America's Mein Kampf — 20 Years Later

The Cooperative Global Strategy to marginalize US influence in the world has been in place since, at least, 2003 — following the criminally spurious US attack on Iraq, which killed more than a million innocent civilians and destabilized the entire Middle East.

Most likely, the Strategy to marginalize the US first came into existence in the late 1990s, after the "Project for a New American Century" Neocon manifesto — America's Mein Kampf — was published. I first became aware of the strategy in 2005, working the FOREX trading desk during the Asian and London markets. It was there that I fully understood the extraordinary privilege that a nation has when its currency is the Reserve Currency for world trade. I saw how that privilege could be used and abused to bully the rest of the world both economically and militarily. (Don't even get me started on what the NSA did to the psyche of the world, which thoroughly ended any future the US might have as a global power.)

The trigger was pulled to execute the global strategy to marginalize the US in November 2011, shortly after then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton released the clueless "Pivot to Asia" foreign policy manifesto. By the time that the US covertly toppled the Ukraine government in early 2014 — and replaced it with a neo-Nazi puppet government to start a proxy war with Russia — every one of the participating nations in the "US Marginalization Strategy" acted together, to aggressively weaken their currencies against the US Dollar (to cripple US exports and allow the World to dump PetroDollar paper at top value), while OPEC quickly devalued the commodity price of oil throughout the world. These both would, in due time, dynamite the Dow, kill the PetroDollar, and destroy any remaining confidence in the US Dollar as a global currency.

(In pulling this off, every nation of the world had to made a significant economic sacrifice. It had to be done and the American people will one day be very grateful.)

This Black Swan landed suddenly! The US, in denial and delusion about its de facto collapsing empire, was caught in a perfect storm of misunderstanding about the rapidly unfolding global events of 2015. In November 2014, the US was warned about what was about it happen to its "empire" by Christine Legarde (of the IMF) during the G20 summit in Brisbane, Australia. But despite the warning, the US Congress, like empty-eyed Stepford wives, deliberately decapitated the US on December 31st, 2014.

You see, the moribund and self-destructive US Congress refused to vote on vital IMF reforms regarding the restructuring of the development bank's voting shares so that they aligned with the economic gravity of the participating nations. The US was the only IMF participating nation to miss the December 31st, 2014 deadline — a brain-dead act of nationalistic stupidity that changed the world forever. It was, indeed, a deliberate congressional exercise in national self-hatred that pushed the ersatz US Empire over the cliff.

::

Immediately, the IMF, as an international development bank, was delegitimized. And its thuggish side-kick and bagman, the World Bank, was rendered pointless in all future global affairs. Already pariahs in Central and South America, these two Bretton Woods artifacts are now left with begging Vladimir Putin to mop up the ugly messes they've made in Ukraine and Greece before they turn off the lights and slink off to become for-profit think tank shills. (On another note, both Russia and China are calling for the IMF to oversee SDRs, a new synthetic global trading currency, a tactic sure to result in an audit of the Federal Reserve.)

Meanwhile, the US remains completely oblivious to the impact of what just happened, and seems moronically unaware of its own destiny as a failed empire. To put it another way: Globally speaking, the young people alive today are living in a brand new world; a world of extraordinary possibility that did not exist just a few months ago.

In its self-absorbed hubris, drunk with power, the US missed the decade-long spectacle of the entire world working in concert to end its global reign of ever-present military and economic threat. This was achieved without a single shot fired. It was a textbook Sun Tzu victory, made manifest in the 21st century.

::

Filled with its sense of entitled exceptionalism, the US has blindly misunderstood the most recent historical significance of the events of March 31st 2015. On that day, the world experienced a profound geopolitical change. While the US was whinging about China and bullying Russia and Europe with its NATO codpiece, the world defected en mass from the twisted golem that Bretton Woods had become. The earth's fifty-seven strongest nations became founding members of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank [AIIB] in order to bring material development and positive economic support, through facilitated trade, to the entire world — in a non-murderous form. That same day, the US became a pipsqueak.

The Eastern Hemisphere — China and Asia, Australasia, India, Russia and Europe, the United Kingdom, the Middle East including Iran, and all of Africa — have coalesced into a single interconnected "continent" of economic possibility and cooperation, from this point forward. From the Western Hemisphere — which is geographically isolated on the far side of the earth by two vast oceans — there are also enthusiastic participants in the new de-Dollarized world, including the South American Union and Mexico.

I find it particularly poignant that the economically-aware class of Americans, the investment class, and US-trained economists are still sputtering on about "T-Bonds", liquidity conceit, irrelevant concepts of the inconvertibility of the Yuan, the notion that "people are starving in China!1!!", and ironically, Human Rights, which the sad people of the US have yet to experience a single one, unconditionally. The question all these nabobs should be asking, of course, is: "What currency will the US use to cover its trade deficits with the rest of the world?" The time is fast approaching when US Dollars will only have value domestically.

When you finally see that question being discussed, you will know that the US has caught up intellectually with what the rest of the world already knows.

  • Until that time, you will see a lot of embarrassing foreign-policy posturing as John Kerry lurches around the world, uninvited.
  • You'll see US sanctions completely ignored as nations trade peacefully with one another outside the Dollar and SWIFT, if you haven't already noticed that reality over the past 12 months.
  • You will watch as it slowly dawns upon US "leaders" that their nuclear weapons and aircraft carrier battle-groups mean absolutely nothing whatsoever to the rest of the world. Indeed, they have had no meaning or purpose for decades, except to enrich US defense contractors / drug runners, and to crush the US middle class, both economically and legislatively.

The neurological adjustments, adaptations, and rationalizations, at the Federal level, to the precipitous decline of US global influence and economic standing, should prove to be — over the next year or so — the Greatest Show on Earth.

______________________

The Author hereby grants you permission to post any or all of this essay at your own blog or anywhere else you wish to on the Internet. There is no need to link back. Just add this notice and enjoy.

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Pluto's Republic's picture

I wouldn't worry too much about the 2016 elections. They don't matter.

From here, forward, things are going to change very rapidly. I hope this lens will help you see it.

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The political system is what it is because the People are who they are. — Plato
gulfgal98's picture

This diary is exactly the type of issues that we want to see fleshed out here. Thank you for coming on board and for sharing your knowledge with us.

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Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?

“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy

Unabashed Liberal's picture

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Everyone thinks they have the best dog, and none of them are wrong.

Pluto's Republic's picture

Thanks for the welcome.

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The political system is what it is because the People are who they are. — Plato
Unabashed Liberal's picture

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Everyone thinks they have the best dog, and none of them are wrong.

So glad to see you here.

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"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon

gulfgal98's picture

What a great diary. My tiny little mind has not absorbed all of what you have written in just my first reading, but it is impressive in its scope.

I have always thought that the wars in the Middle East were less about oil and more about the petro dollar. I had read that the real reason Saddam Hussein was taken out was that he wanted to trade in euros rather than in US dollars. My knowledge of how all this works is very sketchy, so I might be very off in this comment. I am looking forward to reading more about this subject. Thanks for posting it here.

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Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?

“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy

Pluto's Republic's picture

I have always thought that the wars in the Middle East were less about oil and more about the petro dollar.

It has always been true. Of course, when a leader like Gaddafi or Saddam makes a statement about selling oil for a different currency, it is because their oil is "nationalized." Therefore, the first thing the US does is kill the state oil companies in nations they attack, and turn the wells over to Anglo corporations like Shell or Exxon.

Nonetheless, the PetroDollar is everything. It is the only thing supporting the US Dollar as a global currency. It was the only thing…. Looks like we killed Gaddafi and Saddam for nothing, creating two more failed states.

Europe needs to make its peace with the Middle East and get rid of NATO. It needs to become Eurasia along with China. The US is geographically unconnected with the Eastern Hemisphere. It is isolated on the far side of the planet, and that is where it and its useless Dollars belong. Seen but not heard.

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The political system is what it is because the People are who they are. — Plato
gulfgal98's picture

your coming here and writing this diary. I hope you will continue to write more because I learned so much from this one alone. Good

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Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?

“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy

the big questions then are, will the class bully be smart enough to know that the jig is up or will it do as some bully's do, commence to use it's physical strength in a last ditch effort to keep the class under it's thumb, even though being outnumbered by the rest of the class. I remember your most excellent diary about how the US may be further isolated by the world community's disdain for the NSA's snooping, causing the breakup of the world wide web into distinct networks with their own backbones which would essentially wall off the US. Hopefully the bully decides, before it's too late, to cooperate with the rest of the class, and also hopefully doesn't turn on it's own family, the citizens. Yes there is an opportunity for a bright, cooperatve future, but what a bad time be saddled (pun intended) with Mongo from Blazing Saddles as our Congress. Please correct me if I've misunderstood. I very much look forward to your further analysis. Thanks P. and welcome.

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Pluto's Republic's picture

The US is having its last hurrah in Ukraine and Yemen, which fall under category of: "Everything the US touches turns to shit:"

US troops in Ukraine to train soldiers, angering Russia

Some 250 American troops are in Ukraine to help train local soldiers, as the conflict with pro-Russian rebels in the east continues.

“While Barack Obama decides whether or not to provide Ukraine with military arms, the US is helping in another way,” said our correspondent in Ukraine, Dmitry Polonsky.

The training near Lviv in the west of Ukraine is being provided by US paratroopers from the 173rd Airborne Brigade.

Cayle Reed, a US Army Brigade Major, told euronews: “We will demonstrate the training, with our weapon systems, then we will allow them to imitate the training that we have actually provided to them.

“And then at the very end (there) is actually a review of what they have learned and an evaluation to help them get better.”

Some 900 Ukrainian soldiers are involved in the training exercises, and the country’s president attended the opening ceremony.

Petro Poroshenko said: “My decision, as the commander-in-chief, to build a new quality army, the Armed Forces of Ukraine, is beginning to become a reality with the help of our American partners.”

The training is expected to last six months, and comes on top of other US logistical support.

Russia has condemned the presence of American troops in Ukraine, slamming it as a “provocation”.

I don't think much will come of this. The world has moved on. The PetroDollar is dead.

The new architecture of the Internet is well under construction, bypassing the US, which will now become a cul de sac rather than a switchboard.

I think the paralyzed US congress has been a blessing for the nation. It's allowed the world to see the US in all its corrupt glory, floating inert on the world stage. It has certainly allowed the citizens to see the floundering machine of faux democracy. No matter which way citizens vote, they lose. Only their Denial and fear of change keeps the machine running. Around in circles.

Things may be different for the first time, in 2016. The US won't likely make it all the way before their economic dislocation is finally recognized. The US propaganda narrative will fall apart. The only way out is to kill the national defense (international murder) budget. This time, perhaps the citizens will put themselves, first.

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____________________

The political system is what it is because the People are who they are. — Plato
snoopydawg's picture

And many members of the EU have transferred money into it. It caught off guard. They had no idea that this was happening.
UK, Israel and other countries have transferred money their.
I read that one reason the US invaded ukraine was to both put pressure on Russia and China, but to keep the petro dollar as the world currency.
The US is over extended monetarily.

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Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

mimi's picture

I remember you wrote once a diary and it was beyond my capabilities to understand what you said. I asked a question and you were so kind to get down to my level of comprehension and explained it to me. So, from that time on, I booked you as a person to listen to.

Now

the neurological adjustments, adaptations, and rationalizations, at the Federal level, to the precipitous global and economic decline of the US, should prove to be — over the next year or so — the Greatest Show on Earth.

makes me all scared and nervous.

I feel as if I have sacrificed my, my son's and even my former husband's life to the "United States". May be the most traumatic show on earth will be to witness the mental health decline of a huge number of people and the resulting complete insanity and mess in the behavior among the US citizens. I was never that hopeless in my life and it started basically during the last two years. It seems it's beyond repair. I simply can't understand how the US has such a lousy governmental system and why it can't stay on its continent and live off their own land. There is enough land out there. Nobody came here to take your land away or intervened in your affairs (aside from 9/11 attack). Take all your military back out of other countries' regions and leave other peoples alone. As you won't understand their thinking anyhow. I can't understand how you treat your own citizens so badly. You have more black people in prisons than you ever had slaves. Does that make sense? You don't educate your children well and prevent them from getting a free, quality education. Does that make sense? And along the way the corporations destroy the planet. Boy, that makes a lot of sense.

How are we supposed to turn that around?

Ok, comments like this one is the reason why I have to cut myself off from the internet. Makes no sense and even doesn't educate me. I can read books and it sticks better to my mind than reading endlessly comments and diaries, which just make me depressed.

Sorry for my ramblings. You are good people. I think you know how to turn things around and I won't disturb you talking among yourselves. I guess I need some music now.

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shaharazade's picture

your comments are among the best here. Being scared and nervous is a normal humanistic reaction to this freaking evil empire and it's global endless bloody agenda. Sticking your head in the sand and not looking doesn't help. I agree with your comment and feel your despair you certainly are not disturbing anyone here, as you are a needed part of the conversation. I think I could use some music about now myself. See every one later as it's time for me to get to work.

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Pluto's Republic's picture

Especially these:

I simply can't understand how the US has such a lousy governmental system and why it can't stay on its continent and live off their own land. There is enough land out there. Nobody came here to take your land away or intervened in your affairs. Take all your military back out of other countries' regions and leave other peoples alone. As you won't understand their thinking anyhow. I can't understand how you treat your own citizens so badly.

This is the sin that the US must undo to save the people. (The rest of the world has already cut it off at the knees. The US has just started figuring that out….)

From my point of view, the US has already been turned around from the outside. There's nothing you need to do.

For example, today Pakistan has scooted under China's umbrella. It is no longer at play for the US. The US is now far too poor to have this kind of influence in the world:

China's President Promises Pakistan $45B In Investment

APRIL 21, 2015 1:42 PM ET

Chinese President Xi Jinping has ended a visit to Pakistan after signing $45 billion worth of investment agreements in the South Asian nation.

NPR's Philip Reeves tells our Newscast unit that Xi's visit is being seen as a "game changer." Here's more from him:

"This trip marks a step forward in China's grand plan for securing new and more direct routes to the energy resources and markets of the Middle East, Africa and Europe. This includes creating a corridor running from western China down through Pakistan to its southern port of Gwadar on the Arabian Sea."

Of the $45 billion in investments, up to $37 billion would be spent on Pakistan's electrical grid, said Ahsan Iqbal, the country's minister for planning and development; $28 billion worth of projects were ready to be rolled out, he said, according to The Associated Press.

The New York Times said Xi's visit and the promised investment was "on a scale the United States has never offered in the past decade of a close relationship [with Pakistan], a gesture likely to confirm the decline of American influence in that nation."

China is also building the Peace Pipeline for Pakistan:

This is all good for everyone. The world is ignoring the dying US Empire, and building a popular new world order right on top of it.

Everyone wins.

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____________________

The political system is what it is because the People are who they are. — Plato
shaharazade's picture

are writing and posting here. I don't have time to read this right now as I'm working today but will be back later to comment and give it the attention it deserves. so great to read you again. Your exiting or banning at dkos might have been the final straw for me. Thanks for the meaty diary that has some reality and substance regarding 'the world as we find it.

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JayRaye's picture

great diary and great to see you posting here.

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Never be deceived that the rich will allow you to vote away their wealth.-Lucy Parsons

joe shikspack's picture

interesting commentary. i've long thought that america had coming to it what happened to the british when their empire got over-extended in the suez.

it may come as a great shock to some folks that we are not "indispensable" and that people in other countries don't feel safer with our drones flying overhead.

i hope that we are able to seize the moment of our national demise and wrest control from the fascists.

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gulfgal98's picture

because I feel very much the same way. Our demise as an empire may be an opportunity for us as a people. This is one of the reasons I chose Dr. Cornel West's statement (at Occupy Tallahassee) as my sig line.

i hope that we are able to seize the moment of our national demise and wrest control from the fascists.
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Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?

“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy

snoopydawg's picture

Isn't he the one who calls Obama the more effective evil?

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Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

Pluto's Republic's picture

i hope that we are able to seize the moment of our national demise and wrest control from the fascists.

No election could deliver this. And the world will no longer enable the US in its paranoid global destruction. The Neocons embedded in the rogue government must be rooted out and eliminated. They are the big losers, here. Their mass-murder foreign policy agenda is over.

The thing is, all of these events are in the news (although not part of the daily US propaganda blast). I'm amazed that the consequences of action come as a surprise.

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____________________

The political system is what it is because the People are who they are. — Plato
shaharazade's picture

my big hope for some time that the world at large would shake off the disease that the US has become. I'm glad that the rest of the world is resisting our might. While I find it a good thing that we are not the global super power in the NWO that Big Dog Clinton touted as inevitable, a cornered, collapsing, violent, and psychotic empire like ours is both here and globally is going to reek maximum havoc on humans and the planet. How many people in the chaos will die and suffer while it goes through it's death throes. An armed and dangerous rogue state and definitely not likely to make a graceful exit from the stage it has declared as theirs to dominate and destroy as they are doing god's work. Disaster capitalism at full throttle scorched earth always did seem suicidal to me.

I have a question how does the TPP fit into this story? I also am not clear on where the EU stands they seem hell bent on global austerity for ordinary humans who have to live in this sick global economy. The corporate oligarchical collectivist's insatiable greed seems beyond the boundaries of nation states. Hard to know what's what, as all western media is catapulting the propoganda like mad these days. The Guardian used to be my paper of choice but it is just god awful wall to wall HillaryClinton bs. and Putin hating, along with a daily dose of scary 'terrist's who are gonna kill yer family'.

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gulfgal98's picture

in Big Al's Open Thread diary this morning.

Pluto's diary is a really terrific and very meaty diary. I had been hearing rumblings about the BRICs countries organizing economically and her diary shows just how vulnerable the US is. Nearly all of South America hates our guts. Maybe this is why there is such a huge push on the TPP. It is some sort of magical thinking that the TPP can overcome the economic alliances forming outside the US. If we wade into Iran, I do not see how this country can survive that on any level.

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Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?

“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy

Pluto's Republic's picture

I've never seen such a blast furnace of lying propaganda unleashed upon Americans. I've never seen them more misinformed about global issues. But I can certainly understand why they are being kept in the dark. We are at the end stage of an economic war. It is global in sweep and the US has already lost. The world played out enough rope so the US would hang itself.

….a cornered, collapsing, violent, and psychotic empire like ours is both here and globally is going to reek maximum havoc on humans and the planet. How many people in the chaos will die and suffer while it goes through it's death throes.

This is not the way it happens. The US has no natural enemies — it creates enemies to terrify American Colonists into approving war crimes. The world is working in concert to end the twisted abortion of the US Empire — but no nation is working directly or alone.

The TPP and the TTIF are sad shrunken trade agreements that "just can't seem to come together." Negotiated in "secret" and put on "fast track" legislation, the treaties are a Republican/Neocon wet dream that benefit the owners of the rogue US government.

The rest of the world knows this. They are just stringing the US along on the TPP. Europe is more opaque and careful, but the Europeans have picked sides. They know their future lies in becoming Eurasia and the New Silk Road Economic Belt, not part of the US , as it jockeys for global control through war crimes and terrorism. North America was just an isolated raw continent that got in the way when Columbus sailed off to find Asia and the beginning of the Silk Road.

(Civilized Perspective: Crimea has been Russia's major Navy port, continuously, for longer than the US has been in existence.)

I'm sure the US will eventually find a dignified way to accept its place in the world.

I agree. The Guardian is a disgrace.

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The political system is what it is because the People are who they are. — Plato
mimi's picture

"The Guardian is a disgrace". What did I overlook?

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Pluto's Republic's picture

The born-again CIA mouthpiece out of the UK.

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____________________

The political system is what it is because the People are who they are. — Plato
enhydra lutris's picture

It's good to see your writing again. It is also very good to see this information laid out so clearly and connectedly after picking off dribs, drabs, signs, and signals by poking around in the foreign press and other oddball sources. Thanks for joining us here.

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That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

Pluto's Republic's picture

...information laid out so clearly and connectedly after picking off dribs, drabs, signs, and signals...

Indeed. And the signal to noise ratio has been very high, which makes it hard to figure out what is important. I use global money flows as a filter, because that's where the rubber meets the road and provides a reliable view of future events. But there are so many devastatingly important signals out there in other categories, including diplomacy.

The most shocking example the world has seen, I believe, was the letter sent to the Ayatollah of Iran from the Republicans in the catastrophically paralyzed US Federal Government — a letter stating the US would not follow any treaty they sign with the current US President.

I don't think many Americans realize how shocking this is to the rest of the world. The US is clearly a toppled coup government by its own admission. It is choking in its death throes from internal subversive treason. Nations are acting as though they do not acknowledge this, but the back-chatter is clear: "The US is dangerous as a snake; now is the time to cut off its head." Hence, the accelerated and contrived death of the US Dollar.

Of course, Empire is dying of its own accord:

Political Partisanship Highest in US History.

While it has been widely reported that partisanship in the United States Congress is at an historic high, a new study finds that despite short-term fluctuations, partisanship or non-cooperation in the U.S. Congress has been increasing exponentially for over 60 years with no sign of abating or reversing.

As The Study notes, Americans today are represented by political figures who struggle to cooperate across party lines at an unprecedented rate, resulting in high profile fiscal and policy battles, government shutdowns, and an inability to resolve problems or enact legislation that guides the nation’s domestic and foreign policy.


The average difference in votes for each congressional year.

A fundamental reversal of increasing non-cooperation, over time, might require either a change in local ideological perspectives (resulting in a selective shift to fewer partisan representatives), or a fundamental change in how the electorate votes (from concerns focused on party issues to concerns focused on global effectiveness).

A moribund national government. The fatal hockey-stick formation in the chart above signals colony collapse.

Again, thanks for the greeting, eh.

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____________________

The political system is what it is because the People are who they are. — Plato

Now I remember exactly why I missed your writing so much.

The end of the U.S. empire is a two edge sword - hopeful and scary. With a two edge sword, I don't see how the people here win either way. A frantic and gasping oligarch is going to snatch everything in reach to keep him afloat and that includes us and everything we own. I too cannot understand why we can't mind our own business and invest in our homeland and countrymen instead of mortgaging everything to piss the money away on war.

Thanks again for joining our small but growing group. Dk's loss turns out to be our gain. In so many ways, we have all left too.

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"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon

Pluto's Republic's picture

Some academics argue that the end of Empire can be a wonderful time.

The US could wise up and evolve into the new world, sooner rather than later. But either way, it will be isolated. It will be void in global influence.

Decades of moral corruption is on full display to the world. While the diplomatic niceties continue, the world is reminded daily of atrocious US war crimes, tsunamis of refugees, and the broken lives that have resulted.

The US is no longer fit for global leadership. Americans have slipped into the third world, without a single human right, including the absolute right to food, shelter, and health care. Someday, they may stand up and demand the same human rights that the rest of the developed world enjoys.

Generally, the academic view of failed empires holds that the US will break up into cooperative autonomous regions, each with trade alliances to specific global regions. With incoming climate change and economic adversity, that strikes me as the most promising development that would directly benefit the people. In other words, granting to Americans another human right — the Right of Self Determination. Self Determination was the human right that was exercised by the people of Crimea and East Ukraine, at the ballot box. The US seems equally determined to crush this Human Right in Ukraine.

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____________________

The political system is what it is because the People are who they are. — Plato
Roger Fox's picture

Spain , France, Britain (1800-1900) and now its our turn (1900-2000). Each Empire lasted about 100 years.

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FDR 9-23-33, "If we cannot do this one way, we will do it another way. But do it we will.

The empire is going down, down.

I agree that TPP and TPIP may be desperation moves to stem the tide. Seems to be more push back on TTIP in Europe than TPP in US. Probably because lack of corporate media coverage here in USA.

"Dark Ages America: The Final Phase of Empire" by Morris Berman in 2006 described the empire collapse and no one could stop it. Back then there was hope in some of us that Obama could change course from Bush. Now it is clear that Bush, Clinton, Bush, Obama have been on the same neo liberal path. In that book he points out that failing empires choose leaders who hasten the fall.

That book made best seller lists because many thought that W Bush was an aberration. The system of checks and balances would self correct over time.

The Introduction is on line http://www.bullnotbull.com/archive/dark-ages-america.html

I have bolded the 4 characteristics which are explained in the Intro

My question for the reader is this: in all seriousness, which direction do you believe the United States is going in, at this point in time? My guess is that most of you will recognize this as a no-brainer; but to address the issue in greater depth, it might be instructive to consider the extent to which the four post-Roman Empire characteristics of the West apply to our present situation.

The Triumph of Religion over Reason

The Breakdown of Education and Critical Thinking

Legalization of Torture

Marginalization of the United States on the World Stage

So in 2011 when Berman published the third volume of the trilogy with the title "Why America Failed: The Roots of Imperial Decline" it didn't hit the best seller list. Briefly he says that America has been a country of hustlers.

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Pluto's Republic's picture

It's amazingly difficult to see a meaningful history as it is happening or about to happen. I'm definitely going to pick up the third volume:

"Why America Failed: The Roots of Imperial Decline."

Briefly he says that America has been a country of hustlers.

One need only look at the obsolete US Constitution to figure that out. It is the epitome of a structural flaw that is anti-society and pro-corporation (slave and master). Plus, the people do not own the natural resources, so you really cannot call that a "nation." There's no commonwealth. The US Constitution establishes a continental grifter zone for capitalist predators. It has done so from day one.

I've heard this pretty consistently from the outside about what went wrong in the US: The Breakdown of Education and Critical Thinking.

I guess it's pretty hard to miss. But it explains to foreigners why the American people put up with having no modern human rights, and why they are intellectually unable to execute a functional democracy. The American people are profoundly incapable of reasoning the outcome or consequences of their votes. They do not have the critical thinking skills to ascertain that they are given no choice at the polls. But they vote anyway, which is really very tragic. It puts on display a population that lacks self-respect or self determination. They just shuffle forward into a drastically diminished future, mind numbed.

Thanks for the link, DonMidwest. Nice to see you, too.

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____________________

The political system is what it is because the People are who they are. — Plato

How fitting. Pluto's comment about our Constitution is another revelation for me. I better hurry up the withdrawals from our shelters.

Thank you Don for the article on Detroit's foreclosures. Another mind blowing event. A nation of grifters.

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"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon

...And I'm glad to finally make it aboard myself. Your concise diary speaks very clearly about the movement I've been sensing. I just hope this or the next Administration can read the writing on the wall and act in a to make it easier for everyone concerned rather than vaingloriously trying to hang on to "Numero Uno - USA!" Such realism and inclusive humility does not seem likely, however. Hang on everyone, it's going to be a bumpy ride.

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glad to finally see you here, make yourself at home, kiddo.

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Unabashed Liberal's picture

Mollie

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Everyone thinks they have the best dog, and none of them are wrong.

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Pluto's Republic's picture

This was my first post here, too. I've been writing in the real world lately. It pays. But my topics still focus on global affairs. It's been most enlightening.

I don't see how a Presidential election can change what people call "government" in the US, which is transparently privately-owned by special interests (corporations). At the end of the day, both parties will be voting for someone they loathe, hoping that maybe it will work this time. It won't. The best way to revitalize the Democratic party would be to elect a Republican. Only that way, will an anti-war movement grow strong enough to prevail and will people begin to stand up for Democratic values and human rights. For that reason, I predict the Democrats will win in 2016, which translates into another eight years of backsliding.

There are many black swans between here and there, however, likely including a US economic (asset price) collapse.

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____________________

The political system is what it is because the People are who they are. — Plato
lotlizard's picture

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gulfgal98's picture

more and more connected.

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Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?

“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy

enhydra lutris's picture

Asia Times has a new, glitzy format that I'm less comfortable with and which seems to have less range and content than it used to, but it is still a good source of information not generally found in US media.

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That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

Yes there are many flaws in the constitution.

And yes there are dark times in our history.

And yes there are flawed leaders in our history.

And yes we stole the land and resources from the Native Americans and have been blessed with natural resources

And yes we are an empire in collapse with the last gasps of the oligarchy taking even more resources from the commons - both social commons and earth commons

but, ...

we were the first republic in 2,000 years

the election of 1800 was the first time in human history that power was given to the people

here is the story of the non violent revolution which has been missed because historians rewrote history and said that political parties are the wonder of our system

that is the debate we have day in and day out in our culture and on web sites like daily kos

“There is nothing I dread so much as a division of the republic into two great parties, each arranged under its leader, and concerting measures in opposition to each other. This in my humble apprehension is to be dreaded as the greatest political evil under the constitution. John Adams

two great parties is the greatest political evil - well that is what we have

here is the key quotation which has been missed because it was considered to only be an election, not a revolution (because revolution is people getting killed, etc.)

The Revolution of 1800 was as real a revolution in the principles of our government as that of 1776 was in its form: not effected indeed by the sword, as that, but by the rational and peaceable instrument of reform, the suffrage of the people T Jefferson

now some will object to bringing up the slave owner, etc. Jefferson. But his political philosophy and contributions have not been given consideration for what is needed right now, a revolution against the corporate coup d'etat

Here is info from amazon.com and links to many interviews with the new co author Thom Hartmann. Thom is pushing the book very hard and when Bernie Sanders uses the word revolution is it in the sense that Jefferson meant it.

Sorry for the long material that follows. Links are at the bottom.

The American Revolution of 1800: How Jefferson Rescued Democracy from Tyranny and Faction - and What This Means Today
by Dan Sisson (Author), Thom Hartmann (Contributor)

In this brilliant historical classic, Dan Sisson argues that Thomas Jefferson thought democratic revolutions would be necessary from time to time to break the grip of autocratic factions on the government. That is how Jefferson saw the election of 1800—and the lessons for today couldn’t be more obvious. Most historians celebrate Jefferson’s victory over Adams in 1800 as the beginning of the two-party system, but Jefferson would have been horrified by this interpretation. Drawing on the understanding of faction, revolution, and conspiracy reflected in the writings of the Founders, Sisson makes it clear that they, like Jefferson, envisioned essentially a nonparty state. Jefferson believed his election was a peaceful revolution by the American people overturning an elitist faction that was stamping out cherished constitutional rights and trying to transform our young democracy into an authoritarian state. It was a transfer of power back to the people, not a change of parties. Sisson maintains Jefferson would regard our current two-party system as a repudiation of his theory of revolution and his earnest desire that the people as a whole, not any faction or clique, would triumph in government. The ideals of the American Revolution were in danger until this “Revolution of 1800,” to which we owe the preservation of many of our key rights. With contributions by Thom Hartmann that bring out the book’s contemporary relevance, this fortieth-anniversary edition contains new insights and reflections on how Jefferson’s vision can help us in our own era of polarization, corruption, government overreach, and gridlock.
Thom Hartmann interviews of Dan Sisson

The American Revolution of 1800
http://www.thomhartmann.com/bigpicture/american-revolution-1800
Conversations with Great Minds P1 - We Are Heading for a True Revolution
http://www.thomhartmann.com/bigpicture/conversations-great-minds-p1-we-a...
Conversations with Great Minds P2 - What was The American Revolution of 1800?

http://www.thomhartmann.com/bigpicture/conversations-great-minds-p2-what...

In Federalist 10, Madison defines a faction as "a number of citizens, whether amounting to a minority or majority of the whole, who are united and actuated by some common impulse of passion, or of interest, adverse to the rights of other citizens, or to the permanent and aggregate interests of the community".

Dan and Thom have a discussion of each of the 8 chapters of the book. Thom calls the series the The Thom Hartmann University Book Club
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL5gNz_FycX96lliYijwBA4wquhUHbQJwH

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mimi's picture

the first book (The American Revolution of the 1800) is in my stack. I am right now glued to two other ones, but it is next in line. I really, really like your comments, Don. They always lead me into new territories to discover.

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lotlizard's picture

we were the first republic in 2,000 years

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

I know you sincerely thought it was true and mean no harm.

Still it's very important that we Americans up our game, and continue growing more and more self-aware of just how much of a bubble we grow up in, when it comes to history.

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mimi's picture

to be the first in anything? First Catholic President, First Black President, First Female President, First Jewish President.

Does it matter? First in science. Yeah look at the mess scientific research and technological implementation of such research can bring us. Destruction of the planet? I just would hope people would get rid of the "competition business". May be one should teach a kid to "become a farmer, a carpenter or a plumber" ... It's not about "dick size" "vaginas monologues" and "skin pigmentation" to be drastic.

Sorry, I guess that was a bit too straightly rude. But I don't know how say in a short form, what I meant to say. So, it got awkward. I take a time-out.

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lotlizard's picture

The Dutch Republic, officially known as the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands (Republiek der Zeven Verenigde Nederlanden), Republic of the United Netherlands or Republic of the Seven United Provinces (Republiek der Zeven Verenigde Provinciën), was a republic in Europe existing from 1581, when part of the Netherlands separated from Spanish rule, until 1795. It preceded the Batavian Republic, the Kingdom of Holland, the United Kingdom of the Netherlands and ultimately the modern Kingdom of the Netherlands. Alternative names include the United Provinces (Verenigde Provinciën), Federated Dutch Provinces (Foederatae Belgii Provinciae), and Dutch Federation (Belgica Foederata).

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letter to grandson

I added the bold

This has been true for the return of plutocracy, as well as for the growth of a national security state that has, like those billionaire plutocrats, gained power as the American people lost it. If that state within a state has a motto, it might be this singularly undemocratic one: Americans are safest and most secure when they are most ignorant of what their government is doing. In other words, in twenty-first-century America, “we the people” (a phrase that I hope lasts into your time) are only to know what their government does in their name to the degree that the government cares to reveal it.

Tom Englehardt who posts TomDispatch has an article just out which is a letter to his grandson. This free site provides about 3 articles per week which are posted on dailykos and pass through seldom noticed.

This particular one is in line with Pluto's series of article. Tom in an earlier post noted that citizens have been demobilized in the US

That shadow government could never have gained such power if it hadn’t been for the trauma of 9/11, the shock of experiencing for one day a kind of violence and destruction that was common enough elsewhere on the planet, and the threat posed by a single phenomenon we call “terrorism.” The Islamic extremist groups that come under that rubric do indeed represent a threat to actual human beings from Syria to Pakistan, Somalia to Libya, but they represent next to no threat to what’s now called the American “homeland.”

the shadow government pulled off the corporate coup d'etat, or maybe just call it a coup d'etat in plain sight, a slow moving coup d'etat, but it takes a while to brainwash the people

And more specifically, however much this may be an “age of acquiescence” when it comes to wealth and war, it hasn’t proved so on the subject that matters most: climate change. Against the forces of genuine criminality and wealth, despite a tenacious denial of reality funded by companies that have profited in historic ways from fossil fuels, a movement has been forming in this country and globally to save humanity from scouring itself off the planet. From pipelines to divestment, its strength has been rising at the very moment when the price of alternative energy systems is falling rapidly. It’s a combination that offers at least a modicum of hope against the worst pressures to fragment and, in the end, simply destroy this planet as a welcoming place for you and your children and their children.

So let me just end this way: someday in the distant future, I hope you’ll read this letter and that, given the ingenuity of our species, given the grit to resist madness, given whatever surprises the future holds, you’ll smile indulgently at my worst fears. You’ll assure me -- or at least whatever trace of me is left in you -- that I had a typically human inability to imagine the unpredictable future, and that in the end things never measured up to my worst fears. I hope, despite what we didn’t do, that you have the opportunity for a life of wonders, the kind that everyone on this planet deserves.

Your loving grandpa,

Tom

here is the link for the specific article noted above

http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175986/tomgram%3A_engelhardt%2C_the_futu...

you can sign up for the articles to be delivered to your inbox for free

Pluto - it is clear why you were run off DK

I must be too much of a conservative that I am still there. GoGo follows me around and some of the long time trolls look for every opportunity to zap me, but maybe I have just leaned how to avoid their stupid criteria, or maybe I am not the radical that i imagine.

in any case, GO FOR IT PLUTO!!!

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mimi's picture

and always wondered why so few people on DK read or rec'd Tom Dispatch posts.

The Islamic extremist groups that come under that rubric do indeed represent a threat to actual human beings from Syria to Pakistan, Somalia to Libya, but they represent next to no threat to what’s now called the American “homeland.”

Amen, but with what has been going on in the media and on the internet, we get a couple of confused youngsters among us, who join the "fight" for morally good reasons and intentions, but being blinded as to who they are following. They could be the occasional successful bomb throwing shopping mall "revolutionaries" here in our homelands. They don't need navy war ships and drones overseas to be convinced that they might be on the wrong track, may be all it takes is some "decent communication and conversations" with people they love and trust (which they don't have, that's the problem). It's similar what the dead-enders of the Red Army Fraction. Some of them were purely morally motivated and ended up acting the opposite way.

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but it speaks in broad and vague brushes. I'd like to request a follow-up diary that gets down into the details of how things work and what you think will happen.

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Pluto's Republic's picture

As I mentioned in a comment above, this is the preamble, or overview, to a series of essays. Each will focus on a different aspect of what is taking place, or a specific cause of the US marginalization strategy. I plan to examine the geopolitical events, alliances, and transactions that are creating the new de-dollarized world, starting with the new development banks and alternate SWIFT system. As for economic issues inside the US, there might not be much of a story there. It's a rich country with a domestic currency. Using capital controls and domestic price freezes it can weather the transition. The US may struggle with paying for trade deficits and international obligations with IMF SDRs. It's a budget issue that will force Americans to choose between investment in the US and themselves, or never-ending war for the defense profiteers.

Meanwhile, I've been enjoying all your posts very much. They provoke some great conversations and enhance people's understanding of the elaborate economic clockwork.

Visions of Geopolitical Futures — New Trading Currencies:

March 31, 2015 Founders of the China Infrastructure Investment Bank [AIIB]

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____________________

The political system is what it is because the People are who they are. — Plato
Roger Fox's picture

Removed tax breaks for domestic investment. A 70% tax rate became an effective rate of no more than 30%. I like the idea, wouldn't mind going back to the pre 1980 tax environment.

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FDR 9-23-33, "If we cannot do this one way, we will do it another way. But do it we will.

Unabashed Liberal's picture

for tax reform in the 1980's, admits to 'self-interest' being part of his, and President Reagan's motivation for lowering the marginal tax rates.

Guess he deserves kudos for being frank.

From: Council On Foreign Relations, "Renewing America"

[Note: Paragraph breaks in excerpt below, revised for emphasis.]

The Renewing America Interview: Bill Bradley on Leadership and U.S. Tax Reform

by Jonathan Masters
September 12, 2013

. . . A problem with modern reform efforts, says Bradley, is the lack thus far of a highly detailed plan put forth by tax legislators or the president, who both often speak broadly and vaguely about the issue.

“If you are serious about getting it done, there is no substitute for a very specific proposal; I did it in ’82, I did another one in ’84 and ’85; [president] Reagan did one in late ’84, and another in mid ’85, and then we were off to the races because the president and the legislature had put out exactly what they mean about tax reform,” he said.

Leadership and buy-in from the White House was essential to the success of TRA 1986, Bradley said.

and,

“Reagan bought into it because when he was an actor the [top marginal income tax] rates were 90 percent.

I bought into because when I was playing basketball, I was a depreciable asset.

There were mutualities there that could be achieved only by agreeing.” . . .

To think that Bradley was actually presented as the 'liberal' alternative to VP Al Gore--or anybody, for that matter.

Yikes!

Wink

Mollie

[At the time of this piece, Bill Bradley was a Managing Director of Allen & Company LLC, and a member of the board of directors of Starbucks Company. From Wikipedia -- Allen & Company LLC, is a small, privately held boutique investment bank based at 711 Fifth Avenue, New York City. The firm is known for its deliberate avoidance of publicity and specializes in the media and entertainment sectors.]

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Everyone thinks they have the best dog, and none of them are wrong.