Politics Gives You Wings

Posted on by Sarah A. Hoyt

Politics gives you wings, while rotating blades are given to you because of politi–

Okay, fine, I’ll behave. Even if I’m coming to you from a semi-disclosed location and profoundly uncaffeinated this morning. (I should go grab another cup. One advantage of having Charlie staying with us a little while is that he makes coffee.)

The other day, while in a discussion on Twitex I came across a kiddie who wasn’t making any sense, and since I have absolutely no patience these days, I just blocked him when he said something about how communism wasn’t all bad. But of course the way twitex blocks these days, I can still see replies to him, and one of you finally answered with something like (Forgive me the paraphrasing. I don’t remember the exact quote): You absolute moron. Right and left wing aren’t like wings on a bird, something you need to fly. They’re legacy terms from the French assembly, and no, all nations don’t need a little bit communism in order to work. They work much better without.

(Speaking of morons, I’m arguing, when I remember to log on, with one who insists of course we need a strong central government because power vacuums will be filled, otherwise. I used the pimp hand to point out in the US the lack of a central power is not a vacuum but belongs to We The People. I doubt this will be understood, partly because I recognize “arguing from European assumptions.”)

Anyway, of course, the one of you (Jay? Maybe?) who answered the idiot is absolutely right. Politics isn’t a bird, and it doesn’t need to have a right and left wing to work.

Frankly in the US — anywhere, really, since in Europe left and right are simply different flavors of socialism, international versus national — right wing and left wing don’t make any sense. Our right is frankly so far on the side of freedom that it’s impossible to explain to the rest of the world. (Hey, remember when the French rent boy came here to argue that the press had to be controlled by someone. It just couldn’t operate otherwise? — good times. Oh, idiot on Twittex is now arguing without a strong central government we’d be controlled by corporations. He’s either stupid or European, or the ever popular, yes.)

Of course our left wing is bog standard European left, good old international socialists. Perhaps that is because they all believe they’re elites, and elites in the US have always been more than a little stupid on the subject of “those sophisticated Europeans.” It’s nothing some time of living in Europe as a middle class person with no special access wouldn’t cure, but what are you going to do.

OTOH, though it’s far too early to worry about this, there is a case to be made that in a bi-party system like ours we do need two parties. And two parties that make some sort of sense for us.

Now, it could be argued the problem with this idea is that we haven’t had two strong, functional, American parties for…. almost a century. I’m not going to lay any bets on when the Democrats were institutionally captured by international socialists, because I simply don’t feel like doing a deep dive into the history of the party just now. (For one, as uncaffeinated as I am, I’d never come back. It would turn into the ADHD drunkard’s walk.) However, Heinlein, whom, despite being a man of his time, I consider a creditable source, thought the inner structure of the party had been captured by communists by the 40s, and I see no reason to doubt it.

I was aware of the myriad little acts of “stupidity or treason?” that allowed the USSR untold power in the sixties and seventies, which could have been curbed by … not believing communism had the upper hand. And I maintain that what was wrong with McCarthy’s red hunt is that it was already far too late.

So, technically we haven’t had a left and right wing party (whatever wings you want to call it in the US) in a long, long, long time.

Which probably explains how things have got so out of control. When you have to vote for the GOP because the other party hates America and is frankly dangerous, it gives the GOP all sorts of power it wouldn’t otherwise have to ignore its constituents. Worse, it causes the Evil…. er…. Democrat party, with ever diminishing constituency to reach for other means to power, from divisive rhetoric to outright fraud, without which they’d long since have disappeared.

Frankly, unless we can do something about the fraud, I wouldn’t count them out yet. But other people are. I found this article interesting, even though I think it’s far too optimistic in thinking we’ve defeated the monster. On the other hand, this is an age of miracles, and perhaps he’s right.

Let’s suppose we do something about fraud and the democrats, like other obsolete parties, roll up and disappear. What then?

Well, as you guys know my view of the “Trump coalition” is that it contains enough internal contradiction that it won’t lack for enemies. I mean, I think Tulsi Gabbard agrees with the guy in the article, and that’s why she turned her jacket inside out, because she thinks the way to run in the future in any relevant way starts with “be part of the Trump version of the GOP” but inside it she can do whatever she wants.

Frankly, this gives balance to the coalition, but it gives me cold sweats because Tulsi, RFK Jr. and the running mate he ran in with and whose name evades me just now are all outright communists, if somewhat more quiet about it than the crazy dems.

Hopefully we didn’t go through all this only to have the GOP calve a new wing of commies to plague America. Note, that even then commies who love America are preferable to those who allegiance rests with the rotting corpse of the USSR, but the difference is small, and it doesn’t reassure me, since the communist, central control by government ideology has exactly zero wins, and has destroyed lives (metaphorical and literal) all over the world for a century.

Then there are the crazy born-again monarchists who think that if we had a king it would solve everything. I honestly recommend laying off Tolkien and Tolkien derived fantasies and reading the history of Europe. Or even better, go and live like the middle class in Europe for a while, with no special connections or favors, to fully absorb the layer of classist “They’re better because they were born that way” nonsense that still infuses Europe these many centuries later. Then take some anti-nausea meds and return to reality.

I honestly don’t think those guys have a chance in America for reasons both good and bad. The good being that the sumabitch that would be our better ain’t been born yet. The bad being that enough of the left’s propaganda about tradition lingers with us and there ain’t nothing more traditional than kings.

Then there are the blood and soil fantasists. They’re even more at sea and disconnected from reality than the monarchists, but their arguments are partly bolstered by the racialist nonsense of the left, and the fact that so many are so maleducated that they think inverting the leftist shibboleths must be what you do to fight it. (The opposite of fabulist utterly wrong, is fabulist and utterly wrong. Neither have contact with reality.) And also unfortunately not everyone realizes how many corrupt tests and statistics float around, nor that some things we really don’t have an unbiased metric for. This means that this idiotic position is getting some traction even in minds I expected better from.

But again, I believe that perspective, by being weirdly intellectualized will never find true purchase in America. Partly it won’t find true purchase, because it requires a particularly dim (or foreign) type of mind to think there are many Americans whose bloodline hasn’t had immigrant contributions in the last 3 generations. And even more of a detached POV not to realize how — in reality — American families and associations have become a panoply of what the democrats (they slice very finely) consider different races and ethnicity. (Yesterday at church, the obviously close knit extended family in front of us taking up three pews and passing kiddies back and forth were, I THOUGHT missing Asian. Until the couple with the Asian wife came in, three minutes late. They were exciting no curiosity, and frankly I only noticed them at all because they were such a sweet bunch. Also, because it was the first time I saw very obviously Hispanic features and skin color and shock-blond hair in a toddler. Genetics, eh?)

So I don’t think the “blood and soil” nonsense can fly here. Though it can put us all off our feed for a while….

Now note I’m making several leaps here, but positing that the article I linked is right and that the dems are truly vanquished, positing further that the GOP won’t calve its own opposition–

What comes next?

Way too premature to speculate. But hey, it’s Christmas, and if we’re wishing…

In my ideal future the GOP is opposed by a Libertarian party that has remembered its roots and decided to actually be for individual liberty and not nominate communists. I.e. a Libertarian partly L. Neil Smith would approve of.

This means — remember it’s my ideal future — that our civil sphere is held in check by minarchists fighting with libertarians.

And I happily vote now for one, now for the other, depending on the candidate and which idea I think is saner at the moment.

Hey, now. It’s Christmas. It’s my Christmas wish.

A woman can dream.

108 thoughts on “Politics Gives You Wings”

  1. It all started when people thought voting for FDR for a third term was a good idea.. Well, that and the commies already had infiltrated the government too much already. Weak Rs didn’t help.

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    1. FDR’s first term was bad enough. He had people on his team who had gone on a tour of the USSR, and met with Stalin.

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        1. I don’t remember the full details. But Amity Schlaes spends some time on that trip. The gushing by the American visitors as their tour guides describe the Soviet system was absolutely revolting. And it wasn’t just things like collective farms and the like. Even the basic concept of justice for the individual was fully and knowingly up-ended in favor of whatever the “people” (i.e. the government) found to be most expedient.

          And it was all out in the open. This wasn’t hidden stuff.

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      1. Everyone knew they were the same thing – people spoke of the great Leninist/Fascist Experiment – until Stalin decreed that opposition to him made you right-wing.

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        1. Exactly. The functional difference between Fascists a la Mussolini, Nazis a la Hitler, and communists a la Stalin is essentially zero. The terms “right”and “left” are chimeras; the real difference is between authoritarian collectivists (which all three are) and independent individualists, which we in the US are supposed to be.

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            1. Mussolini ran a nation with a multi-thousand-year history, in whole and in part, of authoritarian top-down government, starting with the end of the Roman Republic; most European nations had similar histories, if not with quite as long a tradition. He simply took it to the next level. And of course, he made the trains run on time…😉

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          2. Thank you. I was going to post something similar then the real world mept butting in.

            We need to break the Overton Window. It isnt Democrats vs Republicans or Liberals vs Conservatives; it is those who want to use the cloak of governmental power to compel the behaviour of others, for the benefit of the one doing the compelling vs. Those who want a minimal goverment to cover areas where some group cohesion or action is required.

            Call them Tin Plated Dictators with Delusions of Godhood vs Surly Crumudgeons

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            1. “…Tin Plated Dictators with Delusions of Godhood vs Surly Crumudgeons”

              Oh, I like your designation!

              I’m a surly curmudgeon, and I approve this message.😁😁😁

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          3. Functionally, communists are MUCH better at starving people. It’s the one area where they really can’t be beat. That’s the only real difference, and it’s why China pivoted to the fascist approach; you can’t keep extracting money from peasants if they’re dead of starvation.

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            1. I was referring to the way the governments work (regardless of their claims), not to particular “strengths”. And while I agree that communists seem to be better at general slaughter, the Nazi form of fascists seem to have perfected directed slaughter. As for the Mussolini fascists, they seem to have mainly exported their (again, general) slaughter rather than practice it at home; a remembrance of the Roman Legions, perhaps?

              Not a whole lot of difference, even, I suspect, to the victims; dead in job lots is still dead in job lots. :-x

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              1. Yes. It’s a giant tangled ball of misery and death, start to finish, and the color of the yarn doesn’t change what it is.

                “Which totalitarian flavor do you want? Starved to death, or herded into camps and *then* starved to death? Or maybe just killed and bulldozered into a mass grave? What kind of boot would you prefer to have on your neck?”

                “Er… How about just no? Oh, and FOAD. If you just can’t bring yourself to FO, just let me know; I’ll happily assist you with the AD part.”

                There is always a third choice in every dichotomy.

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  2. Flavors of Republicans? Well, I suspect it’ll be Strong Central Government vs Reduced Central Government vs States Should Have Everything but Military, Currency, Diplomacy and the Supreme Court.

    But the defeated Dems have to go somewhere, so we’ll also have the Green Party getting stronger and being the home of the DEI hards.

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    1. But the defeated Dems have to go somewhere, so we’ll also have the Green Party getting stronger and being the home of the DEI hards.

      They have already gone somewhere. Which is a lot of why we are having so much collectivist brain-vomit on our side now.

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  3. McCarthy was right so whenever he said the commies took hollywood, the media, and the democrat party, that was the date.

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  4. Anybody here read “Joe Steel” by Harry Turtledove?

    Basically, it’s an “What If” where Joseph Stalin’s parents became immigrated to America thus Joseph Stalin was born in the US.

    It was very much a “he was born to be evil” and the US was “ripe” to be taken over by somebody like Joseph Stalin type of story.

    I never actually read it but saw enough about it that I knew I didn’t want to read it.

    It made me wonder “what country does Harry Turtledove live in”?

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      1. The Progressives had been dreaming of central control of everything “for the good of the people,” for a while by the 1910s, and it ramped up in the 1920s. One of the Yearbooks of Agriculture had a very long essay about depopulating the US West to bring about rational land use and improve the lives of people who really had no business trying to farm semi-arid areas. “No business” as defined by the ag activists, note. That guy became a member of FDR’s Kitchen Cabinet and influenced the Resettlement Agency plan to put people on rational, modern group farms (with lots of .gov supervision, which the farmers resented.)

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        1. The Great Socialist Shift of the Democratic party occurred probably in the 1880’s, the era that gave us the rise of Wilson.

          Wilson and his administration were full of full-up socialists, all intent on remaking America ‘for the children.’ Things like internment camps for German Americans, snitch patrols and basically brownshirts, all the way to ‘national healthcare’ using Maggie Sanger’s ideas. Government control of business and education and pretty much all aspects of life. National Socialism, ideas so good that the NSDAP over in Germany loved them all.

          And then you get FDR. Yikes. Full socialist from the start, more of the international flavor. The takeover of the US State Department by the USSR took place under FDR. (This is according to the State Department’s own internal investigation, which the very correct Joseph McCarthy used during the beginning of the ‘communist witch-hunts after WWII.) The beginning of the takeover of US journalism and US education by the USSR also started in the 30’s.

          All of this, rooted in post American Civil War for Southern Independence and Northern Aggression. Look at when ‘public health’ became a rallying cry for local, state and federal government.

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          1. “War by the Democrat Party to preserve, protect, defend, and expand Slavery and Aristocracy”. But we don’t argue that mess here on this forum.

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          1. Harding wanted to cut. Coolidge actually did cut.

            The thing to remember is that they were following hot on the heels of the Progressive era. Coolidge himself had apparently considered himself a Progressive during the first decade of the century, when Teddy Roosevelt was doing his thing (as a Republican). Hoover was the natural extension of that. Wilson and FDR both likely saw themselves as pushing the Progressive project toward its natural end result when they took things even further.

            Also, FDR ran on a platform of not being as meddlesome as Hoover. Unfortunately he lied, and then apparently managed to convince much of the public that he was the only thing standing between them and much worse circumstances

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            1. I’m not quite as clear on that era as I’d like to be, but I have the strong impression that WW claiming the Progressive mantle was very much the skinsuit game we’ve seen so often.
              And since the “authoritative historian” of the Progressive Movement was conflicted fellow-traveler Sulzberger…

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              1. The key figure, I suspect, is TR. He was the Progressive standard bearer during the first decade of the century. I don’t know much about his politics beyond what the school textbooks taught me (i.e. “trust busting”, and The Great White Fleet). I do believe that there was a gulf between the politics of TR and those of Wilson. If nothing else, TR seems like he would have been a lot more fun to hang out with than Wilson (for whatever that’s worth).

                My suspicion is that TR’s politics were similar to Hoover’s – i.e. government can do a lot of good when properly directed. An example of that is Hoover Dam. It bears Hoover’s name because he was one of the driving forces behind it, and work started on it when he was president. TR likely would have gone for a project like that. Coolidge probably would not have done so (though note that Coolidge *did* authorize the start of work on Mt. Rushmore).

                And on a related note, the name of the dam is a prime example of the pettiness of FDR. The dam was worked on as the Hoover Dam, and was completed while FDR was in office. Roosevelt spoke at the ceremony that marked the occasion. Hoover was not invited. Roosevelt’s administration christened it the Boulder Dam, instead of keeping the name of Roosevelt’s first presidential opponent. It would bear that name until over a decade later, when the name was changed back to Hoover Dam by an act of Congress.

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                1. In the mentioned era, most folks were quite solidly convinced their racist/racial nonsense was correct, and thus justified horrors “for the good of society”.

                  Eugenics Boards persisted into the 1970s, and forcibly sterilized an obscene number of Americans deemed “troublesome”. Sadly, they almost entirely escaped justice.

                  It never ceases to amaze me the persistence of that idiotic nonsense into the current era.

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                  1. It never ceases to amaze me the persistence of that idiotic nonsense into the current era.

                    It doesn’t surprise me, because it’s based on the idea that everything is genetics, and as everyone “knows”, you breed livestock that show the traits you want, like milk production, and cull the ones that show traits you don’t want, or those you do but not “enough”.

                    Humans don’t work that way, but most people don’t think it through that far.

                    “Men are not potatoes.”

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                  2. They sterilized them while Nazi doctors were being convicted at Nuremberg for the same thing despite citing Buck vs. Bell.

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  6. Some Republicans/conservatives are clearly drunk out of their minds from relief that we haven’t seen The Last Election in America. Do they really think a clear-cut but historically fairly narrow election win will destroy the Democrats? Seriously? The Democrats took a 49-state pasting in 1972, and won the very next time out. They took a 49-state pasting in 1984, and that time it took all of two cycles to get back in the saddle. The Democrats are not going away.

    Even if they did — and I cannot come up with a scenario that would take them off the board — what would happen then? The only historical precedent we have is the Era of Good Feelings, when the Federalist party vanished and we had nothing but the party we now call the Democrats. (They were called the Republicans at the time.) That party fissured over discontent with Andrew Jackson’s Presidency, the anti-Jackson splinters coalescing into the Whig Party.

    If a modern Republican mono-party followed that example, it would fracture over internal opposition to a forceful populist leader — which sounds awfully familiar. It would break into a Trump party and a Never Trump party, assuming the Democrats self-destructed and the Republicans broke apart within a four-year period, which seems terribly rushed. In this scenario, almost all the Democrats set loose from their party’s dissolution would join the Never Trump party, and we’d basically have the Republicans and Democrats back, only with at least one different name.

    There is an awful lot of talk about everything changing. I’m not buying it. I think there’s an opportunity for some serious and needed reforms, but the current chorus of “Ding, Dong, the Witch is Dead” is irrationally exuberant. There’s way too much uphill work left to do.

    Republica restituendae.

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      1. Big IF indeed. The fraud’s going to fight back, and constitutionally how do you root it out of the states? (Yes, California, I am looking at you.)

        I would love for the miracle to happen, but the faith circuits in my brain burned out some time ago, if I ever actually had them. I will need to see it.

        Boy, do I need to see it.

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        1. Section. 4.

          The Times, Places and Manner of holding Elections for Senators and Representatives, shall be prescribed in each State by the Legislature thereof; but the Congress may at any time by Law make or alter such Regulations, except as to the Places of chusing Senators.

          Having Congress set an election day as opposed to election weeks, requiring voter ID, banning ballot harvesting & most mail-in voting would make a huge difference.
          You’ll never get rid of some small-time retail voting fraud but some simple rules will make it ineffective except in very close races.

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        2. “constitutionally how do you root it out of the states?”

          One state at a time. Already a good start. California might be the last state fixed. But even if only the majority of the states can be guarantied clean elections, we are a lot better off. How long has the Chicago been a joke? Now California is considered a joke.

          If we are really lucky California and other blue states bankrupt themselves into territories, and to regain statehood one of the conditions is clean voting – In person, Real Id (if you can’t use it to get on a plane, you can’t use it to vote), Count done by midnight state time with ballots under proper chain of custody (found by the dumpster? Invalid. Do better next time.), true republic voting (by county) per US constitution.

          Yes, more Christmas wishes.

          I mean, who had Canadian Trudeau abdicating, ever, let alone before 2025, on their bingo card?

          Liked by 1 person

            1. Some form of can’t be hacked ID.

              I don’t have real Id, but I do have a passport. I do have CCL (county issued). Would not use the latter, but have it.

              Any id that allows you to get on an airplane, into a federal building, or other state/county issued combined id that proves state citizenship. (My passport, proves US citizenship, but does not prove Oregon residency, my ideal id would be passport + state issued driver’s license even if not “real id” because have passport.)

              Don’t care if it is called “real id” or not.

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    2. Yeah, I remember in 2004, how the bowties at NR and similar places were all patting themselves on the back about how the opposing party had so completely imploded into unacceptable craziness that the normies would NEVER EVER touch that party again. Then 2008 shattered those assumptions.

      I have no strong opinions about what’s going to happen next, since we apparently now live in a world where New Jersey is being invaded by UFOs, The Man Who Sold The Moon is actually selling Mars, Anthropic thinks its software might have feelings, and Google thinks its hardware is talking to an alternate universe.

      But the bowties are patting themselves on the back again, and it’s safe to assume they will live to regret it, again.

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      1. His finance minister bailed yesterday, the housing minister fled over the weekend, and others are racing for the exits. His coalition partner has left him hanging out to dry, so … Snap elections might not be a bad thing, in this case.

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          1. It’s nice that #Twitchy pulled the ripcord on her golden parachute, but I’m saving the happy dance for the vote of non-confidence.

            Let the sons of mongrel dogs run for re-election. Then we will see.

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      3. 😲Wow.

        Blink.

        Might it be whispering rumors about at a minimum that BC, AL, and the northern territories, asking “how do we sign up to change to US states from being Canadian provinces?” With Nova Scotia going “Wait! Don’t leave us behind?”

        Asking for a friend.

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  8. Oh, idiot on Twittex is now arguing without a strong central government we’d be controlled by corporations.

    Welcome to the central premise of almost every cyberpunk RPG (and a healthy 80% of the books). Just look at the backstory for Shadowrun and Cyberpunk 2020. The megacorps are fighting it out with themselves (or with the dragons, some of which run megacorps…..)

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    1. Because there were no checks and limits on the Robber Barons, ya know, and Standard Oil owned the US government and only trusts ran businesses before 1912 (other than little corner shops that were forced out of business if the Big Company noticed them.) No, that’s not a direct quote of the textbooks, but it is pretty close to some of them.

      Oh, and none of the Robber Barons ever did anything that actually benefitted society. It was all just a front to control the masses and a form of cultural hegemony before the term was invented. [actual textbook that I opted not to use]

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      2. The library where much of my youth was spent was not a Carnegie one, but such were spotted in the suburbs nearby. Perhaps libraries without drag queens didn’t count? /sarc

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      3. Rockefeller’s Standard Oil saved the Whales, because his “standard” Kerosene oil was so safe (no gasoline) it could replace whale oil in lamps. Also, Standard Kero was so very much cheaper than whale, and kept getting cheaper as the process and delivery improved.

        Saved the effing Whales, he did.

        And along the way industrialized the use of “waste” distillates (gasoline) to run in internal combustion engines. Thus my Hemi powered yanktank.

        And when he felt gouged by the railroads, he invented pipelines for petroleum, the safest and cheapest way to move the stuff.

        The trust was busted for the benefit of his less agile competitors, not for his customers. His prices dropped by about half over the era.

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    2. Meanwhile, the “strong” central government (aka giant bureaucracy) we now have, which Democrats have dominated for decades regardless of elections, is inextricably entwined and operates hand-in-glove with…you guessed it…a small number of gigantic corporations.

      So much for the visions/predictions of all those progressive fictioneers back in the ’80s. To be “progressive” is to get everything that matters exactly backwards.

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      1. After playing around in Cyberpunk 2077, it did strike me the only way it could be what it was was if there was a government running things and basically enforcing the system.

        Like Snowcrash. It was a fun book, but what struck me about the constant complaints about how dystopian everything was were the sheer resources everyone had to throw at problems. If there was any real crisis, it was how everyone seemed to complete squander aka way their own bounty on silly pride or stuff.

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    4. I had noticed that. I’ve also noticed that, in order to make those corporations even vaguely threatening, the cyberpunk dystopias have to turn those corporations into governments.

      I suspect that the second point is lost on many of the creators in the genre.

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    5. The key thing is that incorporation is a legal or contractual thing, rule following, and rule following behavior does not compel rule following behavior.

      The apparatus to compel is an armed force, an army. For a corporation to become a non-consensual government, it must have a competitive army, and the expenses of that would change it to something no longer a corporation.

      Sovereign governments are shaped by becoming captured by their armies.

      Mega-corporations as governments, in fiction, either fail to be realistic military fiction in considering budget versus economy, or fail to investigate the qualities of a population so relentlessly rule following.

      The greater the costs of rule following (and malformed governments are extremely expensive), the lower the incentive.

      Now, one can suppose a race of autistic rule followers, but that runs into the issue of how individuals key onto the rules that they seek to follow.

      It can be shown that many ‘mega-corp governed setting’ writers are with groups that have deeply silly models of how all that rule following stuff works.

      “Religion is opiate of the masses” given the deliberate attempts to imitate the French Terror, is saying that murder magics are the natural response to being ‘wronged’, and that whatever motivates opposing rule following is an illusion.

      If one first makes the choice to not understand the opponent, then models of that opponent’s behavior will always be weird and funky. Thus, cost insensitive models of how ‘the masses’ behave.

      Internal mystical experiences can be pretty invisible. Even one’s own, if one does not pay close attention to how one actually thinks. These are important both for the shortcomings of left models of their opposition, and for modeling why the left keys onto certain theories in the way that they do.

      Anyway, megacorp world building is also not good speculative fiction about hypothetical peoples who are all autistic rule followers.

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      1. I was going to put something up earlier about militaries and mega corporations, but I think you said it better. Writers generally assume that a mega corporation can afford all of the military toys. But they’re suffering both from a lack of scale about how much an MBT (or it’s high-tech replacement) costs, and from assuming that mega corporations have infinite wealth.

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        1. F. M. Busby took an interesting approach. Basically, the cost of American government got so high that a President managed to set up a, “bid for government,” system. Eventually one corporation suppressed its competitors.

          Meanwhile, Earth was visited by aliens with a practical sub-light drive, and UET (United Energy and Transport) killed them and stole their tech, giving them access to the solar system and (on a relativistic level) the stars. From that point it gradually extended its power until it dominated most of thr planet.

          By then it had become a corporate oligarchy, with most of the population reduced to perform.

          (He -or UET- had used the, “we have to reduce overpopulation!” as a way to extend totalitarian control).

          The oligarchs practiced decorative, competitive self-mutilation, using “Welfare clients,” as practice dummies.

          This came out in the 80s, I think, and it was decent. As one of the rebels said, “They couldn’t kill all of us.”

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        2. Against a disarmed populace (the only kind any self-respecting Eeevul Corporate Overlord would tolerate) a small security force of armed goons should be quite effective.

          I suspect that there would also be a few military corporations which the more commercially oriented corporations could hire on an as-needed basis to deal with any problems too tough for their own security forces.

          As David Drake observed, hardly any planets could afford to build and maintain their own elite military forces, but most of them could scrape up the cash to hire Hammer’s Slammers for a few months. Hell, even Friesland didn’t want to support them after they won the war. Of course, in that case the reasons were largely other than economic…

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          1. The cyberpunk genre (and the game was created by Mike Pondsmith specifically to pull in the tropes of the genre) typically postulates that there are corporate militaries that rival – and are often more powerful than – the national militaries. Mind you, the military of the US in a proper cyberpunk story would not be as strong as the real-world US military even post-Peace Dividend. In-setting national militaries would be hollow shells of what they once were, and the troops would likely be unmotivated, unprofessional conscripts (even in the US), with commanding officers that often have dual loyalties between the national government, and whichever corporation they’re getting bribed from on the side. But the national militaries still have tanks, helicopters, and jet aircraft.

            And the corporate militaries are even better equipped, and more professional.

            Yeah, it wouldn’t work like that in the real world – probably. But it’s what was in the genre. Cyberpunk 2077 skirts the issue by having the Miltech Corporation run the NUSA military (and the current NUSA president is a former Miltech CEO). Miltech itself is a mega corporation that specializes in military arms and equipment, though that’s not the only things it produces.

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  9. In a democracy, the two natural factions are “the extremely rich and the very poor” vs. “the working class, middle class, and moderately rich”. The first of those factions is the ‘bread & circuses’ party. So the only winning move by the second faction is to reduce the size of the State and its ability to tax, because when the first faction is in power, it will always vote for more State programs that are hard to take away. Now that the GOP seems to have mostly finished it’s transformation in to the “working class, middle class, and moderately rich” party, look to the Dems to go all in on billionaires & income transfer programs.

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    2. The first faction is composed of The Idle Rich and The Idle Poor. Neither group contributes any value to society. They’re just looters and moochers.

      When my main characters call for colonists to help build their world, they announce:

      “If you believe other people owe you something merely for existing, we don’t want your kind here.”

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  10. One small nit to pick; the US does not have a two party SYSTEM. It has a legislature that has been dominated by two parties for over a century. Just as it’s incorrect when the talking heads say our government is a democracy, it’s incorrect when they say we have a two party system.
    Let’s not play into their game of trying to repeat falsehoods until we accept them as truth.

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      1. I am not sure it was by design. However, our combination of first past the post with periodic reapportionment effectively favors a 2-3 party system. That combination (first past the post and reapportionment) had only been in use in the UK for about a century or so as reapportionment had been added to fix the issue of rotten burroughs. When we DO see 3 strong parties one of two things happens either the incoming party replaces an existing party (Republicans replacing the moribund Whigs) or the challenger gets subsumed into one of the existing parties (like Wallace’s American Independents who were really Dixiecrats and folded back into the Democrats or Perot’s Independents who ultimately go primarily to the Republican side). The replacement of the Whigs was really a unique situation. I wonder if the combination of it occurring at the cusp of Civil War AND in conjunction with the 1860 decennial reapportionment made it possible. We have a bunch of other tiny parties (Rainbow, Green, Libertarians etc) but they never amount to much more than 1% of the total vote all together. Similarly, the Bullmoose party seems to have folded back into the Republicans but taken the lead from the Taft Republicans such that the 1920 Republican party was far more of the progressive flavor. There is also a flirtation with Debs/Socialism that election getting almost a million votes but no electoral college votes. 1912 was a rather strange election.

        If you want to run the US you’re more likely to succeed if you take over an existing party than by starting a new one.

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        1. I think the absorb-and-remodel thing is most likely what will happen, although my single fondest wish is to see the traitorous collective that calls itself the Democratic Party die a miserable death, reviled and rejected by all Americans. I don’t think we’ll be so lucky, though.

          We’ve already seen a lot of Republican party insiders sorting themselves into the Democrat camp where they always belonged; maybe if we get just a little bit lucky, that continues while the Dims recalibrate and the party becomes more like big-government Republicans. Then maybe the battle would be between them and a Republican Party that grew a spine via MAGA and goes all-in for freedom and dismantling the bureaucratic state.

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          1. Ing, given that AOC and her cohort exemplify the upcoming generation of Democrats I think it is headed towards a strong socialist bent. Already the more classic liberal parts of the Dem party (Gabbard, RFK Jr, and Musk) are vacating to a more big tent Republican party that is embracing a primarily populist model. That European “Christian” Democrat style is not going to cut it outside the current Blue areas (and will even struggle in some of the marginal blue areas). The Rino/Never trump side will try to help the Old Guard Democrats hold on, but Bernie Bro/AOC folks will have none of that. The old line Dems will soldier on for a while but even now many of the Blue model’s supporters are leaving the sinking ship (C.F. Zuckerberg) as the wind changes. And the Old line folks ARE OLD . Not sure WHAT replaces the Dem’s ultimately, but if they go with either the Newsom/Whitmer or the Bernie/AOC wings they’ll essentially have the same presidential and congressional issues into the 2030’s. I don’t see another faction they purged the blue dog pseudo moderates during Bush II and Late Clinton. The Trump Wing of the Republicans seems to be taking the state houses in the red regions which will have long lasting effects. The shifting Demographics are not favoring the Democrats, it is why they were busy importing a new electorate that would be more controllable. It will be a bumpy ride for the next 10-15 years though probably NOT quite as FUBAR as the 2020-2024 period.

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      2. Given that many of the Founders were clearly dismayed by the development of two parties, I think “designed” is too strong.

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          1. Not the system, but the voting laws of the individual states.

            The requirements to automatically be on the ballot vs petitioning to get on it are rigged to prevent competition. The two major parties (who also dominated in the state legislatures) changed them to be so.

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  11. “Politics isn’t a bird, and it doesn’t need to have a right and left wing to work.”

    Yeah, the Right needing the Left so they can “fly” is one of those things Leftists say when they’re LOSING, and desperate. Because we all know what they say when they’re winning: “Right wing? TO JAIL WITH YOU!!!” That is what they say.

    Everybody remember 2020, when the Wretched Unvaxxed were to be herded into ‘quarantine,’ there to enjoy forced vaxx-inations? Everybody remember #ShinyPony the dictator of Canukkistan saying “do we tolerate these people?”

    I sure remember that, Lefties. Tell me again about the flying, you !@#%.

    But speaking of #ShinyPony, and Leftists flying, it has come to pass that #TwitchyTheMalignantDwarf has resigned from her/its post as Minister of Finance today, and wrote a rather barbed letter of resignation to #TheShinyOne.

    Of interest to Americans, #Twitchy led the Canuckistanian delegation to the NAFTA Treaty negotiations in 2017 and p1ssed #TheDonald off so badly that he put a tariff on Canadian lumber. Another great moment in Canuckistan history courtesy of #ShinyPony and #Twitchy.

    Earlier this week the Minister of Housing quit and said he’s not seeking re-election. Because he knows it ain’t going to be pretty.

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      1. Given the posturing and huffing and puffing since #TheDonald won the biggest victory in US history (it is the biggest, right?) the Liberals have all been agitating to get rid of #ShinyPony. Recently 20 of them went so far as to write him a strongly worded letter.

        But losing two (2) cabinet ministers in a week, and having a couple more MPs sit as independents, that doesn’t look good for the #Pony.

        The spectacle of watching the NDPee support the Liberals in forcing the #Posties back to work after a month-long Christmas season strike though, that was a thing of beauty. The #Posties were breathing fire that OMG they were really going to stick it to The Man this time, because the NDPee were on their side, and they had the whip hand… and now here we are. The NDPee is a bunch of union busters just like the Liberals.

        On the other hand, as long as the leader of the NDPee keeps his minions in line, the #ShinyPony is untouchable. The slavish media has been floating trial balloons of “The Brave #Pony defies that evilbadfascist #OrangeManBad and his evilbadfascist tariffs! D@mn those Americans anyway, I hate those b@st@rds!” He’s in like Flint, still getting every single thing he wants, all day every day.

        Now, you wouldn’t think such f-ing stupidity would fly, even here in the Demented Dominion, but propaganda is a very powerful thing in this country. If you get the rubes thinking that resisting #OrangeManBad is a noble calling, and ad some Chinese election interference, #ShinyPony could pull another minority government out of this.

        After all, the Conservatives have a long and proud tradition of snatching defeat from the very jaws of victory in this country…

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  12. I’d argue that the Democrats have always been our “aristocratic” party (i.e. “we should rule because we are fundamentally better than you”) and it seemed like in the 1930’s and ’40s that some flavor of socialism was going to be the aristocracy of the future. They lucked out with Communism vs. Fascism, mostly because of how well Fascism blotted its own copy book during the Second World War.

    If I was going to dream about what the future was going to be…well, I’d like a “Democratic” Democratic Party. The classic Blue Dog patriotic Democrats and not the current E!Democrats who are little more than internationalist oligarchs in all but name.

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  13. Off topic but maybe important….

    We live in a rural setting, all acre plus lots dating from the 70s. Except for a few recognized neighbors who walk in good weather or routinely walk dogs, no one walks. We live on a culdesac.

    Yesterday, in the afternoon of a rainy/snowy day, we passed a lone man in his early 20s walking. Camo backpack dark clothes, not quite camo pants. He wasnt quite walking in the middle of the road and when I honked he didnt react or move. I carefully passed him. Brief glimpse, nonanglo white male vaugely reminded me of supposed CEO shooter.

    We got home. I lingered to watch him where I think he wouldnt notice me. He walked at a steady pace not quite marching but not out for a pleasure walk either. Down to the end sround and back up steady pace not quite brisk. I kept watching. Almost out of sight…he stopped put his hand to his left ear and pressed like you do when listening. Dropped his hand and started walking at the same pace.

    Think of the Smiths in the matrix.

    I have no idea what it means if snythi.g butnit was weird. My wife who discounts things like all that has ben happening said he was weird. I wonder what was going on

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    1. Did he hesitate at all when he realized it was a culdesac, or just keep walking?

      Sounds like someone trying to attract attention, or he would have moved when you honked. The lack of reaction had to be deliberate. Even if he was deaf, he would have reacted when you drove past.

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    2. I know it’s a conspiracy theory (ie, hasn’t been proven yet), but a visit to americanstasi dot com, and checking out his book in the sidebar, might show you others have seen such. A lot of such.

      Adjusts tinfoil hat. We’re way too rural for such (edge of a very tiny town; we’re 13 acres), but his essays with interesting pictures and videos get one going hmmm.

      The hand to ear. like listening? Seems familiar.

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      1. Very interesting and concerning BUT if the American Stasi Warner is correct, why does the AS allow him to sell his book and disseminate it on his website, to counteract their hard work surveilling all of us?

        Maybe he’s just paranoid, or maybe he’s a plant to flush out people who wear Tin Foil Hats and go check out his site (as I just did).

        Patriot Front meets Let a Thousand Flowers Bloom sortofthing.

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        1. Reading his blog (anonymousconservative dot com / blog) indicates that a) they are trying to do him in or at least degrade his thinking. b) he thinks that Cabal is slowly losing its power, a good part of which is some of the anti-financial-shenanigans that the 2016-2020 Trump administration was able to do. He has a very small footprint, too.

          I don’t think he glows. His examples from the various Google and Bing Streetview pictures look convincing, as does stuff like the video of the CEO shooting (among others. Lots of peculiar stuff that shows up. Gotta decide for yourself.

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  14. I would put the fundamental corruption of the Democratic party earlier, with Woodrow Wilson. No, I don’t think he was the tool of a foreign power, but he was fundamentally one of those “I should rule because I am Better Than You, and anything that gets in the way of my glorious rule, such as that pesky Constitution, is evil.” I don’t think the Ds ever really purged themselves of his influence, and from there, actual foreign infiltration was a short step.

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    1. I agree. And around that time you had all those socialist do-gooder activists getting ever more prominent. (I’ll give a small bit of a pass to the earliest iterations, since they did NOT have the entire, blood soaked 20th century demonstrating why communism/socialism is nothing but a gateway to mass murder, so I’ll grant at least a few of those with good intentions.) And they latched onto the democrat party as the best way to climb up, aided and abetted by Wilson and his ilk, who were all about the “power for me by any means necessary”–and there were, I am sure, plenty of those already amongst the activists.

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  16. politics just seems to give me a headache

    we might have a short reprieve, short!

    hence the desire to pay closer attention to slipping away from the main stream and assuring i dont need it for much

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  17. It is my fondest hope that the democrats, thanks to their now-going-on-12-years of open, shrieking stupidity and hatred towards anyone who disagrees with them (really, though, the masks started slipping in 2008) and their continuing to double down on all the reasons they lost bigly this go around means that they will, as a party, be consigned to the dustbin of history, and be replaced by a party even MORE conservative (in the American sense of the word) and freedom loving than the GOP, at which point any commies that have infected the GOP, not to mention the usual RINO status quo lovers, will no longer matter. And if that were to happen, I would immediately change my party affiliation to the new guys, because there are still large chunks (though thankfully smaller than they were!) of the GOP that want to “go along to get along” so long as they get invited to all the right parties by the “cool” kids.

    I don’t think it’s going to happen, sadly, but I can hope.

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    1. “…a series of intelligence, security, and leadership failures…” That’s a remarkably understated way to describe betrayal, dereliction of duty, and criminal activity. Let the trials commence.

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  20. I was looking at the bird picture, wondering if it was an AI creation.
    What caught my eye was the left wing feathers appear to have vanes pointing forward (which would be aerodynamically ridiculous).
    PS: Anything happening with the Alien Curse / Arthur Arcana story?

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