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Forum Post: Failing Empire

Posted 5 years ago on July 27, 2018, 10:44 a.m. EST by agkaiser (2516) from Fredericksburg, TX
This content is user submitted and not an official statement

"... No wonder in the last election the country’s despairing heartland gave a hearty orange finger to the Washington elite....

"... here may be Donald Trump’s particular significance — empire, too, looks to be heading toward some kind of ultimate failure. He himself is visibly a force for imperial demolition. He seems intent — as in the recent abusive NATO meeting and the chaotic get-together with Russian President Vladimir Putin — on dismantling the very world that imperial America built for itself in the wake of World War II. You know, the one in which it was to be the ultimate and eternal victor in a rivalry between imperial powers that had begun in perhaps the fifteenth century, reached its peak when only two “super” rivals were left to face each other in the Cold War, and ended with a single power seemingly triumphant and alone on planet Earth...."

https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2018/07/tom-engelhardt-three-failing-experiments-mine-americas-humanitys.html

16 Comments

16 Comments


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[-] 2 points by DKAtoday (33802) from Coon Rapids, MN 5 years ago

No wonder in the last election the country’s despairing heartland gave a hearty orange finger to the Washington elite....

"... here may be Donald Trump’s particular significance — empire, too, looks to be heading toward some kind of ultimate failure.

Is it possible - that - a growing portion of the public has decided - that - now is the end time? - and that since it is all going to hell in a hand-basket - that - they might as well see if they can hurry it along to get it over with?

[-] 1 points by agkaiser (2516) from Fredericksburg, TX 5 years ago

Is it possible - that - a growing portion of the public has decided - that - now is the end time? - and that since it is all going to hell in a hand-basket - that - they might as well see if they can hurry it along to get it over with?

I used to say: Maybe we should make it worse and people will wake up? Well, we seem to have come to the point where that would just hasten the ultimate self destruction. Is that where we've been headed all along?

[-] 1 points by DKAtoday (33802) from Coon Rapids, MN 5 years ago

I used to say: Maybe we should make it worse and people will wake up?

Drumpf as president = So MUCH worse! His administration = So MUCH worse! His appointees to agencies = So MUCH worse! His supporters in government congress/senate = So MUCH worse! His SCOTUS = So MUCH worse!

And Civil Unrest? Getting So MUCH worse! As those in control of government stop pretending to serve sanely - they still lie - it's just that their lies have become so blatant and transparent.

We are truly (imo) at a (the?) make or break point.

[-] 1 points by agkaiser (2516) from Fredericksburg, TX 5 years ago

We are truly (imo) at a (the?) make or break point.

Hmmm? Will it all be over soon? One way or the other!

[-] 1 points by DKAtoday (33802) from Coon Rapids, MN 5 years ago

EDIT EDIT EDIT...& BTW - How SOON is soon?

Will it all be over soon? One way or the other!

How SOON is soon?

Just one issue could end life in a fairly short period of time = Runaway Global Warming - where the environment hits a point of no return and chain reaction releases of currently trapped methane will send Global temperatures soaring - this is already happening - look at the thawing far northern and far southern lands that have trapped billions of metric tons of methane and are now starting to release that methane in massive amounts - methane is being released from the floor of the oceans in ever increasing amounts due to the rise in water temperatures all over the world. And this does not even take into consideration of the 100's of 1,000's of working and abandoned well heads that are spewing Formerly-traped & currently UN-collected methane that fossil fuel drilling & fracking is releasing.

So - how SOON is soon? (EDIT) Global Warming has been happening much faster than the World's Global warming scientists have/are predicting. They have adjusted their timetables and are still falling short on the speed of change - we are seeing historic high temperatures recorded around the world - wasn't it just announced that Japan just saw it's 1st EVER 100 degree temp? - an Island Nation/Country that has known pretty moderate temperature swings - for - pretty much - FOREVER! Have we already passed the point of no return? How much faster will temps continue to increase/rise?

How SOON will much of the planet resemble Tatooine? How small will our food producing areas shrink as well as relocate further north? How much of the population will need to die so that just possible food production can keep the remainder alive? 90%? 99%? 99.9%? Will this be a century from now? or will it be much faster and perhaps inside of a decade or two?

BTW - with the release of (just) all this Methane - how much does it take to make the total air volume UN-breatheable?

[-] 1 points by agkaiser (2516) from Fredericksburg, TX 5 years ago

How SOON is soon? - Just one issue could end life in a fairly short period of time = Runaway Global Warming -

Concentration of wealth and robotics might kill off 98% of US and solve global warming in the process.

Does investment parasitize and harm the community to the same extent as racketeering, extortion and other illegal criminal activity? Does productive industry that exploits labor from communities and concentrates power and wealth with a relatively few owners do the same?

[-] 0 points by factsrfun (8310) from Phoenix, AZ 5 years ago

you should read New York 2140.....

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_2140

[-] 0 points by factsrfun (8310) from Phoenix, AZ 5 years ago

at least he's not Hillary Clinton....

[-] 1 points by ImNotMe (1488) 5 years ago

Consider, ''The United States Is a Force for Chaos Across the Planet'', by Mark Karlin:

fiat pax ...

[-] 1 points by DKAtoday (33802) from Coon Rapids, MN 5 years ago

Is James Corden risking deportation by doing What 100's of Millions Would LOVE 2 Do? = Belittle t Criminal-n-Chief on Public TV: https://youtu.be/gUcGGVTme3w

God Speed Robert Mueller = Indict t President, his family, his Administration, his Appointees, & t @GOP (in office) = ASAP


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[-] 1 points by agkaiser (2516) from Fredericksburg, TX 5 years ago

Does investment parasitize and harm the community to the same extent as racketeering, extortion and other illegal criminal activity? Does productive industry that exploits labor from communities and concentrates power and wealth with a relatively few owners do the same?

[-] 1 points by DKAtoday (33802) from Coon Rapids, MN 5 years ago

You are not seriously asking Me that are you.

For one - productive industry does not necessarily mean needed - nor does it mean cleanly operated - it could be very toxic in operation and merely be an indulgence, a pure luxury for the wealthy and jaded.

Does investment in Pharmaceuticals benefit society? It can. But it can also put on the market for pure profit of the investors a totally toxic product, such as opioids.

Did not the pursuit of investments inflate the bubbles that were burst in the 2007 - 8 economic meltdown?

ANYTHING can be done to excess and be done uncleanly and be a detriment to society/civilization as a whole.

[-] 1 points by agkaiser (2516) from Fredericksburg, TX 5 years ago

You are not seriously asking Me that are you.

I wasn't seriously asking any question of anyone. I was rhetorically pointing out that everything most people believe about god, america, investment, capitalism, human culture and every other damn thing is absolute bullshit!

It's not a matter of excess or cleanliness. Civilization has been flawed since the get go, 10,000 years or so ago.

You can call leading for personal gain, slaving, employing or working for those abominations and supporting them original sin if that floats your boat. Or you could say the sin, the original flaw in human evolution was settling from righteous hunting and gathering to pastoral or agricultural life.

Cain and Abel describe the Jews fear of agriculture which threatened their pastoral livlihood. But the damage was already done by then.

All you say is true but not enough to save us. We need to eliminate the rich from the gene pool by making inheritance a crime punishable by sterilization at puberty. But if we just tax income/wealth over 100k/$2M at 100% that will do the trick.

[-] 1 points by agkaiser (2516) from Fredericksburg, TX 5 years ago

oh, I forgot! Outlaw Wall St and for profit banking, investment, insurance and real estate brokerage/speculation.

[-] 1 points by agkaiser (2516) from Fredericksburg, TX 5 years ago

Tom continues downward to the end?

"...Again, that, as they say, is history, a series of failed experiments, but ones that always end, in their own fashion, with hope still alive for a better, fairer, juster world. Yes, a particular failure might be terrible for you, your community, even several generations of yous, but it, too, will pass and you can expect our better angels to reappear someday, even if not in your lifetime — or at least until recently you could do so.

"The Ultimate Experiment

"There is, however, another experiment, a planet-wide one that seems to be failing as well. You could think of it as humanity’s experiment with industrial civilization, which is disastrously altering the environment of this previously welcoming world of ours. I’m referring, of course, to what the greenhouse gases from the fossil fuels we’ve been burning in such profusion since the eighteenth century are doing to our planet...."

[-] 0 points by factsrfun (8310) from Phoenix, AZ 5 years ago

at least he's not Hillary Clinton...