us state capability for ops + improvisation is in steep decline, esp in top echelons of military. china either has or soon will...
us state capability for ops + improvisation is in steep decline, esp in top echelons of military. china either has or soon will have ability to decisively win a war in the scs, and will need to act on advantage before us can reform or assemble overwhelming coalition. china is currently decoupling financially and reasserting control over domestic entities with us-linked interests. decisive defeat in scs discredits fed govt (not just pols), will end $ as sole reserve currency -> domestic chaos
so you’ll want to be part of whatever organized group emerges in your region to inherit / challenge the local power structures, or that will form the local powerbase for whatever regional powerbrokers will be contending for control of the remains of federal authority. you don’t really seem like a chamber of commerce type. hence my other suggestion to begin working on your syncretic philosophy that will appeal to the at-sea, dispossessed ex-‘urban liberal striver’ class
Demonstratively taking a carrier group out, okay, that would work differently than say their diesel sub fleet commerce raiding the Pacific or a currency war, which I remind you are alternate points at which the pinch could come.
And the Portland Business Alliance, our local chamber of commerce, probably would be the dominant local force I would make allegiance to trying to stabilize the chaos. Hell, after last year it kinda is