It wasn't that, it was Iraq. The justification was bullshit.

What are you on about? Trump is about to dismantle NATO. Putin's investments has paid of more than he could ever have imagined.

The fall of empires is often marked with the ruling class totally abandoning the working class, and believing in their own propaganda about themselves.

We're at this stage. Even if the orange cunt dies tomorrow, the rest of the GOP is now just like him and has the same puppet masters.

We're simply fucked. There's no other way to look at it.

Fucking accelerationism. I live in a country thousands of miles away from California, and yet I am forced to watch the possible fall of a supposed superpower.

The only silver lining is the sheer staggering incompetency at every level

"L'etat, c'est moi." (but this time he's a rapist buffoon)

The US was already been past its peak as an Imperial Power since at least the 2008 Crash (though if you look at things like social mobility in the US, the seeds of it go all the way back to the 70s when the country started becoming ever less a "land of opportunity"), but Trump has definitelly accelerated the decay by a huge factor.

That said, at some point a far-right populist portraying himself as "man of the people" who will "bring back national greatness" like Trump getting power, is historically pretty common in nations which have reached a peak of great power and started decaying from there - in other words, if it wasn't Trump, this stage of the circle of prosperity and decay would in the US have delivered power to some other similar character.

America is strong, but it was stronger with friends and allies.

Trump has isolated America, and although it's still strong on its own it is weaker than ever.

Any conflict that might arise could end up with more American casualties because there won't be any allies to soften the blow.

They're not really 'doing nothing'

Belt and Road is a LOT of work.

Economically, yes.

Diplomatically, China is gaining a treasure from Trump's agressive and unprincipled behaviour.

The US has been a preferred ally to cooperate with for many countries, and a safe haven for investing money for many decades - because the US was reliable, had independent courts and an independent central bank, and was considered a stable democracy despite the problems it had.

It was possible to rationally predict a US reaction to certain problems. The state seemed to have principles, and government seemed to listen to experts.

Now the choice is between a distant country unlikely to invade anywhere except its proximity (China), even if highly authoritarian - and an unstable democracy where experts are ignored and independent institutions subverted, whose foreign policy is overtly agressive and follows no principles.

...as for economy...

From an Eastern European perspective, what could the US offer to me? Microsoft, Netflix, Tesla, Starlink... all except Starlink are needless expenses, and Starlink can be replaced. What does China offer? Batteries, electric motors, combustion motors, generators, motor controllers, 3D printing eqipment, sensors, cameras, radio electronics, optics and fiber optics... the list is long. The only (and massive) downside to China is their intent of invading Taiwan - from where everyone, including China, get their most advanced processors and memory.

Man, I bought Tesla before Trump was elected… and I did that because in Europe there weren’t any alternative for that price… in evs

their economic model is better than the West’s.

Policy. Their economic policy is better. Their government has some far-reaching strategies, creates comprehensive policies to develop them, and maintains those policies consistently across many years. They effectively guide competition and long term vision into their market, just like any competent government ought to do

That’s also the biggest place we’re failing. Lack of vision, lack of strategy, no consistency. Even worse when your administration enriches themselves, plays favorites, outright takes bribes, holds themselves above the law, rules out of spite and personal feelings, focuses only on short term

their economic model is better than the West’s.

There are many different economic models in "the West^TM^", whatever you mean by that in this case:

You have nordic social democracy, you have murican ultraneoliberalism (which also varies by state), canadian neoliberalism lite with public healthcare, you have the german city-factory+superstar spenders model, the french model, very centralized with a strong social safety net and labour protections...

their economic model is better than the West’s.

Curious, how do you judge that? There are metrics like GDP, GDP per capita, currency exchange rate, etc but being able to compare those means having reliable numbers. AFAIK China stopped publishing some of those metrics (US too! labor related numbers iirc) and the exchange rate does not apply because the RMB is fixed. Going in countries themselves to "check" means little as you can walk through Potemkin villages.

I'm not saying you're wrong only wondering how you reached that conclusion.

buying a used tesla makes a lot of sense these days with everyone wanting to get rid of them

Everyone? I drive a Tesla sometimes because my sister's leased Tesla is blocking my car in. Also she leased it before Musk was commonly known as a buffoon.

Also Russia.

Makes sense where all the old movies depict mandarin as the main language in space and terra.