@foone Ahh, yes. Pepperidge farms remembers giving his mom a heart attack with the bill for a two hour phone call to a now-infamous german BBS in 1987. Also remembers tracking down a captain crunch whistle after the savage & reflectively probably well deserved beating he endured over said bill.

@kdwarn Eh, with one caveat. The USA did pursue some imperialist practices pre world war one, but we'd largely ended those practices by 1908. (Might have been 1912. Forgive my aging memory) It was more of a 'we did it because everyone was doing it' sort of geopolitical thing. EG the international 'norm' Once we'd decided we were going to encourage/endorse ending of colonialism practices globally we abandoned those overtones at the policy level.

@kdwarn Also...Are you aware of how imperialism actually worked? I suggest a full review & comparison before jumping to such a conclusion. That whole 'imperialist' tag was an outcropping of soviet propaganda that cemented itself in the western mindset as a sort of proto-meme. The USA was in most ways a direct opposite of imperialism. The marshall plan would have never have taken place were it true. There were some bad actor companies that did bad shit despite it, but not as a matter of US policy

@kdwarn It was a post war shifting that basically set it in play. As the only industrial power left standing after the wars devastation defacto allowed the weight of world fiscal power to tilt towards america. Though i'm sure there were cheerleaders here that facilitated it, I don't think it started as a cohesive plan. Just became a side effect of the post war climate, the marshal plan & ensuing cold war positioning. However it started, we're married to it now

@kdwarn That aione woudnt do it of course. That was a more general statement. Loss of US pre-eminence is what our economy now revolves around. It's why any isolationist movement here in the USA is essentially proposing economic suicide by pursuit of such folly. Whether they know or understand it or not.

@2legged @rupert @Strandjunker You wont be given any such luxury of choice when the russian war machine moves in to take it's place. Go ask Poland. They remember, even if you do not. That's why they work so furiously to make up for lost defensive time. Putins ambitions are specific. Anything he can't have or doesn't want to own in Europe he wants to leave in ashes & flames. Russian resentments are deeply entrenched across many generations. Only a fool opens his/her door to it.

@starraven @Strandjunker Only the ones paying attention to russia. Maybe some of the far right with links back to Moscow might share that position. But that's about it.

@jesterchen @Strandjunker Eh, spare us a little faith if you could, please. We're working on getting him out of play. Even under a worst case scenario though we're talking at least a decade to weaponize our international assets in such a way to become an actual threat. You can afford to give us a little working room to see if we can turn the corner here.

@grumpasaurus @Strandjunker One of three. There's others in Japan and Australia, last I checked. Internationally speaking of course.

@mu @alikatze @Strandjunker A fair assesment. He is indeed. His dismissal of the entire JCS last year I could only view with dismay. That being said, he's going to face a wave of officer resignations if he wanders too far from acceptable lanes. Instilling loyalties in their place would make it true in a more literal way though.

@geonz @Strandjunker Kind of hard to frame his acts as rational under nearly any other explanation. Well other than senile dementia, perhaps.

@colinux @Strandjunker BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA....Are you for real? Are you software prompted to put up things like that? Nobody with any geopolitical familiarity would post such a thing. Not with Russia breathing down the collective EU neck.

@micdan @Strandjunker We are only fucked if we passively let things happen. We must be willing participants in our own destruction, for the moment at least.

@numodular @Strandjunker Not even a cohesive position. Try restating or reframing the arguement for clarity. What you posted comes off as a pure vibes position.

@kdwarn @Strandjunker Yes, it will. Our entire economy is lynchpinned by our superpower status. The value of the dollar internationally tanking would impact every American.
Most ESPECIALLY the lower & middle class. Upper class has their bets hedged in multiple fiat currencies. The rest of us? Not so much. The depression would seem downright bright & prosperous by comparison.

@aiuto @Strandjunker Not even close. The other two interested & capable contenders for 'world leader' are Russia & China. Whatever your beef is with the USA, you're not going to see a better world order emerge under either of them. Quite the opposite, in fact. We'd see imperialism re-embraced & nuclear enabled. Only a complete moron would see that as preferable.

@BlizzardA @Strandjunker We're not an empire. Not sure why people keep glitching on this. I can only presume it's because people don't know the actual definition of what an empire is.

@rebelyn2 @Strandjunker Yeah. Because it was post-cold war fashionable to do so. That posture has shifted considerably with Russia once again as a threat. Night & day difference. You're comparing apples to oranges.

@Strandjunker It's about the only explanation that makes all of his bizarre behavior make any cohesive sense. Maybe he hates this country as much as Putin does. Wants to watch it burn from afar as badly, too.

@Strandjunker Maybe that's his goal. Not in a directed or managed asset sort of way. But attenpting cozying up to dictators sort of way. Simping for his senpai sort of way. He plans on stealing/grifting as much cash as he can, leave us in the most vulnerable state he can possibly can within his considerable control then bailing leaving us to burn.