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The week's question
In December 2024, in the thread "Re: BRK: Why Not XOM?", BreckHutHigh asked the members: "What about the long road trips with kids?" This week it is put to everyone again. The button below opens the small thread re-asking it - read what others have said so far, then give your own answer as an ordinary reply.
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Halls of Shrewd'm / US Policy
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Author: ges 🐝 HONORARY
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Number: of 84359 
Subject: US: World's Apex Predator Asshole
Date: 04/01/26 9:38 PM
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New from Watching the Herd.

Substack: The Divorce Is Final - WatchingTheHerd’s Substack

The Essay is titled: The Divorce Is Final. Here's a short excerpt. Hope WTH doesn't mind me posting this here.

America - The World’s Apex Predator Asshole

There is no other way to put it. Since Trump took office the first time in 2017, the predominate impression America has created with people around the world is that of a big, dumb, arrogant ASSHOLE. This isn’t an accidental, side-effect dynamic. It isn’t the dynamic generated by eighty years of responsibility trying to lead the world after World War II and mostly trying to do the right thing. It isn’t the dynamic generated by at least trying to do the right thing while deluded by obsolete geopolitical theories that trapped America and the world in pre-WWII patterns of thought that simply regenerated old struggles within new borders. It isn’t the dynamic generated by eighty years of all the above that took place while America rigged every outcome to disproportionately benefit the American economy and reinforce American power as part of the “fee” charged for leading the free world.

No, the effect being seen now is one that results from the a-hole dynamic appearing to be the primary motivation behind American decisions. Decisions aimed at flexing American military and financial power by purposely engaging in actions with no obvious benefit to anyone including American citizens that knowingly harm our allies. Simply because we can. Simply because the American President requires constant affirmation that he has sole power to make any decision to settle any score for any slight he identifies or imagines anywhere in the world.

America’s former allies are GONE. They are not watching current events, spotting America a world sized mulligan and holding their breath waiting for regime change in America. Regardless of who or what gains power next in America, its former allies have realized they should never have allowed America to dominate finance, technology and economics in general to the degree it has since World War II. No people, no culture, no form of government can amass that much financial power and technological prowess without being corrupted to the core. Once the blinders are removed and the corruption is seen in the daylight for what it is, there’s no putting the blinders back on.

WTH
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This community has written 84,309 posts about US Policy. The article-length ones it recommended most:
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