What Crisis Is Going to Blindside the US?

What crisis is going to blindside the US? That is the question I discuss this week with Havok Journal writer and IT expert Matt Trevathan. Matt does his best to shoehorn a cogent discussion of India, China, and Turkey into an hour-long podcast. For my part, I try to go full Foggy Bottom, using polysyllabic words (such as “polysyllabic”) while trying to manage a polished NPR-worthy voice throughout. Does it work? Well, Matt and I had fun. As for the rest of you…you’re gonna be smarter than you were an hour before, possessing just enough knowledge to be dangerous. Or not, I don’t know. You be the judge.

Show Alibis

You may have noticed we’ve started publishing each episode on Tuesdays. My producer, Michael Neal, was overly gracious with the scheduling early on, taking up his weekend with editing the show. So this evens his work/life balance. So that’s why. Or I have it wrong and Mike was just fed up dealing with my technical mishaps and decided he needed an extra 24 hours to bang his head against a wall. Either way, what do you think? Better? Worse? Hadn’t noticed?

Let me give you a little inside baseball look at our show. Charlie Faint likes to come on and give us a pre-game pep talk and, before this episode, he said that this would be the first tech issue-free show yet. I was cautiously optimistic. Then, during the show, in my headphones, Matt’s audio went out several times. But in the recording, well, it never did. So at one point I butt in because I think I’m saving the audience from dead air. Apparently, I was just cross-talking with Matt. Is it fair of me to blame Charlie for jinxing us? Nah. But I’ll try.

For the record, this is the first episode in recent memory in which I failed to commit a double entendre.

Matt was a great interview. He is even more interesting when we’re not recording. You may notice Matt pulling his punches at certain points during the episode. Bear in mind that Matt has a lot of contacts in India, China and Japan and travels there and elsewhere frequently. As Charlie reminded us last week on the show, one of the downsides of doing a podcast with guests who have real-world experiences in our subjects is sometimes they can’t unleash their opinions in full breadth or depth. It’s a worthwhile tradeoff, but just wanted to remind you why you shouldn’t expect bias-confirming expletive-laden rants too often from our guests. Fortunately, you have a lot of other options for that.

Show Notes

Biden comments on Armenian genocide

French companies exit Iran following US sanctions

France’s attempt to re-engage Iran

How the Kurds became stateless

COVID spike in India

The USN 7th Fleet Violates Indian Exclusive Economic Zone

A brief history of China’s actions and attitudes about the South China Sea

China’s Century of Humiliation

Should Japan Re-Militarize?

Havok Journal

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