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Societies become breakthrough powerful under fairly specific historical conditions.

Competition in a concentrated area.

This covers most breakthrough shifts. Let’s give some examples.

Europe

A large number of kingdoms and republics, in constant competition. If you didn’t advance militarily, culturally (administration and culture matter) and technologically, you were in trouble. As administration improved and military technology changed to favor “despotic kings” like Louis XIV and Henry the VIIth (a very underrated King), decentralized and smaller power, internal (nobles) and external were brought under control. Constant warfare and other forms of competition lead to rapid advancement.

JV Last at the Bulwark asks the right question: What will it say about America if Trump’s numbers don’t drop over the next week? We have had every chance to reject Donald Trump. We saw him mishandle a crisis, resulting in an economic collapse and hundreds of thousands of excess deaths. We saw him attempt a violent coup. When voters said, “I don’t love Trump, but that other candidate is super old . . .” Democrats went and swapped out Joe Biden for Kamala Harris. Harris has been a good candidate. She has run as a rock-solid moderate. She just curb-stomped Trump in front of tens of millions of voters. What else do people want? I’m serious about this: What else could Harris possibly do? Because it looks to me like she’s an above-average candidate, running in a good economic environment, playing near-perfect baseball against a guy who says he wants to be a dictator. And the response of the American people is: Harris +1.1. What happens if, a week after last night’s demonstration, this race is still a toss-up? What does that tell us about the long-term viability of American democracy?

Say whatever you want about Trump, and I will agree. Got that? Okay, good.

When I saw that Dick Cheney–the fastigium of the Deep State–endorse Kamala Harris I was speechless.

I had wondered for a long time if Liz Cheney was Dick’s cat’s-paw, but now I’m just gobsmacked. The Deep State is truly scared of a Trump 2.0 and they have clearly mobilized every asset they have to make sure our managed reality stays properly managed. At least, managed ccording to Deep State preferences. After last night Harris confirmed that Uncle Joe’s foreign policy will remain unchanged. I expect that she’ll be allowed to manage a few pet projects on the margins, but do not expect any adults to attend to her foreign policy.

I don’t necessarily dislike managed reality. I’ve seen direct reality and experienced a bit of it myself and it ain’t all its cracked up to be. I’d just like better managers.

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(I am re-posting this piece from 2016, in commemoration of 9/11) No Words (Originally posted at Den of Cinema on September 11, 2016) I don’t get out much. In 60 years, I’ve yet to travel anywhere more exotic than Canada. That’s me…born to be mild. Oddly enough, however, I  was “out of the country”  on September 11, 2001. OK, it was Canada. I was enjoying a 3-day getaway at Harrison Hot Springs, a beautiful Alpine setting in British Columbia. I was booked to check out of the hotel on Tuesday, September 11th. I woke up around 9am that morning, figuring I had enough time to grab breakfast and one more refreshing soak in one of the resort’s natural springs-fed outdoor pools before hitting the road for the 3-hour drive back to Seattle. I was feeling relaxed and rejuvenated. Then I switched on CNN. Holy fuck. Was this really happening? I actually did not understand what I was watching for several minutes. It was surreal. It was especially discombobulating to be out-of-country at the very moment the United States of America appeared to be under attack. My first impulse was just to get back to the U.S.A.

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“I’m reassuring myself that New York City is still here.”

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What’s he thinking about, I wonder? This maybe? The share price of Trump Media plunged more than 13% on Wednesday, a day after majority shareholder Donald Trump gave a widely panned presidential debate performance against Vice President Kamala Harris. The company’s stock price was at its lowest intraday level since the Truth Social app owner began publicly trading as DJT on the Nasdaq in late March. Investing in Trump Media stock is often seen as a way to bet on the political fortunes of Trump, the former president and current Republican nominee. Trump Media has said its business hinges at least partly on Trump’s popularity, and analysts say the company’s value will rise or fall based on his electoral prospects. He’s going to cash out in a few days with at least a billion dollars. It will destroy his investors but he doesn’t care about that. At this point he’s got to cramble to grift as much as he possibly can before the whole thing comes crashing down.

Australian Opposition leader, Donald Dutton, has demanded that Prime Minister Anthony Albanese immediately get his Government to conduct an audit of the Nation’s cats and dogs to be sure that none are being eaten by immigrants. ”If it’s happening in... Read More ›

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Even when we think we know them, we don’t.

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Like many of you, I watched the debate tonight. If you haven’t already, now is a great time to do your research on the issues at hand and the stances these candidates take on the topics that matter to you the most. As a voter, I make sure to watch and read everything I can about their proposed policies and plans for this country. Recently I was made aware that AI of ‘me’ falsely endorsing Donald Trump’s presidential run was posted to his site. It really conjured up my fears around AI, and the dangers of spreading misinformation. It brought me to the conclusion that I need to be very transparent about my actual plans for this election as a voter. The simplest way to combat misinformation is with the truth. I will be casting my vote for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz in the 2024 Presidential Election. I’m voting for @kamalaharris because she fights for the rights and causes I believe need a warrior to champion them. I think she is a steady-handed, gifted leader and I believe we can accomplish so much more in this country if we are led by calm and not chaos.

There were many but this was the coup de grace: At every moment in this short, intense campaign Kamala Harris has risen to the occasion. During the weeks of agony as President Biden and the party debated whether he could continue his campaign, she kept her head down giving him space to make his decision. But when he endorsed her moments after announcing his withdrawal from the race, she hit the ground running. Her rollout, including the choice of Tim Walz as her running mate, is widely accepted as one of the best in American political history. Her speech at the DNC was flawless. The debate last night was a home run. She. Is. Good. Very, very good. It’s clear that she not only has good instincts, she learns from her mistakes and moves forward with confidence. She is a mature, experienced politician with a warm and engaging personality. That’s rare. The Democrats are lucky to have her.