In Which New York Joins The EU

The Wall Street Journal reports that Russian media is giving a lot of attention to a local academic who is predicting that the United States will collapse by 2010 in a civil war brought about by "mass immigration, economic decline, and moral degradation."

Prof. Panarin, 50 years old, is not a fringe figure. A former KGB analyst, he is dean of the Russian Foreign Ministry's academy for future diplomats. He is invited to Kremlin receptions, lectures students, publishes books, and appears in the media as an expert on U.S.-Russia relations. But it's his bleak forecast for the U.S. that is music to the ears of the Kremlin, which in recent years has blamed Washington for everything from instability in the Middle East to the global financial crisis. Mr. Panarin's views also fit neatly with the Kremlin's narrative that Russia is returning to its rightful place on the world stage after the weakness of the 1990s, when many feared that the country would go economically and politically bankrupt and break into separate territories.

The map above depicts how Panarin thinks the country will break up. Mexico gets the south, Canada gets the midwest, and for some reason the west goes to China. But the neatest part is that the new "Atlantic America" will join the European Union. I've always wanted an EU passport!