oldshurst442

@ccap41 https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2021/01/06/donald-trumps-america-$h!hole-countries-455692 Trump’s America Becomes One of Those ‘$h!hole Countries’ Republicans made their bargain with the president and the cost is coming due. https://cepr.net/publications/is-donald-trump-turning-the-united-states-into-a-$h!hole-country/ https://medium.com/this-america/its-time-to-admit-it-the-u-s-is-a-failed-state-2cadd508edc5 US Politics | Collapse | Trump It’s Time to Admit It: The U.S. is a Failed State The vaunted ‘American Experiment’ is now… OVER Richard Lowenthal Follow 8 min read · Sep 14, 2025 1.8K 26 The time has come to finally, belatedly admit the US is a failed nation-state. Not only that, its failures are now multiplying at an astonishing rate. The rest of the world is watching in shocked horror as the former ‘shining city on the hill’ spirals down into hate, misogyny, corruption, rampant racism, and murderous rage. Press enter or click to view image in full size Protesters hold signs and flags and a large balloon with an image of U.S. President Donald Trump during the nationwide "Hands Off!" protest against Trump and his adviser, Tesla CEO Elon Musk, in downtown Los Angeles on April 5, 2025. (Photo: Etienne Laurent/AFP via Getty Images) Is the US on the Path to Becoming a Failed State? The deliberate undermining of democratic norms and the conflation of personal power with national interest are consistent with patterns seen in states that have tipped into authoritarian rule. Jesse Mackinnon Jun 09, 2025Common Dreams The United States has entered a phase that resembles the early stages of state failure. What once seemed impossible in a country with vast resources and robust democratic traditions now appears increasingly plausible. The signs are evident. A government that has turned inward and become both self-protective and vindictive. An economy that is straining under a combination of political hubris and international estrangement. A population facing widening inequality and the fraying of social bonds. Historical examples of state collapse reveal that such trajectories, once set in motion, become difficult to reverse. For centrist Democrats who have long believed in the resilience of American institutions, it is essential to understand the historical precedents and the structural forces at play. RECOMMENDED... ‘Peace’ Has No Meaning When Right-Wingers Like Maria Corina Machado Win the Nobel Prize Charlie Kirk’s Toxic Legacy of Hatred and Division State failure is not typically marked by a single event. It is a process that begins with the corrosion of political legitimacy and ends in the disintegration of central authority. In the United States, this erosion of legitimacy can be seen in the deliberate politicization of the civil service and the Justice Department, the relentless attacks on the press and civil society, and the hollowing out of regulatory agencies through mass firings and loyalty tests. Historical parallels can be found in the final years of the Roman Republic, where the Senate’s inability to manage domestic discontent and external pressures created a vacuum for strongmen like Julius Caesar to exploit. In a more modern example, Weimar Germany’s democratic institutions were systematically undermined by the combined effects of economic crisis and political extremism, leading to the Nazi seizure of power. The United States has survived grave challenges before, but its survival has always depended on a functioning state that could reconcile competing interests and adapt to new circumstances. Today, that state is being systematically dismantled. Economically, the United States is facing a self-inflicted crisis. The decision to impose sweeping tariffs on allies and adversaries alike has triggered a trade war that has cut the country off from vital imports and provoked retaliatory measures. The stock market crash of 2025 is a direct consequence of these policies. Historically, protectionism in the face of global integration has often led to economic collapse. Argentina in the 1940s under Juan Perón embraced similar trade isolation and industrial autarky, leading to decades of stagnation. The Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act in 1930, though a different context, was a catalyst for the downward spiral of the global economy in the Great Depression. SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER Quality journalism. Progressive values. Direct to your inbox. The military and security apparatus in the United States has also been turned inward. This is a hallmark of states on the brink of collapse. The administration’s decision to conduct loyalty tests for federal employees, to dismiss or sideline those deemed “insufficiently loyal,” and to demand public fealty to the president’s personal narrative mirrors the tactics employed by autocratic regimes throughout history. In the final years of the Soviet Union, a similar pattern emerged: The KGB was weaponized to target internal dissent as the economy faltered and the central government lost its grip on reality. Domestically, the climate is one of deepening polarization and mounting distrust. The forced departure of civil servants, the targeting of universities and independent journalists, and the use of the Justice Department as an instrument of political retribution have weakened the structures that once mediated conflict and enabled compromise. In 1970s Chile, President Salvador Allende’s government was destabilized by economic sabotage and political violence. While the American situation is not identical, the deliberate undermining of democratic norms and the conflation of personal power with national interest are consistent with patterns seen in states that have tipped into authoritarian rule. Internationally, the administration’s decision to pursue annexationist policies—expressed in rhetorical claims to Canada and Greenland and actual negotiations over resource extraction in Ukraine—has isolated the United States from its historical allies and weakened its standing in the world. Such expansionist fantasies do not typically succeed in a world defined by interdependence. They more often result in international sanctions, economic isolation, and domestic overreach. This was the fate of Benito Mussolini’s Italy when it attempted to carve out an empire in North Africa, only to find itself diplomatically and economically encircled. The cumulative effect of these policies is a government that no longer serves as an impartial arbiter of competing interests but as a factional tool of the leader and his inner circle. The normal functions of governance—delivering basic services, maintaining order, managing foreign policy—are subsumed under the political imperative of loyalty and control. This is the point at which states enter the final stage of failure. In 1990s Yugoslavia, the central government’s failure to mediate ethnic and regional disputes led directly to the violent fragmentation of the state. In the American context, this dynamic is playing out along lines of political affiliation, class, and race. The militarization of border policy, the collective punishment of protest movements, and the repeated targeting of minority communities reveal a state that is no longer willing or able to accommodate the diversity of its population. The question of when collapse occurs is not easily answered. Historical examples show that once a state has entered the spiral of delegitimization, economic contraction, and political repression, collapse can follow within a few years. The Soviet Union’s dissolution took less than three years from the final economic crisis of 1988 to the official end in 1991. Yugoslavia’s collapse began with constitutional disputes in the late 1980s and culminated in violent disintegration by the early 1990s. The timeline for collapse in the United States is likely to be similarly short if current trends continue. The economy, already battered by tariffs and retaliatory measures, will see further contraction as foreign investment dries up and domestic confidence evaporates. Political violence, already simmering, will become more organized as the state’s capacity to maintain a monopoly on violence wanes. For those who have long believed that the American system is immune to these forces, it is time to reconsider that assumption. The United States has survived grave challenges before, but its survival has always depended on a functioning state that could reconcile competing interests and adapt to new circumstances. Today, that state is being systematically dismantled. The institutions that once checked presidential power are being turned into instruments of that power. The economy, once buoyed by global integration, is being sacrificed to nationalist fantasies. The courts and the press, once the guardians of democratic accountability, are being brought to heel or driven into irrelevance. There is still room to change course. Historically, states have a narrow window to reverse the downward spiral once it begins. In some cases, a determined opposition or a political realignment can restore legitimacy and rebuild the social contract. In others, collapse proceeds until the state is no longer recognizable and must be rebuilt from the rubble. The examples of Spain in the 1930s, where collapse was narrowly averted but civil war followed, and of Greece in the 1940s, where foreign intervention postponed state failure, show that external shocks and internal realignments can interrupt the cycle of collapse, though at a high human cost. What lies ahead for the United States is not yet written in stone. But the pattern is clear and the examples from history are stark. State failure is not a single moment but a cascade of failures that begins with the corruption of political institutions and ends with the disintegration of social order. The evidence is already present in the hollowing out of the federal government, the weaponization of law enforcement, the trade isolation, and the embrace of expansionist policies that have no place in the modern world. If these trends are not reversed, the United States will become another entry in the long history of states that lost their way and collapsed under the weight of their own contradictions.

Oh. I know. But seeing that your country you need insurance for health care and in your country your president has cut medicade, you probably need the help. We help people. We dont let people suffer. I suggest you take care of your country before you have eyes on mine. Your country has to survive a civil war... And as luck will have it... Canada actually DOES have a king. Legit.

Did you buy your gun yet?

What? Where? 1. Your country 2. yourself Why and how? You answered it yourself.

Your country is going down the shytes, dude. You cant see it? Maga has entered your brain? Talk about hate filled phoques...

That is not a pastor. That is not a real religion. Or a legit religion as how I put it last time. There are some that have told no that the joke is on me and that no religion is legit... Well...so be it. But...the Greek Orthodox church is almost 2000 years old. Its origins are traced back to Jesus Christ himself and his 12 apostles. I forget who those guys were as I am not a bible thumper...but...I do know history so... Jesus was said to be 33 years old and was crucified. Resurrected, and his apostles Paul and Silas went to Greece and preached his word and the word of God. That would be 33 AD technically. For those that believe in Christ. Ad means in Latin Anno Domini. The year of our Lord. For those that do not believe, it has been changed to CE. Common Era So...Greece and its people became Christian, slowly slowly in the decades that followed. There was the Byzantium Empire but most importantly, when the Byzantine Empire fell to the Ottomans and the Turks practiced genocide on Greeks, it was the Greek Orthodox Priests that were faced with extreme pressures of compliance from the Turks, which many died, but many also were heroes. It was the priests that not only guided the Greeks with spirituality, but also educated them and preserved the Greek language and Greek culture. More info than this and it becomes a university class. Therefore, when losers tell me that no legit religions exist, I simply ignore and laugh at their ignorance. What I know of my Greek heritage and culture and about MY religion being the Greek Orthodox religion, that although there have been some Greek Orthodox priests that were pedophiles, (those priests in no way represent the religion and those priests were not priests at all but sexual predators, that through out 2000 years...2000 years...have NEVER preached ANY forms of hatred. HELPED the poor. And in ACTUAL PHOQUING FACT: Santa PHOQUING Clause is based on 2 Greek Orthodox bishops from in 2 different areas of the Greek world during the 4rth century AD. Agios Nikolaos. Or as the English call him. Saint phoquing Nick Lived in Myra. Present day Turkey. He secretly gave gifts to the poor. This evolved into the gift giving on Christmas day. Saint Nick day is celebrated on the 6th of December. Agios Vasileios. Saint Basil to the English speaking world. Lived in and was known to bring gifts to children in hospitals and orphanages. Greeks in Greece have their gift giving on New Years Eve and New Years day as opposed to the 24rth and 25th of December because that was what Saint Basil used to do. Greek Priests are educated. Greek priests HOLD and PRESERVE Greek heritage and culture. Compare and contrast to what you got in the US and you will see that the Greek Orthodox religion is a very LEGIT religion directly rooted by Jesus Christ himself. The Greel Orthodox Church serves only 1 purpose. To UPHOLD the TRUE word of Jesus, Holy Mary and the Holy Spirit. The Holy Trinity. The Greek Orthodox Church helps the poor, the needy to this day... Yes...the Greek Orthodox Church collects monies from its practitioners, its VOLUNTARY contributions but those monies DO in fact go to the poor and the needy. Lots of migrants in Greece. Some locals HATE them migrants. No different from Maga south. BUT...MANY locals HELP the migrants. Why? Greek culture to help the poor. Who else helps these migrants? Yup..the Greek Orthodox Church. If you made it through, thank-you for your time. I didnt do this to convert you. Nor to convince you on anything. Just to defend MY religion because Christianity gets thrown to the mud and I dont feel its fair to group snake oil salesmen con artists of the English and American fake religious types with MY religion. The Greek Orthodox religion is Christianity and what Christianity is supposed to mean. What Christianity is supposed to represent. What we have in Maga world is NOT Christianity and I dont like it one iota when that bullshyte is mixed in with MY religion. Starting with you. Cross into the Canadian border and I will answer you with the mouths of my canons... In English because you probably dont have the intelligence to understand French...

If you come and want to meet up, Im game. Just message me and we get together.

Montreal style pizza The crust is puffy. Thick. But the bread is airy and soft. The crust is crunchy. Oven baked of course. Wood fired ovens but those were outlawed several years ago because of air pollution. So a regular pizza oven it is. Baked until the crust is golden brown. Some old school Italians and Greeks used to put 7Up in the dough. The tomato sauce would be a slight variation of the original tomato sauce of the original pizza. Sweet san marzano tomatoes, basil, oregano, fennel, a tad of chili flakes, salt, pepper. All kinds of toppings but the stereotypical toppings would be all dressed. All dressed: thinly sliced pepperoni, thinly sliced green bell peppers, mushrooms and mozzarella cheese. The pepperoni is Milano pepperoni. That is the secret to our pepperoni. Outside of Italy and og pizza, old school original Montreal pizza from the 1900s-1980s in Italian or Greek family owned restaurants at each and every Montreal street corner literally, is truly the best. There are still some pizza joints that have kept this recipe and style going on today. Montreal bagels Smaller than NYC. Sweeter due to being boiled in honey-sweetened water as opposed to boiled in salted, malted water. And like with the pizzas, Montreal bagels are supposed to be wood fire oven baked. And the most famous of Montreal bagels, St. Viateur and Fairmount still use wood fire ovens. Exempted from Montreal's air pollution laws because of Montreal heritage clauses... Ive never had NYC bagels. So I cant comment personally on which is better. The pizzas though I could. And I will fight anybody on any hill defending Montreal pizza and calling Montreal pizza the best ANYWHERES in the world with the exception of Italy. And while I havent had pizza in Italy, there is 1 Montreal pizza joint who serves authentic OG pizzas and they are simply DELIZIOSO!!!

Canadians are pissed with this and this is breaking news... Jeep will sell all the Jeeps they can in Canada as Canadians love their Jeeps. Just like other folk in the world. But...this makes for an interesting negotiation between Trump and Carney. Carney prefers negotiations over retaliations. There is an offer on the table for nixing Canadian tariffs on Chinese EVs. Why did I say negotiations to be interesting with Trump? Because Jeep leaving Canada, that does not leave too much enthusiasm for us Canadians to start thinking about our Canadian auto industry...saving it...as if GM and Ford do the same, there is no Canadian auto industry to be saved...so...there would ONLY BE ONE OPTION...to save the Canadian auto industry. And that would be to go to China... And if we go to China and let Chinese EVs not only to be sold here, but to be built here as well...Trump will need to comprehend that Detroit's...the US' auto industry... will be no more. Canada has always pivoted AWAY from the US since March when Trump started threatening Canada. This is just another area where Canada just pivots away from the US. There is something that I had to read in school... no man is an island? I cant remember the details but yeah...

Not even for a million $ american. Thank you very much. But no thanx. But...come visit Montreal and I will treat you to any meal you want. You like Montreal famous smoked meat? You like pizza? There is NY style pizza, Chicago style pizza but there is also Montreal style pizza that nobody talks about. But if you know, you know. Bagles? NY bagels...but also Montreal bagel. Heck, stay for a bit and I ill treat you to everything. Take you sight seeing. I proposed this to ccap but Im retreating that proposal. He could stay where he is at.

Municipal elections and French language laws are a hot subject. But...the front and center issue are bike lanes. The outgoing administration, 2 time winner, has went bike lane crazy. Although very successful, as the video suggests, which is good, the mayor of Montreal also neglected to address and the automobile. She waged war on the automobile rather than make cars and bikes live together in harmony. Now these elections are all about automobile love and bike hate. Truth be told, Montreal businesses ARE suffering BECAUSE parking and getting around the city centers have been hijacked by bike paths. While the people living in those areas is great, people coming INTO the city with their cars cant do it and so by pass Montreal all toghether and find their entertainment and shopping needs in the suburbs. I like the idea of bicycles in the city, but not total obliteration of car driving either. Plus, all the city money available from the Provincial government went to construct these bike paths but NONE of it went to updating aging subterranean infrastructure (lots of aging pipes broke and flooding happened downtown and old Montreal etc.), repairing potholes and even having decent snow removal. Montreal issues.

Its inevitable. This admin along with several rich folk who do not want to pay their fair share in taxes want oligarchy and fascism for the US. If protests wont work, and they wont as that means a government cares for what its citizens wants and needs, then violent clashes will eventually happen if the citizens do not agree with their freedoms be taken away. And let us not be blind to the fact that yes indeed, American citizens' rights ARE taken away. Piece by piece ever so slowly. But its not as if the process is behind closed doors. Its WIDE open. Even Indigenous peoples are involved. And its THEIR land to begin with that Americans and Canadians play greedy with... But sadly, these protests will not work. It is by design from this admin to turn the country into a fascist country.

Arrested and detained for exercising a constitutional right to free speech. By ICE agents who's authority is not even legal but because fascism has started in the US. Antifa BTW...means anti-fascism Good luck to ya'll...

You (personally) might not understand how LIVID I am with MAGA, Trump and all this shyte going on down. You (personally) might not understand how MOST Canadians are LIVID with MAGA, Trump and all this shyte going on down. And (YOU) in general speak to mean Americans... But we are. (We) as in MOST Canadians. American media does NOT give you the facts. American media disguises what is happening between our countries but also masks what Trump and his administration has been doing to jeopardize and sabotage the Canadian economy. Also, American media also plays the victim card when Canadians lash out and call out Americans. To boot, American businesses, forget American Trump appointed politicians, real American businesses with real deal Americans shame blame Canadians for reacting the way we are in boycotting American products etc. American citizens were shocked when Canadians were booing the American national anthem during hockey games and were angered while IGNORING the fact that Trump was insulting OUR Prime Minister while ALSO threatening annexation. And I have @ccap41 also taking offense by that fact that I continue to bash Americans. Well...PHOQUE YOU!!! He has an avatar CONDONING HIS PHOQUING PRESIDENT'S WORDS. I CANT EXPRESS MY ANGER TOWARDS AMERICANS WHILE HE CAN INSULT MY PHOQUING EXISTANCE AS A SOVEREIGN CANADIAN???!!! Can you KNOW UNDERSTAND THE HYPOCRACY of YOUR phoquing people towards Canada and CANADIANS being LIVID???!!! We as Canadians decided to stop visiting Vermont, Vermont businesses want us back... But in their apologetic TV advertisements its just them complaining that they are going out iof business and want us back because our business dollars arent there anymore... New York State and California tourist adverts apologize for Trump's behaviour, but they too, NEED Canadian dollars because THAT is what the adverts say. They need Canadian money to stay afloat? Sorry but fix your phoquing problems. Canadians do not want to be arrested and detained... Yeah about that... Yes...Innocent Canadians have been detained. Your news does not cover those stories... Florida politicians and Kentucky whiskey distillers openly mocked Canadian money... Now that there is no Canadian money, these phoques now say that its not fair and Canadians are not playing nice. You guys have NO IDEA how livid we are. But forget how livid Canadians are. I know there are protests against Trump. But its not enough. TOO many Americans are still passive on what is going on. And THAT makes me even MORE livid... I apologize about my insulting you (personally) and others that are not in the category that I have been pissed at. When I say phoquing Americans this and phoquing Americans that, do not include yourselves then. But you REALLY have to understand the severity of US/Canada relations. Its not just about losing the Jeep production in the Ontario factory and Canadians losing jobs at stake. Its severe as it is. But IMPLICATIONS of Trump saying he wants to destroy Canada's economy (yes, he REALLY did say it like that) so that Canada will become the 51st is..is... well...war. My swearing and calling you phoque this and phoque that is quite phoquing mild as to what your president has done. It has also caused MAGA mad enough to want to try and put American soldiers on Canadian soil. And no, it aint just tik tok red necks that say this. Red State politicians want American soldiers on Canadian soil... Thank you. I will. But if I get triggered somewhere somehow. Please allow for me to rant. I do have hatred for some Americans. But that pains me. I also use STRONG language to put fire in YOUR asses so you guys COULD fight fascism in YOUR country. Its self serving as like I said, YOUR shyte might come into MY country if YOU guys do NOT fight it in YOUR country fast enough...

And you could laugh at this as well...thinking that the US is not falling has fallen. Be angry at me because I choose to inform you while calling you dumb because you REFUSE to see the shyte all on your own. https://abc7chicago.com/post/ice-chicago-news-debbie-brockman-wgn-employee-detained-federal-agents-lincoln-square-says-she-did-nothing-wrong/18007191/ https://blockclubchicago.org/2025/10/14/wgn-employee-hires-lawyer-after-being-violently-assaulted-by-immigration-officers/ https://www.cnn.com/2025/10/14/us/wgn-employee-detained-debbie-brockman