βThe post office has been run poorly for many, many decades,β Trump declared last week. In a less histrionic era, the Postal Serviceβs failures could spur Congress to finally remove the roadblocks to private innovation in letter delivery. Instead, the coming delivery debacles may become the conspiratorial RussiaGate of the 2020 election.
What we are witnessing is the early stage crushing by government of the American soul and I really don't know if there are enough of us to fight back.Wenzel is right on here.
Most reach for the numbing of the mind or in some cases self-inflicted death under this type of totalitarian crushing of normal human interaction.
It wasn't for nothing that the old Soviet Union was known for its alcoholism. Crush human freedom and many will take to bottle or pill to drown out the horrific reality.
That 24.7% of those between 18 and 24 have started or increased substance abuse during the COVID-tyranny is not a good sign.
The sick bastards are winning.
The post-New Deal new normal, then, is very similar to the pre-New Deal old normal. The present is not a rerun of the age of the age of robber barons after the Civil War, but of the subsequent age in which university-credentialed corporate elites have usually favored free markets and free love and freedom from organized labor, while working-class populations, white and nonwhite, have typically favored a mix of moral traditionalism with pro-labor protectionism in economic policy.
This is not the second Gilded Age. It is the second Jazz Age. And from the perspective of Americaβs disfranchised and alienated working-class majority of all races, that is bad enough.
A second lockdown here in Melbourne feels like a nightmare. I wake up each day and find it surreal. I can only go outside once per day for an hour of exercise. The state regulations require me to wear a face mask if I go outside my home. There are police and military in the streets and in beautiful natural settings like the Yarra River. Theyβre positioned there to ensure people are wearing face masks and to ask them why they are out. If a personβs answer is not one of the four reasons weβre allowed to leave home β to provide care, get to a medical appointment, go food shopping, or exercise for one hour β then officials are instructed to issue hefty fines of up to $5,000. On a bad day, you can see videos on the news of the police exerting their new powers and tackling anti-maskers or curfew-breakers to the ground in order to arrest them. You see birds chirping and people in military outfits right next to them. The contrast is bizarre β itβs as though weβre at war.They are committing national suicide.