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| Silverfiddle Rant! |
See the world now? The state of our union?
This is what happens when you let kids with fancy university degrees and no real-world experience run things.
Matthew Syed is optimistic:
They know that the West has finally noticed what Gibbon called “the poison introduced into the vitals of the system”: the torrent of dirty money in our financial centers, the infiltration of universities and think tanks, and the broader corrosion of our values. Some pundits described last week as a “reset” for western policy, but what we are seeing is, I think, infinitely more consequential. This is a reawakening of the West.
We had our UniPolar Moment, and we Blew it
The first signs of the crumbling of the unipolar order came in the rubble of the feckless wars of moralistic regime change usually referred to as the “War on Terror.” The hubristic, militaristic excesses of the neoconservative elements of the Right (namely, Afghanistan and Iraq) and the humanitarian internationalist Left (namely, Libya), the failures of which were clearly evident at least a decade ago but which nonetheless were encapsulated by last year’s disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan, have taken a huge toll on the American citizenry. (The End of the Unipolar Moment)
The best of all worlds, the worst of all worlds
We are now weaker, poorer and more fractured that we were when the Berlin Wall fell.
What have we learned?
China has already gone to school: While Russia smashes and crushes its way to "victory" in Chechnya, Crimea and Georgia, China takes Hong Kong--quietly and deliberately--without firing a shot. Taiwan will be trickier, but China has the US and this current situation under a microscope, and they are taking notes.
Will the US and western governments learn from this current crisis (that was 30 years in the making) and apply lessons learned going forward? Doubtful.
Our 'elites' and foreign policy 'experts' here in the US will learn nothing, because they are so smart they already know it all. Just ask Jen.
Iran's Terror Mullahs have learned that if they get functioning nuclear missiles, they can terrorize and murder with impunity.
Western Europe will go back to business as usual. Germany will still be sucking Vlad's gas pipe, and the Olde Continent's militaries will continue to be glorified jobs programs.
Eastern Europe has learned that the Western partners they once looked up to are feckless pontificators, good at talking and not much else. I wouldn't be surprised one day to see the Eastern European nations leave NATO, keep the gear, and go to war and defeat Old Man Russia.
What We Should be Learning:
A few old chestnuts:
* Peace through strength
* Trust but verify
* Real Military Partnerships where our partners take primary responsibility for their defense
* Don't economically beggar thy friendly neighbors - What strengthens them strengthens you
Also, some global Zig Ziglar wouldn't hurt: Peace Corps, International goodwill activities, bribery, friendly cajoling, and a big dose of anti-globalist respect for local cultures and the will of the people.
Can we ever go back to the desire for the "avoidance of foreign entanglements" expressed in the Federalist Papers?
ReplyDeleteNot so long as money represents and fulfills our varied human "desires", and DC will "represent its' interests instead of those of America's average citizens.
The American dream Has CHANGED. We want everything, bigger, grander, more luxurious, but without having to do any of the actual work necessary to produce it. Our desires for consumption grow bigger and expectations increasingly unrealistic. And our government has done nothing to help us realistically manage our expectations. It now seeks of its own volition to dominate the world, so that we can have ever more, an ever bigger share of the pie. For it has no stated purpose, but to serve our desires. And our desires are both unlimited and rapacious.
ReplyDeleteIf Europe ends up going completely off of Russian natural gas and Russian petroleum, and if Europe ends up spending more money on defense, this is economically inefficient. Europe and the United States are being driven into a new and different Afghanistan
ReplyDeleteIt does look bad for our collective aggragate efficiency.
DeleteEd Bonderinka ask a very good question yesterday: something to the effect, what if the powers that be are not stupid, but rather everything is proceeding according to plan?
ReplyDeleteTo turn Ukraine into a massive energy solar collector? Wind farm?
Delete^.. or a post apocalyptic vision of the 10th circle of Dante's Inferno.
DeleteDoes anything ever happen but God's will?
DeleteJob 40 & 41
DeleteHave you free will?
DeleteThe world, free trade?
Delete:P
DeleteNancy pelosi's house cafeteria is offering freedom dressing for your salad.
ReplyDeleteI would wonder if some of them are going to play freedom roulette later, but that would be uncharitable
Oh goody! can I have a Liberty Sandwich some Freedom Fries and a side of Liberty Cabbage.
DeleteDoes any of that cabbage come in $100s denominations?
Delete"I wouldn't be surprised one day to see the Eastern European nations leave NATO, keep the gear, and go to war and defeat Old Man Russia."
ReplyDeleteFrom your lips to God's ears. But "one day" isn't fast enough.
Warren's right..what 'plan?' To destroy a beautiful country and kill tons of people including children?
This week Joe Biden stars as William McKinley in the new 2022 adaptation of the Spanish American War with the invasion of Ukraine serving to rally America behind an unpopular Administration... anything to prevent a populist workers movement's Free silver BitCoin alternatives from supplanting the dollar as the world's fiat currency. Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia eyes the Yuan as a possible alternative for the dollar monopoly on oil transactions. Has our new Gilded Age come to an end, or must we wait for the a new round of globalist trench warfare to bog Europe down? Enquiring minds wish to know.
ReplyDeleteCorporate Propaganda Wars, anyone?
DeleteI think we should commemorate the event by registering some Biden 3-D $3 NFTs... with Joe's portrait on the front, and Hunter with Burisma executives on the back.
DeleteIn honor of Biden-flation maybe we should also print up some 3-D $100,000 denomination NFTs with Janet Yellen's picture on them. We'll probably need something to feed into the new charging stations for all our legally mandated electric vehicles starting in 2024.
Delete...of course, like the ban on future donations to the Republican Party, none of them can be used to purchase petroleum products either following the carbon ban of 2023, for they'll not appear be on Amazon's government approved purchases list.
Deletebtw, I hear there's a CrypToadz NFT currently up for sale for 300,000 ETHEREUM ($790m). Best get one before the market bottoms out.
Deleteps- CrypToadz are a favorite "swamp creature" amongst DC elites.
Delete@Warren "^.. or a post apocalyptic vision of the 10th circle of Dante's Inferno."
ReplyDeleteIt astounds me that others would be thinking about the 10th circle of Dante's Inferno. Yesterday thinking about so many things this exactly came to mind. I blew it off and told myself, "no, no way you are imagining too much into this."
Well, thanks Warren, you just vindicated me and I will have a liberty cheeseburger and liberty fries and a liberty coca cola please! :)
@ Elizabeth, I don't know if you know but the Liberty Sandwich, Freedom Fries and Liberty Cabbage were real things during WW1 for the first and last and the Freedom Fries were a jab at the French when they didn't back us in the run-up to the Gulf War.
ReplyDeleteUseless home front propaganda and agitation that ended up getting a few Americans of German descent, murdered and countless ostracized because their parents or grandparents came from Germany.
Here, there was even a local ordinance during WW1, that sauerkraut had to be called Liberty Cabbage or it couldn't be sold. They never bothered to take it off the books but everyone ignored it. At that time the population of this County was of German descent, the closest small towns are named Darmstadt and Haubstadt. I've been through their namesakes in Germany.
^time "the majority of" the^
ReplyDeleteWell, well missy here is learning something new every day and today I just learned from you something I was never taught in school, heard of in the myriads of documentaries or books I have read. I love learning so thank you for sharing all that with me. I appreciate it.
DeleteA lot of German POWs elected to stay in America after WW2. Here in Missouri it reminded them of the German countryside before it was bombed to ruins and there already was a large German-American population here. St. Louis has always been a French city overrun by Germans ;)
ReplyDeleteSounds like Chicago's Germantown. Too bad Chicago is a mess now thanks to the liberals, but if one could visit it would be quite educational. The one thing I have known about Germans during my life is that they hate talking about WW11. Does anyone here share the same experience or were yours different than mine?
ReplyDeleteOkay I am channeling the former greatest blogger the great Gasmasked hero.
ReplyDeleteSince OBAMA the USA is upside down. Democrats dont give a crap about working people. They throw Blacks into a hysteria with their communis allies at BLM pocketing cash at every police shooting. Only some people who live in bad enclaves arent fooled. They pretend Hispanics all want illegal immigration
Pretty much you have rule by the elites in big tech, big media and big education
On foreign policy Barry Obong sold out our historical allies India isnt with us. The Israelis find it easier to deal with Putin than Obama. They have Russia on their border and 600k Jews in Russia. India is a historical ally but the pot smoker messed that up as well
There is no Biden administration. Its Barry Obong loyalists trotting out a zombie. Then Obama does Alfred E Newman if asked between bong hits.
The best thing that can happen is to let AOC run and the party goes down in flames.
No I dont want troops there. Just give the Ukrainians whatever they need. Get the Chechen and Syrian mercenaries first. Have George Galloway explain what peaceful Muslims are doing in the Ukraine
+++
DeleteWe have professional liars on the right too. Mitch McConnell, Mitt Romney and that is just the beginning of the list. All politicians are the GREAT DECEIVERS and liars. I have lost faith in the Republicans because they sitting so quiet except a couple like Rand Paul--other than that the Republicans are just as culpable as the Democrats because they are just letting it happen. If this was Trump he would have been impeached...sick people in this nation. Depressing and it infuriates me. Everyone-well, not everyone, but most blame only Dems and the Republicans are as bad. I say worse because they are allowing this and killing our nation and for what? Waiting on mid-term elections in the meantime we suffer and cannot leave our homes.
ReplyDeleteDid anyone see yesterday the footage shown on Fox's 'The Five?' The Judge went off about criminals getting off because of these left leaning judges. They beat a 62-year-old woman and pushed her down the subway stairs in NYC. She was taken to the hospital she works for-for the last 25 years as a nurse. Then the Asian woman who was beat up and knocked in the face 167 times! These are just two of the many going on now in NYC not to mention the rest of the nation. Crime has never been so high. Okay the Dems are LIARS and BAD, but what the heck is the Republicans doing. Nothing. They are letting it happen. I never thought I would see the day when my party soon to be former party sits back and says, "have it!" I am seriously doing what my dad told me when I was growing up, "NEVER VOTE PARTY LINES - VOTE FOR THE BEST MAN." We do not even have a best woman let a lone a best man!
There is jubilation about how badly Democrat are going to get thrashed in November, but reality is that even if it happens nothing will change. Last time Republicans controlled Congress, even with a Republican in the White House, they claimed to be powerless because the Democrat minority blocked their every move. Funny how a Republican minority has no effect on Democrat control, but a Democrat minority blocks Republican control.
DeleteYes, that astounds me and makes me livid. I would love to slap them all and give them a taste of some good old fashioned soap in their mouth for discipline for being bad people with evil hearts all doing evil. What is wrong with these people? I don't understand anymore. I am really losing faith in our government.
DeleteElizabeth,
DeleteUp votes for your comment @ 2:41 PM!
Jayhawk,
DeleteSo disheartening what the GOP has become!
** NOTICE **
ReplyDeleteThe Doctor's Wife is a spambot. Please ignore it. When we zap bots, all responses get zapped with them.
Wow that was some spam bot. I guess there is a first time for everything SF because that bot fooled me. Sheese!
ReplyDeleteElizabeth, no problem. You never see most of her posts, because we delete them or throw them in the spam folder. We have a few of the same bots that come around and they provide can statements. At first, we tested them by responding to their comments and asking questions, and they never respond.
DeleteWell, it fooled me probably because that bot was an AI ...At my site they are all canned bots, some of them with names as hairstylists lol :)
ReplyDeleteIt's weird. Some of them come back with a follow up comment like "Hey, why are you deleting my comments?"
DeleteAnd as a test, I have replied to some of them with insults, and to my surprise, a few answered back like real people. So I don't know how it works. I think some of it may just be people posting spam in the old fashioned way.
One clue is they appear to just be posting the "message of the day," rather than responding to the article. Another clue is you rarely see them responding to another commenter.
In the end, all I can say is, "Idunno..."