Yeah it also completely misses the actual class interests that DO own US politicians. Even when starving and bombing Gaza is unpopular it doesn't change because the ruling class has decided maintaining this base is necessary regardless of the human toll.
But admitting that would invalidate the 
ideology.
I think that's the most grotesque thing. He acknowledges up front it won't work, they need to throw a generation into the blender so they can learn that they can't win the fucking war and need to see negotiating as winning.
Fucking terrifying.
How sure is everyone that this is gonna definitely happen? I guess the democrats could help Johnson survive a leadership challenge but surely that's the kiss of death? Can he survive being carried by the opposition? More democrats voted for this bill than Republicans, it's like the Dems are taking the controls out from over the ostensibly conservative majority. Can't imagine that playing well to the base.
Care to elaborate? Just a big farm fan?
Big "Intro to Hell on Earth" vibes from that line. 
No need to apologize, you're doing a service to us for free. I just wanted to check. 
Several thoughts here, probably no single one adequately explains the situation but I think they're worth thinking about.
Crime is a category we make up. Bribery is a crime, lobbying is not, the difference is.... ? Measuring crime is not something you can consistently do over decades if 'things that are crimes' (possessing weed, for instance) are subject to change over that same stretch.
Lots of crimes have moved into digital space. All those onlyfans models would be risking criminal prosecution on the street, depending on what specifically they get up to and where they live, but they do it online in a way that avoids legal trouble and still lets them make up for shortfalls in income or whatever other reasons they have for doing that sort of work. The guy who used to pick your pocket in Times Square or whatever? Nobody carries cash anymore, the real money is made tricking elderly people into giving up their bank details to 'their grandkids' or whatever, entire categories of 'crime' are happening over the phone or on facebook now.
Criminal activity is one way to respond to deteriorating conditions, but it's not necessarily the only way and for many people it's not their first recourse. Many people will pick up second and third jobs, cut their living expenses to the bone, go without medicine etc. to avoid being on the wrong side of our draconian legal system (here in the US at least). Other indicators that things are getting worse would be stuff like 'more people living with their parents into older and older ages because they can't afford to rent or buy a home' or 'increasing malnutrition' or even less tangible things like 'having a shitload of roommates.' They might start tolerating deteriorating working conditions because of how bleak the alternatives are. Some might even be positive things, like engaging in more communal projects or pooling resources to meet common needs.
It's not always rational to do crimes to address a deteriorating situation, in fact it very often makes your situation worse. "Things are bad, crime should go up" is pretty simplistic, I think.
got me new copy of all three volumes last week. LETS GOOOOO 
Also are we skipping 26-28?
Hope your week went well, and that things cool down as you anticipated!
So how far did everyone else go this week? I couldn't decide if I should go past 30, it's a bit shorter than normal (I think?) but there's not much of volume 1 left.
I don't think they believe they're actually sacrificing imperial interests, it's more likely to be a miscalculation or delusion. Perhaps one helped along by AIPAC influence, but American politicians are easily convinced that the US can't really be stopped if it tries something, and that it's important to have a cooperative base of operations in the region. That's being strained to some degree by Israel's failure to cooperate right now, but so far it hasn't actually hurt oil prices or spiraled out of control. Our foreign policy establishment seems convinced that we can just shake the entire region enough times for everyone to agree to like Israel eventually no matter what we do.
I think a realistic analysis of the situation suggests that in the long run pissing off everyone in order to do our pet projects is a huge mistake. But American foreign policy has also more or less always operated this way since the Cold War ended, none of the current generation of politicians have a realistic view of the US' limitations. They're all still living in the end of history. Every failure so far has been rationalized as 'we just didn't try as hard as we could have' or whatever. The idea that we could actually seriously fuck up isn't conceivable to these people.