busdriver

If I'm missing any of your point above, apologies. Nothing is 100%, granted. But an actual war with Russia would be clubbing baby seals level, and an actual existential threat to "the Russian empire". I think the chance Russia tosses nukes is extremely high. Whether we throw them back is another question, but quite frankly irrelevant since Russian nukes are what will kill Americans. You seem convinced of the fourth turning. I am not. Without going into that, I don't think America is in decline let alone circling the drain. The next 10-20 years will see massive growth. But I suspect there is zero chance we'll see eye to eye on this one at all. I am not talking about appeasement at all, sending money and equipment to keep Ukraine armed and killing Russians and breaking their shit is good. Complete economic isolation, not just sanctions. Anyone that trades with them, isolation. Etc. I am saying a military solution now is the jumping to the worst conclusion, one that we have historical precedent at avoiding. The entire cold war was fought via proxy and economics. It was not appeasement.

I think you may be correct here, eventually. But starting the war that will result in a nuclear exchange just to get it over with is dumb. Next after Ukraine is Moldova, also a non NATO country. Which means the rest of us have two countries to figure out what is actually required. Which means we have a chance to avoid a nuclear war. All of this is how the cold war was fought. The various proxy wars, two segregated economic spheres, etc. The cold war won't look the same the second time around (Putin also learned from glasnost and perestroika) but first step is understanding what is actually happening. Most American pundits are still stuck in main character syndrome, they only disagree on whether it's a hero or anti-hero story. I don't disagree with your primary thought, just the best way to fight this.

At the end of the day, yes. They aren't NATO. This was always about making Russia bleed to take Ukraine, and destroy as much of their shit as possible in the process. This is the spark that will re-arm Europe, and the wall will go back up. This war will be fought economically. Hopefully. I really really hope. Because all the politicians are in fact stupid children. EDIT: Just to clarify, I'm saying sending western troops to fight for Ukraine is dumb. Sending more money/equipment is par for the course. Also Moldovia is fucked too.

Well color me the asshole. I didn't put that together. Sheesh..... I'm blaming a lack of sleep and flying across the country very early in the morning. In any event, very much in agreement then. They may have bit off a bit too much, we'll see.

I suspect this is mainly a message to their own population. Secondarily could be about putting the rest of region between a rock and hard place when Israel goes asking for overflight.

The dumber point of this is that higher costs to oil and natural gas on federal land will predominantly affect offshore production. And the rapid expansion capability within the US system is private land fracking. So this move is really just incentivizing increased investment into/growth of fracking.

Your retards are more retarded than my retards!

State is completely incapable of competent operational planning.

Or it was just jihadis doing what they do. Good grief.

Surface level (and national) statistics like this are incredibly bad at telling a reader anything useful. Unless you're only interested in making a political point. For instance, what sectors are currently growth sectors that have shit loads of job openings? According to Marketwatch, almost 75% of job gains in the past year have been in government, healthcare and hotels/restaurants. At least some of that space is solid low skill/education opportunity. If you have been paying attention to the tech space, a LOT of jobs are being lost there. A laid off white collar tech firm worker is extremely unlikely to look for a job in hotels/restaurants space. Which is all to say, immigrants taking Americans' jobs may or may not be true in a given area, but to claim it on a national level is simply an unsupportable claim based on the data presented. So old Steven Camarota either doesn't understand math, or he's just beating a drum..... (headline google result:https://nypost.com/2024/02/13/opinion/job-gains-are-going-to-immigrants-and-keeping-young-us-born-men-out-of-the-workforce/)

Bravo sir, well said.

This is standard retired Army general nonsense. Translation: give the USAF's money to the Army. There is a cousin of this in each service's brand of retired general.

Contracting issues/protest. They got laid off because there is no contract in place.

Could just as easily be the shit on top burning (countermeasure dispensers, ammo cans, whatever else is strapped on top) I'm certainly no M-1 expert, but it doesn't look like flame/smoke pouring out of a critical opening in the hull.

There are two John Mayers. The one that makes a ton of money making teenage girls all mushy inside. And then there is the one that makes blues, and no one pays attention to that one. The second one is actually very good. The first one is kindy creepy and past his expiration date. Only Taylor Swift is capable of staying an angsty teenager well into the thirties.

The lawsuit is amusing. On ADA grounds it is claiming that "knowingly engaging in prostitution with HIV" as an aggravating factor (essentially bumping up to a sexual assault) is discriminatory against a person living with HIV. While side stepping that this particular disability is contagious. Regardless, an equivalence to sexual assault (what the Tennessee law does) is akin to attempted murder criminally.

My point is this isn't a political policy/economic wonk led ideological push. Bernie Sanders did not gain popularity because he really won people over on the logic of socialism. He gained popularity based on emotional sentiment of the people, "fuck those rich assholes." Let me re-phrase: The current descent into looney toons land is not because politicians are leading us there. The body of the people has divided into tribes, politicians want to get elected and playing to tribal sentiment and feeding the hate machine is a time tested method. For perspective: my view of our current insanity is heavily influenced by reading "The Revolt of the Public"

I would guess this is all they are really trying to grab up. Small numbers, but free chicken. Probably a handful of folks' pet project.

That dude is a very enthusiastic aviation nerd, but ignorant. He's fundamentally a technologist/journalist in the same vein as the folks who write for a website like ars technica. Gell-Mann amnesia and all.....

Yes, politicians say lots of stuff, they're playing to the crowd. It's what they do. But square all the BS with Bernie's position change. That is a hell of a change for someone who claims the socialism (very ideological) mantle. My point is that American politics is driven by tribalism at the moment. Anything that Red team says must be opposed by Blue team. Anything bad for Blue team is inherently good for Red team. Etc. No, wanting a secure border with orderly, legal immigration with numbers based on the needs of the country is not xenophobic. But xenophobia is a very common human tendency* and if you can't see Trump playing to that in his stump speeches from the 2016 era, I don't know what to say you. Yes he was mis-quoted by retard journalists to make it sound worse, but it was unnecessary. *If you've read Jonathan Haidt's work, openness vs not may be one of the underlying foundational political personality traits.

This is tribal and reactionary, not ideological. Trump played to xenophobic tendencies, so his opponents went whole hog letting in as many outsiders as possible. It wasn't that long ago that Bernie Sanders said open borders was a Koch brothers conspiracy.

What a low bar you have. Rotorheads....

I wasn't clear then. I agree. I think the short term is quite dangerous, a starving predators being aggressive sort of thing.

CH, I would offer this perspective: I think the entire China collapse hypothesis is probably better scoped as: China as a rising/risen global power is done. So I don't think it is dependent on a popular uprising, just a withering. Not saying the CCP will become North Korea, but that's a halfway decent example of withering while maintaining control. I tend to agree with you that Xi is more dangerous as he gets backed into a corner/feels control slipping though. The next decade is going to be interesting.

In what corner of the world do you sit that you think conservatives abandoned the south will rise again stupidity in the last 5 years? Go fuck yourself in the corner with a hot curling iron.