I have kids, it is great knowing that I’ve successfully continued my bloodline like my ancestors before me.

While those that have not procreated will die as failures in the eyes of nature. Their bloodlines will end in 100 years it will be like they were never there to begin with.

Kids are also pretty awesome to have.

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You keep using that word, but I don’t think it means what you think it means.

Not edgy at all, I’m a very simple man. I see people mocking our way of life and siding with those who threaten us. I like to see them get a nice helping of freedom.

Simple tastes really.

I feel sorry for foreigners. They spend so much time thinking about us, it’s like we live rent free in their minds.

Half the time we don’t even know they exist until we need to spread some freedom liberally over where they live.

The only country on this planet that is currently capable is SEAD is the USA. No single or combined European power/s can put together a strike package that can significantly degrade an enemies air defenses. I don’t think China has the capacity yet and Russia obviously doesn’t have it.

I don’t expect Ukraine even with Western hand me down Vipers to take down Russian air defenses. They may be able to contest for air superiority over a sector of the battlefield but it would be costly.

Stealth is a huge component of modern Western air warfare doctrine that allows fighters to operate in contested airspace. But stealth isn’t SEAD.

For everyone else, light mobile artillery, long range rockets, AA and drones are going to be the way forward.

Lol no Saudi is weaker than it ever has been. The Saudis know their military is shit and their people won’t do anything to preserve their regime if the Iranians come after them. With the U.S. pulling out of the Middle East since Afghanistan they are flailing about seeking treaties with the Chinese and the Russians to guarantee their safety. However the Russian military and their equipment have proven to be very shit. The Chinese talk a good game but they don’t have the military to project power overseas and most of their equipment is based on Russian garbage.

The US doesn’t need their oil as we are a net exporter now. They’ve also cut oil exports in the last year to try and prop up prices. There is also a very good chance they have passed peak oil production and simply can not produce more.

So what does Saudi have left to offer? Peace with Israel and a conclusion to the Palestinian conflict… maybe. At least that is what they are offering Blinken for an Alliance during their latest visit.

Don’t let the article fool you the Saudis are weak and know they are in trouble without US guarantees of peace.

_Looks at Anti Trust legislation that was passed over a hundred years ago and scratches head.

Sherman Act 1880 Clayton Act 1914 Federal Trade Commission Act 1914_

We don’t need new laws, we need people appointed to the FTC who will enforce the law more aggressively.

The anti trust act is a federal law… I’m not sure where you inject city hall with breaking up cartels or large multinational businesses.

We have a solution, it is called anti trust legislation. We need to break up all of these too large to fail organizations. It’s ridiculous that we have only a handful of major players in soo many markets.

I see, so it’s not in the working class interest to have a trade war with, checks notes… A genocidal authoritarian government whose stated aim is to subjugate a smaller Democratic neighbor. That same China who is allied with a war mongering mafia state and has aggressively targeted whole industries with intellectual theft, product dumping, and unfair trade practices which has hollowed out whole domestic industries and has been one of the leading causes of low wage growth.

It is now a terrible thing for workers, that the US is in a low intensity trade war which is decoupling it’s economy from said genocidal power and rebuilding the industrial plant in North America. Reshoring millions of jobs and keeping the unemployment rate at historic lows despite increased interest rates.

It was a lot to unpack, I just wanted to make sure I understood that correctly.

You are wrong for many reasons. Germany has been prosperous because of its export driven economy. Your products have become uncompetitive for a number of reasons.

1. Your demographics are in the toilet and the Eastern European countries Germany has been using for cheap labor are not far behind you. You need cheap labor and cheap capital which will be in ever shorter supply as your population ages.

2. Your current source of cheap gas energy has vanished. With it a lot of your manufacturing is moving. BASF, Volkswagen, ArcelorMittal are all examples of German companies seeing the writing on the wall and moving production out of the country.

https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/commodities/europe-natural-gas-prices-energy-crisis-manufacturing-work-shift-us-2022-9

3. The US is backing away from free trade and is becoming less willing to underwrite the global order that Germany depends upon. The only trade agreements the U.S. has made are for NAFTA.
   The U.S. is decoupling from the global order it built after WW2 and reshoring its industrial plant in N.A. Germany doesn’t have the military to ensure freedom of navigation for its trade goods.

4. Germanys trading partners are in just as bad of shape and/or becoming competitive. The Economy’s across the Eurozone look just as bad. China itself is going through a major downturn and in many areas are competing directly with Europeans in their own market (EVs).

To be clear I’m not saying this is the end of Germany. But there are some major structural challenges that cannot be simply papered over.