In Reply to: Economist: Donald Trump is the war’s biggest loser posted by Dr.J on April 09, 2026 at 08:01:53
The US is not in decline. We still have a powerful economy. Our education system needs tweaking, but it still turns out great people. And we really have no problem with food and energy production. And our media situation (tv, movies, advertising) is the best on the planet.
We are not in delcine, its something else.
But our moral compass is so out of whack, we all know the world is laughing at us behind our backs. And if trump's war imperialism doesn't get stymied, the world in general will be mocking us to our face.
and that's the good option.
There was a sci fi movie that came out a short while ago that had a meteor approaching earth that looked like a spaceship (I think the story idea came from the Oumuamua incident a few years back). The world was prepared to attack the rock because it was heading straight to some metropolis. If the rock hit earth it was likely to be an extinction event. However, one perky (and attractive) scientist discovered the rock was slowing down and changing its approach vector. Most of the world wanted to put a hold on taking out the rock but the military said we can't take any chances, and they were pushing for an attack. The president was not convinced that our perky cute scientist had the brains to understand what she was talking about. Our prez was getting the missiles ready and Russia was egging us on and saying they will launch too. But they said you guys go first.
However, the world at large had no problem with our perky cute scientist's take, and they not only believed her but advised our prez to believe her too. The prez said we are the world power, and we will determine how this gets resolved.
On a great shot in the situation room, ALL the world leaders said uh huh, before your missile leave the launch pad we will all attack you. At the last moment the prez backed down and soon got signals from the friendly aliens.
The outer limits did a similar story about 30 years ago. Except in this scenario the prez was a woman and she took the advice of the mean old generals. We launched along with Russia. The alien ship was not an enemy, but our aggression was met with obliteration of the two launch sites (cities, region, block, bunker???) and of course, the story ended with some kind of outer limit parable fade to black.
But the reason I bring this up is because in the more recent movie the world got together and stopped the madness.
That old story trope of the scientists building a monster to make the world come together might be coming true in that the monster may be the USA.