General Politics XII World • Page 497

this is a new level of pathetic even for these two absolute fucking morons.

 

the shooters family is better off than mine but as someone who’s parents are probably considered, at the very least, upper middle class I can tell you first hand my experience with health insurance has been one nightmare after another

 

lmao burning the midnight oil at the Graph Factory I see

 

next time someone posts a Matty tweet for any reason other than to call him an idiot theyre getting blocked

 

this is incredibly foolish

 

David and Knight speed running this challenge

 

I’m so glad I’m not a kid and don’t have kids because what the hell

 

Ehhh, I don't really agree with this take; all the combat the US has been in over the last 30 years has given them a lot of experience in what works and doesn't work, and the Ukraine war is at least giving the US some idea of how western tech functions in a near-peer environment, which is now fast-tracking changes and updates at most US/European defense companies. China has been investing a lot, yes, but the US has been investing in R&D even more, only in the US a lot of it is done by private enterprise, whereas in China most of it is done via state run orgs/companies. China meanwhile hasn't been in any serious combat engagement in decades; yes they've observed the US in all the conflicts during this time, learning from afar what is likely needed, but unless you actually do the combat yourself and understand everything it takes to make it happen, it's only just an idea of what you think you can do. The only area I could see China having parity in is the cyberwarfare side of things, but then again, we have no idea what the US/West is doing around the Ukraine conflict currently, which likely provides a big training round for US cyber operations. Although, when it comes to the manufacturing/building side of things, in terms of sheer output, China is probably ahead right now, especially when it comes to shipbuilding capacity. The availability of shipyards in the US has dramatically reduced over the last few decades, especially after the end of the Cold War, but there has been alarm for a while now how the US navy is lagging behind in how long it takes to build new subs and ships, with no quick fix. And because a lot of the manufacture of weapons is done by private enterprise, they depend on government contracts, especially those that are long-term in nature, so if those long-term contracts aren't there, the capacity/factories needed to build massive capacities of ships/tanks/IFV's, etc, aren't going to happen. Overall though, I feel the US government is fully aware of what they think is needed going forward, especially in terms of the advantages China has, so will, eventually, get on the track to match China.

As for international soldiers in Ukraine, there's tens of thousands of them over there right now, from dozens of countries around the world, and many have served for nearly the full length of the conflict so far. Most of the outfits I've read about don't have a problem finding recruits, but instead its more about finding the soldiers with the best skills; the requirements to serve now are stiffer than at the beginning of the war. There def was a problem with some internationals going over to serve, more for the glory than doing the job, but that's not really the case anymore.

 

The funny thing is, the point that they're trying to make (That it's actually our prices/the prices of providers that is the problem) can really only be solved by doing something I'm pretty sure both of them spoke out against very vehemently--forgiving student loans/making college free. You can't ask doctors to take lower pay for care while still burying them in 200K of med school debt.

 

No. The problem is for profit health insurance.

 

when you’re doing a complicated quest chain in a video game and the next step doesn’t have any map markers or tell you what to do

 

Our doctors make a shitton of money comparatively around the world, it's not just for profit health insurance that's the problem when we're talking costs. Any reform to our health care system is probably going to have to come with lower reimbursement rates for care (i.e. to Medicare rates at minimum), and we can't do that without eliminating the costs of college. Well, we could, but it's gonna disincentivize becoming doctors if we don't and we'll have a big shortage in no time.

 

And also the amount you’re allowed to charge for meds in America is insane.

 

bruh and they declined to impeach him lol

Also if you think this is the only time ROK has provoked DPRK like this would you like to buy a bridge

 

I don't think much of the US’ combat experience over the past several decades is anything even remotely similar to what fighting a war against an actual peer military force would be like. moreover, tactics & equipment & manpower levels & manufacturing/industrial capacity & supply lines have all transitioned over time to support the type of fighting the US was doing, i.e. war on terror, counter insurgency, etc., not fighting a conventional war against a peer military force. Ukraine has been mentioned, and the first example that jumps to my mind is the actual number of artillery shells that armies go through when they are relentlessly hammering away at each other with them, which is something the US and a lot of other (particularly Western) countries / militaries seem to have forgotten in recent years.

all of that being said though, China doesn't have any recent experience fighting that type of war either, and for now their capabilities are untested in the real world.

I am very much hoping that we do not have to find out how this would actually play out though.....

 

This is why my kids don't have unfettered access to tech, and why I homeschool. Fuck that shit.

 

One thing to remember is the sheer scale of the US Air Force, and its NATO allies; if the US was fighting directly, tanks and artillery would almost be an afterthought. The US military alone has around 2,600 fighter jets in active service alone, and then the rest of NATO has around 3,000 active service jets. Including other types such as transport and surveillance planes, this goes up to around 10,000 units. These fleets would do the bulk of the fighting in an all-out war. The reason so much artillery has been used in the Ukraine war is that the air war has been almost entirely absent, which then forces combat on both sides to result in more WW2-style tactics. Ukraine has been able to counter Russia's advantage in mass with precision strikes, curtesy of HIMARS, Storm Shadow, etc. The US still has the advantage in precision and long-distance strikes, but China currently has the advantage in mass and production capacity, areas I'm guessing the US will put more effort into going forward.

 

I saw a clip of the US Army's highest ranked enlisted solider recently say "In the past 20 years i have seen combat, probably a lot more combat than most people in their life have seen...but I have never experienced war. What my generation did was combat, but it wasn't war. That is an entire different beast"

 

I do think that the United States needs to prepare to be able to successfully take on a peer military force while also doing literally everything in its power to avoid actually going to war with China.

some of trump's picks do not make me particularly hopeful about this, but we'll see how it goes. it's not like Biden was very good either.

 

Brace breaking down the Syrian Civil War in the simplest 101 way possible to Barstool podcast bros (13:00)

 

Jesus

 

not gonna read all this but i agree, US > China in military power.

 

i think they interview people specifically for pull quotes for twitter to make my brain melt