Because the cognitive dissonance of a lefty is so strong, and more importantly, totally reflexive as Mr. Bray has so aptly pointed out, a challenge to their world view is unacceptable and will not be believed.
If the challenge to their world view is coming from an approved Dem mascot from their official Pyramid of Victims, like a European, muslim, gay, trans, or minority, that challenge is dismissed with prejudice, since the cognitive dissonance triggered by a Dem mascot is just not allowed. That fake mascot MUST be a plant, a set up, an evil Republican in disguise, because no Dem approved mascot would have such contrary thoughts. It just cannot be so!
If the grooming or lack thereof of the whiner is any indication, the impulse to eschew modern and convenient air conditioning and high water pressure shower nozzles contribute to a further shrinking brain
I know one thing, EVERTHING written in the Atlantic is fake except the twisted outlook of anyone who writes for it or reads it and takes it seriously. National Lampoon had more credibility.
Thanks for sharing those posts of brainwashed haters, I would not have seen them otherwise. It's hard to believe they actually exist. I am VERY glad we have a REAL President and leader of the Republic for this 250th Celebration. The flyovers are thrilling, exciting and patriotic. So are the speeches and fireworks.
I want to scream every time I hear the phrase “our democracy “!!! Especially when the word “saving” is in front of it! The word “republic” is not even in their vocabulary. The good news is that whenever you hear someone using that dreaded phrase, it’s a sure way to know that person is an uneducated fool. No need to waste your time with any further conversation.
Your last question is pure gold, I've been wondering that myself. I have to disagree with your statement about "brainwashed haters" though because in order to be brainwashed one must have a brain...
Chris, the misery etched on the faces of Mamdani’s guests spoke volumes. Do you think the AC was set at 78 degrees and they just could not wait to escape?
Kristof still going on about the "Nordic model” like a sophomore in a 1970s dorm discussion. Funny and sad that another promotor of mass immigration and “multiculturalism” picks a few small, white, ethnically homogeneous countries as models we should follow. (Though they’ve become less homogeneous in recent decades, and thus worse.) Why is no other “socialism” around the world worth emulating? Could there be something about Nordics that makes it work better there? As Milton Friedman famously said, there’s no poverty among Swedish-Americans, either.
You're so right. Kristof and the rest of 'em will never, EVER, emerge from their adolescent thinking. Grow up! Please, we're begging you backward teenagers to GROW UP.
So much of modern leftism is stuck in the past. They keep trying to recreate the glory days of the civil rights movement, and cosplay as “defenders of workers.” Awkwardly, the average American worker likes the USA, believes in law and order and two sexes, and lots more that “progressives” object to.
Oh yes, "awkwardly" (love that) the progressives themselves' embrace of all the trappings the good old USA has to offer. And without a twinge of embarrassment! It's enough, already.
Ironically, that paradox (or whatever it is) is what gave birth to Gramsci and the Frankfurt school of Marxism:
Gramsci and his contemporaries in several European nations found out to their horror, that what the working class wanted?
Was decent and fair pay, not dying or being made a crippled from working, health insurance, and a couple of weeks of free days they could use for going on vacation or holiday as agreed with the employer.
They said an almighty "Piss off!" to academic Marxism and communism, and remained reactionary, religious (or reason-based atheistic) and hide-bound nationalist tradionalists.
And of course, Gramsci et al being academics, they couldn't accept they were wrong and the plebs were right (in every sense) - no, instead they decided they needed a New Man so that the theory could be made to work.
They, the Gramscians and their ilk, are precisely who and what Brecht satirised after the uprising on the 17th of June 1953 in DDR:
"After the uprising of the 17th June
The Secretary of the Writers Union
Had leaflets distributed in the Stalinallee
Stating that the people
Had forfeited the confidence of the government
And could win it back only
By redoubled efforts. Would it not be easier
In that case for the government
To dissolve the people
And elect another?"
Original title is "Die Lösung", playing on the original German plan during WW2: "Die Endlösung" (the Final Solution).
Offshore oil wells are a big part of the Nordic Model.
Personally I think we should abandon the dialectic of socialism/ capitalism, and instead look for what works to make a good society to live in. Which would include ethnonationalism as a starting point.
Sweden benefitted from having a solid undestroyed industrial base with a highly skilled, trained and dilligent working-class after WW2. Denmark benefitted from the Danes being very clever - decptively clever - when it comes to business and innovation and adaptation/adoption of new technology.
Finland mainly has a work-ethic second to none, that means they tend to excel at whatever they really go all-in for.
As I rattle off in a comment of mine upstream, the USA cannot copy "the Nordic model" (what's left of it).
You are absolutely correct race-based nationalism is crucial and key.
Yet Kristof fails to discuss the Norwegian ‘monarchy’ in his Nordic Model piece. A country that is “ceremonially ruled” ruled by a King and Queen, who are old and in poor physical health. (Because they took the Jabs).
Then there is the ‘heir apparent’ Crown Prince Haakon, who is married to Crown Princess Mette-Marit who has serious links to Jeffrey Epstein, “saw her son in court for numerous charges, including rape, who also faces challenges to her health”.
Let us not forget King Harald and Queen Sonja’s daughter, Her Highness Princess Martha Louise, whose second husband is a “Black American self-styled shaman”, who is no longer “Her Royal Highness” and has abdicated all her responsibilities associated with monarchy. (There’s a very good Netflix documentary “Rebel Royals: An Unlikely Love Story” on their liaison, marriage , etc.)
So does Kristof’s “Nordic model” include supporting a monarchy, a King and Queen? I thought types like Kristof and his ilk were of the “No Kings” school of thinking? How about His Royal Highness Donald J Trump and Her Royal Highness Queen Melania? 😉🤪
You know, It'd be really funny if you or someone else could get him to try and answer that. Norway, Denmark and Sweden are kingdoms (Denmark possibly the oldest unified kingdom in the world still up and running at that) - if this Kristoff-humanoid wanted a republic model nation, he'd look at either Iceland or Finland.
Our king (Sweden) is a pretty chill dude, though is rather old now. His main hobbies when not on the job are hunting, fishing and tooling about in classic sports-cars, and according to gossip from people who did their military service as part of the Royal Bodyguards, he's very much an Everyman Joe in attitude when in private - the kinging bit is his job and duty, rather than identity, if gossip is to be believed.
I feel for Kristof to think we (in the USA) could benefit from the “Nordic model” is yet another delusion of the lefty, liberal journalists and pundits. All the countries you mentioned, including Sweden are quite small. They have a relatively ‘small government’ footprint compared to us in the USA, with a huge, bloated and in debt government that supports a huge military/defense budget, the poor (illegal migrants and the indigent) and the scammer NGO’s and NPO’s.
The only reason I care at all about what the left thinks is because I live on an area where I am outnumbered and they are networked, at any time soros or Biden or the WEF or some NGO can blow a whistle and point at me and they all attack because anti vaxxer or denier or MAGA or whatever. Else the proper response to whatever they say is “go get some more boosters,Karen”. And move on.
The bottom line with these À-Holes…if you’re not on the same chapter they are on in their ‘talking points memo/playbook primer’, then the ONLY alternative is that you must be a MAGA, right winger Trumper and heaven forbid if they find out you’re on the Anti-Vaxx side of things. I know this from personal experience.
They are at my local drug store and Safeway where they have banners and recoded announcements. There are often a few masked sided eyed people in line… but basically it is just an easy way to dismiss the narrative of the day.
I still do, in my silly-ass college town. It always pisses me off, because it's SO stupid. Do these people still think they're in danger of The Coof, or are they just virtue signaling?
Roger that, and has anyone noticed this: whenever I'm behind a Prius driver, they're always going a few miles below the speed limit (at best), and when pulling away from a stop sign or making a turn, they move e-v-e-r s-o s-l-o-w-l-y. To me it feels like they're making a statement, that they own the road because their life is *so* important and we Deplorables just have to deal with their little self-centered ego trip.
These people (I call them The Filth) are sick...very sick. We could spend hours cataloguing their problems, including negative identity, weak self-image, infantility, bicameral mind, Cluster B syndrome, etc., but it would be as boring as their behaviors are. I think Chris has it right that we should go out there and seek the real world and real people. There are still a lot of healthy people (and perhaps even healthy communities) out there. What can be done about The Filth? I don't know, but I'm more convinced than ever that we need to go our own way. Living well is the best revenge!
You can't copy "the Nordic model", for several reasons.
For starters, you aren't Nordics. Second, our model only works for us, and then only when our nations were ethnically-racially-culturally homogenous; dislike that anyone who feel they must, but it is true. Our model was not so much a consciously designed top-down design, as it was something that grew naturally from our heritage, history and way of lie.
And that's not something you can replicate via political fiat.
Thirdly, the Nordic nations were largely untouched by WW2 (esp. Sweden) and so were well-placed to provide industrial production for the rebuilding of Europe - agains something not readily replicable just because someone says so. The financial and infrastructural foundation for what we are enjoying was laid between 1920s to 1950s, and was possible due to lots and lots of historical circumstances not applicable to ppresent-day USA in the slightest.
Fourthly, the difference in scale and scope and size means lots of stuff is best handled at state or lower level rather than federal in your case, whereas the size of our nations means cookie-cutter one-sie-fits-none solutions can be made to work (though more local adaptations would be beneficial here too - makes no sense for Scania down south to have the same regs for snow removal as Kiruna that's 200km north of the Polar circle f.e.).
That's not to say there aren't individual stuff you could look at and be inspired by. We surely could do with copying your 1st and 2nd amendments, to pick an obvious choice.
As I'm typing this I'm sipping a trappist ale out of Belgium. Cost? The eq. of $2 from the state's monopoly-store over in town, pretty much the same as in the USA if my AI-search is to be believed.
So I'm raising the bottle and saying "Happy two-fifty USAmericans! You earned it!" - cheers!
Thanks, Rikard! What you described as the smaller Scandinavian countries managing themselves locally is the vision I think our founders had for the USA. Our Federal government was established only to referee conflicts among our states and to ease commerce between them. Somehow it has morphed into a behemoth that has its tentacles in every aspect of our lives. Then, “SOMEONE”realized it was easier to take control of THAT one government rather than 50 of them.
Beware of that “SOMEONE” hijacking the EU, although from what I’ve observed from overseas is that it may be too late for that.
The EU highjacked itself - originally, the intent was what you describe, a quorom and forum for trade-disputes and for solving inter- and intra-nation conflicts locally.
From the 1970s-1990s a movement grew within (the seeds were part of the founding and dates back to the 1920s) that strove for "an ever-closer Union", the goal being a European super-state.
Part of why the UK joined was for them to be able to wreck that process as a unified continental power has been their bugbear since the 11th century.
It is irksome in the extreme that our respective leader-castes cannot understand that allowing local power defuses conflicts and provides them with cheaper oversight than does outright coercive control.
The EU, and the USA but a much lesser extent, have a lot of people who do not understand why the USSR failed and so they are trying their darndest to replicate all its faults, without even being actual Communists.
I am fortunate to have been born in the U.S. in the 60s, to have come of age in the 70s, graduated college and law school in the 80s and to have lived a decent life. I am the son of an immigrant father who spent his formative years as a refugee and a mother who was raised in the Bronx in a walk-up apartment building with neighbors who my grandfather described as “Otto, a German a cop” and Mr. Santino, an Italian, a garbage man.” My maternal grandfather worked six, often seven, days a week as salesmen for a crappy clothing chain. My family was not privileged, but they loved America, we’re grateful to be here and believed that in America that their children and grandchildren would have better lives. They instilled that belief in me. My elementary school teachers did so as well.
I took the opportunity to do well in school, work hard and achieve success. I have also had the opportunity to read, fiction and non-fiction, consider important issues, to participate in my community and work on everyday issues that make life livable.
I don’t know why certain people, often referred to as “midwits” by the great Substacker, El Gato Malo, who have no discernible wisdom despite their self-regard, think they have the right to look down on people who love this country and make it work. By background and education, I should be one of them, but thank God I’m not. They have credentials but don’t know shit from Shinola.
Hear! Hear! You described my life as you described yours.👍 We all had setbacks, disappointments, losses, but didn’t blame “The Man”. Persevere and continue to pursue. Enjoy the life you built for yourself. 🍻
I view the entire demoralizing message as if coming from one of those creepy dolls that talk, but now it’s broken, one eye permanently closed, missing an arm and stuck on one phrase: I GO POTTY!
Millions enjoyed this weekend and they can’t have it. The message goes out that you can’t be happy or joyful or patriotic and if you are, we’re here to remind you that you’re out of place and we’re going to smack you back into the misery box.
Excuse me for blasphemy on Sunday-fuck those people.
They are stupid, vapid race grifters who are literally advocating for their own demise, but think somehow they will be a full Party Member and make grand central decisions that leads us all to a workers paradise.
You all want to make America a great place? Stop immigration and bring manufacturing back home so all men in the USA will have a potential future with a good job. It is that simple. Instead, so many men have no future (guess what, not everyone should go to college, they aren'tsmart wnough or inclined to think the big thoughts), so the men turn to drugs, which leads to incarceration and homelessness.
These Commies people are so insufferable.
And Kristoff owning himself with his "But America was on a similar track in the 1960s and 1960s..." What happened Bill? Immigration and factory closures. God, he is such a tard. Openly points to the years where our Uni-Parties screwed the USA.
"somehow they will be a full Party Member and make grand central decisions"
'Main Character Syndrome' does seem to be rampant amongst Leftists. I remember on twitter awhile ago a famous Leftist started a thread asking everyone to say what they'd do Come the Revolution. It was all wishful thinking and wankery, until those on the Right found the thread and began replying to most of the answers with something like, "That's nice, but you've been assigned to People's Iron Mine #23432, I hope you know how to use a shovel."
Similarly, from a pre WWII era joke about a Revolutionary spouting off on a Soap Box on Speaker's Corner of Hyde Park in London, where all such speakers are restricted, to help prevent problems with foot and motor traffic ....
10 minutes into his speech, he hits his denouement - "And, Come the Revolution, we'll all be able to ride horses in The Park on Sundays!"
To which a heckler replied, "Oi Mate, what if I don't wanna ride a stinking horse on Sunday?"
"Come the Revolution, Mate, you'll do as you are TOLD!"
Not that I know of. He’s a long time East Coast/New York located journalist. He grew up in Oregon and went to college (Harvard) in the East and stayed.
Oh…I see that he was raised in Oregon. He did make a bid to run for Governor of Oregon in October 2021.
In January 2022, the Oregon Secretary of State announced that Kristof was “ineligible to run as he did not meet the state’s residency requirements”. He then returned to his job as columnist at the NYT later that year.
Mamdani nailed “The Wretched of the Earth” and the “wretched refuse of your teeming shore” for his 4th of July photoshoot cast. Those poor people—forced to become American citizens.
Think of how profound it is....to be here, alive, in America, celebrating 250 years. What an absolute joy. There is nothing that will make these miserable people happy. Ignore them. To all my fellow patriots - Happy Birthday Amercia! God Bless the USA!!!
The zombie army of AWFLs is truly terrifying. Imagine them coming at you over the barricades, screeching and finger pointing, but also covering their ears because of the nasty bang bang sounds coming from all the guns.
Happy Birthday USA. My mother’s family went to what is now (what’s left of) Canada after the Revolutionary War ended. That now seems, unequivocally, to have been a mistake.
Half of my Mother's family moved to Canada during the Revolutionary half stayed in Boston. Funny, a few generations on, several moved back to Boston. Three of the girls became telephone operators and my Great Grandfather, then retired from farming, took a job as an Otus Elevator operator.
My paternal ancestors were Pennsylvania Quakers who left the Philadelphia area (Germantown) when their pacifism made them unpopular in the immediate aftermath of the Revolution. They appear to have briefly stayed on the Canadian side of Lake Erie but eventually moved back to the US side -- in the Buffalo area of New York which had recently been opened for settlement after the Iroquois (who had sided with the British) were forced to cede their lands there.
I'm not aware of any record of how they squared that opportunism with their other principles regarding fair dealing with the Indians. But they weren't alone: there seem to have been many fellow Quakers settling in that area.
The average voter is sane enough to reject Newsomism. Darn few people will say: “Yes, please tax my health insurance so that endless illegals can get free care, and so kids can get trans surgery against their parent’s wishes!”
July 1st, saw a 2 cent per gallon raise to our Gas Taxes in California! Thanks Gavin! Yet he blames the high fuel cost on Trump's fight in Iran. The trouble is, we had the highest gas taxes before the latest Iran issue! The price at the pump had fallen 25 cents for me, and I have to purchase premium for my car. Thankfully, we are retired and don't have to commute regularly anymore, so his HOV lanes that we all paid for and his gas taxes, hurt others far more than they do us.
I haven't checked to see where we stand in comparison to California, but it's the same story up here in Washington state. High gas taxes thanks to former Gov. Inslee's climate change crusade -- and despite the fact that prices at the pump were already high the local Dems are blaming it all on the war with Iran.
Like you, I'm retired and don't drive much other than a weekly 5 minute trip to the nearest grocery store. But lately I have been buying premium gas for my 25yo pickup in order to finish curing some problems with cheap Arco gas that had some water in it. Thought I was going to have to put the old girl down but thankfully she's recovered and looks like we're going to have several more years together...
As a Canadian who wishes to be American, take it from me that the so-called Nordic model is full of crap. Canada is currently going bankrupt because of our socialist policies and programs. Canadians are poorer than ever with horrible healthcare conditions. Thousands die on wait lists to see doctors who are moving to the US in greater numbers than ever. Our illegals get better healthcare than citizens who pay unbelievable taxes. Do not emulate this failed system.
What do they make of hundreds of X videos from visitors all over world praising middle America? Are they even aware of them?
Because the cognitive dissonance of a lefty is so strong, and more importantly, totally reflexive as Mr. Bray has so aptly pointed out, a challenge to their world view is unacceptable and will not be believed.
If the challenge to their world view is coming from an approved Dem mascot from their official Pyramid of Victims, like a European, muslim, gay, trans, or minority, that challenge is dismissed with prejudice, since the cognitive dissonance triggered by a Dem mascot is just not allowed. That fake mascot MUST be a plant, a set up, an evil Republican in disguise, because no Dem approved mascot would have such contrary thoughts. It just cannot be so!
Wait, they have a WORLDVIEW???? Who knew!
Limited, narrow, and exclusionary!
Probably blame it on Fox News being available internationally.
If the grooming or lack thereof of the whiner is any indication, the impulse to eschew modern and convenient air conditioning and high water pressure shower nozzles contribute to a further shrinking brain
"Es Chew". I first learned it in the 5th grade.
Wasn’t there an Atlantic article claiming that they’re fake, or at least, not spontaneous but instead somehow engineered (by whom?)?
I know one thing, EVERTHING written in the Atlantic is fake except the twisted outlook of anyone who writes for it or reads it and takes it seriously. National Lampoon had more credibility.
Are you talking about the videos being fake or the humans being fake? Or maybe both?
Thanks for sharing those posts of brainwashed haters, I would not have seen them otherwise. It's hard to believe they actually exist. I am VERY glad we have a REAL President and leader of the Republic for this 250th Celebration. The flyovers are thrilling, exciting and patriotic. So are the speeches and fireworks.
Will they ever realize we are not a "democracy"?
I want to scream every time I hear the phrase “our democracy “!!! Especially when the word “saving” is in front of it! The word “republic” is not even in their vocabulary. The good news is that whenever you hear someone using that dreaded phrase, it’s a sure way to know that person is an uneducated fool. No need to waste your time with any further conversation.
I'm with you, feel the same way when I hear "our democracy".
For a while, it was “muh democracy.” Got tired of that, too.
at the risk of overkill, it's never too late to revisit a classic https://rumble.com/v20qkz4-this-is-extremely-dangerous-to-our-democracy.html
“Our Democracy™️”
Your last question is pure gold, I've been wondering that myself. I have to disagree with your statement about "brainwashed haters" though because in order to be brainwashed one must have a brain...
Perhaps we could say that they get regular firmware updates.
Although in their case, I would argue that it's limpware.
Most definitely yes!
I like the way you think!
Not original with me...can't remember where I read it first...but it sure fits, doesn't it?
Probably in more ways than one - but I won't go there. :)
Chris, the misery etched on the faces of Mamdani’s guests spoke volumes. Do you think the AC was set at 78 degrees and they just could not wait to escape?
I don't know but I suspect their I.Q is set at 78.
hostages.
The lucky ones get shot. The unlucky ones have to listen to speeches.
Have to ask - was it a requirement to be fat in order to surround the communist Mamdani?
You never know. They might be trying to make him look awesome by comparison.
I wondered too. Aren’t they brand new citizens? Why did they bother?
They swore their oath on the Koran to uphold Sharia, not The Constitution.
Kristof still going on about the "Nordic model” like a sophomore in a 1970s dorm discussion. Funny and sad that another promotor of mass immigration and “multiculturalism” picks a few small, white, ethnically homogeneous countries as models we should follow. (Though they’ve become less homogeneous in recent decades, and thus worse.) Why is no other “socialism” around the world worth emulating? Could there be something about Nordics that makes it work better there? As Milton Friedman famously said, there’s no poverty among Swedish-Americans, either.
You're so right. Kristof and the rest of 'em will never, EVER, emerge from their adolescent thinking. Grow up! Please, we're begging you backward teenagers to GROW UP.
So much of modern leftism is stuck in the past. They keep trying to recreate the glory days of the civil rights movement, and cosplay as “defenders of workers.” Awkwardly, the average American worker likes the USA, believes in law and order and two sexes, and lots more that “progressives” object to.
Righto! What is “ No Kings” but Woodstock without the sex, drugs and rock and roll?
Oh and a lot of older white people who are Jabbed Up with the C*V*D shots and boosters.
Oh yes, "awkwardly" (love that) the progressives themselves' embrace of all the trappings the good old USA has to offer. And without a twinge of embarrassment! It's enough, already.
Except back in “their glory days” they hated government. Now they love it.
Indeed. It’s been especially funny since Trump, with the left defending the honor of the FBI, CIA, and the Deep State.
Ha! Ha! Beware of The Man!!
Ironically, that paradox (or whatever it is) is what gave birth to Gramsci and the Frankfurt school of Marxism:
Gramsci and his contemporaries in several European nations found out to their horror, that what the working class wanted?
Was decent and fair pay, not dying or being made a crippled from working, health insurance, and a couple of weeks of free days they could use for going on vacation or holiday as agreed with the employer.
They said an almighty "Piss off!" to academic Marxism and communism, and remained reactionary, religious (or reason-based atheistic) and hide-bound nationalist tradionalists.
And of course, Gramsci et al being academics, they couldn't accept they were wrong and the plebs were right (in every sense) - no, instead they decided they needed a New Man so that the theory could be made to work.
They, the Gramscians and their ilk, are precisely who and what Brecht satirised after the uprising on the 17th of June 1953 in DDR:
"After the uprising of the 17th June
The Secretary of the Writers Union
Had leaflets distributed in the Stalinallee
Stating that the people
Had forfeited the confidence of the government
And could win it back only
By redoubled efforts. Would it not be easier
In that case for the government
To dissolve the people
And elect another?"
Original title is "Die Lösung", playing on the original German plan during WW2: "Die Endlösung" (the Final Solution).
Plenty of leftists over here in Sweden - birthplace of Kristof's "Nordic model" - also argue, thinkfeel and reason as if it's 1975.
Even the ones born much more recent than that! Rebels without a clue, they are.
Offshore oil wells are a big part of the Nordic Model.
Personally I think we should abandon the dialectic of socialism/ capitalism, and instead look for what works to make a good society to live in. Which would include ethnonationalism as a starting point.
That's Norway, that has the gas and oil.
Sweden benefitted from having a solid undestroyed industrial base with a highly skilled, trained and dilligent working-class after WW2. Denmark benefitted from the Danes being very clever - decptively clever - when it comes to business and innovation and adaptation/adoption of new technology.
Finland mainly has a work-ethic second to none, that means they tend to excel at whatever they really go all-in for.
As I rattle off in a comment of mine upstream, the USA cannot copy "the Nordic model" (what's left of it).
You are absolutely correct race-based nationalism is crucial and key.
"Kristof still going on about the "Nordic model” like a sophomore in a 1970s dorm discussion."
.....Except that those 1970's dorm discussions were sometimes funny and could be interesting at times, and there was often beer.
Observing Kristoff is never funny, never interesting and drinking beer whilst reading Kristoff, leads to clinical depression.
Yet Kristof fails to discuss the Norwegian ‘monarchy’ in his Nordic Model piece. A country that is “ceremonially ruled” ruled by a King and Queen, who are old and in poor physical health. (Because they took the Jabs).
Then there is the ‘heir apparent’ Crown Prince Haakon, who is married to Crown Princess Mette-Marit who has serious links to Jeffrey Epstein, “saw her son in court for numerous charges, including rape, who also faces challenges to her health”.
Let us not forget King Harald and Queen Sonja’s daughter, Her Highness Princess Martha Louise, whose second husband is a “Black American self-styled shaman”, who is no longer “Her Royal Highness” and has abdicated all her responsibilities associated with monarchy. (There’s a very good Netflix documentary “Rebel Royals: An Unlikely Love Story” on their liaison, marriage , etc.)
So does Kristof’s “Nordic model” include supporting a monarchy, a King and Queen? I thought types like Kristof and his ilk were of the “No Kings” school of thinking? How about His Royal Highness Donald J Trump and Her Royal Highness Queen Melania? 😉🤪
You know, It'd be really funny if you or someone else could get him to try and answer that. Norway, Denmark and Sweden are kingdoms (Denmark possibly the oldest unified kingdom in the world still up and running at that) - if this Kristoff-humanoid wanted a republic model nation, he'd look at either Iceland or Finland.
Our king (Sweden) is a pretty chill dude, though is rather old now. His main hobbies when not on the job are hunting, fishing and tooling about in classic sports-cars, and according to gossip from people who did their military service as part of the Royal Bodyguards, he's very much an Everyman Joe in attitude when in private - the kinging bit is his job and duty, rather than identity, if gossip is to be believed.
I feel for Kristof to think we (in the USA) could benefit from the “Nordic model” is yet another delusion of the lefty, liberal journalists and pundits. All the countries you mentioned, including Sweden are quite small. They have a relatively ‘small government’ footprint compared to us in the USA, with a huge, bloated and in debt government that supports a huge military/defense budget, the poor (illegal migrants and the indigent) and the scammer NGO’s and NPO’s.
The only reason I care at all about what the left thinks is because I live on an area where I am outnumbered and they are networked, at any time soros or Biden or the WEF or some NGO can blow a whistle and point at me and they all attack because anti vaxxer or denier or MAGA or whatever. Else the proper response to whatever they say is “go get some more boosters,Karen”. And move on.
The bottom line with these À-Holes…if you’re not on the same chapter they are on in their ‘talking points memo/playbook primer’, then the ONLY alternative is that you must be a MAGA, right winger Trumper and heaven forbid if they find out you’re on the Anti-Vaxx side of things. I know this from personal experience.
Are COVID boosters still a 'thing'?
They are at my local drug store and Safeway where they have banners and recoded announcements. There are often a few masked sided eyed people in line… but basically it is just an easy way to dismiss the narrative of the day.
So you see masked people driving around alone in their cars too I guess? 🤣🤣
I still do, in my silly-ass college town. It always pisses me off, because it's SO stupid. Do these people still think they're in danger of The Coof, or are they just virtue signaling?
Both.
The fact that they are usually driving priuses should be a hint.
Polluting the air with smug.
Roger that, and has anyone noticed this: whenever I'm behind a Prius driver, they're always going a few miles below the speed limit (at best), and when pulling away from a stop sign or making a turn, they move e-v-e-r s-o s-l-o-w-l-y. To me it feels like they're making a statement, that they own the road because their life is *so* important and we Deplorables just have to deal with their little self-centered ego trip.
Yes , the ACOG still wants every pregnant woman jabbed
These people (I call them The Filth) are sick...very sick. We could spend hours cataloguing their problems, including negative identity, weak self-image, infantility, bicameral mind, Cluster B syndrome, etc., but it would be as boring as their behaviors are. I think Chris has it right that we should go out there and seek the real world and real people. There are still a lot of healthy people (and perhaps even healthy communities) out there. What can be done about The Filth? I don't know, but I'm more convinced than ever that we need to go our own way. Living well is the best revenge!
Maybe you need a Filth Amendment.
Among other things, it would state that we have the right to have The Filth remain silent...
A fifth of Jack Daniel’s would be fine with me…except that’d have the opposite effect of the fifth amendment on me. 😁🥴
You can't copy "the Nordic model", for several reasons.
For starters, you aren't Nordics. Second, our model only works for us, and then only when our nations were ethnically-racially-culturally homogenous; dislike that anyone who feel they must, but it is true. Our model was not so much a consciously designed top-down design, as it was something that grew naturally from our heritage, history and way of lie.
And that's not something you can replicate via political fiat.
Thirdly, the Nordic nations were largely untouched by WW2 (esp. Sweden) and so were well-placed to provide industrial production for the rebuilding of Europe - agains something not readily replicable just because someone says so. The financial and infrastructural foundation for what we are enjoying was laid between 1920s to 1950s, and was possible due to lots and lots of historical circumstances not applicable to ppresent-day USA in the slightest.
Fourthly, the difference in scale and scope and size means lots of stuff is best handled at state or lower level rather than federal in your case, whereas the size of our nations means cookie-cutter one-sie-fits-none solutions can be made to work (though more local adaptations would be beneficial here too - makes no sense for Scania down south to have the same regs for snow removal as Kiruna that's 200km north of the Polar circle f.e.).
That's not to say there aren't individual stuff you could look at and be inspired by. We surely could do with copying your 1st and 2nd amendments, to pick an obvious choice.
As I'm typing this I'm sipping a trappist ale out of Belgium. Cost? The eq. of $2 from the state's monopoly-store over in town, pretty much the same as in the USA if my AI-search is to be believed.
So I'm raising the bottle and saying "Happy two-fifty USAmericans! You earned it!" - cheers!
Nailed it: "our nations were ethnically-racially-culturally homogenous"
Thanks, Rikard! What you described as the smaller Scandinavian countries managing themselves locally is the vision I think our founders had for the USA. Our Federal government was established only to referee conflicts among our states and to ease commerce between them. Somehow it has morphed into a behemoth that has its tentacles in every aspect of our lives. Then, “SOMEONE”realized it was easier to take control of THAT one government rather than 50 of them.
Beware of that “SOMEONE” hijacking the EU, although from what I’ve observed from overseas is that it may be too late for that.
The EU highjacked itself - originally, the intent was what you describe, a quorom and forum for trade-disputes and for solving inter- and intra-nation conflicts locally.
From the 1970s-1990s a movement grew within (the seeds were part of the founding and dates back to the 1920s) that strove for "an ever-closer Union", the goal being a European super-state.
Part of why the UK joined was for them to be able to wreck that process as a unified continental power has been their bugbear since the 11th century.
It is irksome in the extreme that our respective leader-castes cannot understand that allowing local power defuses conflicts and provides them with cheaper oversight than does outright coercive control.
The EU, and the USA but a much lesser extent, have a lot of people who do not understand why the USSR failed and so they are trying their darndest to replicate all its faults, without even being actual Communists.
I am fortunate to have been born in the U.S. in the 60s, to have come of age in the 70s, graduated college and law school in the 80s and to have lived a decent life. I am the son of an immigrant father who spent his formative years as a refugee and a mother who was raised in the Bronx in a walk-up apartment building with neighbors who my grandfather described as “Otto, a German a cop” and Mr. Santino, an Italian, a garbage man.” My maternal grandfather worked six, often seven, days a week as salesmen for a crappy clothing chain. My family was not privileged, but they loved America, we’re grateful to be here and believed that in America that their children and grandchildren would have better lives. They instilled that belief in me. My elementary school teachers did so as well.
I took the opportunity to do well in school, work hard and achieve success. I have also had the opportunity to read, fiction and non-fiction, consider important issues, to participate in my community and work on everyday issues that make life livable.
I don’t know why certain people, often referred to as “midwits” by the great Substacker, El Gato Malo, who have no discernible wisdom despite their self-regard, think they have the right to look down on people who love this country and make it work. By background and education, I should be one of them, but thank God I’m not. They have credentials but don’t know shit from Shinola.
Hear! Hear! You described my life as you described yours.👍 We all had setbacks, disappointments, losses, but didn’t blame “The Man”. Persevere and continue to pursue. Enjoy the life you built for yourself. 🍻
I view the entire demoralizing message as if coming from one of those creepy dolls that talk, but now it’s broken, one eye permanently closed, missing an arm and stuck on one phrase: I GO POTTY!
Millions enjoyed this weekend and they can’t have it. The message goes out that you can’t be happy or joyful or patriotic and if you are, we’re here to remind you that you’re out of place and we’re going to smack you back into the misery box.
Kristoff is the embodiment of malaise.
Excuse me for blasphemy on Sunday-fuck those people.
They are stupid, vapid race grifters who are literally advocating for their own demise, but think somehow they will be a full Party Member and make grand central decisions that leads us all to a workers paradise.
You all want to make America a great place? Stop immigration and bring manufacturing back home so all men in the USA will have a potential future with a good job. It is that simple. Instead, so many men have no future (guess what, not everyone should go to college, they aren'tsmart wnough or inclined to think the big thoughts), so the men turn to drugs, which leads to incarceration and homelessness.
These Commies people are so insufferable.
And Kristoff owning himself with his "But America was on a similar track in the 1960s and 1960s..." What happened Bill? Immigration and factory closures. God, he is such a tard. Openly points to the years where our Uni-Parties screwed the USA.
Hope you guys had a great 4th! I did.
"somehow they will be a full Party Member and make grand central decisions"
'Main Character Syndrome' does seem to be rampant amongst Leftists. I remember on twitter awhile ago a famous Leftist started a thread asking everyone to say what they'd do Come the Revolution. It was all wishful thinking and wankery, until those on the Right found the thread and began replying to most of the answers with something like, "That's nice, but you've been assigned to People's Iron Mine #23432, I hope you know how to use a shovel."
The butthurt was glorious.
Similarly, from a pre WWII era joke about a Revolutionary spouting off on a Soap Box on Speaker's Corner of Hyde Park in London, where all such speakers are restricted, to help prevent problems with foot and motor traffic ....
10 minutes into his speech, he hits his denouement - "And, Come the Revolution, we'll all be able to ride horses in The Park on Sundays!"
To which a heckler replied, "Oi Mate, what if I don't wanna ride a stinking horse on Sunday?"
"Come the Revolution, Mate, you'll do as you are TOLD!"
ck
It was Nicholas Kristof, an American journalist and political commentator, that wrote about “the Nordic model”.
Not Bill Kristol, the American ‘war hawk’, neoconservative writer.
Didn’t Kristof run a failed campaign for office out in the Pacific Northwest somewhere?
Not that I know of. He’s a long time East Coast/New York located journalist. He grew up in Oregon and went to college (Harvard) in the East and stayed.
Oh…I see that he was raised in Oregon. He did make a bid to run for Governor of Oregon in October 2021.
In January 2022, the Oregon Secretary of State announced that Kristof was “ineligible to run as he did not meet the state’s residency requirements”. He then returned to his job as columnist at the NYT later that year.
And not Harry who met Sally.
It turns out that really, for sure, the Constitution is a suicide pact.
Mamdani nailed “The Wretched of the Earth” and the “wretched refuse of your teeming shore” for his 4th of July photoshoot cast. Those poor people—forced to become American citizens.
lol!
Think of how profound it is....to be here, alive, in America, celebrating 250 years. What an absolute joy. There is nothing that will make these miserable people happy. Ignore them. To all my fellow patriots - Happy Birthday Amercia! God Bless the USA!!!
The zombie army of AWFLs is truly terrifying. Imagine them coming at you over the barricades, screeching and finger pointing, but also covering their ears because of the nasty bang bang sounds coming from all the guns.
they always make sure someone else is doing the fighting
They're not armed but they are from HR and are coming to make sure you've done your woke compliance checks!
Happy Birthday USA. My mother’s family went to what is now (what’s left of) Canada after the Revolutionary War ended. That now seems, unequivocally, to have been a mistake.
Half of my Mother's family moved to Canada during the Revolutionary half stayed in Boston. Funny, a few generations on, several moved back to Boston. Three of the girls became telephone operators and my Great Grandfather, then retired from farming, took a job as an Otus Elevator operator.
My paternal ancestors were Pennsylvania Quakers who left the Philadelphia area (Germantown) when their pacifism made them unpopular in the immediate aftermath of the Revolution. They appear to have briefly stayed on the Canadian side of Lake Erie but eventually moved back to the US side -- in the Buffalo area of New York which had recently been opened for settlement after the Iroquois (who had sided with the British) were forced to cede their lands there.
I'm not aware of any record of how they squared that opportunism with their other principles regarding fair dealing with the Indians. But they weren't alone: there seem to have been many fellow Quakers settling in that area.
Germantown was subsequently colonized by African savages.
Ja doch, die schwarze Deutschen.
United Empire Loyalists! On my grandfathers side.
And then …. I read that the empty suit that runs our gorgeous hell hole just signed two more tax bills
While giving a speech about how bad Donald Trump is.
How does he manage to do two incredibly horrid things at once with any brain cells?
And who are the boneheads who think Newsom has a chance as a national candidate in 2028?
In any *sane* world he'd have no chance. Just sayin'...
The average voter is sane enough to reject Newsomism. Darn few people will say: “Yes, please tax my health insurance so that endless illegals can get free care, and so kids can get trans surgery against their parent’s wishes!”
I hope you're right...but I've learned to never underestimate how absurd things can get.
Big caveat...
No one, outside of the Party
July 1st, saw a 2 cent per gallon raise to our Gas Taxes in California! Thanks Gavin! Yet he blames the high fuel cost on Trump's fight in Iran. The trouble is, we had the highest gas taxes before the latest Iran issue! The price at the pump had fallen 25 cents for me, and I have to purchase premium for my car. Thankfully, we are retired and don't have to commute regularly anymore, so his HOV lanes that we all paid for and his gas taxes, hurt others far more than they do us.
I haven't checked to see where we stand in comparison to California, but it's the same story up here in Washington state. High gas taxes thanks to former Gov. Inslee's climate change crusade -- and despite the fact that prices at the pump were already high the local Dems are blaming it all on the war with Iran.
Like you, I'm retired and don't drive much other than a weekly 5 minute trip to the nearest grocery store. But lately I have been buying premium gas for my 25yo pickup in order to finish curing some problems with cheap Arco gas that had some water in it. Thought I was going to have to put the old girl down but thankfully she's recovered and looks like we're going to have several more years together...
If it was Iran every state would be as high as California. This kind of stupidity is intolerable
The average loony lefty in cali thinks they are subsidizing the low gas prices in flyoverland.
I really hope it’s not contagious
As a Canadian who wishes to be American, take it from me that the so-called Nordic model is full of crap. Canada is currently going bankrupt because of our socialist policies and programs. Canadians are poorer than ever with horrible healthcare conditions. Thousands die on wait lists to see doctors who are moving to the US in greater numbers than ever. Our illegals get better healthcare than citizens who pay unbelievable taxes. Do not emulate this failed system.