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Posted on 08/07/2026 4:03:14 PM PDT by little jeremiah
“. . . it’s subversion and nothing about it is accidental. it’s a well worn playbook to use the democratic institutions of a high trust state to destroy a civilization.” —El Gato Malo on Substack
The days might still be long, but this is a dark season in our country’s politics. Everybody’s nervous and many are furious, and yet all that emotion goes nowhere, just eats you up while you watch and wait for signs that help is on the way. What would that help even look like? Maybe a concerted effort to bum-rush a whole lot of bad ideas out of American life and replace them with better ideas that are worth building a life around.
Of the two political parties that used to vie between the interests of property and of labor, there is almost nothing left — nothing coherent, anyway. Mr. Trump & Co. still stand outside a feckless Republican establishment that can only say “no.” That is bad enough, when it comes to vital matters like election reform and sound fiscal policy. But the President is methodically wearing them down with tactical work-arounds such as this week’s use of State Department visa control to prevent foreign visitors coming here just to drop birthright citizens.
Things will get super-serious when the president has to manage the government’s functional bankruptcy, the bond market crack-up under our impossible debt-burden, and all its knock-ons. It’s coming for sure, and will require a stringent reorganization of American finance, probably even of our money itself. That will be a moment when the nation understands what leadership really means, not just endless deception and fakery.
Speaking of which, you have the other party, the Democrats. The Dems, unmoored from the interests of labor (whatever is left of it), are now strictly just the party of bad ideas and crime. The party is also, at this juncture of history, caught in a gruesome four-way squeeze that could easily drag it into extinction. Let’s count them.
First, is the basic basket of ideas that comprise the party’s platform, readily identifiable for some years now as the “Woke” catalog. Virtually all of them are ideas that a majority of the public rejects as insane. A wide-open border. We tried that for four years under the fake president “Joe Biden.” Didn’t work out so well. Added many millions to the free everything dole that actual citizens resentfully have to pay for. Took jobs away from said citizens. Got a lot of (mostly) women murdered and raped. Let in Gawd knows how many foreign terrorists.
“Woke” also includes the DEI products of manufactured race animus and gender confusion, especially as applied in school from K all the way to PhD. Apart from the sheer hatred and idiocy these things generated, they also led to the scrapping of merit and excellence as organizing principles for civilization. Americans increasingly reject all of that.
The second squeeze point is the Democratic Party’s criminal portfolio. The Covid-19 operation was basically theirs. It killed and injured millions, wrecked the integrity of medicine, and brought on the deliberate perversion of our election procedure. It gave us fake President “Biden” and the autopen gang that ran him. Along the way, the party weaponized the law and produced one hoax after another: RussiaGate, Impeachment, J-6, the 2024 Trump trials — treason, sedition, deprivation of rights under color of law, obstruction of justice and much more. These crimes are a huge burden for the party and they are in the process of being adjudicated, and a lot of the party’s heroes will end up in prison.
The third squeeze is the party’s widespread and atrocious racketeering operation. The process of uncovering it has been going on since Jan 20, 2025, but still has a long way to go in terms of courtroom action. The Somali Learing Center in Minnesota, fake hospices by the hundreds in California, Medicaid fraud in state after state. It was generally allowed to go on by state officialdom. We await the eventual indictments of Governor Tim Walz, Gavin Newsom, JB Pritzker, Janet Mills and many other Democratic politicians.
The Democratic Party racketeering apparatus also included the money-laundering system that kicked back millions of dollars from a matrix of NGOs that washed taxpayer money into the party coffers. USAID was a major mechanism, and has been mostly shut down, but thousands of NGOs still exist and function as employment centers for young party “activists” who otherwise would have to work the espresso machines. A lot of that activism depends on funding from the likes of George Soros, the Tides Foundation, Bill Gates, Neville Roy Singham, and other criminally-tinged philanthropy outfits. Justice is coming for them now, too.
Which redounds directly to the fourth squeeze: the rise of communism and jihad as the Party’s new rallying cries while the other three squeezes work to put the party’s old guard out of business. Communism is the fad-du-jour among Democratic Party youth because the over-production of elites (i.e., college graduates) are increasingly closed out of cushy jobs in the besieged NGO matrix, threatened further by the advent of artificial intelligence, and have been trained-up by the lefty-left college faculties to fall in love with the utopian nostrums of Karl Marx.
Communism is the Party’s last resort and most of America will not buy it, no matter how heartfelt the youth faction appears these days. Americans believe in property rights. They want to own things. They don’t really enjoy being pushed around by kommissars. They want to keep Thanksgiving and Christmas.
As for jihad, it’s hard to imagine a less likely route to the hearts and minds of America. No matter how pissed off you are about Israel, jihad is not the answer to America’s problems. No, Dorothy, Kansas will not be joining the Ummah. You will not have to don the burka. Sharia will not replace English common-law. This is a hill that somebody’s going to die on, and in America it’s not going to be Americans.
Personally, I don’t see how the Democratic Party as currently configured survives this four-way squeeze. If President Trump can succeed in starting to reindustrialize the country — even considering A-I and robots — there will still be a need for human labor and labor will seek some kind of political representation. Maybe they can find it in the hollowed out husk of the thing that used to be the Democratic Party. Otherwise, fuggeddabowdit. The party is toast.
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A very good Kunstler.
A scene from ‘Idiocracy’.
The Dem party is self-immolating.
Maybe. But with an ever compliant media, combined with incredibly brain washed/stupid young people who don’t have a clue as to how socialism/communism really works...well, the slide can continue. Darkest before the dawn....has a way to go. My two cents.
Half of America is self-immolating. Otherwise, the Democrats couldn’t do this.
Thanks for the ping.
I see too many people freaking that Dems are going to do this, that and the other thing, will win, etc. Nope. They only way they have won “big” for years is by voter fraud. That’s why they HATE the SAVE Act. Of course some weak sister/ corrupt Repubs don’t want the SAVE Act either. Curse their hides.
“These crimes are a huge burden for the party and they are in the process of being adjudicated, and a lot of the party’s heroes will end up in prison.”
“We await the eventual indictments of Governor Tim Walz, Gavin Newsom, JB Pritzker, Janet Mills and many other Democratic politicians.”
Sadly, I’m not holding my breath for this to happen.
Don’t swallow the black pill. Democrat voter registration is down, Republican voter registration is up. Even hardcore Dem “names” like James Carvill are bemoaning the death knell of the Democrat party because of the crazed lunatic open commie and muzzies/muzzie loving candidates. Dems have no chance of winning without massive cheating.
El Rush-Bo pointed out that between 2010 and 2016, the democRATs lost 1,500 State and Federal elections. They have to rig elections and cheat.
bump
You’re right. It’s dark out there and we’re the wealthiest plum to pick in the world. How long after the Department pf War’s shut down before the Chinese, Russians or North Koreans move in and take over? Hours? Days?
One of the reasons they wanted the country flooded with foreign barbarians, since so many regular Americans were, and are totally fed up with their commie crap.
Wow, doom/n/gloomers! Not going to happen. The Department of War is doing great, recruitments are through the roof, and Hegseth is hugely popular. NK take over? Russia? China? China has massive internal problems, ditto Nork and it’s nukes got taken out long ago, and Russia has zero interest in taking over any countries, what to speak of the US.
If commies take over they have their ‘lists’ - and on those lists are things like de-funding cops, abolishing ICE, ending the Department of War, and opening the borders... We can’t underestimate these people...
Great article!
Kunstler and respondents here have all forgotten about Robert La Follette of Wisconsin.
He was very successful in promoting “Republican Progressive” principles over a century ago, in both Congress and the Wisconsin state house. The people supporting him, like those who supported William Jennings Bryan, may have been farmers and tradesmen, but they solidified into a progressive/socialist force that prepared the political landscape for someone like FDR.
We are on roughly the same path now.
“Wow, doom/n/gloomers! Not going to happen. The Department of War is doing great, recruitments are through the roof, and Hegseth is hugely popular. NK take over? Russia? China? China has massive internal problems, ditto Nork and it’s nukes got taken out long ago, and Russia has zero interest in taking over any countries, what to speak of the US.”
____________________________________________________________
Is the military struggling to recruit right now?
From the favorite AI of FR -
“No, the U.S. military is not struggling right now. After facing a severe multi-year recruiting crisis from 2022 to 2023, all major service branches met or exceeded their active-duty recruitment goals through 2025. Defense officials report that this strong momentum has continued into 2026, with some branches hitting their yearly quotas months ahead of schedule.
Past Challenges
Missed Quotas: The Army, Navy, and Air Force all fell thousands of recruits short of their targets in fiscal years 2022 and 2023.
Eligibility Gaps: Roughly 77% of young Americans aged 17 to 24 did not meet baseline weight, medical, or academic standards without a waiver.
Low Interest: Surveys showed a general drop in the propensity of Generation Z to consider military service.
Recent Turnaround
Goal Achievement: Every branch—including the Army, Navy, and Air Force—successfully met or beat their recruitment targets.
Preparatory Programs: Programs like the Future Soldier Preparatory Course helped applicants overcome academic or fitness hurdles before basic training.
Shifting Focus: The Pentagon’s current initiatives have shifted from trying to find enough applicants to managing strong interest and intake volume.
The Recruiting Surge Was Engineered. Can It Last in a War?
For the first time in years, the U.S. military is no longer defined by a recruiting crisis.
Military recruitment is up in 2026 due to relaxed enlistment policies, targeted financial incentives, and streamlined processing.
Policy Changes and Expanded Eligibility
Older recruits: The Army raised its maximum enlistment age to 42, widening the pool of eligible candidates.
Loosened restrictions: Rules were adjusted to eliminate waiver requirements for single minor marijuana or drug paraphernalia convictions.
Preparatory programs: The Future Soldier Preparatory Course helps candidates meet physical fitness and academic standards after initial testing.
Incentives and Processing
Financial bonuses: Branches like the Air Force offer up to $40,000 for critical operational and cyber roles.
Faster processing: A medical records pilot program cut wait times at Military Entrance Processing Stations, preventing applicants from losing interest.
Targeted outreach: Enhanced marketing focusing on technical skill training attracted more technically inclined applicants.”
So it seems the plan to increase military recruitment primarily involves accepting people who would in past times be rejected due to being fat, drug use, criminal history, etc. Increasing the initial enlistment age in the Army to 42 means you’ve got a bunch of old guys who have far higher injury rates than younger candidates.
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