THE CATHOLIC KNIGHT: Leave it to 'The Catholic Knight' to forecast another winter flurry of pessimism-porn right after the Christmas holiday. Hey, at least I didn't post this before Christmas and ruin the spirit of the season - like I did last year.
Okay, so we could just dismiss these dire predictions as doomsday hype were it not forecasted by people with such good track records. I should point out that these Russian predictions do synchronize with leading trends forecasters in America too, with one exception. The American trends forecasters predict America will recover after a political revolution in 2010 and 2012. The Russian forecasters say we'll never make it that far into the future, and the United States will break apart into half a dozen pieces before the year 2010 is done.
How much stock we put into those predictions is irrelevant, as the Russians seem to be putting their money (and military) where their mouth is. Multiple news stories coming out of the former Soviet state confirm the Russians are beefing up their security forces and preparing for "instability" in the North American hemisphere. Apparently the Russians aren't going to take any chances....
(Wall Street Journal) - A polite and cheerful man with a buzz cut, Mr. Panarin insists he does not dislike Americans. But he warns that the outlook for them is dire.
"There's a 55-45% chance right now that disintegration will occur," he says. "One could rejoice in that process," he adds, poker-faced. "But if we're talking reasonably, it's not the best scenario -- for Russia." Though Russia would become more powerful on the global stage, he says, its economy would suffer because it currently depends heavily on the dollar and on trade with the U.S.
Mr. Panarin posits, in brief, that mass immigration, economic decline, and moral degradation will trigger a civil war next fall and the collapse of the dollar. Around the end of June 2010, or early July, he says, the U.S. will break into six pieces -- with Alaska reverting to Russian control.
In addition to increasing coverage in state media, which are tightly controlled by the Kremlin, Mr. Panarin's ideas are now being widely discussed among local experts. He presented his theory at a recent roundtable discussion at the Foreign Ministry...
read full story here
Fortunately Mr. Panarin was wrong about the timing of a "civil war next fall." This article was printed in September of 2008, and "next fall" past by a month ago. Whew! But that doesn't mean the prediction is entirely wrong. The timing may just be off. Might I add that American trends forecasters where predicting tough times to happen by fall of 2009 as well. So what went wrong? How could it be that people with such amazing track records could miss? Well, some say the economic stimulus packages have had the effect of postponing the inevitable. In other words, our economy is on a sugar high, but it won't last. Congress is already planning "Economic Stimulus 3.0" for early 2010 in the amount of another $700 to $800 billion.
Personally, I think Mr. Panarin is on to something, and so is Mr. Celente, Mr. Schiff, and other trends forecasters. The days of Empire America are over. Economically speaking, we're the walking dead. We just don't know it yet. The only question is this, when reality finally hits us, just how bad will it be? Will our economic free fall be enough to plunge us into another Civil War? (Remember, we had one once before.) It's far more likely, in my opinion, that if violence were to erupt, it wouldn't happen until after the 2010 election (maybe early 2011), starting with a conflict between the whitehouse and a newly elected congress, effectively polarizing the whole country between those who support President Obama and those who do not. That's just my opinion anyway. I really don't know what the future holds for the United States of America. All I do know is this. Election 2008 was the one that sealed our fate, whatever that fate may be. In it, the American people chose to elect a president and a congress that have zero regard for human life and the traditional family, all for promises of health, wealth and "change." In spite of the weakness of the Republican alternative, it was an election in which the choice could not have been more clear. Shall we maintain the status quo, or plunge ourselves even deeper into socialism and moral relativism? Sadly, America chose the latter. Now we get to reap the consequences. Joy.