Max

I’m inclined to agree. This seems like the first time (at least in my memory) where no one with significant influence in US gov’t fundamentally understands what has been US foreign policy since Monroe. All the idiot business guys who think the US sends money to forcibly underdeveloped countries out of the kindness of their hearts—folks simply intellectually unequipped to continue the post-Soviet international order—are the only ones at the reigns. On top of that, they got some weirdo Canadian-South African billionaire with no understanding of US consumer culture (and the US citizens’ complete aversion to any inconvenience) to come impose harsh anarcho-capitalist austerity measures at home. “There are decades when nothing happens; and there are weeks when decades happen” seems especially apt right now.

I certainly don’t see any value in volunteering my time or resources to the cause. As far as I can tell as a midwestern transplant to the Bay Area, the differences between CA identity and the rest of the US is wildly overstated by dum dum politicians trying to score cheap points with their constituents in the red Midwest and deep south.

The only reason I could see CA becoming some kind of US territory is that for whatever reason, the kind of people outside CA who would be the happiest to see CA no longer being as large an influence in US politics just refuse to acknowledge that CA is the primary US economic engine.

I don’t think there is an expectation of canceling water deals due to a calexit. Calexit folks aren’t planning on incurring further US hostilities since so much of the country already has a unique disdain for CA. They are anticipating a “fine good riddance enjoy your liberal hellhole you socialists” style reaction from enough of the country to avoid any intense sanctioning or violence with the rest of the US. No one with any pull is advocating taking up arms or anything wild like that. They liken the effort to being a constituent country as is Scotland in the UK. More independent than a US-style state less independent than a separate sovereign state like are the US and Canada. I haven’t any idea if they ought to be worried about water deals, I just think that’s the organization’s line so to speak.

Trump seems to like Starmer personally so none of what was said by the admin previously matters anymore. That said Trump having another about-face on Starmer could be mere moments away at any time so who knows what will really happen in the end.

Let’s not get too carried away. Israel isn’t ending the genocide, they are pausing the most explicitly violent killings to go back to more subtle forms of killing until they decide to launch more military ops on civilians again. With Miriam Adelson being in Trumps ear as well as largely responsible for his campaign funding I cannot imagine he does anything that isn’t explicitly intended to further Israeli goals. The new ambassador to Israel is a guy who thinks ‘the Jews’ need to control Israel for the Christian apocalypse to begin. I can’t see how that will be an improvement for the Palestinians.

Fidel developing a proto-Eurostep adds a lot to his mystique.

Agreed. Based on what his ex-girlfriend said about him, it sounds like his brain had turned to jelly after repeated head trauma that he had lied about to avoid being flagged with medical issues. I think the guy is just spouting off typical America-brained nonsense but thrown into the blender of late-stage CTE.

Marcuse is helpful here. The idea that average people in the US are actively considering how to uphold the imperial global order is preposterous. It’s more insidious. I don’t have One Dimensional Man in front of me so here are some paraphrases from the wiki article. As a disclaimer, the parts of 1D man on the USSR are based on analysis of common largely unsubstantiated western assumptions according to a former soviet psychologist I’ve spoken to about it. As they said, the USSR wasn’t maintained so it clearly had some internal concerns with getting people to accept the socialist mission, but that Marcuse’s concepts aren’t especially prescient factors in that situation, anyway:

“Modern industrial societies have furthermore created an “affluent society”, which in increasing comfort have disguised the exploitative nature of the system, and have therefore strengthened means of domination and control. Modern “affluent society” therefore limits opportunities for political revolution against capitalism.

Marcuse contends that in contemporary consumer societies, a select few wield the power to shape our conceptions of freedom by offering us the means to purchase our own happiness. In this state of “unfreedom”, consumers act irrationally by working more than they are required to in order to fulfill actual basic needs, by ignoring the psychologically destructive effects, by ignoring the waste and environmental damage it causes, and by searching for social connection through material items.

It is even more irrational in the sense that the creation of new products, calling for the disposal of old products, fuels the economy and encourages the need to work more to buy more. An individual loses his humanity and becomes a tool in the industrial machine and a cog in the consumer machine. Additionally, advertising sustains consumerism, which disintegrates societal demeanor, delivered in bulk and informing the masses that happiness can be bought, an idea that is psychologically damaging.”

I think we are mainly discussing intentionality and semantics.

Joe Cracker has no ‘good’ reason for supporting the imperial mission abroad but he does because of media influence, latent nationalism, etc.