China’s aggression in September after Japan seized a Chinese fisherman near the East China Sea islands claimed by both countries confirmed China as a burly international tyrant. The caution for countries attempting to negotiate with China is to avoid Japan’s mistake, which was single-handedly contesting the giant. For America, that means seeking an end to China’s currency manipulation by simultaneously pursuing every option the United States has, including formally naming China a currency manipulator, imposing tariffs on imports from countries that undervalue currency and creating a community of allies to campaign together to combat the illegal trade practice.

Discussion of Alyssa Ayres, new appointment in the State Department, in the area of India policy, with a focus on globalization.

A response to Spencer Ackerman’s opening gambit on Pakistan diplomacy

The geniuses in the White House and the so-called economists are calling it “Structural Unemployment”. That’s their moniker for the record number of people (6.55 Million ) who have been unemployed for twenty-seven weeks or longer as of July, 2010,according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor and Statistics. And that number doesn’t even include the number of people (8.5 Million) who have been forced to work part-time because their hours were cut or they can’t find full-time employment.

Seems like you can’t open the web browser these days without seeing yet another story based on cherry-picked information on how nations must ditch all social spending and cut taxes on the rich in order to be “competitive”. However, the most competitive places are quite often those with the very safety nets the authors of the thumbsuckers (and the folks who sign their paychecks) seem to hate.

Further discussion of jobs reports versus reality of the Un and Underemployed.

if we let them foul our nations sacred waters

it cant be true!

Pakistan’s national security policy of supporting terrorist groups and militias as proxies against India, known as “strategic depth,” is accelerating out of control, and they are either deliberately or inadvertently engineering a globalized religious war, a Clash of Civilizations. If pressure on congress is not increased, if the US remains on the slow, ambiguous timetable it is on now, it will be caught right in the middle of this clash.

We launched the Commonwealth Games Campaign and asked friends and allies to join with us and sign our petition at www.commonwealthgamescampaign.org with many others and write to your local games organizing committee and the High Commissioner in your country or directly to the Queen. Thousands of families have been displaced already. The livelihoods of waste pickers, bicycle rickshaw pullers and many others are threatened. We need your help!