America Nearing Its End?

[Ernest Buckley]

Irans presidents stated America is nearing its end...

 

Article Here

 

I don`t think this is a political post but I can`t help but feel there is some sort of "shift" going on these days with so much going on and now the country is going into something very close to a depression... but this could be even more across the board... makes you wonder.

[Jimbroni]

 

Irans presidents stated America is nearing its end... Article Here I don`t think this is a political post but I can`t help but feel there is some sort of "shift" going on these days with so much going on and now the country is going into something very close to a depression... but this could be even more across the board... makes you wonder.

 

 

If all the money and baseball and apple pie disappeared tomorrow, do you honestly think the people of America would turn off their tv shows and video games enough to notice.

 

And even if they did notice, I could still make my way to lake michigan sunrise, or have morning sex.

 

Sometimes I think that the best thing one can do is image himself in worst possible case scenario, then realize that the truly best parts of life will still be there.

[whiteop]

knew the guy was trouble the first time I saw and heard him in some interviews several years ago. From all the intel I've seen in recent years, there's no doubt that Iran supports terrorism and this guy would love to see the USA bulldozed to the ground...

[soapbox]

The world ended in 1999, just like everyone predicted.

 

We're living in the matrix now.

[gtrbass]

I know several people who are Iranian-Americans with relatives in the old country. They say that this guy Ahmadinejad actually has no real power in the way their government is structured and he is nothing more than a mouthpiece. I have no idea if that's true, but he is really a goofy idiot.

 

In the 1930's Shah Reza Pahlavi established close ties with Nazi Germany and was a stalwart admirer of Hitler and the concept of the Aryan master race.

 

The Shah went on to ask the international community to use the native name of "Iran" in 1935 to address his country, which in Persian means 'Land of the Aryans' The country had been known as Iran to the native people themselves for many centuries, but Westerners came to refer to the nation as Persia.

 

During the early 1930s, Iranian Police General Sar-lashgar Mohammad Hosein Ayrom made considerable effort to model Iran's Security Police after the Gestapo. When the Shah was forced out in 1941, he escaped to Nazi Germany and became a member of Hitler's SS.

 

There are some figures in Iranian history who played a role in the Holocaust and now they deny it.

[UstadKhanAli]

 

I know several people who are Iranian-Americans with relatives in the old country. They say that this guy Ahmadinejad actually has no real power in the way their government is structured and he is nothing more than a mouthpiece.

 

 

I've heard the same thing as well from a few Iranians and Iraqis, and Newsweek, I believe, has ran an article saying the same thing. Interesting.

[Anderton]

Well...empires come and go. It wasn't that long ago that "the sun never set on the British empire." Spain was a huge power at one point, ditto France, what with colonies in Africa and Asia.

 

All of the above lost their empires, but now have really good club scenes. Coincidence? You decide!

[Music Calgary]

I know several people who are Iranian-Americans with relatives in the old country. They say that this guy Ahmadinejad actually has no real power in the way their government is structured

 

Oh, well there it is then. No need for any other data in light of that...

 

Go bust your asses some more America, Wallstreet needs a new swimming pool.

 

All of the above lost their empires, but now have really good club scenes. Coincidence? You decide!

 

[rasputin1963]

 

The world ended in 1999, just like everyone predicted. We're living in the matrix now.

 

 

Not too far from wrong. As the movie WAG THE DOG satirized, the media has won the minds of the average American.

 

TV could tell Americans that the sky is chartreuse with purple spots, and they'd believe it.

 

So... whom shall you vote for-- Tweedle-Dum or Tweedle-Dee?

[Billster]

 

Well...empires come and go. It wasn't that long ago that "the sun never set on the British empire." Spain was a huge power at one point, ditto France, what with colonies in Africa and Asia. All of the above lost their empires, but now have really good club scenes. Coincidence? You decide!

 

 

The planet is becoming one society and economy. The ascendant area is the Far East - China, Japan, South Korea. Look how fast the Koreans moved from joke to serious players on par with Japan. Hyundai in 1986? Hyundai in 2008? World of difference.

 

The U.S. is now post-industrial. What role will the nation fill in the world-wide puzzle? Up until a few month ago "accounting" might have been the answer. Now? ...

[Magpel]

Hot Dogs, get your hot dogs, armor hot dogs, Oscar Mayer, Saberet, Ball Park Franks,

 

Get Your Hot Dogs right here

[saktr-iyko]

 

The world ended in 1999, just like everyone predicted. We're living in the matrix now.

 

 

statistically this is the most likely scenario

[Will Chen]

 

The planet is becoming one society and economy. The ascendant area is the Far East - China, Japan, South Korea. Look how fast the Koreans moved from joke to serious players on par with Japan. Hyundai in 1986? Hyundai in 2008? World of difference. The U.S. is now post-industrial. What role will the nation fill in the world-wide puzzle? Up until a few month ago "accounting" might have been the answer. Now? ...

 

 

Excellent post. I think eventually the manufacturing playing field will be leveled either through salary inflation in the East or advanced robotic techniques which require very little human interaction. At that point, shipping will be the greatest expense which will result in the reorganization of manufacturing to smaller specialized plants all around the world rather than mega plants crowded into the cheapest labor market.

 

Another area America can capitalize in if we move swiftly is alternative energy innovation and product design. There are some exciting things happening domestically in that arena.

[Ernest Buckley]

 

All of the above lost their empires, but now have really good club scenes. Coincidence? You decide!

 

 

Good point. There is a silver lining!

[amplayer]

There are very few people in the USA who have any respect for Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the man who claims the holocaust didn't happen.

 

In the article that sites his speech, did you notice that nobody (other than a note-taker) was even present for the Americans? People who are so anti-Jew have no respect here, and we don't care what he says other than to marvel at how outrageous he is.

 

If Obama becomes president, I sure hope he doesn't follow through on his promise to have talks without preconditions with the likes of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. I'm not a Bush supporter, but I am glad Bush doesn't have talks with this guy.

[rasputin1963]

If the globe IS becoming internationalized, Americans had better get on the ball. The vast majority of Americans do not speak a Second language and have no intention of learning one...

 

This is why the media must mollycoddle us, hypnotize us and give us various news blackouts on various "unsavoury" subjects. Every thinking American should read Noam Chomsky.

 

Remember John Lennon's lyric:

 

Keep you doped with religion and sex and TV

And you think you're so clever and classless and free

But you're still {censored}ing peasants as far as I can see

[shniggens]

America nearing it's end?

 

I sure hope so. Then the world can have someone else to blame for all of its problems.

[BlueStrat]

"The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed, and hence clamorous to be led to safety, by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary."

 

-H.L. Mencken

 

Since the mid 60s, I've seen and heard this same fear expressed. It came from my grandparents when they saw the Russians putting satellites into space and 'taking over the world'. It came from my parents in the late 60s, when hippies were crashing on sidewalks and 'free love' and drugs started showing up everywhere, and riots were going on, and families began disintegrating at a rapid rate. I thought so myself in the 70s, when we had gas lines and we couldn't even rescue our hostages from a third world dictatorship like Iran.

 

The point is, there are always signs of unraveling in every generation and every generation thinks the end is near.

 

Having said all that I do think we're seeing the end of American exceptionalism in the world, mostly because her own citizens no longer believe it. Once we start flippantly staking out moral equivalence positions between nations and governments without regard to intent and the freedom of those governments' own citizens, we're cooked.

[bbach]

 

If all the money and baseball and apple pie disappeared tomorrow, do you honestly think the people of America would turn off their tv shows and video games enough to notice. And even if they did notice, I could still make my way to lake michigan sunrise, or have morning sex. Sometimes I think that the best thing one can do is image himself in worst possible case scenario, then realize that the truly best parts of life will still be there.

 

 

Don't under estimate all of us apple pie eating tv watching Americans. We have no intention of simply giving up on our country.

Now if a few million of our American bretherans feel the same way, regardless of ethnic or economic background, I think we have a fighting chance.

[Rabid]

 

Well...empires come and go. It wasn't that long ago that "the sun never set on the British empire." Spain was a huge power at one point, ditto France, what with colonies in Africa and Asia. All of the above lost their empires, but now have really good club scenes. Coincidence? You decide!

 

 

Yep, history shows us that empires come and go. The question is does the United States go the way of the Aztecs, find a stable center like England and France, or fade into the background and wait for a come back like China?

[Rabid]

 

If the globe IS becoming internationalized, Americans had better get on the ball. The vast majority of Americans do not speak a Second language and have no intention of learning one...

 

 

This is more a matter of environment than being American. I took German language in 11th and 12th grades. Then I found the BIG disadvantage of Americans and language. I could not use what I learned and it was quickly forgotten. Europeans have a much better environment for using those extra languages. It is the same with so many people across the world using English. You can bet if German language was required to used 90% of the Internet then American Kids would be learning German and retaining it.

[Billster]

 

Yep, history shows us that empires come and go. The question is does the United States go the way of the Aztecs, find a stable center like England and France, or fade into the background and wait for a come back like China?

 

 

 

Pretty good perspective.

[UstadKhanAli]

 

Yep, history shows us that empires come and go. The question is does the United States go the way of the Aztecs, find a stable center like England and France, or fade into the background and wait for a come back like China?

 

 

Hopefully we'll stabilize a bit and play to some of our strengths - ingenuity. Find clean, cheap clean green alternative energy sources that can be mass-produced and made cheaply for cars and other things, and the world will pound our door down wanting to get it instead of battling over oil. This would be one way to do achieve some stability, although not the only answer of course. And I think that it's something that someone of any political affiliation could get behind.

[UstadKhanAli]

If the globe IS becoming internationalized, Americans had better get on the ball. The vast majority of Americans do not speak a Second language and have no intention of learning one...

 

That's how it is across the U.S.? It's so hard for me to tell, living in Los Angeles, where it seems like someone who *doesn't* speak a second language is in the minority!!!!

 

I work in a place where over half the people are Armenian, and most of the people don't speak English as a first language. Over 60% of the population of Los Angeles speak Spanish. Obviously, I know the country's not like this, but it's very different in some of the large cities in the U.S.

 

Anyway, I think Rabid is right. It's the environment (two giant oceans bracketing us), and if Americans need to learn a language out of necessity, they would.

[bbach]

That's how it is across the U.S.? It's so hard for me to tell, living in Los Angeles, where it seems like someone who *doesn't* speak a second language is in the minority!!!! I work in a place where over half the people are Armenian, and most of the people don't speak English as a first language. Over 60% of the population of Los Angeles speak Spanish. Obviously, I know the country's not like this, but it's very different in some of the large cities in the U.S.

 

That's interesting. I live in a place where everyone is of white european decent. Some speak some old German and even a bit of Norwegian, but that's about it. Then I travel about the US and wonder why I don't take up Spanish, especially when I'm in Southern Cal, most big cities, or anywhere in Florida. Then my goofy daughter signs up for French class in school. French?