Interesting and thought provoking article. I read a book some years ago I think it came out during the Obama regime called "American Nations" with a subtitle "A History of The Eleven rival Regional Cultures of North America" written by Colin Woodard. I thought it was an interesting breakdown of the people who inhabit various regions of the U.S. and how they migrated to the area and influenced their culture and ideology. There was also a Russian professor who predicted the break up of the USA into distinct new nations due to an economic disaster around 2009. Here's a link that is from a 2019 article that reprises the story. It includes map:
Canada has been struggling with a pushing on totalitarian government to be sure. But there *are* signs of push back. I actually live in (suburban) Ottawa. *Many* people are not happy with our PM & government. Lots are speaking out, even for a town where the vast majority of workers work for gov't in some way, shape or form. Many are praying. We shall see.
😆 (from Ontario, so no idea). I grew up in Sarnia, on Lake Huron (at the bottom) - and right across the St Clair River from Port Huron. . The Great Lakes have figured greatly in my life. Have lived from Thunder Bay (Lake Superior) to Kingston (Lake Ontario, heading into St Lawrence River). Grew up seeing (and hearing) ocean going big boats in the distance...and crossing big bridges (or going through tunnels) to get to the US.
Thanks for bringing back a couple good memories. When I was a young child I lived in Duluth, MN for several years and used to fall asleep listening to the horns from the ships leaving the port every night to traverse Lake Superior. As a young adult I made a run to Thunder Bay from Minnesota for no purpose other than to retrieve a trunk full of Dad's cookies. The border patrol guys had never seen anything like it. Thankfully they didn't arrest me (like they did my cousin for bringing back guns from Windsor). OK, too long story of a story for that here...
Why will Nando not explain? Strange, I don't see any East or West Coast cities, or even Washington, DC on his clip. Could it be that large parts of America, the heartland, exists as a territory in its own right, and has only tenuous ties to our so-called power centers? "The true source of United States power." Has Washington permanently alienated residents of the areas depicted, could it be that having lost our trust Washington is like "a poor player that struts and frets his day upon the stage," and of a truth real power has never departed the hand of the good people of this Country? Just say no, or don't even bother saying it. Ignore Washington. Give them minimum compliance. Just say no in your hearts, and live the good life.
What Nando and Mark are getting at is that navigable river valleys are enormous generators of wealth through production and trade. And no river valley on earth compares to the Mississippi. A large proportion of the basin is highly fertile with ideal terrain and climate for agriculture, almost all of the basin is within 200kms of a river which is navigable to seagoing ships. And the cost of maintaining the Mississippi basin as a navigable waterway is minimal. There are other economically productive river basins but they all have problems, e.g. the Rhine in Europe is much smaller, the Yangtze in China goes through more varied terrain and takes more effort to maintain as a waterway.
On top of this, the Mississippi basin is connected to the St Lawrence River basin, which is smaller and not naturally as productive, but still economically important. And on top of that, the US has the Intracoastal Waterway, which is an enormous mostly natural waterway stretching along the East Coast from Massachussetts to Florida, with mixed natural and artificial extensions through Florida and along the Gulf of Mexico into Texas. It also acts like a river, navigable to both seagoing and non-seagoing vessels and generating enormous amounts of production and trade on the inland side, while having minimal maintenance cost.
There are alternatives to a river basin, e.g. highways and railways, but they generate far less economic production at a much higher cost.
As if all that were not enough of an advantage, trade along a river tends to homogenize its inhabitants culturally, making it easier to maintain political unity than in mountainous or less well connected areas.
No other country has anything like what the US has with the Mississippi basin, and it forms America's economic backbone, one of the main factors allowing the US to maintain a large, technically advanced military which can afford to focus on long range force projection.
The Mississippi River system is not navigable by bluewater (ocean-going) vessels. The Upper Miss has draft restrictions that often are as shallow as 9 feet. Plus the Lower Miss is often restricted to 12 feet draft. In addition, the bridges over the river are not of sufficient elevation to allow bluewater vessels. The vast majority of traffic on the Inland River systems is barge traffic. Big ships can come upriver north of New Orleans for a short distance, but that's it.
In addition, the St. Lawrence is draft restricted as well, but it is deep enough for small bluewater vessels.
You have captured the essence of this article. We are blessed to have such navigable waterways to move goods and conduct trade while also having a natural protection of two large oceans on our east and west borders making assault from the seas more difficult. However; as we've seen for the last 50 years and more heavily in the last several years of an assault from our land borders and from within.
All true, and the reason the traffic through the Soo is so heavy is because of the iron, copper, and nickel that's mined to the south of Lake Superior and shipped to the Rust Belt cities. Plus the fresh water from the lakes to supply industry and the cities that ring the lakes. There's nothing like it anywhere else--everything so necessary and so conveniently located both internally as well as to the outside world.
Was just browsing for boots & utterly confounded by all the "American" & "Canadian" shoe companies that brag about their long running histories, yet every pair of their boot wear is made in Asia?
My life began when Americans made real things - everything that built, furnished & helped run our households; fed clothed & supplied the people of the USA. Why can't we go back to that? Why is it never considered? All I can guess is no one in the power structure wants to admit what a hellish failure their globalist technocracy & fiat financing have been? Afraid to do real work? If we can't have Trump, how about Mike Rowe? 😆
Berkshire Hathaway bought Justin, and made Hecho en Mexico became made in China, the Mexican product was fine the Chinese items not so much. I'm still wearing my 40 year old Nocona's that cost $120.
Must be out of my price range, everything I can afford is made in China. I recall when Georgia Boot moved to China and their prices went up for the steel toe work boots I wore!
I hear ya! I bought this pair about four years ago when they were on sale at Tractor Supply knowing I'd be needing them in the future when the pair I was wearing wore out. They're getting close to doubling in price today.
I'm sure many of your readers are familiar with the history of Manitowoc, WI building WWII submarines. These submarines, once constructed and ready for sea, transited Lake Michigan to the Illinois River (after being transported by floating drydocks through locks and canals), then to the Mississippi River to the Gulf of Mexico. A retired navy buddy of mine retired in Manitowoc, where we visited them back in the 90s. Here's a fairly recent link with some of the history.
Thank you for your respectful reply and explanation of what you mean. I get your point. I am semi-retired and was fortunate to build a nest egg however; the increase in my overall expenses for essentials leaves little for discretionary spending, but I know others are hurting. The potential for becoming a victim of those who are suffering and without or those who wish to take advantage of the resulting chaos increases every day. This reality is becoming more evident and yes, that can become a BIG HURT for a lot of us.
I am even more pessimistic, but I question your " control is based on Intel community, election (# vote/ballots:) ) and. money ( controlled taxation and influence payments ). Population centers, the mega rich, Banks, and corporations are power base." All that is "full of sound and fury, signifying nothing." Without your first option, which I consider unlikely, we are uncontrollable. We no longer trust or respect. They are 'poor players', they can speak loudly or softly. They have no stick. I speak as somebody who was a schoolboy during WWII. We were a powerhouse. We were together. "Quoth the raven, Nevermore." Have a good life.
Correct. It does not govern. My point is that our government does not govern, if that means controlling the hearts and minds and commanding the allegiance of the people. They have squandered this these past few years. It is possible for an area like the 'heartland' to grow and flourish giving only lip service and some taxation to the big shots in Washington, even as large areas of the country literally starve. This happened during our Great Depression of the 1930s. The powers that be have stolen our government and perverted justice, and not content with that have governed badly. Our revenge is to have a good life in spite of that, and not to be among those who starve in the future.
Well said Steve, to say that we have drifted mightily from the mindset of the original 13 colonies would be an understatement.
The gen x, y and zs have no idea what it will take to regain our squandered heritage. Darkness and hard times await, but perhaps, as you suggest, we may yet be found worthy of reclaiming what has been lost.
While I agree with your general premise about loss of heritage and rediscovery, please leave GenX out of this. Born largely of Silent Generation parents, our general conservatism was a direct response to stereotypical Boomer excesses like bra burning, free love, weak hippie men, etc. Growing up in peak Reagan/Thatcher, we knew that SecDef Al Haig consulted on a teen movie, Red Dawn, targeted at us and were 100% cool with it. Cultural milieu shows that HS in the ‘80s was the closest thing to the ‘50s experience. We’re just too small of a generation to leave a mark, so leave us out of this unless you’re willing work with us.
As a late boomer (11/62), my experiences are very different than the '46-'56 group's, my parents were silents (1931&32), coming of age during the destruction of the real American economy sucked!!!
My 4 siblings and I were all born between ‘61 and ‘69. Applying a cultural (rather than a birth rate) metric, I’d consider GenX as those born between the Kennedy inauguration and the Bicentennial.
Sure--I’ll have one of the guys on the committee issue you an honorary “Evel Knievel For President ’76” t-shirt. Not sure if the reference translates outside of the US, although I do seem to recall Evel trying to jump a vehicle into Canada at some point. 😏
My intent here was not to knock Boomers, but to clear up common misconceptions as they lump us in with Millennials, when, if fact, our values have more in common with those of their parents than their Millennial kids. These generational stereotypes are pretty silly anyway.
MTV's midnight launch was a huge event. Recall about 10 of us going to sleep over at the house of a kid who had the winning combination of cable TV (not universal then) and checked-out parents. Watched the same 20-30 videos cycle all night before reporting to the first day of seventh-grade football in the morning. One of the most-brutal practices of my inauspicious football career.
Reminds me of when I worked in Lithuania just after the fall of communism. The local bar had only two programme choices for their new TV: MTV or a home improvements series. We asked for the latter - even though it was in Dutch. MTV hasn't got better since!
Interesting and thought provoking article. I read a book some years ago I think it came out during the Obama regime called "American Nations" with a subtitle "A History of The Eleven rival Regional Cultures of North America" written by Colin Woodard. I thought it was an interesting breakdown of the people who inhabit various regions of the U.S. and how they migrated to the area and influenced their culture and ideology. There was also a Russian professor who predicted the break up of the USA into distinct new nations due to an economic disaster around 2009. Here's a link that is from a 2019 article that reprises the story. It includes map:
https://patsanswersblog.wordpress.com/2019/04/16/russian-professor-predicts-breakup-of-the-us/
I though this would b food for thought for the group.
Canada's kinda important there, too, you know? 😉🤔
Canada has been struggling with a pushing on totalitarian government to be sure. But there *are* signs of push back. I actually live in (suburban) Ottawa. *Many* people are not happy with our PM & government. Lots are speaking out, even for a town where the vast majority of workers work for gov't in some way, shape or form. Many are praying. We shall see.
😆 (from Ontario, so no idea). I grew up in Sarnia, on Lake Huron (at the bottom) - and right across the St Clair River from Port Huron. . The Great Lakes have figured greatly in my life. Have lived from Thunder Bay (Lake Superior) to Kingston (Lake Ontario, heading into St Lawrence River). Grew up seeing (and hearing) ocean going big boats in the distance...and crossing big bridges (or going through tunnels) to get to the US.
Thanks for bringing back a couple good memories. When I was a young child I lived in Duluth, MN for several years and used to fall asleep listening to the horns from the ships leaving the port every night to traverse Lake Superior. As a young adult I made a run to Thunder Bay from Minnesota for no purpose other than to retrieve a trunk full of Dad's cookies. The border patrol guys had never seen anything like it. Thankfully they didn't arrest me (like they did my cousin for bringing back guns from Windsor). OK, too long story of a story for that here...
Why will Nando not explain? Strange, I don't see any East or West Coast cities, or even Washington, DC on his clip. Could it be that large parts of America, the heartland, exists as a territory in its own right, and has only tenuous ties to our so-called power centers? "The true source of United States power." Has Washington permanently alienated residents of the areas depicted, could it be that having lost our trust Washington is like "a poor player that struts and frets his day upon the stage," and of a truth real power has never departed the hand of the good people of this Country? Just say no, or don't even bother saying it. Ignore Washington. Give them minimum compliance. Just say no in your hearts, and live the good life.
What Nando and Mark are getting at is that navigable river valleys are enormous generators of wealth through production and trade. And no river valley on earth compares to the Mississippi. A large proportion of the basin is highly fertile with ideal terrain and climate for agriculture, almost all of the basin is within 200kms of a river which is navigable to seagoing ships. And the cost of maintaining the Mississippi basin as a navigable waterway is minimal. There are other economically productive river basins but they all have problems, e.g. the Rhine in Europe is much smaller, the Yangtze in China goes through more varied terrain and takes more effort to maintain as a waterway.
On top of this, the Mississippi basin is connected to the St Lawrence River basin, which is smaller and not naturally as productive, but still economically important. And on top of that, the US has the Intracoastal Waterway, which is an enormous mostly natural waterway stretching along the East Coast from Massachussetts to Florida, with mixed natural and artificial extensions through Florida and along the Gulf of Mexico into Texas. It also acts like a river, navigable to both seagoing and non-seagoing vessels and generating enormous amounts of production and trade on the inland side, while having minimal maintenance cost.
There are alternatives to a river basin, e.g. highways and railways, but they generate far less economic production at a much higher cost.
As if all that were not enough of an advantage, trade along a river tends to homogenize its inhabitants culturally, making it easier to maintain political unity than in mountainous or less well connected areas.
No other country has anything like what the US has with the Mississippi basin, and it forms America's economic backbone, one of the main factors allowing the US to maintain a large, technically advanced military which can afford to focus on long range force projection.
One point of clarification:
The Mississippi River system is not navigable by bluewater (ocean-going) vessels. The Upper Miss has draft restrictions that often are as shallow as 9 feet. Plus the Lower Miss is often restricted to 12 feet draft. In addition, the bridges over the river are not of sufficient elevation to allow bluewater vessels. The vast majority of traffic on the Inland River systems is barge traffic. Big ships can come upriver north of New Orleans for a short distance, but that's it.
In addition, the St. Lawrence is draft restricted as well, but it is deep enough for small bluewater vessels.
You have captured the essence of this article. We are blessed to have such navigable waterways to move goods and conduct trade while also having a natural protection of two large oceans on our east and west borders making assault from the seas more difficult. However; as we've seen for the last 50 years and more heavily in the last several years of an assault from our land borders and from within.
All true, and the reason the traffic through the Soo is so heavy is because of the iron, copper, and nickel that's mined to the south of Lake Superior and shipped to the Rust Belt cities. Plus the fresh water from the lakes to supply industry and the cities that ring the lakes. There's nothing like it anywhere else--everything so necessary and so conveniently located both internally as well as to the outside world.
Was just browsing for boots & utterly confounded by all the "American" & "Canadian" shoe companies that brag about their long running histories, yet every pair of their boot wear is made in Asia?
My life began when Americans made real things - everything that built, furnished & helped run our households; fed clothed & supplied the people of the USA. Why can't we go back to that? Why is it never considered? All I can guess is no one in the power structure wants to admit what a hellish failure their globalist technocracy & fiat financing have been? Afraid to do real work? If we can't have Trump, how about Mike Rowe? 😆
I've been wearing Justin's for the last decade.
Berkshire Hathaway bought Justin, and made Hecho en Mexico became made in China, the Mexican product was fine the Chinese items not so much. I'm still wearing my 40 year old Nocona's that cost $120.
The pair of Justin boots I'm wearing are made in the USA. At least that's what the tag on the tongue says.
Must be out of my price range, everything I can afford is made in China. I recall when Georgia Boot moved to China and their prices went up for the steel toe work boots I wore!
I hear ya! I bought this pair about four years ago when they were on sale at Tractor Supply knowing I'd be needing them in the future when the pair I was wearing wore out. They're getting close to doubling in price today.
Check out Timberland boots - made in America.
I'm sure many of your readers are familiar with the history of Manitowoc, WI building WWII submarines. These submarines, once constructed and ready for sea, transited Lake Michigan to the Illinois River (after being transported by floating drydocks through locks and canals), then to the Mississippi River to the Gulf of Mexico. A retired navy buddy of mine retired in Manitowoc, where we visited them back in the 90s. Here's a fairly recent link with some of the history.
https://www.wearethemighty.com/mighty-history/the-history-behind-the-landlocked-wisconsin-submarine/
Now, could you please do an overlay of the course of the Chinese "weather balloon," please?
Try this:
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/02/list-us-military-bases-path-china-spy-balloon-traversed-across-continental-united-states/
Cheers
Thank you! Can't wait to read your thoughts on Substack...
My internet service was cut off after I left the above comment, and was going to add, to see the video posted to twitter by Dockery at https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/02/biden-pentagon-shoots-spy-balloon-told-shoot-wednesday-said-wait-safest-place-video/ And of course, Canada let it pass through on its way from Alaska...
Define "The Big Hurt" in your view?
Thank you for your respectful reply and explanation of what you mean. I get your point. I am semi-retired and was fortunate to build a nest egg however; the increase in my overall expenses for essentials leaves little for discretionary spending, but I know others are hurting. The potential for becoming a victim of those who are suffering and without or those who wish to take advantage of the resulting chaos increases every day. This reality is becoming more evident and yes, that can become a BIG HURT for a lot of us.
I am even more pessimistic, but I question your " control is based on Intel community, election (# vote/ballots:) ) and. money ( controlled taxation and influence payments ). Population centers, the mega rich, Banks, and corporations are power base." All that is "full of sound and fury, signifying nothing." Without your first option, which I consider unlikely, we are uncontrollable. We no longer trust or respect. They are 'poor players', they can speak loudly or softly. They have no stick. I speak as somebody who was a schoolboy during WWII. We were a powerhouse. We were together. "Quoth the raven, Nevermore." Have a good life.
Correct. It does not govern. My point is that our government does not govern, if that means controlling the hearts and minds and commanding the allegiance of the people. They have squandered this these past few years. It is possible for an area like the 'heartland' to grow and flourish giving only lip service and some taxation to the big shots in Washington, even as large areas of the country literally starve. This happened during our Great Depression of the 1930s. The powers that be have stolen our government and perverted justice, and not content with that have governed badly. Our revenge is to have a good life in spite of that, and not to be among those who starve in the future.
First we have to some how educate our population. We have at least two totally ignorant generations. Not only ignorant but proud of their ignorance.
Well said Steve, to say that we have drifted mightily from the mindset of the original 13 colonies would be an understatement.
The gen x, y and zs have no idea what it will take to regain our squandered heritage. Darkness and hard times await, but perhaps, as you suggest, we may yet be found worthy of reclaiming what has been lost.
While I agree with your general premise about loss of heritage and rediscovery, please leave GenX out of this. Born largely of Silent Generation parents, our general conservatism was a direct response to stereotypical Boomer excesses like bra burning, free love, weak hippie men, etc. Growing up in peak Reagan/Thatcher, we knew that SecDef Al Haig consulted on a teen movie, Red Dawn, targeted at us and were 100% cool with it. Cultural milieu shows that HS in the ‘80s was the closest thing to the ‘50s experience. We’re just too small of a generation to leave a mark, so leave us out of this unless you’re willing work with us.
As a late boomer (11/62), my experiences are very different than the '46-'56 group's, my parents were silents (1931&32), coming of age during the destruction of the real American economy sucked!!!
My 4 siblings and I were all born between ‘61 and ‘69. Applying a cultural (rather than a birth rate) metric, I’d consider GenX as those born between the Kennedy inauguration and the Bicentennial.
I'm 8/62, can I nuzzle up to Gen X? I'd hate to be a Boomer.
Sure--I’ll have one of the guys on the committee issue you an honorary “Evel Knievel For President ’76” t-shirt. Not sure if the reference translates outside of the US, although I do seem to recall Evel trying to jump a vehicle into Canada at some point. 😏
My intent here was not to knock Boomers, but to clear up common misconceptions as they lump us in with Millennials, when, if fact, our values have more in common with those of their parents than their Millennial kids. These generational stereotypes are pretty silly anyway.
We are small yet fierce (GenX). Also, we remember when MTV was actually music videos.
MTV's midnight launch was a huge event. Recall about 10 of us going to sleep over at the house of a kid who had the winning combination of cable TV (not universal then) and checked-out parents. Watched the same 20-30 videos cycle all night before reporting to the first day of seventh-grade football in the morning. One of the most-brutal practices of my inauspicious football career.
Reminds me of when I worked in Lithuania just after the fall of communism. The local bar had only two programme choices for their new TV: MTV or a home improvements series. We asked for the latter - even though it was in Dutch. MTV hasn't got better since!
Good times create soft men,
Soft men create hard times,
Hard times create strong men,
Strong men create good times...
So I've been told.
We're at Stage 2.
Hard times are coming.
I don't think the masses have any idea how bad it's going to get.
None whatsoever. I live near France and they are rioting because they are being asked to retire at 64 instead of 62. People are soft!