Politics

[Corey0372]

Ok then, I stand "partially" corrected. They are a still a FOREIGN company who COULD stop production of ammo and components if so desired given geopolitical events in the future. What happens if CSG in the future decides to sell out to China or some other dictatorship unfriendly to the US? These businesses will sell out to whomever gives them the highest price. We see it all the time. Vista Outdoors is a perfect example. They have NO morals and will sell to ANYBODY for the highest price. They've only owned Remington for a couple of years. Another example of leeches coming in to "save" a company (ies) only to sell them out to the highest bidder later. Think Sears and the hedge fund that ran it into the ground. Maybe we could have Norinco make our military small arms? In this case, to a foreign company who would have a huge footprint on the production of our military ammunition components. Turkey is a NATO member and under Erdogan they've moved further and further from the West. IMO, the breadth of CSG's acquisitions with Vista is a potential National Security risk.

I understand and share your concerns, except for Sears... I think the writing was on the wall for department stores years ago with the widespread adoption of online shopping. In my opinion one of the major reasons for the sale that can't be overlooked is that VSTO is a publicly traded company, so they have to worry about shareholders. With the constant threat of litigation against firearms (and potentially ammo companies) by the anti-gun lobby any time there is a shooting, you can see how they would want to get out of the business.
If I'm not mistaken, I'm pretty sure the Czech Republic has some of the most gun friendly laws in the EU. So it makes sense that they would be interested in acquiring the company, to both support recreational shooting and hunting as well as potentially cash in on production for European NATO members anticipated increase in ammo demands.

The list of vulnerabilities we have in regards to Chinese control over manufacturing is much longer than Vista being sold to a Czech company. Many people are perfectly fine with doing business with China, even if it directly funds and supports weapons development for the PLA. Ammo production is one area I'm confident the US could turn on pretty quickly should the need arise. Electronics at scale? Aluminum production? Heavy manufacturing? Mass production of FPV drones? Optical quality glass on a large scale? Those are areas I'm not so sure.

In the meantime... there are two US ammo companies that come to mind that seem to be very 2A focused that are probably worth supporting...

Fenix Ammunition
https://fenixammo.com/

Advanced Armament Company (Palmetto State Armory's new ammo branch)
https://palmettostatearmory.com/brands/advanced-armament/ammo-reloading/ammo.html

They aren't really putting out hunting ammunition right now, but I imagine with more support they would likely venture into that market.

 

[Tanks]

Ok then, I stand "partially" corrected. They are a still a FOREIGN company who COULD stop production of ammo and components if so desired given geopolitical events in the future. ...

Army's new rifle is designed by Sig Sauer which is owned by a foreign company. Also, it is not like we would be importing the ammo and components from overseas. The manufacturing plants are here in the USA.

In regard to "corporate greed", the company has a fiduciary responsibility to the shareholders, not sell assets on the cheap to US based companies.

Same type of arguments is being made regarding the sale of US Steel to Nippon Steel (as an aside my daughter facilitated the deal on the US Steel side), the US based competitor which had offered significantly less money started waving the flag as they wanted to buy the company on the cheap.

 

[Kevin Peacocke]

Unlike some, I do not see the Biden administration as corrupt or malevolent; however, they seem hellbent on proving to me that they are craven and feckless.

Biden at his peak was probably not capable of running even a small state. The support for such a statement comes from his track record in all those lackluster years in Congress and Senate. His own boss president said never to underestimate his ability to f*** things up. So why then did the Democrats run him, even knowing pre-election that he was such a liability that he had to be hidden in the bunker lest he spoil their plan. Because they wanted to win at all costs. And that cost is proving to be an enormous one not only to the USA itself, but to the rest of the friendly world too, witness Israel now perceived as the bad guys!
The poor illegal immigrants, wait, the costs of that one are yet to be felt. "We're changing lives", he said. Your lives.
So no, the Democrats can not easily shirk responsibility for the damage they have done, and the only way to stop the rot is to get them out of power as fast as possible.
Why is this any business of mine? Because what the USA does affected all of us. And why am I speaking to you Saul? Because you are a smart and consequential person and hopefully you can do your bit to address the rot too!

 

[VertigoBE]

Army's new rifle is designed by Sig Sauer which is owned by a foreign company. Also, it is not like we would be importing the ammo and components from overseas. The manufacturing plants are here in the USA.

In regard to "corporate greed", the company has a fiduciary responsibility to the shareholders, not sell assets on the cheap to US based companies.

Same type of arguments is being made regarding the sale of US Steel to Nippon Steel (as an aside my daughter facilitated the deal on the US Steel side), the US based competitor which had offered significantly less money started waving the flag as they wanted to buy the company on the cheap.

Is that still the case? I thought SIG USA split off from their German mother company ?

Edit: so both the German and US company are owned by L&O holdings. But the US company is standing on its own feet.

 

[spike.t]

Very good communicator, I feel more educated on the war listening to him. On a side note with absolutely no relevance to the subject, I was having flashbacks to time spent with family from Northern Ireland. His accent was so familiar. If you listen again closely to the interview you can hear the difference between the young man with a very typical English accent and Col Ingram's.

So I had to look it up, and yes he's originally from N. Ireland. I'm sure @spike.t is proud of me for being able to hear the difference ....

Mmm....quite a difference between an English accent....of which there are plenty of different types depending on what part of England you are from...and an Irish accent....also differences in their accent depending on what part they come from....

 

[spike.t]

China’s next shock is coming – and Britain and Europe are sitting ducks

The UK and EU must face reality and defend themselves against an export tsunami

www.telegraph.co.uk

 

[PHOENIX PHIL]

Mmm....quite a difference between an English accent....of which there are plenty of different types depending on what part of England you are from...and an Irish accent....also differences in their accent depending on what part they come from....

"Belfast-ian" is unique.

 

[ActionBob]

Early in my career I was responsible for buying crude for Canada’s largest refinery. My boss and mentor eventually led Chevron’s crude supply and trading. When buying VLCC’s and ULCC’s of crude you fix price on five days during the 40 day voyage. His simple rule demonstrates the fickleness of the market:

- never fix price on a Monday,
- never fix price on a Friday,
- never fix price during the week of an OPEC meeting,
- get lucky!

Many of you are probably too young to remember the US sailor who vaporized an Iranian fast attack boat with a deck gun. Crude prices went through the roof. I scheduled the final pricing day on a VLCC of Arab Light the day before, thus obeying the rule, get lucky! That decision literally saved us millions on that cargo.

A key component is that Luck is largely a manufactured commodity

Being informed and taking action. Making an actual decision. Getting up and getting to work!

To relate it to hunting.... there are always the guys commenting on last minute deals "got my lottery tickets bought... fingers crossed!" Then a guy who has saved up instead of wasting money gambling takes the deal Who is lucky and why?

 

[ActionBob]

Okay. My education and experience are not in oil production or economics. You win, but I think we are agreeing on some points more than we disagree.

Take care,
Doug

Randomly quoting here as there are a number of posts relating to Energy Independence.

I'm no expert either, but when discussing energy independence under Trump, wasn't that counting all energy? Coal was a big part of that. Today "green energy" has to be counted... although I think it is still a net negative compared to energy invested in manufacturing and installing it.

We get wrapped up discussing oil but the energy complex is more than that.

 

[ActionBob]

Every HAMAS loving Palestinian supporting ignorant child in our universities should be forced to watch this clip on a large screen twice a day. This brutalized young woman was forced into a vehicle while the mob shouts God is great. She remains among the missing.

x.com

x.com

Animals. They need to be put down like rabid dogs. I'm quite sure the IDF has many strong men and women capable of doing just that.

And where is the awareness of this amongst our citizenry? A large portion of these protesters at our colleges would be victims if a similar event happened here.

The confusing part of that day is why more Israeli citizens were not properly armed and capable of a better defense that locking themselves in a room?

 

[VertigoBE]

The confusing part of that day is why more Israeli citizens were not properly armed and capable of a better defense that locking themselves in a room?

Indeed, I'd be interested to hear the viewpoint of @Saul (I seem to remember he is Jewish) and other Jewish people, how the Israeli people got convinced of this being in their interest and elected politicians that were against the ownership of arms by the common citizen.

Especially on the backdrop of such a young state, that despite its recent beginnings has already had multiple invasion attempts, has suffered from regular terrorist attacks and to this day remains surrounded by foe rather than friend. One would think that this should be reason enough for everyone to even take a firearm with them to the loo!

 

[PARA45]

I read somewhere that Israel has very strict gun laws and those who were allowed to own firearms (ex-LE & ex-Military) were only allowed 100 rnds. Ever since this incident, all that has changed.

I don’t get it, I believe their citizens should have the means to defend themselves, regardless if you were military, LE or not.

 

[ActionBob]

Based on the video that @Red Leg posted, I'd say the answer to that question is no. I would have to imagine that the idea of sending a drone into combat that is under its own "thinking" is something that would be unsettling to any commander. To simply send one of these off with the goal of kill/destroy anything deemed to be enemy is a bit broad.

In the video Ukraine it was stated that they will build one million drones this year. That number may be accurate, but I can guarantee that it is constrained by a budget. So with any deployed weapon, one wants to get as much "bang for the buck" as possible. I'm not sure at this moment that AI technology has progressed to this point.

The main use I see in AI for these drones is to find targets that are not stationary. If they're stationary all you need is any accurate guidance system that already exists. It's when that target is moving that you need a brain on the control side that determines if you've found a target worthy of the cost incurred when the drone is ultimately sacrificed in destroying that target.

In order to know that an AI based autonomous drone is capable of such things would require testing. How does one setup such a test that proves the viability of such technology. That I think would be very challenging.

I think it would be quite unsettling to most humans to have killer AI drones roaming around like on Terminator.

And many if not most of those drone footages are flashing "battery". I assume they quickly get to point of no return where you blow up something worth blowing up, or lose the drone to a dead battery. I really doubt they have much time to loiter. At least these small battery powered ones. Right now anyway.....

 

[PHOENIX PHIL]

I think it would be quite unsettling to most humans to have killer AI drones roaming around like on Terminator.

And many if not most of those drone footages are flashing "battery". I assume they quickly get to point of no return where you blow up something worth blowing up, or lose the drone to a dead battery. I really doubt they have much time to loiter. At least these small battery powered ones. Right now anyway.....

I suspect that they've got a pretty good handle on distance to the target and setup only as close as needed to make a one way trip. But I did notice the same thing. I'm wondering too if they know there's just only so much time they have to take their shot before it gets shot down.

 

[Saul]

Biden at his peak was probably not capable of running even a small state. The support for such a statement comes from his track record in all those lackluster years in Congress and Senate. His own boss president said never to underestimate his ability to f*** things up. So why then did the Democrats run him, even knowing pre-election that he was such a liability that he had to be hidden in the bunker lest he spoil their plan. Because they wanted to win at all costs. And that cost is proving to be an enormous one not only to the USA itself, but to the rest of the friendly world too, witness Israel now perceived as the bad guys!
The poor illegal immigrants, wait, the costs of that one are yet to be felt. "We're changing lives", he said. Your lives.
So no, the Democrats can not easily shirk responsibility for the damage they have done, and the only way to stop the rot is to get them out of power as fast as possible.
Why is this any business of mine? Because what the USA does affected all of us. And why am I speaking to you Saul? Because you are a smart and consequential person and hopefully you can do your bit to address the rot too!

I have trouble reconciling your two points in the first paragraph. Biden was always incompetent and Democrats chose him because he would win?

No one will claim that Biden was a uniquely talented senator, but he did have experience. Obama chose him to win over moderates who were uncomfortable with an inexperienced liberal presidential candidate. Democrats chose Biden in 2020 for a similar reason. Or at least that is how I saw it.

Biden does not naturally inhabit the role of leader as well as he does that of a consensus builder. This can be an asset when surrounded with the best advisors, but also a detriment as we have seen when Biden has been left to his own devices.

Where I have lost faith in the Biden administration is with his advisors and appointees. His attempts at building bridges with the left flank of the party saw an influx of young “idealistic” staffers. It is also no secret that Obama’s former advisors think very poorly of Biden’s people, and yet he is sticking with them.

Perhaps most damning is that I have heard multiple accounts of WH and campaign staffers speaking off the record about Biden’s abysmal polling. Instead of privately being concerned, everyone is totally convinced that the polls are dead wrong and that if they stay the course they will sail to reelection.

I think it was conservative writer David Brooks who once said that choosing between republicans and democrats is choosing between political maleficence and political malpractice. I find this sentiment to be especially true when the candidates are Trump and Biden.

With the current direction of the Democratic Party, I find it increasingly unlikely that I will be voting for many Democrats. The party is simply moving too far to the left for me. However, that does not mean I am going to start voting MAGA. Republicans need to field sensible moderate candidates. As I have said before, whichever party pivots toward the center first will win in a landslide.

 

[Saul]

Indeed, I'd be interested to hear the viewpoint of @Saul (I seem to remember he is Jewish) and other Jewish people, how the Israeli people got convinced of this being in their interest and elected politicians that were against the ownership of arms by the common citizen.

Especially on the backdrop of such a young state, that despite its recent beginnings has already had multiple invasion attempts, has suffered from regular terrorist attacks and to this day remains surrounded by foe rather than friend. One would think that this should be reason enough for everyone to even take a firearm with them to the loo!

Israel has a complex relationship with firearm ownership, and while I do not necessarily agree with all of it, I recognize that their circumstances are unique. As to me personally, I am always carrying.

It is true that Israel has strict gun laws relative to America. Ownership and carry is limited to those with firearms training; however, military service is also compulsory so virtually every Israeli meets this requirement. While not explicit, the intent of the law is to keep firearms from the Palestinian and Arab populations in Israel, who are usually exempt from military service.

Israel also has a relatively low rate of gun ownership. I would attribute this to the sizable military presence in the country and the speed with which Israel can mobilize their armed forces. It is more understandable that some might not see the need to personally own a gun if they know that the government will hand them one in a flash.

I also think there is a general concern that too broad of firearm ownership will lead to Israelis being targeted by terrorists in order to take their guns. With that said, October 7th has changed things dramatically. Firearms permits have skyrocketed and Israel has dramatically relaxed the process.

 

[HuntingGold]

For the most part I am a lurker on the Political thread. I wish to thank our contributors, especially those that provide sound and articulate insight into the myriad of issues discussed here.
Yesterday, my wife made a comment regarding oil production, parroting the information put out by Fox and other news sources. I was able to draw upon the recent discussions to provide more accurate information.
I wish to note, that I've particularly enjoyed the return of @Saul. Our political ideologies are not at all the same but he presents his thoughts well as well as the basis for those thoughts.
I could list many more whom I've learned to trust and admire but it'd probably take another page. Suffice it to say, thanks to those that take the time to contribute.

 

[DieJager]

https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/israel-middle-east/articles/israel-succeeding-gaza

 

[John Wasmuth]

Sounds like Comey is worried Trumps coming after him if he gets elected. Good, that pos needs to be in prison. Lying bastard.

 

[ActionBob]

Wow Trump had a great day in the Bronx! AOC said "God Is Good" predicting that Croton Park would be a muddy mess from rain for Trump's Bronx rally. Well apparently God is on Trump's side as he had beautiful weather for his rally!

A lifelong Democrat came up to make that point in front of a massive crowd and pledge his support of Trump.... A Black curly haired cowboy hat wearing Hispanic Reverend with broken English from Puerto Rico. Trump looked very humbled by the comments and sentiment.

And Nikki Haley has endorsed Trump!