Unmaking of the Union

image generated via ChatGPT

Historian Timothy Snyder cautions the (former) US may cease to exist as a singular political entity within five to fifteen years. {IBT 10 August}

https://www.ibtimes.co.uk/future-us-political-polarisation-national-divorce-1813376

A ‘national divorce’ shall, in due course, become an inescapable reality. The questions are: how messy doth it need to be, what exact disorder must such a rupture entail, and can it be done in a relatively peaceful and organised manner? Perhaps it is time for all states, individuals, and institutions to commence preparations and to grapple with the logistics — vital matters such as the precise delineation of geographic boundaries, the negotiation of a common defence pact where feasible (an outcome vastly preferable to any conceivable alternative), and the question of whether a common currency would remain — rather than pretending our present union remains sustainable. FTA:

Renowned historian Timothy Snyder has warned that the US may not continue to exist in its current form over the next five, 10 or 15 years. He argued that Trump supporters may be more likely to wreck the country as a political entity than to establish a homogeneous authoritarian regime stretching from the Pacific to the Atlantic.

The warning appeared on Sunday alongside concerns about growing political polarisation, state-level resistance to federal authority, and renewed discussion of a possible national divorce.

The news came after Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene publicly demanded a legal dismantling of the nation following conservative activist Charlie Kirk's assassination. Greene told supporters she wanted a peaceful national divorce, arguing the country was too far gone and no longer safe.

Polls conducted since 2021 by universities, YouGov and others found that a third or more of Americans expected a civil war during the next decade or so, according to the source article.

The process of separation shall not prove smooth, yet it is becoming increasingly apparent that it is necessary. We had a good run, these United States, but no empire in the whole of recorded history hath endured forever. Our time hath now drawn to a close.

linktr.ee/arthurnewhook

🪐💔 #QueSeraSera 𓅨 🕈

Copyright 2026, Arthur Newhook.

Off with his head: the preeminent responsibility of Alex Jones in forging the present, fascistic state of affairs in what were once the United States of America

photo: Mike Segar/Reuters

The springing up of our present societal rot in the former United States can be traced to the 2000s, wherein the figure of Alex Jones emerged as a pivotal architect of mass delusion. Through personal introspection, I must confess a season of susceptibility to his rhetorical wiles, specially from 2006 through approximately 2010. His discourse did ever boil down to reductionist notions positing that the government is out to poison your bloody cornflakes, and all of our leaders are Satan worshipping child molesters holding Black Mass in every town hall basement from coast-to-coast.

The subsequent vicennial period witnessed the spread of such intellectual toxicity throughout the American consciousness, ensnaring not merely those predisposed to violent proclivities and superstitious predilections, but furthermore corrupting previously rational actors within the societal framework. We may now see why we live in a post-truth age, and we deny not the truth that the majority of the American people are primal and wicked in their ways. 

Resolving this societal schism shall require catastrophic bloodletting and the ultimate dissolution of the current political system. The sole worthy idea ever to come from the execrable Rep. Marjorie Taylor-Greene is her proposition regarding ‘national divorce’—allowing the bifurcation of the republic into separate sociopolitical entities. One such entity, likely to predominantly encompass the South and Midwest, shall pursue its backward and deranged vision, whilst the other shall preserve higher learning, clean water, first-world medical facilities, and other hallmarks of actual civilisation.

As for the aforementioned Jones, it is no hyperbole when I say he ought to be swinging from the gallows for having poisoned the collective well as he has. Few have wrought more harm upon this former constitutional republic in all its history, and I would not care to be in his place on the day of judgment for all the riches in the world. I’d rather face the Spanish Inquisition with a hangover. - Arthur Newhook, 24 January 2025.

Copyright 2025, Arthur Newhook. @Sunking278 on X, and at the same handles on FACEBOOK. MASTODON - @ArthurNewhook@mastodon.world, BLUESKY - @arthurnewhook.bsky.social. DONATIONS GRATEFULLY ACCEPTED at https://tinyurl.com/ArthurNewhook.

The American people (far too many of them, at least) continue to blatantly and deliberately emulate Nazi Germany, with antisemitic incidents soaring to a record high.

Photo: Neo-Nazis on a highway overpass on the I-40 near St. Louis, Missouri. Shared by Reddit user rojowro86 in the r/StLouis subreddit on 5th October 2024. (https://www.reddit.com/r/StLouis/comments/1fwx5n0/nazis_on_i40_wtf/)

‘Antisemitic incidents in the US surge to a record high’ {BBC 6 October}

Whether it was before (a debate for another day, obviously we weren’t always saints), America in 2024 is undeniably becoming a blatantly and openly evil, repressive, and antisemitic nation. Beyond being a bloody outrage and a national disgrace, it personally repulses me to the point of feeling physically ill. It is also terrifying beyond the comprehension of those of us who grew up in times of greater peace, prosperity, and personal liberty (pre-9/11). For years, I have endured intense prophecies of a neo-Nazi state, and it is all coming together just as I envisioned. People continue to so gravely disappoint me. Remember, the numbers cited by the ADL are just what has been reported. Think of how many more incidents that have not been reported, likely multifold. #Murica is rapidly becoming the new Nazi Germany, to be made official on November 5.

Recent headlines:

East Coast dockworkers have suspended their strike until January and are returning to work - Those who hoarded toilet paper now appear rather foolish, especially since paper goods were not among the affected commodities. {AP 3 October}

Residents in areas devastated by Helene still scrambling for drinking water and basic necessities, a week after the storm. {AP 4 October}

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene: ‘They can control the weather.' - She’ll be re-elected to her seat in a landslide, and a great many Americans immediately and without question buy into any right-wing conspiracy theory, no matter how implausible. MTG is the face of #Murica in 2024. {Mediaite 4 October}

President Biden during press room briefing appearance, on the upcoming election: ‘I’m confident it will be free and fair. I don’t know whether it'll be peaceful.’ - It will not. {NPR 4 October}

Trump returns to Butler County, PA: the site where his ear was so badly wounded (yet now miraculously healed) back in July. {BBC 5 October} 

Copyright 2024, Arthur Newhook. @Sunking278 and @FloydEtcetera on X, and at the same handles on FACEBOOK. MASTODON - @ArthurNewhook@mastodon.world, BLUESKY - @arthurnewhook.bsky.social. DONATIONS GRATEFULLY ACCEPTED at https://tinyurl.com/ArthurNewhook.

‘Putin’s oldest enemy’ warns the West that the Russian despot will only be tamed by sheer force, while a Congressional Putin apologist and national laughingstock insists Russia only wants to be our friends

Getty Images

‘It is the fanatic and the moderate who are poles apart and never meet.’ Marjorie Traitor Greene and other figures on both the far-right and hard-left say Russia just wants to be our friend and we’re being awfully unfair to them. - Who the hell does Marjorie Traitor Greene think she is? Who the hell do the likes of Ilhan Omar and AOC think they are? Who the hell does any American who stands against aiding Ukraine and praises Putin think they are? Ukraine is protecting the entire world from the biggest menace to global security since the days of Hitler and Stalin. Do we not understand what is at stake here? Clearly, no. Ukrainian people are dying so rednecks, hillbillies, and other assorted bigots, racists, and awful human beings can whine about gas prices, watch ‘reality TV,’ eat junk food, and boast about how superior they are in peace. 

Nationalist populists praise men like Trump and Putin as virtuous leaders who are going to save the world for Christianity and the white race, but in the end they’ll meet the same fate as the lay Germans who went along to get along in Nazi times. The German people were held liable for the crimes of their leaders and were punished - they were forced to tour the ruins of the concentration camps they had previously heard the rumors of but steadfastly denied existed, their nation was divided into two with the eastern half living under a tyrannical Communist regime for 40 years. Even today, elderly Germans who participated in Nazi war crimes are being brought to justice. Germans were able to rebuild and redeem themselves, because the Germans are an exceptionally industrious and intelligent people; they learn from their mistakes and do not hesitate to correct course. #Murica and Americans possess none of these qualities. 

In time, the American people will be held to account, when this experiment with being a global Fascist menace is brought to an inglorious end. Held to account for allowing Trump and the rest to coddle our enemies, betray our allies, and pervert Christianity. Held to account for oppressing millions of their own people, and for destroying America’s international standing. Americans are already the most hated people on earth, and will never regain the world’s trust and friendship; nor does it appear interested in doing so. Ukrainians will not forget who stood with them, and who did not. Ukrainians will not forget that the overwhelming majority of Americans saw men, women, and children being killed and maimed, and those Americans shrugged their shoulders, declared it wasn’t their problem, and that it probably was the Ukrainians’ own fault. The U.S.A. is no longer a good country, and few embody what we have become better than Marjorie Traitor Greene - her star within the Republican Party will only continue to rise and her approval ratings will soar, the further #Murica goes down the dark path of Christofascism. (Peter Burns, Medium 7/06)

Atlantic Council

{VIDEO} Oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky, known as ‘Putin’s oldest enemy,’ stresses the only way Putin will be stopped is by force - One of two things will happen: America will either firmly reject Fascism at home and stand with Ukraine and NATO to put down the Russian menace, or #Murica will capitulate completely to the Fascists and join the Russians in directly waging war on Ukraine and all of Europe. Right now, I’m sorry to say, my money is on the latter; and there will be a very harsh price to pay if Americans decide to not merely turn the other way as Putin commits genocide as is happening now, but to actually participate. But I fear that’s coming. Ukrainians need to understand that while some Americans and the Executive branch of our government do support them, millions more are increasingly hostile to Ukraine and admire Vladimir Putin. This is so because their cult leader, Donald Trump, commanded it (at Putin’s behest), and #Cult45 is just about at the point where their brainwashing is leading them to commit atrocities, as Voltaire warned of long ago. (‘Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.’) One way or another, Americans will be drawn into battle, domestically and abroad. All that our country purported to stand for is now being thrown away so we can help a Russian despot satisfy his bloodlust. All of this would have been unimaginable 25, 30 years ago. (CBC News 7/10)

Ukrainian officials: Powerful long-range US rocket systems have helped destroy 20 depots of Russian artillery ammunition, disrupting Putin's firepower. (Business Insider 7/10)

Copyright 2022, Sunking278. Stay up-to-date: Twitter – @Sunking278 and Facebook – click here. DONATIONS - click here.

‘Learned helplessness.’ #Murica is now a glorified death camp. Plus, Trump cronies installed in the Inspector General’s office found to have targeted certain SSDI recipients, the emergence of ‘Dark MAGA,’ Liz Cheney tells it like it is, more

COVID-19, shootings: Is mass death now tolerated in America? - ‘Learned helplessness’ is how one expert spoken to for this AP article describes the atmosphere in modern #Murica. Where, oftentimes, cowardice is mistaken for courage, mass stupidity is mistaken for independent thought, and pure callousness is mistaken for godliness. Excerpt - ‘After mass shootings killed and wounded people grocery shopping, going to church and simply living their lives last weekend, the nation marked a milestone of 1 million deaths from COVID-19. The number, once unthinkable, is now an irreversible reality in the United States — just like the persistent reality of gun violence that kills tens of thousands of people every year. Americans have always tolerated high rates of death and suffering — among certain segments of society. But the sheer numbers of deaths from preventable causes, and the apparent acceptance that no policy change is on the horizon, raises the question: Has mass death become accepted in America? “I think the evidence is unmistakable and quite clear. We will tolerate an enormous amount of carnage, suffering and death in the U.S., because we have over the past two years. We have over our history,” says Gregg Gonsalves, an epidemiologist and professor at Yale who, before that, was a leading member of the AIDS advocacy group ACT UP. “If I thought the AIDS epidemic was bad, the American response to COVID-19 has sort of ... it’s a form of the American grotesque, right?” Gonsalves says. “Really — a million people are dead? And you’re going to talk to me about your need to get back to normal, when for the most part most of us have been living pretty reasonable lives for the past six months?”’ (AP 5/21)

National Council on Aging

Trump crony installed in the Inspector General’s office directed employees to grossly abuse a program meant to investigate disability fraud, levying excessive fines over petty violations against more than 100 individuals - If the GOP cannot destroy Social Security by legislation or public consent, they will do so by stealth and incrementally. Remember this, anyone and everyone, when going to the polls in November. (Washington Post 5/20)

Michigan elections chief alleges Trump wished for her to be executed for treason for refusing to validate his claims of election fraud - There is no bottom, save for the remaining sane, rational, and humane people of America rising up and throwing all Fascists out of any and all positions of authority. #Murica needs ‘denazification’ - an incendiary term when used to describe Putin’s ‘special operation’ against innocent Ukrainians who did nothing to provoke Russia’s wrath; but a bit more accurate when describing millions of American nationalist populists who are displaying increasing levels of hostility toward the rest of society, to say nothing of recklessly engaging in scary, cult-like behavior. I am increasingly afraid this only ends with President Biden having to resort to drastic measures, and right now millions of populist Americans are determined to test him. (NBC News 5/19)

Mario Tama/Getty Images

Dark MAGA: ‘(E)mbracing the role of the villain and stripping away any facade of decency’ - As if it wasn’t dark enough to begin with. No, this is just all proving that the degradation can and will always get worse, and nothing can be put past those hellbent on dominating society and destroying anyone deemed to be an enemy. (Business Insider 5/15)

Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images/Axios

Rep. Liz Cheney calls out her own party: ‘The House GOP leadership has enabled white nationalism, white supremacy, and anti-semitism’ - It is not every day we see a member of Congress display genuine integrity, but a fire has been lit under Liz Cheney. (Axios 5/16)

Copyright 2022, Sunking278. Stay up-to-date: Twitter – @Sunking278 and Facebook – click here. DONATIONS - click here.

Pink Floyd returns to help Ukraine, Russia is suspended from UN Human Rights Council, more proof emerges that Russian soldiers are deliberately targeting Ukrainian civilians for extermination, and more

Sarah Lee/The Guardian

David Gilmour shares his motivation for reconvening Pink Floyd to support Ukraine - Something of a miracle. Pink Floyd - that is, David Gilmour and Nick Mason, with Guy Pratt on bass, Nitin Sawhney on keyboards, and Ukrainian vocalist Andriy Khlyvnyuk - is back with a new song, entitled ‘Hey Hey Rise Up.’ Interesting tidbit in this article about Roger Waters, who is most definitely not involved. Rarely have I ever felt more proud of one of my absolute favorite musical acts than I am of Pink Floyd today - David Gilmour and Nick Mason; Richard Wright having left us nearly fourteen years, and Roger Waters is absent and so be it. Rarely have I ever felt so fortunate that any given group of musicians exist in this world, and have made our world a slightly less miserable place with their music and vision. I believe those of you who have been with me for some years now on this social media thing know that I am not given to excessive praise, and when I do engage in such that it is well warranted and compulsory that given individuals or group of individuals be acknowledged. As far as I'm concerned, Pink Floyd is not just another rock band, they are life itself. (The Guardian 4/07)

Russia suspended from UN Human Rights Council - Only the second country ever to have been stripped of its membership on the panel. The last country on earth who should have anything to say about human rights in any country when, throughout history and presently, they have rarely respected the rights of their own citizens. (AP 4/07)

‘Radio transmissions in which Russian soldiers appear to talk among themselves about carrying out premeditated civilian killings in Ukraine have been intercepted by Germany’s foreign intelligence service.’ (The Guardian 4/07)

FLASHBACK 2017: A reader on my page (@Sunking278) posted this Reuters article from five years ago, revealing that Trump gave away U.S. intelligence secrets in a White House meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and the Russian ambassador to the U.S. at the time, Sergei Kislyak. (Reuters 5/15/17)

Wow, the gall of the above tweet. I guarantee that Marjorie Traitor Greene and every single one of her fans will not hesitate to commit mass violence against the 'violent left' (a/k/a, anyone to the left of Attila the Hun) when they get the chance. Keep voting GOP,  #Murica, and they'll get that chance.

Copyright 2022, Sunking278. Stay up-to-date: Twitter – @Sunking278 and Facebook – click here. DONATIONS - click here.

The Fifth Column of America: Sedition gone more absurd than ever before, as nationalist populist media celebrities and GOP lawmakers come out in favor of Putin’s war of aggression on Ukraine

Dot Records/Matthew Ruffin/Getty Images via Loudwire

Oh, isn’t this cute? The former lead singer of a dreadful ‘nu metal’ band from twenty-some years back who has now gone ‘country’ (he’s from Massachusetts) says Vladimir Putin is fighting ‘for freedom’ from the ‘deep state.’ It’s the rest of us – anyone who doesn’t share their far-right, neo-Fascist worldview - who are the oppressors. Is this really the route the American far-right wants to go, claiming that Putin is a freedom fighter, as many Americans in the 1930s lined up behind Hitler? Well, yes, it is: They’re in a cult (#Cult45) and they’re gradually being brainwashed into wanting to kill anyone and everyone in ‘Murica who isn’t in favor of their nationalist populist, grievance-based, conspiracy-laden agenda. I read ‘1984’ and ‘Animal Farm’ way back in my teenage years, so I always knew Fascism could take hold anywhere, including America. I just never knew it would be quite this absurd. The lead singer of Staind, for crying out loud, to say nothing of Kid Rock, Ted Nugent, Scott Baio, Kristie Alley, James Woods, Kanye West, and the gaggle of celebrity idiots goes on. And now we have members of Congress who fancy themselves entertainers of sort, such as Marjorie Traitor Greene. When this is all over, the rest of us are not going to forget who stood with the free world, and who the coalition of zealots, fools, and psychopaths were that stood for murder, oppression, and lies. Via Rolling Stone -

Vladimir Putin is ramping up his brutal assault on Ukraine, shelling civilians from Odessa to Kharkiv, and leveling the port city of Mariupol — leading President Joe Biden to denounce the Russian dictator as a “war criminal.” But if the initial days of the war were marked by some conservatives muting their admiration for the Russian state, a spate of notorious right-wing figures are now dropping the mask to defend Putin, and even claim his fight as their own.

Over the weekend, former Trump adviser Roger Stone, MAGA media maven Cassandra MacDonald (née Fairbanks), and former Staind rocker Aaron Lewis all spoke out to praise Putin, denounce Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky — or both. This week, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene joined the parade, blaming Ukraine for getting itself invaded, while insisting that the war is a lost cause and that Putin is “being very successful” in Ukraine. Then Lara Logan, the former “60 Minutes” correspondent who has her own show on the streaming service Fox Nation, trumped them all, touting Putin as a heroic global actor, declaring: “He’s the man who is standing between us and this New World Order.” (Read more)

Getty Images via BBC

One of the finest diplomats America has had over the past 50 years or so. Rest in Peace, Madeleine Albright (Reuters 3/23)

Visibly furious’ Russian TV pundit rages at actor and former California Gov. Schwarzenegger for speaking out against Russia’s aggression in Ukraine. The ad hominem-laden line of attack these Russian propagandists are using against Arnold Schwarzenegger is identical in style to how hosts on Fox News, Newsmax, and so forth go after their targets. Big shock, I know (The Wrap 3/22)

Twenty days in Mariupol, documented by the last two journalists to escape the city. An account that is unsettling to read, accompanied by very disturbing imagery. But a story that must be told and never forgotten

(AP 3/22)

Copyright 2022, Sunking278. Stay up-to-date: Twitter – @Sunking278 and Facebook – click here. DONATIONS - click here.

Historic infrastructure billed signed into law by President Biden

Washington Post

Never let it be said the man never got anything done -

President Biden on Monday signed into law a sweeping $1.2 trillion infrastructure measure, notching an achievement that had long eluded his predecessor in the White House, Donald Trump. 

Republicans and Democrats gathered at the White House on Monday as Biden signed the legislation, which is aimed at improving the country’s roads, bridges, pipes, ports and Internet connections. 

Trump had repeatedly tried and failed to secure a bipartisan infrastructure deal. 

“Here in Washington, we’ve heard countless speeches, promises and white papers from experts. But today, we’re finally getting this done,” Biden said. (Read more) 

Copyright 2021, Sunking278. Stay up-to-date: Twitter – @Sunking278 and Facebook – click here.

Following FDA approval of the Pfizer vaccine, ‘anti-vaxxer social media influencers and Republican politicians are finding new reasons to oppose the vaccine’

Sen. Ron Johnson. Getty Images

The least surprising news one will come across today. The biggest joke is the contention that somehow approval was rushed. Are you kidding me? It’s been nine months since the vaccines first became available. The anti-vaxxer movement is a giant, deadly scam. -  

The Food and Drug Administration’s full approval of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine on Monday has boosted hopes that at least some of the millions of unvaccinated adults in the U.S. would change their minds. But right on cue, anti-vaxxer social media influencers and Republican politicians are finding new reasons to oppose the vaccine.  

Even before the FDA gave full approval, Sen. Ron Johnson, a Wisconsin Republican who has for months criticized the outreach campaign to get people vaccinated, argued that the approval process was rushed due to politics. 

“I see no need to rush the FDA approval process for any of the three COVID-19 vaccines,” Johnson wrote in a letter to top Biden administration health officials. “Expediting the process appears to only serve the political purpose of imposing and enforcing vaccine mandates.”  

Responding to a speech from President Joe Biden calling on American companies to require vaccines, Johnson tweeted: “No one should be pressured, coerced, or fear reprisal for refusing any medical treatment, including the Covid-19 vaccine.” (Read more)

Copyright 2021, Sunking278. Stay up-to-date: Twitter – @Sunking278 and Facebook – click here.