The Almost Daily 2¢ - Pirate Standoff = American Empire is Over

UPDATE!!!!: Capt. Freed ... Pirates Dead!.... American Empire Lives! ... Bull Run in Piracy Over?

Let's all just breathe a sigh of relief that this brave captain (and the crew he saved) is safe and sound and that the pirates got a good taste of the downside of the pirate business... no bailouts for them!

MORE DETAILS... The Capt. Jumped overboard AGAIN!!!!...... was tied up... was relieving himself?? (oh heck who cares at this point) ... and this time the SEALS were there for him!... This is the support I was talking about...

If when surrounded by the U.S. military entrenched in a hostage standoff the captive succeeds in (is in the process of) escaping... the captors bite it... that's the end of the story... the fact that they got a second chance at this speaks of the unbelievable bravery of this captain and, to a lessor extent, the sheer foolishness of the pirates... Bravo!!!!

So it's all the same... Boom and Bust... One day your all "$2 Million in Ransom or else!" the next your spending eternity in Davy Jones' Locker... The pirates knew the risks... They took their chances for a huge payoff... On Friday it looked as though they were financial big shots and by Sunday.. its the Great Depression Navy SEAL-style!

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This is a truly disgraceful situation to say the least.

WHY was there NO support in the water when Capt. Phillips made his escape this morning?!?!!

WHY is the U.S. military in a standoff with a handful of completely unorganized lowlifes?!?!

The pirates are sending for reinforcements (more pirates with previously pirated ships) and so is the U.S.!!... What is going on!?!?

My sense is that this is just another indication that U.S. dominance is a thing of the past.

We financially engineered the largest phony consumption boom in modern history while spreading our military all over the globe while building an unsustainable domestic public services and entitlement demand while massively expanding our money supply in order to fund the prior two items while allowing our representative government be completely co-opted (by partisan groups, think tanks, big business, trade organizations etc.) while bailing out everything and everyone after the boom went bust while expanding the money supply MUCH more to account for the bailout….

We have seriously lost our way.

Our economy peaked in 2000 and since then we have been on a long, persistent and fundamental decline… though there still is a significant disconnect between Americans sense of security (financial and otherwise) and dominance and reality.... a reality that even the pirates are aware of.

Just like individuals, governments and societies can’t negotiate or bail themselves out of every situation…

My thoughts are with the family of Capt. Phillips who is clearly an extraordinary individual... let’s all just hope the next time he grabs the reins and takes this situation into his own hands he succeeds.