"All of Vlad's forces and all of Vlad's men, are out to put Humpty together again." (6 Viewers)

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Admiral Beez said:
But here in Canada we're sitting on a pile of unexploited rare-earth minerals. In the long term, perhaps 25 years China could be replaced in part by Canadians mines, with batteries produced in the US.
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Not if we don't stop selling them.

Sale of Canadian-owned lithium mine was reviewed by national security experts, minister tells committee

An extended review wasn't triggered because 'there was sufficient information to make a determination' at an early stage of the process, François-Philippe Champagneâ¦
nationalpost.com
 

I don't know the ins and outs of battery composition., but a 25-year spool-up period doesn't sound promising. As much as we'd prefer otherwise, I think we're stuck with doing business with China, at some level. The shock of cutting China out of the world economy would make our Russian sanctions look like child's-play, and that's if you can get developing nations onboard with your thinking.
 

If people are complaining about the side effects of sanctioning Russia they would not survive sanctioning China. China is such a big part of the global economy it is impossible to cut them out now.
 
I do not think China will supply military aid, but they, Iran and, probably to some extent, North Korea, will be the conduit by which Putin will evade the sanctions. I am not holding my breath on any "crippling sanctions" coming China's way in response to any aid and sanction relief they provide. China is a very different story that Russia. Russia's economy is equivalent to the state of Texas. China's is clearly much larger and more influential. Also, our political-ruling class and corporations have enriched and continue to enrich themselves in China. They have the US by the economic shorthairs as well, because China is the single largest holder of and market for US debt. Their manipulation of that debt either by selling it off or refusing to buy more treasury securities would severely damage the value of the dollar and cripple our economy. Now this would certainly hurt them as well, but XI and China are playing the long game and are not subject to the whims of an American electorate. In US politics - its economics, stupid - and will a presidential administration or controlling party really sacrifice themselves politically or destroy our economy to save Ukraine. Money talks, bullshit walks.

Another poster wrote about how China should not underestimate the US. And I agree to a certain extent, but we have to want to compete. The problem I have with his examples, UK (1776), Spain (1898), Germany (1941), is that in those instances none of those countries had the grip China has on our economy. Not even when the US were English colonies because a good portion of the products being brought into the colonies were smuggled from the Dutch, Spanish, or French Caribbean islands. Remember it was Parliament's attempt to control colonial commerce more effectively that ignited the revolutionary movement.
 
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I wonder if the Ukrainians could use CLGPs (similar to the US Copperhead for an example) effectively in the conditions they are operating under? For something like the 155mm Copperhead they would need to have heavy artillery available, which would be vulnerable to aircraft and drone strikes. But there are more portable systems, such as heavy mortar projectiles (81mm to 120mm) in service (Merlin, Bussard, Strix, etc).
 
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As a side note, have any of you noticed that the West's GPS system is in jitter mode? Not the location system types that use cell phone towers, but the hardwired GPS systems that receive their data directly from the GPS satellites. My Garmin is alternating irregularly, but somewhat rapidly, showing me off position by as much as a mile from where I actually am when I am traveling at high speed. It seems to be switching between showing my position off - left/right/short relative to direction of travel - by between .25 and 1 mile, switching about every 1-5 minutes.

I remember reading, in the early 1990s, about the ability of the Government(s) to mess with the GPS system so that it would not be practical to be used by non-friendly targeting systems. I wonder if this is an example?
 
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DerAdlerIstGelandet said:
If people are complaining about the side effects of sanctioning Russia they would not survive sanctioning China. China is such a big part of the global economy it is impossible to cut them out now.
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Who's complaining? We're seeing a virtual oneupmanship of countries and especially private and public corporations and brands racing to put stronger sanctions than one another. On China I agree, and I want them to get onside, that's all.
 
Buy a hybrid. My Toyota 2002 Prius is 20 years old now, with ~576,000 miles on it. It is getting rusty, but still averages ~45 mpg. I have saved ~$20,000 in fuel costs vs what I would have spent if I had bought a conventional Corolla (which is about the same size) at the time. And, although it is difficult to quantify, after subtracting the difference in cost (~$4,000 more for the Prius) I would estimate that the increased reliability of the hybrid has saved me another ~$10,000 at a minimum.
 
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