Happy Independence Day!

Posted on July 4, 2022 by ScottC

We lasted another year. I can’t say the prospects look good for the long term, but I am marginally more optimistic than I was last year, so let’s celebrate while we still can. Hope you all have a good 4th!

Filed under: Economy |

« »

17 Responses

  1. jnc4p, on July 4, 2022 at 5:08 pm said:

    “We” here means the country or ATiM?

    Like

    Reply
  3. lmsinca, on July 5, 2022 at 7:25 pm said:

    I wish I believed we were marginally better off or I was marginally more optimistic but frankly I believe we’re going to hell in a hand basket!

    Like

    Reply
    • Kevin S. Willis, on July 5, 2022 at 9:15 pm said:

      Well, yes, but keep in mind we’re still better off than English peasants in the Middle Ages, or the vast majority of humanity throughout thousands of years of history.

      Like

      Reply
    • ScottC, on July 5, 2022 at 9:24 pm said:

      lms:

      …but frankly I believe we’re going to hell in a hand basket!

      I suspect that some of the the very things that make you think that are the same things that give me a little bit of optimism.

      Like

      Reply
      • Kevin S. Willis, on July 6, 2022 at 4:48 pm said:

        I’m not ready for optimism yet, so I’m going with the hell in a handbasket idea.

        Like

        Reply
        • ScottC, on July 6, 2022 at 10:20 pm said:

          KW:

          I’m not ready for optimism yet, so I’m going with the hell in a handbasket idea.

          I visited the Reagan Library today. Over the years I had forgotten just how much of an inspiration Reagan was, and why I liked him so much. If he could be as cheery and optimistic as he was about America in the wake of Watergate and the ineptness of the Carter administration, I can afford at least a little bit of optimism now.

          In order to visit the library today, I broke two promises that I had made to myself when I returned to the US last December: first, that I would never get on an airplane again, and second, that I would never spend one penny in the dreadful state of California. I’m glad I did.

          Like

        • ScottC, on July 6, 2022 at 10:36 pm said:

          BTW, they had this at the Reagan Library…the Air Force One plane that was in use prior to the current one. You could go on board. Very cool.

          https://conservaliberals.files.wordpress.com/2022/07/7138c1b3-955f-4110-a34e-754b8347e44b.jpeg?resize=438%2C438

          Like

    • jnc4p, on July 6, 2022 at 12:10 am said:

      Lms,what did conservatives do in1972 when they thought the same thing?

      They got organized and made a plan to effectuate change under the rules of the game as the were understood then. It took them 50 years, but they did it under those rules.

      Progressives should do the same.

      I’d start by watching the most recent episode of Bill Maher Real Time to see where they went off the rails.

      This is meant in earnest, and not as any kind of insult or trolling.

      Like

      Reply
      • Kevin S. Willis, on July 6, 2022 at 4:45 pm said:

        Concur. Operating on the assumption that a court ruling (that was clearly a case of justices writing legislation, which is always beyond their remit, no matter how much you like or dislike the outcome) will be a permanent fixture of American life is a kind of magical thinking. Roe was always fragile and always subject to being overturned if the composition of the court changed. And because the decision had been taken away from legislators (federal or state) and thus away from anyone even remotely accountable to the electorate, there was never a time it wasn’t at risk.

        So imagine the surprise of the number of now deep blue states that found out that abortion was banned in their state with the overturn of Roe–because they had a law on the books from 1972 that they just left there. Because, again, magical thinking–oh, we don’t have to do anything. It’s all taken care of! When it would have been a small matter to, at some point, just repeal the law. But they couldn’t be bothered.

        At some point of the activists and those who see the overturn of Roe as a tragedy are going to have to be bothered. They will need to work to get pro-choice legislators in the states (what they should have been doing instead of depending on SCOTUS in the first place). Work to change the law and the culture of various states, and thus get to the point where federal intervention is likely unneeded.

        That said, I find the hysteria over the overturn of Roe (when abortion is still legal in many places and will stay so, and will probably remain legal within constraints in places that will surprise some lefties). But mostly because what it is really about: reproductive rights. Or, more to the point, not having a baby that you don’t want to have.

        The contraceptive landscape was much, much more limited in 1973 than it is now. There are so many ways to not get pregnant that the vase majority of people could have as much sex as they wanted and never get pregnant. Some basic ways can be very hard to defeat: vasectomies and tubal ligation are almost fullproof. There are always exceptions. But combine oral contraceptive and a spermicidal lubricant and you’re almost sure not to get pregnant. Combine oral contraceptive and a spermicidal lubricant and the rhythm method and pregnancy would be a miracle. Condoms + IUD. Or some other combo of patch and implant, plus spermicidal lubricant or condom or diaphragm.

        And implementing a strong combo of birth control is easier than getting a frickin’ abortion, which is a surgical procedure, that’s for sure.

        So if you really don’t want to get pregnant, there’s everything from “abstinence” (avoid one specific kind of sex–everything else is still on the table) to using multiple forms of birth control to vasectomies and getting tubes tied. As a long married man, I’ve practiced celibacy for the vast majority of my life. It’s doable.

        Making every personal preference and every potential requirement to exercise personal responsibility or delayed gratification an existential crisis seems . . . excessive, to me.

        Plenty of opportunity to focus on major concerns and fight for them and win. Go back to a focus on keeping abortion safe, legal and rare and fight to make sure there are no laws against DNCs for miscarriages and ectopic pregnancies, make sure abortions are available for rape and life of the mother and focus on that–it’s a winning combo. Fighting for abortion as a form of birth control, up until the 9th month of pregnancy, or as a sacrament to a secular religion–that will lose.

        But the fight can happen (and culture can shift) at the state level. The problem is the left on this issue, as will many others, doesn’t want small wins or compromises–they want everything, everywhere, all at once. And that’s how we got Roe and that’s why now we don’t got Roe no morel.

        Like

        Reply
      • Kevin S. Willis, on July 6, 2022 at 4:46 pm said:

        Funny. I like Mahr but he’s still in his own bubble. One of his lines is “Latinx is as popular with Hispanics as a reboot of Speedy Gonzales”. But the thing is, lots of Hispanics love Speedy Gonzales. I would say he is (or was) much more popular in the Hispanic community that he is/was in the white liberal suburban community.

        Like

        Reply
  4. jnc4p, on July 6, 2022 at 9:27 pm said:

    This was a good read for July 4th.

    “The Fourth Of July
    The America That Could Be

    Ken White
    Jul 4, 2021”

    https://popehat.substack.com/p/the-fourth-of-july

    Like

    Reply
    • ScottC, on July 6, 2022 at 10:25 pm said:

      jnc:

      Thanks for that. I am good friends with several people who have been naturalized and become US citizens. I have to admit that I always get a little bit emotional when I talk to them about it. There is something very special to me about people who have sought and chosen to be Americans.

      Like

      Reply
    • Kevin S. Willis, on July 6, 2022 at 11:36 pm said:

      “Without forgetting the wrongs that had been done to them, they believed in an America that was more of the sum of its wrongs.”

      And this is what we’re missing now.

      Like

      Reply

Be kind, show respect, and all will be right with the world.

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

Gravatar
WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Twitter picture

You are commenting using your Twitter account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Cancel

Connecting to %s

%d bloggers like this: