We are like the Big Stupid Cop of the world: not an enviable position.

Many years back before the Berlin Wall came down and the Soviet Union died (not necessarily a Good Thing for the US in my book, by the way), I made a prediction.

In 1980 I bet an associate (who has welshed on the bet) that we would cause the fall of the Soviet Union, not by force of arms, but by outspending them, and at the same time, pushing the US to the brink of bankruptcy. (Drum roll, please): TA DA!

In addition, I told him that we would end up making everything in China. Too bad I couldn't pick lottery numbers.

The last thing I told him is that we would become one or more of the following:

1. A Debtor Nation,
2. A far more financially stratified society,
3. The World's Big Stupid Cop.

Lucky me, I hit the Trifecta.

Now we are the Cop. And what does a Stupid Cop do? He makes Bad Busts, ticking off the entire community, in this case, the rest of the world.

And we are going from the Stupid Cop, to Officer Barbrady from South Park, with our military as Cartman screaming "You will respect my Ahthora-Tah!"

Can you say, "Doomed!"??

Now we are trapped. We have gotten to the point where our options have become very narrow.

We can remain the world's bully and beat the living cream cheese out of every little tin horn country that has anything worth having (Oil, et al), in the process becoming the New American Empire with all of its attendant evil and horror. This is the road we're on, and it's very ugly. On top of that, it's an unstable process. Empires are like Republics in that they eventually fall. The Republic is evolving into the Empire, and the Empire won't last.

Or...

We can take a few steps back and become the New Taiwan/Indonesia/China. We can stop exporting manufacturing. It's the Honest to God Engine of every truly functional economic system, be it Capitalist, Socialist, or Totalitarian. We can Stop subcontracting the work. Sure prices will rise. They're going to anyway, it's just that the Super Rich won't get so obscenely wealthy so quickly. For a few years we suffer, and the rest of the world suffers too since they stop riding the "Sell Everything To The Stupid Americans" gravy train, but it's more sustainable in the long run.

The biggest problem is that the "Option to Override Self Destruct" is going to expire Very Soon, and I don't think Ripley is going to make it back to the bridge in time, so we're back to the Big Stupid Cop option.

I don't have a clue how to get out of this. I don't think any of the Democratic Party candidates can do it, not without a Massive majority in the congress and that is Not going to happen. The Republican Party Wants to be the Big Stupid Cop. Cannon Fodder is an excellent way to untilize surplus young adults of questionable education/intelligence that you don't have a job for.

I hope I'm wrong, but my predictions have had a good track record, and people that know me well don't like to hear me talk about this, as they find it too depressing.

I don't have any answers, and I'm beginning to wonder if there really are any, in which situation it's just another case of "Think of it as 'Evolution In Action.'"

I got into this mood today by discussing the Political Lifespan of Republics, and I'm depressed.

Either agree with me, or cheer me up!

people LIKE you! :-)

But seriously--we're also in a position to be a good cop too. Can we change? Remains to be seen...

That helps a little.

If we do not pull back on the imperialism/revenge for the sake of our egos and the sake of corporate capitalist profits, someone is going to cap our asses (i.e., explode a small nuke in an American city)....

**cough**NorthKoreans**cough**
**cough**MuslimTerrorists**cough**


And just dig this scary commentary about loss of manufacturing:


"Meanwhile, he says, ill-conceived U.S. policies have failed to protect home-based American industries, leading to the transference of the most advanced technologies known to mankind. Fingleton says flatly that Japan has built up its industrial base at the expense of the United States, and that China now is chomping at the bit to do the same.
...

Eamonn Fingleton: I mean those engaged in advanced manufacturing. Specifically, industries that are both highly capital intensive and highly know-how intensive. They typically are many orders of magnitude more capital-intensive and know-how intensive than the most advanced of "New Economy" services, such as computer software developed in the last three decades.

Although Japan is known in the West for its leadership in certain consumer products such as cars and television sets, its area of greatest leadership is in much more advanced industries that largely are invisible to the consumer. Specifically, Japan leads almost right across the board in the sort of advanced materials, high-tech components and production machinery that are driving the electronic revolution. Some products may be assembled in the United States, but their key manufacture - the manufacture of the advanced components and materials - is done in Japan.
....
The impression given is that outsourcing is done within the U.S. and that available components come from many sources. But it is clear that most advanced components and materials now are outsourced from Japan. Corporate America is very guarded about its dependence on foreign suppliers, and this applies in spades to outsourcing by American defense contractors."
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

More here: http://www.pushhamburger.com/edge.htm

Not realizing that you have to have something to SERVICE.

And note this: the last call I made to a Customer Service department was picked up in BOMBAY, and the one before that in JUAREZ.