I think the US has come to realize Kim Jong-Un isn’t going to back down. The US is going to have its bluff called by someone with the means and intent to start a global war if not left alone, and now either the US is seen by the whole world to back down, or it must initiate an action likely to lead to its own destruction.

The US has involved China in the hope it can get it out of this mess, and if it does save the US we’ll all know it.

It was the height of hypocrisy for Powell to moan about foreigners in Britain. One historian said he came from a family of aristocratic feudal barons who in medieval times robbed Ireland of its best crop-growing land. While black people came here to work his clan went over there to steal, and no doubt it took real rivers of blood for them to achieve that because the Irish would not have just given it over.

The US doesn’t have to go so far as to become fifty-two countries because breaking up into five or six multi-state regions will suffice. We could see the Deep South rename themselves the Confederate States and base their economy on agriculture, though paid-labor could hamper them this time. California could break away as a tech-based independent state while Oregon could turn to lumber, and the mid-west states could join to become the bread basket of the whole North American continent. The north eastern states could rename themselves New England to become a tourist destination etc. Some new states would have little choice but to revive old industries like coal and steel.

If Americans chose the new borders it would work better than Europeans or Russians deciding them, because it would be useful for outsiders to ensure the states are divided against themselves through economic means, such as taking hydro-electric power stations away from one state and redrawing them in another, or to keep some areas poor so the people move and become burdens on other new states. World peace would be better achieved if the new states could not agree to unite again. May they always bicker.

As an eight year old kid in 1968 during the Vietnam War I’d often sit through the news at tea-time waiting for the kid’s programs to start. I never listened to what was said, I wasn’t interested, so the lies they told about the whys and wherefores went over my head, but I noticed they were American planes carpet-bombing the jungles of South East Asia. Those planes had white stars on the side not red ones. After that I said America was the belligerent force behind the Cold War endangering the whole world. Before 9/11 it was difficult to make people believe the threats posed by America but since then they’ve made it obvious to most just how dangerous they are.

Today’s unrest may fade away after a while but that’s not going to be the end of it, it’s just beginning. The problems which will come out of the economic collapse cannot be predicted, because they’re going to be huge. Even the middle classes might revolt if after losing good jobs they’re at risk of foreclosure.

Saying where this situation will go then that’ll be the end of it is like watching a goal scored in the opening seconds of a game and saying that’s the final score. There is much, much further to go. This rebellion is just the opening move.