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Diana van Eyk's avatar

I'm hearing a lot of people expressing this sentiment. A sad state of affairs, Mike.

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Mike Hampton's avatar

That article is one of the best I've read, and I've read a lot. Really hammered home how tough life is for so many Americans.

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Constantine Markides's avatar

I heard Norman Finklestein yesterday talking about how he thought Trump would win despite the polling and that Ohio article fits right into what he was saying

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Mike Hampton's avatar

I 100% believed the Deep State would take Trump down, and everything was thrown at him. But when his ear got clipped, I 100% believed he would win. Then the debate happened, and he was double the moron Harris was. Not to mention his mind seems to be going the way of Biden’s. But religion is religion, and the USA is full of hate. I don;t know what will happen, but, as I said ages ago, I hope Trump wins because it may help end one war, and it will intensify America’s divide, and hopefully damage it more. It is only through damage that the world can take the long road to recovery. It’d be nice to become an old man thinking kindergarten kids will have a chance at a better life.

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Constantine Markides's avatar

Yeah, it's astonishing how in that debate he let her bait him time and time again. Double the moron there indeed. But I don't really see Trump anymore as all that antagonistic to the deep state like he was in 2016. He's brought the Mike Pompeos and the Nike Haleys back into the fold. He almost talks nowadays like an old school Reaganite Republican. But for sure, he's less reliable to those who run the administrative state than Kamala is. Less disciplined, less easy to control. Here's that Finklestein video in case you're curious. It touches on some of what you write about: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0iF9qUGvU3E

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Mike Hampton's avatar

"Astonishing." You're too kind - ha ha.

Trump will do anything for anyone who massages his ego. The FBI profilers will have his profile down to the finest hair.

Thanks. I'll watch it now.

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Mike Hampton's avatar

"She isn't even a zero, she's a minus one."

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Mark Taylor's avatar

Living in NE rural Wisconsin I can identify with most of what is in the article. In a nearby town where my family lived in the 1970s the Mirro Aluminium kitchenware factory is a completely levels concrete slabs with bits of twisted piping sticking out of the ground. Interestingly, they left the gothic front entry way standing, like a headstone over a grave.

Wisconsin once had a vibrant political tradition and scene with a lot of citizen engagement on both the right and left. But this paragraph stood out to me the most: "The turning point came after the Great Recession. In 2012, in 25 unique Beacon Journal focus groups exploring growing incivility and outright anger, participants invariably concluded at the end of each session that contacting elected representatives was of no value. Politicians don’t care, don’t listen, and instead manipulate."

I have called my "progressive" Democrat US senator, who is up for reelection several times a week since the beginning of the genocide and leave my phone number and request for a call back. They have never called.

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Mike Hampton's avatar

If you’re not raising money for them, then you’re no use.

‘Roger and Me’, 1989, is a relevant highlight in Michael Moore’s filmography.

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Angelina's avatar

Non-profit hospitals are total BS. Being "non-profit" simply means that all profits are being split between the doctors/high admin as their salaries, to avoid declaring profit as "profit."

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Mike Hampton's avatar

That bottom video underscored the fraud of it.

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Angelina's avatar

Thanks, I'll take a look. Was speaking from personal experience.

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AKcidentalwriter's avatar

This is rugged. Much of this mental illness is a silent malady that has expanded in the last thirty years in America. It has to be related to food and chemicals that are all around us.

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Mike Hampton's avatar

And an unconscious psychological reaction to the pathocracy.

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