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On Saturday, hundreds of men prowled a section of the city with six-foot iron bars, poisoned swords, clubs, knives and crude circumcision tools. Boys carried gladiator-style shields and women strutted around with sharpened sticks.
Gave another presentation yesterday to a large room full of "former" CIA (and other intel agencies) operatives and analysts. In sum, they had boatloads of experience (including a considerable amount of responsibility for the most impressive US "military" victory since WW2: the collapse of the Soviet adventure in Afghanistan). It was a real honor to be in the room given the accomplishments of the participants. In short, the group really grooved on the new models of warfare I presented. Perhaps it was because a big part of my message was that the future of warfare doesn't include much of the US military.
Fallows runs through the details of the "financial balance of terror" between the US and China and concludes that it won't last long. However, of the reasons he listed for a collapse of the balance, he didn't include the most likely: that China will need the money to shore up its domestic economy as the US heads into a lengthy and severe recession.
Remember, China hasn't endured anything other than growth pain for over a decade. Further, the average Chinese citizens hasn't reaped much from that boom. They don't have the financial reserves to weather a crisis (and many of those that do will lose their shirts when China's market bubble tanks). So where will this cash go over the next two years? Not into Blackstones or US Treasuries. Instead, it will be invested domestically. Into jobs and projects to shore up the little bit of legitimacy the Chinese government still has (we see a similar pattern with many of the globe's marginally legitimate governments, from Saudi Arabia to Russia).
Frankly, I'm not sure that $1.4 trillion (the normative value of which is evaporating with each plunge in the dollar) will be enough to prevent China from disintegrating if this crisis becomes a panic.Montana governor Brian Schweitzer (D) declared independence Friday from federal identification rules and called on governors of 17 other states to join him in forcing a showdown with the federal government which says it will not accept the driver's licenses of rebel states' citizens starting May 11....But Homeland Security spokeswoman Laura Keehner says DHS has no intention of blinking. "That will mean real consequences for their citizens starting in may if their leadership chooses not to comply," Keehner said. "That includes getting on an airplane or entering a federal building, so they will need to get passports." Keehner says DHS's policy won't change even if Georgia -- one of the 17 states that has signaled strong opposition to the rules -- declines to apply for an extension. If that scenario came to pass, every Georgian who flies out through the nation's busiest airport -- Atlanta-Hartsfield International -- would have to be patted down by Homeland Security agents and have his carry-on bag hand-screened, likely resulting in massive delays.
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