America is beginning to fail.

[TXPaganBanker]

This administration is beginning to achieve something that wouldn’t have sounded possible a mere three years ago: the dissolution of the United States. Today, a fourth state collective was announced to deal with the challenges of the Corona virus, including personal protective equipment acquisition and distribution, and the process of safely reopening parts of their states. It’s being handled in a way to purposefully not inform the federal government of movement of necessary medical supplies. Bluntly, if the federal government is aware of the equipment, they may seize it and redirect it to undisclosed locations without informing anyone where it will be distributed. The states are also using a more science-based regional approach to determining what businesses should be considered essential, and when public services like schools should reopen. These decisions are being made at a state level specifically because involvement from the Federal Government is not only not helpful, it’s actively detrimental to the states.

In addition, the roll back of federal regulations on environmental policy (over 74 major pieces voided which states have tried to piecemeal back together on a state level), stark disagreements on immigration (sanctuary cities versus holding camps), major policy disagreements on subjects like medical marijuana (state tax revenue versus federal raids), and the recent spat between Senate Majority Leader McConnell and Gov. Cuomo from New York on “blue-state bailouts” show states are at least willing to threaten to go at it alone. There have been roll backs on inspections from the FDA when we need to protect our food supply the most. A study on Coronavirus tests that were rushed to market after being greenlit by the USDA showed that most of them are wildly inaccurate and useless. The Federal government is all but telling the states “Don’t trust us.”

The current administration is failing in so many ways that very few federal services are relevant to the states as a collective. There is a desire at the federal level to do away with many of these as well. The president and Congress have threatened to either withhold assistance funds or allow the United States Postal Service to fail, in favor of private businesses. The Interstate Highway Fund is massively underfunded, and no major infrastructure bill has passed in over a decade. The only “service” the United States Federal government is providing is protection through our military. However, the military can provide protection to a collective of smaller nations just as well as they are doing now. The American dream has gone on for over two and a half centuries. The dream may be over.

[enough]

1. This failure is their success. Exactly what Bannon was calling for:

“deconstruction of the administrative state.”

[Initech]

7. Steve Bannon, Sebastian Gorka, Donald Trump, and Mike Pence

Are these the four horsemen of the apocalypse?

[DEbluedude]

13. I'll go with...

Reagan, Cheney, McConnell, Trump.

[burrowowl]

14. Me too and add Bush I

[SleeplessinSoCal]

16. I'd replace Bush I with Grover Norquist. n/t

[Pepsidog]

27. Murdoch and McConnell.

[Arthur_Frain]

43. Looking to be that much like the supreme court

We will be wanting some expansion in the “four horsemen”. From the other names down thread, I’m suggesting henceforth we refer to it as the 16 horsemen of the apocalypse.

Still gonna be a stretch winnowing it down to 16.

[Lonestarblue]

19. I don't recall Bannon ever describing what would replace the administrative state.

I suspect it would be anarchy for the masses and control of all governing decisions affecting the economy and corporate profits by the corporate elite and billionaires. An oligarchy. And we are already very close to that condition, especially with a Supreme Court willing to favor corporations over people.

[enough]

31. He's the kind of fake intellectual who isn't interested in what happens next. NT

[wnylib]

35. The replacement of a constitutional republic with a

corporate oligarchy has been a goal promoted by Republicans for a long time.

Reminds me of the fall of Rome, when wealthy patricians and military leaders used the republic to enhance personal wealth and political power instead of serving it with good governance. By the time they stopped being a republic and became an empire, the emperors were more and more insane. They crumbled from within long before the attacks by barbaric tribes brought them down.

Our situation is not identical to theirs , but there do seem to be some general parallels.

[chia]

22. +1,000,000 I've never forgotten he said that

[rampartc]

2. i'm mentally counting state collectives (read an article last week)....

1. west (ca, or, wa)
2. midwest including ( mi, wi, and il? )
3. east coast( ny, nj, cn, ri, ma,de)
4. new england (me,vt, nh)
and a "less formal" 5. mid atlantic (md, va)

does that march your source?

we need something like this in louisiana, but i'm afraid we end up with the same confederate losers we always get stuck with.

[blaze]

4. West is now CA, NV, OR, WA and CO! nt

[aggiesal]

12. I believe NM. will add to this list, but definitely not AZ. ...

NM has a liberal leadership group, while AZ has a conservative leadership group.
Hope November changes AZ.

[Buckeye_Democrat]

36. The Midwest alliance is seven states consisting of...

Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio and the M-word (lol).

[ananda]

3. No question.

'm watching the France series Balthazar which takes place in 2018-19. I was
looking at the scenes and the architecture, and I suddenly realized that it was
before the virus. So now I will forever think of the virus as similar to the
Great Flood: ante-virusian and post-virusian. It will become an indelible
mindset now....

.... and our post-virusian world will be dystopian and very difficult to navigate.

As the scientists have warned, we destroy nature at our peril... and even in a
post-virusian world, I see us still having to deal with a reactive natural world
that will continue to cause harm and chaos.

It would take a complete metanoia on the part of the collective global society
to even make a dent in healing our hearts, minds, and the environment.

If that hasn't happened yet, in the face of an epidemic like this, I don't really
see much of a future ahead of us.

[yonder]

6. Thanks for the new (to me) word: metanoia.

Before looking it up I thought it would mean massive, large scale fear or panic. It does not mean that at all.

on edit: a big, hearty 10-4 on your post as well.

[ananda]

29. You're welcome.

Way back in grad school, a professor used it referring
to the main character, Nicholas Urfe, in Margaret
Drabble's book, The Magus.

Later in life, I read Global Mind Change and started
thinking about a collective metanoia away from
capitalism and mechanism, towards holism and
cooperacy.

[NoRoadUntravelled]

30. I share your thoughts on this and only wish for the same eloquence to express them.

I keep looking for that change of mind, the about face that may be able to wake us up from this bad dream and turn things around. Being on DU with like minded people helps a lot but, like you, I'm not seeing much of a future for those who will come after us.

[LastLiberal in PalmSprings]

5. When Trump's done, America will resemble "The Night of the Comet."

A beautiful but toxic comet passes close to Earth and everyone who goes out to watch it turns to red dust (buy the premise, buy the bit). Basically you're left with surviving good guys, surviving bad guys, and zombies. Sometimes I think its prescient of a post-COVID post-Trump world.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

8. Flail, not fail. And tRump, not America. It will get better Nov and Jan, but lotta work to do til.nt

[BadgerMom]

11. I agree. Things are bad, but they're not lost.

We need to work our butts off till November.

[bucolic_frolic]

9. Cheer up, red states lack the intellectual capital and wherewithal to go it alone

and once blue states figure this out, the tide will shift quickly.

[liberalla]

45. I like that, and it does cheer me

It would be helpful for the red state citizens themselves to realize this. To come to the table and to choose to work cooperatively.

I think big changes could happen in to our society post CV.
It gives me hope that possibly the big changes we need to make (like climate crisis etc) are possible.

[kairos12]

10. Began with Raygun.

[LeftofObama]

17. This times a million!

[cstanleytech]

15. States working together on something is not new nor is it the end of everything.

[Tiger8]

18. Great piece 👍 This started with southern states

The right wing billionaire class wants sweatshops, child labor, pollute without consequence. They’re okay with the KKK, militias, theocracies....anything to distract and divide. South is fertile ground.

[RVN VET71]

20. Ain't over 'til it's over

From Robert the Bruce to George the Washington history is replete with tales of causes on the verge of utter and final defeat that managed to rebound to victory.

So be attentive to Professor Yogi and watch for November 3rd.

I am not predicting anything here, but if Biden wins and the Dems capture the Senate, the work ahead will be formidable and will necessarily enrage nearly every faction about something or other. I'm soon to celebrate the completion of my 75th year on this Earth and am pretty sure I wouldn't see the end of the repair work facing the Dems, both domestically and internationally.



(But if Biden loses and the Senate stays in the hands of Trump's team of treason enablers, all bets are off. Even a Robert the Bruce would have squashed the spider and gone off into hiding under similar circumstances, and Washington would have sent the troops home from Valley Forge and fled to France.)

[pecosbob]

34. I listened to him talk about stuff from a seat near third base at every Astros home game for years

He was truly a wise guy.

[RVN VET71]

44. Hated the Yankees

Loved the Yogi. There was never any pretense about him. He didn't seek the spotlight -- and, truth be told, the spotlight never really sought him. There was a photo of him I remember seeing showing him at batting practice with a comic book in the pocket of his uniform pants. How could anybody not love a guy like that?

[joanbarnes]

21. beginning?

[Delphinus]

25. That was

my first though too. Sadly.

[dlk]

23. The US has been unraveling for years

Trump has only ramped up the process.

[forgotmylogin]

24. I guess this is a good test for state autonomy?

I mean...if we end up in several chunked provinces each? It would be kind of like Europe?

That's what the rightwingers want, but it gets to a point and it would be tragic, but if they want to Trexit, I can only say "Please proceed." Kentucky is already our 30 year old basement kid that needs to get a job and its own apartment. Good luck, Mitch.

However, if I45 believes he's going to remain as the paid but mostly-idle figurehead monarch who controls everything, he's got another think coming. I got one word: Mar-Al-Catraz

[fescuerescue]

26. The entire world is IMO

We may be entering a new dark age with the US leading the way.

[wnylib]

37. I've thought of this comparison

to the start of a dark age a few times recently. Like Rome, the US has become too unwieldy too govern, and also like Rome, a wealthy governing class is turning a republic into their own personal empire, to serve themselves, causing regional factions to form for their own governance.

[Pepsidog]

28. Who wrote the article 10 signs a democracy is failing. Can't say we weren't warned.

[Maven]

32. Yes, the U.S. is heading for dissolution.

It's not a question of 'if' but 'when' and 'how'.

This is what happens when a country has a governing document that puts a dwindling and radicalized minority in a position to rule over the majority. Ultimately, the minority gets so paranoid about losing power that they use their structural advantages to disempower and prey upon the majority. The pretense of democracy and 'e pluribus unum' evaporates and the illegitimacy of the ruling party is laid bare. At some point, faced with an illegitimate power structure that wants to rule in opposition to the interests of the majority, the sovereign states see no choice but to break away and declare their own alliances. That is what we're seeing now.

[eleny]

33. No

I won't follow you down that shitty rabbit hole. We will turn it around when we get rid of Trump.

Take the last word if you wish. I've had my say and I'm done.

[whopis01]

38. I agree with you

This will change when we get rid of Trump and repair the impact that he has had. If we don’t win both the Presidency and the Senate (and keep the House) it will be difficult. But it will happen.

[colsohlibgal]

39. If Trump Wins Maybe

If we win all 3 branches we can start maybe getting back to near normal. If that vile idiot wins again we are up against it.

[Glaisne]

40. This has been the plan

and the goal of the conservative movement in this country for going on 50 years. Probably longer. For much of the country we are a third world failed state. Just as conservatives want it to be.
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2020/06/underlying-conditions/610261/

[Marrah_Goodman]

41. This virus has shown a bright light on all the cracks

[roamer65]

42. NY and New England are ready made Canadian provinces.

CA and Pacific Northwest are a ready made independent nation.

English Canada would be very interested in NY and New England admission into the confederation. It would create a land bridge to the Maritime provinces, bypassing Quebec.

[tclambert]

46. I'm as pessimistic as anyone about this virus. Yet I believe we will be back.

I fully expect millions of Americans to die from this before it's all over, and a hundred million worldwide.

It may take us a long time, but our civilization and our nation will get past this. Our way of life survived the 1918 flu, and we survived George W. Bush's recession.