7 ms·

I don't know how long this country can survive with this rampant corruption and profiteering. When do we hit a breaking point, and what does that look like? I

I don't know how long this country can survive with this rampant corruption and profiteering. When do we hit a breaking point, and what does that look like? I mean I read your response and think, "wow, that's horrible." Then realize absolutely nothing is going to be done about it.

joshlemer 9y ago
I guess one way it could play out is that as the corruption becomes more and more obvious, together with increasing differences in political ideology between red and blue states, an appetite for seceding from the United States could develop in some states, and if that sentiment becomes common enough, it could become a reality?
- Melanie343 9y ago
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- Aaliyah5654 9y ago
  My mothers neighbour is working part time and averaging $9000 a month. I'm a single mum and just got my first paycheck for $6546! I still can't believe it. I tried it out cause I got really desperate and now I couldn't be happier. Heres what I do, •••••••••>> http://www.joinmate2.com http://www.joinmate2.com
- Retric 9y ago
  It's IMO more likely than most people think. I really hope we don't see a civil war in our lifetime, but historically democracy's are highly unstable. This time it might be different, but then again it might not.
  - Clubber 9y ago
    A Civil War today would look like Afghanistan or Iraq, not like the one we had before. It won't be pretty and will probably end in authoritarianism the likes we've never seen.
    - maze-le 9y ago
      A civil war in a nuclear armed country could be considerable worse than that. Just consider what would happen if a faction of the army with control over nuclear weaponry took a non-neutral stance...
    - deleted 9y ago
      [deleted]
    - Retric 9y ago
      ~50% of all US war casualties occurred during the Civil War. It was very nasty, even if only 3% of the total US population died in direct fighting.
      - Clubber 9y ago
        Yes, it was a gruesome war. By Afghanistan and Iraq, I meant more insurgent type war rather than sanctioned armies fighting. Liberal states would have insurgent right wingers and Conservative states would have insurgent left wingers. Insurgents would be fighting the opposite faction of insurgent, and everyone will be armed to the teeth. We saw a glimpse of how that would play out in rural areas with the Oregon stand off. I suspect the cities would be something like we saw in Ukrane with their stand in the main square with the firewall, except a lot more shooting. There would be massive food shortages. It would be crazy and unpleasant and not a damn thing will have been resolved. I realized I was being vague.
- zanny 9y ago
  The problem is that the stratified cultures that form the arbitrary two sided political dichotomies (see Britain for another great example - given current norms it would make perfectly good sense for Scotland, London, and Northern Ireland to secede from the more conservative England and Wales). But they are arbitrary. The talk radio in the rural conservative parts and the Internet circlejerks in the liberal ones have divided peoples way worse than they were a hundred years ago by putting the soft-reds and soft-blues into echo chambers of the most ardent idealogues and turning many into adherents that place their personal identity into their politics. The other problem is those of us guilty of that - the framing of our identity on high-brow concepts like ideology - don't want to change. Who wants to revert back to ignorance on how you personally think the world is best ordered? The rift will only grow until dissolution does happen unless all participants admit that they want to preserve solidarity in society. They will not be able to change themselves, but they can train future generations to not base themselves so heavily in politics such that they do not segregate themselves such. But it would take everyone agreeing on something nobody wants to have happen. So... yeah right.
tcj_phx 9y ago
100 years ago, politicians were tricked into trusting organized crime to tend to the health of people who are drawn to opiates. Those politicians are dead & gone, but we're still stuck with their mistake. My mother broke her wrist 6 months ago, and was given opiates to deal with the pain of having a plate put in her wrist. She did not become an opiate addict. I presume she managed to avoid becoming a junky because she has a pretty stable day-to-day life.
- extra88 9y ago
  By "organized crime," I assume you mean something other what's traditionally thought of as organized crime, e.g. the Mafia, but I can't tell what. > I presume she managed to avoid becoming a junky because she has a pretty stable day-to-day life. While circumstance and upbringing are factors for addition, I think it's accepted that there is also a biological component; your mom may be inherently less prone to becoming addicted to opiates.
  - tcj_phx 9y ago
    > By "organized crime," I assume you mean something other what's traditionally thought of as organized crime, e.g. the Mafia, but I can't tell what. The Mafia and other manifestations of "traditional" organized crime is exactly what I was referring to. Two years ago, when a new friend was teaching me about her addictions, I bought Johann Hari's book, Chasing the Scream: The First and Last Days of the War on Drugs [2]. Hari says that after heroin was made very difficult to obtain (circa 1915), organized crime became the supplier for most addicts. The Los Angeles Times Op-Ed A 1930s California story shows why the war on drugs is a failure also covers how the Mafia swooped in to supply the needs of addicts [2]. This is the primary article I was thinking of when I wrote the quip you responded to. [1] http://chasingthescream.com/ http://chasingthescream.com/ [2] http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-hari-california-drug-war-history-20170616-story.html http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-hari-california-d... > > I presume she managed to avoid becoming a junky because she has a pretty stable day-to-day life. > While circumstance and upbringing are factors for addition, I think it's accepted that there is also a biological component; your mom may be inherently less prone to becoming addicted to opiates. My mother is inherently less prone to becoming an addict because she has meaningful things to do: job, family, friends, trips, etc. My friend who taught me about addictions (mentioned above) was vulnerable to the street pharmacy because she was exposed to meth amphetamine as a pre-teen, and her brain chemistry never fully recovered. She says she was very depressed as a child/teen, and was made suicidal by her doctor when he injected her with Depo-Provera around age 20 (this is a chemical castration drug used for 3 months of "birth control"). This friend is doing well now because I provided the "connection" that Johann Hari says is so important for helping addicts out of their pit.
Melanie454 9y ago
I've made $64,000 so far this year working online and I'm a full time student. Im using an online business opportunity I heard about and I've made such great money. It's really user friendly and I'm just so happy that I found out about it. Heres what I do, •••••••••>> http://www.joinmate2.com http://www.joinmate2.com
hrehhf 9y ago
> I don't know how long this country can survive with this rampant corruption and profiteering. So far it has been 241 years.
shams93 9y ago
Rather than a revolutionary movement you see mass implosion, addiction, suicide and people falling apart under the weight of triple time hours or being excluded from work altogether .
chaosbutters314 9y ago
You mean unregulated Capitlism? It will wake up when we realize we need some middle ground between Capitalism and Socialism.
- robotresearcher 9y ago
  Most everybody already realizes this. We have exactly such a system in place. The argument is about exactly where the balance is to be found.
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]

joshlemer 9y ago

I guess one way it could play out is that as the corruption becomes more and more obvious, together with increasing differences in political ideology between red and blue states, an appetite for seceding from the United States could develop in some states, and if that sentiment becomes common enough, it could become a reality?

Melanie343 9y ago
I get paid over $95 per hour working from home with 2 kids at home. I never thought I'd be able to do it but my best friend earns over 10k a month doing this and she convinced me to try. The potential with this is endless. Heres what I've been doing, •••••••••>>http://www.joinmate2.com http://www.joinmate2.com
Aaliyah5654 9y ago
My mothers neighbour is working part time and averaging $9000 a month. I'm a single mum and just got my first paycheck for $6546! I still can't believe it. I tried it out cause I got really desperate and now I couldn't be happier. Heres what I do, •••••••••>> http://www.joinmate2.com http://www.joinmate2.com
Retric 9y ago
It's IMO more likely than most people think. I really hope we don't see a civil war in our lifetime, but historically democracy's are highly unstable. This time it might be different, but then again it might not.
- Clubber 9y ago
  A Civil War today would look like Afghanistan or Iraq, not like the one we had before. It won't be pretty and will probably end in authoritarianism the likes we've never seen.
  - maze-le 9y ago
    A civil war in a nuclear armed country could be considerable worse than that. Just consider what would happen if a faction of the army with control over nuclear weaponry took a non-neutral stance...
  - deleted 9y ago
    [deleted]
  - Retric 9y ago
    ~50% of all US war casualties occurred during the Civil War. It was very nasty, even if only 3% of the total US population died in direct fighting.
    - Clubber 9y ago
      Yes, it was a gruesome war. By Afghanistan and Iraq, I meant more insurgent type war rather than sanctioned armies fighting. Liberal states would have insurgent right wingers and Conservative states would have insurgent left wingers. Insurgents would be fighting the opposite faction of insurgent, and everyone will be armed to the teeth. We saw a glimpse of how that would play out in rural areas with the Oregon stand off. I suspect the cities would be something like we saw in Ukrane with their stand in the main square with the firewall, except a lot more shooting. There would be massive food shortages. It would be crazy and unpleasant and not a damn thing will have been resolved. I realized I was being vague.
zanny 9y ago
The problem is that the stratified cultures that form the arbitrary two sided political dichotomies (see Britain for another great example - given current norms it would make perfectly good sense for Scotland, London, and Northern Ireland to secede from the more conservative England and Wales). But they are arbitrary. The talk radio in the rural conservative parts and the Internet circlejerks in the liberal ones have divided peoples way worse than they were a hundred years ago by putting the soft-reds and soft-blues into echo chambers of the most ardent idealogues and turning many into adherents that place their personal identity into their politics. The other problem is those of us guilty of that - the framing of our identity on high-brow concepts like ideology - don't want to change. Who wants to revert back to ignorance on how you personally think the world is best ordered? The rift will only grow until dissolution does happen unless all participants admit that they want to preserve solidarity in society. They will not be able to change themselves, but they can train future generations to not base themselves so heavily in politics such that they do not segregate themselves such. But it would take everyone agreeing on something nobody wants to have happen. So... yeah right.

tcj_phx 9y ago

100 years ago, politicians were tricked into trusting organized crime to tend to the health of people who are drawn to opiates. Those politicians are dead & gone, but we're still stuck with their mistake. My mother broke her wrist 6 months ago, and was given opiates to deal with the pain of having a plate put in her wrist. She did not become an opiate addict. I presume she managed to avoid becoming a junky because she has a pretty stable day-to-day life.

extra88 9y ago
By "organized crime," I assume you mean something other what's traditionally thought of as organized crime, e.g. the Mafia, but I can't tell what. > I presume she managed to avoid becoming a junky because she has a pretty stable day-to-day life. While circumstance and upbringing are factors for addition, I think it's accepted that there is also a biological component; your mom may be inherently less prone to becoming addicted to opiates.
- tcj_phx 9y ago
  > By "organized crime," I assume you mean something other what's traditionally thought of as organized crime, e.g. the Mafia, but I can't tell what. The Mafia and other manifestations of "traditional" organized crime is exactly what I was referring to. Two years ago, when a new friend was teaching me about her addictions, I bought Johann Hari's book, Chasing the Scream: The First and Last Days of the War on Drugs [2]. Hari says that after heroin was made very difficult to obtain (circa 1915), organized crime became the supplier for most addicts. The Los Angeles Times Op-Ed A 1930s California story shows why the war on drugs is a failure also covers how the Mafia swooped in to supply the needs of addicts [2]. This is the primary article I was thinking of when I wrote the quip you responded to. [1] http://chasingthescream.com/ http://chasingthescream.com/ [2] http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-hari-california-drug-war-history-20170616-story.html http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-hari-california-d... > > I presume she managed to avoid becoming a junky because she has a pretty stable day-to-day life. > While circumstance and upbringing are factors for addition, I think it's accepted that there is also a biological component; your mom may be inherently less prone to becoming addicted to opiates. My mother is inherently less prone to becoming an addict because she has meaningful things to do: job, family, friends, trips, etc. My friend who taught me about addictions (mentioned above) was vulnerable to the street pharmacy because she was exposed to meth amphetamine as a pre-teen, and her brain chemistry never fully recovered. She says she was very depressed as a child/teen, and was made suicidal by her doctor when he injected her with Depo-Provera around age 20 (this is a chemical castration drug used for 3 months of "birth control"). This friend is doing well now because I provided the "connection" that Johann Hari says is so important for helping addicts out of their pit.

Melanie454 9y ago

I've made $64,000 so far this year working online and I'm a full time student. Im using an online business opportunity I heard about and I've made such great money. It's really user friendly and I'm just so happy that I found out about it. Heres what I do, •••••••••>> http://www.joinmate2.com http://www.joinmate2.com

hrehhf 9y ago

> I don't know how long this country can survive with this rampant corruption and profiteering. So far it has been 241 years.

shams93 9y ago

Rather than a revolutionary movement you see mass implosion, addiction, suicide and people falling apart under the weight of triple time hours or being excluded from work altogether .

chaosbutters314 9y ago

You mean unregulated Capitlism? It will wake up when we realize we need some middle ground between Capitalism and Socialism.

robotresearcher 9y ago
Most everybody already realizes this. We have exactly such a system in place. The argument is about exactly where the balance is to be found.
deleted 9y ago
[deleted]