The Soviet Union lost the space race, maybe they lost the race to put a man on the moon but they did manage to put 2 long lasting rovers on the moon. These instruments, their design and the lessons learnt from building them helped with the design of every rover every since. This is the major reason why the US WILL quietly slip into oblivion - they refuse to acknowledge that the world has changed. With globalisation the world has become interconnected, there simply is no place for a "the most powerful nation" anymore. Until they realise this they will fail to reinvent themselves as nations no longer grow and prosper in isolation. "The leader of equal nations" may work "the most powerful" will not.

The article is a fine advertisement for the Obama regime. Unfortunately, as the record shows, the rhetoric of Obama is not matched by the reality. This manifests itself in numerous ways. Unemployment is at levels not seen since the great depression of the 1930s. The US's trade gap with the rest of the world is growing. Scandinavia and East Asia lead the world in educational achievement. The US's dominant position relies to an extraordinary degree of the dollar being the world's sole reserve currency, and its days in that role are limited. There are numerous other economic parameters that America's own economic commentators have discussed at length that show a declining economic giant, not a flourishing one.

And that is before one begins to examine social parameters and the inexorable decline of what was once a democratic republic into a police state, where there is a culture of immunity for the worst criminal perpetrators. Read the writings of Bill Black, Paul Craig Roberts and Glenn Greenwald for countless illustrations of the point. One has to go to the internet to do so. OLO is like the mainstream media in this regard. It will publish pap like the above article, but not look at what is really going on.

From all I read on the U.S the Union is probably doomed just on the basis of demographic change but traditional America will continue in some form in the South,the Southern Whites and the Negroes will have to come to terms as the blacks are ethnically cleansed from the Western states by "La Raza", ("The Race") ie Mexicans. The "Western" Civilisation of the anglophone countries is already dead but the Chinese are not capable of building the next great civilisation, nor is Eastern Europe, the much vaunted Russian Bear is a basket case, heck they're still traumatised by the Mongol incursions. If I'm going to make predictions I'd guess that the next civilisation will be some form of multiracial monoculture, much like what's already developing in the former Anglo societies.

Jay. There is a certain delicious irony in the hispanic takeover of the US south-west. The land originally belonged to Mexico anyway and was taken from them (one-third of Mexico's territory) in the unequal treaty forced on Mexico following the 1846-1848 Mexican-American War. (an early example of a false flag attack being used to justify American imperial expansionism).

Puzzled by your reference to China though. As I understand history China was one of the earliest of the great civilisations. Read Joseph Needham for an exhaustive history or Simon Winchester's biography for the potted version. I for one would be loathe to rule them out as future major players in the civilisation stakes.

It is unlikely the American juggernaut will carry on for much longer - in spite of the internal energy it has been able to generate for decade after decade no nation is sustainable at the top of the economic,military or industrial food chain forever.
There is marked social, cultural and economic dissonance internally -add to that a national and widening phenomenon of paranoia they are at the top of an inevitable downward spiral

A new revolution? Ah yes, A place where all men are self evidently equal?
America already has a bill of irrevocable rights and the declaration of independence!
It just needs to do more than pay mere lip service to its own laws or bill of rights.
The raising of the minimum wage was a useful start in the right direction; as will be indexing it to the CPI; and indeed, ensuring equality in tax treatment, a useful start.
As would be a returning of those Keynesian economic measures, that created a period of unprecedented post war prosperity!
We here in Australia, were once a much more socialistic, fairer and egalitarian country!
At which time we were the third wealthiest nation on earth; and, a creditor nation to boot.
The cry is, if it ain't broke don't fix it!
Trouble is, we've been busy busy fixing unbroken things and or, giving tax breaks to folks who simply did not need them, or weren't innovators or real entrepreneurs?
Just greedy folks, with a bricks and mortar mindset/poverty consciousness; or, that getting rich, relied almost exclusively, on endlessly screwing the less well off.
Little wonder, the real basic wage in America, in real terms, has been going backwards, along with the economy, for yonks.
I mean, it has been a very long time since any major capital works made headlines!
Particularly in rust belt USA, which is deep in the throes of, for them, a real Great depression, replete with soup kitchens/tent cities etc/etc.
Thank the lord they are once again trying to get a free trade agreement with Europe.
Perhaps that is the very vehicle they need to stop extremely wasteful subsidisation of food production, on both sides of the Atlantic!
I mean, the very next boom will be the food boom, so who it their right mind, and the scarcity of government dollars, that need to be better spent elsewhere, getting folks back to work; is going to commit literally trillions in food production subsidies?
Counter productive subsidies, which ought to be replaced by efficiency rewards and new market demand!
Rhrosty.