The Decline of the American Empire

Well, penis envy sounded like an insult. I am not lurking here I started this thread and as far as I am aware this forum is welcome for people other than Americans.

Are foreigners not allowed to comment on American political power that effects the whole world?

 

Yes it was an insulting comment that you only know about by eavesdropping on our American political conversation

As for eligibility as long as its not up to me foreigners are welcome on this forum

 

The reason we had a sluggish recovery under Obama was he anti-business sentiment in government. Business suffered from a lack of confidence. The reason the recovery under Trump is so far above being linear is simply the change in attitude. The business tax cut was important because it helped American businesses better compete in the global marketplace. It wasn't a transfer of anything. It was simply a cut for business which was supported by most of the left as well. Personal taxes had nothing to do with it other than to help to sell the business cut to people like you who would misunderstand it.

I don't think the EPA has been gutted. It has been controlled. It needed that.

I have. Yes.

What you describe as offensive and dangerous, I describe as entertaining. He has not made scapegoats of illegal immigrants. He simply wants fewer of them. So do I. He hates the press. He hasn't hurt it at all except to point out how partisan it is. The battle between them adds to the entertainment value of the whole scene. Rather than selling out our wealth, he has increased it. A lot. You must be reading that main stream press.

So we disagree across the board.

 

Actually, it is you eavesdropping on my thread and tossing insults instead of engaging in honest discussion.

But that's okay examples of what one author described as ugly Americanism can still provide insight.

Your opinion is welcome as long as you are aware that ad hominem and insult just show how lazy and weak your argument is.

Carry on........

 

If this somebeaching country is so damnable bad, why would millions upon millions of people want to come here legally and illegally?

The unhappy and bitter politically correct should pick a better country and motate to it.

 

"Powerful obsession with nationalism - Trump America first to a tee."

Nationalism is a characteristic of fascism. It is simplistic to equate the two.

That is a logical fallacy.

"Disdain for Human rights - Pulling out of international treaties and cutting funding to refugees and international aid"

Trump, nor any statistically significant portion of the population of the USA, have any disdain for himan rights. Even most leftist nutjobs respect human rights.

"Identifying scapegoats as a unifying cause - need I say more?"

Yeah, like Democrats don't do that?

"Corporate power protected - need I say more????

Labour suppressed"

So now you've identified establishment priorities, which Trump is working to remedy. Good for you!

"Disdain for intellectualism or the arts"

Well, I certainly hold disdain for the pre-programmed, so-called 'thinking' that they display.

".......you get the drift. Here are the rest if you are interested:"

I don't expect to convince you. I only hope to show how wrong I think you are.

 

Fascinating post. One of the best I've read on this forum. Thank you for your effort & for sharing!

 

Canada would be a good candidate.

 

Sorry if this has already been said, but the word "empire" is misused regarding the particular history of the U.S. We can criticize that history extensively; there is no need to pick this word inappropriately in order to demean the nation more. It only demeans the word.

 

Yeah, Obama was anti-business alright. He could have made some real changes after 2008 because the anger in the national was palpable and that is what he campaigned on but let's look at the record. He put Tim Geithner, an anti-bank socialist if there ever was one at the Treasury. Rubin and Froman from Citigroup as financial advisers whereby one of his first acts was an over 300 trillion bailout to Citigroup - and that was just the beginning. Then Paulson and others come on board and business is so upset that JP Morgan, Meryll Lynch and Morgan-Stanley all see 20 percent rises overnight. Summers on the NEC? More huge bailouts.

Here's what fortune said about the Obama admins anti-business strategy:

http://fortune.com/2015/01/20/obama-corporate-agenda/

You know Obama was a Chicago grad and brought in many of those guys to run his economic policies, right?

Let's look at the actual economic record:

"Job growth has been remarkably consistent since the end of the recession in 2010. The 3.6 million jobs added in the 19 months since Trump took office are roughly comparable to the 3.9 million added in the previous 19 months under Obama. Likewise, unemployment has steadily declined. And wages have inched up at a slow but steady pace.

On a graph of any of these metrics, the period before Trump took office is virtually indistinguishable from the period since.

"At best, you would say it's been a continuation of a steady trend," economist Austan Goolsbee told MSNBC.

Goolsbee, who had Hassett's job early in the Obama administration, challenged the idea that things suddenly improved following Trump's election.

"I don't see how you come into the game with 10 minutes left in the fourth quarter, your team is already ahead, and you're like, 'I won this game.' "

https://www.npr.org/2018/09/12/646708799/fact-check-who-gets-credit-for-the-booming-u-s-economy

Certainly Trump's policies have accelerated some aspects of a recovery that was well under way by Obama's second term but there will be a bill to pay for all the increased spending and loss of revenue as well as all the consumer debt which is what is really driving the economy right now. Oops gotta go. Interesting topic though. Come back to it.........

Yes,so it would appear but more on this later if you are interested.

 

I am a liberal Democrat who has no desire for, or use for, an American Empire. Don't need it; don't want it. The very word "empire" is an antithesis to American values--and should be. No empire!--Ever!

 

I did not know you were a foreigner before you confessed

 

Yet even that raving socialist/commie Bill Kristal used that comparison along with words like domination and imperialism to describe what is happening. I feel on comfortable ground using the word as it has been used by so many others in describing the Atlantic consensus or the economic and military power structure such as it is:

"As a porn star sues President Donald Trump over a deal to keep her quiet about an alleged affair, and his White House is drained of everyone but his family, it’s hard not to think that America is entering into a period of decadence that rivals Imperial Rome in luridness. Even before the Daniels news, some historians and journalists compared Trump to famously degenerate Roman emperors. In an editorial earlier this year, New Yorker editor David Remnick predicted, “Future scholars will sift through Trump’s digital proclamations the way we now read the chroniclers of Nero’s Rome—to understand how an unhinged emperor can make a mockery of republican institutions, undo the collective nervous system of a country, and degrade the whole of public life.” Caligula has been invoked even more often, a comparison that New York Times columnist Paul Krugman called “unfair”—to Caligula.

If Trump is behaving like a Roman emperor, what does that say about the state of the American empire, the informal hegemony that the United States has enjoyed since 1945? Last summer, conservative pundit Bill Kristol suggested that Trump’s America mirrored the fall of the Roman Empire:"

https://newrepublic.com/article/147319/witnessing-fall-american-empire

I'm gonna keep using it..........

 

lol, busted!

 

Depends on what period pf history you mean.

 

The beginning of first contact. Romans attacked germans.

 

I think your correct.

 

Perhaps you're expecting too much from any politician. All politicians make promises but most, or all, come up short. It's Charlie Brown trying to kick the football while Lucy's holding iit yet many, like poor Charlie, continue to believe.

I'd suggest the Hippocratic oath for new politicians. First, do no harm.

 

Good one.

 

All I'm asking is that they be honest with the American people; I don't think that's asking too much.

 

It is asking too much because most people don't want the truth. When people say what they really think or believe the response will be Racist, Nazi, Leftist, Coward, Greedy, etc. and not met with any civil discussion on the issues.

We can see that with the censorship of speech, where protests occur at the mere idea of someone speaking who may have a different opinion than the mob. This is not lost on those running for public office who, in turn, will tell people what they want to hear. This is especially true when they say that government will pay for their pensions, health care, homes, cell phones, or whatever else may appeal to the masses. All of this does not encourage confidence in your fellow American. (though equally true in every democracy)

 

"The cop killings, encouraged by Obama supporters, "

Which Obama supporters encouraged cop killings? I'm talking about actual specific people who said people should kill cops.

 

Yes, China is a communist country where government has control over corporations.
U.S. is quite opposite, corporations control the government through the campaign contributions (aka bribes).
That is a big difference.
Actually that is exactly why US is loosing to China.
Chinese government invests in its country and its people by encouraging corporations to bring jobs and money to the country
USA, on the other hand is under control of corporations, corporations are not interested in their country, they prefer deal with China rather then with American people.

 

Rome fell because they controlled Glasgow to Alexandria in a time when the fastest method of communication was a man on a horse.

The rise of the Holy Roman Empire was a direct consequence and an attempt to govern the former Roman Empire on a more local basis.

The US has no such problem. They don't have much land outside North America. Today we can communicate instantly anywhere in the world, and travel to any point in it within 24hrs.

I think the US is more similar to Rome in its decadence, and its growing rejection of the old traditions which guided her for so long.

If the Roman Empire began under Caesar and Octavian then the American Empire began under Wilson and Franklin Roosevelt.

 

We were never in Afghanistan because of the Taliban and no idea why you are still talking about colonies.