia, and media the country began it circling of the drain. Our unearned self-esteem, unbounded libertinism, and atrophied morality were bad enough, but we also failed to teach our children how to be adults—indeed how to be self-aware human beings.
ReplyDeleteThis country has exceptional foundational tenets—tenets that we now largely ignore. Thanks primarily to the Boomers, the majority of PEOPLE in this country ARE NO LONGER EXCEPTIONAL. The spread of moral rot and corruption appears unstoppable. There are simply too many unsalvageable bipeds with outlandish, insane beliefs.
Is God on the side of this country? At this point would YOU be if you were HIM?
My wife and I say this to each other regularly: It was OUR generation that did this.
DeleteYeah, Mark, but some Boomers had *much* more power than others.
DeleteMany months ago, I posted here a link, to J. Kotkin, on the Clerisy vs. the Yeomanry, at
https://quillette.com/2020/02/27/the-two-middle-classes/ .
And, I've also posted on writings of J.M. Greer, esp.
https://archdruidmirror.blogspot.com/2017/06/the-hate-that-dare-not-speak-its-name.html (on class hate), and
https://www.ecosophia.net/after-the-shouting-the-silence/ ,
where he writes
"If you insist that *subjective* reality trumps all other considerations, you then have to decide **whose** subjective reality gets to do that...."
same here, sigh. Unfortunately, we lost many of the good guys in our generation in Nam and those that came back weren't the same...
DeleteMethinks on a smaller scale, what Vietnam did to us was similar to what the Great War did to the cream of the English crop so long ago...geez, such a waste in retrospect
It was the Lost Generation and the Greatest Generation who lost this nation. The six million boomers who fought in Viet Nam came home to watch our congress abandon those for whom we fought.
DeleteWe boomers were voting for out first President then and barely having an impact on desegregation. It was the earlier generations who surrendered our universities to the students, who surrendered our government schools the socialists as we boomers trusted our misplaced faith in the Greatest Generation.
mso
@mso, agreed.
DeleteFor all the well-publicized failings of the Boomers, their parents raised them.
These things don't happen in a vacuum.
The 60s and 70s hippies were a relatively small group of relatively privileged kids. Not everyone went to college, and the high schools were still very decent. Lots of old maid school teachers who taught classic texts and took no guff from smart alecs. Home life was better then, too. Most families practiced some religion. Intact families, lots of stay at home moms happy to be home. Kids played freely, with lots of independence.TV consisted of Ed Sullivan, Father Knows Best, lots of westerns. Then came Nam, the civil rights movement, the sexual Revolution, and the occupation of colleges and universities. BOOM!
DeleteStill, there is one difference, when protesters rioted during the Democratic Convention in Chicago, Mayor Daley shut them down right quick.
Compare this with today, and by every metric except civil rights, we have lost ground, and even on civil rights, the left is obsessed with its bogus critical race theory. In retrospect, it doesn’t take long for a great country to decline. Trump promised to reverse this American carnage and to some extent he did. That’s why he MUST prevail in the weeks to come.
There is, I believe, plenty of blame to go around, if anyone thinks that affixing blame is somehow salutary. Mostly it was pride. Pride in knowledge rather than trust of wisdom. Pride of place rather than humility before God and men. Pride in righteousness, in being unerringly on the right side of history. Each generation has made a fulsome contribution.
DeleteI have been rereading the thoughts of Admiral James B. Stockdale, a significant part of which involves what went wrong in Viet Nam, where the U.S. military had erred in values, and what was going wrong with America in the '70's & '80's. Funny thing, I was trying to improve my mood after reading so much Socialist history lately, latest of all Solzhenitsyn's "Gulag Archipelago". Hadn't read three pages before Stockdale was quoting Solzhenitsyn, I got a chuckle out of that. I had forgotten what kindred spirits they were. Stockdale was a student of Epictetus, the Stoic philosopher, and saw the clear reflection of Epictetus' discussion of the nature of Good and Evil, that neither exists outside of the individual, in Solzhenitsyn's revelation:
“Gradually it was disclosed to me that the line separating good and evil passes not through states, nor between classes, nor between political parties either -- but right through every human heart -- and through all human hearts."
And the exterior world:
"Live with a steady superiority over life -don't be afraid of misfortune, and do not yearn for happiness; it is, after all, all the same: the bitter doesn't last forever, and the sweet never fills the cup to overflowing. It is enough if you don't freeze in the cold and if thirst and hunger don't claw at your insides. If your back isn't broken, if your feet can walk, if both arms can bend, if both eyes can see, if both ears hear, then whom should you envy? And why? Our envy of others devours us most of all. Rub your eyes and purify your heart -and prize above all else in the world those who love you and who wish you well. Do not hurt them or scold them, and never part from any of them in anger; after all, you simply do not know: it may be your last act before your arrest, and that will be how you are imprinted on their memory.”
I feel confident that Adm Stockdale would say of our present situation, "Resist. Never compromise or negotiate with your extortionists (a name he frequently used for both interrogators and torturers), that way leads to certain moral decay.” He would say dwelling on shame, guilt, or recriminations demoralizes men to the point that surrender becomes inevitable, the extortionists goal.
We must deal with our demons and learn to survive without giving up our honor (Honor cannot be “taken” from any man; it can only be “given up”). We must build an organization that cannot be crushed, that means one built on keeping faith with our fellow prisoners and supporting them when they flag. We must resolve to take back that which was stolen, regardless of how long or how powerless we feel to accomplish the goal at any given time.
I’m enjoying my sojourn with Adm Stockdale and Epictetus. It has improved my outlook decidedly.
Tom S.
I was matriculating through UC Berkeley as the Vietnam war wound down (1969-1973). I was as intellectually radical as one would expect of a man-child who didn't want his low draft number to land him in a run through the jungle. My parents argued strenuously with their four college age children about the war, but never had a chance. Our young grad student TA's reinforced our cowardice masquerading as antiwar principles.
DeleteOh, we Boomers had PLENTY of agency. It was not that the Greatest Generation raised us wrong. We chose to abandon our parents' religion and sexual modesty. Sex, drugs, and rock and roll. If it feels good, do it. These were choices that we students consciously made even while we looked at Vietnam Vets as poor, deluded suckers. That Vietnam was a bad war seems beyond contesting at this point, although the denouement of the war is a stain on our country that will never be expiated. Maybe the Greatest Generation did err in getting us into that particular war, but clearly the threat of communism was real. We Boomers laughed up our sleeves at phantom ‘communist plots’ (ha-ha!) and just never believed what Whitaker Chambers knew to be the insidious nature of that ideology. Now—thanks to our generation’s purblind betrayal of our founding principles, we are poised to surrender our country without a fight to Communist China. Ha-ha, indeed.
Or... Or... It was Biden who won in 2008 and 2012 and Barry was dragging HIM down. Joe Biden, most popular politician in American history, who knew?!!!
ReplyDeleteHey, you gotta laugh if you don't wanna cry, am I right?
You are right. The whole narrative is insanely absurd. You'd have to be suffering from dementia to believe it.
Delete"You'd have to be suffering from dementia to believe it."
DeleteOr a Doctor. Not a Doctor Doctor, the other kind. ;-)
Tom S.
Never would have crossed my mind that the powerful, the elites, the politicians would create a microcosm of the world and the U.S. and use it to govern the rest. Until recently, I never thought it was possible for a bipartisan "ruling class". Boy was I wrong. Keeps me thinking of "The Matrix".
ReplyDeleteI can't believe how far I've come in despising our ruling elite. I begin to sound like my Marxist brother.
DeleteDifference is, he hates what this country was designed to be, whereas I cannot abide what it has become.
Caught me by surprise too. The fact that half the country wants to be slaves of the elites boggles my mind.
DeleteElites.....long walk, short pier. Coming soon to a city near you.
ReplyDeleteFor the non-coastal cities... lamp post and overpass decorations.
DeleteDJL
Fellow contributors in reading this thread I think most have hit stage four in the cycle of grieving.
ReplyDeleteWe need not go to stage 5 please.
I have no doubt whatsoever that this all ends in the worst possible way. We see it coming and all know it. However we should also not simply accept what is happening.
It's painful to look at the truths of our nation's current position but I can't blame any generation for this or fault any class. There are natural progressions to cycles in every society and this is just where we are. We got lazy, for much longer than any boomer has been alive.
As patriots we owe our country better than to fall into the disparaging cycle of apathy and amnesia. I am a decade or two younger than most of you but my daughter is only 6. I owe her a far better country than this and I will give it to her or die trying.
It's time to fight, my age being beyond service years is irrelevant to what we know needs to be done.
We have an issue as conservatives, our protest look like 4th of July picnics and our definition of disgruntle looks like constipation. We somehow think boycotting ourselves out of everything is some kind of punishment to our enemies. Fear is the issue... Stop being afraid and be righteously indignant, you have just cause.
The problems are in DC, the solutions are here, amongst us. We have to look outside of DC, to ourselves and to our states. Else we surrender to it because there is no way we'll out vote this mess.
lol nah
DeleteSome of us grieved decades ago when we say this happening and had eyes to see and ears to hear.
Some of us are at stage 6 Pissed and ready to die to keep the treasure we have.
In some ways the 2020 election was a blessing. The Extortionists have removed hope from the table for millions. Many will cease to be Stockdale's "optimists", forever looking forward to being delivered by the next election when, in fact, that game has been rigged at least since Wendell Wilkie ran.
DeleteFor me this is for my grandchildren, who are just coming into the world, and is existential. True Socialism, inarguable belief that human nature can, and must, be changed to suit the Socialist's ideal of good, invariably follows the same pattern: persuasion, followed by trickery and sleight of hand, followed by overt coercion, followed by crushing brutality, and ending with frustration and accepting that in the name of utility, which is the bedrock of the economic aspect of Socialism, the subject specimen must be erased and the experiment reapplied elsewhere. Einstein's classic definition of insanity. We are fully committed to the coercion phase. I either recognize the reality and act accordingly or my grandchildren's lives will be "poor, brutal, and short".
Tom s.
@ devilman
ReplyDeleteFear and anger, or righteous indignation are opposite emotions. fear causes us to retreat and accept. Anger mobilizes us to act. There is a time for every purpose under heaven. The time for righteous indignation is NOW!
Aletheia
Yes, Mark, we are all taking a very hard look in the mirror now.
ReplyDeleteBut let's be very clear about what we are seeing and what we are up against. Surber is right. Biden represents something like the head of a mafia crime family. But only one. To understand this we need to reference the CCP which is in essence a conglomerate of a few hundred crime families wielding state power for their own benefit. That is precisely what has transpired here for the last 20 years or so-- a rough assembly of various politicians, technogarchs, and apparatchiks into a CCP like crime syndicate.
This is why the GOP has largely opposed Trump and abandoned him now. The know that he represents the end of the Syndicate or Uniparty if you prefer. He must go.
We must all squarely face the reality that our institutions and laws are incapable of overcoming such widespread corruption and foreign interference. I will continue beating this drum (as long as Mark allows): WE ARE AT WAR. Nothing less than a wartime response will suffice.
If anyone doubts this, consider the certain result of any Trump victory now, whether that be a SCOTUS decision, a contingent election in the House, a recertification of electoral votes, a move by Pence on the 6th...whatever so called peaceful, Constitutional method you imagine. The certain consequence will be war, an isurrection and rebellion among various states and cities that may well involve foreign actors in supporting roles. The Demokrazis have been planning for this. They are expecting it.
I urge everyone to come to DC on January 6th. Trump is asking us. It may very well be our final opportunity to openly demonstrate our utter refusal to accept the coup attempt by the Uniparty. It is critical that the military -- and by that I mean primarily the enlisted and NCO class and junior officers-- see that they have the full support of the majority who clearly chose Trump when Trump calls on them to preserve (or restore) our Republic.
There is no, other way to free ourselves from the Uniparty and its criminal tentacles.
I know how this sounds, but I suggest having intellectual conversations around what HAS happened (incredulous disbelief) no longer serves us.
ReplyDeleteJust my opinion, but its time for conservatives to CREATE our own reality with action, and by ANY means necessary as has been done by The Left.
We as Conservatives no longer have Agency, or if we do, its on life support...and that leaves precious few options for us to remain free, even if the freedoms we have enjoyed so far are nothing but illusion.
It's time to take the fight to the establishment politicians for real, RINOS treated just as Pelosi and her deranged Left: given no quarter.
Period.
There is no one generation at fault. We all are at fault.
ReplyDeleteThe NewNeo has a post about self censorship. The SSRN paper it ultimately was based on shows that micro concerns (family and friends) appear to be the driving factor in this phenomenon and that it is more pronounced with the higher level of education you have.
Problem is, though, this phenomenon is now a lot prevalent than it was during the “Red Scare.”
Worse, we have private entities (corporations and companies) enforcing censorship that makes for macro reasons even more relevant than what the paper has suggested.
https://www.thenewneo.com/2020/12/29/when-lies-become-obligatory/#comment-2533085
https://poseidon01.ssrn.com/delivery.php?ID=561029122115113120021100088015077085025024069039034031127020093068082115095081076102017000125011012022037010124124077069117070111037074093092107106071072014120002107039087066024082069076010116004066068102109112082030088104007123074084111064008089102114&EXT=pdf&INDEX=TRUE
I have to disagree with you on "American Exceptionalism"; I believe that it is real and that I have witnessed it, and even participated in it in a small way. Like so much that is good in life, it is a simple thing, and I never really noticed it until I worked overseas. I didn't even have a name for it after recognizing the phenomenon, until I found it described in a book I read (I think it was "The First New Nation"...): "The automatic assumption of equality."
ReplyDeleteI saw it in northern Vietnam, where I worked for 10 weeks; the locals despised the French, and hated the Chinese (we were 30 miles from the Chinese border), but loved Americans. I wondered why until I paid close attention to how the multinational collection of engineers and technicians interacted with their Vietnamese servers in the communal cafeteria. Almost all the Europeans and others ignored the staff, outside of gestures and demands; the Americans, on the other hand, smiled and conversed as much as possible, and even developed relationships with individuals, learning their names and seeking them out during mealtimes.
I saw the same dynamic play out in Mexico, Nicaragua, Guatemala, the UAE, Peru, Brazil, and other countries where stark class differences existed but were ignored by Americans who insisted on interacting with individuals as individuals.
In a powerplant in Managua my engineer and I were offered special meals above and beyond those provided to the plant workers, but we refused them, preferring to partake of the same takeout the staff consumed, and to eat with them (it was good, too). I remember sitting on a bench in the parking lot of the plant admin building with a fellow instrument technician whose profile could have been lifted from the carvings on a Mayan temple. I had no Spanish, and he no English, but we showed each other pictures of our children, and understood each other well enough.
American exceptionalism is real, and formidable. That the American people have not yet roused themselves against this outrage of an election is explained quite simply; they are busy with their lives. If their collective attention is finally focused, the world may have cause to tremble.