Thanks for the insight.

Contradict his claims of the US being able to "rofl lmao not my problem" via shale or your claims of Chinese land acquisition and dumping usd means nothing.

What China does/is doing is irrelevant to the strategic importance of American energy interests.

From where I stand and what I have been arguing here for good two years is that - nobody in US (or even Europe) truly, honestly cares for an independent and sovereign Ukraine. Ukraine's future is to be used as a pawn against Russia. Hence no European accession, no NATO accession and etc. As I argued a few posts above - an average European (and an American) cannot tell an Ukrainian from a Russian even if their life depends on it, yet they know which one is corrupt and rotten and which one is an opressed fighter for freedom and democracy

Ukraine has been used as a laundering ground to achieve three simultaneous goals:

1) handicap and destabilize a "perceived" rival / foreign threat of a rising Russia by using a willing proxy and frankly - outdated equipment made to fight Russkies in the 1980s-1990s. The newest gadgets like F35s, Stealth bombers and long range ballistic missiles have not been transferred.

2) make your NATO allies buy and your domestic taxpayers "OKAY" the purchase of the latest gadgets of Raytheon, General Dynamics, Northropp Grumman and Boeing while simultaneously ensuring there is no significant competition from European producers (Rheinmetall, ThyssenKrupp and so on).

3) test out new combat realities without direct NATO force losses, while in complete control of the battlefield and telemetry (notice the evolution of modern combat to FPV drones which noone really knows what to do with as of 2024, hence eg Israelis hurriedly welding-on drone cages to their Merkavas prior to Gaza invasion).

This post was edited by Malopox on Feb 2 2024 01:28pm

Energy is pointless without production, you cretin. China opening up hundreds of coal power plants means more than the US shutting down a couple nuclear plants. What they gain in production vs what we're giving up is not proportional. For every step back the US takes, China takes 10 steps forward. It's not my fault you're too stupid to recognize it.

The premise of your post is wrong. I do not care about Ukraine and refuse to. The puppet government in Kiev is not important to me. That's a US Politician game. Which means it's bad for the US Taxpayer and the rest of the world alike. Preach to a real mark, kiddo. I'm not interested in your justifications on why unlimited American blood and treasure should be dedicated to a dispute between soviet bloc nations. Really, instruct me child.

Oh its all definitely true, but isn't there something dubious about a country becoming successful solely as a tax haven? When you're not producing anything of value, and the wealth is at best trickling down from centralized lords, only after being taken from what was earned by another country.
Honestly, it has a bit of a perverse parallel to the pirate states of old. The barbary kings weren't earning their keep off trade goods or an empire of conquest, they were parasites on world powers.

I think we share stances here although I'm not an American.

In my view the power of the American dollar hinges on power projection attached to it that has to be upheld constantly.

This results in "forever wars" and constant chase for the latest and the best gadgets. Since US is not an authoritarian regime where you can just send your friendly army generals a blank check - you need to justify it through "democratic measures" and scaring your tax payers with stuff like "war on terror", "promoting freedom in the middle east", "supporting democracy in Ukraine". This allows you to send your old Tomahawks flying to their targets while you order newer and better ones from Raytheon.

Do I like that myself? No I think it's a nearsighted system that is doomed to collapse at some point once China or any other kid on the block goes to karate lessons and learns how to defend himself against schoolyard bullies. Hence we see slow emergence of multipolarity and demise of pax americana.

We aren't ordering newer and better from Raytheon. We're reopening plants and unretiring people who haven't worked a day job since the 70's, and probably won't live past 2030. Everyone overestimates US production. If China ever tests it, we're fucked.

There is definitely something dubious in that, I agree, but this is not new to humanity - we call them "financial centers".

Delaware has been one for a long time in the US (but is under fire now due to an absolutely scandalous decision to revoke Musks' options) and Caymans/Bahamas. Europe has had Luxembourg, Lichtenstein, Monaco, City of London and to a lesser degree Ireland, Switzerland and the Netherlands (the latter are arguably more diversified than the former). We have seen the emergence of Dubai which produces comparatively little oil as well as microstates of Hong Kong and Singapore in Asia following the same suit of "financial centers" which uphold the law, keep confidentiality and make the boring bureaucracy work for the benefit of global multinationals.

This post was edited by Malopox on Feb 2 2024 01:56pm

You won't get an answer, he will dodge or call that Whataboutisms

This is false. The bulk of US Coal is sold to China because any other use becomes a "climate issue". They use a bulk of the coal to produce raw steel that they sell back to us at a heavy markup to be used in everything from our naval fleet to consumer coffee mugs.

You know nothing.