Donald Trump is speeding the collapse of American Empire faster than any foreign enemies could possibly accomplish

And the Democrat neocons are cheering him on.

Of course they are all venal, hypocritical, hubristic sociopaths, but in their tiny reptilian minds (similar to mine), they are just re-running their old plot lines with new names. They (duopolistic elites) still have not learned the simple fact that repeating the same thing endlessly will yield a different result. Thus, neocon doctrinaires, such as Bullshit Bolton and Mike Pomposity, are leading Trump by the nose into Imperial collapse, ultimately redounding into national collapse.

To understand what this essay is about, i.e., oil and power, one must remember that out entire Empire is only marginally protected by our military. The main influence of America's waning power is principally financial. By financial, do also include the currently mammoth size of our GDP compared to any other country's GDP. Yes, even China's economy, which is currently experiencing hiccups. But China HAS a plan, or actually several plans. Note the word "plans". This relates to the Chinese habit of making relatively long-term plans, the five year plans.

Although Chinese plans for their economic growth took disastrous turns, such as the ill-named cultural revolution, but in most cases, Chinese plan making has been rationally considered. Where will you find such long-term plan making in the U.S.? If you answered "Neocon Nationalists" or something similar, you are correct. Back in the late 1990's, their call for a "new Pearl Harbor" triggered 911 and with it, the disappearance of personal liberties, still continuing apace.

Currently, the neocon doctrine still focuses on destruction of the original 7, including Iraq, Libya, Syria, Afghanistan, Iran. Underlying this whole macabre, inhumane scheme is oil--or shall we say OIL?

1. Throw out the government.
2. Starve the people.
3. Drone those that don't starve.
4. Send in the military for some good old American war fighting: "Kill them all and let God sort them out".
5. Take over the oil fields.
6. Build a pipeline or three.
7. See that necessary bribes and kickbacks are paid.
8. Collect the riches--thus enabling more imperial expansion.

Pretty good formula, eh? Well, not really. By Clintonian terms, Libya was a resounding success! decommissioned nukes, oil, gold, slave trading, and sodomization of Ghadafi. What fun! To quote a former diiplomat and mass murderer: "we came, we saw, he died (giggle)".

If we can phrase this correctly though, except for 911, this has been the Neocons crowning achievement. Iraq hasn't worked out so well for anyone. Afghanistan is a lingering drain on the military budget--and to what end? Lithium? Opium? Opium is a medium of exchange, similar to and just as deadly as petrodollars. Syria is an absolute lie from start to now almost finished. No oil. No pipeline. Russia and Assad, and the mullahs have bested the mighty coalition of peace-loving nations including our exceptional republic, and other friends (UK, France, etc.) who actually were impotent due to internal US governmental schisms in defeating ISIS. After all it's hard to beat a foe when you arm and supply them and place their locations off limits to attack.

[A minor digression here: Russia beat the Nazis--doing 90% of the fighting and 90% of the dying. The Allies were no more than a nail in the foot of the Reichswehr, keeping large enemy forces pinned down, while the Russians stabbed Germany in the guts.]

The current neocon obsession is Iran, not because of mullahs, not because of nukes--but because of oil. And let there be no mistaking that being the ultimate goal.

Here lies the nexus of American "statesmanship":

Weaken Iran through the scenario depicted above. Well, not quite. The first weapon against Iran was not Obummer's "denuclearization" treaty. That gimmick was to spread billions in cash around the world to key players, already rich. Being cash and being the absence of receipts, these billions are untraceable. So the Iranian nuclear deal was a several year scam to pay bribes and emoluments to select criminals, many elected.

Dramatis Personae in this Trumpian scheme to destroy our empire and our nation:

Donald John Trump
Michael Pompeo
John Moustache Pete Bolton

Supported by a cast of hundreds in Congress (which term is also the correct biological nomenclature for a tribe of baboons), thousands in the DOS, CIA, FBI personnel, and government contractors in the MIC (military-intelligence complex).

J.D.T. ran on a platform, unlike HRC. A main issue was no more foreign wars. Learning very slowly, Trump was sucked into a CIA concocted Syrian chemical attack near Douma by sending a load of ballistic missiles into Syria. Then realizing his blunder he failed to respond to another false flag attack in Syria. After that, he declares he was going to withdraw U.S. forces from Syria--well, sort of. Much of his reluctance might be due to continuous braying of Russian collusion by the Dems (including once-beloved Bernie). Any move seen as "weakening" Amerika was certain to arouse Democratic ire--and it did. Hence the halt in troop withdrawal in Syria and the non-initiation of Afghani withdrawal. This constant barrage of Democratic criticism will explain part of Trump's hesitancy in lowering troop deployments in these losing wars (lose-lose)--but only part.

Enter John Bolton and Pompous Pompeo: why? Both are neocons. Why did an allegedly pro-disengagement president appoint these war mongers? At first I thought it was to assuage the war mongers in both main parties. That is an incorrect assumption.

Troika: Oil, petrodollar and sanctions.

Reserve currency: the ability for one country's sovereign currency as a global standard, or even necessity, in international trade. The U.S. became the de facto reserve currency after WW2 when no other governments had much of anything valuable to back their currency. We continue to be the reserve currency but those days are dwindling as other economies have grown. Thus nations previously almost penniless, like China and Japan, through diligence rebuilt their economies, hence developing countervailing means of exchange. But only within relatively narrow trading blocs could these currencies be used, as opposed to a world-wide standard. The days of dollar hegemony are over. Repeat: the days of dollar hegemony are over.

This decline in dollar potency has been slowly developing along with rising foreign GDP. Of course not all currencies are equipotent, but some are pretty strong: the yuan being one. Nations who declined trading in petrodollars or were about to do so became U.S. imperialistic targets. Libya had lots of gold , having the best African economy until we crushed them. Ghadafi was moving toward gold standard, or at least moving away from petrodollars. Saddam Hussein (barely distinguishable for his taste for luxury from the Clintons or El Trumpo) also was heading away from petrodollar slavery. This move could not be tolerated. Syria's destruction was not due to petrodollar shyness particularly. Their national catastrophe was triggered by oil and pipeline routes. By Syria becoming more closely affiliated with both Russia and Iran, has brought a cascading descent of petrodollar influence. In recent years, both China and Russia, along with Iran have shown an open willingness to discard the petrodollar and have largely done so through their limited trading blocs. But these trading blocs are growing. One reason for this is the progressing One Belt-One Road (OBOR) plan of China--which even now is attracting Italian interest in participation.

The OBOR nations will happily jettison the petrodollar and, explained above, are already doing just that.

Back to Iran: because Iran has steadfastly opposed the petrodollar for political reasons, the U.S. applied sanctions against the country and several named individuals therein. Okay. Just like the neocon playbook demanded. Limit the export of oil by Iran. But in the past several years, as we are seeing, more nations are willing to trade with Iran for oil. These trades will not be petrodollar funded. The myopic neocons only saw that their plan of starving the enemy through sanctions was not working. The neocons in typical fashion, fail to understand the consequences of their meddling. Just as the CIA begat the Shah, Iran begat the mullahs. How's that working out, Uncle Sammy?

But never mind. Bolton and Pompous have now imposed secondary sanctions.

Secondary Sanctions

Secondary sanctions are the poison pill which hastens the decline of the American Empire. These sanctions target nations trading with Iran for oil. Such nations include not only inimitable powers but neutral ones also, those holding no brief against the U.S.--yet.

The poison is strongest against the industrialized nations, primarily in Europe. Germany is a harsh critic of such an action, likely because it is dependent upon Russia and other Asian sources for oil to maintain its economy above the amounts it can receive from other suppliers. They are not alone. Most of Eurozone dislikes this Pompous-Bolton gambit. Countries in all hemispheres are unfriendly to this new round of neocon terrorism. This unilateral financial/economic poisoning depletes our allies of their support for things American. Can we blame them? No. But Bolton and Pompous recognizing that Eurozone et. al. are not happy, do what is in their nature to do: charge straight ahead with a known losing tactic (like HRC's presidential campaign) yielding the predictable result.

Could the "stable genius" in the White House not see that his two alleged underlings are fucking up not only our country along with the rest of the world--to say nothing of his re-election chances. If Trump starts ANY foreign military entanglements, he will lose at least half of his base, much of which is anti-war.

Issues to consider in the ill-considered secondary sanctions plan:

1. Firming alliances between countries not previously closely aligned, besides OBOR-related ones. India is not happy with this secondary sanction idea.
2. Collapse of Dollar Reserve currency status. This will trigger a world-wide economic collapse with few winners. The explication of this collapse could be done better from those of our economically and financially astute board members.
3. International affirmation that the U.S. is not to be trusted.
4. Alliances which U.S. thought stable, such as Germany and non-Eurozone nations, will be irrevocably harmed.
5. But wait. There's more. Even if secondary sanctions are perhaps 50% effective whence cometh the additional oil nominally under our control? Saudi? They no longer possess the overwhelming production capacity/supply to make up the Iranian oil deficit.

But, but, but...what about all that nice oil which keeps Venezuela afloat? Guaido, the Pseudo, has no popular support. Millions of Bolivaristas will fight him and other interlopers to the death. Check out YouTube videographer Florida Maquis for his analysis of the dangers posed to foreigners from militarily attacking Venezuela--despite being surrounded by U.S. co-opted nations of Brazil and Colombia. The minute a U.S. serviceman dies in Venezuelan combat is the death of a second Trump term--even if his opponent were Creepy Joe.

Venezuela alone has enough oil to support the ludicrous secondary sanction plan. But to get it will require a military undertaking not unlike Viet Nam. The noxious neighbors, including Brazil, Colombia and the rest of the Lima Group members, will not commit troops unless and until the U.S. is fully militarily engaged.

Anti-imperialists, take heart--the American Empire will be dead in 10 to 15 years. With its demise a lot of us will die involuntarily by the destruction of this nation ruled by selfish, arrogant, self-aggrandizing elites. They will fiddle while D.C. burns.

Listen to the new gunslinger in town, Donny, and it ain't you

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vnbm7RrHIYc&frags=pl%2Cwn]

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WoodsDweller's picture

This from an Al Jezeera article dated 2012, I assume we have at least this many bases today.
EDIT: embed didn't work, click link for map.

https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?mid=1XmUD73hHQVBbdm8UcIrRtAcCgTg&ms..."

EDIT: generally, one carrier group kept on station in the Persian Gulf, one in the Indian Ocean off Iran's southern coast. They don't need the additional aircraft, but they carry nukes.

Once Iranian oil is returned to its rightful owner (BP), the encirclement of Russia is tightened.

Obama made noises about withdrawing from Afghanistan, but the MIC wouldn't allow it. Trump made noises about withdrawing from Afghanistan, but the MIC wouldn't allow it. When Nord Stream 2 came on line, Trump realized that we had lost the Syrian pipeline war and tried to withdraw, but the MIC wouldn't allow it.

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"The greatest shortcoming of the human race is our inability to understand the exponential function." -- Albert Bartlett
"A species that is hurtling toward extinction has no business promoting slow incremental change." -- Caitlin Johnstone

Alligator Ed's picture

@WoodsDweller @WoodsDweller Withdraw and claim victory! Yessir, that's the ticket.

If Trump is really something of what he pretends to be, he will stop effing around in the ME and Maduro land. A slim chance occurs that with the end of the Müller inquisition, he will be able to strike fear into the Clintonites instead of other countries.

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WoodsDweller's picture

@Alligator Ed I don't think the President, this one or any other, has any control over the military, and certainly no control over the intelligence agencies. His policies and orders are irrelevant, ignored unless they are the "right" orders. The only things that might help would be to fire everyone in the Joint Chiefs and work your way down until you find a staff sergeant who will follow orders and pin three or four stars on his collar. Or replace 50%+1 of Congressmen and Senators with people who will cut the military budget in half, then start cutting the fat.
As far as the spooks go, they have their own funding via drugs and gun running. I don't know if it's possible to reign them in at this point. Cutting their funding won't do it. Maybe some well-placed cruise missiles?

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"The greatest shortcoming of the human race is our inability to understand the exponential function." -- Albert Bartlett
"A species that is hurtling toward extinction has no business promoting slow incremental change." -- Caitlin Johnstone

Alligator Ed's picture

@WoodsDweller All the illicit funding via drug running and weapons sales is too much for a mere human to address. Even El Chapo had rivals before his U.S. incarceration. No matter what the politics specifically are, the modus operandi remains the same.

Here is the formula in musical form:

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lP5Xv7QqXiM&frags=pl%2Cwn]

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@WoodsDweller clean out those agencies top to bottom.

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dfarrah

edg's picture

Great essay, Ed. In the first paragraph, you wrote "will yield a different result". Should be "will not yield...".

Bolton and Pompeo were excellent choices for demonstrating the bankruptcy of American thinking and policy. Unfortunately, many will suffer before the world wises up and bands together to stop the rogue American regime. (In which I include the Administration, Congress, the Deep State, and all the other fuckheads that are acting in concert to destroy us.)

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It’s hard to see it any other way really.

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Idolizing a politician is like believing the stripper really likes you.

Russia beat the Nazis--doing 90% of the fighting and 90% of the dying. The Allies were no more than a nail in the foot of the Reichswehr, keeping large enemy forces pinned down, while the Russians stabbed Germany in the guts.

But the British should get credit for an assist.
The British eliminated both the Italian and German surface fleets, and a majority of the U-boat fleet.
They also broke the offensive capability of the Luftwaffe (see Battle of Britain, Tunisia, and Greece).

This was all done before the U.S. was fully deployed in Europe/Africa.

OTOH, the U.S. gets full credit for defeating Japan.

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Alligator Ed's picture

@gjohnsit Still, the Russians did most of the fighting and the dying. If they hadn't signed the Molotov-Ribbentrop non-aggression pact, the war could have ended much differently, though eventually the heavy Russian losses would likely still have occurred.

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@gjohnsit
spam, both of which they were glad to have.

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The earth is a multibillion-year-old sphere.
The Nazis killed millions of Jews.
On 9/11/01 a Boeing 757 (AA77) flew into the Pentagon.
AGCC is happening.
If you cannot accept these facts, I cannot fake an interest in any of your opinions.

Bollox Ref's picture

@gjohnsit

Only arrogant idiots would send a new heavy cruiser up the defended, narrow Oslo fjord....

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YZ79i11JSnU]

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Gëzuar!!
from a reasonably stable genius.

Alligator Ed's picture

@Bollox Ref into the Gulf of Hormuz! Full speed ahead, Gridley--fuck them rag heads, every damn one! Oops! Oh, shit!

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lotlizard's picture

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@lotlizard trajectory.

What goes up must come down.....

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dfarrah

At the turn of the century I predicted that the US global dominance would last 40-45 years. The election of the the most useless president of all time, W shortened that by 15 years, say to 2030. The election of the most unqualified bloviating president of our lifetimes, T will shorten that to 2022, if he gets reelected.

He picks neocons for the Defense (War) department because he has realized that he has no competence or experience in foreign affairs. I speculate that he then asks his trusted and very wealthy backers what to do? Well, since they are all neocons themselves, the tell him to hire turds like Bolton, Pompeo and Abrahms. Well, they have gravitas, the gravitas of death merchants.

The question in my mind is there any obvious opportunity to "sell" a good war to the American people? The MSM are ready willing and able to back up yet another charade of war promotion. Yet I don't think that this is probable. Perhaps a limited, punitive bombing war like in Serbia? Well, honestly, I think that the world woke up to that travesty, especially Russia and China and perhaps part of Europe.

So where does that leave our blood starved war mongers? That leaves them to use the threat of war everywhere, which is probably what they will do. This alienates the people of the good planet Earth, royally. I am hearing the end of good feelings toward America from people that I meet from Asia, Africa, Europe, Australia and the Americas. Without moral persuasion the US is in no position to lead the world. I believe that all of America's adversaries have realized this and are crafting a narrative that paints the US as immoral, illegal, untrustworthy and prevaricating with a huge trail of death and destruction. This is not hard to do since it is the truth. In the past our adversaries have been hesitant to do this, out of the desire to have a working relationship. The Trump administration has made it perfectly clear that if you are not Israel or Saudi Arabia, you will not have a good working relationship with the US.

The nightmare of all of this is marginally compensated by the fact that D.J.T. a truly intellectually and socially challenged person, totally exposes the mainstream Democrat party as a fraud. Probably Biden or Clinton again will be nominated, and Trump will win. The stupidity is staggering.

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Capitalism has always been the rule of the people by the oligarchs. You only have two choices, eliminate them or restrict their power.

Alligator Ed's picture

@The Wizard

Without moral persuasion the US is in no position to lead the world. I believe that all of America's adversaries have realized this and are crafting a narrative that paints the US as immoral, illegal, untrustworthy and prevaricating with a huge trail of death and destruction.

I couldn't have said that better.

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@The Wizard "The nightmare of all of this is marginally compensated by the fact that D.J.T. a truly intellectually and socially challenged person, totally exposes the mainstream Democrat party as a fraud."

I would say that Trump did all a huge service when he exposed the dems' fraud. For example, it's fun to watch dems act oh-so-offended and angry about something, only to see tape after tape (on Fox news) of them previously supporting the something they are now so angry about.

Just because you hate Trump does not mean he is intellectually or socially challenged. Maybe you are unaware that Trump, for many years pre-president, talked about the policies he now promotes as president.

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dfarrah

polkageist's picture

As the Wizard says above, "The nightmare of all of this is marginally compensated by the fact that D.J.T. . . . totally exposes the mainstream Democrat party as a fraud. Probably Biden or Clinton again will be nominated, and Trump will win. The stupidity is staggering." Now what do we do? Our elections have been corrupted so that in many states the only candidates allowed on the ballot are D's or R's. It certainly is true in California. Do third parties have a chance anywhere? If so, I haven't found it. The people working within the parties are blocked at every turn. How much time do we have before extinction? Pessimism is becoming the same as realism.

Thanks, Ed, for saying so well what so many of us are agreed upon.

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-Greed is not a virtue.
-Socialism: the radical idea of sharing.
-Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.
John F. Kennedy, In a speech at the White House, 1962

by speeding up the collapse of the American Empire.

Are you saying this is bad or good?

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dfarrah

Alligator Ed's picture

@dfarrah @dfarrah Whatever the ultimate outcome, you can be certain that vast sociopolitical upheavals will follow. Less foreign military bases to feed. But perhaps insurrections fomented by the MIC and CIA. Financial institutions will be reeling and the stock market may vaporize for selling worthless paper certificates. Etc. My crystal ball is hard to keep clean in my swamp. Thus, suffice it to say that America will be drastically different long-term, if it survives.

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@Alligator Ed

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dfarrah

WoodsDweller's picture

@dfarrah
is a transition, not the end. The British Empire collapsed, but there is still an England. The Soviet Empire collapsed, and they went through some tough times, but they're still there. The collapse of the American Empire will be hard (read Orlov's "Reinventing Collapse" for some thoughts on how America will fare worse after collapse than Russia did) but it's not the end for America. Just as most of the benefits of Empire accrue to the 1%, they will experience the greatest losses, though they will still be far better off than the rest of us and the losses we experience will be harder for us to bear.

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"The greatest shortcoming of the human race is our inability to understand the exponential function." -- Albert Bartlett
"A species that is hurtling toward extinction has no business promoting slow incremental change." -- Caitlin Johnstone

Alligator Ed's picture

@WoodsDweller Thanks for expanding my comment to dfarrah. I would have written it had I been more perspicacious (thanks, also, for giving me the opportunity to use a 4 syllable word)!

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