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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link=blue vlink=purple style='word-wrap:break-word'><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><div style='border:none;border-top:solid #E1E1E1 1.0pt;padding:3.0pt 0in 0in 0in'><p class=MsoNormal><b>From:</b> extropy-chat <extropy-chat-bounces@lists.extropy.org> <b>On Behalf Of </b>Will Steinberg via extropy-chat<br><br><b><o:p></o:p></b></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div><div><div><p class=MsoNormal>>…It was obviously shady, man. Lies abound. I just don't think it's a hill worth dying on. The story is dead in the water and you'd do well to give up on it. Epstein is a far more important thread to pull on and people seem to have largely forgotten that as well. Pick your battles…<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Battle? What battle? Why is there a battle? I don’t recall Reason or Slashdot mentioning a battle I am requested to pick. I have no particular interest in knowing what really happened to Epstein. I wouldn’t be surprised if he hung himself in one of those suicides he actually carried out himself. His brain must have not been a very fun place to live. But that is little interest to me: I am convinced this world is better off without him. I don’t care who went to his island either, or why.<o:p></o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div><div><div><blockquote style='border:none;border-left:solid #CCCCCC 1.0pt;padding:0in 0in 0in 6.0pt;margin-left:4.8pt;margin-right:0in'><div><div><div><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'>>>…what happens if the USA cannot come to her aid because we are out of money?<o:p></o:p></p></div></div></div></blockquote></div></div><div><p class=MsoNormal>>…We will lose more money if Taiwan falls than we could possibly spend defending it…<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>While in principle I agree, it still isn’t at all clear to me we have the resources to fight China, being as we lack too much manufacturing capability to replace the weapons we fire at them and the government was already spending trillions of dollars beyond its revenue in peacetime. <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>We have always treated the US borrowing capacity as infinite. What happens when we find out it isn’t? And when do you suppose that will happen? Might be when Xi attacks Taiwan while we are pouring our resources into helping Ukraine with little apparent direct benefit here.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>My fond hope is you are right and Taiwan can take them alone, for they might hafta. The numbers don’t look good to me, if numbers matter.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div><div><div><blockquote style='border:none;border-left:solid #CCCCCC 1.0pt;padding:0in 0in 0in 6.0pt;margin-left:4.8pt;margin-right:0in'><div><div><div><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'>….<o:p></o:p></p></div></div></div></blockquote></div></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal>>…I'm sure we have a plan reserved for Taiwan…<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>I’m not at all sure of that.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>>…Also, like every other country would help…<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>I am not sure of that either, but what you are describing is world war 3. <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>>…I also think Russia would love the opportunity to turn on China and take some of that territory, lest the opposite eventually happen to itself. Now that is a pair of tenuous allies…<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Agree. But this is only one possible scenario. There are others, all grim.<o:p></o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal>>…Not nukes, conventional missiles owned by Taiwan. I probably shouldn't have used the term 'glassed'...just destroyed, rather…<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>OK. But China is too geographically big to worry much over conventional explosives. They have demonstrated a callous disregard for life in how they have treated their racial minorities. They would not give up under conventional barrage I fear, even a skillfully aimed one.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div><div><div><blockquote style='border:none;border-left:solid #CCCCCC 1.0pt;padding:0in 0in 0in 6.0pt;margin-left:4.8pt;margin-right:0in'><div><div><div><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'>>… steadily increases reliance on nuclear weapons. This is a bad thing.<o:p></o:p></p></div></div></div></blockquote></div></div><div><p class=MsoNormal>>…People use the things they have, so I just assume it is an eventuality…<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Oh dear evolution.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>>…Hopefully a small tactical one or series of them, in battle and not on civilians. Maybe that would quell our nuke fever for a while…<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Quell it or stoke it.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>>… I don't really think MAD is legitimate but it's a good bluff. But I do think a country that nukes another will face conventional warfare from essentially the rest of the world until it is taken over completely. Except if the US did it, then I think we might get nuked back if they can hit us…<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Will I know you mean well, but none of what you have written is the least bit reassuring. I have long entertained the fond hope that humanity will get past having discovered nuclear fusion.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>spike<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div></div></div></body></html>