Wanderthread

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From http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/scw/knox.htm

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https://twitter.com/capuffin/status/896543900604653569

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I just had an uncomfortable thought:

US military strategy tends to focus on securing energy supplies. Hence the constant meddling in the Middle East.

If the US attacks Korea, China will not idly watch. A Sino-American conflict is a real possibility.

China has some internal resources, but it is not self-sufficient. It imports a large amount of fossil fuels, providing a weak point for the US to attack.

Where does China import energy from?

Oh, fuck, it’s Oz.

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Mike Godwin seems to agree:

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This is true but geopolitics are quite different now compared to the last time this happened, seventy years ago. At the moment, China are ostensible allies (which is why the Taiwan thing in the first few weeks of the so-called presidency were as terrifying as they were) and unlike the last time, they are not directly funding and supporting the North Koreans as a bulwark against the encroachment of capitalism.

They almost-certainly won’t fight on the same side as the rest of the western powers but there’s no real danger of them directly opposing the US, if push comes to shove; both the US and China are not “friends” with NK but for different reasons. China is primarily concerned with the refugee crisis that regime change in North Korea would bring about but they aren’t ideologically opposed to the US any more.

At any rate, if a Sino-American war kicked off (again), Australia would be forced to stop selling energy to China. It’d be a major hit to the Australian economy but China would have to destroy the Seventh Fleet and all of the US-allied amphibious forces in the Pacific before it could take Australia’s energy resources by force. If that happens, energy is absolutely the last of your worries.

That said, the second that Vietnam mobilises, Mrs Cynical and I are getting the fuck out of Singapore. Things don’t end well for anyone in the Eastern hemisphere once that happens. Vietnam has one of the most efficient amphibious fighting forces in the world, geared entirely to take the Spratly islands back from China. Vietnam will win that conflict but the fallout (literal and political) is likely to be immense.

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Fencing with Wormtongue:

Points to Colbert, but no kill.

Confirmed my call of him as a kamikaze anti-Priebus weapon.

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Required for the Reconstruction:

Why won’t you Onebox?

Don’t I wish.

https://twitter.com/freeyourmindkid/status/897555349607141376

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That’s hilarious.

He’s a white supremacist, so he shouldn’t be allowed to say he’s only joking or take the uniform off. He’s just a very pussified white supremacist.

I’m seeing more and more of these biological males but not men coming out of the woodwork because they feel emboldened. That has to stop. They need to understand that their bullshit won’t be tolerated.

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