Saturday, August 06, 2011

A North American Union...

...of failed and failing states.

Northern Mexico is riddled with drug violence. They find mass graves in the desert. There are tens of thousands of Mexican troops in the north, yet the violence continues. The cartels sometimes achieve folk hero status among the public because they, like Hezbollah and the Muslim Brotherhood, fill in where the state leaves gaps.

The United States has gone insane and simply cannot govern itself. Yes, the country still maintains the corpus of a functioning state, but its brain is encephalitic. It's a matter of time before the body begins to spasm and flail.

In Canada, the pale prime minister fishes and conspires with the porcine mayor of one of the wealthiest and sophisticated cities in the country to eliminate all their political opposition. One of his elected ministers levels a threat against members of the public who aid victims of government excesses.

In two of the three major North American states, the central governments are failing to govern the hinterlands and private capital, things are unwinding. In the the third, the central government is consolidating authoritarian coercive power and entrenching itself as its formal democratic opposition crumbles. It is economically dependant on the other two.

8 comments:

Keir said...

So far this month two American Governors, here in the 21st century, are appealing for people to PRAY to a supernatural deity (of their choice, I assume) to ask if it would kindly stop a heat wave from occurring. This from states that teach fairytales instead of real science at high school level, I take it. God knows there are no real statesmen of quality with any brains to do something actually constructive. What the hell has happened to Americans in my generation? Regimes like China are taking over and they're busy writing letters to Santa Claus. Just look at the imbeciles they chose to represent them- Palin, Bush, a couple of Mor(m)ons… 300 millions of Americans and that's what they have to pull them out of their decline. What would Gibbon make of it?

leftdog said...

It is all going to get worse. Much, much worse.

Cathie from Canada said...

Very perceptive and timely piece, Boris.

Bukko Boomeranger said...

So can Canada be in charge of running the U.S. and Mexican parts of the North American Union? Even Harpolini would do a better job for the populace than the Bushobama administration contiuum. Harper does not seem intent on liquidating large parts of the Canadian population. At least not for his first few tParliaments. Now that he's got a majority, though, maybe different.

Rev.Paperboy said...

Bukko! Fancyseeing you around here! How's things over at the general's
And yes, we are fucked

IwannabeClaire said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
ThinkingManNeil said...

I truly think we're seeing the United States in it's death throes, consumed by the insatiable avarice of hyper-capitalist, neo-con corporatism and laying fertile ground for a kind of plutocratic, nationalist/nativist, christofascist totalitarianism whose scope or horror no one can truly imagine. Most US pundits say that the incumbent president rarely loses re-election, but it happened to Carter and personally I think it's almost a certainty for Obama. His liberal/progressive base is disappointed. discouraged, and dispirited, feeling they've been betrayed (and IMO rightfully so) by a man who seemed not only in favour of dramatic and dynamic "Hope and Change" but also most likely and able to truly bring it about. Now you have the GOP who can clearly see they have a "Paper Tiger" Obama in their grip and they are not going to let such a gift slip out of their bloodsoaked claws. The past three, going on four years, of the Obama administration has been one of dithering indecision, half measures, incompetency, and "going along to get along" with a crowd of malicious opportunists, undereducated racist rubes, and hyper-religious nutjobs who'd be just as happy seeing the man hanging from a lynching tree as anything else.

As for Stephen Fucking Harper I wouldn't doubt for a second that he'd happily throw Canada under the bus and declare the NAU open for business if a corporatist/militarist/christianist strongman were to emerge in the US; for him it would be the ultimate "Conservative Values" triumph.

Steve said...

If Harper, left the falling crime rate alone, cancelled the F35 and stopped the subsidy and in fact raised royalties on resources we would be sailing.