Those river dolphins wouldn't be happy if they knew how much shareholder value was being lost by not letting all their food sources get overfished.

True, given how close Cuba is to Florida and they still have surface vessels outside of carrier strike groups.

No chance, the Ford is a big, slow boy. It's gonna take around two weeks for them to sail there.

The aircraft carrier U.S.S. Gerald R. Ford and its escort ships deployed to the Caribbean will be sent to the Middle East and are not expected to return to their home ports until late April or early May. The ship’s crew was informed of the decision on Thursday, according to four U.S. officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the decision.

Per NYTimes https://archive.is/yuN8Q

So looks like they're not rushing the Bush out of port and are instead turning the eye of Sauron from Venezuela and Cuba. I assume Rubio is pissed about this, because the Caribbean will be without a carrier strike group with which to raid Venezuelan oil and won't be able to prevent Russian oil from reaching Cuba. The empire has to make decisions about where to spend its resources; perhaps they feel they've gotten all they can get fron Venezuela for now? Or it's overconfidence?

Regardless, to rush the Ford over there rather than the Bush shows they must be serious about Iran, and all plans pointed to a) they need more firepower to make any real dent in Iran's war machine and b) they couldn't wait for the Bush to be ready and need to strike sooner. The question being for b, why? What are the Iranians cooking up? Related to the Netanyahu meeting yesterday around "intelligence sharing"? Maybe, but what intelligence could the Israelis share that the Americans don't already have?

I'm just spitballing here, we don't really know anything, but it's an interesting turn of events unfolding. At the very least, this is probably the most telegraphed move yet that a strike is coming. One carrier group is something, but two? Whilst all the rest are home at port? Basically going all in. Would be a real uh interesting time for some Event in the South China Sea to kick off...

Pakistan and India definitely do have functional air defense. I imagine Japan does as well. Shambolic from the euros as always though.

Pakistan has always had more sovereignty than people here give them credit for. They have nukes, they've been able to thread the needle with US/China relations, and they will absolutely pursue their own interests as the world becomes more multipolar.

The first balloon ace is gonna be really funny.

India will continue to buy energy based on what is affordable, reliable, and secure, Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri said on Monday (9 February), even as the United States presses New Delhi to cut down imports of Russian crude. Misri said India’s energy policy is built around diversification — buying oil from many countries instead of depending on just one. His comments came after US President Donald Trump claimed last week that India had “committed to stop directly or indirectly” importing Russian oil as part of a trade deal.

Responding to questions on this claim, Misri made it clear that India’s position has not changed. “Our approach is to maintain multiple sources of supply and diversify them as appropriate to ensure stability. Therefore, the more diversified we are, the more secure we are,” he said.

Per https://www.financialexpress.com/world-news/us-news/india-ramped-up-buying-us-trade-rep-responds-on-whether-new-delhi-has-stopped-buying-russian-oil/4138354/

All theft is via force, whether that be implicit or explicit. Colonialism is more nuanced and historically contingent than just theft, else basically every relationship between states throughout all history could in some form be described as "colonial," in which case the word loses all meaning. There's an aspect of control (whether that is over land, people, etc) and theories of racial superiority that make colonialism different. There's also usually the idea of some kind of civilising mission, which in this case is entirely absent. I don't think it's accurate to describe colonialism as just "theft via force."

China, for over two thousand years, has acted sort of like a cultural SCP, absorbing more and more of the globe because people recognize Being Chinese as a set of culutral norms is actually really good. This is just furthering that trend. Chinese isn't a race, it's a way of life. The book Chinese Cosmopolitanism by Shuchen Xiang covers this process well.