53 Comments

Great write up. Just one note on this line: "It was a disconcerting sight; a rural area with topography that few had reasonably foreseen would be susceptible to catastrophic flooding..." This area was absolutely wiped off the map just over a hundred years ago by a hurricane that caused catastrophic flooding. We just have short memories. https://www.ourstate.com/flood-of-1916/

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Nov 13Edited

Yep. Mountain valley = funnel. Rain over a certain threshold is concentrated in places, which happen to also be where settlements are often built b/c there's a normally mild-mannered stream to use as a water source. Learned this in PA during one of the NYC hurricanes, when I thought it would be clever to get out of the city . . . .

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One must wonder who on Trump's X-Men team is giving him advice on choosing his foreign policy staff? What does Tulsi Gabbard have to say about his restaffing his administration with more stale, recycled swamp creatures?

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Sadly,I am afraid T. does not care what she thinks. We were bamboozled.. Again.

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I'm open to that possibility. I was just hoping that the X-Men team would be given the opportunity to do at least some token actions before being jettisoned.

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Seems like even his son has no way over him.

What's odd is that Don Jr. has been saying this SINCE the election, not before. If it was all a fraud to get the votes of the anti-war you'd think he would be saying he's going to ensure no neocons BEFORE the election.

Makes me think he's being blackmailed by some swamp rats, but who knows? Too soon to tell.

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Blackmailed? One only needs to do a proper dig into his history and family connections to realize Trump is part of the swamp.

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Another one hit out of the park, Mr. Tracy. I have upgraded to paid subscriber on the strength of your wise and evenhanded political analysis of these past few crazy weeks. I believe that is the best compliment I can offer, but I wanted to say here as well that I very much appreciate your sane approach.

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Thank you!

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I liked this phrase: ". . . usually to fuel far-flung conflicts in which the average American would have no reason to perceive a personal stake, if not for the bullhorn of propaganda instructing them to be existentially invested in such wholesome enterprises as pulverizing the Gaza Strip or the Donbas."

Nice!

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Whitney Webb says the Trump administration will be implementing a carbon credit system and extremely unpopular carbon tax, apparently which Musk is pushing for them to do too. Not to mention digital currencies and digital ID, which she has also reported on.

https://unlimitedhangout.com/2024/11/investigative-reports/get-ready-for-the-republican-carbon-market/

'We are clearly getting lied to at every single angle in our media and by our politicians, none more so than if you are an American; and if it is not abundantly clear at this point that you and I are getting played, and these politicians and pundits are just liars and actors being told to follow the script they have been given, then I don’t know what else there is to say or do for you.

Goodwin and Webb make a really good observation in their report about how a lot of these people we see and are told about in alternative media are the “good guys” fighting and working for us – Donald Trump, Elon Musk, Argentinian President Javier Milei, for example – are really just puppets, and as they call it are playing “tokenized dialectics.”'

https://winepressnews.com/2024/11/08/elon-musk-tweets-novus-ordo-seclorum-after-donald-trump-wins-reelection-maga-is-the-pied-piper/

Trump in 2015 blasted Marco Rubio, saying Adelson donated so much to his campaign since he wanted to mold him into the ultimate puppet. Now, Adelson's widow donates $100 million to Trump's campaign, how ironic! Marco Rubio, the top proponent of assassination by anal knife raping people world leaders like Gaddafi to death and cheering on photos and videos of their murder—a great potential pick for Secretary of State.

https://husseini.substack.com/p/warmongers-predictably-slated-for

An article on Unz Report points out that if the mechanisms were in place to cheat in 2020 and 2022, why did they choose not to in 2024? Obviously, Trump was wanted to win by donors and powerful deep state figures, and by doing so has now restored much of the right's "faith in democracy" and brought them back into the fold of the system.

'Most Trump supporters who believe that fraud happen in 2020 are very excited about the 2024 victory. They are simply in a state of cognitive dissonance and not questioning why it is that their dream came true.'

'The head of his transition team, Jewish billionaire Howard Lutnik, has said he took the job to serve Israel.'

'Bibi is totally committed to war with Iran and Donald Trump received $100,000,000 from Miriam Adelson on a pledge to support Bibi’s agenda. To me, it seems frankly ridiculous to suppose that Trump is not going to do some kind of war with Iran, but again, we’ll know soon enough.'

https://www.unz.com/aanglin/the-fact-that-the-candidate-who-got-the-most-votes-won-the-election-doesnt-mean-it-was-a-real-election/

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"political opportunism and personal advancement" ... Maybe Tulsi is a political opportunist but that is not necessarily a bad thing. I agree with the points made in the article but we should probably not be taking things out on people like Tulsi who has at least shown the right instincts if you agree with MT on this. Better to have her involved and relevant with a sliver of a chance to make a difference than to castigate her as a political opportunist or someone only interested in personal advancement. I don't think her record has indicated that second thing to be true and I don't think she has completely changed her opinion on unnecessary foreign wars, at least not publicly.

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That's my hope also.

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I don't think people vote for Trump because of any hope about foreign policy or a superior social safety net. I suspect a good portion of his voters probably mostly do it because how he trolls the left. they may come up with a policy reason here or there but really they like he so irks the establishment in general, and the liberal left the most.

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People vote for Trump for a large multiplicity of reasons. Foreign policy is clearly one of them. But yes, Trump's perceived role as a cultural antagonist or "troll" is clearly another. Which is odd because George W. Bush, in his own way, played the same role. Anyone who was conscious during those years recalls how much Bush was reviled by "the left." Back then the nexus of cultural conflict was more likely to be around such matters as Evangelical Christianity, NASCAR, and country music. It's a bit different now with Trump, but the basic contours of the Culture War are fundamentally similar.

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That's a consideration. I do like his attitude toward the haters. Trump's show of strength has been a good influence on all those normally feckless GOP Congress Critters. It is fun watching Vance come back at them the way he does: "Listen to yourself, Martha. Only a handful of apartment buildings have been taken over . . . " This is a new kind of Republican.

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Also reminds me of the comments on SU last night where the dems are calling alternative media people like Rogan an economic force. Right - as you know bookie, it's CNN, MSNBC, ABC ,etc that are the econ forces, but thankfully they have fewer listeners now.

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Like an insurance pool, legacy media viewership/readership is shrinking to the sickest members.

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"Hope about [changing] foreign policy" is the most important reason for any American to vote. Unlike other countries, US can declare the death of nations, follow through with it, and all paid for by enslaved US taxpayers. It's crucial for Americans to be informed about US foreign policy. Since WWII US has attempted to overthrow at least 57 foreign governments. In 1990s US elites plundered newly independent Russia, laughed about it, and left it for dead. If as you say many voters cared nothing about life and death issues, just liked troll value, then US certainly must be broken up into 3 or 4 separate countries.

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My vote was based almost exclusively on free-speech and censorship issues. The Democrats were demonstrating clearly that they were going to continue down the woke path of censorship.

This is the first time I voted for a Republican for president since 1972.

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I got to vote for a Kennedy which was nice.

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Actually, I voted for RFK via Trump.

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Israel is a Terrorist State. Make Palestine Paletine again.

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Just stay out of it entirely.

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Excellent piece Michael - Learned about your great work on System Update - I'm a subscriber to Glenn's work. Do you agree (bet you do) that now the antiwar and anti establishment crowd (like Jill Stein voters) and many others who may have voted for Trump need to be careful not to idolize him, but instead keep up the work to make him accountable (or at least be noisy when he isn't). As you note here and have been for a while, the wars will go on except maybe he'll slow down Ukraine (although his appointments so far (Rubio, Waltz, and Stefanik (witch war hawk for Israel) don't bode well for that either. He remains unpredictable and I suspect he will have challenges cooling inflation too, bc he also spends like they all do. Thanks for all you do, sir.

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Cults of personality: always a bad idea.

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Well told. Now onward into the shitstorm.

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I figured both parties were lost causes as far as I'm concerned, at least in the Middle East. But my list of pros and cons still leaned heavily in favor of at least some optimism on the Trump side.

I look forward to Michael puncturing even more of my balloons as time goes by ;)

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Meet the new boss, same as the old boss… the Uniparty will never do anything that would harm the military-industrial complex.

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This is not Black Mountain. Your picture is from neighboring Swannanoa, whose river of eponymous name devastated every home within half a mile of its banks.

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Thanks. I will correct.

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I meant to say in the second line "do you NOT think"

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Michael, you are of course wise to be skeptical about Mr Trump. But do not think that part of the reason for your skepticism, to the extent it is based upon his track record, is due to his misplaced trust in the neocons WHO SABOTAGED HIM (e.g., the now former Pompeo and Haley) by trying and sometimes succeeding in thwarting his agenda? Is there not a difference between these people, who think they know better than he does, and Stefanik and Rubio who unlike P&H have been loyal since the first administration?. Are we to believe that the latter two neocons are seriously going to try to sabotage Trump's efforts to achieve peace in the midst of this electoral triumph which is based upon the sentiments you so interestingly described? I mean do they really think they would get away with something like that?

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Hey, I'm a nobody, but I would guess the answer to your last question is "Yes".

I have Obama and Covid to thank for my conversion to 100% cynicism.

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A tornado hit in late May about 10 miles away and was a direct hit on a friend’s property. They lived through it but everything on their property was destroyed. FEMA showed up within the first week and gave them $350 and told them to file a claim with their insurance company. While they’re trying to rebuild they have to live in an apartment and hit the second hand stores to replace dishes, linens, furniture, etc.

I don’t know how much the government can be responsible for and how much insurance companies should cover (my premiums went up 30% and I’ve never filed a claim) but people have had it. We’re broke, folks, and the 60% of Americans living paycheck to paycheck and filling in the gaps with credit cards that charge 28% plus late fees are needing relief. Trump has a mandate to help us — we’ll see how he uses it.

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Fentanyl is looking more appealing by the day.

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