According to various retired Pentagon officials, of all the 16 and 17 war games they ran over a war with China in its near abroad, USA lost every time. I do not doubt that for a single moment. What is more interesting to me is the rare earths which the USA thinks digging it from the ground will solve the issue. I have done my own research and it seems China has been working on RE processing and refining since the 1960s and has developed equipment and technologies that no one has and it will take 20 years for the collective west to catch up, if at all. The western narrative that the collective west gave up on this industry is simply false.
On a lighter note, I have just returned from Shanghai after an absence of over 10 years and on my last day, it had its first winter snow. I was very impressed with the change and the preservation of all the old buildings such as those on Sinan and Nanchang Lu. I had a wonderful trip and might be back in spring because 8 days was not enough. I talked to quite a few foreigners in Shanghai from Europe and SE Asia who have lived there for 5 to over 10 years and they all said they are not leaving. I asked a Dutchman how often does he go back to Netherlands and he replied his parents visit him in China every year. Mind you, these are not your low brow “English” teachers but educated folks holding senior management positions.
One negative aspect is the municipal govt needs to do something about the E-bikes. They are much noisier and unruly than in Beijing and you can’t hear them coming.
And on a far much lighter note, why would you purchase a poor man’s Ferrari? I would never want to be seen in a Mesarati!
start with Maserati - I feel obligated to defend it:) It may be a poor man's Ferrari (which is indeed beyond my wallet) but it is a gorgeous car - the 2012 4th generation Quattroporte is the pinnacle of Italian design in my view. It is far more subtle and practical than a Ferrari - maybe it is still a bit of a mid-life crisis car but I didn't have that much of a crisis to want to buy a Ferrari or Porsche 911:) That said, the electronics in Maseratis are trash - I have to replace power windows and engine sensors. I'll probably never buy any electronics made by the Italians, god willing.
ebikes are an atrocity. You are completely right - they are not just unruly but downright dangerous. I cannot count how many close encounters with delivery guys on an ebike. But I guess we have to live with it for now as it does offer mobility and agility no other transport offers in Chinese dense urban settings.
I totally agree that the west has no idea how complex the rare earth supply chain is, especially in the chemical separation and refinement processes. China is the only country that can refine rare earth, especially heavy REE, to 99.99% purity and high purity is non-negotiable for high performance magnets used in mission-critical defense applications.
China got to where it is with half a century's R&D and several generations of talents who dedicated their careers to the technology. Google Professor Xu Guangxiang and Professor Gao Xiaoxia from Peking University's Chemistry Department - the husband and wife team who laid the foundation of China's rare earth industry and were considered "national treasures". If you read their life stories, you'll know building a world class REE industry is not something you accomplish in years, but rather in decades.
Ha, I was just teasing you. Maserati is indeed stylish but the electronics are pure crap. I fancied owning one once but settled for a BMW M3 which I had for over 10 years and nothing went wrong at all. Just had to bring it in for regular servicing. Now, I wont buy a German car coz they are overpriced and over-engineered.
I did indeed learn of the husband and wife team who made breakthroughs in the 1960s in RE technologies when I was doing my research. I also discovered China has universities that are dedicated to RE sciences. The rest of the world has none and their hard science departments are gutted because kids what to go into finance or make silly TikTok videos. The new Leiden university rankings just came out and China has 7 out of the top 10 science universities in the world while Harvard dropped to place 3. These idiots just do not know how difficult RE refining and processing is. Japan tried to do this 10 or 15 years ago but gave up because they simply cannot figure it out even with all their technological know how.
During my Shanghai trip, I wanted to go to Lujiazui to look at a development built by Swire Properties and the show flats. I learnt that over 90% had been sold already so I gave up on the idea. So much for the property slump! I also stopped over in HK and went across the bridge to Zhuhai and looked at some flats built by China Overseas Land, 80% sold out and the finishing and build quality are excellent.
haha. I had the same resolution not to buy continental cars again. My wife gave up her Audi Q7 and claimed the IM6. We used to own two Beemers including a 7 series. great cars but when it comes to value for money, there is no comparison with Chinese EVs these days.
too bad with Lujiazui apartment. You should have made the move a year ago. I think the market is picking up, especially in tier 1 cities. The new apartments near my parent's place in Xiamen are priced at 75,000 psm and up.
Zhuhai may be a different story. I was there a few months ago visiting a college buddy. The city is really overbuilt, especially if you go to the northern part of the Qinglv road, the main beachfront stretch. There are hundreds of high rises built along the beach.
I loved the city - great food and very relaxed compared with Shenzhen or Hong Kong. Also very clean and scenic. It's a good place for retirement.
At what point in those 17 war games did things go nuclear or start down that path? Or were these war games on a smaller scale, just Red vs Blue type of thing?
I recall from the interviews, things may go nuclear once a US aircraft carrier gets sunk (that’s 5000 sailors and airmen on board) but in the end no nuclear weapons were used because a nuclear attack on the Chinese mainland would invite a retaliatory strike on the US mainland. Both sides would suffer huge loses in a conventional war in these simulations but China could replace their loses much easier and quicker whereas the US could not.
just to add. Sinking a US carrier won't be China's opening shot. Frankly, Beijing just wants to keep the US out of the theater altogether - hence A2AD. Only if the US has decided to intervene and fired the first shot, would China launch its "assassin's mace". I have read a few declassified war simulation summaries from think tanks etc. Frankly, I think the US is too optimistic about its performance - given the mil-tech/asset asymmetry for a Taiwan scenario, my opinion is the result would be even more lopsided.
The only military in the world that does this consistently and loudly is the US military. Despite their failures since the Korean War they have crowned themselves this that and the other. I do not see other militaries doing that, do you?
Let me give you another example, remember McCain saying Russia is a gas station with nukes or other EU and US leaders saying: Russians are fighting with shovels; Russians are ripping out chips from washing machines and other nonsense. Russia has not bleated how good their army was or is and yet they have emptied the entire NATO arsenal in this proxy war.
The Americans live in la la land when they constantly say they defeated the Nazis and liberated Europe in WWII and Patton was such a great general and blah blah blah. 80% of all German soldiers that died in WWII died on the Eastern Front. I bet they don’t teach that in history classes anymore if they still have history classes. And the best campaign fought in WWII which is still studied in the Army War College is the Manchurian campaign in 1945 when the Soviets routed the 1 million strong Japanese Kwangtung Army.
So the answer to your first question is No. To your second question, a capable general staff knows the truth but politicians just turn a blind eye. Let me give you 2 examples. Remember Vietnam and the Pentagon papers. As early as 1967, the Pentagon assessed that they could not win the war but LBJ and McNamara kept on deceiving the public.
One year after the Russian SMO began, the Army War College issued a paper which is public and said if the US was to intervene they should be prepared to suffer 5000 casualties a day and that kind of loss is unacceptable to the American public and they don’t have the capability to sustain that kind of loss. This was never covered by any legacy media nor by any politician.
The PLA practices for such scenarios including tactical nukes and battles where they sustain 70% losses. Look up Senior Colonel Man Guangzhi, you'll enjoy reading about his exploits and the blue team.
thanks to Obama's Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). you don't need to be literate to be considered as a "success" in the American public secondary education system:)
this is why Trump is so popular - he has all these bigly beautiful words that even his base can understand. He possesses the requisite communication skill (at grade 6 vocabulary level) to lead a country of intelligence-challenged voters. Go USA!!!
wouldn't believe it; wouldn't care, would certainly do nothing different in any meaningful way.........and roll that over the whole populace. We have football, Doritos and McD's. What else is there? Besides our guy will just kidnap their guy in the middle of the night. Uhg!
I defer to your (apparently) local knowledge. It is certainly true that no amount of intelligence or knowledge can make up for a complete lack of interest. That I remember from school.
What you say is really the truth of it. The total lack of interest is astronomical it blows my mind, and if anyone actually shows interest, the lack of knowledge, questioning, inverted logic and general acceptance ruins most of that small number.
I think it's a self-defence mechanism. Learning about the real world can be painful; pain is best avoided; therefore let us stay ignorant about the real world. Similarly it's unpleasant to know that your side have committed horrible crimes; therefore don't allow yourself to think about it. Or even know about it. Trust the Bible, your priest/pastor, the government, and the anchorman.
As the Texan politician is said to have protested, "If English was good enough for Jesus Christ, it's good enough for me!"
Thank you for mentioning antibiotics. This always gets overlooked by others. I've been saying for years, more Americans will die from staph infections and pneumonia then bombs or bullets in a China US war.
Yep. That is what happens when the whole country is for profit instead of for people. No big money to be made making penicillin. Not to mention the last factory that made it shut down a few years ago.
You don't have to convince me...First, it's impossible for any Western nation to fight a conventional war 6,000 miles away..the logistics would be impossible and their navies would be sunk by hypersonic missiles...Second, most of America's GDP is services, including prostitution and any other thing the Government wants to include...America's industrial base has been largely shipped out or destroyed.....We would be relying on the Japanese and Taiwanese...good luck with that!
China will be fine materialistically. The real risk for China is ideological.
Already, I'm seeing people who have bashed China now start talking about moving to China. They're a "Trojan horse". Parasites.
I truly believe that China's competitive advantage is Confucianism: relationship culture. If the middle country starts allowing immigrants it will be destroyed from within. Immigrants would bring their Western ideology of "I/my" ego culture, whether the "my personal faith" religious version or the "my personal truth/my will" secular version.
I don't see such risks. At this point in history, only the blind believes the ideologies propagated by the west. Their behavior bears no resemblance to their words when it comes to so called democracy, human rights and rule of law. The other parts of the neoliberal ideologies are frankly repelling, like wokism, LGBTQ, identity politics and political correctness. I don't know a single Chinese person who is not disgusted by these anti-social, post human values.
Question: Are Chinese people who stayed in China and contributed to the society's rise skeptical of the Chinese who went to the West instead? Do the Chinese question such people's "Yi" 义?
I don’t think people bear hard feelings for those who immigrated. It is a free country and people have the choice where to study and live. A lot of people who immigrated still contribute when they go back to do business or send money to their families.
For many who left, they regret not having the opportunities they would have if they stayed - they could have been much more successful if they didn’t pursue some imagined “greener pasture”.
there is a small minority who left out of personal grievance and bitterness or ideological reasons. But it is a big country and there will always be begrudged. I assume the same is true everywhere.
I wouldn't worry. China is very strict about immigration and always has been. Most of the immigrants are professional overseas Chinese with a minority of people from other countries. Even foreign students have to return to their countries. If some parasites slip in, they will be found out (this isn't 90s anymore when China was flooded by two faced English teachers playing out their eastern fetish fantasies).
For example back in 2018 or so a proposal was made to grant residency to foreign students who completed their studies and allow them to gain employment or start businesses in China. This was not taken well during the public commenting period and the proposal was scrapped and never brought up again.
The refusal by Chine to allow foreign students residency tells me that China is well aware of the Trojan horses and lots of other tricks the US empire, controlled by the z$o/j$wish masters, can attempt. I hope that China went a step further and investigated the individuals that made this proposal. There might already be subversive/parasite elements present in China
every society has its detractors but as long as they are not in a position of power, their influence is neutralized. attention is indeed heightened over the last few years when ordinary Chinese have become aware of western sabotage and subversion efforts around the world.
you are right there are still a lot of people in China who are poor and have to make a living. Unlike people in the US who are all high income earners and too dignified and important for the work assigned to immigrants. what a glorious land of prosperity. you should write about it.
The biggest Trojan horse has been there forever - if the govt lowers its watch it will bring all the woke LGBTQ feminism and ideological wasting of society down the line - Roman Catholicism Protestantism and worst of all the Freemasonic front of Evangelicalism. When the govt tried to the take down the illegal online only Israel worshipping messianic Zion Church the CIA neocon front Heritage Foundation successfully lobbied to release the detained organisers of the racket. In Russia Putin already has laid a heavy hand on CIA and Jewish billionaire funded churches that had spread faster than Nazism in Ukraine and the entirely CIA-Bengali Tantric created cult of HareKrishnas - he knows what they are about after all he was a KGB spy.
I happen to think a lot of the nihilistic neoliberal ideologies and values are unique to the west. No non-western country seems to suffer from the identity politics, LGBTQ, wokism, etc. I assume they are more grounded in reality and have to make an honest living - leaving them no time to self indulge and fantasize.
Unfortunately, I suspect that Russia won't last long term. Putin is a certain philosopher/sage leader, but those leaders are rare in history.
The foundation of Russia is the same desert god of human sacrifice and circumcision that is the foundation of Israel, Europe, USA, etc. This is a sandy foundation from which to build a society.
agree but I doubt the rulers in the US will get to the point to go nuclear. they love their money and power too much. they won't even send their kids to the military for a desk job, despite their patriotic outpourings on campaign trails. this is why the US has never fought a nuclear power directly - including tiny North Korea
This statement is true as it is about the Indian society
Societal ethos favor usury, lawfare, software, and media make-believe while viewing physical labor with distaste and aversion. Talents are directed to speculation and get-rich-quick schemes.
This is why Anglo-Celtics and Indo-Pakistanis make great family and they integrated into the Anglo ruling class in a mere 2 generations compared to the 7 generations it took for the holy cow Jews.
Did you see Trumps claims about using a wonder weapon to kidnap Maduro? I wonder why these wonder weapons are reserved only for the poor and shirtless and not Russians or Chinese? This is another thing that make Anglo-Celtic culture and Indo-Pakistani cultures similar - they ferociously bully the weak and consider it valiant and heroic and the public react with glee while they can only use cowardly underhand tactics against the strong. Currently AngloCeltic social media is overflowing with puppy love for Indians - this after six decades of smoking cannabis and doing tantric wife swapping prostitution inside an insane number of Indian guru cults for past 60 years - and that is another thing that unites Indo-Pakistanis and AngloCeltics - the organised religious stupidity and control of society by religious snake oil salesmen.
very true. I had the jews in mind when I wrote the line, but coming to think of it, it applies to the indians just as well after the jews are considered heroes by the indians to be emulated.
I suspect the west will get tired of the indians soon enough - it takes a lot to tolerate open defecation on the beaches of Vancouver and Sydney, even for the politically correct and namaste loving anglos in these places. there are some things you cannot unsee or unhear.
internal harmony is the pre-requisite for national greatness. Same as families. Chinese governance has always been heavily influenced by family values taught by Confucius - treat your ruler as you treat your elders; rulers to show benevolence and discipline; etc.
in contrast, the great weakness of Iran, even worse than the economic crisis, is its internal fracture that has just been leveraged and manipulated by israel and the US. North Korea is as destitute as Iran economically but there is no internal division the US and South Korea can exploit.
funny you mentioned this. when I bought the Maserati, the salesman said it has more power than a Cessna airplane. it turned out to be true upon some digging - many common Cessna planes have less than 300 horsepower. I guess only nerds like us pay attention:)
american MIC fraudulence truly knows no bounds. also, thank you for your reply to my comment in part 1. I have done further research and my view on the correlation between IQ and race has shifted.
IQ is determined primarily by genetics. This is a fact. Racial groups are based on genetic differences due to the diverse environments humans evolved (and continue to evolve) in. This is also a fact. Surviving in different environments requires different skill sets both physically and mentally. Today, our environment changes much faster due to technological and cultural progress. A strategy that worked yesterday, cultural practices that made sense 300 years ago, may cease to do so. Adaptability is more important than ever.
It is said that Indians as a group have "low IQ". Many explanations have been put forth, malnutrition, low rates of literacy, emigration of skilled workers, high rates of incest. None of these factors are unique to India. What is unique however, is the rigidity of Indian society, which is truly a shame. Individuals brought up in such a society cannot show off their true potential due to rigid ways of thinking. What environmental factors that may have caused such a stubborn culture to survive and dominate in this region is beyond me, but certain environments such as China, parts of Europe, and maybe Iran have simply produced people that are more adapted to our modern environment than others.
This is not meant to suggest superiority of any race or to encourage complacent ways of thinking of course.
I agree completely. Cognitive difference is the same as height difference. It doesn't imply superiority or complacency. The Dutch is the tallest people in the world but it produced a politician by the name of Mark Rutte who is the lowest form of sycophantic careerist. I refer to cognitive difference in the context of modern wars being highly technical and the technically proficient has battlefield advantage.
Good stuff. I’ve also long viewed the obsession with overpriced unnecessary toys as a psychological weakness. Much like the "diamonds are forever" propaganda campaign, these desires are often manufactured through marketing manipulation that exploits our vulnerabilities to equate material excess with personal value - and we know (((who))) are masters at subterfuges.
But hey, we all have our weaknesses and vices that needs satiating "once in our lives", don't we? 🤑🤑
Luckily for me, Confucius taught us to distinguish small “transgression” (like obsession with physical beauty) from the bigger issues such as knowing right and wrong:-)
Sounds like Confucius nailed it then - save moral energy for real battles, not minor vices :-) Cheers to small indulgences and transgressions.
Personally I'm just repulsed at the idea of paying $100 for roll of toilet paper that costs $1. As in, it's not really of morality in this case (most anyone can afford a roll of $100 toilet paper), but the scam that repulses me - the process of "premium-izing" or "status-signalling" merchandises and products like a pie in the sky by praying on the emotions, needs and desires on the peoples. Which comes to my point: through the immense marketing power of these foreign western MNCs, these firms pose grave dangers lurking in their colonization efforts by instilling fake, empty, depraved foreign values meant to infect the thinking of a target nation's peoples (e.g. China), to make them discard their own heritage and values. Kind of like convincing people that they'll only be happy if they own a - say, Porsche or Ferrari, or a fancy Prada/gucci handbag (which are made in China anyway).
a lot of the economy in the west is actually based on such illusions - branding, marketing, trademarks, etc., which in the final analysis has little extra utilitarian value. a Gucci bag doesn't hold any more crap than a plastic bag or a paper bag but can cost you a month's salary.
this goes back to my point about real physical capabilities having little to do with GDP sizes - the Americans don't have a longer life expectancy by spending much more than anyone else in the world; they are not better educated despite the highest education bill in the world.
in China, there is a prevalent wave of consumption trending towards the basic utilitarian value of things - a big part of the reason of the "deflation" western business media likes to talk about. I am sure they sincerely believe "deflation" is bad from the teaching of their economic dogma but never cause to ask why and in what circumstances.
Well put and it's good to hear there's still hope in humanity, at least somewhere. From what I see it's the women who usually fall prey to these empty decadent displays, likely as a function of their primal survival mechanism to attract mates lol
The Neoliberal factor is huge as the US and the West shifted from being builders to profiteers, succumbing to their ravenous greed for dollars and paper wealth.
Too many interlocking and ruinous ideologies all out of control with no accountability or regulation.
"The asymmetry in physical capabilities between China and the US is the result of decades long neoliberal economics that prioritize short-term financial returns over long-term industrial competitiveness."
In Italy we have a quote that sounds like this: the fish starts to stink from the head.
The decline of the U.S. empire seems a logical consequence of the current intellectual level of it’s elite's governance. Pushing the 'homo homini lupus' through force mantra could have obscured other ways of building a virtuous state. Cooperation vs. Individualism, Education vs. Competition, Ethics vs. Deception—which of these paths might brings more capability and prosperity?
The industrial capacity argument is probably the most important one here. Wars are not won by GDP figures alone. The ability to manufacture, replace and scale physical equipment matters enormously. China’s manufacturing advantage makes this a much more uncomfortable comparison than headline military budgets suggest.
this is such bullshit that you have to laugh at the originality of the click-baiters. they would have a good career writing for the Fargo series on Netflix:)
According to various retired Pentagon officials, of all the 16 and 17 war games they ran over a war with China in its near abroad, USA lost every time. I do not doubt that for a single moment. What is more interesting to me is the rare earths which the USA thinks digging it from the ground will solve the issue. I have done my own research and it seems China has been working on RE processing and refining since the 1960s and has developed equipment and technologies that no one has and it will take 20 years for the collective west to catch up, if at all. The western narrative that the collective west gave up on this industry is simply false.
On a lighter note, I have just returned from Shanghai after an absence of over 10 years and on my last day, it had its first winter snow. I was very impressed with the change and the preservation of all the old buildings such as those on Sinan and Nanchang Lu. I had a wonderful trip and might be back in spring because 8 days was not enough. I talked to quite a few foreigners in Shanghai from Europe and SE Asia who have lived there for 5 to over 10 years and they all said they are not leaving. I asked a Dutchman how often does he go back to Netherlands and he replied his parents visit him in China every year. Mind you, these are not your low brow “English” teachers but educated folks holding senior management positions.
One negative aspect is the municipal govt needs to do something about the E-bikes. They are much noisier and unruly than in Beijing and you can’t hear them coming.
And on a far much lighter note, why would you purchase a poor man’s Ferrari? I would never want to be seen in a Mesarati!
start with Maserati - I feel obligated to defend it:) It may be a poor man's Ferrari (which is indeed beyond my wallet) but it is a gorgeous car - the 2012 4th generation Quattroporte is the pinnacle of Italian design in my view. It is far more subtle and practical than a Ferrari - maybe it is still a bit of a mid-life crisis car but I didn't have that much of a crisis to want to buy a Ferrari or Porsche 911:) That said, the electronics in Maseratis are trash - I have to replace power windows and engine sensors. I'll probably never buy any electronics made by the Italians, god willing.
ebikes are an atrocity. You are completely right - they are not just unruly but downright dangerous. I cannot count how many close encounters with delivery guys on an ebike. But I guess we have to live with it for now as it does offer mobility and agility no other transport offers in Chinese dense urban settings.
I totally agree that the west has no idea how complex the rare earth supply chain is, especially in the chemical separation and refinement processes. China is the only country that can refine rare earth, especially heavy REE, to 99.99% purity and high purity is non-negotiable for high performance magnets used in mission-critical defense applications.
China got to where it is with half a century's R&D and several generations of talents who dedicated their careers to the technology. Google Professor Xu Guangxiang and Professor Gao Xiaoxia from Peking University's Chemistry Department - the husband and wife team who laid the foundation of China's rare earth industry and were considered "national treasures". If you read their life stories, you'll know building a world class REE industry is not something you accomplish in years, but rather in decades.
Ha, I was just teasing you. Maserati is indeed stylish but the electronics are pure crap. I fancied owning one once but settled for a BMW M3 which I had for over 10 years and nothing went wrong at all. Just had to bring it in for regular servicing. Now, I wont buy a German car coz they are overpriced and over-engineered.
I did indeed learn of the husband and wife team who made breakthroughs in the 1960s in RE technologies when I was doing my research. I also discovered China has universities that are dedicated to RE sciences. The rest of the world has none and their hard science departments are gutted because kids what to go into finance or make silly TikTok videos. The new Leiden university rankings just came out and China has 7 out of the top 10 science universities in the world while Harvard dropped to place 3. These idiots just do not know how difficult RE refining and processing is. Japan tried to do this 10 or 15 years ago but gave up because they simply cannot figure it out even with all their technological know how.
During my Shanghai trip, I wanted to go to Lujiazui to look at a development built by Swire Properties and the show flats. I learnt that over 90% had been sold already so I gave up on the idea. So much for the property slump! I also stopped over in HK and went across the bridge to Zhuhai and looked at some flats built by China Overseas Land, 80% sold out and the finishing and build quality are excellent.
haha. I had the same resolution not to buy continental cars again. My wife gave up her Audi Q7 and claimed the IM6. We used to own two Beemers including a 7 series. great cars but when it comes to value for money, there is no comparison with Chinese EVs these days.
too bad with Lujiazui apartment. You should have made the move a year ago. I think the market is picking up, especially in tier 1 cities. The new apartments near my parent's place in Xiamen are priced at 75,000 psm and up.
Zhuhai may be a different story. I was there a few months ago visiting a college buddy. The city is really overbuilt, especially if you go to the northern part of the Qinglv road, the main beachfront stretch. There are hundreds of high rises built along the beach.
I loved the city - great food and very relaxed compared with Shenzhen or Hong Kong. Also very clean and scenic. It's a good place for retirement.
At what point in those 17 war games did things go nuclear or start down that path? Or were these war games on a smaller scale, just Red vs Blue type of thing?
I recall from the interviews, things may go nuclear once a US aircraft carrier gets sunk (that’s 5000 sailors and airmen on board) but in the end no nuclear weapons were used because a nuclear attack on the Chinese mainland would invite a retaliatory strike on the US mainland. Both sides would suffer huge loses in a conventional war in these simulations but China could replace their loses much easier and quicker whereas the US could not.
just to add. Sinking a US carrier won't be China's opening shot. Frankly, Beijing just wants to keep the US out of the theater altogether - hence A2AD. Only if the US has decided to intervene and fired the first shot, would China launch its "assassin's mace". I have read a few declassified war simulation summaries from think tanks etc. Frankly, I think the US is too optimistic about its performance - given the mil-tech/asset asymmetry for a Taiwan scenario, my opinion is the result would be even more lopsided.
I think you are right. They have always overestimated their abilities due to their hubris. They can’t even defeat the Houthis!
when someone brings the Houthis out, I rest my case:)
Don't all militaries overestimate their capabilities and underestimate those of their enemies? At least in public, anyway. Who really knows the truth?
The only military in the world that does this consistently and loudly is the US military. Despite their failures since the Korean War they have crowned themselves this that and the other. I do not see other militaries doing that, do you?
Let me give you another example, remember McCain saying Russia is a gas station with nukes or other EU and US leaders saying: Russians are fighting with shovels; Russians are ripping out chips from washing machines and other nonsense. Russia has not bleated how good their army was or is and yet they have emptied the entire NATO arsenal in this proxy war.
The Americans live in la la land when they constantly say they defeated the Nazis and liberated Europe in WWII and Patton was such a great general and blah blah blah. 80% of all German soldiers that died in WWII died on the Eastern Front. I bet they don’t teach that in history classes anymore if they still have history classes. And the best campaign fought in WWII which is still studied in the Army War College is the Manchurian campaign in 1945 when the Soviets routed the 1 million strong Japanese Kwangtung Army.
So the answer to your first question is No. To your second question, a capable general staff knows the truth but politicians just turn a blind eye. Let me give you 2 examples. Remember Vietnam and the Pentagon papers. As early as 1967, the Pentagon assessed that they could not win the war but LBJ and McNamara kept on deceiving the public.
One year after the Russian SMO began, the Army War College issued a paper which is public and said if the US was to intervene they should be prepared to suffer 5000 casualties a day and that kind of loss is unacceptable to the American public and they don’t have the capability to sustain that kind of loss. This was never covered by any legacy media nor by any politician.
The PLA practices for such scenarios including tactical nukes and battles where they sustain 70% losses. Look up Senior Colonel Man Guangzhi, you'll enjoy reading about his exploits and the blue team.
Thank you. Shall look that up.
If this was required reading at the collegiate and high school level in the US, there would be a revolution within a year.
Provided that the readers could even comprehend what they were reading.
thanks to Obama's Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). you don't need to be literate to be considered as a "success" in the American public secondary education system:)
"Provided that the readers could even comprehend what they were reading".
In high school? Hardly. At college level, maybe about a third.
But they wouldn't believe it. They know the USA is best at everything.
this is why Trump is so popular - he has all these bigly beautiful words that even his base can understand. He possesses the requisite communication skill (at grade 6 vocabulary level) to lead a country of intelligence-challenged voters. Go USA!!!
a third is really too much credit...........
wouldn't believe it; wouldn't care, would certainly do nothing different in any meaningful way.........and roll that over the whole populace. We have football, Doritos and McD's. What else is there? Besides our guy will just kidnap their guy in the middle of the night. Uhg!
being entertained is certainly more important than being educated:) TikTok is really perfect for them.
I defer to your (apparently) local knowledge. It is certainly true that no amount of intelligence or knowledge can make up for a complete lack of interest. That I remember from school.
What you say is really the truth of it. The total lack of interest is astronomical it blows my mind, and if anyone actually shows interest, the lack of knowledge, questioning, inverted logic and general acceptance ruins most of that small number.
I think it's a self-defence mechanism. Learning about the real world can be painful; pain is best avoided; therefore let us stay ignorant about the real world. Similarly it's unpleasant to know that your side have committed horrible crimes; therefore don't allow yourself to think about it. Or even know about it. Trust the Bible, your priest/pastor, the government, and the anchorman.
As the Texan politician is said to have protested, "If English was good enough for Jesus Christ, it's good enough for me!"
Love the quote. I can visualize the cowboy swagger when this guy said it. It applies from Miriam Ferguson all way to W. Long live stupidity!
I lived in Houston in 99/2000 and can testify it is a place that lives the motto "ignorance is strength and war is peace".
Double like on that. Well said!
Thank you for mentioning antibiotics. This always gets overlooked by others. I've been saying for years, more Americans will die from staph infections and pneumonia then bombs or bullets in a China US war.
this was called by biden regime, together with other PPEs that the US relies on China for medical survival. what have they done about it? nada.
Yep. That is what happens when the whole country is for profit instead of for people. No big money to be made making penicillin. Not to mention the last factory that made it shut down a few years ago.
You don't have to convince me...First, it's impossible for any Western nation to fight a conventional war 6,000 miles away..the logistics would be impossible and their navies would be sunk by hypersonic missiles...Second, most of America's GDP is services, including prostitution and any other thing the Government wants to include...America's industrial base has been largely shipped out or destroyed.....We would be relying on the Japanese and Taiwanese...good luck with that!
China will be fine materialistically. The real risk for China is ideological.
Already, I'm seeing people who have bashed China now start talking about moving to China. They're a "Trojan horse". Parasites.
I truly believe that China's competitive advantage is Confucianism: relationship culture. If the middle country starts allowing immigrants it will be destroyed from within. Immigrants would bring their Western ideology of "I/my" ego culture, whether the "my personal faith" religious version or the "my personal truth/my will" secular version.
I don't see such risks. At this point in history, only the blind believes the ideologies propagated by the west. Their behavior bears no resemblance to their words when it comes to so called democracy, human rights and rule of law. The other parts of the neoliberal ideologies are frankly repelling, like wokism, LGBTQ, identity politics and political correctness. I don't know a single Chinese person who is not disgusted by these anti-social, post human values.
That's good to hear.
Question: Are Chinese people who stayed in China and contributed to the society's rise skeptical of the Chinese who went to the West instead? Do the Chinese question such people's "Yi" 义?
I don’t think people bear hard feelings for those who immigrated. It is a free country and people have the choice where to study and live. A lot of people who immigrated still contribute when they go back to do business or send money to their families.
For many who left, they regret not having the opportunities they would have if they stayed - they could have been much more successful if they didn’t pursue some imagined “greener pasture”.
there is a small minority who left out of personal grievance and bitterness or ideological reasons. But it is a big country and there will always be begrudged. I assume the same is true everywhere.
I wouldn't worry. China is very strict about immigration and always has been. Most of the immigrants are professional overseas Chinese with a minority of people from other countries. Even foreign students have to return to their countries. If some parasites slip in, they will be found out (this isn't 90s anymore when China was flooded by two faced English teachers playing out their eastern fetish fantasies).
For example back in 2018 or so a proposal was made to grant residency to foreign students who completed their studies and allow them to gain employment or start businesses in China. This was not taken well during the public commenting period and the proposal was scrapped and never brought up again.
The refusal by Chine to allow foreign students residency tells me that China is well aware of the Trojan horses and lots of other tricks the US empire, controlled by the z$o/j$wish masters, can attempt. I hope that China went a step further and investigated the individuals that made this proposal. There might already be subversive/parasite elements present in China
every society has its detractors but as long as they are not in a position of power, their influence is neutralized. attention is indeed heightened over the last few years when ordinary Chinese have become aware of western sabotage and subversion efforts around the world.
you are right there are still a lot of people in China who are poor and have to make a living. Unlike people in the US who are all high income earners and too dignified and important for the work assigned to immigrants. what a glorious land of prosperity. you should write about it.
The biggest Trojan horse has been there forever - if the govt lowers its watch it will bring all the woke LGBTQ feminism and ideological wasting of society down the line - Roman Catholicism Protestantism and worst of all the Freemasonic front of Evangelicalism. When the govt tried to the take down the illegal online only Israel worshipping messianic Zion Church the CIA neocon front Heritage Foundation successfully lobbied to release the detained organisers of the racket. In Russia Putin already has laid a heavy hand on CIA and Jewish billionaire funded churches that had spread faster than Nazism in Ukraine and the entirely CIA-Bengali Tantric created cult of HareKrishnas - he knows what they are about after all he was a KGB spy.
I happen to think a lot of the nihilistic neoliberal ideologies and values are unique to the west. No non-western country seems to suffer from the identity politics, LGBTQ, wokism, etc. I assume they are more grounded in reality and have to make an honest living - leaving them no time to self indulge and fantasize.
I agree.
Unfortunately, I suspect that Russia won't last long term. Putin is a certain philosopher/sage leader, but those leaders are rare in history.
The foundation of Russia is the same desert god of human sacrifice and circumcision that is the foundation of Israel, Europe, USA, etc. This is a sandy foundation from which to build a society.
There are so many factors influencing this potential war:
It has all makings of another Vietnam for the US on a much more devastating scale.
China is a culture in ascent the US is in descent.
If the US gets its nose bloodied over Iran there may not be a war.
The war has been deferred for two long and two often such that American belligerence has the smell of desperate brinkmanship.
The ongoing instability of US leadership could be a deciding factor.
The most dangerous wild card is that the US is so desperate it goes nuclear.
agree but I doubt the rulers in the US will get to the point to go nuclear. they love their money and power too much. they won't even send their kids to the military for a desk job, despite their patriotic outpourings on campaign trails. this is why the US has never fought a nuclear power directly - including tiny North Korea
This statement is true as it is about the Indian society
Societal ethos favor usury, lawfare, software, and media make-believe while viewing physical labor with distaste and aversion. Talents are directed to speculation and get-rich-quick schemes.
This is why Anglo-Celtics and Indo-Pakistanis make great family and they integrated into the Anglo ruling class in a mere 2 generations compared to the 7 generations it took for the holy cow Jews.
Did you see Trumps claims about using a wonder weapon to kidnap Maduro? I wonder why these wonder weapons are reserved only for the poor and shirtless and not Russians or Chinese? This is another thing that make Anglo-Celtic culture and Indo-Pakistani cultures similar - they ferociously bully the weak and consider it valiant and heroic and the public react with glee while they can only use cowardly underhand tactics against the strong. Currently AngloCeltic social media is overflowing with puppy love for Indians - this after six decades of smoking cannabis and doing tantric wife swapping prostitution inside an insane number of Indian guru cults for past 60 years - and that is another thing that unites Indo-Pakistanis and AngloCeltics - the organised religious stupidity and control of society by religious snake oil salesmen.
very true. I had the jews in mind when I wrote the line, but coming to think of it, it applies to the indians just as well after the jews are considered heroes by the indians to be emulated.
I suspect the west will get tired of the indians soon enough - it takes a lot to tolerate open defecation on the beaches of Vancouver and Sydney, even for the politically correct and namaste loving anglos in these places. there are some things you cannot unsee or unhear.
The biggest advantage for China is a population that works together not divided to left and right, black and white
internal harmony is the pre-requisite for national greatness. Same as families. Chinese governance has always been heavily influenced by family values taught by Confucius - treat your ruler as you treat your elders; rulers to show benevolence and discipline; etc.
in contrast, the great weakness of Iran, even worse than the economic crisis, is its internal fracture that has just been leveraged and manipulated by israel and the US. North Korea is as destitute as Iran economically but there is no internal division the US and South Korea can exploit.
Mostly I am too shocked by that apparently endless procession of superlatives to make any useful comment.
But I did notice "...I am pleasantly surprised to find out the IM L6 has maximum power output of 570 kW, equal to 775 horsepower".
The German Tiger tanks (weighing as much as 70 tons) had 750 horsepower engines. Actually, from memory, some SHIPS had less.
funny you mentioned this. when I bought the Maserati, the salesman said it has more power than a Cessna airplane. it turned out to be true upon some digging - many common Cessna planes have less than 300 horsepower. I guess only nerds like us pay attention:)
american MIC fraudulence truly knows no bounds. also, thank you for your reply to my comment in part 1. I have done further research and my view on the correlation between IQ and race has shifted.
IQ is determined primarily by genetics. This is a fact. Racial groups are based on genetic differences due to the diverse environments humans evolved (and continue to evolve) in. This is also a fact. Surviving in different environments requires different skill sets both physically and mentally. Today, our environment changes much faster due to technological and cultural progress. A strategy that worked yesterday, cultural practices that made sense 300 years ago, may cease to do so. Adaptability is more important than ever.
It is said that Indians as a group have "low IQ". Many explanations have been put forth, malnutrition, low rates of literacy, emigration of skilled workers, high rates of incest. None of these factors are unique to India. What is unique however, is the rigidity of Indian society, which is truly a shame. Individuals brought up in such a society cannot show off their true potential due to rigid ways of thinking. What environmental factors that may have caused such a stubborn culture to survive and dominate in this region is beyond me, but certain environments such as China, parts of Europe, and maybe Iran have simply produced people that are more adapted to our modern environment than others.
This is not meant to suggest superiority of any race or to encourage complacent ways of thinking of course.
I agree completely. Cognitive difference is the same as height difference. It doesn't imply superiority or complacency. The Dutch is the tallest people in the world but it produced a politician by the name of Mark Rutte who is the lowest form of sycophantic careerist. I refer to cognitive difference in the context of modern wars being highly technical and the technically proficient has battlefield advantage.
Good stuff. I’ve also long viewed the obsession with overpriced unnecessary toys as a psychological weakness. Much like the "diamonds are forever" propaganda campaign, these desires are often manufactured through marketing manipulation that exploits our vulnerabilities to equate material excess with personal value - and we know (((who))) are masters at subterfuges.
But hey, we all have our weaknesses and vices that needs satiating "once in our lives", don't we? 🤑🤑
Luckily for me, Confucius taught us to distinguish small “transgression” (like obsession with physical beauty) from the bigger issues such as knowing right and wrong:-)
Sounds like Confucius nailed it then - save moral energy for real battles, not minor vices :-) Cheers to small indulgences and transgressions.
Personally I'm just repulsed at the idea of paying $100 for roll of toilet paper that costs $1. As in, it's not really of morality in this case (most anyone can afford a roll of $100 toilet paper), but the scam that repulses me - the process of "premium-izing" or "status-signalling" merchandises and products like a pie in the sky by praying on the emotions, needs and desires on the peoples. Which comes to my point: through the immense marketing power of these foreign western MNCs, these firms pose grave dangers lurking in their colonization efforts by instilling fake, empty, depraved foreign values meant to infect the thinking of a target nation's peoples (e.g. China), to make them discard their own heritage and values. Kind of like convincing people that they'll only be happy if they own a - say, Porsche or Ferrari, or a fancy Prada/gucci handbag (which are made in China anyway).
a lot of the economy in the west is actually based on such illusions - branding, marketing, trademarks, etc., which in the final analysis has little extra utilitarian value. a Gucci bag doesn't hold any more crap than a plastic bag or a paper bag but can cost you a month's salary.
this goes back to my point about real physical capabilities having little to do with GDP sizes - the Americans don't have a longer life expectancy by spending much more than anyone else in the world; they are not better educated despite the highest education bill in the world.
in China, there is a prevalent wave of consumption trending towards the basic utilitarian value of things - a big part of the reason of the "deflation" western business media likes to talk about. I am sure they sincerely believe "deflation" is bad from the teaching of their economic dogma but never cause to ask why and in what circumstances.
Well put and it's good to hear there's still hope in humanity, at least somewhere. From what I see it's the women who usually fall prey to these empty decadent displays, likely as a function of their primal survival mechanism to attract mates lol
The difference:
1) - China: The confidence is built upon physical reality.
2) - USA: The confidence is built upon philosophical rhetoric.
Take it from there...
philosophical rhetoric that is increasingly realized as hypocritical fig-leafs:) Just look at Trump - he didn't break the US. he revealed it.
The Neoliberal factor is huge as the US and the West shifted from being builders to profiteers, succumbing to their ravenous greed for dollars and paper wealth.
Too many interlocking and ruinous ideologies all out of control with no accountability or regulation.
"The asymmetry in physical capabilities between China and the US is the result of decades long neoliberal economics that prioritize short-term financial returns over long-term industrial competitiveness."
In Italy we have a quote that sounds like this: the fish starts to stink from the head.
The decline of the U.S. empire seems a logical consequence of the current intellectual level of it’s elite's governance. Pushing the 'homo homini lupus' through force mantra could have obscured other ways of building a virtuous state. Cooperation vs. Individualism, Education vs. Competition, Ethics vs. Deception—which of these paths might brings more capability and prosperity?
indeed. common sense will tell you who is on the right path
The industrial capacity argument is probably the most important one here. Wars are not won by GDP figures alone. The ability to manufacture, replace and scale physical equipment matters enormously. China’s manufacturing advantage makes this a much more uncomfortable comparison than headline military budgets suggest.
https://youtu.be/RlBDI_qH9aY?si=67CU9HZfTy_B_OlT
Is this for real? I tend to doubt it. some kind of coup?
this is such bullshit that you have to laugh at the originality of the click-baiters. they would have a good career writing for the Fargo series on Netflix:)