Declining and Falling, by Robert Gore
The swamp’s most noxious denizens lurk in the empire’s military-industrial-intelligence backwater, swimming in their own excrement. Russiagate reveals the depths of their toxic and terminal corruption. The question is whether or not they’ll finish pulling the rest of the country into the sewage. Can America reject the filth and change course? The answer determines if America ever lives up to its founding promise, or if the present day is merely a middle chapter in The Decline and Fall of the American Empire.
This is an excerpt. For the complete article, please click the link above.
This is an excerpt. For the complete article, please click the link above.
Gore (this was before I took a good look).
I wish we could cut the government down to its proper functions (protecting man [includes woman and child] from force [includes fraud] and violence, and punishing same), and keeping our military strong in protecting us. And getting rid of the welfare state. And my getting a job and being able to do without Social Security (which I never wanted to be on in the first place).
My program manager put out a demand for any excess cash to his subordinate element managers, so that he could help another program manager whose program was seriously over budget. When I sent his thieves packing and refused his order, I of course was asked to come see the colonel. When he asked me why I chose to disobey his order, I asked him if he would keep lending money to a relative who never showed responsible management of the money, he said "Of course not," and then "Oh, I get your point." He had the good sense to stop supporting other PMs who whined about their overruns. My point here is that it's often wilful thoughtlessness and a desire to be part of the group that leads people down the wrong path, not so much an eagerness to do evil.
One of the worst offenders is the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). I was aghast when sitting through a project launch briefing and heard the agency chief say that he was proud of the fact that over 95% of their projects fail, because it showed that they were on the bleeding edge of technology. The sad reality is that DARPA project leaders consider themselves engineers superior to any other, constantly ignoring the laws of physics in their demands. Contractors that are honest and tell them to stop looking for magic solutions don't often get into the game. My team of contractors took on the idea of a rapid response launch platform for small military satellites, proposing a modification of the F-14 Thunderbird to carry an upper stage. We conclusively showed DARPA that the launch profile they demanded was impossible, we were kicked out of the competition, even though we showed them how the mission could be achieved. The winner team proceeded to burn through 150% of the budget without so much as a single prototype.
Government senior executives constantly seek to achieve a budget of over a billion dollars as a measure of their importance. The Reagan Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) missile defense program quickly became a body market, with thousands of support contractor personnel, when in fact they really only needed a couple of hundred advisors (I was nearly fired for pointing that out, saved only by the military member I was supporting threatening to end the contract if he lost my technical skills).
The swamp is indeed deep, and the culture badly needs a change. If we don't lose track, we may be able to restore a degree of responsibility. If we don't, then we are in for a rocky ride.
Truthfully, the big uncertainty is what happens if the intercepted nukes explode, as that screws up the radar frequencies needed to enable shots at the next ballistic missile. I always favored laser weapons in orbit as the best method, since it had no problem with nukes.
Don't know if that's really true but I just did the math~
2018-1776 = 242.
300-242 = 58.
http://www.usdebtclock.org/
I'm 71
The average life expectancy of a retired corrections officer is 59 and I do know some dead coworkers, some younger than me.
No way I can live for 58 more years. Yeah, I'm doing pretty well for myself.
Too bad I have offspring, though.
https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-juEXqBfswR...
As seen in Sir John Glubb's image above, most of the world's great empires lasted no longer than 250 years. Glubb looks at the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire as two different empires, based upon their distinct forms of government.
One of the reasons for decline of empire described by Glubb is the influx of masses of people from outside cultures, religions, and ethnic groups, who are different from the core populations making up the founders and conquering peoples who brought about the original empire.
Sounds familiar. And that has been done on purpose by the federal government for the past 30+ years.
New thought: Wonder if an American citizen can say that in London without being arrested for not adhering to Draconian standards of political correctness.
I picked the same paragraph as you to highlight.
First time in my life we have a President who is like a Honey Badger going after the Hive.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4r7wH...
Trump don't give a $h!p . The slime never thought she (the EVIL hag) would lose for many reasons including election fraud. They are panicking with every Trump success.
RR in the kill box. {RM. JC.JC,AM,PS,LP,LL,BC-HRC,BHO,VJ, DWS and Prune faced Muslim Brotherhood JB}
I know I missed a few but they will go down before America does.
Respectfully,
DOB
Go Grassley go Nunes go Huber ? who (you will know soon enough) go Patriots
The habit of blaming the opponent for what they do. Typical for the dumbocraps.
As is common with these articles, I completely agree with the first part but not the ending.
"swamp’s most noxious denizens "
There's no swamp and noxious denizens. We became a decadent empire for the same reasons it happened to past societies. There's no bad guy. President Trump is upsetting the apple cart of being decadent empire the same way he gets attention for saying/doing other outrageous attention-seeking things. This behavior will not solve the problem. It will support the problem and point out the problem, the same way alcohol provokes and unprovokes basic human activities.
" if the present day is merely a middle chapter in The Decline and Fall of the American Empire."
I'm generally optimistic, but I think the president day is a middle chapter in the story of empire. Historians will point out some even that was "crossing the Rubicon". People living at the time won't see it. Maybe it already happened. But the future isn't written. History doesn't repeat, but it rhymes.
ewv says it's all about philosophy. I'm starting to see it that way. If we the people don't believe in liberty and self-reliance, then no amazingly well designed government structures can make up for it.
So I think you're almost 100% right. But the talk of dark forces, though, reminds me of a documentary I saw that explains how evil companies forced wonderful things like Taco Bell and Xanax on us.