These words were first published in 1987 when I was but 10 years old. At that time, it was a speck on the horizon only being discussed by historians and those studying war and the patterns of civilization. We know things always come to an end, but have issues recognizing that they are ending or even when that end began. My first essay that mentioned the issue of overstretch was in 2013 or 26 years after The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers was first published. Many, many people in between pointed out the issues of our top heavy military that has more and more started to look like that of the old USSR when money spent on military is compared to the GDP. We don't need to discuss what happened in that story, even though it is but one of many that can be looked at to determine the US's fate.

Our decline has not had reasons. I personally mark Bush Jr.'s about Iraqi 'WMDs' as being the first real evidence I can point at that we were in decline. Lying about such a thing is a sign of weakness, as all lies are, because the truth requires strength to tolerate. This was followed up by billions of our military equipment falling into the hands of ISIL due to inept and incompetent military leadership and goal setting. Our government told all matter of lies about that equipment, including at one time that it'd been evacuated. Then we manufactured a poisoned vaccine that has driven up Covid death rates across the world and that dog is being walked back as fast as they they sweep it all under the rug. Then Ukraine. The modern land of Nazis. People so easily forgot that our government caused that by installing a puppet government to try pulling them into NATO while everyone knew they were Nazis. Up to just months before the 'war' started, which had already been going on since 2014 and all they did was bamboozle everyone yet again, the US government was passing laws prohibiting the sale of weapons to Ukraine because they could fall into Nazi hands. They clearly stated who the Nazis were. And the government is still trying to lie about them being Nazis and walk that dog back and managed to do so with those who are less well read on the subject.

Then we have them trying to raise retirement age because they used the Medicare and SS funds as slush funds to buy votes by giving people money that never paid into those systems, henceforth, destroying and crashing those systems. Rather than admit what they did, their answer is to try forcing people to keep paying for the stupidity and to keep handing out money, thereby continuing what caused the entire issue. Incompetent thieves only begins to describe the fast majority of people holding political office in DC. All this money was sent to the Ukrainian Nazis, people sitting on ass, and other assorted losers and shills whose favor our pathetic politicians were buying.

All these are signs of weakness. No one with any grasp of history or social development or even any common sense would attempt to say otherwise. These are signs of people who don't have control and are bullies who must rely on force to shove their message across. At that point, they've already lost, just like everyone clearly stated what would happen if we sent that stuff to the Middle East, what would happen with the Covid vaccines, and that Ukraine was full of Nazis.

Now to this drone Russia downed. And no, it wasn't an accident, because Russia had ships close for retrieval. But how much of a none accident was it? It is the Fauci kind of accident where someone got some money and this thing was handed over? Or is it the moron kind of accident since our military can't think its way out of a paper bag, because they recruited a bunch of video game playing kids who don't read history, tactics, or literally anyone of importance? It's hard to say, but what's not hard to say is, 'Damn'. If the Russians get this drone, and the US government saying 'they can't get it' translates into 'they're close to getting it', they will almost certainly find proof that we are directly involved in Ukraine and that will make us active combatants.

We can argue over when WW3 has started and when the US became broke, but we can no longer argue that it's all happening in the real time HD of life. We have a bunch of button pushers that can't fight and a government that is fundamentally coward and can only throw money around, which the entire world has figured out. Our slow decline has sped up, as all such declines go since the farther you fall, the faster you fall. Biden can't stop this. Trump can't stop this. $100 billion to 100 million Ukrainian Nazis can't stop this. No one can stop this. This is a consequence of history and of falling off the top spot without having enough humility to recognize what was happening and adjust. We are clearly about to be pushed against the ropes at some point within the coming years and there appears to be nothing we can do about it except have more drag shows on military bases and pile on more debt. God help us. If the bastard exists. Because everyone we've screwed over in the last few decades will be laughing their asses off and that's the part that the average American has yet to wrap their head around. Think I'm mean? Think people are mean? Think Jordan Peterson is mean? That's nice. I laugh at your discomfort created by your own weak will. Wait until the current drug addled path terminates and the US is being picked apart by the vultures of the world like we picked apart Iraqi oil fields if you want to know what 'mean' is.