The Decaying of America.

[SouthAmerica]

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SouthAmerica: My cousin from Brazil is visiting us here in New Jersey right now – so far he did visit Florida, Pennsylvania and the New Jersey/New York metropolitan area – he took a few weeks vacation for this trip.

My cousin has visited the US more than 15 times over the years. He graduated with a MBA from Duke University about 20 years ago. He also traveled over the years many times to European and Asian countries – he has visited a lot of countries around the world.

Today when we were talking he mentioned to me that in his latest travels in the United States one thing called his attention – The decaying of bridges, the infrastructure, and neighborhoods in all the places that he visited. He also knows well the United States and has visited in the past most of the US states.

In the last two days we did spend hours watching on various channels what is happening in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

First, Iraq became to the United States what Afghanistan represented to the Soviet Union in the late 1980’s - The kiss of death.

After that I saw the Soviet Union melt slowly and die a slow death.

The United States has been following in the footsteps of the Soviet Union since Bush took power in the United States in 2001.

I have been watching on television in the last 3 days a reminder of the disintegration of the Soviet Union all over again.

The handwrite is in the wall everywhere you look at – the health care system, a crumbling pension system, 50 percent of the graduating high school students “class of 2005” can’t read or write, the shuttle program is in shambles you don’t know if the Shuttle is going to explode on lift off or on the way back on re-entry, the power grid of the United States is in intensive care, a month ago after a storm various towns in Bergen county had no electric power and Ridgewood an up scale town had no power for 3 days – some parts of California lost power last week – and yesterday they did not have power most of the day in areas around Ramsey and Mahwah also in Bergen county NJ – Tennesse just cut Medicaid to 200,000 people many of these people are very sick with cancer, stroke and other nasty diseases – the place where I fix my car a mechanic only 34 years old became very ill and had to apply for disability insurance, after many months of a US government run around he became so frustrated and felt so helpless that he did blow his brains with a gun on may 15, 2005 – he left behind a wife and a young daughter.

The signs are all around us – the United States is declining at the speed of light – and to make matters worse we have a “Moron” in charge.

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[acronym]

yeah.
stuff has to be replaced eventually, the idea of waiting till it falls down is a bit passe in human terms, not in decisionmakers terms though.
The term as near as i can tell, and as relevant to an individual as to a society, to a country, is that of "critical mass".
At what precise point, does a cause, create an effect??

 

[EBenson]

ive always thought that NASA should be privatizied.
anyone sees downside to it?

 

[sKaLpZ]

Quote from southamerica:

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SouthAmerica: My cousin from Brazil is visiting us here in New Jersey right now – so far he did visit Florida, Pennsylvania and the New Jersey/New York metropolitan area – he took a few weeks vacation for this trip.

My cousin has visited the US more than 15 times over the years. He graduated with a MBA from Duke University about 20 years ago. He also traveled over the years many times to European and Asian countries – he has visited a lot of countries around the world.

Today when we were talking he mentioned to me that in his latest travels in the United States one thing called his attention – The decaying of bridges, the infrastructure, and neighborhoods in all the places that he visited. He also knows well the United States and has visited in the past most of the US states.

In the last two days we did spend hours watching on various channels what is happening in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

First, Iraq became to the United States what Afghanistan represented to the Soviet Union in the late 1980’s - The kiss of death.

After that I saw the Soviet Union melt slowly and die a slow death.

The United States has been following in the footsteps of the Soviet Union since Bush took power in the United States in 2001.

I have been watching on television in the last 3 days a reminder of the disintegration of the Soviet Union all over again.

The handwrite is in the wall everywhere you look at – the health care system, a crumbling pension system, 50 percent of the graduating high school students “class of 2005” can’t read or write, the shuttle program is in shambles you don’t know if the Shuttle is going to explode on lift off or on the way back on re-entry, the power grid of the United States is in intensive care, a month ago after a storm various towns in Bergen county had no electric power and Ridgewood an up scale town had no power for 3 days – some parts of California lost power last week – and yesterday they did not have power most of the day in areas around Ramsey and Mahwah also in Bergen county NJ – Tennesse just cut Medicaid to 200,000 people many of these people are very sick with cancer, stroke and other nasty diseases – the place where I fix my car a mechanic only 34 years old became very ill and had to apply for disability insurance, after many months of a US government run around he became so frustrated and felt so helpless that he did blow his brains with a gun on may 15, 2005 – he left behind a wife and a young daughter.

The signs are all around us – the United States is declining at the speed of light – and to make matters worse we have a “Moron” in charge.

.

it's all the millions and millions of Mexicans who have moved here, infiltrating our society like a plague.

they have a much lower standard of living - so things are beginning to reflect Mexico.

it's fine with them, and they do nothing productive so everything decays.

 

[version77]

Quote from southamerica:

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The signs are all around us – the United States is declining at the speed of light – and to make matters worse we have a “Moron” in charge.

.

Sounds like you and your family have a serious case of depression.
My advice is to talk to a doctor immediately and see if there is still
a chance you can be helped.

When you see a glass as being half empty instead of half full, you
know you have a problem.

Sorry about your problem. But there is help. But you must go get
it yourself. Nobody is going to bring the meds to your house!

 

[Sam123]

Quote from southamerica:

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[snip]

Another short seller of America cheerleading his position again because he keeps getting squeezed.

Since parts of Asia is on an infrastructure growth spurt, everything is new and modern. America had several infrastructure growth spurts that began a long time ago, when much of the world was living on dirt. So, today, you will see examples of old roads and old buildings mixed with new roads and new buildings. America is a very large place with all sorts of economies, some in good shape, some in bad shape. It’s constantly changing. Some states have better economies/policies than other states. Some have bad roads; others have excellent roads. It has always been this way.

Our national electrical grid is fine. You are referring to California’s bad policy of not building power plants while its population exploded. It’s a policy issue, not a sign of national economic doom.

I won’t respond to the rest of your comments because they are either totally false, or reflect the usual “greater fool theory” of the Leftist blogosphere.

 

[fan27]

Quote from southamerica:

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The United States has been following in the footsteps of the Soviet Union since Bush took power in the United States in 2001.

I have been watching on television in the last 3 days a reminder of the disintegration of the Soviet Union all over again.

.

To compare the USA with the the former Soviet Union as you are doing shows your lack of intelligence. Last I checked, the USA has the worlds largest economy.

fan27

 

[Rearden Metal]

Quote from southamerica:

. 50 percent of the graduating high school students “class of 2005” can’t read or write

Please show me a legitimate source for this little tidbit of information.

...or admit you made it up.

 

[SouthAmerica]

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Fan27: To compare the USA with the former Soviet Union as you are doing shows your lack of intelligence. Last I checked, the USA has the world’s largest economy.


*****


SouthAmerica: Until 1917 the British had the world’s largest and most powerful army and economy.

Until the late 1980’s the Soviet Union had the 2nd largest economy, and I don't know which army was number one since the US did not have a nuclear showdown with the Soviet Union.

Today you have, tomorrow you don’t.

What destroyed the British Empire?

It was not another country’s army - It was high taxes and a very high level of defense spending - Death by taxation.

Very high “Defense Spending” was one of the major reasons the Soviet Union went out of business.

Since 2001 the United States has been following in the footsteps of the Soviet Union – The US Defense spending for 2005 is estimated to be around $ 520 Billion dollars.

Since George W. Bush took office in Jan 2001, year after year the US defense spending has gone up. During the first five years of a Bush Administration the US has wasted over $ 2.1 Trillion dollars in defense spending instead of investing the money in the US infrastructure.

During that same period it is estimated that Europe spent $ 750 Billion dollars, China $ 235 billion dollars, and Russia $ 325 billion dollars in defense spending.


Actual Defense Spending Four-year (4) period – January 2001 to December 2004:

United States = $ 1.7 Trillion dollars

China = $ 235 Billion dollars

Europe = $ 750 Billion dollars

Russia = $ 325 Billion dollars


Note: The US did spend $ 2.1 trillion dollars in defense spending from 2001 to 2005 - but the entire world has been watching the fiasco in Iraq - and in the last week the world has been watching how incompetent and unprepared the US government has become - what we have been watching on television is not Somalia, the Sudan, Congo or Ethiopia - we have been watching chaos inside of the United States in a chunk of land of the size of France.

This is not a laughing matter - this is a wake up call to the rest of the United States, because what you have been watching in the South of the United States can happen on your area.

No electric power, no water, no telephone system, no food for many days, no help for the sick and disabled, no operating hospital, no information about anything, the police disappearing from sight because they also had to go and try to save their loved ones - just "Anarchy and Chaos"

That can be the coming attraction also coming to your local neighborhood some time in the future.

Remember the blackout that we had in the New York/New Jersey metropolitan area 2 years ago? That was chaotic and lasted only for 7 hours in our area.

In the last two days some people have been playing the race card - but I have been watching all the news since the storm arrived in New Orleans and not
once I was thinking about the race card I was watching just plain incompetence as it is becoming a fact of life in the US.

The Iraqi fiasco, the Shuttle fiasco, Enron, Worlcom, the collapse of the pension system of one industry after another in the US, I can keep going on, and on...........


.

 

[fan27]

Quote from southamerica:

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Fan27: To compare the USA with the former Soviet Union as you are doing shows your lack of intelligence. Last I checked, the USA has the world’s largest economy.


*****


SouthAmerica: Until 1917 the British had the world’s largest and most powerful army and economy.

Until the late 1980’s the Soviet Union had the 2nd largest economy, and I don't know which army was number one since the US did not have a nuclear showdown with the Soviet Union.

Today you have, tomorrow you don’t.

What destroyed the British Empire?

It was not another country’s army - It was high taxes and a very high level of defense spending - Death by taxation.

Very high “Defense Spending” was one of the major reasons the Soviet Union went out of business.

Since 2001 the United States has been following in the footsteps of the Soviet Union – The US Defense spending for 2005 is estimated to be around $ 520 Billion dollars.

Since George W. Bush took office in Jan 2001, year after year the US defense spending has gone up. During the first five years of a Bush Administration the US has wasted over $ 2.1 Trillion dollars in defense spending instead of investing the money in the US infrastructure.

During that same period it is estimated that Europe spent $ 750 Billion dollars, China $ 235 billion dollars, and Russia $ 325 billion dollars in defense spending.


Actual Defense Spending Four-year (4) period – January 2001 to December 2004:

United States = $ 1.7 Trillion dollars

China = $ 235 Billion dollars

Europe = $ 750 Billion dollars

Russia = $ 325 Billion dollars


Note: The US did spend $ 2.1 trillion dollars in defense spending from 2001 to 2005 - but the entire world has been watching the fiasco in Iraq - and in the last week the world has been watching how incompetent and unprepared the US government has become - what we have been watching on television is not Somalia, the Sudan, Congo or Ethiopia - we have been watching chaos inside of the United States in a chunk of land of the size of France.

This is not a laughing matter - this is a wake up call to the rest of the United States, because what you have been watching in the South of the United States can happen on your area.

No electric power, no water, no telephone system, no food for many days, no help for the sick and disabled, no operating hospital, no information about anything, the police disappearing from sight because they also had to go and try to save their loved ones - just "Anarchy and Chaos"

That can be the coming attraction also coming to your local neighborhood some time in the future.

Remember the blackout that we had in the New York/New Jersey metropolitan area 2 years ago? That was chaotic and lasted only for 7 hours in our area.

In the last two days some people have been playing the race card - but I have been watching all the news since the storm arrived in New Orleans and not
once I was thinking about the race card I was watching just plain incompetence as it is becoming a fact of life in the US.

The Iraqi fiasco, the Shuttle fiasco, Enron, Worlcom, the collapse of the pension system of one industry after another in the US, I can keep going on, and on...........


.

A comparison of the USA to the British Empire makes more sense. I am not saying that the US does not have problems and are best days are probably behind us. All democracies eventually fail. Hopefully this time, it will be different.

As for the Soviet Union having the 2nd largest economy until the late eighties, what are you basing that conclusion on? Phony economic data from the Kremlin? Their economy sucked. I am sure that would have been apparent from going into the homes of 99.5 % of the russians.

fan27