The issue nobody will talk about

[aefenglommung]

I have said elsewhere that no matter who wins tomorrow, the outlook for the next four years is awful. In terms of the two big concerns - the economy and foreign affairs - Trump is marginally better than Harris (though I will vote for neither). And I’d rather have Republicans control Congress than the Democrats

Comments

[prester_scott]

Whence cometh this sudden and plenary injection of wisdom into both leaders and people? Wisdom, and indeed, unity of values and purpose? We are not one people; we are more divided than we've ever been. Like all Empires, we are held together only by the promise of money and the threat of force.

Everyone is going to cling to and scramble for as much as they can, right up until the figurative debt default asteroid hits. After it hits, there will be no more United States of America. I mean, the people and the stuff will all still be here, but the government that defaulted will be forced to disband. Then will commence a war of all against all, to grab the assets and to take advantage of the power vacuum. Some of the financially healthier States may survive and form a new coalition of some sort, but in other places, there will be anarchy. New nations will eventually emerge from Leviathan's corpse. All this is to say nothing of the effects of the blast wave on the rest of the world, which will be profound and of much the same character.

It'

[aefenglommung]

Forests need fire. They regenerate through fire. But when you stop natural fires for decades so that the dead wood builds up, when a fire finally does manage to take off, it erupts with far greater force and reaches up to the canopy. Then you have a disaster on your hands.

Fiscally, we have the same problem that the forest managers do. We've got to clear out all this duff before something gets away from us and we lose everything. Will we do it? I wouldn't lay bets that we will - but we should. And saying that is all I can do.