27 Comments

1. Mr Ed says:
   November 7, 2012 at 4:11 pm

   No me llores, EEUU, nunca te amé.

   (Don’t cry for me, USA, I never loved you.)
2. JuliaM says:
   November 7, 2012 at 4:32 pm

   I fear we’re going down that route too…
3. Paul Marks says:
   November 7, 2012 at 4:38 pm

   Argentina had living standards on a par with Canada - and then Peron and his Social Justice came.

   American living standards are already just below that of Canada (for the first time since the Civil War of the 1860s).

   And yes - Barack Obama is doing the General Peron trick.

   He does not admit to being a socialist - no he just talks in vague terms about Social Justice and Fair Shares.

   Look at Argentina now - not the fake government figures, the real Argentina.

   That is indeed the future of the United States.

   Time to get out - either as individuals, or as whole areas.

   Roll on the Republic of Texas (and South Dakota and…..).
4. Mr Ed says:
   November 7, 2012 at 4:38 pm

   The 95th anniversary of the October Revolution too, what a dreadful century.
5. Single Acts of Tyranny says:
   November 7, 2012 at 4:40 pm

   “Roll on the Republic of Texas (and South Dakota and…..)”

   They will never, ever allow states to cede as history seems to confirm.
6. CountingCats says:
   November 7, 2012 at 4:42 pm

   It was established during the 1860’s that there is no right to secede.
7. Mr Ed says:
   November 7, 2012 at 5:05 pm

   YugoslaviaSA?
8. CountingCats says:
   November 7, 2012 at 5:31 pm

   No.

   The countries of eastern Europe became sane once the foreign yoke was lifted. The USA is choosing its path.

   Even Yugoslavia, Albania and Romania were not part of the Warsaw pact, and supposedly independent, but that was an illusion.
9. johnpd says:
   November 7, 2012 at 5:48 pm

   This impoverishment in the US, EU & UK is planned.
   Google The New American 10 July 2012.
   This might enlighten.
10. CountingCats says:
    November 7, 2012 at 8:30 pm

    You mean this?

    http://www.thenewamerican.com/usnews/health-care/item/12022-texas-refuses-to-implement-obamacare

    That’s old news.
    Congress may not vote funds either.
11. Mr Ed says:
    November 7, 2012 at 9:06 pm

    I wonder if difficult Governors will go the way of Blago? There is State Sovereignty for you.
12. Paul Marks says:
    November 7, 2012 at 9:33 pm

    Cats - the Supreme Court never heard the case in the 1860s (Lincoln would not allow it).

    And if you mean “established by war” - you forget the golden propaganda card of SLAVERY.

    Hard to play that against South Carolina (and so on) now - as the Governor is a “women of color” (Indian).

    Also the numbers are different.

    Texas has a tiny population in 1861 - it has a vast population now.

    And the vast majority of American soldiers are now Southern.
13. NickM says:
    November 7, 2012 at 10:28 pm

    Argentina could never rival the USA in terms of absolute power. In terms of being a nice place to live it’s had so many chances… And always fucked it up. One of my great literary heroes, Jorge Luis Borges (and if you haven’t read at least “Labyrinths” get thee to a library) was a good egg and opposed Peron to the hilt. To the extent he was “promoted” from being director of a library to “inspector of poultry and rabbits”….

    The Wikipedia article on him is worth a read although I think the chronology of his creeping blindness is probs a bit off-kilter. But read the quotes from Borges on individualism vs statism. And if you have seven quid spare…

    http://www.amazon.co.uk/Labyrinths-Selected-Stories-Writings-Classics/dp/0141184841/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1352296987&sr=8-1

    I’d love to go to the Buenos Aires of Borges. Alas it is currently the Buenos Aires of Evita II.

    But you can still read it. Also try and get “The Aleph and other stories”.
14. Bod says:
    November 7, 2012 at 10:31 pm

    Heard in the kitchen about 20 minutes ago:

    “Texas is looking pretty damn good right about now”

    Shame SWMBO’s not read enough about TX’s Californication
15. Mr Ed says:
    November 7, 2012 at 10:46 pm

    Gold up about £25/troy oz. today.
16. Bod says:
    November 7, 2012 at 11:01 pm

    .. and the dow down 200.

    On the upside, chocolate ration’s been increased, and a new four year plan has been announced!
17. Thornavis says:
    November 8, 2012 at 11:45 pm

    Nick M

    My favourite Borges story is The Secret Miracle, I think that’s what it’s called, it’s some time since I read it and the book’s not immediately to hand. It’s the one about the Czech playwright granted a stay of execution ( sort of ) at the hands of the Nazis in order to finish his life’s work, beautiful stuff.
18. NickM says:
    November 9, 2012 at 3:03 am

    I know it well. Time stops so he can mentally complete his play so (and this is very Borgesian) it exists and belongs to eternity. It’s a great story but then that’s the best thing to come out of Argentina since the Frey Bentos “Hungry Man” tinned pie.

    I’ve never had one mind. A tinned pie. A pie, as it fucking were in a tin. It’s like gourmet night in Mad Max movie.
19. Bod says:
    November 9, 2012 at 3:42 am

    The pastry was never that good, because the gravy, but it wasn’t a bad basis for a meal for three
20. NickM says:
    November 9, 2012 at 4:14 am

    Once, my mate at Lenton Hall, Nottingham half-inched a frozen chicken (or rather his mate did) from Sainsburys. He jammed it down the back of the radiator to de-frost (this was a mate doing microbiology) and then put it in the oven upstairs and then got stoned.

    Well, I’m puzzling over my sums and the Chinese on the next floor are going fucking berserk so the hullabaloo drags me from my musing upon partial integration (and how to get RC’s knickers off) and it is like “The Fog”. There is smoke flowing down the staircase like what goes with an entry on the “X-Factor”. D, an Irish engineering student is laughing himself hoarse so your hero does the only thing he can do which is to take a toke from A’s still smoking joint and proceed. Upstairs it looks like the fucking apocalypse. I extract from the oven something that might once have been a chicken surrounded by Cantonese men with very sharp knives going fucking ape-shit with their oriental histrionics.

    It was emotional. So I played Civ and had a spliff.
21. Paul Marks says:
    November 10, 2012 at 5:29 am

    A few days ago Progressives were talking about taking Texas in 2014.

    Now Republicans (and FISCALLY CONSERVATIVE Republicans) will win everything in Texas in 2014.
22. Paul Marks says:
    November 10, 2012 at 5:30 am

    The economic collapse can not now be avoided.

    So let us (or those of us who survive) use it.
23. Julie near Chicago says:
    November 10, 2012 at 8:51 am

    Nick: :>))))!!!!

    And thanks for adding some mirth to an emotionally*-grey day. ;>)

    *All so a meteorologically grey day, but I happen to be among the small but statistically significant (15%??) minority who prefer grey November days to sparkling sun. The only improvement would be if it were raining.
24. Mr Ed says:
    November 11, 2012 at 8:49 am

    Meanwhile in the USA…

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/us-politics/9668517/David-Petraeus-in-shock-resignation-from-CIA-after-FBI-investigation-reveals-affair.html

    Why does this remind me of events long ago in a far away country, where (serving) Generals ‘resigned’?

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blomberg-Fritsch_Affair
25. CountingCats says:
    November 11, 2012 at 9:31 am

    Well, amongst other things, Gen Petraeus isn’t a serving general. He has no military role at all

    By that point in Germany, the army had been swearing allegiance to Hitler personally for four years already. Barry has made no demands for any such oath to himself.

    From what I have read so far, this resignation seem quite right and proper.
26. Lets make it a family affair – Counting Cats in Zanzibar says:
    November 11, 2012 at 9:56 am

    [...] Following Juan came Isobel. Imagine if it had been Eva instead? [...]
27. Mr Ed says:
    November 11, 2012 at 9:02 pm

    @ Cats hence ‘(serving)’ in my post, but there have been a number of serving generals removed from post recently as well, in the wake of the Benghazi incident. The timing of this departure comes as the House is expecting testimony from Petraeus about Benghazi.

    I don’t see the relevance of any oath of loyalty, the US military is utterly subordinate to political rule, seemingly ready to obey any order, even the absurd invasion of Panama. I would expect any serving officer would follow virtually any order, and see no need or any ‘purge’, but many chess pieces are moving.

    The curious point is the sudden burst of ‘housekeeping’, not the resignation, as he clearly had been up to antics, and the timing of this coming out, but any dots could only be joined with hindsight. And still the debt grows.