So, how many of you out there are Bernie supporters?

[Blind Squirrel]

Fixed fortifications are a monument to the stupidity of man.

I will not be removing the fixed fortification around my house.
I will not remove the walls of my house.
They are limited, but work as intended.
They work even better when there is a penalty for crossing while I'm on sentry duty.

I suspect General Patton was not referring to walls intended to offer protection from street urchins.

Well, it's not the Mexican Army coming across.
It's not well trained soldiers on a mission to conquer.
It is in fact a migration of Urchins. (I will call them Urchinians.)
The Urchinians want a better life and free stuff. Our free stuff.
In order to be humane, we need to stop or impede there routes.
To make it undesirable to make the trek.
The Urchinians are draining our schools, and budget.
Do nothing?

Do nothing? No. As in the Middle East, we need to stop with simplistic approaches that ignore contextual specifics/history and mindlessly engage in regurgitation of bygone strategies used with varying levels of success in vastly different situations. An example: Lets carpet bomb the enemy - we did it in Vietnam. I think that was the key to victory so lets do it again. Viet Cong in the jungles in Southeast Asia, ISIS in populated urban areas in the Middle East. Same thing, right?

To make it undesirable to make the trek. ==> Yup, not a wall where if they breach, they are set, and if they fail they just try again. Is a wall the best this country can do to address the problem? Really? That is going to solve it? I guess there is no way human traffickers or individuals could acquire rope and the ability to use it to scale a wall, something that even Trump mentioned in an early debate. Hey, why don't we have Mexico build the wall since they will be paying for it? That would be every bit as shrewd as allowing the Russians to build a U.S. Embassy in Russia which didn't exactly work out as planned. No way to see that coming and nothing to learn from the experience.

Simple Simon Squirrel

[jonriv]

As China's economy matures it too will lose its cost advantage-but will be a large consumer market to sell to.

Sell them what? We don't make anything anymore. And making things is the real creation of wealth. A service economy is almost purely derivative. Cheaper Chinese products won't seem so cheap when the money runs out.

Economists like to live in their "comparative advantage" fantasy land. In the real world there is nationalism, currency manipulation (which effectively operates as a tariff), intellectual property theft, state-facilitated industrial espionage, differing standards of quality, safety, and human rights...and the list goes on. Their is no free trade Shangri-La. Never has been, and never will be.

Trump says that what China has done is like a magic act, and he's right. They got our manufacturing base and we owe them trillions in the bargain. And now they are militarizing at a breakneck pace. The politicians complicit in this should be hung.

Sell them what- how about over-priced luxury condos and golf club memberships( like Trump)

The Chinese got there manufacturing base from everyone(us, Europe, Japan) and as their labor costs rise and they transform to a service economy they will also change

I agree with you that we need to enforce stronger intellectual property protections and the Chinese certainly need to float their currency

As far as us owing billions, the way I see it we got the Chinese to invest in low-yielding bonds. We basically got them to lend us unsecured money at a low rate that they have no recourse on-who did better on that deal?

Yes the Chinese have been updating their military, but it still remains a continental force surrounded by other large standing armies(Russia and India). They have little ability to project power. They have a small blue water navy that is only the third largest in region( behind Japan and India). I a war scenario, India would be able to stalemate them on land and cut off their oil supplies through the Indian Ocean

[jonriv]

Fixed fortifications are a monument to the stupidity of man.

I'll see your Patton and raise you Sun Tzu.

You can be sure of succeeding in your attacks if you only attack places which are undefended. You can ensure the safety of your defense if you only hold positions that cannot be attacked.

I'm in- here's a Rommel quote perhaps Trump should have read while at NYMA

Be an example to your men, in your duty and in private life. Never spare yourself, and let the troops see that you don't in your endurance of fatigue and privation. always be tactful and well-mannered and teach your subordinates to do the same. Avoid excessive sharpness or harshness of voice, which usually indicates the man who has shortcomings of his own to hide.

Erwin Rommel

Read more at: http://www.azquotes.com/author/12582-Erwin_Rommel

[Skarp]

I graduated from Cal State Dominguez Hills which is at or near the bottom of the Cal State system. I probably shouldn't even post but I'm unconcerned about advertising my often substandard intellect/knowledge. So here goes... I don't understand:

1. I consider an unguarded wall in the middle of nowhere to be undefended in the sense that there is little to prevent me from piling up explosives and blowing a hole in the wall. What would stop me?

2. How is a wall in the middle of nowhere not able to be attacked?

I'm obviously missing something. Oh my, what a new feeling.

Overmatched Squirrel

Who said anything about an unguarded wall? Are you suggesting that we should abandon our defense of the border altogether? Because even a lowly CSUDH grad should be able to understand that a nice big wall (or two, with about a hundred yards of barbed wire between them) makes that defense far easier, requiring far fewer men. There's also this new thing called technology...

[Skarp]

http://www.breitbart.com/big-journalism ... mp-racist/

"The entire media — and most of the GOP — have spent 10 months telling us that Mexicans in the United States are going to HATE Trump for saying he’ll build a wall. Now they’re outraged that Trump thinks one Mexican hates him for saying he’ll build a wall."

[ontheblack]

I have a question.

How are we going to force Mexico to pay for a wall? Will we send them a bill? Threaten to boycott the purchase of their main agri imports, avocados and weed? Slap a tariff on Pacifico, Corona and Dos XX?

[jonriv]

I have a question.

How are we going to force Mexico to pay for a wall? Will we send them a bill? Threaten to boycott the purchase of their main agri imports, avocados and weed? Slap a tariff on Pacifico, Corona and Dos XX?

Oh no!!!!!! A tequila tax

[as the world turns]

The quiet majority, many won't publicly admit it for fear of being attacked or harassed by the offended class, but true Mexican Americans are tired of the indios pendejos screwing things up for them and giving the culture a bad name.

http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/opinion/2016/06/07/opinion-big-data-reports-latino-support-for-trump-on-rise-at-37/

[as the world turns]

Aparent, based on your previous posts, Trump is your guy.

http://www.heybucket.com/viewtopic.php?t=79238

[Skarp]

I have a question.

How are we going to force Mexico to pay for a wall? Will we send them a bill? Threaten to boycott the purchase of their main agri imports, avocados and weed? Slap a tariff on Pacifico, Corona and Dos XX?

Well now there's one that's never been asked before.

How about selling construction bonds and redirecting our Mexico foreign aid toward their repayment? Would that work?

How about taxing electronic remittances, which constitute a huge portion of Mexico's economy? Would that work?

There are a lot of options before we get to avocados. My own preference is for invasion. Push the entire population to the other side of the Panama Canal. Those who truly want to join and assimilate in the 1st-world get to come back in. The rest can go back to hunting and gathering for all I care.