Trends and end of Empire...

[nadinbrzezinski]

As you all know I have been keeping my eye on them. Last night we had another biggie.

Remember From the Wilderness and Mike Rupert?

http://www.fromthewilderness.com/

You all remember that he ahem... had to leave the country in a hurry during the Bush years? Well last night he was one of the six men that were interviewed in a History channel program called "prophets of doom." By the way fascinating program, and highly advise you to catch it when they re-run it.

http://shop.history.com/detail.php?p=291023&v=history&ecid=PRF-2103964&pa=PRF-2103964

Folks that is a major marker. When these views start to enter the mainstream... it happened to Rome... it happened in England, it happened in Spain... and yes the USSR.

There is another marker... the DOD will paint this as cost cutting... but the retrenchment has begun. The closing of the Join Forces Command in Hampton Roads is not a minor thing... that is a critical command for combined arms operation in the Global War on Terror.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x4686250

No, don't expect the newsies to remember that. And yes as usual the Virginia delegation already sent a letter to SecDef... so the battle to truly retrench has begun.

Oh and if memory serves this command got higher visibility after 9.11 and became a crown jewel of Rummy. In fact, essential in the War on Terra.

Here for the challenge...

http://hamptonroads.com/2010/08/va-delegation-challenges-gates-jfcom-closure

[Ozymanithrax]

1. A big, important organization required to manage the military...

in foreing countires. Must be bringing the boys home.

And I saw the show, and it was very good. It should be a must for everyone at DU.

[nadinbrzezinski]

2. Yes, this is a major marker

but like most will pass unnoticed... you got to know a few things of how the forces actually work to realize this is not minor. This is not BRAC and business as usual.

[Capt_John]

3. k for ruppert

nt

[nadinbrzezinski]

4. Welcome to DU

:hi:

Trust me I did a tripple take last night.

[HCE SuiGeneris]

5. ruppert?

[nadinbrzezinski]

6. Different rupert, as in MIKE RUPERT

go here

http://www.fromthewilderness.com/

Oh and some info

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Ruppert

He is actually a hero to me.

[HCE SuiGeneris]

7. Yes, I know, Nadin.

I was asking cap't john.

[nadinbrzezinski]

8. tsk, tsk, tsk

you know that is kind of a no-no...

:-)

[HCE SuiGeneris]

9. I'm incorrigible.

;)

[nadinbrzezinski]

10. Well played, Sir, well played.

[Hannah Bell]

16. that would be rupPert

[nadinbrzezinski]

20. Ah yes, Grammarian

good bye... Now I remember why you were there.

[Hannah Bell]

22. nothing to do with grammar; i assume that someone who knows about a person & thinks he's important

knows how to spell his name, especially when they're posting links on him.

if you don't know how to spell his name, i can assume you don't know much about him.

[DeadEyeDyck]

33. LOL

[Hannah Bell]

11. the history channel = religion, aliens, paranormal & phony history

and it's "ruppert" -- who was always a questionable actor

[nadinbrzezinski]

13. So let me get this straight, Rupert (from the Wilderness)

is pushing Aliens?

HC is mostly hit or miss, mostly miss... but you should catch that program. One of their experts even went into your favorite subject... the failure of the modern economic system as in seriously went into it.

there are days... people just going critical over things they will not watch... nor have an idea what it dealt with.

So will give you a cliffs notes.

Overpopulation.
Peak Oil
Failure of the current economic System
Water (or rather our misuse of it)
The coming singularity.
And of course the mandatory terrorism.

They also went into this law of history about Empires collapsing.

I promise not a one from Gliese 588 B... or apocalypse, (unless you consider collapse a form of one) or gawd and his choir of angels.

Last time I checked all THESE subjects are COMMON subjects round these parts.

[Hannah Bell]

15. it's "rupPert," & the history channel is crap brought to you by hearst corp.

"ice road truckers" is their big hit.

aliens, religion & paranormal with a dash of phony history.

the appearance of rupPert on the show has no epoch-making significance.

[Blue_In_AK]

17. Hey, don't dis the aliens.

I LOVE them. :)

[nadinbrzezinski]

19. Like Coast to Coast they are good for fiction fodder

[Blue_In_AK]

21. I had my own little weird supernatural encounter

with beings that didn't appear to be of this earth several years ago, so I don't necessarily disbelieve the alien theories. I think it's rather presumptuous of modern humans to assume that they know everything about everything.

[nadinbrzezinski]

24. I know that there is life out there

there is even intelligent life out there.

the Drake's equation is very clear on this.

My view if we are getting visited, it is the antro class from Gliese 588... I mean it would be like visiting the Yanomamo for us. And yes, we would be that damn primitive. Where I draw the line is ... Aliens built the pyramids... since we cannot today. Well, I guess they also took us to the moon, since... we have literally lost the ability to build the Saturn V... no, not kidding.

It is pretty colonial and superior from our vantage point to think that the ancients did not have technology capable of doing things. Why Archeologists ask the right question, and in a few cases have already answered them... how did they do it?

Of course if you are an Alien, we must be damn entertaining...

So no I don't discount it, but the ancient astronaut people literally drive me batshit crazy. Especially when they even push timelines that are way off, by thousands of years. Hell, yesterday they did it... again...

[MilesColtrane]

26. "beings that didn't appear to be of this earth"

So, you've visited Hollywood Boulevard then?

[Blue_In_AK]

28. Well, yeah,

but these were even stranger than that. :rofl:

[nadinbrzezinski]

18. Yes IRT PAYS for this

it is THEIR MONEY MAKER

And I know WHO owns it. The program IS STILL WORTH WATCHING... on its OWN FUCKING MERITS!

Oh and yes, it is a MARKER, now good bye, again.

[Hannah Bell]

23. mexican swine flu! gonna kill us all!

[Blue_In_AK]

12. That was some very interesting TV.

I recorded it and stayed up real late watching it.

[nadinbrzezinski]

14. I am ALMOST tempted to buy the DVD

but it is the History Channel...

[MilesColtrane]

25. Are you selling MREs or something?

[nadinbrzezinski]

27. Nah, just tracking the markers

started seriously doing it last years after Foreign Affairs published in their first quarter issue an article by a British Historian on the coming fall.

As a historian I realize that all Empires have a life cycle. We are on the downward slope. So I started really tracking it, using my knowledge of historic falls.

The American Empire is coming to an end... being aware of this does not mean I am selling MRE's... it just means I know that it is coming.

Right now CHINA is on the upswing. Oh and the first real signals this was happening came when Paul Kennedy pointed out that our industrial production of things like steel was down, and no longer considered a mater of national security. That was 20 years ago.

That was like the very early marker. But it will be tracked to the moment the first solider crossed the line in the Second Iraq War.

[MilesColtrane]

29. I think historians will designate the Vietnam pullout and Watergate as the beginning of the end.

[nadinbrzezinski]

32. From the point of view of influence

while we lost the brush war... proxy war, whatever you want to call it... the height of influence actually came with Reagan... which incidentally is when Steel Production stopped being critical for national security. Until Reagan that was national policy.

Oh and incidentally it was the policies of that administration, economic, over reach... that also set the seeds for what is going right now. Hell you could even argue that first troop going over the line in 2003 was the pinacle of Reagan's foreign policy.

[Ikonoklast]

30. Thanks for this.

You post the funniest stuff on DU, and I badly needed a laugh today.


:rofl:


TRENDS!!

[nadinbrzezinski]

35. Like a GOOD ROMAN citizen you will continue to laugh

I know.

And in your case it does not matter when it comes, undeniable so, you will claim that it never happened. I wonder if our descendants will try to crown a President as the Holy American Emperor too.

[cali]

36. no you don't. and you madame, are NO historian.

you're a sloppy prognosticator and doomsday artist.

[Ikonoklast]

38. Sorry, you took it the wrong way.

It's not the information I'm laughing at, it's YOU.


You had us in a nuclear confrontation within hours over Korea two weeks ago.

I laughed then, too.

Your misreading of "trends" is laughable.

[nadinbrzezinski]

42. Well I have a suggestion for you

use the ignore thread, or learn how to read.

Two weeks ago I was posting the REPORTS from know nothigns the likes of Reuters and VOICE OF AMERICA. I said that that the POSSIBILITY was there. Never did I say we will be at war tomorrow, unless of course there is an attack by the north to the south, and the south responds in kind. You may want to research the TREATY that would mandate our participation in that fracas, going back to 1953 and the Armistice. By the way. You do realize that the Korean war is NOT over right?

Have a good life... by the way.

[Name removed]

31. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[nadinbrzezinski]

34. Well there is a lot of denial when it comes to things like this

hell, peak oil and peak credit are just a matter of discussion, so is world weather change...

Cognitive dissonance is not just for textbooks in psychology or psychiatry any longer

[cali]

37. mayhaps because it's a garbled mess with zippo

insight.

[Mike 03]

39. Another Home Run from nadinbrzezinski

Kick and rec, and thank you for all that you keep track of around here and bring to our attention. It is very much appreciated.

[Terry in Austin]

40. Best thing that could ever happen to the ol' US of A

Getting out of the empire business.

[nadinbrzezinski]

46. In the short run... no

it will be very painful, There are things that come with Empire (like effectively global currency) that will make our life that much harder.

In the long term... yes.

I am aware that the fall will be extremely painful. It could even be great depression level painful, with internal conflict like we haven't seen... painful in living memory.

[Joanne98]

41. I saw that show it's a MUST WATCH! Ruppert was the best and he was on first.

http://www.fromthewilderness.com/

The robot guy was boring but aside from that is was EXCELLENT!

PS

I LOVE ANCIENT ALIENS!!!!!!!

[nadinbrzezinski]

43. The Singularity is one thing that is actually spoken

off in hushed tones. It is quite possible... but at the moment a little distant. As I told a futurist that was also fixated in it... we first need to survive the next 25 years to worry about it. As in survive as a high technology society. If we start the collapse, quite a bit of this technology will go away.

[Quantess]

44. People sure are mean on this thread.

I'm not sure I agree with it all, but yes, the empire is definitely crumbling.

[nadinbrzezinski]

45. Some of us have fans

:-)

That is what the IGNORE button is for. It makes DU that more pleasant.

:hi:

I am just keeping tabs on trends.