Spot on Mark, are you, like me, watching with bated breath the ongoing shit show in the US election? ... I have many American glass artist friends and am witnessing their growing concern .... I find it incomprehensible that the Orange Cockwomble has around 47% support! FFS! aren't his followers aware of his multiple and proven crimes or …
Spot on Mark, are you, like me, watching with bated breath the ongoing shit show in the US election? ... I have many American glass artist friends and am witnessing their growing concern .... I find it incomprehensible that the Orange Cockwomble has around 47% support! FFS! aren't his followers aware of his multiple and proven crimes or do they simply refuse to believe so?, don't they see his clearly malignant narcissism and psychopathy terrifyingly combined with his fascist leanings? ... those sycophants in the GoP have obviously chosen money and position over conscience but I'm truly mystified why the common man would ever support him - Noel Casler has stated what I've always felt about trump - that he despises the MAGA base. What strange and horrible times we are going through - Luxon mirrors trump's arrogance and lack of empathy towards the people but his m.o. is also coloured with craven cowardice - trump is overt, Luxon lacks the balls to be so!
Luxon is to this place and time what Newt Gingrich was to the U.S. in the ‘90’s. A gateway drug. The precursor. A trial balloon if you will.
Like much of the world, the Americans are lurching far-right: Authoritarian Right. Orbán in Hungary is their model. We’re becoming Russia in the USA.
Even if Harris/Walz manage to pull it off in November—it’s gonna be a squeaker and the battles will be daily for weeks to follow Nov. 5th—this is far from over. Trump can be dead and buried and this will continue.
Listen to podcasts at all? Try “Autocracy in America.” Historian Anne Applebaum is onto it all.
We’re in a whole new era now. And Russia and China are loving this.
As an American refugee here in NZ, it is so hard to watch it hitting the shores here now…
In other words, people are horrid. The money doesn’t cause it, the people came before the money. We’re a selfish species. Colonizing a planet and stripping it bare. Give us just a little comfort and power (status?) and this is what we do. We can all probably name a few notable figures who mostly haven’t seemed to succumb to it, but these days? They are hard to find…
Perhaps I should have said Power corrupts Mark? "People are horrid" No. I believe in the goodness and sense of community that we have. That people generally work out what is fair. Our bad leaders currently want to separate and break us down to helpless individuals. Communities have to join together to fight this on many levels Truth to defeat outright lies. Help and support each other and stand up for what we feel is fair kind and for our betterment and environment.
I’m from the U.S., we’re ahead of you Kiwis in this swirling vortex towards the drain. I had to give up on that kind of optimism and turning of the cheek these last couple-3 decades there. To have faith, optimism and hope SLAPPED down year after year after year after…trains one to set their expectations dreadfully low. It’s too painful otherwise. ‘Hope for the best? PLAN for the worst’ is how many of us survive it now. And we regard the Hope as an opioid to be wary of getting hooked on.
When someone tries to shoot your last President in the face and HALF the population of the nation says, “he MISSED?! WTF?!” You know you are well beyond ‘believing in the goodness and sense of community that we have.’
The last hope I have left is that maybe by speaking up I can help a few Kiwis avoid what most of the N. Hemisphere is doing now…
"Shooting a past President, and sorry they missed WTF??" Well tribes have always put the bad apple outside the village, or killed the wild dog. That is protecting their species, by recognising danger and dealing with it. Using Black Swans to feel like you are winning may be survival of the fittest which ignores community, but caring for each other and the environment will always beat that. Te Ao Maori, the holistic view of people and environment will always call us Kiwi. You claim to be ahead of us, Not really. We as a people decided to honour our indigenous people, Beginning to compensate them by owning our mistakes. We have to overcome Seymour's racist ideas... but we believe we will. That is based on history not optimism. Brash tried and failed, Dotcom tried to warn us about the money mad billionaires club. We were not ready to listen, but most now know about Atlas. We are working towards a one term government. What do you see in our future.? Please use our situation, not the USA, by which such huge divisions and even stranger decisions are used to elect Leaders.
You have the optimism I had, 20 years ago. And like just about all of my friends in the states, 10 years ago. Virtually none of us sound like that now. It wasn’t a black swan on our side. Not a one-off. Interestingly, just about everyone there now believes black swans are as common as they can be found in so many waters here in Aotearoa. I truly hope your continued optimism is deserved. I’ve met way too many Seymours these last decades to dismiss him too as a black swan. My message is clear: it can happen anywhere. History tells us so. I hope you prevail here.
Yes indeed thanks to the internet we aren't buffered from the insanity any more :/ - to my mind it started with the insidious creep and influence of the media cancer that is Rupert Murdoch.
I haven't heard of "Autocracy in America" Mark - will check it out - I follow Heather Cox Richardson plus Noel Casler's sub stack and watch daily the Meidas Touch Network, Brian Tyler Cohen and the always excellent Glenn Kirschner who translates the legalise so well.
This is one hell of a read. Now I’m going to stretch my meagre digital knowledge and try to save it. Thanks again Nick and you too Mark Behnke for your insight.
Spot on Mark, are you, like me, watching with bated breath the ongoing shit show in the US election? ... I have many American glass artist friends and am witnessing their growing concern .... I find it incomprehensible that the Orange Cockwomble has around 47% support! FFS! aren't his followers aware of his multiple and proven crimes or do they simply refuse to believe so?, don't they see his clearly malignant narcissism and psychopathy terrifyingly combined with his fascist leanings? ... those sycophants in the GoP have obviously chosen money and position over conscience but I'm truly mystified why the common man would ever support him - Noel Casler has stated what I've always felt about trump - that he despises the MAGA base. What strange and horrible times we are going through - Luxon mirrors trump's arrogance and lack of empathy towards the people but his m.o. is also coloured with craven cowardice - trump is overt, Luxon lacks the balls to be so!
Luxon is to this place and time what Newt Gingrich was to the U.S. in the ‘90’s. A gateway drug. The precursor. A trial balloon if you will.
Like much of the world, the Americans are lurching far-right: Authoritarian Right. Orbán in Hungary is their model. We’re becoming Russia in the USA.
Even if Harris/Walz manage to pull it off in November—it’s gonna be a squeaker and the battles will be daily for weeks to follow Nov. 5th—this is far from over. Trump can be dead and buried and this will continue.
Listen to podcasts at all? Try “Autocracy in America.” Historian Anne Applebaum is onto it all.
We’re in a whole new era now. And Russia and China are loving this.
As an American refugee here in NZ, it is so hard to watch it hitting the shores here now…
Money corrupts Mark. It has always been so.
In other words, people are horrid. The money doesn’t cause it, the people came before the money. We’re a selfish species. Colonizing a planet and stripping it bare. Give us just a little comfort and power (status?) and this is what we do. We can all probably name a few notable figures who mostly haven’t seemed to succumb to it, but these days? They are hard to find…
Perhaps I should have said Power corrupts Mark? "People are horrid" No. I believe in the goodness and sense of community that we have. That people generally work out what is fair. Our bad leaders currently want to separate and break us down to helpless individuals. Communities have to join together to fight this on many levels Truth to defeat outright lies. Help and support each other and stand up for what we feel is fair kind and for our betterment and environment.
I’m from the U.S., we’re ahead of you Kiwis in this swirling vortex towards the drain. I had to give up on that kind of optimism and turning of the cheek these last couple-3 decades there. To have faith, optimism and hope SLAPPED down year after year after year after…trains one to set their expectations dreadfully low. It’s too painful otherwise. ‘Hope for the best? PLAN for the worst’ is how many of us survive it now. And we regard the Hope as an opioid to be wary of getting hooked on.
When someone tries to shoot your last President in the face and HALF the population of the nation says, “he MISSED?! WTF?!” You know you are well beyond ‘believing in the goodness and sense of community that we have.’
The last hope I have left is that maybe by speaking up I can help a few Kiwis avoid what most of the N. Hemisphere is doing now…
"Shooting a past President, and sorry they missed WTF??" Well tribes have always put the bad apple outside the village, or killed the wild dog. That is protecting their species, by recognising danger and dealing with it. Using Black Swans to feel like you are winning may be survival of the fittest which ignores community, but caring for each other and the environment will always beat that. Te Ao Maori, the holistic view of people and environment will always call us Kiwi. You claim to be ahead of us, Not really. We as a people decided to honour our indigenous people, Beginning to compensate them by owning our mistakes. We have to overcome Seymour's racist ideas... but we believe we will. That is based on history not optimism. Brash tried and failed, Dotcom tried to warn us about the money mad billionaires club. We were not ready to listen, but most now know about Atlas. We are working towards a one term government. What do you see in our future.? Please use our situation, not the USA, by which such huge divisions and even stranger decisions are used to elect Leaders.
You have the optimism I had, 20 years ago. And like just about all of my friends in the states, 10 years ago. Virtually none of us sound like that now. It wasn’t a black swan on our side. Not a one-off. Interestingly, just about everyone there now believes black swans are as common as they can be found in so many waters here in Aotearoa. I truly hope your continued optimism is deserved. I’ve met way too many Seymours these last decades to dismiss him too as a black swan. My message is clear: it can happen anywhere. History tells us so. I hope you prevail here.
Heather Cox Richardson is worth following, explains daily happenings in detail with historical context (being a historian)
Yes indeed thanks to the internet we aren't buffered from the insanity any more :/ - to my mind it started with the insidious creep and influence of the media cancer that is Rupert Murdoch.
I haven't heard of "Autocracy in America" Mark - will check it out - I follow Heather Cox Richardson plus Noel Casler's sub stack and watch daily the Meidas Touch Network, Brian Tyler Cohen and the always excellent Glenn Kirschner who translates the legalise so well.
This is one hell of a read. Now I’m going to stretch my meagre digital knowledge and try to save it. Thanks again Nick and you too Mark Behnke for your insight.