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The Unraveling of America
Never in our lives have we experienced such a global phenomenon. For the first time in the history of the world, all of humanity, informed by the unprecedented reach of digital technology, has come together, focused on the same existential threat, consumed by the same fears and uncertainties, eagerly anticipating the same, as yet unrealized, promises of medical science.
In a single season, civilization has been brought low by a microscopic parasite ten thousand times smaller than a grain of salt. COVID-19 attacks our physical bodies, but also the cultural foundations of our lives, the toolbox of community and connectivity that is for the human what claws and teeth represent to the tiger.
Our interventions to date have largely focused on mitigating the rate of spread, flattening the curve of morbidity. There is no treatment at hand, and no certainty of a vaccine on the near horizon. The fastest vaccine ever developed was for mumps. It took four years. COVID-19 killed 100,000 Americans in four months. There is some evidence that natural infection may not imply immunity, leaving some to question how effective a vaccine will be, even assuming one can be found. And it must be safe. If the global population is to be immunized, lethal complications in just one person in a thousand would imply the death of millions.
Pandemics and plagues have a way of shifting the course of history, and not always in a manner immediately evident to the survivors. In the 14th century the Black Death killed close to half of Europe’s population. A scarcity of labor led to increased wages. Rising expectations culminated in the Peasants Revolt of 1381, an inflection point that marked the beginning of the end of the feudal order that had dominated medieval Europe for a thousand years.
The COVID pandemic will be remembered as such a moment in history, a seminal event whose significance will unfold only in the wake of the crisis. It will mark this era much as the 1914 assassination of Archduke Ferdinand, the stock market crash of 1929, and the 1933 ascent of Adolf Hitler became fundamental benchmarks of the last century, all harbingers of greater and more consequential outcomes.
COVID’s historic significance lies not in what it implies for our daily lives. Change, after all, is the one constant when it comes to culture. All peoples in all places at all times are always dancing with new possibilities for life. As companies eliminate or downsize central offices, employees work from home, restaurants close, shopping malls shutter, streaming brings entertainment and sporting events into the home, and airline travel becomes ever more problematic and miserable, people will adapt, as we’ve always done. Fluidity of memory and a capacity to forget is perhaps the most haunting trait of our species. As history confirms, it allows us to come to terms with any degree of social, moral, or environmental degradation.
To be sure, financial uncertainty will cast a long shadow. Hovering over the global economy for some time will be the sober realization that all the money in the hands of all the nations on Earth will never be enough to offset the losses sustained when an entire world ceases to function, with workers and businesses everywhere facing a choice between economic and biological survival.
Unsettling as these transitions and circumstances will be, short of a complete economic collapse, none stands out as a turning point in history. But what surely does is the absolutely devastating impact that the pandemic has had on the reputation and international standing of the United States of America.
In a dark season of pestilence, COVID has reduced to tatters the illusion of American exceptionalism. At the height of the crisis, with more than 2,000 dying each day, Americans found themselves members of a failed state, ruled by a dysfunctional and incompetent government largely responsible for death rates that added a tragic coda to America’s claim to supremacy in the world.
For the first time, the international community felt compelled to send disaster relief to Washington. For more than two centuries, reported the Irish Times, “the United States has stirred a very wide range of feelings in the rest of the world: love and hatred, fear and hope, envy and contempt, awe and anger. But there is one emotion that has never been directed towards the U.S. until now: pity.” As American doctors and nurses eagerly awaited emergency airlifts of basic supplies from China, the hinge of history opened to the Asian century.
No empire long endures, even if few anticipate their demise. Every kingdom is born to die. The 15th century belonged to the Portuguese, the 16th to Spain, 17th to the Dutch. France dominated the 18th and Britain the 19th. Bled white and left bankrupt by the Great War, the British maintained a pretense of domination as late as 1935, when the empire reached its greatest geographical extent. By then, of course, the torch had long passed into the hands of America.
In 1940, with Europe already ablaze, the United States had a smaller army than either Portugal or Bulgaria. Within four years, 18 million men and women would serve in uniform, with millions more working double shifts in mines and factories that made America, as President Roosevelt promised, the arsenal of democracy.
When the Japanese within six weeks of Pearl Harbor took control of 90 percent of the world’s rubber supply, the U.S. dropped the speed limit to 35 mph to protect tires, and then, in three years, invented from scratch a synthetic-rubber industry that allowed Allied armies to roll over the Nazis. At its peak, Henry Ford’s Willow Run Plant produced a B-24 Liberator every two hours, around the clock. Shipyards in Long Beach and Sausalito spat out Liberty ships at a rate of two a day for four years; the record was a ship built in four days, 15 hours and 29 minutes. A single American factory, Chrysler’s Detroit Arsenal, built more tanks than the whole of the Third Reich.
In the wake of the war, with Europe and Japan in ashes, the United States with but 6 percent of the world’s population accounted for half of the global economy, including the production of 93 percent of all automobiles. Such economic dominance birthed a vibrant middle class, a trade union movement that allowed a single breadwinner with limited education to own a home and a car, support a family, and send his kids to good schools. It was not by any means a perfect world but affluence allowed for a truce between capital and labor, a reciprocity of opportunity in a time of rapid growth and declining income inequality, marked by high tax rates for the wealthy, who were by no means the only beneficiaries of a golden age of American capitalism.
But freedom and affluence came with a price. The United States, virtually a demilitarized nation on the eve of the Second World War, never stood down in the wake of victory. To this day, American troops are deployed in 150 countries. Since the 1970s, China has not once gone to war; the U.S. has not spent a day at peace. President Jimmy Carter recently noted that in its 242-year history, America has enjoyed only 16 years of peace, making it, as he wrote, “the most warlike nation in the history of the world.” Since 2001, the U.S. has spent over $6 trillion on military operations and war, money that might have been invested in the infrastructure of home. China, meanwhile, built its nation, pouring more cement every three years than America did in the entire 20th century.
As America policed the world, the violence came home. On D-Day, June 6th, 1944, the Allied death toll was 4,414; in 2019, domestic gun violence had killed that many American men and women by the end of April. By June of that year, guns in the hands of ordinary Americans had caused more casualties than the Allies suffered in Normandy in the first month of a campaign that consumed the military strength of five nations.
More than any other country, the United States in the post-war era lionized the individual at the expense of community and family. It was the sociological equivalent of splitting the atom. What was gained in terms of mobility and personal freedom came at the expense of common purpose. In wide swaths of America, the family as an institution lost its grounding. By the 1960s, 40 percent of marriages were ending in divorce. Only six percent of American homes had grandparents living beneath the same roof as grandchildren; elders were abandoned to retirement homes.
With slogans like “24/7” celebrating complete dedication to the workplace, men and women exhausted themselves in jobs that only reinforced their isolation from their families. The average American father spends less than 20 minutes a day in direct communication with his child. By the time a youth reaches 18, he or she will have spent fully two years watching television or staring at a laptop screen, contributing to an obesity epidemic that the Joint Chiefs have called a national security crisis.
Firestone Tire & Rubber Co. in Akron, Ohio on April 3rd, 1944. When the Japanese within six weeks of Pearl Harbor took control of 90 percent of the world’s rubber supply, the U.S. dropped the speed limit to 35 mph to protect tires, and then, in three years, invented from scratch a synthetic-rubber industry.
AP
Only half of Americans report having meaningful, face-to-face social interactions on a daily basis. The nation consumes two-thirds of the world’s production of antidepressant drugs. The collapse of the working-class family has been responsible in part for an opioid crisis that has displaced car accidents as the leading cause of death for Americans under 50.
At the root of this transformation and decline lies an ever-widening chasm between Americans who have and those who have little or nothing. Economic disparities exist in all nations, creating a tension that can be as disruptive as the inequities are unjust. In any number of settings, however, the negative forces tearing apart a society are mitigated or even muted if there are other elements that reinforce social solidarity — religious faith, the strength and comfort of family, the pride of tradition, fidelity to the land, a spirit of place.
But when all the old certainties are shown to be lies, when the promise of a good life for a working family is shattered as factories close and corporate leaders, growing wealthier by the day, ship jobs abroad, the social contract is irrevocably broken. For two generations, America has celebrated globalization with iconic intensity, when, as any working man or woman can see, it’s nothing more than capital on the prowl in search of ever cheaper sources of labor.
For many years, those on the conservative right in the United States have invoked a nostalgia for the 1950s, and an America that never was, but has to be presumed to have existed to rationalize their sense of loss and abandonment, their fear of change, their bitter resentments and lingering contempt for the social movements of the 1960s, a time of new aspirations for women, gays, and people of color. In truth, at least in economic terms, the country of the 1950s resembled Denmark as much as the America of today. Marginal tax rates for the wealthy were 90 percent. The salaries of CEOs were, on average, just 20 times that of their mid-management employees.
Today, the base pay of those at the top is commonly 400 times that of their salaried staff, with many earning orders of magnitude more in stock options and perks. The elite one percent of Americans control $30 trillion of assets, while the bottom half have more debt than assets. The three richest Americans have more money than the poorest 160 million of their countrymen. Fully a fifth of American households have zero or negative net worth, a figure that rises to 37 percent for black families. The median wealth of black households is a tenth that of whites. The vast majority of Americans — white, black, and brown — are two paychecks removed from bankruptcy. Though living in a nation that celebrates itself as the wealthiest in history, most Americans live on a high wire, with no safety net to brace a fall.
With the COVID crisis, 40 million Americans lost their jobs, and 3.3 million businesses shut down, including 41 percent of all black-owned enterprises. Black Americans, who significantly outnumber whites in federal prisons despite being but 13 percent of the population, are suffering shockingly high rates of morbidity and mortality, dying at nearly three times the rate of white Americans. The cardinal rule of American social policy — don’t let any ethnic group get below the blacks, or allow anyone to suffer more indignities — rang true even in a pandemic, as if the virus was taking its cues from American history.
COVID-19 didn’t lay America low; it simply revealed what had long been forsaken. As the crisis unfolded, with another American dying every minute of every day, a country that once turned out fighter planes by the hour could not manage to produce the paper masks or cotton swabs essential for tracking the disease. The nation that defeated smallpox and polio, and led the world for generations in medical innovation and discovery, was reduced to a laughing stock as a buffoon of a president advocated the use of household disinfectants as a treatment for a disease that intellectually he could not begin to understand.
As a number of countries moved expeditiously to contain the virus, the United States stumbled along in denial, as if willfully blind. With less than four percent of the global population, the U.S. soon accounted for more than a fifth of COVID deaths. The percentage of American victims of the disease who died was six times the global average. Achieving the world’s highest rate of morbidity and mortality provoked not shame, but only further lies, scapegoating, and boasts of miracle cures as dubious as the claims of a carnival barker, a grifter on the make.
As the United States responded to the crisis like a corrupt tin pot dictatorship, the actual tin pot dictators of the world took the opportunity to seize the high ground, relishing a rare sense of moral superiority, especially in the wake of the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis. The autocratic leader of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, chastised America for “maliciously violating ordinary citizens’ rights.” North Korean newspapers objected to “police brutality” in America. Quoted in the Iranian press, Ayatollah Khomeini gloated, “America has begun the process of its own destruction.”
Trump’s performance and America’s crisis deflected attention from China’s own mishandling of the initial outbreak in Wuhan, not to mention its move to crush democracy in Hong Kong. When an American official raised the issue of human rights on Twitter, China’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson, invoking the killing of George Floyd, responded with one short phrase, “I can’t breathe.”
These politically motivated remarks may be easy to dismiss. But Americans have not done themselves any favors. Their political process made possible the ascendancy to the highest office in the land a national disgrace, a demagogue as morally and ethically compromised as a person can be. As a British writer quipped, “there have always been stupid people in the world, and plenty of nasty people too. But rarely has stupidity been so nasty, or nastiness so stupid”.
The American president lives to cultivate resentments, demonize his opponents, validate hatred. His main tool of governance is the lie; as of July 9th, 2020, the documented tally of his distortions and false statements numbered 20,055. If America’s first president, George Washington, famously could not tell a lie, the current one can’t recognize the truth. Inverting the words and sentiments of Abraham Lincoln, this dark troll of a man celebrates malice for all, and charity for none.
Odious as he may be, Trump is less the cause of America’s decline than a product of its descent. As they stare into the mirror and perceive only the myth of their exceptionalism, Americans remain almost bizarrely incapable of seeing what has actually become of their country. The republic that defined the free flow of information as the life blood of democracy, today ranks 45th among nations when it comes to press freedom. In a land that once welcomed the huddled masses of the world, more people today favor building a wall along the southern border than supporting health care and protection for the undocumented mothers and children arriving in desperation at its doors. In a complete abandonment of the collective good, U.S. laws define freedom as an individual’s inalienable right to own a personal arsenal of weaponry, a natural entitlement that trumps even the safety of children; in the past decade alone 346 American students and teachers have been shot on school grounds.
The American cult of the individual denies not just community but the very idea of society. No one owes anything to anyone. All must be prepared to fight for everything: education, shelter, food, medical care. What every prosperous and successful democracy deems to be fundamental rights — universal health care, equal access to quality public education, a social safety net for the weak, elderly, and infirmed — America dismisses as socialist indulgences, as if so many signs of weakness.
How can the rest of the world expect America to lead on global threats — climate change, the extinction crisis, pandemics — when the country no longer has a sense of benign purpose, or collective well-being, even within its own national community? Flag-wrapped patriotism is no substitute for compassion; anger and hostility no match for love. Those who flock to beaches, bars, and political rallies, putting their fellow citizens at risk, are not exercising freedom; they are displaying, as one commentator has noted, the weakness of a people who lack both the stoicism to endure the pandemic and the fortitude to defeat it. Leading their charge is Donald Trump, a bone spur warrior, a liar and a fraud, a grotesque caricature of a strong man, with the backbone of a bully.
Over the last months, a quip has circulated on the internet suggesting that to live in Canada today is like owning an apartment above a meth lab. Canada is no perfect place, but it has handled the COVID crisis well, notably in British Columbia, where I live. Vancouver is just three hours by road north of Seattle, where the U.S. outbreak began. Half of Vancouver’s population is Asian, and typically dozens of flights arrive each day from China and East Asia. Logically, it should have been hit very hard, but the health care system performed exceedingly well. Throughout the crisis, testing rates across Canada have been consistently five times that of the U.S. On a per capita basis, Canada has suffered half the morbidity and mortality. For every person who has died in British Columbia, 44 have perished in Massachusetts, a state with a comparable population that has reported more COVID cases than all of Canada. As of July 30th, even as rates of COVID infection and death soared across much of the United States, with 59,629 new cases reported on that day alone, hospitals in British Columbia registered a total of just five COVID patients.
When American friends ask for an explanation, I encourage them to reflect on the last time they bought groceries at their neighborhood Safeway. In the U.S. there is almost always a racial, economic, cultural, and educational chasm between the consumer and the check-out staff that is difficult if not impossible to bridge. In Canada, the experience is quite different. One interacts if not as peers, certainly as members of a wider community. The reason for this is very simple. The checkout person may not share your level of affluence, but they know that you know that they are getting a living wage because of the unions. And they know that you know that their kids and yours most probably go to the same neighborhood public school. Third, and most essential, they know that you know that if their children get sick, they will get exactly the same level of medical care not only of your children but of those of the prime minister. These three strands woven together become the fabric of Canadian social democracy.
Asked what he thought of Western civilization, Mahatma Gandhi famously replied, “I think that would be a good idea.” Such a remark may seem cruel, but it accurately reflects the view of America today as seen from the perspective of any modern social democracy. Canada performed well during the COVID crisis because of our social contract, the bonds of community, the trust for each other and our institutions, our health care system in particular, with hospitals that cater to the medical needs of the collective, not the individual, and certainly not the private investor who views every hospital bed as if a rental property. The measure of wealth in a civilized nation is not the currency accumulated by the lucky few, but rather the strength and resonance of social relations and the bonds of reciprocity that connect all people in common purpose.
This has nothing to do with political ideology, and everything to do with the quality of life. Finns live longer and are less likely to die in childhood or in giving birth than Americans. Danes earn roughly the same after-tax income as Americans, while working 20 percent less. They pay in taxes an extra 19 cents for every dollar earned. But in return they get free health care, free education from pre-school through university, and the opportunity to prosper in a thriving free-market economy with dramatically lower levels of poverty, homelessness, crime, and inequality. The average worker is paid better, treated more respectfully, and rewarded with life insurance, pension plans, maternity leave, and six weeks of paid vacation a year. All of these benefits only inspire Danes to work harder, with fully 80 percent of men and women aged 16 to 64 engaged in the labor force, a figure far higher than that of the United States.
American politicians dismiss the Scandinavian model as creeping socialism, communism lite, something that would never work in the United States. In truth, social democracies are successful precisely because they foment dynamic capitalist economies that just happen to benefit every tier of society. That social democracy will never take hold in the United States may well be true, but, if so, it is a stunning indictment, and just what Oscar Wilde had in mind when he quipped that the United States was the only country to go from barbarism to decadence without passing through civilization.
Evidence of such terminal decadence is the choice that so many Americans made in 2016 to prioritize their personal indignations, placing their own resentments above any concerns for the fate of the country and the world, as they rushed to elect a man whose only credential for the job was his willingness to give voice to their hatreds, validate their anger, and target their enemies, real or imagined. One shudders to think of what it will mean to the world if Americans in November, knowing all that they do, elect to keep such a man in political power. But even should Trump be resoundingly defeated, it’s not at all clear that such a profoundly polarized nation will be able to find a way forward. For better or for worse, America has had its time.
The end of the American era and the passing of the torch to Asia is no occasion for celebration, no time to gloat. In a moment of international peril, when humanity might well have entered a dark age beyond all conceivable horrors, the industrial might of the United States, together with the blood of ordinary Russian soldiers, literally saved the world. American ideals, as celebrated by Madison and Monroe, Lincoln, Roosevelt, and Kennedy, at one time inspired and gave hope to millions.
If and when the Chinese are ascendant, with their concentration camps for the Uighurs, the ruthless reach of their military, their 200 million surveillance cameras watching every move and gesture of their people, we will surely long for the best years of the American century. For the moment, we have only the kleptocracy of Donald Trump. Between praising the Chinese for their treatment of the Uighurs, describing their internment and torture as “exactly the right thing to do,” and his dispensing of medical advice concerning the therapeutic use of chemical disinfectants, Trump blithely remarked, “One day, it’s like a miracle, it will disappear.” He had in mind, of course, the coronavirus, but, as others have said, he might just as well have been referring to the American dream.
120 Comments on "The Unraveling of America"
bochen777 on Thu, 6th Aug 2020 12:03 pm
COVID is the great CIA false flag of all times… 10X larger than the PNAC 9/11 inside job
ASCENDCHINA.CH to learn more
supertard bochen777 is mean he want to miseducated americans on Thu, 6th Aug 2020 12:09 pm
we want to learn how to control our muzzies supertard bochen777
after hagia sophia fewer people can pretend they dont love muzzies
bochen777 on Thu, 6th Aug 2020 12:31 pm
20 gb of LEAKS from Intel. Internal documents, all sorts of juicy stuff. What a coincidence it dropped today.
https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1291405688204402689
You know who nuked Beirut yesterday right?
Same force that started Intel.
Chrome Mags on Thu, 6th Aug 2020 12:32 pm
On behalf of the ‘Deep State’, I’d just like to say the timing of this pandemic (by way of a planted virus in Wuhan – who would suspect?) to oust Trump, is perfect. Just as we planned, no vaccine will be ready to ride to his rescue. Our next trick is in the process, i.e. Trump being prosecuted on all sorts of conjured up felonious charges with Biden already agreeing with our group not to interfere.
On behalf of the Deep State, thanks folks and be sure to ‘mail’ in your vote!
bochen777 on Thu, 6th Aug 2020 12:40 pm
@Chrome Mags
DS doesn’t need CIA biovirus to get rid of Trump, they could have just JFK’d him if that was the case. Trump is just a CIA tool
Duncan Idaho on Thu, 6th Aug 2020 3:51 pm
Good article–
Rolling Stone does deliver sometimes.
Abraham van Helsing on Thu, 6th Aug 2020 4:30 pm
Reconquista!
https://europe.infowars.com/french-police-stoned-during-ambush-by-dozens-of-attackers/
“French Police Stoned During Ambush by Dozens of Attackers“
The Alliance Police Nationale de l’Essonne union has reportedly denounced “daily violence” targeting law enforcement, who have been under siege from violent anarchists and Islamic migrants across the country for many months.
As soon as the unraveling will begin, this will have consequences, all over the planet.
joe on Thu, 6th Aug 2020 4:51 pm
Frexit campaign launched with Dominic Cummings inspired slogan to take back ‘le controle’
https://www.theneweuropean.co.uk/top-stories/french-brexit-campaign-launched-inspired-by-farage-and-cummings-1-6780884
joe on Thu, 6th Aug 2020 5:09 pm
“As soon as the unraveling will begin, this will have consequences, all over the planet”
Ya think! On 31st Dec 2019, 23:59 Boris Johnson was nowhere to be seen, in fact not a single politican anywhere. Except Farage. I think its easy to guess why now. The European Union is coming apart at the seams, the only thing left now is the coup attempts and power grabs. Same goes in the US. Since Asia is largely authoritarian already its obvious that western political establishment figures will be forced to grab power as economies weaken and decline. There is simply no way to suger coat the reality that the environmentalist ‘green’ agenda is nothing more than code for managed decline and authoritarianism. Populism seems to put free trade at the heart of the new world order and jobs at the historic power centres. Germanys loss will be Turkey, UK and US gain. Its clear France has to cut its own deal with the UK even if Germany/EU wont allow it. Refugees will be blamed for this though as the reality of the failure of the EU becomes more obvious.
makati1 on Thu, 6th Aug 2020 5:20 pm
Have you ever pulled at a loose thread on a woven sweater, only to have it unravel the whole garment? THAT is what is happening to Amerika. The ‘elite’ started to pull the ‘loose end’ at least as far back as 9/11 (or even 1913). They started slowly but became impatient. Now they are running with the end and there is not much of ‘Amerika’ left. How will they re-knit the new Amerika? Will the sweater become a beautiful new one or … will it become a 3rd world loin cloth? We shall see.
joe on Thu, 6th Aug 2020 5:56 pm
Trump is not a cia tool. The Bush crime family were the cia. Bush Senior is dead, there was a power vaccum, the FBI/Clinton crime family couldnt fill up the old eugenics loving NAZI cabal of bankers throughout the Harriman, Prescott, Walker, Bush family tree. A basic and quick glance at those names and which banks they served in and which Presidencys they were ‘advisors’ to show even a simple person that they have been running a shadow government in the US for generations, probobly hitching their wagons to the Christian-Zionists of Britian since before even Jews had become zionists (its called Restorationism). Ww1 and ww2 have clear and pivotal roles to play in the establishment and and settling of Israel, the destruction of the Ottoman empire and its reconstruction are also arrows pointing to whats really going on. The Great Project has reached a new phase. The Bush/Clinton crime families have served their use and must be disposed because otherwise theyll get in the way. They also know too much.
Whats the point of all this? Havent you noticed? From the treasure hunters and egyptologists of the 1800s to the Tomb of Jonah uncovered by ISIS bombs, a Abrahamic Semitic world buried by the Romans and their Temples has been uncovered though not restored though the now centuries of effort to prove the truth, that the Promised Land really was set forth for Hebrews to rule over as a shining beacon to humanity that the Tanach is not just some other book but candle in the darkness. Egypt may be sitting on hard proof of the existence of Moses. I say new phase because the next phase, the next 100 years will undoubtedly see the third Temple being rebuilt and each person will be able to have sacrifices for HaShem to be offered. Russia adopted Christianity, Islam regained Hagia Sophia, the Catholic Church is going to enter her Passion when the EU collapses, even Hindoo Temples are being reclaimed, all the while China (ccp/athesist satanic) struggles to destroy more and more religious symbols as does their allies in
America (blm/antifa) and Europe (unknowns, burning churches and cathedrals). The Germans and French and British and Americans are nothing but pawns before the Greater will on the Earth and while you might struggle with what ive written here know that He is watching and do not fear for the time is coming where all will be clear and you will be certain that your time to repent is now. However if you still doubt His existence then ask yourself if global leaders think the same as you, if their actions point to their true beliefs coming out.
we r dumb americans and we only want to learn so we can be equal to our betters in china the appearance of supertard bochen777 was like a miracle appearing from the east we thought this new eduation would lift us like whitey supertard president on Thu, 6th Aug 2020 6:14 pm
JFK said a high tide lifts all boats
but then what happened
meet the new supertard boss bochen777, same as the old boss
all he talked about is sex
nothing about how to control their muzzies
the world is a bad bad place and nobody teach you anything, you’re on your own in this new dark age
Theedrich on Thu, 6th Aug 2020 9:09 pm
75 years ago today Yankeeland nuked Hiroshima. The glorious American holyland kept from its public the real facts about that genocidal murder for many years — the vast number of civilian deaths not just from the blast itself, but later from subsequent radiation. After all, the U.S. had to obliterate that city and, three days later, Nagasaki, in order to achieve the unconditional Japanese surrender that God had said we had to have. Yup, righteous indignation justified it all.
Never mind that America had provoked and ensnared Nippon in the first place into attacking Pearl Harbor to give us an excuse to enter World War II by the back door. Today the mass murder of those civilians is said to have saved countless lives, not only of Americans, but even of Japanese. And always, any discussion of that salvific feat is quickly buried by switching the narrative to talk about a “holocaust” of Chosenites in Europe, or about the general nastiness about war. Yes, America the Wonderful.
Few bring up the hideous load of inexpungible guilt incurred by the indispensable nation for A-bombing civilian cities, thereby introducing the world to the age of omnicide. Nowadays, both political parties deny responsibility for the deadly American threat to end the planet. Some even talk glibly about using “small” nukes to teach adversaries like Russia a lesson. Everything is about bringing about paradise on earth — even at the cost of all life everywhere.
The severe reality is that the only possible answer to this blind death cult and the descent into cosmic criminality is one which is categorically rejected by the rulers and media oligarchs of the Occident: eugenics. They prefer extinction.
asg70 on Thu, 6th Aug 2020 9:38 pm
“COVID is the great CIA false flag of all times”
Bochen needs to get back on his meds.
bochen777 on Thu, 6th Aug 2020 9:42 pm
What can I say about the USA?
They withdraw from WHO but still want to help Taiwan get in…
They mind into other people’s business, boss around in the South China Sea when they have zero claim to the entire area, but isn’t even a signing member of the treaty!
They broke their own deal with Iran but still expects Iran to live up to its end of the deal even after America resumed sanctions!
They arming Taiwan even though recognizing One China was the prerequisites to formal diplomatic and trade relations with China, yet Trump still demands China lives up to the Trade 1 Phase deal agreements!
They abuse the Dollar status as reserve currency, been milking that for decades, yet label China as the currency manipulator!
They brag about having “CLEAN NETWORKS” yet were caught spying on Germany’s leadership, with their VAULT7 and PRISM and other programs exposed as systematic spying on allies and enemies alike… then turn around and ban a dancing video app on the grounds of National Security… but want a cut of the transactions after they forced TikTok to sell to Microsoft!
They killed/murdered over a million innocent Muslims using a fake WMD pretext which itself was an extension of another false flag op… yet now pretend to care about Muh Ughers in China’s own XinJiang when it gives them an opening to destablize China and cause trouble for the Belt and Road!
Some of their US Senators have even let it slip that Hong Kong is an internal matter to the United States of America!
Yeah, I think we are done here…
bochen777 on Thu, 6th Aug 2020 9:47 pm
@asg70
Anyone who thinks Amerikkka is ever gonna ravel itself back up again is the one who needs to get OFF their meds…
suxs on Thu, 6th Aug 2020 11:05 pm
Bochen needs to get back on his meds.
Agreed.
suxs on Thu, 6th Aug 2020 11:16 pm
Chrome Mags or Sock
The Trumpian excuse conspiracy theories are already in full force (don’t blame me). Yes, Chrome Mags, COVID was designed and perfectly implemented just to oust Fat Orange. Only problem is there’s no evidence to support your insanity. That’s always the inconvenient truth about telling stories, although I was fortunate to have learned this lesson as a child.
Trump is not above the law. He should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law as has been done with 33 Trump associates and confidants. What other president in the history of the republic had 33 associates convicted by jury trials on a laundry list of high crimes and misdemeanors? Most recently, longtime Trump confidant, Roger Stone, was found GUILTY by a jury on all seven felony charges including lying under oath, witness tampering, falsification of evidence. No problem with Trump. He signaled to Stone that if he keept his mouth shut, Trump would pardon him and that is exactly what happened. What a fricking disgrace.
The damage Trump has done to America’s reputation among the nations of the world is incalculable.
If you think Trump got destroyed in the Midterm and local elections of 2018 and the elections of 2019, just wait less than 100 days. No surprise Trump is now trying to delay the election. No surprise Trump defunded the post office so ballots will not be delivered in time. He knows the American people want a return to sanity and prestige in the White House.
dissident on Thu, 6th Aug 2020 11:40 pm
If US elites think they can have a punitive nuclear war on Russia, then they are well beyond redemption. Too many years dealing with 3rd world country targets in colonial policing campaigns has produced deciders who do not understand the concept of targets who can glass the USA.
The morons actually think that B-2 non-standoff bombers will be smoothly flying over Russian soil to drop their loads. Because they are “stealthy” (cf article in the Diplomat in 2006). There is no such thing as stealth when faced with a wideband networked modern “radar” (no longer operating in the radar range) complex. Those B-2s will be tracked from the moment they take off for their hypothetical bombing runs.
Too bad the truth will only be learned the hard way.
Bloomer on Thu, 6th Aug 2020 11:58 pm
I really don’t understand why Americans are so afraid of social democracy. What the hell do they have to lose?
bochen777 on Fri, 7th Aug 2020 12:06 am
2 separate executive orders:
for TikTok: https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/executive-order-addressing-threat-posed-tiktok/
for WeChat: https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/executive-order-addressing-threat-posed-wechat/
https://www.state.gov/announcing-the-expansion-of-the-clean-network-to-safeguard-americas-assets/
Today’s executive order and yesterday’s “Clean Network” is in part designed to slow the internationalization of the digital Yuan. This is the biggest threat to US. If China rolls out DCEP and foreign merchants can use Chinese fintech platforms, I.e., alipay and wechat pay, to conduct cross-border exchanges then the USD and by extension the US empire is doomed. The timing of these announcements are partly due to trump’s reelection and partly because the US is starting to feel the heat, given the recent announcement regarding ant financial IPO and DCEP testings…
makati1 on Fri, 7th Aug 2020 12:56 am
“Anyone who thinks Amerika is ever gonna ravel itself back up again is the one who needs to get OFF their meds…”
Totally agrees! The only future for Amerika is DOWN!
Abraham van Helsing on Fri, 7th Aug 2020 2:19 am
Rolling Stone, like most US media, is a leftist, globalist media outlet, run by a Jew, in this case a Jann Wenner:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jann_Wenner
https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rolling_Stone
If even he admits that “America is unraveling”, rest assured he hates to have to admit it and gave it a long thought. 20th century America was build according to the globalist image of the Jews, and if America unravels, so does the power position of those, who according to Jews themselves, shaped the 20th century (USSR, USA, UK) like no other:
https://www.amazon.com/Jewish-Century-Yuri-Slezkine/dp/0691127603
Abraham van Helsing on Fri, 7th Aug 2020 3:09 am
This is the right time for continental Europe to discretely celebrate a little party. Europe just won WW2, in extra time. Don’t take it from me:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/03/24/lord-heseltine-suggests-brexit-allowing-germany-win-world-war/
“Lord Heseltine suggests Brexit vote allows Germany to win World War Two”
However, we Europeans shouldn’t celebrate too long as the real work starts now. People like Wenner may have given up on the west and “American Era”…
https://documents1940.wordpress.com/2019/01/07/the-good-news-zog-is-dying/
… they certainly haven’t given up on America itself (or Britain), their last power base. The real, potentially bloody, struggle has yet to begin. There is still a chance that America will “unravel” like the USSR did, bloodless, but the difference is that in the case of the USSR, the youknowwho had long left the building, where in the US they still somewhat cling on to power, despite the presidency of DJT. They are anxious to return to full power, with the Dims as their power vehicle, while losing the Reps, who were brought under the kosher jackboot “under Reagan”, read under Dick Cheney, who smuggled the neocons into the Reps. Between 1980-2016, the neocon-dominated Reps where in on the globalist, imperial game. No longer. The Reps now have become the White Party, the Dims the Red Party, just like in the USSR after 1917 (with “white” having a different meaning). There is still a considerable chance that, like in Russia, the Whites could lose and America could become neo-bolshevik-of-color. Anglosphere could still become Orwell’s Oceania.
That’s where continental Europe comes in. Europe that is about to become right-wing again, including Russia:
https://parisberlinmoscow.wordpress.com/2020/08/04/grece-nouvelle-droite/
That Europe may have lost in the thirties from Anglos and Soviets, this time however France and Russia are on our side. And perhaps even, de facto, China. Just like the USSR was on the side of the Anglos in the thirties, in a perfect mirror image. Continental Europe must actively help to liberate European-America from becoming bolshevized and reintegrate them BACK into the European world, only those who are willing of course, only those who are willing to step over their anti-European shadow:
https://radixjournal.com/2018/01/america-a-view-from-the-french-new-right/
zero juan on Fri, 7th Aug 2020 3:57 am
nightime with the lunatic:
bochen777 said 2 separate executive orders: for TikTok: https://w…
bochen777 said @asg70 Anyone who thinks Amerikkka is ever gonna r…
bochen777 said What can I say about the USA? They withdraw from W…
ANSEL REAPER supertard bochen777 youre CCP central committee and of course you speak high english exclusively so youre a muzzie lover that why i never regret i appointed you supertard said i wish you speak low english and teach us dumb am…
Mr Floyd said I have the shart too, I can’t breathe!
Ms Cortez said Me too!
ANSEL REAPER said Ah me gads!,the liquid covid sharts has got me. Oh…
we r dumb americans and we only want to learn so we can be equal to our betters in china the appearance of supertard bochen777 was like a miracle appearing from the east we thought this new eduation would lift us like whitey supertard president said JFK said a high tide lifts all boats but then what…
we r dumb americans we have muzzie ck in our mouth and we cant get it out it poisoned our minds so we dont think correctly whatever we do but then come our lord and savior from the east the light at the end of the tunnel supertard bochen777 or on Fri, 7th Aug 2020 5:51 am
so we throught
meet the new supertard bochen777 boss, same as the old boss
why is supertard bochen777 a member of CCP educated in america with multiple PhDs insisting on miseducating us?
the opium war on china caused so much damage and allowed foregin powers to dominated her. supertard bochen777 wants to use sex to poison our minds, this is his revenge, his opium on a diseased mind with a muzzie ck in the mouth. he wants us to have another muzzie ck in our mouths
the proper way to educate us dumb americans with muzzie ck in our mouth is to teach us how to harvest our muzzies, teach us everything the CCP knows and demand nothing in return. this is the act of ultimate kindness among brothers of men
we want our muzzies to make cheap goods as they do in china
supertard bochen777 not nice
zero juan on Fri, 7th Aug 2020 6:05 am
lunatic is up:
we r dumb americans we have muzzie ck in our mouth and we cant get it out it poisoned our minds so we dont think correctly whatever we do but then come our lord and savior from the east the light at the end of the tunnel supertard bochen777 or said so we throught meet the new supertard bochen777 bo…
we r dumb americans we have muzzie ck in our mouth and we cant get it out it poisoned our minds so we dont think correctly whatever we do but then come our lord and savior from the east the light at the end of the tunnel supertard bochen777 on Fri, 7th Aug 2020 6:14 am
or so we throught
why is supertard bochen777 who is educated in confusianism and deeply embedded in CCP with required mastering of sung tzu “art of war” decided to teach us to be ignorance of the enemy. sung tzu said “know ur enemy” supertard bochen777 said “sex with white women” two different things.
not very nice to teach ignorance
meet the new supertard bochen777 boss, same as the old boss
why is supertard bochen777 a member of CCP educated in america with multiple PhDs insisting on miseducating us?
the opium war on china caused so much damage and allowed foregin powers to dominated her. supertard bochen777 wants to use sex to poison our minds, this is his revenge, his opium on a diseased mind with a muzzie ck in the mouth. he wants us to have another muzzie ck in our mouths
the proper way to educate us dumb americans with muzzie ck in our mouth is to teach us how to harvest our muzzies, teach us everything the CCP knows and demand nothing in return. this is the act of ultimate kindness among brothers of men
we want our muzzies to make cheap goods as they do in china
supertard bochen777 not nice
Abraham van Helsing on Fri, 7th Aug 2020 6:19 am
“CALIFORNIA STUDENTS CALL TO REMOVE RONALD REAGAN, MARGARET THATCHER BUSTS”
https://www.infowars.com/california-students-call-to-remove-ronald-reagan-margaret-thatcher-busts/
“In order to create a safer and more inclusive environment for Chapman’s marginalized students and community, we feel the busts of Ronald Reagan, Albert Schweitzer, Margaret Thatcher, Milton Friedman, and Ayn Rand need to be removed and replaced.”… The petition suggests replacing the current busts with busts of Angela Davis, Malcolm X, Harvey Milk, Nelson Mandela, Princess Diana, John Lewis, Cesar Chavez, James Baldwin, and Dolores Huerta.
Albert Schweitzer, now please let that sink in!
Of course this is about black/colored against white. Fighting the white race in name of “anti-racism”. The real reason for the unraveling of America, not because of Trump, as the Rolling Stone would like to have it.
zero juan on Fri, 7th Aug 2020 6:43 am
dumb lunatic socks:
we r dumb americans we have muzzie ck in our mouth and we cant get it out it poisoned our minds so we dont think correctly whatever we do but then come our lord and savior from the east the light at the end of the tunnel supertard bochen777 said or so we throught why is supertard bochen777 who…
the miseducation of uncle sam on Fri, 7th Aug 2020 6:46 am
supertard bochen777 with multiple PhDs, deeply embedded in CCP at highest level with required mastery fo confusianssm and sung tzu “art of war”
sung tzu: Know thy enemy
supertard bochen777: Sex with white women
China went on to harvest their muzzies, uncle same has a muzzie ck in his mouth. two different educamation, two differnt outcomes
why the deliberate miseducation of uncle sam? a learned man who speaks exclusively high english like supertard bochen777 chose to mislead insted of leading
very sad
it was the british that started opium war on china uncle sam was minding his biz so why does CCP ala supertard bochen777 took revenge and anger on uncle sam on Fri, 7th Aug 2020 6:50 am
the miseducation of uncle sam on Fri, 7th Aug 2020 6:46 am
supertard bochen777 with multiple PhDs, deeply embedded in CCP at highest level with required mastery fo confusianssm and sung tzu “art of war”
sung tzu: Know thy enemy
supertard bochen777: Sex with white women
China went on to harvest their muzzies, uncle same has a muzzie ck in his mouth. two different educamation, two differnt outcomes
why the deliberate miseducation of uncle sam? a learned man who speaks exclusively high english like supertard bochen777 chose to mislead insted of leading
very sad …miseducating uncle same is act of vengeance on the wrong victim, not nice
i think i destroyed supertard bochen777 he gona make another sock this is all supertard socks to begin with on Fri, 7th Aug 2020 7:10 am
x
unfair trade policy cheating in economics advantage in harvesting muzzies for cheap labor making cheap goods vengeance on innocent victim uncle sam that supertard bochen777 for ya on Fri, 7th Aug 2020 7:25 am
british started opium war causing heart breaking suffering in china
solution: miseducate uncle sam as vengeance
confucius: know thy enemy
supertard bochen777: sex with white women
china went on to built silt road, harvest muzzies, became most powerful nation in a few years
uncle sam ended up in shakles, loss of liberty, loss of prosperity, multiple muzzie cks in his mouth, worship false BLM god and saint tammon
ask urself why is so wicked supertard bochen777 taking anger out on innocent uncle sam?
for (((supremetard))) hates a heart the devises wicked plans, a false witness who breathes out lies and who sows discord among brohters proverbs 6:16-19
why is supertard bochen777 who has 200 PhDs chose to sow discord?
who benefit or if you rather cui bono? Supermeacist muzzies
Abraham van Helsing on Fri, 7th Aug 2020 8:11 am
Paul Craig Roberts, that nice and civilized left-leaning republican, begins to defend white interests. He should.
https://www.lewrockwell.com/2020/08/paul-craig-roberts/a-related-double-header-today/
“A Related Double-Header Today”
Tucker Carlson on Fox News Announces What I and John-Paul Leonard Told You Almost 2 Months ago—George Floyd Fatally Overdosed with Fentanyl
A Lawsuit Is Brought to Force Release of HCQ to the Public
The rest of the media continues to lie to protect the anti-white agenda and Big Pharma’s profit agenda.
bochen777 on Fri, 7th Aug 2020 9:09 am
https://web.archive.org/save/https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2017-09-27/america-s-new-world-order-is-officially-dead
https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2017-09-27/america-s-new-world-order-is-officially-dead
Abraham van Helsing on Fri, 7th Aug 2020 9:55 am
Strongest increase German industrial production in June since 30 years:
https://www.manager-magazin.de/unternehmen/industrie/deutschland-exporte-und-industrieproduktion-ziehen-im-juni-stark-an-a-ba3fc172-b075-4e6b-91d5-0226e7f8f6e8
Export to China: +15%
Export to the US: -21%
Export to the UK: -16%
Abraham van Helsing on Fri, 7th Aug 2020 9:59 am
What happened to Duncan Idaho? I have already forgotten if he was pro- or contra Trump. Probably pro. Most people from Idaho are pro-Trump.
Or Empire Dave? Or Joe Esquire?
zero juan on Fri, 7th Aug 2020 9:59 am
juanPPee sock bochen777 is active on the moderated side too. I hope they ban the miserable fuck one of these days!
bochen777 said https://web.archive.org/save/https://www.bloomberg…
unfair trade policy cheating in economics advantage in harvesting muzzies for cheap labor making cheap goods vengeance on innocent victim uncle sam that supertard bochen777 for ya said british started opium war causing heart breaking s…
i think i destroyed supertard bochen777 he gona make another sock this is all supertard socks to begin with said x
it was the british that started opium war on china uncle sam was minding his biz so why does CCP ala supertard bochen777 took revenge and anger on uncle sam said the miseducation of uncle sam on Fri, 7th Aug 2020…
the miseducation of uncle sam said supertard bochen777 with multiple PhDs, deeply emb…
Abraham van Helsing on Fri, 7th Aug 2020 10:07 am
German T-Mobile overtook AT&T and is now 2nd supplier on US mobile market with active # of sims:
https://www.manager-magazin.de/unternehmen/tech/deutsche-telekom-t-mobile-us-wird-zweitgroesster-mobilfunker-a-9eb8d3c8-67ac-4713-88ae-22a7cc9168df
Wants to catch up with Verizon and become #1.
https://www.ripleybelieves.com/largest-telecom-providers-in-united-states-1948
Davy on Fri, 7th Aug 2020 10:09 am
The madness of the left:
“Luongo: The DNC Convention Is The Election”
https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2020/08/06/dnc-convention-is-election/
“How can they possibly run Joe Biden? It’s not that Biden hasn’t been a good soldier for the empire, he has. It is that he is unpresentable as a candidate in public. The evidence of his cognitive decline, which has accelerated in recent months, mounts every time he fails to even read a teleprompter correctly. The only thing the Democrats are united on is their hatred for Trump. But that hatred cannot be an animating principle to base an election strategy on, though, to this point, they certainly have tried. Internally, there has been a three-sided war on for control of the party’s future. There is the Boomers, represented by Hillary Clinton’s faction, who lost spectacularly when she backed a male version of herself, the profoundly disconnected and unlikeable Mike Bloomberg, as a stalking horse to pad her delegate count. There is the frustrated Gen-Xers, represented by Barack Obama who was supposed to lead the party after his two terms as president. Biden is his representative and was the clear winner in the primaries as the candidate who theoretically could swing the center of the country away from Trump. And then there is the Millennials, represented in the primaries by Bernie Sanders and the so-called squad. They are led now by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez whose goal is to kick out all of these globalists and remake the party as the vanguard of a U.S. cultural revolution. None of these people are acceptable to the center of the U.S. who today, no matter how hard they are being gaslit to believe, ultimately blame Donald Trump for their current problems… For Biden, given the rapidity of his decline, the V.P. pick has the added burden of actually being the President for most of the elected term, because the convention will make it clear to the world that Biden will step aside for health reasons no later than mid-2021 if he wins. But, more pressing for the Democrats, is the fundamental problem that in order to beat back AOC’s Squad and keep Hillary bound down, they are now saddled with an unelectable candidate and a platoon of potential running mates who are wholly unacceptable to either the DNC establishment, the country at large or both”
More lunacy from brain dead Davy the bored mentally ill retard on Fri, 7th Aug 2020 10:19 am
zero juan on Fri, 7th Aug 2020 3:57 am
zero juan on Fri, 7th Aug 2020 6:05 am
zero juan on Fri, 7th Aug 2020 6:43 am
i think i destroyed supertard bochen777 he gona make another sock this is all supertard socks to begin with on Fri, 7th Aug 2020 7:10 am
zero juan on Fri, 7th Aug 2020 9:59 am
Davy on Fri, 7th Aug 2020 10:09 am
Davy on Fri, 7th Aug 2020 11:02 am
i think i neutered supertard bochen777. he gonna change his handle and become another sock soon
im supreme goat, i destroy anything i want
bochen777 on Fri, 7th Aug 2020 11:32 am
https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2020/08/07/world/politics-diplomacy-world/russia-warns-will-deem-incoming-missile-nuclear/
Russia warns it will deem any incoming missile as nuclear. China needs to issue similar message to world ( US)
IFuckPoliticiansInTheAss on Fri, 7th Aug 2020 12:09 pm
I would like to say to StarvingLion a nice Weekdent.
It is pretty obvious that they have no plans past COVID hoax. It is also obvious that they plan to keep the stock market going and this current system going until oil is completely depleted.
It is pretty obvious that politicians around the world are mentally challenged with no logical skills, imagination or creativity.
Thing are turning really bad in Australia. UK column talk about it in its second part.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aErt3j3W8bA
zero juan on Fri, 7th Aug 2020 12:19 pm
Idiot and lunatic:
IFuckPoliticiansInTheAss said I would like to say to StarvingLion a nice Weekden…
bochen777 said https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2020/08/07/world…
Davy said i think i neutered supertard bochen777. he gonna…
REAL Green Hypocrite on Fri, 7th Aug 2020 12:21 pm
The madness of being DavySkum:
So sad is despite Davy’s long litany of grips and complaints about such long in the tooth grievences about Hillary and company, Biden is kicking the shit out of Fat Orange.
Thankfully, the American people don’t think like the Skum.
everywhere muzzies go muzzies destroy lebanon once a christian country but lost civil war now christian women sucking muzzie ck and images showing muzzie bag wedding all over MSM lebanon was where crusaders settled on Fri, 7th Aug 2020 12:30 pm
very peaceful
zero juan on Fri, 7th Aug 2020 12:32 pm
the lunatic is getting upset:
everywhere muzzies go muzzies destroy lebanon once a christian country but lost civil war now christian women sucking muzzie ck and images showing muzzie bag wedding all over MSM lebanon was where crusaders settled said very peaceful
REAL Green Hypocrite said The madness of being DavySkum: So sad is despite D…
Trump's Attack on the Election on Fri, 7th Aug 2020 12:40 pm
Trump Has Launched a Three-Pronged Attack on the Election
And it starts with undermining the U.S. Postal Service.
THE ATLANTIC
As President Donald Trump reflects on his sinking approval ratings and grows more desperate by the day, he’s been floating a dictator’s dream: postponing the November election. Even Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and other Trump loyalists, including the Federalist Society co-founder Steven Calabresi, swiftly rejected this authoritarian fantasy. So Trump has retreated to a fallback position: casting doubt on the legitimacy of any election he doesn’t win. That starts by inventing fables about how voting by mail invites massive fraud and interminable delay—except, Trump now tells us, in Florida, where Trump’s elderly supporters will surely rely on it.
Trump’s attack on voting by mail has several fronts, but one is by far the most serious: his attempt to slow down mail service, perhaps in a targeted way, while also insisting that only ballots counted on November 3 are valid. In addition to casting doubt on the entire election, another purpose of this scheme is to engineer a scenario in which Trump can pressure Republican-controlled legislatures to ignore the popular vote in their Democratic-leaning swing state (think Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin) and instead select an Electoral College slate that supports him. Trump’s attempt to cut short the counting of valid votes is flatly contrary to constitutional law and federal statutes. Even so, states can and should do more to protect American’s mailed-in votes. States should immediately enact new legislation or take other legal steps clarifying that they intend for Congress to honor electors they choose, and that they may need a bit of time to finalize choosing them—ideally doing so by December 23 and no later than January 6, 2021, when Congress meets in special session to certify the election results. Through state-level action, Trump’s efforts can be neutralized.
We can see glimmers of Trump’s approach in what he said about Florida’s tight 2018 gubernatorial and Senate races, and he’ll say it again to delegitimize the counting of mail-in ballots that might cost him reelection. We’ve received a frightening preview in the Census Bureau’s recent announcement that it plans to cut off population-counting efforts one month early, well before needed to meet the December 31 deadline for delivering census results to Congress.. This decision was made after the Trump administration itself had asked for more time, not less. It’s the same play: When Trump doesn’t like the numbers coming in, he stops counting.
Halting vote-counting after Election Day requires Trump to stage a three-pronged attack: slowing mail delivery, then urging Republican state legislatures to deem Election Day “failed” because of the many uncounted votes, and finally denouncing as illegitimate all vote-counting that continues after Election Day—even as slowly delivered mail-in ballots keep arriving. Leading the first step is Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, who’s reportedly shutting down post offices and slowing mail delivery under the guise of cost-cutting. Employees say that piles upon piles of letters and packages remain undelivered, stranded for weeks on end. These efforts undermine public confidence in the Postal Service and threaten to slow the distribution of blank ballots to voters and the return of completed ballots to state officials—with a likely disproportionate effect on Democratic-leaning urban voters, for whom the coronavirus’s circulation in cities makes mail-in voting particularly appealing. The likely surge in mail-in ballots that the pandemic will encourage suggests that tallying the election results won’t be completed on November 3 but will take days, possibly weeks, to complete accurately.
Trump will almost certainly use this delay as an opportunity to cast doubt on the whole election. He may even try to urge Republican-controlled legislatures in states that tend to vote blue but supported him in 2016 to deem Election Day “failed” given the uncounted votes, as well as pressure those legislatures to then exploit a federal law that allows them to come up with a new way to appoint presidential electors—such as handpicking a slate committed to Trump.
Trump may additionally think his hand is strengthened by another federal law that tells Congress to respect each state’s final resolution of ballot disputes if made by December 8. This date may well be too soon for all mail-in ballots to be counted when the pandemic is sure to increase the number of such ballots cast. But that provision is a mere “safe harbor”: It doesn’t require that states resolve ballot disputes by December 8. The only statutory deadline for a state to send its tally is December 23, and the only deadline for receiving a state’s tally—the true constitutional deadline—is January 6, when Congress meets in special session to certify the election results. So there’s no excuse for a state to call its election a failure or for Congress to disregard the results so long as they’re resolved ideally by December 23 but ultimately no later than January 6—not December 8.
Here’s why: Article II, Section 1 of the Constitution gives Congress the power to set the date for the states to “give their votes.” Congress chose the “first Monday after the second Wednesday in December,” which this year is December 14. However, Congress also provided a backup date, the “fourth Wednesday in December,” which this year is December 23. This is the day when the president of the Senate requests any state from which no certified vote has been received to send one “by the most expeditious method possible.” The law requires any such state to transmit its vote count by registered mail to the Senate president (or if the president is not present, the archivist). Insisting on December 8, rather than December 23, cuts short by nearly one-third the time available to make sure that every legitimate vote is counted—and it plays into the absurd claim Trump seems prepared to make: Because there might not be time to count all mail-in ballots this year, none should be counted.
Nathaniel Persily and Charles Stewart III: The looming threat to voting in person
In its infamous Bush v. Gore decision, the Supreme Court’s five-justice majority treated the early-December “safe harbor” date as a firm deadline for Florida to stop its recount—but only because of the majority’s view of Florida law. The Court pointed to language from Florida’s Supreme Court suggesting that the Florida legislature, by trying to meet the safe-harbor date, intended to sink all ballots that failed to be recounted by then. And the Florida legislature, to be fair, hadn’t made it as clear as it might that it had no such perverse intention.
States can and should act now to avoid Bush v. Gore treatment. Before November 3, they should pass new laws or enact new policies through their executive branch that make a commitment to democracy, regardless of political party (or seek definitive rulings from their highest court before that date). Such efforts wipe off the table Trump’s potential election-tampering tactics.
First, states should pass statutes making clear that vote-counting must be done not by December 8, but by January 6—and ideally by December 23, which still provides crucial additional time. This will ensure that a state legislature can’t claim voters “failed to make a choice” simply because vote-counting necessarily continued past Election Day, and that Congress can’t disregard results from states simply because they arrive after December 8, or after December 14, the statutory (but not constitutional) date set for the Electoral College to meet and to send vote counts to the Senate and archivist.
Second, states should adopt a postmark rule, whereby every ballot postmarked on or before November 3 is included in the tally. If the question isn’t whether ballots are received by November 3 but instead whether they’re sent by that date, a deliberately tardy Postal Service no longer poses the same threat. Of course, not all states may be able to accomplish this through legislation, but state courts may provide another promising path. One example is the set of voters in Minnesota who sued their secretary of state to challenge the state law that said absentee ballots would be counted only if received by 8 p.m. on Election Day. A Minnesota court approved a settlement with the voters that requires all absentee ballots to be postmarked on or before November 3 and arrive no more than seven days after Election Day to be counted. This decision indicates that any rule to count only ballots received by Election Day during this pandemic is an unlawful burden on voting rights, in violation of the equal-protection provisions of state constitutions and the U.S. Constitution.
Third, states should start the mail-in and early-voting processes well before November 3, and as soon as the candidates up and down the ballot are known. This will help states count the unprecedented wave of mail-in ballots they’re about to receive.
Fourth, states should invest in vote-by-mail infrastructure, such as what Colorado has in place, including dedicated drop boxes for ballots that bypass the postal system entirely. What’s more, states should urge loudly that federal money to help with this task be included in the next coronavirus-relief package.
And fifth, states should, in every way possible—including by litigation—erase any doubt that they mean to count every legitimate ballot, even if counting needs to continue not just until December 8 but until December 23 and, if necessary, until January 6. The difference could be between losing American democracy and saving it.
Trump thinks he has a trio of tricks up his sleeve for November: Slow the mail, rely on Republican state legislatures to deem Election Day a failure with so many votes still uncounted, and decry as illegitimate all vote-counting that persists past Election Day, and certainly past December 8. State legislatures and courts should act now to show just how futile this strategy would be for Trump. In so doing, they would be shoring up the electorate’s confidence in our voting system’s integrity, and would be reinforcing the foundations of a great democracy by reaffirming a simple principle: If we believe in one person, one vote, then every American’s lawfully cast vote should be counted.