Yep, those are extreme isolationists/Putin stooges.

This used to be the militant wing of the Republican Party. Just more evidence that the US doesn’t want to get involved in foreign military adventures after 20years in the desert.

See article for details but there is a huge surge in construction of factories and manufacturing in North America.

Mostly due to decoupling from China, not only because they’ve proven to be terrible economic partners but because their population is imploding.

We also found that we can automate a lot of manufacturing since Covid. A textile factory used to need hundreds of workers. With modern mills you need maybe a handful to maintain the machinery while it produces almost finished garments. You can now locate your factory near consumers and avoid long transport.

https://home.treasury.gov/news/featured-stories/unpacking-the-boom-in-us-construction-of-manufacturing-facilities

Well thank you for your service, but don’t expect me and mine to protect them and theirs.

TPP was horrible, many, many give aways to the entertainment and medical industries. But my point still stands, there have been no regional free trade agreements attempted since TPP.

We’ve only negotiated bi lateral agreements with individual governments on narrow issues.

If you want to send your sons and/or enlist yourself to fight in other countries conflicts be my guest. Ukraine is taking foreign fighters you could sign up and serve to protect your global order tomorrow.

Russia has proven incompetent at modern warfare. The Europeans can figure out how to defend against them on their own.

Once we have reshored our industrial base in a decade there is no reason to support the global order as it stands. Let Europe or China try and maintain the sea ways and keep peace in areas like Africa and the Middle East if they need those resources so bad. Honestly, it would be better for the worlds environment if they couldn’t continue ravaging the land and burning fossil fuels.

As stated before I have no problem with providing material support. But I have no interest in involving American troops if there are no direct threats to our homeland.

Our Allies should rightly be concerned. The US has become more and more isolationist. The last major free trade treaty was under the TPP under Obama and both Hillary and Trump stated they would not support its passing.

The US is now energy independent and a net exporter. The US is also in the middle of the largest industrial build out in history which will bring much of our industrial plant back to North America.

In ten or fifteen years there will be no need for the US to get involved and keep sea lanes open like we are in the Red Sea. We can maintain a presence in the few areas that we deem critical.

My two sons will be of military age soon I would not support active involvement in any war that would risk their lives for Europe, Middle Eastern or other far flung countries when there is no real threat to mainland US. Supply military and financial aid, sure, but no boots on the ground. We don’t need to fight other peoples wars for them.

It was a rhetorical statement… Authoritarians are fundamentally flawed people.

The answer is no. Xi has killed or has displaced not only anyone who posed a threat to him, but he has done the same to anyone who could possibly be a threat. There is no one left at any level of government who can exercise independent thought and action. He has also killed the messenger so many times that bad news just doesn’t get put before him. Xi wasn’t aware of rolling blackouts in Beijing in 2022 until US diplomats asking him about it.

Balloon gate is another example of how the Chinese government is breaking down. A few weeks before Blinken was supposed to travel to Beijing to try and de-escalate the economic war with China they launched that stupid balloon. Not only was it an intelligence coup for the US but it killed any kind of initiative to tone down the economic war for at least 6 months. A functioning government doesn’t do that. They don’t let their intelligence services launch over flights of nations they are trying to negotiate with.

Xi might be the smartest guy in China but one man can’t make all critical decisions to save a complex economy like theirs.

China has been dangling their consumer market to Western companies for the last 20 years as a way to encourage investment. It hasn’t turned out well for them and many companies are leaving China. Suddenly reopening already “open markets” is not something the West is going to buy. You only get to pull that trick once.

The Demographics in China are also terrible. They are no longer the most populous nation on Earth. They are also the fastest aging due to the effects of the 1 child policy. The problem today isn’t that they aren’t running out of babies, they did that 20years ago. The problem is they are running out of 20 something’s to replace the older generations.

Add this to the issues with debt and the property market implosion and I don’t see China making it through the 2030s without some kind of fundamental government change.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_China

China became one of the world’s largest exporters of electric cars because their domestic market for vehicles has crashed. Now their industry is dumping cars in foreign markets to try and stay solvent.

The US has closed its markets to Chinese cars with high tariffs. That has left the EU as a dumping ground for Chinese high end EVs and the rest of the 3rd world for everything else. This is not sustainable, the EU will eventually block Chinese imports to protect their own industry. The third world can only absorb so much inventory especially with flagging economies.

Wow, you have it figured out. How much money have you converted into any of the BRICS currencies? It sounds like you would have quite the long term investment when those currencies appreciate due to increased demand.

lol, No that just means making craters. But none the less, I don’t see the same type of change taking place on territory held and populated by Israel.

I doubt Hamas could even come close to revisiting the same destruction upon Israel. They can’t even save themselves let alone go on the offensive. None of the marginal allies of Hamas really give enough of a shit about them to help them even try.

I think we are about a third of the way through the “find out” stage for Hamas. It will be interesting to see how much is left when they are done.

Looks pretty bombed to shit to me.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/oct/27/gaza-before-and-after-satellite-images-show-destruction-after-israeli-airstrikes

No, I commented on a thread about the US being stretched to provide support for Israel and Ukraine. You made it about Israel only. But on any case I think Israel can crater the Gaza strip without much damage other side.

Hamas picked a fight they can’t win.

You stated everyone was getting cratered. Who do you define as everyone?

:Looks up: nope my sky is clear and I’m thousands of miles and an ocean away. That sound like a you problem.

War is never a good solution, but I prefer to be on the side making the craters than getting cratered.

lol Ukraine is a bargain. I think the US has spent maybe 2% of the entire military budget supplying Ukraine with weapons. In exchange we get to see the last large generation of Russians turned into fertilizer along with all of their frontline hardware.

Israel is perfectly capable of turning the Gaza Strip into a moonscape without much support from the US.

The US hasn’t even touched the hardware needed to take on China (long range missiles and aircraft). On top of that we now have a west that is more united than ever behind the American Hegemony.

I think the US can afford to let a few off the chain and rain some good old fashioned freedom on a few Houthis.

The way China organizes its defense spending keeps a lot of it off the books. There are many corporations that are government controlled which engage in research, espionage and military weapons production that are not in the central government’s books.

The CCPs military spend is much higher than they let on.

Cool, Israel’s current campaign is legitimate resistance to Hamas aggression as well.