.....so say the Russkies! http://www.drudgereport.com/flashrur.htm So according to the Russians, the South will rise again....so will the West, the Northeast, the Mid-Northern States, and Texas. Oh, and they want Alaska back.
Fuck the Russians. I've been predicting balkanization for over a decade- my big mistake was that I thought it was going to be on the order of 50 years down the road. Now I'm thinking I may actually live to see it. Y'know what else? I'm having a hard time caring. I think our system is broken beyond repair. Better than half the people in this country thinks you can vote yourself a free lunch, and they are in the process of giving it away until it's all gone. Well, we can see the bottom of the barrel now. The next century will be a lot more interesting than I originally figured it to be.
"The dollar is not secured by anything." Wrong Ivan, the dollars secured by it being the de facto international currency, it's usage in oil transactions and the fact countries want vast tranches of it to store wealth. It's why the US has been able to print money for fun without incurring massive inflation. When the US runs out of customers wanting dollars, or a competitor currency achieves a certain level (the Euros a good bet if they dump the PIGS), then we may see the collapse of the US.
I'm working on a warp engine that's powered by a politicians ability to warp the truth. The stumbling block is in trying to find a limiter
First let's get this out of the way. We own Alaska lock stock and barrel. There was no lease. Second China will be in a position to do nothing. It doesn't have vast resources and it's starting to show strains that it will collapse soon. (couple decades IMHO) Capitalism has taken in that country and the leaders can not keep a lid on everything forever. State run media won't report on it but it keeps leaking out on the net that they are having more and more riots where the population is attacking the police and government officials because they are sick of the corruption. Being part of the communist party is looked at as a license to steal and since you have to be a party member to work in government you can see that most people view the government as thieves. The leaders in China have to keep most of the population in the country and poor simply because there is not enough jobs for everyone. But the people in the country keep coming to the cities. I'm not worried about China. The Pacific Coast certainly has more Hispanics then it does Chinese. I do agree however that many people are looking at Obama as a miracle worker. He has certainly set himself up to be one. Especially promising that he will fix everything. I think that come his second year in office people are going to realize that he's been lying through his teeth. He's already backed off most of his promises and now he's backing off raising taxes on the "rich".
Any idea of the U.S. breaking up in the next 50-100 years is, in my opinion, wishful thinking. The U.S. survived the Great Depression...and, though economic times are distinctly non-rosy, we don't have 40% unemployment to contend with. Relax. I think China's heading for some turmoil as they get richer and citizens start demanding their rights, but I believe it will be a mostly peaceful transition to a democratic state. Russia? Looking at hard times due to demographic decline and a shift in the world economy away from oil. The new autocracy ain't helping, either. And any effort to reclaim Alaska would get their hand slapped.
I agree about China heading for trouble. It's unsustainable. Given their history, I disagree. Whatever will happen there won't be pretty.
China's government remains legitimate in the eyes of the people because they've been able to deliver economic growth; but the double-digit rates of growth will not continue forever. Once it subsides, all those newly-minted middle class citizens are going to call the party's authority into question. The bureaucrats will have a decision to make. I expect (I certainly hope!) there will be no repeats of Tian'an'men Square simply because it will be bad for business. Those in power will gradually be supplanted by people who have no memory of Mao, who have been educated in the west, and who prefer prosperity to turmoil. I'm pretty optimistic about China. The Chinese would have to sacrifice a lot to prevent democratization through force...
I'd be more in favor of something like this if I didn't think Nebraska would end up part of Upper Jesusland.
Nebraska has four things going for it: 1) Abundance of open space. 2) It's not NY. 3) It's not CA. 4) Job market is better than a lot of other bumfuck states.
CA would be a great place to live if it were a new republic as long as it didn't end up with completely retarded leadership or go socialist.
While I believe that some of the Obama votes did represent exactly that, I really don't believe most of them do. http://www.boston.com/news/politics/2008/articles/2008/11/25/a_vow_to_jolt_the_economy/ I cut that article off short, there is more to read. One other point of note is this: Sounds a fuck of a lot more responsible than how the Bush administration is handling bail outs... 700 billion unregulated dollars in the first plan... another 800 billion being talked about today, or did that actually already go through? What makes you think Obama is going to be worse? We have so much debt right now that the only responsible thing to do is cut spending and raise taxes across the board. Yes wealthy people will have to foot more of the bill and that sucks but we are reaching a critical point, we're getting very close to adding that one last straw that will break the camel's back. If the auto industry goes under, if the banks go down, we are so fucked you can't even imagine. Too many jobs lost, no consumer credit available, literally a 2nd great depression. And to speak to Muad Dib's point about Alaska in the hypothetical scenario where the US breaks up... we may own it but who's going to be able to hold on to that massive chunk of ice? I think there would be too much lower 48 in fighting for anyone to pick up the slack and hold on to all that oil. The Russians would probably take it.
That would be great. The Taiwanese are the legitimate rulers of China, they're just in exile because someone convinced the peasants to revolt. What is worrisome is what are they going to do with all the wealth they are accumulating? The easiest answer is to militarize. They already are an economic powerhouse. How long will it be before they are a military one? And who will they roll over first?
Has this dude ever been to The South? Hispanics aren't exactly "King of The Hill" minority-wise. For every Juanita Gonzales we have ten Shamika Jackson.
If history is any guide, the country will break up into city-states as have all great nations in the past when their time came to an end.
Damn! I'm glad I live in The South when we split up. I think McCain should be our president, since he swept Mississippi through South Carolina. Wait...instead....Bob Barr! imagine The South with a Libertarian in charge!