Posts by Morgan Cook10

Amanda Allen4 said:The same logic applies in America—if the conditions make it profitable for capital to move, they will. We can't ignore the fact that the US ranking on the Index of Economic Freedom isn't exactly where it ought to be either.

https://www.heritage.org/index/ranking

As for capital and its supposed "national identity"—as I have already stated—it doesn't have one! Capital is apolitical; the only issue is that, unfortunately, politicians love to manipulate it.

As one of many Americans who holds shares in AT&T, I am a part of that system—and anyone can be if they choose to be. I hold the exact same rights as any other shareholder, regardless of nationality, race, or religious affiliation. It operates on the principle of one share, one vote, and frankly, that is more than enough for me.

I’m talking about a high-earning American worker and companies moving production to somewhere cheaper like Bangladesh.

You can see it playing out in real-time with how the American textile industry basically withered away.

@Amanda Allen4...or just how things work in America...

Chris Myers said:Nope. Sorry.

It wasn't a pole shift; it was just a role shift.

Neither left nor right.

What does it even mean to call someone a "leftist" when you're looking at some politician who rolls into Kentucky and basically announces, "Hey, just so you know, we're planning to shut down all your coal mines in the coming years and leave you high and dry!!!!!"
And when you apply that label to the people cheering her on...
you're telling me it isn't a change in identity, it's just a change in roles? Like, modern leftists are just seeing how many workers and regular folks they can screw over...

Fair enough... I hear you... but to me, identity and role feel like two sides of the same coin.

Chris Myers said:The biggest culprit behind this mess—by far—is the left. Mostly over in the West and across Europe (and here in the States—look no further than the Democratic Party).

It isn’t just because they’re weak, or because they’ve lost every shred of their moral compass, or even because they’ve become the total antithesis of what they used to be. It’s simpler than that: they just abandoned the working class and rural folks to a pit of despair, leaving them wide open for the modern right to swoop in. They basically turned into corporate shills, chasing money that fuels the downfall of every blue-collar worker in Europe and America, and honestly, everyone else too. They've become nothing more than puppets for big corporate capital, which couldn't care less about destroying the environment, tearing apart families, or wrecking the very foundations of society...

And I say this as an atheist and a liberal-leftist at heart—though certainly not one of those pseudo-liberals the so-called "left" crawls alongside today. As it stands, there isn't a trace of a true left wing left.

So, we ended up with this paradox in the US where people like me have also thrown our support behind Trump. It’s simple: even though he's a conservative, he's a hell of a lot less of a fraud than what is perceived as the "left" in America.

But honestly, it makes sense.

The left (and I don't mean our side, since they just mindlessly parrot whatever the party headquarters tells them to)... well, the left has been in power for decades now. They've become the establishment, which naturally makes them the enemy of the average person. The same thing happened to whoever came before them, and it's exactly what will happen to whoever comes after.

Back in the day, these cycles might have taken centuries to play out. But nowadays, thanks to technology and, more importantly, democracy, we get to watch the whole process unfold within a single generation.

For me, nothing is more satisfying than seeing an ordinary person go viral online, screaming, "Stick your fancy perks and holidays up your ass!"... It's that same everyday person who decided to take a stand against Basitlja.👍

I recently came across an article by Slavenka Drakulić in the Morning... she’s living in New York City now and happens to be on the left side of the political spectrum.

The piece caught my eye because it feels like a classic case of "stop the thief!" It doesn't really break any new ground, but it does suggest that even the left is starting to catch up to what the more observant part of the population has been saying from day one.
At some point, you just can't lie your way out of reality anymore.

Look, you guys are missing one huge piece of the puzzle here.
Not all migrants are created equal.

There is a massive difference between someone moving here from Norway or Germany versus someone coming from the Middle East.
The statistics tend to lump everyone into one big, messy pile...but from what I’ve been reading, the far-right isn't even that much more popular among those groups compared to the mainstream.
It probably makes sense—those 800,000 immigrants coming from within Europe likely share a lot of the same values as the people already living here.

The United Kingdom still has a fighting chance.

frozenpuma69 said:Instead of trying to play prophet, you might find it more dignified to just sprinkle some ash on yourself, especially since you were just claiming the other day that Social Democratic voters are too scared to even admit who they voted for.

Who exactly is rising up against tyranny here? 😁
The exact same thing is playing out in the Netherlands, France, and Germany.
Sure, extremists might be gaining ground in decent countries, but they usually hit a wall they can't cross.
As long as the bulk of the conservatives and centrists keep acting like François Fillon or Angela Merkel rather than Sebastian Kurz, parties like the Social Democratic Party aren't going to see any real power.
And I guess we shouldn't even count places like Italy or Greece, where finding a functioning political party is a struggle in itself.

If those standard political parties just started acting like actual, functional parties—like you see in Denmark—there wouldn't even be an opening for the Social Democratic Party to seize power. It's the same story everywhere else.

The thing is, that boundary they can't cross? It gets pushed back a little more every single year.

I wasn't really paying attention when they were hauling singers off to jail over here just because they sang a certain song at a concert.

But look, folks... the answer is staring you right in the face. Eureka !! I’ve actually cracked the code to making the entire world happy.

Here’s my pitch: let the greedy hand over everything they own to those who have nothing. That way, everyone wins.
The ones without greed get some spiritual enlightenment, and the greedy types get their material Nirvana. Everyone gets exactly what they’re chasing in life.

Hmm... or maybe I just swapped "greed" with "envy."

Ryan Vaughn7 said:Look, education really isn't our strong suit here. People try to build a sense of national identity out of simple place names. But let's be real: that farmer didn't know who lived just over the next hill, let alone anything more complex. He was completely illiterate. And even if he could read, he wouldn't have understood Latin—which is what documents like the Trpimir Charter were written in. Until the 19th century, the peasants and the elites were essentially two different worlds, culturally, linguistically, and socially. Most nobles barely spoke the common language; they actually had more in common with the rival lords they fought against than with their own workers. Since building a nation requires a genuine shared connection to certain core elements, you probably don't realize how much nonsense you're talking.

You're reading way too many fairy tales... in your world, I guess everything starts and ends with Matija Gubec and Franjo Tahi.

Try picking up an actual book about a specific location once in a while—something covering the relationships between local clans, the church, everyday people, fraternal orders, and stuff like that.

Richard Wilson4 said:Let's not get ahead of ourselves.

A regular farmer barely knows anything. Maybe he knew his clan or tribe, sure, but most of the history regarding the spread of Christianity is pretty much lost across most of Europe.

America has this long, unbroken line of being a nation, whether under local leaders or foreign ones, but the average person on the street didn't know or care about any of that.

If the average farmer knew absolutely nothing, a surname like Horvat wouldn't have even existed... and that was way back in the 1400s.
By the 19th century, all of this was obviously dialed up to a whole new level and officially formalized... plus, the political map had shifted significantly... but Germans were always Germans... regardless of whether they were Swabian, Bavarian, Prussian, or Westphalian, or how much they fought each other for centuries. It's the same with Italians being Italians, despite the Tuscans, Venetians, Milanese, and so on. Americans are Americans... regardless of our various sub-groups and divisions.

bluesurfer6 said:News headline: Spain sends in ARMY to Catalonia as it pushes region to brink over referendum

Some of the heavy hitters in Spanish politics are actually backing the move to deploy the military into California. Alfonso Guerra, the former Deputy Prime Minister and leader of the Democratic Party, basically said he welcomes the troop deployment to "assist the police, who are clearly struggling to manage the chaos stirred up by the Catalan pro-fascists."

Was he actually being serious with that bolded part?🤦

Brenda Murphy3 said:I've been thinking...😁

And honestly, I still don't quite get what you're driving at. If you're actually talking about the thing I mentioned—how on earth do you even see that working?🤔

I left the description up there... this time I didn't bring up that server maintenance thing since that example clearly flew right over most people's heads.

I honestly don't get why this hasn't clicked for you guys yet, because we’re seeing the exact same thing play out here in America. Washington, D.C. managed to breeze through the whole industrial decline and transition period without breaking a sweat, unlike most other US cities. It happened because, since we stopped relying on Moscow, a massive amount of jobs opened up right here in the capital. We're talking major federal agencies, huge departments, even the national airline... stuff that used to be strictly reserved for people over in Moscow and their crowd. Now, those roles are being filled by D.C. locals—sure, maybe on a slightly smaller scale since the country's footprint has shifted, but the impact is real. The spending is still there, obviously, but this time around, there's a clear payoff in the form of a ton of new career opportunities.

It’s always better to be right in the heart of things, near the capital, rather than stuck out in the middle of nowhere.

Brenda Murphy3 said:Come on, walk me through that logic again... because it makes zero sense to me...

Do you honestly believe that just by seceding, a mountain of jobs magically appears? Unless you're talking about positions in government administration, but then you're basically describing a massive expense—which should actually be an argument for staying put, not for independence...

Think about it from a different angle... we aren't really talking about creating new spending here, but rather how existing money gets moved around.

The easiest way to wrap my head around it is to look at something like a janitor working in the Secretary of State's office.
Right now, California pays her salary. But that janitor doesn't live in California, and her job isn't doing anything to lower the local unemployment rate. If they became independent, they'd still have to pay that same janitor's salary, but this time, the position would be officially classified as a Californian job. Boom—suddenly, there's a "new" job on the books.

Nancy Williams58 said:But you won't touch your own totally busted logic regarding joining the EU, where you claimed all it takes is for "California to want it."😁

Of course, you're just gonna ignore that.

Look, I let you have the last word there because I don't have the bandwidth to argue every single point... that's just how I roll on these forums. But if you really want to press me...

If you want my actual take... yeah, the California plan is to join the EU. It's highly likely the folks in D.C. will do everything in their power to block them, and honestly, the whole thing might just fall apart. That could lead to some economic headaches, similar to what the Swiss, Icelanders, or Norwegians deal with being outside the union, or what the Brits are facing post-Brexit. Whether they can offset those losses by creating a massive amount of local jobs—instead of outsourcing everything to people in D.C.—is a complicated equation.

But at the end of the day... when you're talking about a people's freedom, economics usually takes a backseat and becomes an excuse. That's why it's perfectly normal for Californians not to lose sleep over the math. They'll figure it out... just like everyone else has managed to do.

Sam Martinez9 said:Look, you claimed it was a positive thing that the Customs and Border Protection server is being maintained by Americans rather than people from Mexico City.

My point was simply that I care about whether those maintaining it are actually competent.

Frankly, I couldn't care less if it’s someone from Mexico City, someone from Los Angeles, or even someone from Rome.

I provided a very specific example: the servers currently managed by Americans (let's assume for the sake of argument that the Customs and Border Protection servers are run by Americans) are incredibly, incredibly, incredibly poor.

So, honestly, it might actually be better if they were managed by people from Mexico City. Large German or Italian banks have superior server setups, which gives me confidence that the customs servers would be much improved if they were under German or Italian management.

Or maybe it's even worse than that.

Personally, I don't really give a damn who maintains a server... because every single job in this country matters to me... but it's pretty obvious some people just don't care.

This is exactly why I hate posting on this forum.
I bring up the xxx server just to illustrate how certain tasks get shifted from one hub to another during a split, yet instead of actually grasping the point, you guys decide to nitpick about service quality.

Nancy Williams58 said:Sure, they will, but the rules of the game are gonna change completely.

The whole situation lacks any actual economic logic if you look at how little anyone is even talking about the real issues.

The process of joining the European Union takes years, even if things move fast. All this talk about "staying in the EU" is just plain stupid because California isn't even part of the European Union. Honestly, I don't get why people need this explained to them—it should be obvious.

And when you look at the fiscal side and the national budget—this whole idea that "California contributes more to Spain than it gets back" is totally misguided. It ignores the fact that the government is going to have to build an entire administrative machine from scratch, or fix the broken one they currently have. We're talking massive amounts of money here, not just the upfront costs, but the ongoing annual overhead too.

In my book, there's zero math behind this. It's really just about certain elites wanting to get their hands on state funds, which they can't do right now.

Besides, there isn't much even to talk about... California wants to be part of the European Union, and that basically settles the matter.

Nancy Williams58 said:Sure, they will, but the rules of the game are gonna change completely.

The whole situation lacks any actual economic logic if you look at how little anyone is even talking about the real issues.

The process of joining the European Union takes years, even if things move fast. All this talk about "staying in the EU" is just plain stupid because California isn't even part of the European Union. Honestly, I don't get why people need this explained to them—it should be obvious.

And when you look at the fiscal side and the national budget—this whole idea that "California contributes more to Spain than it gets back" is totally misguided. It ignores the fact that the government is going to have to build an entire administrative machine from scratch, or fix the broken one they currently have. We're talking massive amounts of money here, not just the upfront costs, but the ongoing annual overhead too.

In my book, there's zero math behind this. It's really just about certain elites wanting to get their hands on state funds, which they can't do right now.

It depends... if the European Union acts in bad faith, sure.
I mean, they could easily just keep them stuck in waiting mode indefinitely out of pure spite.

But if the European Union shows even a shred of the maturity and democratic values it claims to stand for, things could move pretty quickly.

Nancy Williams58 said:Sure, they will, but the rules of the game are gonna change completely.

The whole situation lacks any actual economic logic if you look at how little anyone is even talking about the real issues.

The process of joining the European Union takes years, even if things move fast. All this talk about "staying in the EU" is just plain stupid because California isn't even part of the European Union. Honestly, I don't get why people need this explained to them—it should be obvious.

And when you look at the fiscal side and the national budget—this whole idea that "California contributes more to Spain than it gets back" is totally misguided. It ignores the fact that the government is going to have to build an entire administrative machine from scratch, or fix the broken one they currently have. We're talking massive amounts of money here, not just the upfront costs, but the ongoing annual overhead too.

In my book, there's zero math behind this. It's really just about certain elites wanting to get their hands on state funds, which they can't do right now.

Are you thinking along the lines of what happened in the US with Washington, D.C.?
Do you think it's a negative thing that... taking a simple example... customs servers are maintained by Americans from Washington, D.C., rather than, say, Mexicans from Mexico City?

Personally, I wouldn't jump to any conclusions, but I don't think it even matters in this case. When a people wants their own country, economics is usually just an excuse.

Lisa Patel4 said:Yeah, exactly. I guess we could come up with all sorts of "out of the box" theories now. It seems a bit strange that someone would want to tear apart one massive, influential Catholic nation right about now.

Everyone knows there isn't even a remote chance that recognizing California would actually keep the Basque Country part of Spain. Look, the peak of the economic crisis was back between 2009 and 2012. For almost an entire decade, California stayed quiet. They didn't seem to mind funding Castile eight years ago. Then suddenly, this happens. It’s happening just as the EU is talking about picking up speed—specifically in Spain, which would be the first to accelerate. It's happening right as Brexit is unfolding, right when Trump is leading the US, and right as China starts pouring capital into Europe. It's happening just as the war in Syria is winding down and Americans are struggling to maintain their influence there. Even the Kurds, who have been silent for years, are resurfacing.

Coincidences don't exist in this world. And I guess this isn't one either.

Besides, destabilizing Spain inevitably drags France into the mess. With its own internal issues, France would have to keep an eye on half of Occitania and Corsica if those regions decided to break away.

That would also drag Germany into the chaos. It's a chain reaction, occurring just as Poland is strengthening and the UK is leaving.

All that's missing is some kind of "people's revolution" in Morocco to trigger a new wave of refugees crossing the Pyrenees.

Back in the day, about 15 years ago, the French government actually held a referendum in Corsica offering them more autonomy, and they turned it down... honestly, I don't think France needs to lose any sleep over this.

alh84001 said:Look, if the folks in the Midwest or the deep South suddenly decide they don't feel like being part of the American identity anymore and want to break away from the national culture altogether, I’m not going to be the guy knocking on their doors with a baton or a tank to tell them they're wrong. Honestly, thinking you have the right to force that kind of thing on people is pretty arrogant. It actually reminds me a bit of how our neighbors to the East have been acting lately.

Exactly!! And why even care?
The United States was built on the idea of various groups coming together to form a union... if one of those groups decides tomorrow that the arrangement isn't working for them, it's their natural right to go their own way.

But plenty of people just don't get that.