The inexorable decline of American cities

I took a cross country Amtrak recently. First class cabin. While the service and food were quite decent, the train itself was really old and quite depressing.

You could see that maybe 40 years ago it was really something special.

The ride itself was laughably slow and very expensive, but if you have the time and money I would still say it beats flying. All of the train stations were also just monuments of a bit too distant bygone era when there was a little bit of pride in the country.

Increasingly the US is reminding me of a decaying post Soviet Eastern block country, but with diversity and fat people. But the broken national spirit and utter impotence and indifference to what is going on around us is just like what I saw in poor EE countries
Did America transform from the hot high school cheerleader into the post-wall single mom who consumes copious amounts of wine and Xanax to get through the day?
 
No surprise, I seen dog (and human) poo on the streets when I visited NYC in 2019. Imagine the city was still a White majority and not plagued by the problems the diversity and corruption infested there!
Dutch, British, Italian, Irish, French… which whites are we talking about here?
 
Dutch, British, Italian, Irish, French… which whites are we talking about here?
Eastern European whites.

209740_beke.jpg
 
Its hard to not find the situation funny, and yes i know its mean to laugh at the inevitable consequences of this late stage empire, but its impossible to not laugh out-loud at not just the stupidity of the mayors who run the cities but also the “alternatives” that get caught up in words like “youth” “urban kids” “democrats” “taxes” when the obvious statistics scream out race - demographics-immigration - religion.


Current mayor: we will tackle racism, crime is irrelevant, infrastructure is racist and sexist, we will make sure all vendors are black and women, if something collapses is white mens fault.

Alternative option: we will lower taxes by 2.5%, ban city from hiring vendors that boycott Israel, the demographic transition of our city from 70% white to 30% white is of no consequence, black teenagers would be standup citizens ready to lead us into space if it wasn’t wasn’t for democrat policies, also the current mayor’s advisor said something anti-semitic and i stand with Israel
 
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I took a cross country Amtrak recently. First class cabin. While the service and food were quite decent, the train itself was really old and quite depressing.

You could see that maybe 40 years ago it was really something special.

The ride itself was laughably slow and very expensive, but if you have the time and money I would still say it beats flying. All of the train stations were also just monuments of a bit too distant bygone era when there was a little bit of pride in the country.

Increasingly the US is reminding me of a decaying post Soviet Eastern block country, but with diversity and fat people. But the broken national spirit and utter impotence and indifference to what is going on around us is just like what I saw in poor EE countries

Slightly tangential question: is there anywhere else you or anyone else has been recently in the world where that feeling of national pride was strong?

The only one I can think of was Poland, but I'd be extremely hesitant to move there because they're fully on board with the war agenda and will be destroyed if Hostilities escalate.
 
I don't buy that news.
If grocery stores lock up food like this, they are probably not going to sell much of it.
I would never ask an employee to open a display case and just walk out of the store.
Back 15 or so years ago, I used to play in a traveling bar dart league. One tavern in an urban area was right across the street from a local chain supermarket. During the night, a few people would come in hawking their newfound wares. Most of the time they were items from the non food section of the supermarket (health and beauty items, the occasional electronic gadget). But, while sporadic, on more than one occasion someone would come in looking to sell a package of ground beef, or steaks, Italian sausage, hot dogs, and so on.

That specific grocery store has since closed that location. Another location a few miles away, where I assume the regular customers migrated to, now (after a certain time of day) puts a lock and chain through the handles of the freezer that holds the fish and shrimp.

Depending on the location, and the items, locking up the frozen food doesn't surprise me in the least.
 
Slightly tangential question: is there anywhere else you or anyone else has been recently in the world where that feeling of national pride was strong?

The only one I can think of was Poland, but I'd be extremely hesitant to move there because they're fully on board with the war agenda and will be destroyed if Hostilities escalate.
Hungary seemed legit, and surprisingly so did rural Norway. I would imagine El Salvador is getting that way too...

Also Serbia had a hint of pride bubbling beneath.
 
I don't buy that news.
If grocery stores lock up food like this, they are probably not going to sell much of it.
I would never ask an employee to open a display case and just walk out of the store.

Sunk cost fallacy.

All sane people (with money) left San Francisco when it shut down for covid. The big corporations have not returned so who is there now? The lunatic drug addicts, the homeless, and the mid-tier corporate workers who bragged to their hometown about moving to San Francisco 5-10 years ago. Living there is their identity now, they most certainly will not admit defeat and leave this wretched city. They will ask an employee to open the freezer. That employee, by the way, does not live there and instead takes the BART to work from an unglamorous location.
 
Slightly tangential question: is there anywhere else you or anyone else has been recently in the world where that feeling of national pride was strong?

The only one I can think of was Poland, but I'd be extremely hesitant to move there because they're fully on board with the war agenda and will be destroyed if Hostilities escalate.

I kinda give them a pass there though given their ethnic/cultural ties to Ukraine and recent historical experiences with Russia (yes, it was the (((USSR))) wearing Russia as a skin suit, but most people aren't going to make that distinction and many of the Soviet soldiers committing atrocities in Poland were actually ethnic Russians anyway)
 
I kinda give them a pass there though given their ethnic/cultural ties to Ukraine and recent historical experiences with Russia (yes, it was the (((USSR))) wearing Russia as a skin suit, but most people aren't going to make that distinction and many of the Soviet soldiers committing atrocities in Poland were actually ethnic Russians anyway)

It's not about judgement.

It's about the pragmatic consideration that it guarantees the country will be devastated when the Neocons achieve escalation.
 
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