Ukraine Aid
- Thread starter twenty02
- Start date
Aren’t you begging the question here? Of course our defense budget is twice as high: we look to defend or engage the whole world.
Maybe it would be smaller if we didn’t?
You might fine me into oblivion, but here goes: baseball has a lot to learn from soccer.
1. Limit the number of substitutions per game like soccer. Solves the ridiculous pitching change issue and creates interesting strategic choices.
2. Run a multi-tiered sport with relegation and promotion. Baseball, like soccer, should be embraced as the nation’s game and every middle-sized city should be given a shot at playing the hated Yankees on their home field.
Someone has to do it and it’s us. Who else can defend the world’s sea lanes and who else benefits more from it?
It seems our ubiquitous presence just incites and exacerbates so much. I don’t know much about this stuff but maybe there’s a different way. The spending is incredible
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I get that. I’m pointing out that comparing defense budgets doesn’t help answer the concerns raised. Maybe we spend too much and other nations spend too little.
this is a good point. US economic primacy is based on us defending those sea lanes.
the post WW2 deal we made with Europe lingers to this day. we pay the most by far but are in complete unquestioned control of security decisions. I think it's a deal we should still be happy with.
I don't blame people for questioning the unfathomable sums of money we spend (and will never pay back) on securing Europe and really the world at large. it's worth debating.
what the US sells the world is safe passage for trade via oceans and integration into our economic system. we also sell the world on nuclear nonproliferation.
what we get in return is free rein in almost all defense matters worldwide and a dominate US dollar, which allows us to rack up crazy trade deficits and govt debt.
not a bad little racket.
Big difference…one implies they didn’t have the capability. The other implies they didn’t have the desire.
The business of America is business, right? Our economic world really loves calm water. Our military works hard to keep the world's waters calm.
On the other hand, Russia is on the side of really choppy seas, look at their allies (Iran, Syria, North Korea). they know choppy seas will reduce American economic hegemony.
$1.09 fine for improper use of “oblivion.” Per Mike Tyson, you will now fade into Bolivian . . .
Eight pitchers on a 25-26 man roster accomplishes the constant substitution issues. Starters pace themselves, don’t try to throw everything through a brick wall and thus go further into a game. Can’t prove it, but my guess is there would be fewer arm injuries. Every pitch doesn’t need to be a 102-mph heater or a 98-mph slider. Back in the day, there were fewer arm injuries and, as an example, Bob Gibson in 1968 had as many complete games as one of the leagues had in one year recently, so more innings per starter. More contact; more hitting; more action on the field; fewer strikeouts.
This relegation thing - I’m guessing this is a unique s***** goofball thing, right? - would be difficult given the economics of the game. Gotta have the stadium, personnel and infrastructure in place. Huge money pit.
Not that I wouldn’t mind seeing the Yankees playing in Elletsville . . .
same issue that mls is having and why they should buy the usl. that said americans will never know sports drama as there is nothing in sport, nothing, that compares to the stress and drama and suspense of getting kicked out of an entire league
I’d love to read an article where someone analyzes late game offensive production from the ‘20s-‘30s to see if some of those super high BAs were due to a lot of tired SPs.
I’m not saying that’s a bad thing for the game, just would like to see if that’s true.
And it’s worthwhile to ask: is it ok to risk American lives to make businesses better off? Especially when the bulk of the lives at risk are from the lower end of the social economic ladder?
What’s a “Wrexham?” (You had to know this was coming.)
you gotta quit asking questions like this, brad! ya trying to end the charade or something? lol
It’s a good thought, and with the mass quantities of data available today, I wouldn’t be surprised if this hasn’t been investigated.
There are, literally, millions of data points that could be investigated. I would contend, for example, that batting averages were higher due to the horrible gloves used back in the day. Can it be proved? How? Were those doing the official scoring more forgiving, scoring hits rather than errors even if the fielder did “get his glove almost on it?”
First, if I said that there would already be three posts that I am a socialist. So I'd argue my desire for hiring minimum wage, more worker training, and defending the social safety net is all part of this. Frankly it is why Bismark created the entire welfare state, to compensate the men who would be called on to fight for hit militaristic state. Of course I want those things and a less militaristic state (I don't want to take territory like Bismark did). But I don't want countries to even consider attacking the US.
Second, the bulk of the military is from the middle class, rich and poor are underrepresented https://www.afba.com/military-life/new-research-debunks-myths-about-who-enlists-and-why/
Third, I'd suggest the military can be attractive to the poor as a cheap way to get skills to move up. See poster named "Aloha" as example.
I disagree - it's all the same effect.
But you tell me - couldn't they do it, or wouldn't they do it?
Brad, I would argue the lower end of the social economic ladder has more to lose if the US were to not be the world military leader.
The upper economic scale will always have privileges and benefits that the lower class doesn't have. What sets America apart is that the rights of the lower economic class are protected (more or less), the same as the 'rich'. Or enough so that it doesn't cause social unrest (again, mostly).
The lower end of the social economic ladder has it pretty damn good in America, comparatively speaking.
I really dig the cynicism at play here.
Picturing a bumper sticker:
SUPPORT THE WAR, SUFFER LESS
Wise up Murty....the money is meaningless. The Leviathan simply prints more and hands it out to their comrades..
40% of our greatly diminished manufacturing is the war machine 'at work'. It runs on a combination of American treasure, oil and blood; And IT NEVER RESTS!
Ukraine, the granary for Europe China and Africa, is shattered. She will never recover, regardless of when the Special Operation ends. Germany, the industrial engine of Europe,
has been neutered by the C_A's attack on the Nordstream pipelines.
German political coalition led by AfD is gaining strength rapidly, and the socialists in Government are astroturfing fake demonstration against the coalition.
Everyplace the MIC goes, it leaves bloody fingerprints.
This is what is so frustrating with the feckless leadership like Biden provides. Biden is full of himself has he shouts and screams about the dangers of Putin and why he needs to be stopped. Fine. But when it comes to important decisions, Biden is scared shitless of Putin. From the day Putin invaded Ukraine, Biden mumbled about escalation, wider war, and not provoking Putin. He then provided Ukraine with just enough material to not lose, never providing what was needed to kick Putin’s ass. Now we are in an untenable situation of attrition or yielding to Putin.
Biden has done and is doing the exact same thing in the ME. He is scared shitless of escalation, wider war, and pissing off Iran. His response to Iran‘s surrogates is timidity 101. Except in the ME, Biden indirectly supported Iran in ways he never dI’d with Putin.
Biden’s foreign policy lacks courage, confidence and creativity. Our sizable defense apparatus is useless in his hands.
When.will Xi Jinping make his move to test Biden?
Ummm... CONGRESS provided Ukraine with just enough material to not lose, never providing what was needed to kick Putin’s ass.
Then CONGRESS GOP complained about how the books were cooked and Biden was giving them too much.
Then CONGRESS GOP complained about giving them anything else, until they passed a border bill, a bill which then CONGRESS GOP refused to pass.
Own the dysfunction in your party.
Fair point. Biden owned the bully pulpit though. He also killed the early Polish F-16 deal, and refused immediate deployment of HIMARS for the reasons I said.
It’s just not practical. Need decades to build. Mls, especially this iteration, is in its infancy. Stl paid $300 mil for a franchise, 500 mil for a stadium, can’t risk losing and play in front of 5,000 with no tv against the Rochester Rinos or Charleston battery or Indy 11
I grew up poor, but I had graduated college and started my climb up the business world ladder (becoming not so poor) when I decided to join the military. Plan was for four to six years, get out, make my millions in the civilian world. Plan changed when I really enjoyed the Navy and wasn’t bad as an officer. Making my million over 38 years later instead. 😉
Because the minority of the Republicans in the House are Trumpster crazies. Exactly.
