I Almost Forgot

[HeIsRisen2018]

Yup, my Dad loved his Moto Guzzi motorcycle and was an awesome driver! I know it was always fun riding on the back.

Imagine this. It's a fully loaded motorcycle with the front faring and rear saddle bags. Dad leaves the stop sign and turns left and proceeds to pull a wheelie that he rides a quarter mile through an S turn as he gently puts the front wheel back down as he stops at the next stop sign.

Good times!

Is a Guzzi a kind of motorcycle then or just a motorcycle in general?

 

[Michael74]

...kingfish....

Now that's a fish.

 

[daninthelionsden]

The peace treaty went into effect on 11/11/1918 at 11 AM.

Hard to believe over a hundred years ago.........

 

[daninthelionsden]

Thanks to all the great veterans our shores were never invaded.

Australia is the big boy on the block in your corner of the world. Nothing to worry about for the next decade or so.

 

[Michael74]

Hard to believe over a hundred years ago.........

Time flies.

 

[Corn Pop]

Australia is the big boy on the block in your corner of the world. Nothing to worry about for the next decade or so.

I always wondered why Australia pays hundreds of millions each year in foreign aid to Indonesia.

 

[Corn Pop]

Everyone should get along.

 

[daninthelionsden]

Everyone should get along.

In about 20 years China should be ready to make its big push into the Pacific. Could get quite bloody.

 

[Corn Pop]

In about 20 years China should be ready to make its big push into the Pacific. Could get quite bloody.

Maybe in 20 years America will be great again and I can move there.

 

[daninthelionsden]

Maybe in 20 years America will be great again and I can move there.

let's trade. you can have my house in Houston and i'll take yours

 

[jasonc]

Tempting lol

I retired from the national guard and a ceremony was held this flag is. it can be seen from miles away. and from both bridges and also from a few homes where I have read from.

 

[Michael74]

In about 20 years China should be ready to make its big push into the Pacific. Could get quite bloody.

Maybe not that long. The entire defense budget is being borrowed. $1 trillion per year borrowing. Even with all that borrowing, there are fewer tanks, ships, and planes over time.

Meanwhile China can produce half of the world's steel all by itself, and is building additional war machines over time. Their quality is rapidly catching up with the USA.

Bank and lobbyist central planning of the US economy is slowly turning the country into a banana republic.

If the USA and Russia didn't have lots of ICBMs, China could probably annex Taiwan and Siberia today. The PLA fought the US to a standstill in Korea, and they are much stronger today. 20 more years of bankers/lobbyists slowly turning the USA into a banana republic...

The USA desperately needs an honest dollar. The US should also to toss the lobbyists out of DC and the state capitals. During the early 20th century free market capitalism allowed the USA to produce half of the world's GDP all by themselves. Now the USA is #2 in PPP GDP, and moving backward. Bank and license raj central planning are inefficient. China adopted elements of free market capitalism, and is moving forward. They did make the mistake of partially cloning the west's bank central planning, but their 50% savings rate allows them to move forward regardless of this inefficiency. The US has a zippo savings rate, so bank central planning slowly depletes capital from the system.

 

[jasonc]

Maybe not that long. The entire defense budget is being borrowed. $1 trillion per year borrowing. Even with all that borrowing, there are fewer tanks, ships, and planes over time.

Meanwhile China can produce half of the world's steel all by itself, and is building additional war machines over time. Their quality is rapidly catching up with the USA.

Bank and lobbyist central planning of the US economy is slowly turning the country into a banana republic.

If the USA and Russia didn't have lots of ICBMs, China could probably annex Taiwan and Siberia today. The PLA fought the US to a standstill in Korea, and they are much stronger today. 20 more years of bankers/lobbyists slowly turning the USA into a banana republic...

The USA desperately needs an honest dollar. The US should also to toss the lobbyists out of DC and the state capitals. During the early 20th century free market capitalism allowed the USA to produce half of the world's GDP all by themselves. Now the USA is #2 in PPP GDP, and moving backward. Bank and license raj central planning are inefficient. China adopted elements of free market capitalism, and is moving forward. They did make the mistake of partially cloning the west's bank central planning, but their 50% savings rate allows them to move forward regardless of this inefficiency. The US has a zippo savings rate, so bank central planning slowly depletes capital from the system.

one cant do anything with elite and well they aren't exactly free from corruption. first it was the fear from japan and now china. china might become a hegemon as russia is but wont last by trying to conquer the world and will fall.

our central bank was created in the early 1900s.

History of the Federal Reserve System - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

appointed by the potus in its early form, and well you are complaining about that and then posted that we need honest money. and then post that most of the 20th century we had that power. 87 years on that federal system.

which is it?

When Wilson signed the Federal Reserve Act on December 23, 1913, he said he felt grateful for having had a part "in completing a work ... of lasting benefit for the country,"[22] knowing that it took a great deal of compromise and expenditure of his own political capital to get it enacted. This was in keeping with the general plan of action he made in his First Inaugural Address on March 4, 1913, in which he stated:

We shall deal with our economic system as it is and as it may be modified, not as it might be if we had a clean sheet of paper to write upon; and step-by-step we shall make it what it should be, in the spirit of those who question their own wisdom and seek counsel and knowledge, not shallow self-satisfaction or the excitement of excursions we can not tell. [23]

While a system of 12 regional banks was designed so as not to give eastern bankers too much influence over the new bank, in practice, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York became "first among equals". The New York Fed, for example, is solely responsible for conducting open market operations, at the direction of the Federal Open Market Committee.[24] Democratic Congressman Carter Glass sponsored and wrote the eventual legislation,[10] and his home state capital of Richmond, Virginia, was made a district headquarters. Democratic Senator James A. Reed of Missouri obtained two districts for his state.[25] However, the 1914 report of the Federal Reserve Organization Committee, which clearly laid out the rationale for their decisions on establishing Reserve Bank districts in 1914, showed that it was based almost entirely upon current correspondent banking relationships.[26] To quell Elihu Root's objections to possible inflation, the passed bill included provisions that the bank must hold at least 40% of its outstanding loans in gold. (In later years, to stimulate short-term economic activity, Congress would amend the act to allow more discretion in the amount of gold that must be redeemed by the Bank.)[6] Critics of the time (later joined by economist Milton Friedman) suggested that Glass's legislation was almost entirely based on the Aldrich Plan that had been derided as giving too much power to elite bankers. Glass denied copying Aldrich's plan. In 1922, he told Congress, "no greater misconception was ever projected in this Senate Chamber."[20]

it was bound to happen.

 

[daninthelionsden]

China is limited by their lack of adequate amphibious capability and their lack of adequate naval air to pull off anything in the short term. To get the 5 carrier force they feel they need to take Taiwan will take time. Same goes for an adequate gator navy.

 

[Michael74]

china might become a hegemon as russia is but wont last by trying to conquer the world and will fall.

They don't want to conquer the world. They want to keep their borders safe by dominating countries along their border. It has been that way for centuries. The difference today is that they realize they need to import natural resources from around the world to feed their machines. Industrial machines build war machines, and war machines win wars. Belt and road is their answer to this dilemma.

our central bank was created in the early 1900s.

Yes, but the gold window stayed open till 1973. That's when bank central planning kicked into overdrive. That's when the march toward banana republic status began in earnest. QE amped the process further.

 

[Michael74]

China is limited by their lack of adequate amphibious capability and their lack of adequate naval air to pull off anything in the short term. To get the 5 carrier force they feel they need to take Taiwan will take time. Same goes for an adequate gator navy.

Taiwan is close enough for ground based planes to dominate. Carriers are for keeping remote trade lanes open during a prolonged conflict. Without carriers, they won't be able to import as many needed natural resources. They will still get quite a few natural resources overland, allowing them to stay in the field for quite a few years. The American voters have a known limited patience for long shooting wars. Especially if the draft is reinstated. The American rich also have an aversion to the taxes needed to fight a long war, and the American poor can't afford it.

 

[daninthelionsden]

Taiwan is close enough for ground based planes to dominate. Carriers are for keeping remote trade lanes open during a prolonged conflict. Without carriers, they won't be able to import as many needed natural resources. They will still get quite a few overland, and the American voters have limited patience for a long shooting war. Especially if they reinstate the draft.

In order to "quarantine" Taiwan and prevent American interference, the PLA has determined a 5 carrier requirement is the minimum needed to ensure a victory over Taiwan.

 

[Michael74]

In order to "quarantine" Taiwan and prevent American interference, the PLA has determined a 5 carrier requirement is the minimum needed to ensure a victory over Taiwan.

Different people have different opinions. One general says this, another admiral says that. Its not really about carriers though.

China’s ICBM arsenal to date consists of 90 ICBMs, including the silo-based CSS-4 Mod 2 (DF-5A) and multiple independently targetable reentry vehicle (MIRV)-equipped Mod 3 (DF-5B); the solid-fueled, road-mobile CSS-10 class missiles; and the shorter range CSS-3 (DF-4). The CSS10 Mod 2, with a range in excess of 11,200 km, can reach most locations within the continental United States.

Ike got the PLA to stand down in Korea by pointing out to them the US had overwhelming ICBM superiority. That's changing. Mutual assured destruction changes the calculus. Neither side will dare launch, because it guarantees their own destruction.

In a long war of attrition, the US public will not forever continue to allow the sending millions of their children when the US mainland is not in any danger of invasion. The PLA has no intention of invading the US mainland.

 

[daninthelionsden]

Our carrier air wings have shrunk from a high in excess of 90 aircraft per carrier in the 80s to 50-75 aircraft presently. Our carriers used to be protected from submarine attack by 16 dedicated anti-submarine aircraft in the 80s to only 4 presently. We are ill prepared for all out war now but still have time to ramp up capabilities by the time push comes to shove in the Pacific.

 

[Michael74]

We are ill prepared for all out war now but still have time to ramp up capabilities by the time push comes to shove in the Pacific.

Not much chance of that. The rich want another tax trim, and the poor can't afford to ramp the military. They can only borrow the entire defense budget for a finite amount of time.

Fewer planes, ships, and tanks are the future. Along with robots replacing soldiers whenever practical. Unless the rich decide to get patriotic.