How can you tell when your empire is crumbling? Some signs are actually visible from my own front window here in San Francisco.
Directly across the street, I can see a collection of tarps and poles (along with one of my own garbage cans) that were used to construct a makeshift home on the sidewalk. Beside that edifice stands a wooden cross decorated with a string of white Christmas lights and a red ribbon—a memorial to the woman who built that structure and died inside it earlier this week. We don’t know—and probably never will—what killed her: the pandemic raging across California? A heart attack? An overdose of heroin or fentanyl?
Behind her home and similar ones is a chain-link fence surrounding the empty playground of the Horace Mann/Buena Vista elementary and middle school. Like that home, the school, too, is now empty, closed because of the pandemic. I don’t know where the families of the 20 children who attended that school and lived in one of its gyms as an alternative to the streets have gone. They used to eat breakfast and dinner there every day, served on the same sidewalk by a pair of older Latina women who apparently had a contract from the school district to cook for the families using that school-cum-shelter. I don’t know, With unprecedented economic inequality and massive overspending on military expansion, America now looks a lot like 476 CE Rome. either, what any of them are now doing for money or food.
Read more at:
https://www.thenation.com/article/society/american-empire-decline/
Showing posts with label Crumbling. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Crumbling. Show all posts
2/4/21
3/2/20
Global Politics: The United States’ global power is slipping away as its contempt for others fuels the decline of the West
The annual Munich Security Conference that took place February 14-16
this year turned out to be an iconic event, drawing comparison with the
one held in the same Bavarian city on February 10, 2007, where in a prophetic speech Russian
President Vladimir Putin had criticized the world order characterized
by the United States’ global hegemony and its “almost uncontained hyper
use of force—military force—in international relations.”
If Putin’s 2007 Munich speech was prescient about an incoming new Cold War and the surge of tensions in Russia’s relations with the West, 13 years later, at the event this year, we witnessed that the transatlantic ties that evolved through the two world wars in the last century and blossomed into a full-fledged alliance system have reached a crossroads.
Deep cracks have appeared in the transatlantic relationship. In an extraordinary opening address, German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, an éminence grise in European diplomacy, accused Washington of rejecting “the very concept of an international community.”
Steinmeier acknowledged that there is no return to the halcyon days of close transatlantic partnership, as Europe and the U.S. are drifting away from each other. He warned, “If the European project fails, the lessons of German history, but perhaps also European history, will be called into question.”
Having said that, Steinmeier did not advocate that Europe could go it
alone, either. Rather, “only a Europe that can and wants to protect
itself credibly will be able to keep the U.S. in the alliance.”
But he regretted that “Europe is no longer as vital to the U.S. as it used to be. We must guard against the illusion that the United States’ dwindling interest in Europe is solely down to the current administration… For we know that this shift began a while ago, and it will continue even after this administration.”
The theme of European independence—Europe becoming a sovereign, strategic and political power—was also the leitmotif of a speech by French President Emmanuel Macron who brought a rare dynamism into the European debate, fighting spiritedly for a common European foreign and security policy. The German policymakers have signaled broad agreement with Macron’s idea that Europe must take charge of its own destiny.
In contrast, the U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had earlier insisted that the talk about the demise of the West is “grossly exaggerated,” and, in fact, “the West is winning. We are collectively winning. We are doing it together.”
Meanwhile, two subplots that kept appearing in the discussions were, one, the continued relevance of multilateralism in the international system and, two, deep anxiety over the current global security environment.
Read more at: The United States’ global power is slipping away as its contempt for others fuels the decline of the West – Alternet.org
If Putin’s 2007 Munich speech was prescient about an incoming new Cold War and the surge of tensions in Russia’s relations with the West, 13 years later, at the event this year, we witnessed that the transatlantic ties that evolved through the two world wars in the last century and blossomed into a full-fledged alliance system have reached a crossroads.
Deep cracks have appeared in the transatlantic relationship. In an extraordinary opening address, German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, an éminence grise in European diplomacy, accused Washington of rejecting “the very concept of an international community.”
Steinmeier acknowledged that there is no return to the halcyon days of close transatlantic partnership, as Europe and the U.S. are drifting away from each other. He warned, “If the European project fails, the lessons of German history, but perhaps also European history, will be called into question.”
But he regretted that “Europe is no longer as vital to the U.S. as it used to be. We must guard against the illusion that the United States’ dwindling interest in Europe is solely down to the current administration… For we know that this shift began a while ago, and it will continue even after this administration.”
The theme of European independence—Europe becoming a sovereign, strategic and political power—was also the leitmotif of a speech by French President Emmanuel Macron who brought a rare dynamism into the European debate, fighting spiritedly for a common European foreign and security policy. The German policymakers have signaled broad agreement with Macron’s idea that Europe must take charge of its own destiny.
In contrast, the U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had earlier insisted that the talk about the demise of the West is “grossly exaggerated,” and, in fact, “the West is winning. We are collectively winning. We are doing it together.”
Meanwhile, two subplots that kept appearing in the discussions were, one, the continued relevance of multilateralism in the international system and, two, deep anxiety over the current global security environment.
Read more at: The United States’ global power is slipping away as its contempt for others fuels the decline of the West – Alternet.org
8/9/19
RUSSIA : After 20 years is Vladimir Putin's Popularity Crumbling ?
After 20 years, is Vladimir Putin's untouchable image crumbling?
Read more at:
https://p.dw.com/p/3NbEw
https://p.dw.com/p/3NbEw
3/17/16
US Inrastructure - U.S. mayors desperate to fix crumbling infrastructure but states, feds hold them back
The drinking water crisis in Flint, Michigan illustrates two urgent and
related challenges that are stressing many American cities. First,
critical infrastructure systems such as roads, bridges and water
networks are aging and underfunded. Second, cities are not getting the
support they need from higher levels of government to fix these
problems.
We are the authors of the 2015 Menino Survey of Mayors, conducted by the Boston University Initiative on Cities. In this survey we asked a nationally representative sample of mayors an open-ended question: which challenge, that they believe should be a primarily “state and/or federal issue,” most affects their cities. Almost half of the mayors homed in on crumbling infrastructure. Many said that higher levels of government were not providing their cities with enough money for infrastructure projects they believe their cities need.
These projects range from relatively mundane needs like repairing roads to more ambitious projects, such as building new mass transit, wastewater and stormwater systems. Addressing the 2015 U.S. Conference of Mayors last June, President Obama observed, “There’s not a mayor here who can’t reel off 10 infrastructure projects right now that you’d love to get funding for, and that would put people to work right away and improve your competitiveness, and help businesses move their products and help people get to their jobs.” Indeed, the American Society of Civil Engineers estimates that America will need US$3.6 trillion in infrastructure investments by 2020.
These concerns spotlight what mayors see as a bigger problem. In their view, federalism – the division (and sharing) of powers between different levels of government – is not working. In the survey, mayors consistently identified ways in which general government dysfunction, burdensome regulations and laws that preempt local autonomy cause problems for cities. As political scientist Jessica Trounstine has pointed out, Flint is an extreme example of some of these issues. State governments can hamper city governments in a variety of ways, most frequently by cutting funding and/or introducing legislation that reduces local autonomy.
Read more: U.S. mayors desperate to fix crumbling infrastructure but states, feds hold them back
We are the authors of the 2015 Menino Survey of Mayors, conducted by the Boston University Initiative on Cities. In this survey we asked a nationally representative sample of mayors an open-ended question: which challenge, that they believe should be a primarily “state and/or federal issue,” most affects their cities. Almost half of the mayors homed in on crumbling infrastructure. Many said that higher levels of government were not providing their cities with enough money for infrastructure projects they believe their cities need.
These projects range from relatively mundane needs like repairing roads to more ambitious projects, such as building new mass transit, wastewater and stormwater systems. Addressing the 2015 U.S. Conference of Mayors last June, President Obama observed, “There’s not a mayor here who can’t reel off 10 infrastructure projects right now that you’d love to get funding for, and that would put people to work right away and improve your competitiveness, and help businesses move their products and help people get to their jobs.” Indeed, the American Society of Civil Engineers estimates that America will need US$3.6 trillion in infrastructure investments by 2020.
These concerns spotlight what mayors see as a bigger problem. In their view, federalism – the division (and sharing) of powers between different levels of government – is not working. In the survey, mayors consistently identified ways in which general government dysfunction, burdensome regulations and laws that preempt local autonomy cause problems for cities. As political scientist Jessica Trounstine has pointed out, Flint is an extreme example of some of these issues. State governments can hamper city governments in a variety of ways, most frequently by cutting funding and/or introducing legislation that reduces local autonomy.
Read more: U.S. mayors desperate to fix crumbling infrastructure but states, feds hold them back
3/1/15
U.S. Struggles to Build a Strong Infrastructure - ranks 12th in the World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness Report for 2014-15 - by Albert R. Hunt
If Washington were a rational place, a major measure to rebuild roads, bridges, ports and airports would be a slam dunk.
Read more: U.S. Struggles to Build a Strong Infrastructure - NYTimes.com
Few
doubt the need. The United States has underinvested in infrastructure:
It was ranked 12th in The World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness
Report for 2014-15. Road repair needs are pervasive, a quarter of
bridges require upgrades and the fast-rail system falls further behind
other countries every year.
There
is a broad consensus that infrastructure investment is a significant
job-creator. It is embraced by the Chamber of Commerce, the
A.F.L.-C.I.O. and many governors and mayors of both parties.
Republican congressional leaders want selective big accomplishments to prove they can govern. President Obama
wants a few more successes in his final years. Infrastructure is one of
the very few areas where they are on roughly the same page.
Moreover, the Highway Trust Fund, which finances federal transportation projects, expires in May.
Yet
there is little reason to be sanguine. There likely will be a
short-term fix for the highway fund. But the necessary longer-term
systemic investments will be kicked down the road, a casualty of
partisan gridlock.
Read more: U.S. Struggles to Build a Strong Infrastructure - NYTimes.com
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