101 Comments

And it is the course/speed of being “poorly prepared” that the U.S. continues to maintain. This is assuredly a race to the bottom.

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Having mastered the Maneuvering Board (H.O. 2665-10) and the Dead Reckoning Tracer by age 19 I can say, "Indeed, FL Dude, assuredly, a race to the bottom". C&S: 371°(M) @ 31 Metric Knots. We have the advantage of a downhill track, the wind at our back, no drug tests, access to a plethora of performance enhancing pharmacopeia, flexible referees who favor us, low-drag Spandex and high dollar running shoes courteous of China, plenty of cheering fans alongside the track waving colorful flags handing out Red Bull and cheering us on to that fundamental change thing that ain't gonna happen without our own lemming-like personal full court press stiff-arming the unwoke revanchist Magalodytes who get in the way. Gah! Do they make spike strips that work on people? Or an OTC sedative I can take?

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America's maneuvering board looks like constant bearing decreasing range to Niagara.

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Nobody on the Bridge in DC knows what "CBDR" means. Neither do they understand "NO bearing drift" on the alidade. And while Niagara is a good image, I think the edge of Pratchett's Discworld is perhaps truer at this point.

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We never learn, do we? Same problem when WW1 and WW2 occurred.

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Our very first Commander in Chief said much the same thing as your brilliant ending. We have known this and experienced the cost of periodically forgetting it. Let’s not do it again. Bravo for this reminder!

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A few years ago, the President of the United States entertained the President of China at his mansion in Florida. His beautiful wife wore a Chinese-style dress and his grandchildren sang Chinese folk songs. Today, we are seriously talking about a war between our two nations over an issue that had been dormant for fifty years. What happened?

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Obama’s administration continued.

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- Well Hong Kong happened.

- Clinton selling out our industrial base happened.

- Elite capture of our government happened.

- Chinese domestic economic corruption happened.

- Xi appointed dictator for life happened. (Ok he was reappointed for a consecutive 5 year term).

- Chinese ambitions for world domination happened.

The list of happenings is long.

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China's $1 billion investment in Hunter may be the best deal in history since the Dutch bought Manhattan for $24.

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Yep, the Biden family doesn't give too squats about the country they have served now solidly for 2 generations. Keep it up.

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served or fleeced?

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"severed or flensed", Pete?

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That too. Also, fenced.

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"Served," as in "you got served."

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$24 in 1626 was 60 Guilders and adjusted for inflation would have been $951.02 in 2012...maybe twice that now thanks to Bidenflation. And that $1 billion investment in Hunter? Didn't Senator Everett Dirksen say back in the 1950's, “A billion here, a billion there; pretty soon you’re talking about real money”? Numbers don't mean much anymore, Pete, sad to say.

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Boxer and Feinstein ably assisted.

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Thank you for affirming Trump Kowtowed just like Obama. I prefer what we have now. Let's see the 2024 budget.

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Trump is a businessman and was acting like how an American should do business in Asia.

- Show respect to an adversary in high authority.

- Welcome your adversary to your home.

- Make it a family affair.

No guarantee of a good deal, but it's a good start.

Can't compare that to Obama bowing low to the King of Saudi Arabia, his apology speech in Cairo or telling the UK that they would go to the back of the queue if they dared to pull out of the EU.

The 2024 budget is another catastrophe in a long line of catastrophes.

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You forget, Trump also ordered a naval surface attack in Syria at the same dinner meeting…. Xi was impressed and a bit bewildered.

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Dec 6, 2023·edited Dec 6, 2023

Trump was schooled in hard negotiations across the table with NYC Building Trades unions. He learned a couple of things not taught at Georgetown SFS.

1. Always inflate your going in position and demands. Likely you will get less. You will never get more

2. Always let the other guy know, and mean it, that you are prepared to walk away from a bad deal...Our Foreign service prefers any deal, to hard talks about a good deal.

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I spent most of my career in DC. An agreement in and of itself was considered an accomplishment.

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A couple weeks ago the President of the United States met the Dictator of China in San Francisco amidst throngs of cheering crowds and streets lined with PRC flags. Has much really changed?

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SF was cleaned up for a day because of Xi. I would be cheerring, too.

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Sigh, I guess that is something that changed, but not what I was getting at...

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The first one was demonstrating strength, the second subservience

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Whose mansion?

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If the editors of the Economist looked beyond their offices near Charing Cross they would see a once great industrial nation that ruled a quarter of the world held together by a great navy now reduced to one and a half islands off the coast of Europe. I suspect the Chinese laugh in disbelief when they read the Economist.

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Pete: Being good economists, the editors and writers at the "Economist" assume a world that does not exist, and then, write about it.

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Your comment reminds me of the old joke about economists who look at the real world and wonder how it would work in theory.

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Two groups of people who seem to never get fired (aside from federal bureaucrats) are meteorologists and economists. The former sometimes have trouble telling you what to expect next week, but can almost always tell you how we got to today. The latter, on the other hand, cannot explain either the past or the future with any degree of accuracy. And yet so many are employed by the government. Whenever OPM responds to a light dusting of snow in the DC area with a declaration that non-essential personnel are to stay home, they are the folks I think of first.

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Economists are like lawyers in that you can find one to support whatever position you want. They are both advocates.

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That would mean that, like lawyers, the population of economists consists of 90% bad apples that ruin the reputation of the other 10%.

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I laugh at the Economist since they were not able to see the inflation that was very obviously on its way due to Biden Misadministration policies. Any decent economist could have seen that inflation coming. Sadly The Economist doesn't know any.

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The Economist, despite its name, is probably the best weekly newsmagazine in the English language. Their correspondents are international. Sure, they get it wrong sometimes, but writing with intelligence backed by knowledge of history produces a far superior product than what is available in general to the US reader.

Hooked on it over 40 years ago, when Time and Newsweek were going down the tubes. Consistent good product.

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Dec 8, 2023·edited Dec 8, 2023

If only they knew anything about economics, or knew any good economists.

11/2021 “The sharp increase in inflation over the past year has blindsided many economists. Almost no one saw it coming” ~ The Economist

I saw it coming and I'm an engineer

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In that vein ...

"They have coincided with Mr Biden’s centralisation of power and his replacement of technocrats with loyalists in top jobs. America used to tolerate debate about its economy, but today it cajoles analysts into fake optimism. Recently it has stopped publishing unflattering data on youth unemployment and consumer confidence. The top ranks of government still contain plenty of talent, but it is naive to expect a bureaucracy to produce rational analysis or inventive ideas when the message from the top is that loyalty matters above all. Instead, decisions are increasingly governed by an ideology that fuses a left-wing suspicion of rich entrepreneurs with a right-wing reluctance to hand money to the idle poor."

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"unexpected" ? Sir, really....

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author

To them, yes.

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love it! (I had been looking back askance at my comment earlier, felt it a cheap shot when your question about moving Davidson was earnest.)

and so......perhaps we should be making extra special nice to Viet Nam, Malaya, Indonesia, other local states that have vested interest in keeping a lid on happenings in South China Sea.

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We "might" be able to prepare for the military side of the fight (if we would build drydocks, fund ship maintenance, and turn away from the "wokeness" that is strangling recruitment) but how can we "prepare" for the economic side when 90% of our pharmaceuticals (and the ingredients therein) come from China. Or 80% of the rare earth metals that go into EVs, solar cells, storage batteries. Or the flow of intellectual; property when we "host" tens of thousands of Chinese students (that ain't here to major in Gender Studies, East African Art from the 1800s, or Comparative Women's Studies). Or have a porous border that costs us 1/2 of the DoD budget every year in giveaways. What do we do when 123 PRC ships "invade" an island/reef complex off the Philippine coast? Why we issue a stern warning, that 'll show them uppity Chinese we mean business!!

All in all, I think they have fewer socioeconomic problems that we do. Our border/debt/cancel culture/TDS/election SNAFUing/pendfing impeachment - pick one - all have the capacity to sink us before the first shot in anger with the PRC. They just need to bide their time, and keep building ships.

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The silver lining of the anti-Jewish protests is that some of the Open Borders crowd is realizing we might have to change our immigration policy. To reluctantly give Biden credit, he's maintained the Trump decoupling of China, in some ways increased it. Rare Earths are a bit trickier, but friendshoring might be possible there.

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founding

I recalled, after reading your comment, a story from about 10 months ago...

https://www.opb.org/article/2022/02/16/lithium-oregon-mcdermitt-caldera-deposit-nevada/

We have REs, but just like hydrocarbons, the Red Greens and our government "keep stompin' on our dream." Hat tip to Frank Sinatra.

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The bigger issue with REs, like hydrocarbons, is producing the raw materials; it's refining them. Refineries are one of the ultimate YIOPBY (Yes In Other People's Back Yards) requirements of modern life.

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Brettbaker: The Open Borders cannot and will not change course. It's full speed ahead, into an iceberg.

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We are the iceberg, and as Hank Johnson so presciently warned us, the invaders are tipping it over.

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The critical issue with REE isn't getting the ore, it's turning the ore into metal. And that issue is the EPA. The fact that we don't even have a single working lead mine in the US is kind of a sign of the problem.

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They also have a repressed, and therefore obedient, population.

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And that is exactly why China is heavily invested in media in the United States. They are through very effective propaganda by using Hollywood, Social Media and some News (not to mentioned the ideologically alignment with a large portion of the Elite leftist in the nation) are controlling narratives and keeping the country divided.

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Excellent ending, expanding the “Si vis pacem, para bellum”. Although the people who didn’t want to read the Latin version will ignore the English one too…

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founding

"Weakness and disappointment might lead the (insert country here) to turn inward, or equally may have it lash out in a last gasp before its strength weakens." Sounds familiar, just sayin'.

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We can start by boosting our domestic shipyard repair capacity and open a 5th public Naval Shipyard. We must also stop decommissioning all naval vessels immediately and move east coast naval assets to west coast bases. The short term effect will signal to China that we expect hostilities in the western pacific. We cannot do much with our congress or our current executive branch in the way of moving the United States to a wartime footing. But that will happen as a matter of course when the bullets start flying. We must also seriously consider reinstating the draft. A massive public awareness campaign would be useful, except no one trusts the government any longer.

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founding

Good advice! It may be well to remember that FDR forced the Navy (including firing the CNO) into moving the Pacific Fleet to Pearl Harbor to deter the Japanese.

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Tell me again how that worked out?

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founding

Tomorrow reminds us.

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It would've worked a lot better if the Japanese didn't falsely assume that they needed to attack the US in order to facilitate their invasion of the Dutch East Indies. 1941 US would've never fought to save a Dutch Colony absent an attack on our forces. Never assume away the enemy's ability to make strategic mistakes and pursue war absent of objective estimates of what's best for their interests.

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No need to reinstate the draft. Just stop disparaging the South. Restore the statues and names of Confederate heroes and there will be no shortage of recruits.

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We aren’t willing to send our sons and daughters to the military under this woke system and woke leadership. No matter the region of the country.

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"Restore the statues and names of Confederate heroes and there will be no shortage of recruits. "

The military was having recruiting shortages before the name changes & statue destruction. And I rather doubt that any great number of potential recruits are so attached to the Confederacy that they are deterred from enlisting by changing the name of some military installation they have never heard of named after some person they know nothing of.

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It would truly be sad if Lee and Jackson were no longer honored.

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Well, welcome to truly sad. And yeah, it really is.

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and Jefferson and Washington

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I would say few that would have joined in the current environment absent name changes were dissuaded, but none that would not have joined now will.

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Not for the Army, Obama shrunk the US Army to around 460k, Trump increased it and by 2020 it had 482k, under Biden it has shrunk to 452k today.

Not sure about the other services. But I do know the Navy also increased under Trump and I think it's shrunk a little under Biden.

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It's too late for that. People will not fight for a government that hates them, reviles them, tries to disarm them, and then replaces them.

That's why the government is going to promise citizenship to the invaders if they fight.

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That worked well for Imperial Rome.

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Tell China that we want Long Beach Naval Base back for home porting and to reopen the Long Beach Naval Shipyard. Tell them we are taking some of the other container facilities in the Port of LA for prepostioning military assets like we do at Blount Island in Florida and they have to leave. Give Todd in San Pedro some shipbuilding contracts. None of that has to happen right away, except for China to vacate now. In the interim, we offset trade imbalances with China by charging huge fees to offload their containers. Do the same for the former NAS Alameda.

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Winner, winner! Chicken dinner!

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And...that will last exactly will WalMart and Amazon tighten the screws on their pre-purchased politicians.

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Channeling my inner Milton Friedman, people are "Free To Choose". They can have cheaper Chinese goods or a gainfully employed nation that builds things at home, creates jobs, promotes self-sufficiency, ends dependency and makes us stronger. In the end, it'll depend on whether we are woke or awake.

Anyone remember Walmart's old "Made in the USA" Campaign? It's been on life support for about 2 decades. https://www.americanmanufacturing.org/press-release/fact-sheet-walmarts-made-in-america-pledge/

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That was true before so many of the smaller shops were closed down completely by a combination of COVID propaganda and purposefully unsafe cities.

We are being forced into a future where Amazon/Walmart etc. mail-order is the ONLY way to get many goods.

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Agree completely... Especially about decomms, and moving things around. The whole 'pivot west' is seemingly just words. But 3-4 more CVBGs parked at Everett/SD is actual substance. Id also bring the Reagan home, to avoid the freebie Pearl Harbor Episode 2 that it is...

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There is merit in relocating our “forward” deployed ships.

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There's nothing new in the world. From Wikipedia:

"The phrase "Si vis pacem, para bellum" is adapted from a statement found in Roman author Publius Flavius Vegetius Renatus's tract Dē Rē Mīlitārī (fourth or fifth century AD), in which the actual phrasing is "Igitur quī dēsīderat pācem, præparet bellum" ("Therefore let him who desires peace prepare for war.").[1][2] The idea which it conveys also appears in earlier works such as Plato's Nomoi (Laws).[3][4] The phrase presents the insight that the conditions of peace are often preserved by a readiness to make war when necessary."

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Many companies are already moving operations out of China to other countries that aren't quite as hostile to us. There are many deposits of raw materials, including rare earths, that are available outside of China, it's just a matter of getting set up to mine them, and then get them someplace that can process them.

Almost all of our issues here are political in nature.

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I'd argue that alot of those companies are just switching out of China as Labour rates in Countries like Vietnam and India are alot less than China. They are just using the national security issue as a virtual signal to try and hide their greed.

Take Apple for example shifting some production to India, this is the same company who's largest contractor used nets to prevent people from dying after they threw themselves off the buildings.

It's just greed.

The corporate elite of America, don't care about America. Heck, the US can't even build some aircraft with out parts from China. (ie the C-130 Hercules and the F-35 too).

The love of money is the root of all evil.

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If you want the best for the Chinese people, and you also want to undermine communism, ship a frillion Bibles to them.

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Not bad, but send them some "One shitters" like Common Sense.

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Funny, that would also work in the US.

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Unlike most Americans, the Chinese are actually interested in the Bible.

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As the PRC now owns most of our industrial assets and sweat equity as well as our president and his family I doubt Mr Xi is worried as much as you think... The american "leadership" built this rival brick by brick and dont think me or the kids in my extended family are gunna die for their mismanagment...

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"A well prepared peace for a war that never comes is much less expensive than being poorly prepared for war that arrives unexpected."

Two sayings come to mind:

Si vis pacem, para bellum" and

The only thing more expensive than the best military in the world, is the second-best.

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"A well prepared peace for a war that never comes is much less expensive than being poorly prepared for war that arrives unexpected."

------------

Bingo!

Hence cold war era Strategic Air Command's motto: "Peace is our profession"

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Dec 6, 2023·edited Dec 6, 2023

China will be fine as long as they can keep the Mitch McConnells of the US in their pocket.

"Weakness and disappointment might lead the PRC turn inward, or equally may have it lash out in a last gasp before its strength weakens."

Same applies to the US.

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Axis Billy says China will be fine...so you know they must be screwed.

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Did you see the reception Putin got today In Saudi Arabia? The 88 year old king came out to meet him at the airplane. Biden didn't get that. 🤔

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GRU goat has the best Putin trivia.

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Means nothing.

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Ask the German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, left waiting on the tarmac for 30 minutes when he went to Doha if he got the message.

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