Yes, it is a steep, crash-and-burn decline. But I have not forgotten Jeremiah 18:7,8 : "The instant I speak concerning a nation and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up, to pull down, and to destroy it, if that nation against whom I have spoken turns from its evil, I will relent of the disaster that I thought to bring upon it."
Arnaud Bertrand provides a precis of the Washington Post story on the explosive Rand Think Tank report:
"This is explosive stuff. It says, "The United States might be stumbling toward a decline from which few great powers have ever recovered."
"The study describes this decline as “accelerating” and doesn't seem optimistic about recovery: “Recovery from significant long-term national decline is rare and difficult to detect in the historical record. [...] When great powers have slid from a position of preeminence or leadership because of domestic factors, they seldom reversed this trend.”
"What causes the decline? Pretty much everything you'd expect: “military overstretch,” “self-interested and warring elites,” “Addiction to luxury and decadence,” “failure to keep pace with … technological demands,” “ossified” bureaucracy, “loss of civic virtue,” “unsustainable environmental practices”, etc.
Is the sun slowly setting on U.S. power? That depends on us, @IgnatiusPost writes. https://wapo.st/49WjZGV
12:07 PM · Apr 27, 2024
"Thousands of civilian victims were murdered, wounded, raped, tortured, mutilated and over two hundred fifty civilians were kidnapped and held hostage by these terrorists including those from HAMAS, PIJ, PFLP and HEZBOLLAH (“October 7th Attack”)."
Plaintiffs allege the UNWRA enabled and funded the training of militants to commit acts of war, terrorism and war crimes.
chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.dcd.283279/gov.uscourts.dcd.283279.1.0.pdf
Putin has been consistent from the before the Military Operation that he simply wants to be left alone by NATO, the EU and the US. His terms for peace have been reasonable and have not changed.
Alastair Crooke:
"There are reports that Macron and Starmer agreed in a conversation that Zelensky must conduct some provocative operation [this week]
"--a false flag operation or a provocative attack into Russia, into the depth of Russia or something else--sufficient to create an absolute pressure on Putin to respond, and thus to destroy the meeting altogether, to stop the meeting taking place.
"The Europeans are terrified of the [Alaska] meeting taking place [on Friday] and they want to stop it. I believe the Russians have probably picked up on it, suggesting that there is going to be an attempt to create some incident, some security catastrophe, that creates the impossibility of following up on this meeting. And the Euros are trying to insert Zelensky into Alaska, whether invited or ...
"For four hundred years, Americans lived in a world wherein your brother, your neighbor, your town and region were your responsibility. And where you yourself, could do anything under the commodious carapace of the King of Kings.
"More than anything, the CIA wanted Christianity destroyed; it bred self-determination and strength. Under MKUltra, and mostly at Stanford’s Research Center, using the flower children and rock scene of L.A. and San Francisco, they figured out how to ruin human potential.
"In fact, they called it the human potential movement, in a typical inversion of reality. What it did was celebrate and encourage your worst impulses, praise your degradation, tell you that weakness is your strength, supplant your heritage with the heritage of foreign faiths and experimental practices."
Elizabeth Nickson