The end of Empire... we have crossed another step in it

Not only did S&P downgrade our debt, and made a hell of a political commentary. I will remind some of you it is very similar to what I said two weeks ago. We have a dysfunctional political system. I will take it a step further, we have a paralyzed system. But now it's all over the foreign press. The US is dysfunctional, the US cannot deal with it's own issues... China was quite brutal about it. The Russians are pointing fingers and laughing. That is our soft power gone. Our ability to influence friends and pressure enemies is going like the sands in the desert, through your hands.

The next step in this reality play is the fall, or failure, or our hard power... that be the Military. It does not have to fail in overt ways. We just need a few critical incidents, where we will have no choice but to pull them back. Defuding, even partially, the DOD, is a loss in hard power. Soon it will be a choice, do we go softly into the cold night of ex empires, or we go loudly? But that is what this summer fun did...

Hey tea baggers I am enjoying the hell out of the irony... even if the consequences will hurt us all.

But hey... fantasies are great? Aren't they?

:sarcasm: At times paying attention to those who watch trends is a good idea.

What's going to be our Bleeding Kansas?

the irony, I know.

pardon me if I don't have too much faith in your reading of the tea leaves.

Sid

while giving tax cuts to the rich, the end was nigh. You can't fight wars using other people's money.

George Bush, the neo-cons and the neo-liberals destroyed American power.
After Iraq America lost most of her prestige.

No country remains powerful without taxing the rich. Add to that the morons who are running for government to destroy government and we are where we are.

the line of departure was crossed during the Second Gulf War.

close second).

When we have people at rallies with signs that say "Keep the government's hands off of my Medicare," that's a sure sign we're doomed :)

I have to confess, when I heard about the recent downed helicopter I had to wonder if some people who were previously watching from the sidelines are starting to feel a bit bold.

Disagree regarding Tea party. This situation comes from almost a decade of these expensive wars coupled with tax cuts, coupled with trade policies that send our jobs overseas that go back more than a decade to Clinton as well as Bush. These are the fundamentals of this long term crisis, not some squabble started by 2010 freshman in congress. That's why there is no simple solution here, nobody you can vote in and make it all better... And the threats to soft and hard power know that, they can smell it. That's why we may be entering some creepy times here.

the empire, but cannot understand, even their small role in this. And they have a small role in this comedy.

As to the chopper downed today... don't think so... I doubt the rebel in Afghanistan is reading the Guardian or the Observer. But more incidents like that and you will have a hit on morale and self doubt.

...when I was talking about people on the sidelines.

I hate to ruin a perfectly good ominous comment like that by appending something funny, but did you ever notice that the initials of the Tea Party are TP? We used to TP people's houses in junior high, TP = toilet paper, the product the Koch empire was built on. Hehe. Funny!

And to others, Xinxhua's official statement was a classic. There is a dynamic and a lot of this can be predicted.

Is the quotable symbol, because he said what everybody knows:

“I am saddened that it is politically inconvenient to acknowledge what everyone knows: the Iraq war is largely about oil,”

So he was speaking to the state of things, a time of resource wars. The second thing is resource consumption, the US consumes vastly more than its fair share of resources, that's the other thing everybody knows. The third thing, which not everybody knows but are realizing more and more, is that the US doesn't efficiently process those resources, the mighty giant actually has like a hole in his belly so he NEEDS to consume more than everybody else. Also, the poor giant also has multiple personality disorder, and is very confused. He refuses the medication called "CHANGE" that could fix both his issues though, so he has to keep eating food off other people's plates to keep going. The driving factor here is that everybody sees this now. The mighty giant doesn't eat so much because he is that big and strong, he eats that much because he is really messed up. This emboldens absolutely everyone who's hungry. That's why I think its about much more now than the old culprits.

we were once the hungry ones... and if people look back at that fairly recent history they will see a familiar pattern.

The US is in some ways far more like oh Spain, than the more familiar analogy of Rome. Sprinkle a little USSR...

But I think people are starting to realize this. The USA and exceptionalism is going to get much more loud in the end. This is when the actual danger is. One last orgy.. to prove we are not a has been.

Its what they call cultural capitalism, the idea that culture - what you know - has value and people fear the devaluation of their knowledge. That coupled with the fact that the US has a very "non-diverse portfolio" with regards to what we know culturally, means people will fight tooth and claw to preserve its value instead of starting from scratch and changing our ways based on what other people are doing that works.

As far as the last orgy though, I'm turning it over and over in my head. There's coming a moment not too far off when this beast jumps out of our TV and into our living rooms, into the streets where we live. And at that point America's role in the world will become irrelevant to the majority, our role in the clear and present situation will become paramount. A lot of people will sober up at that moment, and that at least will be a good thing.

Rome had it in spades, so did Spain, and England. It goes with it.

And when they defeated another state they made it an "ally" and a "Friend of Rome", remind you of the US, Japan, and Germany after 1945?

and all that. Not unlike us bringing democracy.


Take my word on this, our Empire has a lot more in common with Spain than Rome. And Spain is STILL trying to recover.

Foolish George set the landslide in motion with tax cuts (2001 and 2003) and the invasion of Iraq (2003).

The entire meaning of the "Tea Party Republicans" is preserving tax cuts for the rich- and the ill-used teabaggers don't even know it.

As long as we continue on this misbegotten plutocratic, militaristic journey, decline is what we can expect and what we deserve.

Borders closing.
but worst of all?
the SPIDERMAN reboot coming out next year.
those 2 things show us that civilization as we know it, is about to collapse.

It's some other country's turn.

as ready as you might be... just the end of the USD as reserve currency will cause all kinds of disruption...

but maybe we've got to go through some really hard times in order to come out better on the other side. I think all of us here know that the global paradigm needs to shift -- and quickly -- if the human race is to survive. If things get bad enough, maybe even the slow-to-learn will catch on. We can always hope.

I'm trying to stay optimistic.

:-)

to decide whether to pull back from Empire gracefully in order to maintain a reasonable standard of living for its citizens or try to maintain empire at the expense of its citizens' standards of living. The UK chose wisely, imho.

Good thread, btw.

It is not looking good this morning though