S8 Ep772: Continuing our discourse, Germanicus notes a profound shift: the citizen-militia that once defended the republic has been replaced by a professional force, decoupling the public from the costs of war. Modern "ceremonial war" relies on missiles or foreign

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John Batchelor

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🗓️ 20 April 2026

⏱️ 19 minutes

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Summary

Continuing our discourse, Germanicus notes a profound shift: the citizen-militia that once defended the republic has been replaced by a professional force, decoupling the public from the costs of war. Modern "ceremonial war" relies on missiles or foreign proxies like Ukraine to do the dying, yet fails to reach strategic conclusions. The coming midterm elections represent a "body blow" that could see the opposition seize control of the House, while the potential rise of "Democratic Socialists" — compared to the Bolshevik revolution — threatens identity politics and wealth confiscation that would lead to a "time of troubles." We conclude that both parties are essentially eating from the same soup bowl while the empire erodes. (2)
1572 AFTER THE FALL OF CONSTANTIOPLE.

Transcript

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0:00.0	I'm Gaius. Germanicus is here. We turn to our analysis of America in torment,
0:10.9	looking for a way to explain failure as it must in order to go on. They blamed Hoover in 1932, 33, and ever since,
0:22.9	Hoover is still regarded as the president that did the crime,
0:27.3	which was to ruin capitalism, to wreck it.
0:31.9	So much so it invited the wolves for the next 20 years.
0:37.9	The wolves, every time I say wolves these days, Germanicus,
0:42.4	I think of what Tiberius said about being emperor.
0:45.5	It's exactly like holding a wolf by the ears.
0:48.1	That's what being an emperor feels like.
0:50.8	What we've got now is to talk about what the failure in Persia now known as Iran,
0:59.1	it'll be Persia again, failure in Persia needs a fall guy. We have to blame somebody,
1:08.4	and I nominate the emperor. The reason I nominate the emperor
1:12.0	because we've done it before. Germanicus, you know Woodstock, 1969, and there were said to be
1:20.7	half a million people there. Well, in fact, if you ask around, there were 65 million people there. You
1:27.4	know what I mean?
1:28.4	So I imagine when you ask around about who voted for the emperor, he's going to have what,
1:36.3	maybe three or four electoral votes that we can account on.
1:39.3	Everybody else will not admit to it.
1:41.9	I didn't do that.
1:43.9	Or they'll come up with the explanation, well, consider what
1:47.2	he was running against. So suddenly the large, overwhelming vote for the emperor will disappear.
1:54.1	Now, I'm not involving myself in his. That's not what's interesting to me here. What's interesting
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