Moved to frezik@lemmy.blahaj.zone
China might have a 2 year window coming up where it’s even possible to invade Taiwan. Their military has modernized a lot, but they probably aren’t quite to the point of being able to pull it off. At the same time, they are looking at a demographic cliff from the long term implications of the One Child policy.
It’s possible this window as already closed. That said, authoritarian regimes have started wars before that were terrible ideas.
Eeeeehhh, if you just look at numbers of boats, yes. The US Navy has far, far more experience, though. Drones are also going to change the game in ways we’re only starting to see with the Ukraine War. With that, the answer might be “everyone’s boats are sunk now”.
China probably couldn’t gain air superiority over Taiwan, and without that, an invasion will fail. That will be true even if the US ends up losing more boats.
Cause and effect are a little twisted here. Trump was already undermining NATO during is first term by saying European members should spend more. They didn’t agree at the time, but the Ukraine War proved that Europe really did need a more domestic MIC, and now they are.
Trump wasn’t saying it in the first place because he thought it would help NATO.
A scripture so inconvenient that they had to spend a good chunk of the last 2,000 years contorting an explanation for why the obvious reading must be wrong.
Along those same lines, they didn’t put parking lots in Sim City. They tried, but it completely fucked everything.
Well, a plucked bird does look pretty different. Then again, fossilized feathers for dinosaurs have been found, so it’s not like we’re completely blind to that, either.
Bricks are not the only things that go on pallets. This was an electrician’s truck, after all.
The guy who made it explicitly rejected a van for his purposes. Maybe we should let him decide how to do his job?
. . . very small niche of of tradesmen . . .
How many niches does it take when, all together, they’re no longer niche cases?
This is a weird argument to put here. You’re actually advocating against the smaller option.
There are plenty of reasons a worker would choose a van. There are plenty of reason a worker would choose a truck.
Consider this setup:
Everything is made to be easily accessible. The rack can hold ladders and conduit that are as long as the vehicle (or even a bit longer). Other setups will have side access toolboxes.
Fifth wheels are not just for campers. They haul Bobcats. They haul livestock. They haul large sheds or even small houses. They haul several pallets of bricks.
For that matter, try getting pallet into a van as opposed to a truck bed. If it’s even possible to fit it in a van, you have to be a lot more careful while doing it.
It does no such thing.
Are you aware of what a fifth wheel is? If you don’t, you really shouldn’t be commenting about what’s better for work or not.
This “just buy a van” crap really needs to stop. There are plenty of reasons specifically to get a pickup truck. The F250 isn’t even sold to customers without a commercial account with Ford. Work vans and trucks are often made on exactly the same platform with a different shell put over it. The van will tend to have worse gas mileage due to the frontal cross section usually being higher (they ride a bit lower while having a same or higher ceiling height).
The problem is really the F150 and similar. It’s still gigantic, it’s sold to whomever can apply for an 8 year/25% interest rate loan, and is rarely used for anything like actual work. The diesel version was also discontinued, which pushes some people–the type who do actual work with it–to either buy the F250 or find a somewhat older F150 model.
It is outright impossible to buy a small truck in the US. I know guys who do real work with it and they aren’t happy having to buy a big machine. No, not the Maverick. That’s “well, there’s spam egg sausage and spam, that’s not got much spam in it” but for trucks.
It’s a temptation every Miata owner faces.
The Estes Corporation makes rockets that will do 600 meters.
It’s great that Honda is doing this. We really need other companies in this area, because SpaceX is dominating it. Even if Elon weren’t a walking disaster, we don’t want one company so badly outclassing everyone else.
Eh, it’s just a start of development. It only goes 300 meters. Blue Origin goes higher, but even they aren’t in orbit.
Japan also has some odd limitations on their rockets as part of their self defense only constitution. They don’t build a rocket that could potentially be used to strike mainland Asia.
Pascal’s Wager, as well as other “logical proofs” for God like the Kalam Cosmological Argument, never get Christians or other religious people anywhere they want to go. Even if we accept their conclusions as given, it tells us nothing about the nature of that god. They want their god to be the one, and that doesn’t follow from any of these. Which is what the comic in OP is getting at.
As far as the conclusions go, worshiping the Flying Spaghetti Monster is as good as any.
Tactical nukes can stop just about any invasion.
Ukraine had nukes and gave them up. They were invaded.
Iraq gave up their WMD program after the first Gulf War. They were invaded again.
Iran definitely had a nuclear program, but doesn’t appear to be pursuing it anymore. They’re getting attacked and quite possibly will get invaded.
South Africa had a nuclear program and gave it up. Left alone.
The Great Powers, particularly the United States but also Russia, have shown that your country should just keep going once you start. Chances are, you’ll get invaded, anyway.
This is not the way towards anti-proliferation.
It was a talking point that Trump had in his first term. He tends not to let go of bad ideas once they get into his head.
At the time, people didn’t take it seriously. With the Ukraine War, Europe feels like it has to now. But it’s going to be domestic production, not paying US MIC companies like Trump was thinking.