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Wart hogs fill an important ecological niche. War dogs leave your economy tits up in a ditch.

Flyingsaucesir 8 Nov 26
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Following up on Lorajay and HippieChick58's comments, the late historian Chalmers Johnson outlined the effects of the American version of imperialism -- our military bases around the world -- in a trilogy of books called The Blowback Series. In the final volume, Nemesis, he makes this uncannily accurate prediction: "Specifically, I believe that to maintain our empire abroad requires resources and commitments that will inevitably undercut our domestic democracy and in the end produce a military dictatorship or its civilian equivalent. The founders of our nation understood this well and tried to create a form of government – a republic – that would prevent this from occurring. But the combination of huge standing armies, almost continuous wars, military Keynesianism, and ruinous military expenses have destroyed our republican structure in favor of an imperial presidency. We are on the cusp of losing our democracy for the sake of keeping our empire. Once a nation is started down that path, the dynamics that apply to all empires come into play – isolation, overstretch, the uniting of forces opposed to imperialism, and bankruptcy."

We dodged that bullet (sorta) in 2020. Will we in 2024?

My guess is we won't. I can't see the comments of the two women you mentioned, as they both blocked me long ago, so I can't comment on what they said. Eisnehower said it long ago, that the MIC steals money from providing for the public good and needs of average people, but it makes a small number of people very rich, and the pols in DC are too bought off to change the system. So we'll always get empire and the MIC, no matter which major party controls DC.

@TomMcGiverin I wholeheartedly agree with you--Democrats have certainly been happy to contribute to the American Empire. It's been a cross-party constant for decades, as is the accompanying corruption. But it was the dictatorship we almost got with the last Republican "pResident" that was uniquely GQP.

@DharmaBum50 That's the thing, the Dems support the ruling class over us peasants, as well as empire, the MIC, endless wars, erosion of civil liberties, corporate control of government and media, but at the same time, they want to maintain the charade of elections and democracy, because they prefer to keep order and relative peace in this country. While the Repubs, under Trumpism, have thrown out all pretense of keeping democracy and rule of law, they just want civil war, followed by a dictatorship that will eliminate them needing to win elections, follow any laws or respect the rule of law, and hold power permanently, even if they are always a minority of the population. And the Repubs will openly have the ruling class running everything, and everyone else will be openly treated like serfs, while any dissenters or despised groups will be imprisoned or lose all of their rights as citizens.

@TomMcGiverin I won't say your pessimism isn't well-founded, but the worst case scenario is not a fait acompli. Not yet anyway. There is a slim chance that we can turn things around.

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This is a perfect example of the American economy for the last 75 years. We are the gun runners of the world and the world is not better for it. I'm stealing this for Facebook by the way.

Be my guest! 😂

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We need to get over being the world's policeman. There is no need to have our troops stationed on foreign soil, no any need for a bloated military budget. Granted, I loved being in Germany, and enjoyed Japan, we don't have any Japanese or German bases in the US.

We have something like 700 bases around the world.

@Flyingsaucesir To go down memory lane, and because my kid has moved to Europe, I used Google Maps to look at some of the bases I was familiar with in Germany and Japan. Things have changed incredibly, but it has been 40 years in some cases. I think our focus has been moved from Europe to the middle east where we're fighting wars over oil. We cannot sustain this.

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