Conquer Club

So many enemies ... who should get punished first? Denmark? China? Germany?

Job 1 ... Drop China to its knees for trade concessios
Just two weeks ago China had to eat a dick by taxing US oil imports when they ran out of other stuff to tariff. Good luck keeping that tariff now without tanking into recession.

Job 2 ... Strangle Denmark to within an inch off its life. Let Greenland get through winter on $200 / barrel oil.

An attack on Saudi oil facilities on Saturday is believed to have disrupted half the country’s production capacity, making the United States the only real holder of the global supply cushion via its ability to raise own output or to soften sanctions against other major oil producers.

A prolonged supply outage will have a major bullish impact on oil prices, which in turn will spur further gains in U.S. shale production. Analysts have repeatedly underestimated U.S. output growth gains with the country now producing around 15% of global supply.

Besides the United States, the only countries which have significant spare capacity are Iran and Venezuela.

Both are subject to U.S. sanctions and have seen their exports reduced to a trickle over the past year as U.S. President Donald Trump has tightened sanctions.

OR we just start buying more oil from Iran again.

saxitoxin wrote:So many enemies ... who should get punished first? Denmark? China? Germany?

You are correct on this point though. The USA is not in the business of making friends and allies anymore, only enemies.

The Saudis will not stand still. Very soon anti-aircraft/anti-drone batteries will be more numerous than camels.

HitRed wrote:The Saudis will not stand still. Very soon anti-aircraft/anti-drone batteries will be more numerous than camels.

And who's going to be selling that? MAGA

It's funny watching the US take more and more steps to deliberately cut itself off the from the global economy. Sanction Iranian and Venezuelan oil. Sanction Huawei. Sanction Chinese manufacturing and international aid. Sanction European cars. Sanction people dealing with the Russian government. Now, possibly, deliberately screw with every global oil producer they haven't already pissed off. I wonder what will be next: America sanctions the Red Crescent for competing with the Red Cross?

When the US was only bullying one or two people it could get away with it, because pissing off one small-ish economy but continuing to trade with the US was more attractive than dealing with one sanctioned economy and being blacklisted by the US. But once the US has cut itself off from basically everyone in existence, people will quickly decide it is better to deal with all of the world minus the US rather than deal with just the US but no one else. Plus, as the US continues to deliberately choke off more and more people from accessing its resources and technologies, that just encourages more and more people to speed up their efforts to develop processes and supply chains that are completely independent of any American resource. America will become irrelevant before long. All hail the collapse of the American bully.

At least China - the world's most important economy - is willing to be increasingly open and to continue engaging positively and cooperatively with the international community. May China continue to serve as a positive example and partner to the world for many centuries to come.

2dimes wrote:

HitRed wrote:The Saudis will not stand still. Very soon anti-aircraft/anti-drone batteries will be more numerous than camels.

And who's going to be selling that? MAGA

Lockheed Martin's headquarters is Maryland, a blue state.
Boeing's headquarters is in Illinois, in a blue state.
General Dynamics is headquarters in Virginia, in a blue state.
Raytheon is headquartered in Massachusetts, a blue state.
Northrop Grumman is in Virginia, a blue state.

I kind of though Boeing was mostly in Washington. A predominately green state.

HitRed wrote:Lockheed Martin's headquarters is Maryland, a blue state.

Almost all of Lockheed's military work is based out of Air Force Plant 4 in Texas, a red state.

HitRed wrote:Boeing's headquarters is in Illinois, in a blue state.

Boeing has a small HQ office in Chicago and its civilian work occurs in Washington state. The majority of its defense systems assembly work occurs in Kansas and South Carolina, red states.

etc. etc. etc.

Jobs=Votes, Votes=MAGA2020

waauw wrote:OR we just start buying more oil from Iran again.

If that ever emerges as a possibility, the U.S. Air Force will flatten every port, dock, boat shed, and camel hut in Iran. You'll need to teleport the oil to Berlin.

saxitoxin wrote:You are correct on this point though. The USA is not in the business of making friends and allies anymore, only enemies.

in the business of getting rid of useless friends (Denmark, Sweden) and getting useful friends (Brazil, Hungary)

our new friends will support us as we take what's ours (Greenland)

saxitoxin wrote:

waauw wrote:OR we just start buying more oil from Iran again.

If that ever emerges as a possibility, the U.S. Air Force will flatten every port, dock, boat shed, and camel hut in Iran. You'll need to teleport the oil to Berlin.

saxitoxin wrote:You are correct on this point though. The USA is not in the business of making friends and allies anymore, only enemies.

in the business of getting rid of useless friends (Denmark, Sweden) and getting useful friends (Brazil, Hungary)

our new friends will support us as we take what's ours (Greenland)

Brazil & Hungary
Brazil can't even handle Brazilians and Orban is well-known to be Putin's pawn, not America's.

FYI, Sweden has never been your friend. They were never a member of NATO and remained neutral all throughout the cold war.

waauw wrote:

saxitoxin wrote:

waauw wrote:OR we just start buying more oil from Iran again.

If that ever emerges as a possibility, the U.S. Air Force will flatten every port, dock, boat shed, and camel hut in Iran. You'll need to teleport the oil to Berlin.

saxitoxin wrote:You are correct on this point though. The USA is not in the business of making friends and allies anymore, only enemies.

in the business of getting rid of useless friends (Denmark, Sweden) and getting useful friends (Brazil, Hungary)

our new friends will support us as we take what's ours (Greenland)

Brazil & Hungary
Brazil can't even handle Brazilians and Orban is well-known to be Putin's pawn, not America's.

FYI, Sweden has never been your friend. They were never a member of NATO and remained neutral all throughout the cold war.

That was only for show. Behind the scenes, Sweden collaborated with NATO heavily (https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/36712823.pdf). They even built their airfields specifically to accommodate landings by USAF B-52s conducting nuclear bomb runs against Soviet cities.



Sweden was the opposite of Finland. Finland was also "officially" neutral but actually in the pocket of the Soviet Union. Sweden and Ireland were "officially" neutral but in the pocket of the United States. The only true European neutrals in the Cold War were Austria, Switzerland, Yugoslavia, Albania, Liechtenstein, and the Vatican.

Like saxitoxin, I fully support the US Government's current trajectory. I wish to use this opportunity to express my 100% support for all actions President Trump is currently taking. Full support for the 2020 elections.

mrs wrote:Plus, as the US continues to deliberately choke off more and more people from accessing its resources and technologies, that just encourages more and more people to speed up their efforts to develop processes and supply chains that are completely independent of any American resource. America will become irrelevant before long. All hail the collapse of the American bully.

That would be a great thing. Let the rest of the planet cannibalize themselves because the sooner we kick them to the curb, the better.

Reuters wrote:EU says need to determine Saudi attack facts before establishing blame

https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-saudia-aramco-attacks-eu/eu-says-need-to-determine-saudi-attack-facts-before-establishing-blame-idUKKBN1W1139?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews

The EU sides with Russia and China. You can't trust the USA and Saudi-Arabia.

TA1LGUNN3R wrote:

mrs wrote:Plus, as the US continues to deliberately choke off more and more people from accessing its resources and technologies, that just encourages more and more people to speed up their efforts to develop processes and supply chains that are completely independent of any American resource. America will become irrelevant before long. All hail the collapse of the American bully.

That would be a great thing. Let the rest of the planet cannibalize themselves because the sooner we kick them to the curb, the better.

So in your ideal world, American exports would be 0 or something?

waauw wrote:

Reuters wrote:EU says need to determine Saudi attack facts before establishing blame

https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-saudia-aramco-attacks-eu/eu-says-need-to-determine-saudi-attack-facts-before-establishing-blame-idUKKBN1W1139?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews

The EU sides with Russia and China. You can't trust the USA and Saudi-Arabia.

I don't think anyone listens to what the USG has to say any more, except for NoProblem.

mrswdk wrote:

TA1LGUNN3R wrote:

mrs wrote:Plus, as the US continues to deliberately choke off more and more people from accessing its resources and technologies, that just encourages more and more people to speed up their efforts to develop processes and supply chains that are completely independent of any American resource. America will become irrelevant before long. All hail the collapse of the American bully.

That would be a great thing. Let the rest of the planet cannibalize themselves because the sooner we kick them to the curb, the better.

So in your ideal world, American exports would be 0 or something?

Pretty much. I'm not opposed to trade itself but i dislike the attendant political wrangling that goes along with it. It would also be nice to not be reliant on outside influence.

The only way that would ever happen is if the US brought manufacturing of every single item it uses into the US, and was able to manufacture all of these things using only natural resources found within the US. Plus growing every crop/animal product, producing all its energy and disposing of all its waste domestically. By refusing to buy anything at all from any other country the US would also have to develop 100% of the new technologies it uses domestically.

That's like saying you don't want to be dependent on anyone else, so you're going to lock yourself in your house, lock the doors and never see anyone else ever again.

mrswdk wrote:The only way that would ever happen is if the US brought manufacturing of every single item it uses into the US, and was able to manufacture all of these things using only natural resources found within the US. Plus growing every crop/animal product, producing all its energy and disposing of all its waste domestically. By refusing to buy anything at all from any other country the US would also have to develop 100% of the new technologies it uses domestically.

That's like saying you don't want to be dependent on anyone else, so you're going to lock yourself in your house, lock the doors and never see anyone else ever again.

That's pretty much what they want. To have nothing to do with the rest of us. Just lock themselves in their little right-wing Baptist bubble and don't come out.

If anybody can do it, the U.S. can do it. It's self-sufficient in almost everything. Grows more than enough food, has more than enough room, more than enough water, more than enough oil and gas and coal. Self-sufficient in almost all metal and minerals. There's only a few metals they import but with improved recycling they could probably end their dependence on those, or at least cut it down to a trickle.

Once they don't have us European freethinkers with our quaint ideas about social justice poisoning their people's minds, they can set about building their Utopia.

Dukasaur wrote:Once they don't have us European freethinkers with our quaint ideas about social justice poisoning their people's minds, they can set about building their Utopia.

Sure, no problem. Kind of like if you got chocolate milk and only want plain milk just take the chocolate out of the glass...

by mrswdk
".............. America will become irrelevant before long. All hail the collapse of the American bully..'......."

I agree with ur entire post.

We are witnessing the end of an empire, the world reserve currency is going to change.

mrswdk wrote:The only way that would ever happen is if the US brought manufacturing of every single item it uses into the US, and was able to manufacture all of these things using only natural resources found within the US. Plus growing every crop/animal product, producing all its energy and disposing of all its waste domestically. By refusing to buy anything at all from any other country the US would also have to develop 100% of the new technologies it uses domestically.

That's like saying you don't want to be dependent on anyone else, so you're going to lock yourself in your house, lock the doors and never see anyone else ever again.

I've strongly considered it, although more along the lines of becoming a hermit out in the mountains somewhere.

Dukasaur wrote:

mrswdk wrote:The only way that would ever happen is if the US brought manufacturing of every single item it uses into the US, and was able to manufacture all of these things using only natural resources found within the US. Plus growing every crop/animal product, producing all its energy and disposing of all its waste domestically. By refusing to buy anything at all from any other country the US would also have to develop 100% of the new technologies it uses domestically.

That's like saying you don't want to be dependent on anyone else, so you're going to lock yourself in your house, lock the doors and never see anyone else ever again.

That's pretty much what they want. To have nothing to do with the rest of us. Just lock themselves in their little right-wing Baptist bubble and don't come out.

If anybody can do it, the U.S. can do it. It's self-sufficient in almost everything. Grows more than enough food, has more than enough room, more than enough water, more than enough oil and gas and coal. Self-sufficient in almost all metal and minerals. There's only a few metals they import but with improved recycling they could probably end their dependence on those, or at least cut it down to a trickle.

Once they don't have us European freethinkers with our quaint ideas about social justice poisoning their people's minds, they can set about building their Utopia.

European freethinkers? lol that's a riot. Europe has hardly rid themselves of the scourge of religion. They've just replaced the christian god with social cohesion and suppresion of individualism (really nothing changed they just removed the ritual). ffs, you can be fined and jailed for saying Muhammed was a pedophile otherwise you upset society as a whole.

HitRed wrote:The Saudis will not stand still. Very soon anti-aircraft/anti-drone batteries will be more numerous than camels.

Saudis have been bombing the Houthies for 4 years... and they have achieved nothing. Houthies played their last card very well.
Time for peace in Yemen or more highly expensive attacks on Saudi's soil?

waauw wrote:FYI, Sweden has never been your friend. They were never a member of NATO and remained neutral all throughout the cold war.

Unlike Eastern European countries they figure out that if you do not poke a Bear it will not harm you.

Dukasaur wrote:If anybody can do it, the U.S. can do it. It's self-sufficient in almost everything. Grows more than enough food, has more than enough room, more than enough water, more than enough oil and gas and coal. Self-sufficient in almost all metal and minerals. There's only a few metals they import but with improved recycling they could probably end their dependence on those, or at least cut it down to a trickle.

Duk nailed it.

US foreign policy has been based for the last 70 years on the theories of Nichols Spykman who called for the USA to subsidize the defense of other nations not out of altruism but out of self-interest. If Germany or Japan or Italy don't need to spend as much on military affairs then they won't. And when they let their armed forces rot to the point they have to use broomsticks during military exercises because they don't have enough rifles (https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/germ ... -glnqbndf6) there's no chance of international war because no one has enough weapons to go to war. The U.S. benefits from a pacific world order because its global trade is protected. During periods of war the U.S. either has to cut off trade with belligerents or engage itself in the conflict.

The situation, however, has changed and Spykman died when his theory was still just a theory, before WW2 was even over. The U.S. is no longer an exporting nation, it is an importer. At the same time it is totally self-sufficient in almost all natural resources and those it doesn't possess it can, in a crisis, simply seize from Canada. The U.S. no longer has an economic interest in world peace. At present time it is again fine if Germany and Japan re-arm or if Europe resumes blowing each other to smithereens.

President Trump understands this fundamental truth - that the world has changed - and has adapted American policy to change with it. Gone are the days of Forward Defense when there was a need to turn European states into proxies and puppets. We can pursue Perimeter Defense, release the Europeans to their own devices, and return to the self-imposed isolation we enjoyed from 1789 to 1898. But Greenland is needed for Perimeter Defense. We must have Greenland.