What must be done to Unite the Country

#852
#852
Grand Vol said:
Cliff Notes: she talks like a politician, but at the same time, I'm more inclined to listen to her because she tends to back up her words with deeds.

ETA: it's worth the 10 minutes to listen to
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So this particular video had no specifics on Unification?
 
#856
#856
AM64 said:
Have you ever stopped to think about the strategic implications when you talk about industries that are "relics of our economic past"? Those things make us hostage to other countries. Car manufacturing in the US is currently shutting down due to computer chip shortages. This is supposedly at least covid related, but the point remains it could be economic hostage taking or an act of war when you allow vital industries supplying necessary materials to be moved out of the country. If there is a WW3, we might not lose on the battlefield - we might lose by not even making it to the battlefield.
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Wow. Someone who agrees with Ras. We did attack japan first by not selling them fuel to fund their war effort.
 
#863
#863
hog88 said:
We should have never been in Vietnam and we should have stopped at Pyongyang in 1950.
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We should have never been in the middle east either. Somebody did sum ting and we went balls to the wall once again to kill people. Eff the rest of the world, it's time we just live our own life and forget about everyone else.
 
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#865
#865
mr.checkerboards said:
Keeping with this income tax theme. I would also be in favor of just doing away with it completely and just having a national sales tax. 10% on all purchases.
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Siap. I agree with the caveat not on "basic" foods. Fruits, veggies, bread, meat.

Maybe set certain commodities under a certain price dont get taxed. Food under 10 dollars per item. Electronics under 200, clothes under 20. Something like that.
 
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#866
#866
AM64 said:
Have you ever stopped to think about the strategic implications when you talk about industries that are "relics of our economic past"? Those things make us hostage to other countries. Car manufacturing in the US is currently shutting down due to computer chip shortages. This is supposedly at least covid related, but the point remains it could be economic hostage taking or an act of war when you allow vital industries supplying necessary materials to be moved out of the country. If there is a WW3, we might not lose on the battlefield - we might lose by not even making it to the battlefield.
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No might about it. Much of our war machine is built overseas.
 
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#870
#870
mr.checkerboards said:
I doubt that's something congress would ever look into anyways.
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Eggzactly. The tax code is the congressional medium of exchange. It's where they pay off campaign finance and other hidden income - the reason the tax code has expanded to volumes rather than a few pages. You can't hide a payoff in a few pages, but you can hide a lot of stuff in tens of thousands of pages that nobody but the IRS and tax accountants read. Neither one of those are going to object - IRS has a nice comfy bureaucracy to preserve and protect, and the tax accountants have a nice profitable business that expanded into software domains selling tax software to everybody else. It's a wonderful scam for almost everybody except the 50% of the population that pay taxes to feed the monster.

The tax code and campaign finance/lobbying/corporate boards are the Hydra. Cut off one and it cripples things for a bit, but it just grows back stronger. Have to kill the monster at the heart by overthrowing congress and actually having some restraints on the replacement. Power corrupts and unchecked congressional power corrupts absolutely - there has to be real meaningful congressional oversight of some kind.
 
#873
#873
OHvol40 said:
I understand the implications of no longer having an industrial economy, but as I mentioned it’s a natural progression of capitalistic economies.

As far as the war analogy, we would be in trouble in a protracted war situation (at least initially), but does anyone really believe that a modern war scenario would end up being drawn-out, multi-year engagements like the wars of the 20th century? I have my doubts. Plus, as much as we’ve spent on defense in the last 20-30 years, we better have stockpiles for any given scenario... if not, we get what we deserve.
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We've spent a lot of money on extremely expensive weapons system that do wear out, break, and with battle losses lose the necessary critical mass to sustain the attack. Cost for weapons systems doesn't necessarily equal staying power. In the last century we generally were prepared for a different war than the one we fought, so we had the wrong weapons and sort of made do with them, and it frequently didn't work. When we've had the ability to use weapons effectively (particularly airpower), congress has hamstrung their use with rules of engagement. If you don't have the ability to add by adapting to need, rebuild, and sustain the flow of expendables such as munitions, you are a dead duck.

If you believe that leaving an industrial economy behind is the natural progression, then I'll tell you it's a natural progression to failure.
 
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#875
#875
AM64 said:
We've spent a lot of money on extremely expensive weapons system that do wear out, break, and with battle losses lose the necessary critical mass to sustain the attack. Cost for weapons systems doesn't necessarily equal staying power. In the last century we generally were prepared for a different war than the one we fought, so we had the wrong weapons and sort of made do with them, and it frequently didn't work. When we've had the ability to use weapons effectively (particularly airpower), congress has hamstrung their use with rules of engagement. If you don't have the ability to add by adapting to need, rebuild, and sustain the flow of expendables such as munitions, you are a dead duck.

If you believe that leaving an industrial economy behind is the natural progression, then I'll tell you it's a natural progression to failure.
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Would those HAWKS be effective today?
 
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