American Empire creates its own reality
But the rest of the world has to live in it. Watching the Rose Garden clown show – revival meeting last night brought to mind the alleged Karl Rove quote, to the effect that “when you’re an empire you create your own reality.” The people around Trump remain convinced they’re still an empire. The reason America runs huge trade deficits with much of the world is because America no longer produces much that anyone wants to buy. That’s not very empire-like, so trade deficits are re-defined as subsidies, or at least they were a few weeks ago. By last night they had somehow morphed into the rationale for “reciprocal tariffs.” That’s how the American Empire invents new realities. If we pause for a moment and consider the old realities, we can see why Uncle Sam is in a rush to move along. In short, the American Empire is in such deep shit that it is unlikely to remain an empire much longer. Trump 2.0 promised he’d end two wars immediately. Unfortunately, they’re both escalating and they both continue to drain US resources. The richest country in the world is running up a vast unsustainable debt that can only end in a major devaluation of the USD, and/or an outright repudiation of the debt. Goodbye global reserve currency status. In the glory days of Empire, the US had the muscle to enforce its dictats. As the Ukraine debacle vividly demonstrates, that is no longer the case. Soft voice- big stick has given way to belligerent bossy-talk without much of a stick at all, unless Uncle Sam fast forwards to nuclear apocalypse. Short of that, when you can’t produce artillery shells in sufficient quantities to support the vassal you goaded into war, maybe it’s time to go back to the soft voice. I’m not optimistic.
Source: http://theviewfromfallingdowns.blogspot.com/2025/04/american-empire-creates-its-own-reality.html
