18 rescued on Lake Erie after ice breaks away

The imperial perimeter is shrinking and inevitably leaving power vacuums to be filled. As that occurs, actors outside the perimeter expand their force. How can we tell?

Since it has served its purpose of stabilizing and consolidating the 20 year old country, Putinism is officially on the decline. Its future, if it is to survive, is either coalition governance with communists or radical transformation towards long term construction of a post-scarcity societal model.

The “Arab Spring” has a chance to really last if the protesters formulate and demand a coherent anti-imperialist and mainly economic developmental program   Some have compared the CIA backed Middle Eastern protests to the failed wave of liberal uprising around Europe in 1848. That description however may only apply to the protests against the regional monarchies and not the Arab republics. Political currents of some of the key countries of the region are similar to pre-WW1 Europe: The Muslim world is where Europe was in 1850-1900.

Assuming the Israeli attacks were effective, succeeded in pre-empting a cataclysm-and didn’t precipitate a worse cataclysm-the U.S. should then demand Israelies abandon their own nuclear program in the interests of leveling the Mideast playing field. Let the chips fall as they may but, at the least, that proposal, which has as little chance of adoption as Iranians and Israelis converting to Christianity, would be equitable.

I would like to say that the greatest inequality is not within nation, but between them. It is very important to know this point, as it helps to understand difference between social stratification and global stratification.