In the series “Pine Gap” which we are currently watching the relationship between the USA and Australia is strained. In real life the AUKUS pact and the sale of US nuclear submarines by the arch deal breaker, in under review. {What is in it for us?} Time and again deals are broken and pulled out of. In the series Australia is considering a deal of neutrality with China.

In real life America continues to behave like a teenage bully in the locker-hallways of a high school, gesticulating, boasting and making threats. There are insults and defamations thrown at so-called allies.

America is very hard work as a so-called “friend”. There is so much hassle. It is such a drag and is not a mutually uplifting relationship. Do you really need friends like that, who are such a downer, a whinger, a pain in the ass? Who are so unpleasant?

USA continues to fund the obliteration of Gaza; the American ordnance has killed tens of thousands. It pretends to be a peace maker when it provides petrol for the fire which inflames, maims and destroys. It has thrown tens of billions of dollars at the defence of Ukraine.

If Ukraine has taught anything, it is that Russian conventional forces need not be feared. Yet the propaganda suggests that it is Putin who is the bogeyman, Vlad the Impaler. Iraq and Afghanistan are swept under the carpet. Butter from genetically modified cows fed on pesticide rich feed does not melt in our mouths. We are the land of the Free, the home of the Brave. Here we, armed to the teeth, kick the living shit out of anyone who dares to disagree. We are so brave with our reaper drones and F35s. A level playing field is not for us heroes.

I can understand why popularity need not concern the powerful but endless coercion does never strengthen alliances. Belittling allies does not make them strong or willing. I can understand why Western Europe is the past. I can see that technology rich South Korea and Japan are refusing to procreate enough. This is good news for China. I can see that a few bombs on TSMC in Taiwan could severely disrupt the semiconductor and AI band wagons. The new  FABS in the USA won’t come on line anytime soon. I can see Huawei competing effectively around the world. The embargo has stimulated home-grown creativity. I can see the Maoist cultural revolution against the Intellectuals and Free Press in the USA now in full swing.

If America loses its technological advantage post purge, what then? Will the hordes of the unvaccinated survive?

There are a few more years to go of the Trump presidency. What I have no sight of is what a post Trumpian USA might look like, this especially if he changes the constitution to allow himself  another term. It might be a USA unrecognisable.

Is it really worth all that hassle to deal with and partially rely on the USA. How reliable are the whim prone? Patience has to be wearing thin.