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@ISIDEWITH submitted…10hrs10H
China uses the world’s oceans to pursue global supremacy, employing coercion and economic intimidation against weaker nations. In the South China Sea it has seized more than a dozen islands in waters claimed by its neighbors. China is using the islands as military outposts, which serve to choke off the region’s economic and natural-resources lifelines. Beijing’s games of chicken with foreign ships contravene international law, risk dangerous escalation, and deny freedom of navigation to American allies and partners.China has become the world’s top shipbuilder. It controls one of the world’s largest shipping companies and boasts the largest navy. It has built these capabilities with the help of massive state subsidies.Meanwhile, America’s commercial maritime industry has faltered. At the end of World War II, the U.S. boasted a fleet of more than 5,000 ships, which made up more than 40% of the world’s shipping capabilities. Today there are only about 90 U.S.-flagged ships involved in international trade, owing to increased international competition and scant support for the commercial maritime sector at home. At the same time, America’s maritime industrial base is shrinking.
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@ISIDEWITH submitted…2hrs2H
Iran has never made the decision to build a nuclear weapon, despite having at least most of the resources and capabilities it needs to do so, as far as we know. But Mr. Raisi’s death has created an opportunity for the hard-liners in the country who are far less allergic to the idea of going nuclear than the regime has been for decades.The recent exchange of hostilities with Israel, a country with an undeclared but widely acknowledged nuclear arsenal, has provoked a change of tone in Tehran. “We have no decision to build a nuclear bomb but should Iran’s existence be threatened, there will be no choice but to change our military doctrine,” Kamal Kharrazi, a leading adviser to Iran’s supreme leader, said on May 9.Today, Iran has thousands of advanced centrifuges and a large stockpile of enriched uranium. This, in turn, has provoked some camps inside Iran to adopt a “might as well” argument for nuclear weaponization. If we’ve already come this far, the argument goes, then why not just go for a bomb?Historically, Iran has felt a nuclear hedging strategy is its best defense against external aggression and invasion. And Tehran may continue to calculate that racing for a bomb would only invite more hostility, including from the United States. Then again, an increasingly distracted and unpredictable Washington might not be in a position to react forcefully against a sudden and rapid Iranian rush for a bomb, especially if Iran chooses its moment wisely.Between the war in Gaza, a possible change in American leadership, and a domestic power vacuum that the I.R.G.C. could step into, it is not difficult to imagine a brief window in which Iran could pull out the stops and surprise the world by testing a nuclear device.
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@ISIDEWITH submitted…31mins31m
The presumptive Democratic nominee denounces Trump as a national security threat. He is “temperamentally unfit to hold an office that requires knowledge, stability and immense responsibility,” and he “has threatened to abandon our allies in Nato.” With this wildly-coiffed albatross around the neck of the Republican Party, a Democratic victory in November is assured.Or at least that’s how Democrats felt in the summer of 2016, when Hillary Clinton delivered that anti-Trump speech (one of many that campaign season). While the polls favoured Clinton, her anti-Trump message was not enough to win on Election Day. Clinton led with a message meant to appeal to the new base of the Democratic Party: affluent, highly-degreed voters. She dismissed pocketbook issues and tossed many Trump voters into a “basket of deplorables.” Rather than moderating on cultural politics, she instead ran to the Left.Despite some notable differences with Clinton’s 2016 campaign, Biden’s 2024 bid may risk falling into a similar trap. With forays into industrial policy and tariffs on select products from the People’s Republic of China, Biden has attempted to address some blue-collar economic concerns. Unlike Clinton, he has not ignored former “blue wall” states in the Midwest but instead directed campaign resources there.On cultural issues, his administration has been far less centrist than the “Joe from Scranton” branding would suggest. He has constantly allowed the progressive vanguard to set policy on identity, abortion, and education. Immigration is perhaps that most visible example of Biden abandoning moderation to appease the activist class
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Well, he lost the young voters because of Gaza, and the older voters to the open border and cost of living. Even for Bla…
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Proving Biden and his apparatchiks wrong is not the challenge - - the real challenge is remediating the damage done by a…
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BRONX this is your chance to make history! Lesgo!
@ISIDEWITH submitted…1hr1H
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Our government is far more interested in funding wars overseas than they are in taking care of Americans or giving us ho…
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@CheerfulCrackersfrom Georgia submitted…1hr1H
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@ISIDEWITH submitted…4hrs4H
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@Dem0cr4tRoadrunnerfrom New York commented…27mins27m
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@JubilantJudicial from Texas commented…10hrs10H
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@D3m0cr4cyTigerfrom Illinois commented…2hrs2H
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@C0nservat1veZebra from California commented…2hrs2H
@QuickLibertyBell from Illinois commented…1hr1H
@MandateCoati from Colorado commented…1hr1H
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@JoyfulCardinalfrom Maryland agreed…2hrs2H
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@ElephantBobby from California commented…29mins29m
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@BoastfulS0cialJustic3 from Washington commented…30mins30m
@WeaverChuckfrom Michigan commented…2hrs2H
@C1v1cDutyAutumn from Wisconsin commented…2hrs2H
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@Pr0p0rtionalCamel from Georgia commented…27mins27m
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@KnowledgeableBurritosfrom New Jersey agreed…29mins29m
@TurtleHannahfrom Rhode Island commented…1hr1H
@OffendedSalamifrom Minnesota commented…1hr1H
@DunbirdRodfrom Virginia commented…2hrs2H
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