We’re definetly at the very end of the line. When people elected a complete imbecile like Obama to run this country, we’re finished. Bush wasn’t much better. It’s clear to see, by our choice of “leaders” what type of country we have become. We’re finished.
overthecliff
May 14, 2014 8:45 pm
AWD hope we are not at the end. Best case is that we have a very baad economic event and our existing militaary might keeps the wolves away from the door. On the other hand, we could be looking at 471 BC
overthecliff
May 14, 2014 9:30 pm
Correction 476AD.
AWD
May 14, 2014 9:43 pm
We’re at the end, pal
The Fed is furiously printing money, buying our IOU’s, trying to keep the economy afloat.
We’re $58 trillion in debt
Our jobs and manufacturing are gone
We’re a service and financialization (debt) economy
We’re overthrowing governments around the world
Our education system is in shambles
We have 80 million more people getting money from the government than have jobs
Our infrastructure is in shambles
Our leadership is juvenile, dangerous, and bought and paid for by criminals
Our government is resorting to outright fascism at home and abroad
Our population is morbidly obese, in the worst health of any country in the world
We’ve indebted an entire generation (millenials), who now can’t even afford to move out of mom and dad’s basement, let alone by a house or start a family
We have the highest divorce rates in the world
More people kill themselves than die in accidents now
70% of black children are born out of wedlock
The biggest crime isn’t stealing or robbing people of billions (Corzine), it’s calling somebody a racist
Our morals, ethics, and values are the seven deadly sins
We’re being spied on, watched, listened to by our despotic government
Did I leave anything out? Oh yea,
All that’s left is for God to make his voice heard (a massive earthquake in California, drought, pestilence, disease, locusts, caldera eruption, the four horsemen of the Apocalypse etc). Hope you’re prepared for when it all comes down, because it can’t last.
IraK, on the way things are,
May 14, 2014 10:14 pm
Everyone seems to be gleefully predicting that the United States is in a nosedive, that the petrodollar is moribund, and that hyperinflation is just around the corner.
Here’s another view. The US controls North America, Europe, most of the Far East, and much of elsewhere. Militarily we can enforce our demands and keep our client states in line. With force we will keep the petrodollar system and the dollar as a reserve currency. Hyperinflation only threatens weak economies in feckless states, Neither infirmity applies to the US.
If you want to keep living the good life, support the status quo: the government, the FED, the military, and the rest of the establishment. Don’t be a fool and try to burn the platform that supports all of us. If it collapses, you in the middle and lower classes and you in the cities will be the first casualties.
Bambam
May 14, 2014 11:00 pm
Irak: We control North America, Europe, the Far East, Atlantis, Xanadu, Manchu Pichu, El Dorado, Zenobia, and are available between 9-5 at any of our retail locations.
Bullshit. Russia controls Europe, or at least has them by enough of the balls that Frau Merkel must play very, very nicely. Parts of America are basketcases. Mexico is no longer a country, its a geographical expression for cartel gangland. China and India have more power in the far east than we do, Iran is a regional powerhouse in the middle east where we have squandered what little power projection we have in unwinnable wars. Can anybody even name our objectives anymore? How will we know when we’ve won in Afganastan? Fewer than 10 bombing a month? Pro-American election results? Girls gone wild Krazy Kabul Orgies?
We will not have a softlanding. We will most likely break-up in descent and the chinese equivalent of CNN will spend the next 3 years reporting on what was in the congressional interns pantry at the flashpoint (could new evidence of expired yogurt shed new light on what happened? Stay tuned to find out)
Bbrace and Cover People
flash
May 15, 2014 8:43 am
All in, then!
[img[/img]
DO NOT GO GENTLE INTO
THAT GOOD NIGHT
Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rage at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
And you, my father, there on the sad height,
Curse, bless me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
flash
May 15, 2014 9:06 am
We hear so much spew regarding whether or not Americans will fire on fellow American albeit mostly is opinion based, family such and were all Americans jabber.That said. My question on American shooting fellow Americans seems to have already been decided by a multitude of Federal alphabet agencies from the EPA to USDA hurriedly stocking up on automatic weapons and millions of rounds of ammunition. I guess the message is clear one form the USDA….don’t mess with government subsidized GMO!
A May 7th solicitation by the U.S. Department of Agriculture seeks “the commercial acquisition of submachine guns [in] .40 Cal. S&W.”
According to the solicitation, the Dept. of Agriculture wants the guns to have an “ambidextrous safety, semiautomatic or 2 round [bursts] trigger group, Tritium night sights front and rear, rails for attachment of flashlight (front under fore group) and scope (top rear), stock collapsible or folding,” and a “30 rd. capacity” magazine.
They also want the submachine guns to have a “sling,” be “lightweight,” and have an “oversized trigger guard for gloved operation.”
The solicitation directs “all responsible and/or interested sources…[to] submit their company name, point of contact, and telephone.” Companies that submit information in a “timely” fashion “shall be considered by the agency for contact to determine weapon suitability.”
And, maybe this is why the US military encourages and allows so many foreign national to swell their ranks ,whilst both parties of incorrigible vermin push a amnesty bill by August which will grant automatic unearned US citizenship to tens of millions of US lawbreakers.
Who better to kill native born Anglo- Americans than those recently incentived to do so.?
Oh ..no…Allowing lawbreakers access to billions in access to free healthcare, housing and other entitlements is just Common Core values sez’ the Repug Con-man Jeb Bush.
For the life of me I have a hard time understanding why people are fearful of our own heritage, our own history,” Bush reportedly said. “The rules are you come to this country, you pursue your dreams, you create value for yourself and your families and others and great things happens to you and to our country. Why would we ignore that at time when we need to restart and rejuvenate our economy? It makes no sense to me.”
Bush has said illegal immigration is an “act of love” and also is a huge proponent of Common Core. He has been relentless in promoting amnesty and pushing for Common Core as he ponders a 2016 presidential run.
Support the evil? Support the murders? Support the continued destruction of our inherent rights?
Go right ahead, in the end it won’t truly matter anyway.
Well, won’t matter unless there really is a day of judgement.
Then it truly would matter.
I won’t be the one standing in front of the creator trying to justify the sanctioning of murder and evil in order to keep my lattes flowing at the Starbucks I squandered his bounty to drive to.
Last thing, I don’t “gleefully” predict our ok inevitable fall, it scares the hell out of me and makes me cry for my children’s futures.
Your true folly is that you can’t see that in supporting the status quo, you are going to end up as screwed as those of us that, at least, speak up against the insanity. Unless, of course, you think you will be one of the lucky ones that the PTB think is worthy of life.
Either way, knowledge is power, and I’ve always known that things go better if you buy insurance before the fire and shut the door before the horses escape the barn.
flash
May 15, 2014 9:26 am
American Spring or another CIA sponsored attempt @ coupe d’ etat…getting the party started , so to speak.?
Col. Riley said he hopes the event will go forward peaceably, but that so far, peaceful protests haven’t brought citizens much luck. He also said that more than 1 million militia members have already mobilized for the event — and that projections of 10 million to attend aren’t pie in the sky.
“For more than five years, ‘we the people’ have been writing, calling, faxing Congress, the media, screaming in town halls, marching, rallying, demonstrating, petitioning, all to no avail,” he said, Raw Story reported. “Every branch of government looks at ‘we the people’ whom they have taken an oath to serve, as ‘pests,’ interfering with their political agenda, cramping their self-serving, greedy agendas. We have no faith in the ballot box any longer, as many believe this sacred secret box has been compromised.
flash
May 15, 2014 9:50 am
Don’t ask , but do snitch on fellow worker now job #1 of all Federal employees.
It is now a crime to report a crime being committed by the Federal government.
Operation Insider Threat
They call the program “Insider Threat” because anyone who dares to tell the truth about the massive abuses of power is a threat to globalist insiders and their plans to enslave humanity.
Government documents have revealed that the Obama administration is implementing a program that requires, under penalty of law, that millions of federal employees to spy on their co-workers as part of a massive crackdown on security leaks across the U.S. government.
The program is titled “Insider Threat” which has gone almost entirely unnoticed in the mainstream media also presses federal managers to punish employees who fail to report their suspicions. Federal employees are required to not only report violations of co-workers, they are required to report any “suspicions” of their co-workers in a freaky precrime scenario.
precrimeThe precrime nature of the program includes all federal agencies and mandates employees and their superiors to identify and report behaviors associated with someone who MIGHT leak sensitive government information.
Those who fail to expose “high-risk persons” face penalties that include criminal charges, according to a leaked federal government report. Federal employees should keep in mind that the failure to report could indeed be dangerous to their health in this era of the NDAA and authorized drone strikes against the American people without due process of law.
The program was covertly launched in October 2011 in response to Bradley Manning’s blowing the whistle on U.S. war crimes, in the largest intelligence leak in U.S. history.
insider threat 1According to the federal government memo entitled, Pentagon strategy, which was written for the Insider Threat Program, leaking sensitive documents is “tantamount to aiding the enemies of the United States.”
The government documents reviewed by McClatchy reveal that some federal agencies are using “previously unknown strategies” to crack down on leaks of any information, not just classified documents.
@IraK: we have a military presence in all those places, but it’s tenuous. The USSR had a wide reaching military presence right at its collapse, and then struggled to return Russians to Russia from its far flung bases. The US is much more thinly spread and showing much more obvious strains today than the USSR did in 1988.
Persnickety
May 15, 2014 10:23 am
The interesting question is who, if anyone, takes over after the US collapse. Russia is resurgent but MUCH weaker than either the US or the pre-collapse USSR. It has power and reach somewhat on the order of the UK, without being a financial center. Many people put their money on China, but China looks to be stretched at least as thin as the US, maybe more so. Their police being killed by mobs, a terrorism problem in a highly repressive communist nation, some of the worst pollution ever in human history, and now picking stupid fights with neighbors, trying to seize areas they have absolutely zero right to. China’s sea grabs lately could just get the entire rest of SE Asia to turn on them (burying serious old hatreds in the process). We could be in for a repeat of WW2 (and to some extent, 1) as some otherwise unrelated conflicts could line up nations in global alliances for a war.
It’s hard not to think that some very diabolical evil people are in fact working hard to bring that about.
So who picks up the pieces? What country will be left standing? I see no nation that seems to be on a promising rise without crippling domestic issues (pollution, poverty, violent inequality)… China, India, Brazil (the nation of tomorrow for the last 60 years!), etc.
But here’s my hunch – if Germany, Russia and India can play their cards right, staying out of a war while the world around them goes up in flames, they, individually and as an axis, could be well positioned to be the last man standing, just as the USA was in 1945. Iran could even be a bit player in that axis.
Zarathustra
May 15, 2014 3:29 pm
WTF??? article of the day:
Hagel Suggests Gulf Arabs Unite Against Iran
Says Iran ‘Threat’ Requires Collective Response
by Jason Ditz, May 14, 2014
Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel, meeting with the defense ministers of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) member nations, urged the governments of those nations to put their recent differences aside and unite behind their mutual hostility toward Iran.
The GCC, composed of Persian Gulf Arab states and dominated by Saudi Arabia, has recently dealt with internal acrimony, mostly centering on Qatar’s perceived support for the Muslim Brotherhood.
In early March, Saudi Arabia threatened a full blockade of tiny GCC member Qatar unless they closed down the al-Jazeera television network over Saudi complaints that their coverage was sympathetic to the Egyptian government, ousted last summer in a military coup.
Though GCC policy is usually driven more or less unilaterally by the Saudis, the Qatari dispute had raised concerns that the alliance was falling apart. Hagel insisted that it could be preserved if everyone just focused on the putative “threat” of Iran.
AWD
May 15, 2014 4:06 pm
I wonder if Obama can get us into a 2-front world war by August?
China Slams US “Hypocrisy”, Tells Obama To Stop “Inspiring Militancy”
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 05/15/2014 13:58 -0400
Tensions between China and the U.S. continue to grow. On Wednesday, Beijing called U.S. Secretary remark about “provocative behavior” of China in the South China Sea “inspiring militancy,” and insisted that the U.S. “stop encouraging the provocation” of the Philippines and Vietnam. As China Daily reports, China has expressed the view that the U.S. must abandon the “hypocrisy” and stop publicly support Vietnam and the Philippines in territorial disputes with China.
As RIA reports, Tensions between China and the U.S. continues to grow, experts say. On Wednesday, Beijing called U.S. Secretary remark about “provocative behavior” of China in the South China Sea “inspiring militancy,” writes China Daily .
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said in a telephone conversation with John Kerry that China insists that the U.S. “stop encourage provocation” of the Philippines and Vietnam.
According to analysts, so China has expressed the view that the U.S. must abandon the “hypocrisy” and stop publicly support Vietnam and the Philippines in territorial disputes with China.
Earlier it was reported that the Philippine government to seize the Chinese fishing boat and 11 crew members on charges of catching endangered sea turtles in the territory disputed waters of the South China Sea. Shortly before that, Vietnam demanded that China stop drilling for oil in the South China Sea.
Tensions between China, Vietnam and the Philippines began to increase after last week, President Barack Obama signed a new military agreement with the Philippines, which aims to persuade Asian allies of American support in case of conflict with Beijing.
According to experts, the reason why the conflict risks becoming much more serious than just a territorial dispute is because Philippines quickly became embroiled in the geopolitical rivalry between the U.S. and China, while the two powers are fighting for strategic dominance in the western Pacific Ocean, says Al Jazeera article “Strategic Dilemma of the Philippines, between the eagle and the dragon.”
Professor at the Chinese Institute of International Relations Dan Dzhankun believes that the U.S. is fully engaged in the problems encountered in the Asia-Pacific region because of its relationship with China. However, Washington’s aggressive behavior in the territory of South-East Asia is unlikely to stabilize the situation. “The Obama administration is moving away from a century of U.S. diplomatic tradition in maintaining the balance between the other two countries,” – said the expert, noting that “sabotage relations between the south-eastern countries may have important implications for the situation in the region and even the world. And fatal mistakes in strategy, which adheres Obama can not be ignored.”
Great video.
Can beat; Grenada and Panama.
Can’t beat; Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan
Pokes the Russian Bear thinking it can win.
Fuckin’ hilarious.
The makers of that video have 5 others.
http://www.youtube.com/user/ClassWarFilms/videos
We’re definetly at the very end of the line. When people elected a complete imbecile like Obama to run this country, we’re finished. Bush wasn’t much better. It’s clear to see, by our choice of “leaders” what type of country we have become. We’re finished.
AWD hope we are not at the end. Best case is that we have a very baad economic event and our existing militaary might keeps the wolves away from the door. On the other hand, we could be looking at 471 BC
Correction 476AD.
We’re at the end, pal
The Fed is furiously printing money, buying our IOU’s, trying to keep the economy afloat.
We’re $58 trillion in debt
Our jobs and manufacturing are gone
We’re a service and financialization (debt) economy
We’re overthrowing governments around the world
Our education system is in shambles
We have 80 million more people getting money from the government than have jobs
Our infrastructure is in shambles
Our leadership is juvenile, dangerous, and bought and paid for by criminals
Our government is resorting to outright fascism at home and abroad
Our population is morbidly obese, in the worst health of any country in the world
We’ve indebted an entire generation (millenials), who now can’t even afford to move out of mom and dad’s basement, let alone by a house or start a family
We have the highest divorce rates in the world
More people kill themselves than die in accidents now
70% of black children are born out of wedlock
The biggest crime isn’t stealing or robbing people of billions (Corzine), it’s calling somebody a racist
Our morals, ethics, and values are the seven deadly sins
We’re being spied on, watched, listened to by our despotic government
Did I leave anything out? Oh yea,
All that’s left is for God to make his voice heard (a massive earthquake in California, drought, pestilence, disease, locusts, caldera eruption, the four horsemen of the Apocalypse etc). Hope you’re prepared for when it all comes down, because it can’t last.
Everyone seems to be gleefully predicting that the United States is in a nosedive, that the petrodollar is moribund, and that hyperinflation is just around the corner.
Here’s another view. The US controls North America, Europe, most of the Far East, and much of elsewhere. Militarily we can enforce our demands and keep our client states in line. With force we will keep the petrodollar system and the dollar as a reserve currency. Hyperinflation only threatens weak economies in feckless states, Neither infirmity applies to the US.
If you want to keep living the good life, support the status quo: the government, the FED, the military, and the rest of the establishment. Don’t be a fool and try to burn the platform that supports all of us. If it collapses, you in the middle and lower classes and you in the cities will be the first casualties.
Irak: We control North America, Europe, the Far East, Atlantis, Xanadu, Manchu Pichu, El Dorado, Zenobia, and are available between 9-5 at any of our retail locations.
Bullshit. Russia controls Europe, or at least has them by enough of the balls that Frau Merkel must play very, very nicely. Parts of America are basketcases. Mexico is no longer a country, its a geographical expression for cartel gangland. China and India have more power in the far east than we do, Iran is a regional powerhouse in the middle east where we have squandered what little power projection we have in unwinnable wars. Can anybody even name our objectives anymore? How will we know when we’ve won in Afganastan? Fewer than 10 bombing a month? Pro-American election results? Girls gone wild Krazy Kabul Orgies?
We will not have a softlanding. We will most likely break-up in descent and the chinese equivalent of CNN will spend the next 3 years reporting on what was in the congressional interns pantry at the flashpoint (could new evidence of expired yogurt shed new light on what happened? Stay tuned to find out)
Bbrace and Cover People
All in, then!
[img
[/img]
DO NOT GO GENTLE INTO
THAT GOOD NIGHT
Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rage at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
And you, my father, there on the sad height,
Curse, bless me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
We hear so much spew regarding whether or not Americans will fire on fellow American albeit mostly is opinion based, family such and were all Americans jabber.That said. My question on American shooting fellow Americans seems to have already been decided by a multitude of Federal alphabet agencies from the EPA to USDA hurriedly stocking up on automatic weapons and millions of rounds of ammunition. I guess the message is clear one form the USDA….don’t mess with government subsidized GMO!
http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2014/05/14/Dept-Of-Agriculture-Orders-Submachine-Guns-With-30-Round-Magazines
A May 7th solicitation by the U.S. Department of Agriculture seeks “the commercial acquisition of submachine guns [in] .40 Cal. S&W.”
According to the solicitation, the Dept. of Agriculture wants the guns to have an “ambidextrous safety, semiautomatic or 2 round [bursts] trigger group, Tritium night sights front and rear, rails for attachment of flashlight (front under fore group) and scope (top rear), stock collapsible or folding,” and a “30 rd. capacity” magazine.
They also want the submachine guns to have a “sling,” be “lightweight,” and have an “oversized trigger guard for gloved operation.”
The solicitation directs “all responsible and/or interested sources…[to] submit their company name, point of contact, and telephone.” Companies that submit information in a “timely” fashion “shall be considered by the agency for contact to determine weapon suitability.”
And, maybe this is why the US military encourages and allows so many foreign national to swell their ranks ,whilst both parties of incorrigible vermin push a amnesty bill by August which will grant automatic unearned US citizenship to tens of millions of US lawbreakers.
Who better to kill native born Anglo- Americans than those recently incentived to do so.?
Oh ..no…Allowing lawbreakers access to billions in access to free healthcare, housing and other entitlements is just Common Core values sez’ the Repug Con-man Jeb Bush.
For the life of me I have a hard time understanding why people are fearful of our own heritage, our own history,” Bush reportedly said. “The rules are you come to this country, you pursue your dreams, you create value for yourself and your families and others and great things happens to you and to our country. Why would we ignore that at time when we need to restart and rejuvenate our economy? It makes no sense to me.”
Bush has said illegal immigration is an “act of love” and also is a huge proponent of Common Core. He has been relentless in promoting amnesty and pushing for Common Core as he ponders a 2016 presidential run.
http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2014/05/13/Jeb-Bush-Opposing-Amnesty-Makes-No-Sense-to-Me
GOPES!
IraK, wow.
Support the evil? Support the murders? Support the continued destruction of our inherent rights?
Go right ahead, in the end it won’t truly matter anyway.
Well, won’t matter unless there really is a day of judgement.
Then it truly would matter.
I won’t be the one standing in front of the creator trying to justify the sanctioning of murder and evil in order to keep my lattes flowing at the Starbucks I squandered his bounty to drive to.
Last thing, I don’t “gleefully” predict our ok inevitable fall, it scares the hell out of me and makes me cry for my children’s futures.
Your true folly is that you can’t see that in supporting the status quo, you are going to end up as screwed as those of us that, at least, speak up against the insanity. Unless, of course, you think you will be one of the lucky ones that the PTB think is worthy of life.
Either way, knowledge is power, and I’ve always known that things go better if you buy insurance before the fire and shut the door before the horses escape the barn.
American Spring or another CIA sponsored attempt @ coupe d’ etat…getting the party started , so to speak.?
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/may/14/operation-american-spring-hitting-dc-to-oust-obama/
Col. Riley said he hopes the event will go forward peaceably, but that so far, peaceful protests haven’t brought citizens much luck. He also said that more than 1 million militia members have already mobilized for the event — and that projections of 10 million to attend aren’t pie in the sky.
“For more than five years, ‘we the people’ have been writing, calling, faxing Congress, the media, screaming in town halls, marching, rallying, demonstrating, petitioning, all to no avail,” he said, Raw Story reported. “Every branch of government looks at ‘we the people’ whom they have taken an oath to serve, as ‘pests,’ interfering with their political agenda, cramping their self-serving, greedy agendas. We have no faith in the ballot box any longer, as many believe this sacred secret box has been compromised.
Don’t ask , but do snitch on fellow worker now job #1 of all Federal employees.
It is now a crime to report a crime being committed by the Federal government.
Operation Insider Threat
They call the program “Insider Threat” because anyone who dares to tell the truth about the massive abuses of power is a threat to globalist insiders and their plans to enslave humanity.
Government documents have revealed that the Obama administration is implementing a program that requires, under penalty of law, that millions of federal employees to spy on their co-workers as part of a massive crackdown on security leaks across the U.S. government.
The program is titled “Insider Threat” which has gone almost entirely unnoticed in the mainstream media also presses federal managers to punish employees who fail to report their suspicions. Federal employees are required to not only report violations of co-workers, they are required to report any “suspicions” of their co-workers in a freaky precrime scenario.
precrimeThe precrime nature of the program includes all federal agencies and mandates employees and their superiors to identify and report behaviors associated with someone who MIGHT leak sensitive government information.
Those who fail to expose “high-risk persons” face penalties that include criminal charges, according to a leaked federal government report. Federal employees should keep in mind that the failure to report could indeed be dangerous to their health in this era of the NDAA and authorized drone strikes against the American people without due process of law.
The program was covertly launched in October 2011 in response to Bradley Manning’s blowing the whistle on U.S. war crimes, in the largest intelligence leak in U.S. history.
insider threat 1According to the federal government memo entitled, Pentagon strategy, which was written for the Insider Threat Program, leaking sensitive documents is “tantamount to aiding the enemies of the United States.”
The government documents reviewed by McClatchy reveal that some federal agencies are using “previously unknown strategies” to crack down on leaks of any information, not just classified documents.
http://thecommonsenseshow.com/2014/05/10/time-to-decide-federal-employees-are-you-a-traitor-or-a-patriot/
@IraK: we have a military presence in all those places, but it’s tenuous. The USSR had a wide reaching military presence right at its collapse, and then struggled to return Russians to Russia from its far flung bases. The US is much more thinly spread and showing much more obvious strains today than the USSR did in 1988.
The interesting question is who, if anyone, takes over after the US collapse. Russia is resurgent but MUCH weaker than either the US or the pre-collapse USSR. It has power and reach somewhat on the order of the UK, without being a financial center. Many people put their money on China, but China looks to be stretched at least as thin as the US, maybe more so. Their police being killed by mobs, a terrorism problem in a highly repressive communist nation, some of the worst pollution ever in human history, and now picking stupid fights with neighbors, trying to seize areas they have absolutely zero right to. China’s sea grabs lately could just get the entire rest of SE Asia to turn on them (burying serious old hatreds in the process). We could be in for a repeat of WW2 (and to some extent, 1) as some otherwise unrelated conflicts could line up nations in global alliances for a war.
It’s hard not to think that some very diabolical evil people are in fact working hard to bring that about.
So who picks up the pieces? What country will be left standing? I see no nation that seems to be on a promising rise without crippling domestic issues (pollution, poverty, violent inequality)… China, India, Brazil (the nation of tomorrow for the last 60 years!), etc.
But here’s my hunch – if Germany, Russia and India can play their cards right, staying out of a war while the world around them goes up in flames, they, individually and as an axis, could be well positioned to be the last man standing, just as the USA was in 1945. Iran could even be a bit player in that axis.
WTF??? article of the day:
Hagel Suggests Gulf Arabs Unite Against Iran
Says Iran ‘Threat’ Requires Collective Response
by Jason Ditz, May 14, 2014
Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel, meeting with the defense ministers of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) member nations, urged the governments of those nations to put their recent differences aside and unite behind their mutual hostility toward Iran.
The GCC, composed of Persian Gulf Arab states and dominated by Saudi Arabia, has recently dealt with internal acrimony, mostly centering on Qatar’s perceived support for the Muslim Brotherhood.
In early March, Saudi Arabia threatened a full blockade of tiny GCC member Qatar unless they closed down the al-Jazeera television network over Saudi complaints that their coverage was sympathetic to the Egyptian government, ousted last summer in a military coup.
Though GCC policy is usually driven more or less unilaterally by the Saudis, the Qatari dispute had raised concerns that the alliance was falling apart. Hagel insisted that it could be preserved if everyone just focused on the putative “threat” of Iran.
I wonder if Obama can get us into a 2-front world war by August?
China Slams US “Hypocrisy”, Tells Obama To Stop “Inspiring Militancy”
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 05/15/2014 13:58 -0400
Tensions between China and the U.S. continue to grow. On Wednesday, Beijing called U.S. Secretary remark about “provocative behavior” of China in the South China Sea “inspiring militancy,” and insisted that the U.S. “stop encouraging the provocation” of the Philippines and Vietnam. As China Daily reports, China has expressed the view that the U.S. must abandon the “hypocrisy” and stop publicly support Vietnam and the Philippines in territorial disputes with China.
As RIA reports, Tensions between China and the U.S. continues to grow, experts say. On Wednesday, Beijing called U.S. Secretary remark about “provocative behavior” of China in the South China Sea “inspiring militancy,” writes China Daily .
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said in a telephone conversation with John Kerry that China insists that the U.S. “stop encourage provocation” of the Philippines and Vietnam.
According to analysts, so China has expressed the view that the U.S. must abandon the “hypocrisy” and stop publicly support Vietnam and the Philippines in territorial disputes with China.
Earlier it was reported that the Philippine government to seize the Chinese fishing boat and 11 crew members on charges of catching endangered sea turtles in the territory disputed waters of the South China Sea. Shortly before that, Vietnam demanded that China stop drilling for oil in the South China Sea.
Tensions between China, Vietnam and the Philippines began to increase after last week, President Barack Obama signed a new military agreement with the Philippines, which aims to persuade Asian allies of American support in case of conflict with Beijing.
According to experts, the reason why the conflict risks becoming much more serious than just a territorial dispute is because Philippines quickly became embroiled in the geopolitical rivalry between the U.S. and China, while the two powers are fighting for strategic dominance in the western Pacific Ocean, says Al Jazeera article “Strategic Dilemma of the Philippines, between the eagle and the dragon.”
Professor at the Chinese Institute of International Relations Dan Dzhankun believes that the U.S. is fully engaged in the problems encountered in the Asia-Pacific region because of its relationship with China. However, Washington’s aggressive behavior in the territory of South-East Asia is unlikely to stabilize the situation. “The Obama administration is moving away from a century of U.S. diplomatic tradition in maintaining the balance between the other two countries,” – said the expert, noting that “sabotage relations between the south-eastern countries may have important implications for the situation in the region and even the world. And fatal mistakes in strategy, which adheres Obama can not be ignored.”
Seems like the potential for “costs” are growing…