Geopolitical Prognosication

For those who have not had enough of "gloom and doom", here a bit more with a comic twist...

Here's some dire news from the Wall Street Journal, an article entitled "As if Things Weren't Bad Enough, Russian Professor Predicts End of U.S.":

For a decade, Russian academic Igor Panarin has been predicting the U.S. will fall apart in 2010. ... an economic and moral collapse will trigger a civil war and the eventual breakup of the U.S. ...

Mr. Panarin's apocalyptic vision "reflects a very pronounced degree of anti-Americanism in Russia today," says Vladimir Pozner, a prominent TV journalist in Russia. "It's much stronger than it was in the Soviet Union."

Mr. Pozner and other Russian commentators and experts on the U.S. dismiss Mr. Panarin's predictions. "Crazy ideas are not usually discussed by serious people," says Sergei Rogov, director of the government-run Institute for U.S. and Canadian Studies, who thinks Mr. Panarin's theories don't hold water.

For those who want to condensed ready for TV consumption version:



Hey, as a proud Canadian I think it is a pretty good deal. Give Alaska back to the Russians and let the Canadians pick up the US Midwest. We promise to treat those poor forlorn ex-Americans kindly. We will be gentle in slathering on the taxes and the Social Democracy.

The part I like best about Batchelor's interview is when he says "You don't need arms when your checks don't clear! ... finance trumps the warships and airplanes. You cannot win a country with guns, but you can win it if you buy its assets."