re: #60 wheat-dogg

As someone here mentioned earlier, it began with the end of the Bretton-Woods agreement and Nixon letting the price of gold float against the dollar. Trump is accelerating the process further by abdicating our traditional role as (for lack of a better term) leader of the free world. Trump sees things only for their monetary value, not their diplomatic, geopolitic or economic value. So, he trashes NATO, NAFTA, TPP, military alliances and defense agreements, and congenial relations with our historic allies, bragging that he can get a “better deal” for America.

America is not going to be great “again” with Trump at the helm.

I’ve pointed out that America’s decline became evident with the first OPEC boycott in October of 1973. We were no longer autarkic (fully self-sufficient economically). The economic evidence shows that the decline of the middle class began with the boycott and it’s been accelerating ever since.

I can remember growing up in Western PA, a man made enough at the mill to buy a house, car and provide a college education for his kids. A spouse didn’t have to work. The mill provided free health and life insurance. Then IW Abel sold out the Steelworkers union, Lane Kirkland and his stooges in the Social Democrats USA made a pact with President Pruneface to fight them dirty commies and the coup was administered by Millken the Junk Bond pimp who unleashed his Wall Street pals to destroy our manufacturing infrastructure. But ol Pruneface and his pals didn’t stop there. They looted the Savings and Loan system and got away with it.

Now a couple has to work at least two, probably three jobs just to break even. College has been deliberately put out of the reach of kids unless they want to be debt slaves for the rest of their lives. Hell, I remember starting at Pitt in 1973 when the tuition was $450 a trimester. Now? it’s 15X as much!

And I got to admire the way conservatives implemented the plan Lewis Powell mapped for them. They now have total domination in every facet of society. Their unleashing of Ayn Rand’s selfishness is complete.

Once we had a national will, but thanks to the New Right that became a national won’t.

We’re not going to save ourselves. Looks like the rest of the world is going to do an intervention and it will be painful.