Looking at Some Maps of the World

I was reading some stories about the aggressive moves of China in the world – their attempts to impose cultural hegemony in the West, their moves to take over the waterways near them, how they use their market share like a club to get concessions from Western firms – and I realized that I needed to see a map that compared China and the West.

The USA is roughly at a similar latitude to China; the areas at high elevations aren’t that much different, if you include Alaska. So where is the push for expansion of their areas of influence coming from?

Arable land. China’s farmland is not all that extensive. Only the coastal areas are low enough to provide sufficient level land for large agricultural operations. And, those coastal areas are heavy with manufacturing and shipping.

Russia is in a similar pickle as far as elevation, but it’s complicated by high latitudes that make for a shorter growing season. The plains of Russia are better suited for cattle or other animal husbandry than grains.

And, both Russia and China suffer from lack of access to large quantities of fresh, unpolluted lake water. In the USA, we have the Great Lakes – approximately 1/5 of the WORLD’S fresh water supply. Never underestimate the power of these natural resources in influencing the politics of the world. In the Western part of the USA, the regular release of water from the Rockies makes the region habitable (at least until CA prioritized the non-producing population over the farmers for water access).

That access to water makes the USA a powerhouse in agricultural exports. Literally, we feed the world. Well, at least we did until the Democrats decided to favor the big agribusinesses over smaller operations. One major plus for the next president would be to elect someone with knowledge of farm policy, and a bias in favor of independent farmers vs. the multinational corporations.

Come to think of it, the last president with some knowledge of agriculture was Carter, and, like Hoover, he was sabotaged by Wall Street interests. You don’t think those high interest rates, which hit the agriculture community so hard, were an accident? Financial interests and Deep State combined to tip the scales (Yes, Carter was ineffectual and wrong about so many things. However, it is quite interesting that his strongest supporters – the farmers and associated businesses – just HAPPENED to be hardest hit by inflation).

But, we have some advantages today. We have more access to information today (despite labeling all who tell the unvarnished truth as “Fake News”). There is a reason they are clamping down so hard at present – they truly fear the consequences of our own Samizdata left to expose them. The recent push to silence us is all the more reason to stand up and shout – they are on the ropes. They fear loss of power, and the resulting public exposure of their actions – and, their vulnerability to criminal prosecution and loss of ill-gotten gains.