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The Superpower Conundrum - The Rise and Fall of Just About Everything
Submitted by Tom Engelhardt via TomDispatch.com,
The rise and fall of great powers and their imperial domains has been a central fact of history for centuries. It’s been a sensible, repeatedly validated framework for thinking about the fate of the planet. So it’s hardly surprising, when faced with a country once regularly labeled the “sole superpower,” “the last superpower,” or even the global “hyperpower” and now, curiously, called nothing whatsoever, that the “decline” question should come up. Is the U.S. or isn’t it? Might it or might it not now be on the downhill side of imperial greatness?
Take a slow train -- that is, any train -- anywhere in America, as I did recently in the northeast, and then take a high-speed train anywhere else on Earth, as I also did recently, and it’s not hard to imagine the U.S. in decline. The greatest power in history, the “unipolar power,” can’t build a single mile of high-speed rail? Really? And its Congress is now mired in an argument about whether funds can even be raised to keep America’s highways more or less pothole-free.
Sometimes, I imagine myself talking to my long-dead parents because I know how such things would have astonished two people who lived through the Great Depression, World War II, and a can-do post-war era in which the staggering wealth and power of this country were indisputable. What if I could tell them how the crucial infrastructure of such a still-wealthy nation -- bridges, pipelines, roads, and the like -- is now grossly underfunded, in an increasing state of disrepair, and beginning to crumble? That would definitely shock them.
And what would they think upon learning that, with the Soviet Union a quarter-century in the trash bin of history, the U.S., alone in triumph, has been incapable of applying its overwhelming military and economic power effectively? I’m sure they would be dumbstruck to discover that, since the moment the Soviet Union imploded, the U.S. has been at war continuously with another country (three conflicts and endless strife); that I was talking about, of all places, Iraq; and that the mission there was never faintly accomplished. How improbable is that? And what would they think if I mentioned that the other great conflicts of the post-Cold-War era were with Afghanistan (two wars with a decade off in-between) and the relatively small groups of non-state actors we now call terrorists? And how would they react on discovering that the results were: failure in Iraq, failure in Afghanistan, and the proliferation of terror groups across much of the Greater Middle East (including the establishment of an actual terror caliphate) and increasing parts of Africa?
They would, I think, conclude that the U.S. was over the hill and set on the sort of decline that, sooner or later, has been the fate of every great power. And what if I told them that, in this new century, not a single action of the military that U.S. presidents now call “the finest fighting force the world has ever known” has, in the end, been anything but a dismal failure? Or that presidents, presidential candidates, and politicians in Washington are required to insist on something no one would have had to say in their day: that the United States is both an “exceptional” and an “indispensible” nation? Or that they would also have to endlessly thank our troops (as would the citizenry) for... well... never success, but just being there and getting maimed, physically or mentally, or dying while we went about our lives? Or that those soldiers must always be referred to as “heroes.”
In their day, when the obligation to serve in a citizens' army was a given, none of this would have made much sense, while the endless defensive insistence on American greatness would have stood out like a sore thumb. Today, its repetitive presence marks the moment of doubt. Are we really so “exceptional”? Is this country truly “indispensible” to the rest of the planet and if so, in what way exactly? Are those troops genuinely our heroes and if so, just what was it they did that we’re so darn proud of?
Return my amazed parents to their graves, put all of this together, and you have the beginnings of a description of a uniquely great power in decline. It’s a classic vision, but one with a problem.
A God-Like Power to Destroy
Who today recalls the ads from my 1950s childhood for, if I remember correctly, drawing lessons, which always had a tagline that went something like: What’s wrong with this picture? (You were supposed to notice the five-legged cows floating through the clouds.) So what’s wrong with this picture of the obvious signs of decline: the greatest power in history, with hundreds of garrisons scattered across the planet, can’t seem to apply its power effectively no matter where it sends its military or bring countries like Iran or a weakened post-Soviet Russia to heel by a full range of threats, sanctions, and the like, or suppress a modestly armed terror-movement-cum-state in the Middle East?
For one thing, look around and tell me that the United States doesn’t still seem like a unipolar power. I mean, where exactly are its rivals? Since the fifteenth or sixteenth centuries, when the first wooden ships mounted with cannons broke out of their European backwater and began to gobble up the globe, there have always been rival great powers -- three, four, five, or more. And what of today? The other three candidates of the moment would assumedly be the European Union (EU), Russia, and China.
Economically, the EU is indeed a powerhouse, but in any other way it’s a second-rate conglomeration of states that still slavishly follow the U.S. and an entity threatening to come apart at the seams. Russia looms ever larger in Washington these days, but remains a rickety power in search of greatness in its former imperial borderlands. It’s a country almost as dependent on its energy industry as Saudi Arabia and nothing like a potential future superpower. As for China, it’s obviously the rising power of the moment and now officially has the number one economy on Planet Earth. Still, it remains in many ways a poor country whose leaders fear any kind of future economic implosion (which could happen). Like the Russians, like any aspiring great power, it wants to make its weight felt in its neighborhood -- at the moment the East and South China Seas. And like Vladimir Putin’s Russia, the Chinese leadership is indeed upgrading its military. But the urge in both cases is to emerge as a regional power to contend with, not a superpower or a genuine rival of the U.S.
Whatever may be happening to American power, there really are no potential rivals to shoulder the blame. Yet, uniquely unrivaled, the U.S. has proven curiously incapable of translating its unipolar power and a military that, on paper, trumps every other one on the planet into its desires. This was not the normal experience of past reigning great powers. Or put another way, whether or not the U.S. is in decline, the rise-and-fall narrative seems, half-a-millennium later, to have reached some kind of largely uncommented upon and unexamined dead end.
In looking for an explanation, consider a related narrative involving military power. Why, in this new century, does the U.S. seem so incapable of achieving victory or transforming crucial regions into places that can at least be controlled? Military power is by definition destructive, but in the past such force often cleared the ground for the building of local, regional, or even global structures, however grim or oppressive they might have been. If force always was meant to break things, it sometimes achieved other ends as well. Now, it seems as if breaking is all it can do, or how to explain the fact that, in this century, the planet’s sole superpower has specialized -- see Iraq, Yemen, Libya, Afghanistan, and elsewhere -- in fracturing, not building nations.
Empires may have risen and fallen in those 500 years, but weaponry only rose. Over those centuries in which so many rivals engaged each other, carved out their imperial domains, fought their wars, and sooner or later fell, the destructive power of the weaponry they were wielding only ratcheted up exponentially: from the crossbow to the musket, the cannon, the Colt revolver, the repeating rifle, the Gatling gun, the machine gun, the dreadnaught, modern artillery, the tank, poison gas, the zeppelin, the plane, the bomb, the aircraft carrier, the missile, and at the end of the line, the “victory weapon” of World War II, the nuclear bomb that would turn the rulers of the greatest powers, and later even lesser powers, into the equivalent of gods.
For the first time, representatives of humanity had in their hands the power to destroy anything on the planet in a fashion once imagined possible only by some deity or set of deities. It was now possible to create our own end times. And yet here was the odd thing: the weaponry that brought the power of the gods down to Earth somehow offered no practical power at all to national leaders. In the post-Hiroshima-Nagasaki world, those nuclear weapons would prove unusable. Once they were loosed on the planet, there would be no more rises, no more falls. (Today, we know that even a limited nuclear exchange among lesser powers could, thanks to the nuclear-winter effect, devastate the planet.)
Weapons Development in an Era of Limited War
In a sense, World War II could be considered the ultimate moment for both the narratives of empire and the weapon. It would be the last “great” war in which major powers could bring all the weaponry available to them to bear in search of ultimate victory and the ultimate shaping of the globe. It resulted in unprecedented destruction across vast swathes of the planet, the killing of tens of millions, the turning of great cities into rubble and of countless people into refugees, the creation of an industrial structure for genocide, and finally the building of those weapons of ultimate destruction and of the first missiles that would someday be their crucial delivery systems. And out of that war came the final rivals of the modern age -- and then there were two -- the “superpowers.”
That very word, superpower, had much of the end of the story embedded in it. Think of it as a marker for a new age, for the fact that the world of the “great powers” had been left for something almost inexpressible. Everyone sensed it. We were now in the realm of “great” squared or force raised in some exponential fashion, of “super” (as in, say, “superhuman”) power. What made those powers truly super was obvious enough: the nuclear arsenals of the United States and the Soviet Union -- their potential ability, that is, to destroy in a fashion that had no precedent and from which there might be no coming back. It wasn’t a happenstance that the scientists creating the H-bomb sometimes referred to it in awestruck terms as a “super bomb,” or simply “the super.”
The unimaginable had happened. It turned out that there was such a thing as too much power. What in World War II came to be called “total war,” the full application of the power of a great state to the destruction of others, was no longer conceivable. The Cold War gained its name for a reason. A hot war between the U.S. and the USSR could not be fought, nor could another global war, a reality driven home by the Cuban missile crisis. Their power could only be expressed “in the shadows” or in localized conflicts on the “peripheries.” Power now found itself unexpectedly bound hand and foot.
This would soon be reflected in the terminology of American warfare. In the wake of the frustrating stalemate that was Korea (1950-1953), a war in which the U.S. found itself unable to use its greatest weapon, Washington took a new language into Vietnam. The conflict there was to be a “limited war.” And that meant one thing: nuclear power would be taken off the table.
For the first time, it seemed, the world was facing some kind of power glut. It’s at least reasonable to assume that, in the years after the Cold War standoff ended, that reality somehow seeped from the nuclear arena into the rest of warfare. In the process, great power war would be limited in new ways, while somehow being reduced only to its destructive aspect and nothing more. It suddenly seemed to hold no other possibilities within it -- or so the evidence of the sole superpower in these years suggests.
War and conflict are hardly at an end in the twenty-first century, but something has removed war's normal efficacy. Weapons development has hardly ceased either, but the newest highest-tech weapons of our age are proving strangely ineffective as well. In this context, the urge in our time to produce “precision weaponry” -- no longer the carpet-bombing of the B-52, but the “surgical” strike capacity of a joint direct attack munition, or JDAM -- should be thought of as the arrival of “limited war” in the world of weapons development.
The drone, one of those precision weapons, is a striking example. Despite its penchant for producing “collateral damage,” it is not a World War II-style weapon of indiscriminate slaughter. It has, in fact, been used relatively effectively to play whack-a-mole with the leadership of terrorist groups, killing off one leader or lieutenant after another. And yet all of the movements it has been directed against have only proliferated, gaining strength (and brutality) in these same years. It has, in other words, proven an effective weapon of bloodlust and revenge, but not of policy. If war is, in fact, politics by other means (as Carl von Clausewitz claimed), revenge is not. No one should then be surprised that the drone has produced not an effective war on terror, but a war that seems to promote terror.
One other factor should be added in here: that global power glut has grown exponentially in another fashion as well. In these years, the destructive power of the gods has descended on humanity a second time as well -- via the seemingly most peaceable of activities, the burning of fossil fuels. Climate change now promises a slow-motion version of nuclear Armageddon, increasing both the pressure on and the fragmentation of societies, while introducing a new form of destruction to our lives.
Can I make sense of all this? Hardly. I’m just doing my best to report on the obvious: that military power no longer seems to act as it once did on Planet Earth. Under distinctly apocalyptic pressures, something seems to be breaking down, something seems to be fragmenting, and with that the familiar stories, familiar frameworks, for thinking about how our world works are losing their efficacy.
Decline may be in the American future, but on a planet pushed to extremes, don’t count on it taking place within the usual tale of the rise and fall of great powers or even superpowers. Something else is happening on Planet Earth. Be prepared.
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everything is awesome, just trust those who are in charge to keep it that way! /sarc
I'm thinking decline. Just couldn't keep up with the changes, especially in tech. They were supposed to use tech for good, not evil. Absolute power corrupts absolutely.
yeah, k.
and absolut vodka corrupts absolutly
More Zero Hedge garbage, reading like the pro-Russia Times trash it has some to be more and more as time progresses.
The U.S. economy is sick, and there are abundant socioeconomic problems present in America, but on a relative scale, the problems faced by Russia, China, Japan, most of the EU, ALL the BRICs, et al., make U.S. issues seem far more benign by contrast.
Pollution?
Corruption?
Civil rights?
Oppressive government?
Onerous regulations?
Every country listed above is far worse in these regards than the U.S.
The U.S. is truly a safe harbor and recipient destination for capital flowing from China, Russia, many EU nations, much of the oil rich middle east, etc., for these reasons, and will be the world's sole economic & military superpower for many decades to come (if not another 100 years), long after China implodes.
civil rights
you a nigger?
s/
The US is a clusterfuck thanks to the "divide and conquer" politics we've had since Vietnam and the horrible greed of the elites taking advantage of it
We still believe we can do anything but not in my back yard and should do a lot less to save the planet
Americans want everything to be perfect yet let it all go to shit when it's not.
We want total freedom yet no responsibility.
We want the government to do it all for us but are horrified when they control our lives.
High speed rail is a joke just as BART is in SF cause it was voted in to "get the other guy off the road"
We're not a nation of one people as is Japan so we hate having to share a ride with "those people"
Why do you think self driving cars are the rage now?
It all points to a major war soon as a means to unify against "them" as we see our clusterfuck start to crumble around us as we blame the other guy for it.
A terrorist does not become a terrorist, until they have been, terrorized.
This. For every action, there is a reaction.
Mr. Gravity proved that all to well, it wasn't the bending over that was the problem for humans, it was the straighting back up again. The message won't get through to the political elite, and never will either, that's called political denial and we are outnumbered in that affair.
Bullish?
The elites and powers in Washington/Wall Street are the new superpower, they are real.
We, US citizens, are no longer the backbone of the country. That work is mostly done, replaced by machines/tech, same with warfighting. Our 70% consumer economy is no longer, we are not the economic base, we are now liabiliies, $T liabilities, and discarded/bumped aside as those above shift their visions globally, not internally. That is why you see our roads in disrepair, our education system stagnant, our rail systems old, prisons full, our healthcare quality (for the masses) reduced to the lowest standard. They are mostly done with us. This one word is their attempt to group us and separate us from them, that word is Equality. It is our final undoing, beware of those speaking it?
Bingo! I've been saying it for years to the horror of many
The elites controlling the capital (and the Capitol) are done with us cause they don't need the labor
And they want to "thin the herd" cause it's ruining the planet for them
Thus the media emphasis on climate change, gay rights, transsexuals as heroes, porn replacing real sex..It's all about reducing population.
Again, expect a major war to start soon cause it's not working fast enough for them.
Same as it ever was for centuries when the herd got too big and out of control.
With any luck a massive comet will impact the Earth and git'er done.
I can still enjoy a good hamburger.
Truth in Sunshine, I hope you get a passport soon.......be nice if you could see the big wide world outside your goldfish bowl
The Chinese, and increasingly the Russians, have gold. What's in your wallet?
Is that you MDB?
What's with this "TomsDispatch"? Is it like a halfway house for neocons or what? Michael Klare thinks that Russia "began menacing" it's neighbors and now this guy seems depressed that the US military "couldn't bring a weakened post-soviet Russia to heel"
hey Tylers...fuck these guys.
This story is BS.
And if you like your BS story, you can keep your BS story.
this guy writes some decent anti war stuff sometimes, but this one was garbage. Don't let him fool you, his solution to terrible govt is more and bigger govt, but the softer, cuddly kind of govt that dumbass "progressives" still think is possible despite centuries of evidence showing its not.
This guy is a big govt liberal, and has no one to blame for this except himself and all those who think like him(both left and right). Fuck that guy
Really muddled thinking from a government apologist. Like rulers are going to back their coercion with flowers and kisses. Plantations don't run themselves, you know.
It's highly likely that if you asked every country's leader if they would like to rule the world, the vast majority would say yes because they would do it the right way.
Fucking psychopath the lot.
This statist writes: "the creation of an industrial structure for genocide,"
Obviosly this guy still has his head stuck up the Zionist propaganda machine's ass.
It's the Anunnaki who are always starting shit.
I wonder if Obama knows he's a let down. Guess not
Those clowns kept going on about gold at the start of the year. Now look what the GOLD PRICES have been doing. OUCH!
What does look to be in trouble is the GOLD CHART here. ==> http://bit.ly/1fMcakI UH OH!!!
And to think I listened to those dummies from CNBC who keep saying that GREECE will crash the market, but they keep going on and on and every time they say something, its pure BS. If you do the complete opposite of them, you would probably make some money. Fancy that!
I doubt the GREECE vote will matter, they are already trying to crash the system.
This is the practise run for when the US collapses. yes, they are trialing things out in GREECE first. You heard it here first!!!!
And so far, you can see that the OLD greek playwrites from teh 1800's would not be able to come up with better shit, and melodrama that we have had over teh last few days. wow.
I wonder if Obama knows he's a let down.
I too wonder if Bush2 knew how much he was hated after his lies about Iraq, the Patriot Acts and his final presidential 2008 endorsement of the emergency banking loans. Seems like he disapeared for a while thank God.
lol. They know, but it's been scripted so they just don't give a shit. And they made bank while fucking us over. What's not to like?
All on the narcissistic fudgepacker's watch.... Gr8 job.
The available or scarce resources on the planet are being fought over by an increasing number of players.
Used to be only Royalty and the Aristocracy who had access to wealth but now even a private security company can make a killing and generally do.
"The greatest power in history, the “unipolar power,” can’t build a single mile of high-speed rail? Really? And its Congress is now mired in an argument about whether funds can even be raised to keep America’s highways more or less pothole-free."
Why don't you go do a physically impossible act to yourself, statist prick. Ever heard of the last train debacle the government got into? Its called Amtrak, its like Bidens toy train set or sumpin.
You wanna see America for Farrrrreeeee?!?
Stick your fucking thumb out and quit asking ME to subsidize your preferred method of travel.
Douche.
/////
Yeah, I knew I smelled a rat...
http://www.nationinstitute.org/fellows/
WTF Tylers?
I'll bet they have thousands of miles of high speed rail, but it's underground, reserved for the elites to get to their bunkers.
There's a very nice underground 'rail' system between the Congressional office buildings and the Capital building. Sat next to Strom Thurman who really did seem like an exceedingly senile person.
"and then take a high-speed train anywhere else on Earth, as I also did recently,"
-- I quit reading at that point. High speed trains are more a function of population density than advanced societies. Outside of Asia and parts of Europe I can't think of any high-speed rail. I don't disagree that the US is in decline, but I don't think the lack of a government pork project is a sign of that. The transportation I would like to see would be some of the Bus lines in Argentina and Brazil. I got around just fine on those and they were affordable. Here in the US? I just get in my damn car!
I am hoping Tyler just threw us some red meat to make sure we were still paying attention.
It's Saturday ;) A Weekend Tyler is posting ;) :D
haha! .. got it in one! There will be quite a bit more flakey crap, along directly.
In the interim, some Guns n Roses, to lighten things up:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qyf8oRF6Trg
More Gunners...and a little more provacative one at that, for our statist weekend Tyler...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHTjvv8pBMY
...before song is banned, before I am banned, before we're all made to conform to some fucking big government ideal about high speed rail or some shit.
Love that song.
The whole thing's in that last line, the planet's gone over to the dark side, the terrorists are spreading exponentially, even the bombs don't work, they just make it worse! And ... and ... the fucking planet's out to get us!
Run! ... run for your lives! LOL :D
I must be completely immune to this shit. :D
Epic - Faith No More
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HsqhV8kDkBw
nmewn -I've personally chatted with one of those nationalinstitute fellows -very pleasant, very statist, too.
From the looks of their advocacy, very statist AND very "progressive". I think I've arrived at the point I don't want to talk to them at all, I want them relegated to permanent minority status, something that sits over in the corner and whines, you hear it but pay little attention to it.
Placed anywhere near power they seek to control everything, always, no matter what anyone else thinks or without considering the damage to everyones liberty they do, including their own.
From banning this or that to infringing on speech or art to even distorting the language they've become the definition of Orwellian.
I'm done with them.
Speaking of language control, in talking to a progressive couple recently, the woman used the word "stupid" in a sentence, and then reflectively asked "Can we even use that word any more?" LOL -holy crap...I told her that it was retarded to use "stupid". Not a happy progressive.
LMAO!...she micro-aggressed her own self and then you nano-agressed her into a "progressive" hell.
I love it ;-)
we all know the type... "I can see what you can't, it's so obvious to me and I'm smarter than you anyway... if you just let ME run things the way I want them run, all of you would be better off for it... hand me the reins, it's for your own good"
people like that need to be lined up front to back so we can use our bullets efficiently when we get rid of them...
"I want them relegated to permanent minority status, something that sits over in the corner and whines, you hear it but pay little attention to it."
That sure would be nice. But unfortunately the group thats ben relegated to whining in the corner is us....the progressives, both of the democrat and republican type, are winning the war on freedom, liberty, and prosperity
yeah, no shit, this article and its source are laughable
Take a slow train -- that is, any train -- anywhere in America, as I did recently in the northeast, and then take a high-speed train anywhere else on Earth, as I also did recently, and it’s not hard to imagine the U.S. in decline. The greatest power in history, the “unipolar power,” can’t build a single mile of high-speed rail? Really?
++
Crap to the tenth power alert. Who cares about high speed trains as a marker for societial Greatness? Sounds like a OneWorldOrder in disguse troll. The US charted a different path decades ago for a variety of reasons. Hey, that Kalifornia 100 billion dollar high speed train to nowhere should make the author feel like progress is on the way. We now have defacto nationalized health care...isn't that a proper and fitting baseline for the EuroTrash EU model? Give us time.
Real Muricans don't want no rail... Me and momma like to travel in the pickup truck to see our parents 400 miles away in Dallas..
Damned straight. Better than an affordable cattle car provided by the beneficence of Big Brother. Comprehend the value of independence compared to the trains running on time.
Imagine conducting a massive smuggling operation while under the protection of the US Navy...
"Welcome to the Digital Domain indeed ( in deed )."
Artificial Intelligence Takes the Battlefield: Who Is Really Running Jade Helm 15?
http://truthstreammedia.com/2015/07/01/artificial-intelligence-takes-the...
Caravan To Midnight - Episode 309 Jade Helm Decoded
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oqGEz9IqOrE (2:29:12)
The "JADE" In Jade Helm 15 Is An A.I. SOFTWARE Program
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FiKBPmq37Yo (38:11)
+100 Yep, Jade is a computer program that eliminates the chain of command when it comes to destroying a target. In other words, a "robot" will decide who lives and who dies in the blink of an eye with no human emotions to clog the process. Guarandamntee you the person who junked you also junked us for the Anunnaki comment.
Add to this the fact that Barry has eviscerated the top echelon of the military who would have stopped or at least attempted to thwart this evil, and you have a very ugly picture. However, God will intervene when it appears all hope is lost and crush the Lucies. Which side are you on?
weill city boy, whatcha gonna do? put a train station every 5 miles across the empty west?
I'm sure we will have a high speed train in America once agenda 21 has had is full effect and we live in a dozen super high density population centers spread across the country, living like chickens six to a coop. Whether these elitist Urbanites like it or not there are lots of people living in fly over country that neither want nor need high speed rail, much less want to pay for it so a "financial adviser" can zip from NY to LA in a few hours. Living in a metro area that has invested untold amounts of money building, operating and maintaining low speed transit rail to serve a tiny portion of our citizens, it causes me no end of anger to see these debacles stopping traffic at crossings while half full.
Lets not forget either how these same "progressive" politicians were running on platforms of ending the freeway system to force people to drive across town, through neighborhoods and school zones. Great ideological thinking to force us to public transport, to force us to live close to work. People live where they want to live or can afford to live, and most places where you can live close to work are either super expensive or super bad. That's why I drive 17 miles each way.....because I don't WANT to live where I work.
Ultimately it doesn't matter what we do or have. It is the responsibility of our government to propagandize us, to manipulate us, to indoctrinate us to believe that what we have is what will make us happy. How many fingers am I holding up?
Good post. The US political parties sneer at national sovereignty, they're all in for world governance, just like the EU.
They are all in before the flop.
yes - I could get to my friends in LA off the 101 on Hollywood Blvd from SF in 6 hours. 580 to the I-5 ....pretty cool drive and make it worth the effort.... not too long, an easy dedicated drive and hey, NOT SF anymore folks... loved both areas...and yeah,most reasoned opions agree with FalconFlight that it's never gonna actually be built...off topic, but they keep coming out with BAD news on the new Bay Bridge out there...some real problems that seem like they could've been avoided with greater diligence by the Chinese firm that did the work.
Oh Tom. Let's just call it what everyone else seem to call it these days: "Empire of Chaos".
We're living in the era of PNAC, Operation Gladio B and Color Revolutions perfected since Operation Ajax to overthrow elected governments and incite civil war, wholesale looting and ethnic cleansing to serve the military industrial complex, its banksters and sometimes even zionist oligarchs.
They train & recruit terrorists openly, fund them openly, arm them openly and even treat them in hospitals openly calling them freedom fighters. And when people start to question what the fuck they are doing, they change names, split them into groups or deny they ever had a hand in their creation, but that these huge terror groups like ISIS and Al-Queda just popped up accidentally. They don't want a victory, just perpetual war to scare the home crowd into submission and sell more shit to their enemies and allies.
Megalomaniacal greedy morons appear to run the world with the zionist banksters whispering encouragement to boost their egos and do their bidding. It's the bastard banksters who run the printing presses to create money out of thin air with fractional reserve and sovereign debt who run the world really - and they require our blood and slavery to live.
amen.
YHC-FTSE
I do not think you ever commented on something I did not agree with.
You have a way of putting into words fact.
I would not hesitate in donating a few hard earned dollars for a reward fund for the arrest and conviction of those in DC and Wall Sreet complicit in Human Rights Violations including terrorism and war, Obama, Clintons and George included.
George Clinton?
Funcks you.
Thanks mate. I didn't even mention the global blanket surveillance by the NSA, the pernicious entrenchment of corporatism in government that make corporations more powerful than people, wholesale theft of individual rights, the rise of oligarchy and wealth inequality, to mention just a few of the facets of this empire of chaos.
Both of us are of the same mind about getting these warmongers to trial - the current and past ones still preening and gloating on the world stage. I've talked to a couple of lawyers about bringing charges against the most obvious and blatant criminals to start the ball rolling. William Hague (Former Foreign Sec, UK) is one I've mentioned often - he may be relatively small fry but it's an easy case to prove that he funded terrorism in Syria with tax payer's money in 2013 since he did it quite openly and the law is clear about the seriousness of funding terrorism. As for the bigger fishes - the Clintons, Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Obama, Netanyahu, Blair, Dimon, Blankfein, Cryan and Dougan to name a few that pops up - that would take a LOT of support from the public and money invested in the mainstream media. A half-assed effort can easily be killed off so considering the circumstances we can only lay the groundwork for awareness until such time most people want to see these criminals in prison.
Hague The Vague has questions about how he got Leon Brittan's seat; how a 16 year old little boy gets advancement in the Pederast Party, and about care homes in Wales
Strange article.
"Can I make sense of all this?"
It appears not.
" Something else is happening on Planet Earth. Be prepared."
Yes, it is the rise of the Self-Absorbed -- the Narcissist and Sociopath -- to a critical mass of places of influence and control.
And a critical mass of enabling ignorance (eg. "Something else is happening on Planet Earth") has taken hold, too.
Borrowing from your frenemies automatically eliminates you from the 'Super/anything.' You are just another guy looking for a handout from your old pals...ya know...just something to get me by til payday?
it's hard to believe that just 'one man...'mr 911`OBL' could bring america to its knees in less than fifteen years?
the british empire, ussr, and now ussa are about to trashed by the barbarian tribes of afghanistan...
why?
america's tribal indigenous indians were just as bad but spread far and wide throughout all of the forty-eight states. problem was the indigenous indians were demarcated and quarantined on reservations before they could react being perpetually isolated.
the durrand-line,... an artificial-ficticious imanginary line that only a conquering power would propagate, drawn-in-afghanistan was meant to literally cut the soul out of islam.
it never worked!
pakistan, or the fata/ nwfp were afghan and not pakistan. waziristan, and peshawar were afghanistan. the kabul river heading south to the indus were not bounded by punjab or singh...
the ussa and pakistan wanted the war with afghanistan because the ussa wanted to keep iran, russia, china and india from creating this new 'silk-road.
it backfired just as the ussa turned its head allowing a q khan of pakistan to make pakistan a nuclear power-- under the nose of reagan ... wtf
it was all a drama,... one continuous great-game of deception that pakistan, and their (army) taliban/isi used to ransom the ussa for generations. pashtuns are different people because of the durand line with taliban fighting taliban in a civil war where the durrani dynasty defined kabul as the king of the mountains from the spin ghar range north through the great hindu kush.
america has designed all this via brzezinski, burger, wolfowitiz, gates, and perle to name a few responsible for our demise,... if and when we wake up and openly question authority there still is a chance to get back to where we were once ?
jmo
this was all by design having cheney, gates, cia's ( foggy bottom), and the mic`DOD run by rumsfeld and libbey, cheney and the bushes passing the torch to ... ?
fucking all arabs were supposedly saudi's, but where's the real proof other than the cia and dod telling us.
could one man really destroy america's financial system and in turn its heart and soul..
again jmo
Keep the Americans on Crete and everything will be fine...
sadly, disabledvet... crete ain't got geography!?!
think spain and gibralta? the uk is long gone and its tyme for spain and morocco to take the gateway into the med for leverage...?
http://www.wpclipart.com/geography/Country_Maps/G/Gibraltar_BW.png.html
now, this is where its at... when , location, location, location is 21st c.and beyond Real, really ESTATE.
fuck the UK!
Article doesn't make much sense to me. High speed rail is not a symbol of a super power. Super power only exists because it has a economy that produces a lot of wealth comparatively to other states and their economic jurisdictions. Hans Hermann Hoppe had an article called Parodox of Imperialism. That liberal states are more likely to become super powers and become aggressive in foreign affairs, pushing it's interest over other weaker nations. This was true of Britain, true of the US. US economy through out the cold war was superior to that of the Soviet Union, which not surprisingly was outlasted by the US.
Super powers decline from the inside out. Eventually such powerful states handicap their own sources of the wealth (the real economy). Their ability to extract from their source of wealth goes into bottlenecks, so is there ability to dominate world affairs in favor of it's own interests. US is on a decline and has been on a decline. It's not a country that has the same engine of wealth production. Industrial production is not major part of the economy, manufacturing is not either, and so forth. Such productivity is the seeds of a wealthy economy. Such things increase people's living standards. US is on the decline precisely because of neglect in these sectors of the economy. Too many impediments. If you look at emerging economies in Asia, and Russia, for example, their productivity is higher, that's why their economies are growing at a faster rate.
High speed rail has nothing to do with rise, and decline of a economy. High speed rail is not the source of wealth. A economy wouldn't put high speed rail ahead of sufficient food, energy, etc. It's not something that magically transforms the economy, it's rather all the productivity before it.
The demand (voluntary or not) for a nation's currency determines that it is the super power.
High speed rail is not a symbol of a super power.
No, it's not. And shipping the bulk of your industrial base to third world countries so a few motherfuckers can become billionaires is also not a sign of being a superpower either. It's called becoming an oligarchy or a fascist state - take your pick . . . either of the choices really suck.
Laying your future into the hands of business is no more rational that to put similar faith in government. it is our actions that define our circumstances. We have had the choice to resist, just as we do right now. Instead we calculate in our minds what we perceive to be in our own self interest, regardless of how short term or fleeting that future may be.
No one has forced us to buy foreign made goods, but our choices of twenty years ago frame us just as the ones we made today do of tomorrow. We could have, and still can, say no to any of this but we don't. We don't like the choices and admittedly they are bad, but they weren't always as bad. We simply did then as we do now, choose the easier choice, the one most assured of our own destruction as it is always deliberately planned and we seem to always oblige.
I know it is shocking for some to believe that government IS NOT acting in our best interest, as it is for others to believe or at least expect the same of business, but the humans that reside in those positions of power are the same as everyone else and like us, make choices that put THEIR interests ahead of everyone else. Unfortunately for us, these are typically the smartest and most socially savvy amongst us, leaving us at a most distinct disadvantage.
It is as it always has been a matter of smarts, of seeing the big picture, and most importantly being able to recognize and accept that people will lie to us, and no matter how delicious the lie, always to our loss and ultimately, most likely, demise.
Evolution is at work, and while thoughts of destroying the liars and manipulators amongst us is appealing and would seem to advance a more promising evolutionary trajectory, ultimately it is still intelligence, the ability to access risk and reality that will define our success, regardless of how efficiently we might dispatch those who seek to royally fuck us over. And I think it is more than just individual intelligence, more of a social intelligence that takes the form of civilization, of culture....something we still horribly lack and what little we have seems doomed from its start.
Every prosperity that culture can generate, there are those who will claim it and use it to destroy the very culture that created it. Hard work, austerity of life style that allows true accumulation of wealth and prosperity, is inevitably always 'collectivized" in one way or another to create the arrogance of progressive ideology used to denigrate and destroy that which has built and enabled it. This is our brave new world....again. Each iteration becomes larger and thereby more widespread in its calamity.
Very good. May want to add that what people do comes from what they think, what they think comes from what they are taught, what their teachers are taught comes from the teacher of teachers, the philosophers. More Aristotle intoduced to youth would be beneficial to civilization. Why Aristotle?
His crowing achievement, which is opposed to every other school, is that he teaches how to think, not what to think.
Yep,,, Like all Americans think,,, a great power has to win wars,,, lots of wars. Gotta show everyone who their daddy is. Has to have the biggest military, biggest guns, and now apparently,,, the fastest trains.
Debt money ,corrupt government(s) and corporate greed has done Merika in. Put her people in the poor house and on the government dole shipping the production off to increase that fiat profit.
Spying on everyone, debasing the money, taking control of the markets, creating hate and discontent amongst the factions and races, funding the killing off of an entire generation while still in the womb, destroying the rule of law, creating a gestapo, corupting the federal, state and local justice system corrupting federal, local and state law enforcement, povertizing the younger generations with unpayable debts for an education to get jobs that no longer exist.
Fought useless wars for ??? Still fighting useless wars for ???. Proudly funding Coups, terrorists, and corrupt regimes. Droning American citizens along with foreign citizens on the orders of one person.
Next up, conquering her own citizens as the whole world is now her enemy. Even says so in the NDAA.
Happy Independence Day
So where's this speedy train in Greece? What's their excuse for collapse? Is that America too? Sounds like you blame America for the problems of the whole world or are you just a jealous prick with a bad attitude in general? Did you contribute to the writer of this bias article or even get what it says? You are definitely a foreigner who can't see wherever you are from has plenty of its own problems and you should get involved with those and keep your beek out of the ones you aren't even a citizen of buddy boy-emphasis on BOY!
High-speed trains are for France, Germany, China and soon Russia maybe Australia maybe Brazil oh and Japan has an old one
Most rational Americans think war is a bad thing and to be avoided. But, if war is necessary, it should be fought with a military capable of stomping the dog shit out of the opposition quickly and with minimal allied casualties, and with permission to do so. Politicians, on the other hand, often make stupid military decisions (for a prime example I give you a community organizer as US Commander in Chief) that prevent this outcome and lead to protracted conflicts, mounting casualties, indecisive actions, growing unpopularity... Rinse and repeat.
On this Independence Day, it is good to remember that the Founders feared a standing army that had the potential to stage a coup, so it allowed for citizens to be armed and for the military to report to a civilian authority. Built into their scheme was the assumption that the American voter would never be so stupid as to elect an Obama or equivalent as President and CinC. They were obviously incorrect, but don't blame the military for the faults of bumbling bureaucrats and idiot voters.
Most Americans "want" to send their sons to fight ISIS in Iraq. Superpowers must pay the blood price to keep on top. Every major power has to fight to sustain the illusion.......American sons have wars to fight and boots on the ground. ISIS is waiting to draw you into the killing fields
with skilled utilizationof music medicine and miracles, the AlQidA ISIS pathogen disappear into the background as one of the worst of flatulences to pass by only to yield to the normal atmosphere, yes... won't that be a laugh when that day comes....
a military capable of stomping the dog shit out of the opposition quickly
Gen Westmoreland Wannabe @2015
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/05/world/asia/gen-vo-nguyen-giap-dies.htm...
Vo Nguyen Giap, the relentless and charismatic North Vietnamese general whose campaigns drove both France and the United States out of Vietnam,
my neighbors kid got an A on her high school report about the 'so-called' jewish holocaust...I asked her if they taught her anything about british empire genocide..........she said no........
''This blog summarizes the numerous episodes of genocide committed by Britain in its perfidious and ongoing ambition to maintain its imperialist grip on the indigenous world. For too long the world has been duped by the treacherous and viperous anglosphere which eagerly points their blood-stained finger at demonized foreign (i.e. non-white) individuals and groups to conceal their own massive, unsurpassed and unpunished crimes against humanity.''
http://worldsworstmassmurderer.blogspot.com.au/2012/03/britain-worlds-wo...
Why don't you research the genocide of the Iberians, then we can discuss the British that employed HMN with specific naval units to thwart the slave trade. Britain didn't create slavery, but was the leader in its demise. Fuck you with a hidden agenda. Full disclosure, not of English extraction, not that that matters one fcking bit.
Britain didn't create slavery, but was the leader in its demise.
There is some truth in that statement. Most people don't realize it but the primary force behind the slave trade were people of Jewish ancestry. Look it up . . .
like the american empire, the british empire was run by the tribe..........look it up........
There wouldn;t have been african slave trading without full, rapious greed of many Africans. Were they Joooos too?
Let me correct my grievous error in calling the Africans greedy. They simply were conducting commerce with the only thing they had of value, just like every society/tribe throughout human history. Only upon the period of European "enlightenment" did economic (innovation/industrialization) and societal changes (much to do with economics) did slavery become a moral and economy anachronism, wherein the European powers put the practice to an end. Throughout history what was there to trade or what constituted "war booty" but human labor? I'm so sick of the whole insipid, banal treatment of the topic. It's worthless emotional manipulation and defies even cursory intellectual inspection by the our modern serf curiosity.
ah mr falcon,
you are perhaps missing the experience of learning from aging boomer losers with ponytails profs spouting Zinn and critical race theory and the rest of the postmodern .. stuff.
or perhaps you have read Derrida and are up to date on critcal this and that. But keep in mind that those under 40 here at ZH, at least those who graduated from american ivy and sub ivy universities, generally have nothing more to go on than what they were taught.
you should consider whether it is worth trying to teach this ivie product. from my experience, most have taken their education as it was intended, an intellectual gelding. they are happy in their unaroused state. let them be.
but some escaped with repairable damage, seek those out. If pareto is right, maybe 4% can be repaired.
yes, we've all been waiting for Steven Spielberg to man up and be a truly patriotic American and make a blockbuster movie of the Rhode Island slave trading masters of new england....the financiers who made it happen...
BTW, who was the greatest conqueror of countless peoples of all the history of man? Why is was a sneaky little Yellow man and his kinsmen; Genghis Khan. And how many white tribes did he and his marauder tribe 'absorb?' Simple indoctrination is so, uh, xenophobic.
Surely to include the British invasion for expansion of "the empire" wouldn't suggest the "holocaust" is merely a "so-called" when in fact it did certainly happen. I hope there is no insinuating that it didn't happen as some today certainly suggest. Yes there are other examples of imperialist crimes to humanity just don't refer to the "Jewish Holocaust" as "so-called" as though it was some insignificant tragedy in history! That does not excuse any of the many atrocities man still seems to think is justified in the pursuit and lust of power.
Jews are perpetrators not victims
exactly.......some people just dont understand how ''played'' they are by the tribe
Here's where Englehardt shows a degree of naiveté that would be heart-0warming in a pre-schooler, but is jarring in a journalist.
DEFINE 'effectively'. Do not get the actual aims conflated with what you might think the aims ought to be.
Anybody who has the slightest understanding of the history of Empires (and in fact of States more broadly) knows - with adamantine certainty - that Empires (and States) do not exist to expand the common weal, to further the pursuit of life, liberty and happiness, or to protect individual rights against violation.
Empires and States exist to transfer wealth and power from society-at-large, to a vanishingly-narrow clique of 'apex parasites': the political class and their cronies, bureaucrats and myrmidons. The ecclesiastic class also profited mightily for a good deal of time - but then the bullshit of "We rule by grace of God" no longer worked, so "We rule to implement the will of the people" - equally false, but equally alluring for non-thinkers - supplanted it. And here we are.
And thinking of the budgetary implications, history is again informative...
Anyone familiar with their Paine will know the trajectory of taxes in England - from a peak £400,000 a year imposed after England was subjected to 'regime change' by William of Normandy in 1066, they fell for three hundred years, to a low of about £100,000 in the 1360s. Even that was too much for the English, who still resented being occupied by the Normans... hence Wat Tyler's 1381 Rebellion.
But then - under Betty I - England decided it wanted to be an Empire. That was at the turn of the 17th century.
By 1788 - less than 200 years later - the total tax take was £17,000,000 (net of the funds used to pay those who collected it). Nobody was better off except a vanishingly-narrow clique of political parasites and their cronies.
Population during the time had risen from ~2.5m to about 7.5m by 1788: roughly tripled. The tax pot rose 170-fold - and most of it was excise on malt (taxing alcoholic beverages consumed by those withouyt the means to own their own hops crops: in other words, the middle classes and below).
And what's more, the total foreign debt of England's government rose from £1.2m in 1694, to - wait for it - £850m by 1815. That's 120 years, for those playing at home.
Population from 1694 to 1815 roughly tripled - from 5.1m to about 14m. Debt, however, rose 700-fold. But some cronies got fantastically rich - beyond the dreams of Croesus.
That is how this shit works, and Tom Englehardt is a fool for not being aware of it.
There is no point clutching at the straw of "reform from within": after all, those within are already planning 'reform' of their own - and their version absolutely does not involve an extension of respect for individual liberty.
Think back to the coup d'état that took place at the 1787 ConCon (the con of all cons: the Constitutional Convention, whose initial role was supposed to be revision of the Articles of Confederation).
The ConCon was just as secrective as the conclave ~130 years later at Jekyll Island, and had precisely the same object: to further enrich the already-stupendously-wealthy, at the expense of the society at large. The aim of the ConCon was to create a powerful central government of virtually unlimited power: only when dissent arose within the soi-disant aristocracy did they tone it down by writing 10 Amendments, with the Hamiltonians knowing full well that in due course they could - and would - be parsed out of existence. And they were right.
The American State is doing exactly what it's designed to do: enrich the political class and its cronies.
a top post... and as such it will be skipped by most.
a time of tribulation, though painful, in the end it becomes meaningless in importance to what comes after.
I wouldn't exactly call it "meaningless" because the pain is part of the process of change and understanding. But your point is well taken.
Just a matter of time before the US collapses from the weight of it's own debt.
I'm sorry but this article should get an award for mixing various pieces of bullshit into one barely readable tome. When the guy had to put his two cents in about "fossil fuels being the reason for climate change and the doom of mankind" (paraphrasing here) that's when I realized we are dealing with a real true believer.
When are these numbskulls who believe in anthropomorphic "global warming" going to realize that the earth's climate has been changing - warm to cold to warm - since time immemorial and that man's "contribution" to what is currently going on is like a flea bite on an elephant's ass? When the issue of money (i.e. carbon credits/carbon taxes/etc.) is TOTALLY divorced from the "global warming"/CO2 issue then I will give it some credence - otherwise the whole thing is just another scam to suck more money out of the 99.9%.
As for the issue of having thousands of nukes on this planet and the possibility of them never coming into use - I'm not buying it. Eventually some asshole is going to come into power believing that they can launch a first strike on another nuclear power and win. Or more likely they will go off by mistake - it's only a matter of time unless everyone agrees to get rid of the damn things totally. Unfortunately they are probably already obsolete. With all the black projects going on in the military/industrial complex they likely have new secret weapons that make nukes look like firecrackers. What a fucked up world . . . . .
Nukes are like a modern day equivalent of the old fortress siege technique of piling up sacks of black powder against a stone wall, and using the explosion to create a hole in the wall.
Much more effective is to focus the energy of the black powder to propel a heavy projectile. Twice as efficient, because the old way, half of the blast was wasted.
By forging cannon barrels, they were able to reduce their "gunpowder footprint" by half.
I imagine that some time in the not-so-distant future, they will be talking about "nuclear footprints", as in conquering another country with minimal rads or rems being released upon people and/or the environment.
Then they will discover the key to controlled fusion, and how to direct it in a pinpoint fashion, and all our energy concerns will be over, but then who would we trust to wield such a terrible and splendid weapon?
This kind of rapid change never found in the geologic record, so while change indeed has occurred this one clearly correlates with increased foossil fuel burning. Ignorance is not an excuse
you got the first sentence wrong twice:
first the premise:
this kind of rapid change HAS been found in the geologic record.
and second:
in the models used by warmists, the predicted temperature rises have not happened. There is no CLEAR correlatation.
---------------
you got your last sentence riight about ignorance.
signed, a geologist.
Thank you . . . .
I think this article is right on the money (and well written).
Admittedly the high speed rail thing is a little odd. What he should have mentioned is the Pennsylvania rail disaster from a few weeks ago. I mean in 2015, the USA still doesn't have automatic train control (ATC) on a main artery of the East coast rail system? The Europeans have had fully integrated ATC for more than 25 years.
WE should be ashamed of ourselves.
And does that have anything to do with unions which will fight any technology that doesn't pay dues?
Maybe the homosexual activist Conductor was preoccupied when the train accelerated to 106 in a 50 zone. I'd be arrested in a NY second for operating a motor vehicle with those two factoids. Him, for some odd reason, no.
Speaking of deviates:
Then compared to today:
He should have just come out and said what he was all about:
"... Yes we can! ... I firmly believe that within the course of my term in office, there will be equal opportunity bum-fucking for all! ..." </The crowd goes wild!!>
It's the actions that tell you the whole story, not the words ... but will they learn next election?
Meanwhile ... relations with Moscow get frostier ... on this news, pootie, looking like he's just eaten a particularly fresh shit-sandwich, waves a huge new rocket around ... quite vigorously ... like a giant rampant stiffy ... and his mood improves considerably ...
The Superpower Conundrum intensifies ...
I spent $200k for a degree in Law and all I==== got was a $2k per month payment forever, and mention on Z/H
And we wonder why things are turmoiling. (pun intended)
Futurama - We're Boned 01
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x2vjmgtD1_A (0:20)
Look at Dubai. It's a forest of skyscrapers, most of them built during the decade when America was discussing what to put in place of the fallen WTC.
America has a gross excess of democracy. You can't move a shovelful of dirt in this country without the approval of dozens of planning boards and various government bureaucracies. Power has been so dissipated among so many people that nothing ever gets done. Even when the President and Congress got together and passed the "stimulus", very little was actually built.
In Dubai, if you want to build a mile-high skyscraper, submit your plan to the Minister of Construction, probably a cousin or half-brother of His Eminence Sheik Mohammed al-Maktoum. If he says yes, you can start building tomorrow.
Yeah, thats right. Better to have power in the hands of a few guys that i may happen to know to get things done...middle east style back-scratchy politics to get things done -so good for business
Israelis call this " kombina" turks call it "torpil"
I'm wondering, when and where has personal relationships not played a significant role in public policy and goverance? Not defending it, merely asserting the nature of man.
I'm absolutely positive that government planning boards and zoning regulations have no corruption, whatsoever.
http://www.nbcdfw.com/news/politics/Austin-Indictment-Sheds-New-Light-on...
I have to laugh
Doing favors invariably leads to ethics violations and corruption, even if it's not for personal gain, but maybe to be liked. Human nature
The last super power died in the 1960's when the U.S. dropped silver coins, started meddling in Vietnam, wasted its wealth trying to reach the Moon, created incentives to destroy the traditional family, and started paying people to not work. I would argue that England died in 1940, and the Soviet Union died when Stalin passed away. China could have become the next super power, but is falling into the Western debt/asset bubbles. We will be seeing a century of no super powers coming up -- and the evidence is in the uncontrollable spread of ISIS.
England laid prostrate, became a debtor nation at the conclusion of WWI. It nearly collapsed to the Germans during 1941, and its Empire rapidly evaporated after 1945. The USSR died when Stalin passed away? You mean the purity of his being drove the Motherland to its greatness and that died with Stalin...or was that the 30 million dead he built his altar upon?
UK went from world's largest Creditor nation in 1914 to an abject Debtor in 1919 spemnding 40% Government Spending on Debt Servicing throughout the 1920s no doubt funding the Roaring Twenties in the USA
Exceptionalism is often an illusion. The person or state who considers themself exceptional are usually a legend in their own mind. Hubris. In my opinion, GENUINE honor, integrity, generosity and compassion make one exceptional. Anything like that in US leadership or foriegn policy these days?? Sadly, USA is whithering from within and bigger, newer military can't fix it.
Its darn hard for those who think they are not exceptional to achieve much. It is however important to actually have exceptional traits if you are going to do more than expouse on your greatness.
The first rule of preventing anyone fucking with you is to make sure they have every reason not to.
The problem with high speed rail is the same problem that Amtrak has - you have to end up where the train station is. And while those train stations may be historic - the hub of activity in many cities has moved away from most train stations. Worse, there is little connectivity between these old train stations and the new hubs of activity, or even with airports and other transportation hubs. You have to work hard to even find a rental car at many Amtrak stations. And where in L.A. would you even put a high speed train station? The city is spread out over hundreds of square miles.
Older European cities still have their historic downtowns, so trains have a place to stop. The U.S. is all about roads and planes.
"suppose two men at cards with nothing to wager save their live. Who has not heard of such a tale? A turn of the card. The whole universe for such a player has labored clanking to this moment which will tell if he is to die at that man's hand or that man at his. What more certain validation of a man's worth could there be? This enchancement of the game to its ultimate state admits no argument concerning the notion of fate. The selection of one man over another is a preference absolute and irrevocable and it is a dull man indeed who could reckon so profound a decision without agency or significance either one. In such games as have for their sake the annihilation of the defeated the decisions are quite clear. This man holding this particular arrangement of cards in his hand is there by removed from existence. This is the nature of war, whose stake is at once the game and the authority and the justification. Seen so, war is the truest form of divination. It is the testing of one's will and the will of another within that larger will which because it binds them is therefore forced to select. War is the ultimate game because war is at last a forcing of the unity of existence. War is god." Cormac mccarthy blood meridian
.
Great reigning powers, as the author calls them, had a people’s resolve behind them. But the American people have not been resolved to attack sovereign countries and kill innocent people by the millions, all for the benefit of a banker oligarchy. Unlike an earlier America, the wars mentioned by the author were all undeclared, unconstitutional, and without support of the people.
With the loss of representative government the American people are extremely divided; waves of Third World immigration now support a blossoming socialist state like the world has never seen. And socialist welfare states do not succeed as superpowers.
The author seems to be disappointed in the military exploits of recent years and the reason for that is clear: the oligarchs working with the multinational corporations are stealing the resources wherever they can find them in the world and prodding innocent people into defending themselves against an aggressor. America lost in Iraq because she was there to steal the oil and to help Israel develop regional domination. Those reasons were a path to failure.
In the America of the author’s parents, there was a will of the people to defend the moral, religious and liberty values that were America; there was unity. But, now, in a raiding spirit likened to Genghis Khan, America’s banker oligarchs are using the U.S. military, not for defense and not for commendable American foreign policy objectives, but for their own plunder and quest for world empire.
And as for Russia, perhaps the author should bring himself up to date on how the Russian people are unifying around national principles where freedom, hope for future, patriotism, and support of family and religion contrast sharply with the declining freedoms and the building divisions within the United State of America.
Years ago I used to read TomDispatch, but I more less gave up when he did not have a clue tha US is an Empire, (At least he has apparently woken up on that score, but WAY too late.)
Then when he utterly failed to question the official conspiracy theory about 911 I consigned Tom Engelhardt to my growing list of "why the fuck bother reading through another shallow article".
"Bye, bye Miss American Pie."
Hey I have 'news' for you Tom (and whomever) it all really ended back in the 60s/70s, though it took Ronnie Raygun to really cement the decline of what became the Empire of Chaos in the 2000s
All other Empires - including the Roman and London - fortunately declined with a whimper, but this first truly global empire might use the Samson Option and collapse with a nuclear BANG.
BTW since 1775 the Empire had only five years of not being at war somewhere.
BTW the US was founded as an empire and was never "a democracy" - the Founding Oligarchs made sure of that.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-kcPyqMWems
what do you expect - just have a look around. A society of leftists who celebrate the worlds oddities as heroes. An age of participation trophies for dead last place. Children who aspire to be entertainers not self made business folks. Dancing With the Stars, American Idol and "reality" TV shows.
I'm ready for the reset. Let the leftists have their Chicagos, New Yorks, Seattles and Los Angeleses. Their space to destroy.
I want to be free and for my children to be free.
What? You do not prize diversity above all other things? Are you a hater??
Its like someone who has the need to eat, but their religion is obsessed with diversity, like the food they ate yesterday is to not be trusted....the only viable meal is something different, not yet tried. I can't help but think this will eventually lead to poisoning one's self as eventually you are bound to ingest poison, either by accident or by someone trying to do you in.
It amazes me that so many reject tradition, reject those things that have built the foundation of our society , and instead embraced their opposites as the obvious solution. Disparage reproduction in lieu of self pleasure, disparage hard work as foolishness in comparison to sloth and dependency. To discard strength for the appearance of weakness in hopes that by becoming of no apparent threat, that we would be less likely a target, while completely ignoring the fact that every such civilization in history who has thought the same perished.
Somehow, we have deluded ourselves to the point of believing up is down, left is right, and suicide is eternal life.
oldwood, huh? well you did not get the memo:"No country for old men"
Excellent points, Oldwood. We can now say it. With a breaking story this morning in San Francisco: diversity kills, as a beautiful girl was murdered on a San Francisco pier and the suspect is a five-time deported Hispanic. He was picked up by the police after the killing and promptly released. Reason: San Francisco has a policy of not holding suspects that have illegal immigration issues unless there is a firm charge against them.
Immigration authorities who know the history of this man and his long rap sheet immediately requested the sheriff in San Francisco to hold the suspect until they could come to pick him up for charges. But he was gone, released because of the tragic police policy in San Francisco – a policy put in place because the “Hispanic community is uncomfortable” with undocumented Mexicans being held as suspects before formal charges are filed.
And there you have the Independence Day in America, the celebration of the fall of a great country.
Last week’s Supreme Court decision on gay marriage was the crowning multicultural death blow to sanity in America, to the smashing of the keystone of the Founder’s culture. With no Protestants on the Supreme Court and four Jews, the central tie of the American Christian family – marriage – was torn out by the roots to make America “safe” for Jewish power (in their own documented words).
http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2015/07/random_killing_trumps_san_franciscos_sanctuary_city_policy.html
Excerpt from article:
Freya Horne, counsel for the sheriff's office, said Friday that federal detention orders are not a legal basis to hold someone, so Sanchez was released April 15. San Francisco is a sanctuary city, and local money cannot be spent to cooperate with federal immigration law.
The city does not turn over people who are in the country illegally unless there's an active warrant for their arrest, she said. Horne said they checked and found none. ICE could have issued an active warrant if they wanted the city to keep him, she said.
"It's not legal to hold someone on a request to detain. This is not just us. This is a widely adopted position," Horne said.
That's got to be all about money, not about legalities. How many would they have in jail--with taxpayers footing the bill--otherwise?
Climate change is a scam.
Obviously the author knows nothing about the Tesla high speed Hyperloop
http://www.eco-business.com/news/telsa-ceo-unveils-hyperloop-solar-power...
Vietnam was a turning point too.
We noticed the wealthy (like George Bush) dodging the draft, they don't want to fight and risk dying anymore.
The public outcry over Vietnam made them realise if they don't want to fight, they can't expect the rest of the nation to fight.
Into the era of smart bombs and aerial attacks to limit casualties.
The wealthy want to fight wars where they benefit but don't fight or die.
Nuclear weapons kill all.
Unless there is an accident, wars between nuclear nations are a thing of the past.
The cold war stayed cold for 4 decades.
No one likes North Korea but it remains untouched.
Nuclear weapons keep you safe from US ambition.
Obama is the cause and start of USA superpower decline.
This election of this most inept president of all time was the result of changing population mix within USA.
The future of the USA is certainly similar to other latin american countries.
Happy Independent Day America. Don't let a Shoe Shine Marxist in Chief discourage you. Have a watch. This President is a cocksucker, he'll never transform our country.
Dangerous Persuasions ~ Revolution Isnt A Tea Party http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2hekadI bet that Obama has never studied Marx and that neither have you, so what you and Obama have in common is spouting a load of crap.
At least I know why I can respect Marx in some ways and reject him in others - becauase I did study him at one time (50 years ago) - whereas all you and Obama have to go on is second, third, or fourth-hand information at best.
And BTW Obama is just a bought puppet anyway, did you seriously imagine that he, or any other president, had the power to change anything?
I will forgive you if you are under the age of consent and thus you are naive.
Mind you this Tom Engelardt is probably about my age, but still wet behind the ears and still convinced about "our once great nation" BS.
Try this (if you dare): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-kcPyqMWems
Actually Marx is old hat, what Alinsky et al studied is Frankfurt School Marxism and Gramscianism. Marx was an old fuddy-duddy. Lenin introduced The Party as vanguard but Gramsci saw it did not work and coups like Lenin's and Mao's would not succeed in Western Europe or USA.........so read up on somethimng more modern and stop being so out of touch.
Whoever takes Marx seriously nowadays when you have the Jewish Exiles from the Institute for Social Research at Frankfurt University founded by Felix Weil
"Hermann Weil (18 September 1868 – 3 October 1927) was a German businessman, who in the beginning of the 20th century was the biggest grain trader in the world. He was a patron of his hometown Steinfurt in addition to the University of Frankfurt. He funded the Institute for Social Research which developed the Frankfurt School of Marxist thought and critical theory. He was the father of Felix Weil."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frankfurt_School#Theorists
I really canot be bothered with ideology any longer.
Suffice to say that we are fucked.
It is not possible to have infinite growth on a finite planet and that is why everything is coming to a head/point of collapse.
Of course I know that Marx is old hat, along with Adam Smith and all of the latter-day neo-liberals who imagine reviving 18th Century economic ideals, whick NEVER existed.
NEVER was there ever "free trade/free market/free enterprize.
Collusions, caertels, monopolies and conspiracies have always existed.
Nihilism is an ideology.
Please elaborate on your statement and tell me how I am wrong about us being fucked as a species.
We have fucked-up our environment and we have a crazy economic system.
Explain how I am weomg.
There is nothing ideological about observing facts, as best one can.
A lemonade stand is a free market.
I agree, but you might get shot by a cop for violatng some law protecting a corporate monopoly.
On the other hand regulations exist to prohibit dangerous versions of 'lemonade' and who is to know if your 'lemonade' is safe?
You have not thought this through, but I have and either there is a balance between private greed and the commn good, or we are fucked.
We are fucked, because the average person cannot think anything through.
Fuck the dweeb commie fag in the white mosque!
Long Live The Republic.
Return to the goals of our Flounder Fathers: end foreign entanglements, end the Stasi, and end the Fed!
I kind of agreed until the climate change thing.
Dude......
It's not real!
I don't like the tone of the article regarding the U.S. military as far as ability to "win" at subjagating nations and prevail in conflicts. I believe the author's ignorance of what a military is really shows. A military is just a tool to exert force when in its purest form, patriotism aside, literally hired guns, if you will.
I know, I served. Read a book called "The rise andFall of the British Empire" to understand how to "win". You pretty much have to kill anyone who resists at first, and then maintain a hard grip on whoever is left. We in the U.S. used to do just that, some claim we still do, but they are wrong. Soft rules of engagement and public outcry over collateral damage pretty much makes "Brushwars" a chasing of the wind.
I assure you, author, all of the conflicts the U.S. has recently "lost" would have been easily settled by the U.S. military if it were off its chain. Why do you think ISIS with its ragtag army has gained such ground? They are really not that good, they simply understand that you need to break eggs to make an omelette.
The U.S. public, like the Brits, simply lost the ability to ignore the buckets of blood its empire was fueled by. Please don't think me a war hawk. A son of mine got blown up in Stan', I am very anti-war, but when it comes to it, you should go all out, relatively speaking, or just stay home. Limited wars just serve the powers that be. It is a dry read, but the aforementioned book is where the U.S. is heading, it spooked me by how prophetic it was.
te.
The very sad thing about America's wars from Viet Nam forward (at least) is that they were based on lies. Iraq was maybe the worst lie...lies on top of lies.
Can I make sense of all this? Hardly. I’m just doing my best to report on the obvious: that military power no longer seems to act as it once did on Planet Earth"
Military power really does work. only the American Military power doesn't.
The militairy power of vietnam worked perfectly. They kicked the soley power of the world out of their country.
USA issued carpetbombing on poorley weaponed farmers as a military strategy. It didn't work, it didn't yield.
Today, fifty years later, USA is still dropping bombs on poorley weaponed soldiers and it still doesn't yield.
USA did win several battles but lost every war ( after Vietnam) and against a (much) weaker enemy.
"The one-time CIA asset who controlled Panama from 1983 to 1989, became an embarrassment for the U.S. after he began working with Colombia's Medellin drug cartel."
We won the war against this non-compliant CIA asset. Or maybe that was just an operation. If it ends quick it is just an operation.
Greneda was a win, too. It also pointed out the weakness in our comms, leading to what we call C4ISR today.
sirik, what makes you think that was not the plan? the war against terror is 10 yrs long and as is often reported we are not close to winning it, in fact USA .gov is warning of new attacks on the homeland..no war = no economy or some rich elite might have to work for a living but they long ago chose to provide weapons to the world for constant profit from the debt on those security items. much like used car salesmen, finance the purchase is preferred over cash sale.
"USA did win several battles but lost every war ( after Vietnam) and against a (much) weaker enemy."
Just like the "War on Drugs" has won many battles along the way but the "Drug Problem" only gets bigger and bigger-WTF? Can we ever finish what we start if what we start was the wrong approach from the very beginning? I think NOT! We need to start fighting the war within our own nation aka "DEBT" and stop trying to police the world and fight the battles that are really not ours to fight before we collapse from within. What help afterall is a fallen nation to the rest of the world and all its problems. We have plenty to figure out right here at home and better get our asses in gear or we will lose it all just like Rome in their "hay- day".
. . . fossil fuels. Climate change MORON.
It's called weather and in particular it is the onset of a solar grand minimum that reduces the earth's magnetic shield. The magnetic shield is also weakening rapidly due to a pole flip. This causes gamma rays to create many more low cloud formations. During the onset there are droughts, cooling temperatures overall and greater extremes. The New Madrid fault zone fractures and 8+ magnitude earthquakes hit in the US and around the world. Volcanoes begin erupting and 1000s of times more carbon dioxide than man creates gets pumped into the air. Planting seasons are shortened and famines pop up all over the place. People have to migrate but can't. Wars start around the globe and 1/3 of the population dies off (or more). The future sucks and on a not so much longer time line the survival rate for everyone drops to zero.
Give them helll, nice post. Also add... The atmosphere is shrinking based on the sun interactions.
Reducing carbon emissions will turn Earth into Mars. Photosynthesis doesn't exist in climate change junk math.
It is moronic to jump on any side of this scientific debate because your of political leanings. A lot of crap is dumped out there in the environment that is way more fucking nasty than lava and gases from a volcano. Don't close your mind just because you hate deceptive liberals.