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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsWho Says American Manufacturing is Dead? Behold, Your #1 Growth Industry!
This vid was taken five days ago in Watsonville, Calif.
liberal N proud
(60,335 posts)99Forever
(14,524 posts)... we are neck deep in debt? What does those instruments of death cost a copy? $2, $3, $4 million? And that's just 1 train load.
This is the attitude that drove the Soviet Union into bankruptcy.
DeathToTheOil
(1,124 posts)That's how Francis Fukuyama (The End of History) described the former USSR. Sadly, America appears to be moving in the same direction.
99Forever
(14,524 posts)We seem to be ignoring the simple truth that those who forget history are condemned to repeat it.
RZM
(8,556 posts)'Upper Volta with missiles' is one. Stalin was also once described as 'Genghis Khan with a telegraph.'
I would hesitate to draw too many comparisons between the US and Soviet economies. While it's certainly true that the Soviet leadership chose guns over butter, military spending and 'imperial overstretch' (to use Paul Kennedy's phrase) were only aspects of the decline. I think a lot of historians agree that structural weaknesses inherent in the system underlined the collapse. The level of inefficiency really was unbelievable.
Scuba
(53,475 posts)RZM
(8,556 posts)Political system seems to be going along as it always has, with all the same flaws it's had too.
Economy took a hit, but so did much of the rest of the world. It's still functioning as well.
Scuba
(53,475 posts)joshcryer
(62,276 posts)Broderick
(4,578 posts)Are they for the US military or..........................
Prometheus Bound
(3,489 posts)joshcryer
(62,276 posts)Going to need an armada of tanks to stop the eventual blowout and civil war that's fomenting? Geez.
sagesnow
(2,824 posts)I don't have time- got to get to work. What do rigs like that go for at the local tank dealership?
Generic Other
(28,979 posts)I just know you violated some freaking law.
Wow. What a load of taxpayer money wasted on empire.
madrchsod
(58,162 posts)i remember there was a big out cry from the rail buffs over this law. i do not know if the feds killed the law.
lacrew
(283 posts)These vehicles weren't 'manufactured' anytime recently. Looking at the crossing's location (Watsonville), these vehicles were probably en route to a rotation at the National Training Center, at Fort Irwin.
Judging by the green paint job (and pristine condition of the paint job), I would hazard a guess that this was actually a National Guard unit.
I think they are Bradley's...total production cost is around $6 billion....around the annual cost of the Ethanol subsidy.
If anybody is making money by moving these vehicles around, its BNSF...or Warren Buffet.
Bluenorthwest
(45,319 posts)So anyone who says it is dead is simply incorrect. Speaking right wing rhetoric, working in memes and generalities which are not related to reality.
hunter
(38,317 posts)... you might endanger our troops if the Communist government of Canada gets wind of our impending invasion.
Think of those poor, poor Canadians. We've got to save them from socialized medicine and install a modern efficient healthcare system such as our own there.
CanSocDem
(3,286 posts)HopeHoops
(47,675 posts)treestar
(82,383 posts)Broderick
(4,578 posts)jeepers.
Gearing up for?????
hack89
(39,171 posts)Broderick
(4,578 posts)That's a lot of iron and steel rumbling down the track.
It would have made me nervous seeing that much destructive power going by.
hack89
(39,171 posts)big enough for maneuvering large armored forces. It was the key to our success in the first Gulf War - very hard, very realistic training in the Mojave desert.
Every unit that went to Iraq and Afghanistan did a rotation at NTC. The Canadians send their troops there too.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Irwin_National_Training_Center
Broderick
(4,578 posts)Brother Buzz
(36,442 posts)Ft Irwin is the big game, but not the only one.
hack89
(39,171 posts)MineralMan
(146,317 posts)That's how tanks are transported. Heading for a base where they'll be used in a training exercise. I saw fuel transporters on that train, too.
Troops train. Train hauls the tanks.
dionysus
(26,467 posts)MineralMan
(146,317 posts)I suppose. More nonsense exhibited in this thread.
SomethingFishy
(4,876 posts)Forget all about that missing 2 trillion dollars, it's not like we need the money.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/01/29/eveningnews/main325985.shtml
3 Fucking years later and no one knows where 2 TRILLION dollars went. And don't bring me that "accounting mistake" bullshit, 2 trillion dollars is not a fucking "mistake" it's a travesty.
Oh yeah and put more money into a useless "missile shield" that hasn't worked in 30 years. That's a good plan. It's not like we need the money.
Armed Madhouse by Greg Palast if you actually have any interest in how wasteful your military is.
MineralMan
(146,317 posts)I'm not sure what you're talking about, but I'm talking about that video.
Response to dionysus (Reply #19)
Post removed
dionysus
(26,467 posts)DevonRex
(22,541 posts)whatchamacallit
(15,558 posts)Comical.
hack89
(39,171 posts)dionysus
(26,467 posts)DevonRex
(22,541 posts)It's ridiculous.
MineralMan
(146,317 posts)Thanks for noticing my post.
Hugabear
(10,340 posts)Nothing to see here, move along...
hack89
(39,171 posts)there is a constant rotation of units being trained at the NTC at Ft Irwin.
pintobean
(18,101 posts)DeathToTheOil
(1,124 posts)From The American Conservative, no less!
By William J. Astore | January 24, 2012
Perhaps youve heard of Makin Thunderbirds, a hard-bitten rock & roll song by Bob Seger that I listened to 30 years ago while in college. Its about auto workers back in 1955 who were young and proud to be making Ford Thunderbirds. But in the early 1980s, Seger sings, the plants have changed and youre lucky if you work. Seger caught the reality of an American manufacturing infrastructure that was seriously eroding as skilled and good-paying union jobs were cut or sent overseas, rarely to be seen again in these parts.
If the U.S. auto industry has recently shown sparks of new life (though were not making T-Birds or Mercuries or Oldsmobiles or Pontiacs or Saturns anymore), there is one form of manufacturing in which America is still dominant. When it comes to weaponry, to paraphrase Seger, were still young and proud and makin Predators and Reapers (as in unmanned aerial vehicles, or drones) and Eagles and Fighting Falcons (as in F-15 and F-16 combat jets), and outfitting them with the deadliest of weapons. In this market niche, were still the envy of the world.
Yes, were the worlds foremost merchants of death, the title of a best-selling exposé of the international arms trade published to acclaim in the U.S. in 1934. Back then, most Americans saw themselves as war-avoiders rather than as war-profiteers. The evil war-profiteers were mainly European arms makers like Germanys Krupp, Frances Schneider, or Britains Vickers.
Not that America didnt have its own arms merchants. As the authors of Merchants of Death noted, early on our country demonstrated a Yankee propensity for extracting novel death-dealing knickknacks from [our] peddlers pack. Amazingly, the Nye Committee in the U.S. Senate devoted 93 hearings from 1934 to 1936 to exposing Americas own greedy munitions interests. Even in those desperate depression days, a desire for profit and jobs was balanced by a strong sense of unease at this deadly trade, an unease reinforced by the horrors of and hecatombs of dead from the First World War.
We are uneasy no more. Today we take great pride (or at least have no shame) in being by far the worlds number one arms-exporting nation. A few statistics bear this out. From 2006 to 2010, the U.S. accounted for nearly one-third of the worlds arms exports, easily surpassing a resurgent Russia in the Lords of War race. Despite a decline in global arms sales in 2010 due to recessionary pressures, the U.S. increased its market share, accounting for a whopping 53%of the trade that year. Last year saw the U.S. on pace to deliver more than $46 billion in foreign arms sales. Who says America isnt number one anymore?
http://www.theamericanconservative.com/blog/weapons-r-us/
maddezmom
(135,060 posts)first it's a copyright violation. Second, can't you find any lefty, liberal or progressive sources to make your case. Why use that crap?
BrendaBrick
(1,296 posts)From wiki (in part): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stockholm_International_Peace_Research_Institute
Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) is an independent international institute dedicated to research into conflict, armaments, arms control and disarmament. Established in 1966, SIPRI provides data, analysis and recommendations, based on open source, to policymakers, researchers, media and the interested public.
The Foreign Policy Think Tank Index ranked SIPRI as the #3 non-U.S. think tank in the world in 2009.[1]
SIPRI website: http://www.sipri.org/
Liberal_in_LA
(44,397 posts)hack89
(39,171 posts)Liberal_in_LA
(44,397 posts)hack89
(39,171 posts)there is no practical way to hid them.
Besides, Californians have been seeing movements for decades - they understand what is going on.
progressoid
(49,991 posts)Liberal_Stalwart71
(20,450 posts)I was waiting for him to make a statement about the growth in manufacturing jobs. He didn't.