Excellent! With one reservation, "the insane desire to dominate" is the very logic of empire", that's how it works...oderint dum metuant...let them hate as long as they fear...until Hybris takes over, and then from empire to the pyre...As for our current Caligulaean homonculus, a predecessor of Stormy Daniels, another "Grande Horizontale", perceptively quipped...Big ego, little pego...no amount of stroking will help...nihil novi sub sole, or rather, sub partes inferiores, these dark murky nether parts. Finally, Salvador Dali's anagram attributed to André Breton, the pope of surrealism was "Avida Dollars", how fitting for Trumpf, the grand son of a teutonic gambling/brothel owner and a draft dodger on top. Atavisme...it's in the genes!
Thanks for that, except I'd say Trump has no ego, no sense of self as a foundation to life, that's why he has to put his name on everything and surround himself with gold: "See my name up there? Dominates the skyline. That means I'm really somebody." Except he's not. He's the Monty Python president except he has his stumpy fingers hovering over that big red button that fires 6000 nuclear weapons
That's brilliant, I'd never heard that quote, it captures the solipsistic flavour of Dali perfectly.
Orwell could be a crotchety and puritanical bastard, but I keep stumbling across these evocative and lyrical sayings of his, usually the import of a paragraph condensed into one lapidary sentence.
I regard him as the finest writer in English language in 20th Century but a lot of his most memorable work was in his journalism, now largely overlooked.
Hi mate, thanks for this suitably sombre discourse. I read through it quite quickly, so I hope this question is relevant: I'd like to know what you think of the t-Rump's chances of getting re-elected in 2028, and if not, what we know of the chances of subsequent continuation of his tyrannical doctrine? Will the electoral fairness be assured in any reasonable degree in 2028, and do you think the US people have learned not to play with fire? Cheers :)
1. By the US Constitution, he cannot be elected again. However, his attitude to laws and rules is that if he can push through and get away with it, that's the new rule. The good news is that I doubt he will still be on the loose in 2028. Most likely, the dementia will have got him or Epstein. Or the economy, which is increasingly being held aloft by hot air.
2. If and when he goes, and I expect he will be out by end of this year, the whole place will collapse in chaos. People vote for him because he appeals to their prejudices; it is a personality cult centred around his capacity to pull in votes. None of the others have that. Instead, his cabinet and all the hangers-on, such as Miller, Bannon and all the rest of the pond life will turn on each other as they try to get power. At present, Vance is legally No. 1 in the queue but Rubio would demand to be VeeP and almost certainly would then try to defenestrate Vance so he could get the job. But he can't pull voters, nobody would walk across the road to hear him. He is also much smarter than the rest of them but they don't owe him anything so he wouldn't get any loyalty from the troops.
3. The world is now sick of chaos so they won't stand for much more. This would force changes, e.g. simply cutting the US out of the world economy. The USD is doomed as reserve currency, that alone would devastate their economy as their deficits are financed almost entirely by the world's need for USD. If they didn't need it, good night Uncle Sam.
4. The US electoral system is built to be unfair so I don't expect much change. With luck, there will be a major spillage of blood in mid terms in Nov 26
5. Playing with fire? No, they haven't learned. They have to accept that they're no longer No. 1, that there's a new Superpower on the world stage, and they wont like that. Global hegemony is now hardwired into the national psyche so, according to Skinner, they will need to have one more go before being pulverised again until they learn. Like Germany needed two world wars to understand they should stay within their borders.
All in all, not looking good for the next few years. Hold tight. JMcL
Thanks, Niall, your suggestion that the world could bankrupt the US sounds marvellous. Is there any talk of moving in that direction? If the world did that, would it not trigger acts of desperation from the US, like massive military strikes, perhaps even nuclear? I hate to think what they could do if they were in their death throes.
There are still some realists wandering around in DC, they would know that, if pushed to the brink, the US would be utterly dependent on foreign countries to save them going over the edge completely. The problem is convincing the Europeans that their future lies with the Eurasian landmass, i.e. Russia and China, and with Africa and Middle East, that this bloc would eclipse the US in a flash. They just don't seem to be able to take a rational look at their position, still living in the imperialist past. We lesser mortals can only sit and watch. Nice to know we're in the Southern hemisphere, now all we need to do is convince our pollies that South means South, not faux North.
Brilliant and comprehensive presentation
Excellent! With one reservation, "the insane desire to dominate" is the very logic of empire", that's how it works...oderint dum metuant...let them hate as long as they fear...until Hybris takes over, and then from empire to the pyre...As for our current Caligulaean homonculus, a predecessor of Stormy Daniels, another "Grande Horizontale", perceptively quipped...Big ego, little pego...no amount of stroking will help...nihil novi sub sole, or rather, sub partes inferiores, these dark murky nether parts. Finally, Salvador Dali's anagram attributed to André Breton, the pope of surrealism was "Avida Dollars", how fitting for Trumpf, the grand son of a teutonic gambling/brothel owner and a draft dodger on top. Atavisme...it's in the genes!
Thanks for that, except I'd say Trump has no ego, no sense of self as a foundation to life, that's why he has to put his name on everything and surround himself with gold: "See my name up there? Dominates the skyline. That means I'm really somebody." Except he's not. He's the Monty Python president except he has his stumpy fingers hovering over that big red button that fires 6000 nuclear weapons
“A striptease conducted in pink limelight.”
That's brilliant, I'd never heard that quote, it captures the solipsistic flavour of Dali perfectly.
Orwell could be a crotchety and puritanical bastard, but I keep stumbling across these evocative and lyrical sayings of his, usually the import of a paragraph condensed into one lapidary sentence.
I regard him as the finest writer in English language in 20th Century but a lot of his most memorable work was in his journalism, now largely overlooked.
Hi mate, thanks for this suitably sombre discourse. I read through it quite quickly, so I hope this question is relevant: I'd like to know what you think of the t-Rump's chances of getting re-elected in 2028, and if not, what we know of the chances of subsequent continuation of his tyrannical doctrine? Will the electoral fairness be assured in any reasonable degree in 2028, and do you think the US people have learned not to play with fire? Cheers :)
1. By the US Constitution, he cannot be elected again. However, his attitude to laws and rules is that if he can push through and get away with it, that's the new rule. The good news is that I doubt he will still be on the loose in 2028. Most likely, the dementia will have got him or Epstein. Or the economy, which is increasingly being held aloft by hot air.
2. If and when he goes, and I expect he will be out by end of this year, the whole place will collapse in chaos. People vote for him because he appeals to their prejudices; it is a personality cult centred around his capacity to pull in votes. None of the others have that. Instead, his cabinet and all the hangers-on, such as Miller, Bannon and all the rest of the pond life will turn on each other as they try to get power. At present, Vance is legally No. 1 in the queue but Rubio would demand to be VeeP and almost certainly would then try to defenestrate Vance so he could get the job. But he can't pull voters, nobody would walk across the road to hear him. He is also much smarter than the rest of them but they don't owe him anything so he wouldn't get any loyalty from the troops.
3. The world is now sick of chaos so they won't stand for much more. This would force changes, e.g. simply cutting the US out of the world economy. The USD is doomed as reserve currency, that alone would devastate their economy as their deficits are financed almost entirely by the world's need for USD. If they didn't need it, good night Uncle Sam.
4. The US electoral system is built to be unfair so I don't expect much change. With luck, there will be a major spillage of blood in mid terms in Nov 26
5. Playing with fire? No, they haven't learned. They have to accept that they're no longer No. 1, that there's a new Superpower on the world stage, and they wont like that. Global hegemony is now hardwired into the national psyche so, according to Skinner, they will need to have one more go before being pulverised again until they learn. Like Germany needed two world wars to understand they should stay within their borders.
All in all, not looking good for the next few years. Hold tight. JMcL
Thanks, Niall, your suggestion that the world could bankrupt the US sounds marvellous. Is there any talk of moving in that direction? If the world did that, would it not trigger acts of desperation from the US, like massive military strikes, perhaps even nuclear? I hate to think what they could do if they were in their death throes.
There are still some realists wandering around in DC, they would know that, if pushed to the brink, the US would be utterly dependent on foreign countries to save them going over the edge completely. The problem is convincing the Europeans that their future lies with the Eurasian landmass, i.e. Russia and China, and with Africa and Middle East, that this bloc would eclipse the US in a flash. They just don't seem to be able to take a rational look at their position, still living in the imperialist past. We lesser mortals can only sit and watch. Nice to know we're in the Southern hemisphere, now all we need to do is convince our pollies that South means South, not faux North.