Heads up fellows things are getting nasty.
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bertsmobile1
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Decades ago I went to a public lecture ( I used to go to a lot of them ) presented by a forensic accountant .
He looked at the rise & fall of empire based on the percentage of their GDP spent on defence .
HE came up with a number , it was something like 3% , can not remember the actual number now.
Back then the USSR, USA , North Korea , Israel , Iran, Iraq & Saudi Arabia were all above the magic number. ( there were others )
At a latter date an economist gave a similar paper using defence spend per hear of population model .
The results were very similar , although the latter one also included domestic police in his calculations .
The really interesting bit was those countries who spent above their magic numbers all had declining standards of living & declining life expecentcies .
Countries who spent less had increasing standards of living.
And this was independent of the actual economy as it applied equally as well to first world countries as it did to 3rd world countries .
I did ask both of them how they got numbers for the Roman , Mongal , Ming , Aztec & Myar empires but they glossed over that & quickly took another question.
Now Putin is a power hungry tyrant as is Xi Jinping denoted that both of them have made themselves into emperors . Tyrants can not tollerate not having absolute control .
Now Belarus has a puppet government in lock step with Putin & Lativa & Lituania are fairly well under Putins thumb
But Ukrane is an economically viable stand alone country and as such have become independent and Putin will not tollerate that .
HE thought that lots of tanks would frighten the Ukranians into submission and cause Volodymyr Zelensky to flee so he could be replaced with one of Putins men but Volodymyr Zelensky not only refused to run away but put on fatigues and stood his ground vowing that he will fight to the death .
Nothing unites a country more than a leader who picks up a weapon and stands on the front line .
As such there can be no military victory in the Ukrane unless every man woman & child is slaughtered .
Now Putin can do that in Russia where h has 100% control over he media but he can not get away with it in the Ukrane so now there is a stand off situation .
Putin can not win & can not be seen to have lost because the other ex-USSR republics could then defect to the west .
What should happen now is the UN should strip Russia of it's veto power then relegate it to where it should be as a second tier military power and a fourth tier economic power .
This would most likely cause Putins cronies to give him a little shove over a cliff ( tragic accidential death of a political hero ) rather than have the political status of Russia deminished to where it really should have been post the USSR break up .
He looked at the rise & fall of empire based on the percentage of their GDP spent on defence .
HE came up with a number , it was something like 3% , can not remember the actual number now.
Back then the USSR, USA , North Korea , Israel , Iran, Iraq & Saudi Arabia were all above the magic number. ( there were others )
At a latter date an economist gave a similar paper using defence spend per hear of population model .
The results were very similar , although the latter one also included domestic police in his calculations .
The really interesting bit was those countries who spent above their magic numbers all had declining standards of living & declining life expecentcies .
Countries who spent less had increasing standards of living.
And this was independent of the actual economy as it applied equally as well to first world countries as it did to 3rd world countries .
I did ask both of them how they got numbers for the Roman , Mongal , Ming , Aztec & Myar empires but they glossed over that & quickly took another question.
Now Putin is a power hungry tyrant as is Xi Jinping denoted that both of them have made themselves into emperors . Tyrants can not tollerate not having absolute control .
Now Belarus has a puppet government in lock step with Putin & Lativa & Lituania are fairly well under Putins thumb
But Ukrane is an economically viable stand alone country and as such have become independent and Putin will not tollerate that .
HE thought that lots of tanks would frighten the Ukranians into submission and cause Volodymyr Zelensky to flee so he could be replaced with one of Putins men but Volodymyr Zelensky not only refused to run away but put on fatigues and stood his ground vowing that he will fight to the death .
Nothing unites a country more than a leader who picks up a weapon and stands on the front line .
As such there can be no military victory in the Ukrane unless every man woman & child is slaughtered .
Now Putin can do that in Russia where h has 100% control over he media but he can not get away with it in the Ukrane so now there is a stand off situation .
Putin can not win & can not be seen to have lost because the other ex-USSR republics could then defect to the west .
What should happen now is the UN should strip Russia of it's veto power then relegate it to where it should be as a second tier military power and a fourth tier economic power .
This would most likely cause Putins cronies to give him a little shove over a cliff ( tragic accidential death of a political hero ) rather than have the political status of Russia deminished to where it really should have been post the USSR break up .
As has been the case over and over during my lifetime, US involvement surely will make things worse, not better.
Aside from the obvious horrors of war, what is disturbing about this is how – once again – any thoughtful opposition to US involvement is denounced as traitorous. Critical of the Biden regime's actions? You're a Putin puppet! Die, you commie traitor! Sheesh.
During Vietnam, conservatives shouted down the opposition with "America: Love it or Leave!" 50,000 dead Americans later, US forces turned tail and ran.
In Iraq, there was a secular government that tolerated Christianity before the US intervened. Now it is an Islamic Republic ruled by what the Economist Intelligence Unit has rated an "authoritarian regime." USA! USA!
After 20 years and much spilled blood in Afghanistan, once again the mighty US war machine was humiliated, leaving the place to a stronger-than-ever Taliban. And now they have tons and tons of spiffy new weapons to play with. Yay!
On 9/11, having spent trillions on supposed "defense," the US military-industrial complex couldn't even prevent a handful of guys with utility knives from killing 3,000 innocent people on American soil. Pathetic.
When it comes to military intervention, everything politicians touch turns to crap. How many more failures do Americans have to witness (and pay for) before they tell the bloodthirsty creeps in DC to shut up and mind their own business?
Aside from the obvious horrors of war, what is disturbing about this is how – once again – any thoughtful opposition to US involvement is denounced as traitorous. Critical of the Biden regime's actions? You're a Putin puppet! Die, you commie traitor! Sheesh.
During Vietnam, conservatives shouted down the opposition with "America: Love it or Leave!" 50,000 dead Americans later, US forces turned tail and ran.
In Iraq, there was a secular government that tolerated Christianity before the US intervened. Now it is an Islamic Republic ruled by what the Economist Intelligence Unit has rated an "authoritarian regime." USA! USA!
After 20 years and much spilled blood in Afghanistan, once again the mighty US war machine was humiliated, leaving the place to a stronger-than-ever Taliban. And now they have tons and tons of spiffy new weapons to play with. Yay!
On 9/11, having spent trillions on supposed "defense," the US military-industrial complex couldn't even prevent a handful of guys with utility knives from killing 3,000 innocent people on American soil. Pathetic.
When it comes to military intervention, everything politicians touch turns to crap. How many more failures do Americans have to witness (and pay for) before they tell the bloodthirsty creeps in DC to shut up and mind their own business?
Spring is here and the Lawn Mower summit is in full swing!
When you see the flash
from the nuclear blast
You duck and cover
Duck and cover We have been afraid of nuclear war with Russia since I was in first grade! That was 63 years ago! They taught us this jingle so we wouldn't be afraid of nuclear war.
from the nuclear blast
You duck and cover
Duck and cover We have been afraid of nuclear war with Russia since I was in first grade! That was 63 years ago! They taught us this jingle so we wouldn't be afraid of nuclear war.
bertsmobile1
Lawn Royalty
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Yes You don't win hearts & minds with bullets & bombs .
Lots of stories ( true or false ? ) from our Vietnam vets about locals warning them there would be an attack.
Also lots of stories about our guys building schools & rebuilding villages only to have them bombed shortly afterwards .
Dozens of orphanages in Vietnam sponsored and in some cases manned by ex OZ military .
The depths of penetration of the military suppliers into US politics is a worry.
Perfect example is the forced merger of McDonald Douglass who were bankrupt with Boeing who were run profitably.
Then the board of the failed McDonald Douglass who all should have been sacked were intergrated into Boeing, displacing 2/3 of the Boeing board .
And the net result of this was the 737 Max disaster that will push Boeing to the brink the old board would never have let that plane leave the factory because they knew how poor the pilot training in commercial airlines is.
The Mac board OTOH is used to supplying planes to military pilots trained to the nth degree so they would have no problems recognising when they had to over ride the auto pilot .
Last year I see they pinned the blame on a Boeing test pilot but no one with more than 1 functioning brain cell would believe that he was the sole person responsible when there were 8 pilots who flew the plane & the engineers knew it was an inheriently unstable design.
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I even heard a story of a group going into a village back in either WWI or WWII where the villagers claimed they had no food. So soldiers decided to make rock soup. While they cooking the rock soup they starting making comments how it would taste if it had some veggies in it. The villigers started bringing out the veggies and all had had a very good meal. The villagers just weren't sure if the solders were friends or foes. Trust had to be earned.
MyGrassHasCrabs
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Russia invading Ukraine could have been stopped by the USA remaining energy independent and supplying Russia's current customers with oil and natural gas.
But nooo, the climate change jackasses (aka AOC and her green new steal crew) knew better. Potato killed our energy independence and now we're paying Russia $50 million a day for oil (or that was what has been reported, who knows what you can believe from the "news", this is the same news that said potato got 81 million votes). Germany is dissuaded from materially applying pressure to Russia because they're dependent on Russian oil and natural gas.
I'd like to know where AOC and her climate jackasses are now that we're on the brink of WW3? They're quiet as mice now, aren't they? Gee, how much of a carbon footprint will a few nukes have? Man, I hate being governed by FOOLS.
I hope folks vote our current regime out in November. How nice would it be to never see nancy piglosi again...
But nooo, the climate change jackasses (aka AOC and her green new steal crew) knew better. Potato killed our energy independence and now we're paying Russia $50 million a day for oil (or that was what has been reported, who knows what you can believe from the "news", this is the same news that said potato got 81 million votes). Germany is dissuaded from materially applying pressure to Russia because they're dependent on Russian oil and natural gas.
I'd like to know where AOC and her climate jackasses are now that we're on the brink of WW3? They're quiet as mice now, aren't they? Gee, how much of a carbon footprint will a few nukes have? Man, I hate being governed by FOOLS.
I hope folks vote our current regime out in November. How nice would it be to never see nancy piglosi again...