Russia and China to shore up Maduro in a proxy war with the USA.

@3Dogmatic What was the last "war" the USA won? Reagan's invasion of Grenada?

It gives me no pleasure to raise this question. A strong, stable and engaged US is vital to western security and prosperity - including American security and prosperity.

Other Nato countries must increase their contributions but the US remains the key.

Wihile the country is being run as a Trump cash cow, its moral standing is diminishing rapidly.

@3Dogmatic No doubt the US can militarily defeat Venezuela and Nigeria simultaneously. But will the America First crowd support these wars? I don't think so. I think tRump will have to find a way to walk his threats back.

@ElwoodBlues What??? More TACOs???

@SchoolBelle

Interesting you should raise that question. Of all the wars the US has started in the last 213 years, the USA has won precisely ZERO of those wars.

Of all the wars the US got involved with that were wars that had already been started by some other country, the US has only declared victory in about 60% of them, despite having the world's most technologically advanced military hardware.

The one thing the world learned from Vietnam is that the US military sucks big time at jungle warfare, whereas the North Vietnamese army excelled at it.

The other thing the world learned from the Afghanistan War is that the US military suck big time at mountain warfare, whereas the Taliban excelled at it.

I believe the only country in the world who does not know that they actually suck at warfare in pretty much all theaters of war, is the USA. How does that happen?

@SchoolBelle
American moral standing is a crucial concept in determining our moral obligations towards various entities. They used to be God and the Virgin Mary.

@sree251 The moral standing of an institution is easily determined by its treatment of the powerless. Under tRump, this country's moral standing is lying in the gutter.

@ElwoodBlues
If America needs a tow truck to get it's sorry asss winched out of that gutter you say America is in, let me know... I've been dying to use my new Auto Club membership which includes winching and towing one-way for up to 150 miles.

@ElwoodBlues
If we go by body counts, Trump's tally is blowing up Soleimani and a handful of boatmen in the Carribean. This makes him a saint compared to the millions slaughtered by past US administrations since the Korean and Vietnam wars.

@sree251 in that context of body counts, let's talk about the shutdown of USAID.

https://www.npr.org/sections/goats-and-soda/2025/07/01/nx-s1-5452513/trump-usaid-foreign-aid-deaths

Keeping USAID running is an easily achievable objective for the president, and doing so would save FAR MORE lives than anything else he's doing.

tRump's shutdown of USAID is giving him a MUCH higher bodycount than any president in the past 50 years.

@ElwoodBlues
Raiding the US Treasury of American taxpayers' money to foment regime change by the CIA in foreign countries under the guise of saving lives? I would like to take your head in my hands and shake it, Elwood.

@sree251 Saving lives gets us good will and opens markets around the world. These things don't happen in a vacuum. Now that tRump has abandoned our goodwill efforts, China will be happy to step in and become the life saving hero. Watch as even more of the world turns away from American goods.

@ElwoodBlues
What American goods? Iphone and Coca Cola?

@sree251 Wow, tough question!!

https://www.ondeck.com/resources/every-states-top-import-export

Like I said, Saving lives gets us good will and opens markets around the world. Now that tRump has abandoned our goodwill efforts, China will be happy to step in and become the life saving hero.

@ElwoodBlues
Those percentages are all very low, even with aircraft being the highest percentile export commodity in the USA. Thanks for providing that chart!

@swirlie
I got the same impression too, at first glance. 28% for aircraft export amounting $36.1 billion? 100% would be around $130 billion worth of total exports for a US economy of $23 trillion.

@swirlie Good point. All I can say is that it represents the pandemic year 2020; maybe our exports were much lower then; in which case it's not good data for the question.

@ElwoodBlues
Your 2020 chart may be more useful than we think, especially in a failing US economic outlook which is what the US is currently experiencing. For example from your chart, auto sales are sitting at 8% which is probably a global export from the US.

I don't know how much of that export ended up in Canada, but I can assure you that the US export market to Canada has been slowly dwindling to near zero % since Trump started playing with tariffs

By 2026 when Chinese cars and trucks are allowed into the Canadian marketplace for the very first time because of Trump tariffs, American-built cars entering Canada is forecast to hover around the zero % mark in terms of American cars exported to Canada from the USA. This is because Canadians don't want US-made cars anymore.

@swirlie
Are there any Canadian pickup trucks equivalent to the Ram Bighorn, Chevy Silverado, GMC Sierra, and Ford F-150?

@sree251 Toyota & Honda make some pretty reliable trucks.

@sree251
Yes, Toyota and Honda both make an equivalent sized pickup truck and have far superior market value over anything made by Stellantis, GM or Ford.

@ElwoodBlues
Honda and Yamaha make reliable motorbikes also but everybody wants a Harley.

@sree251 Harley seems to be losing market share (blue is the US). I dunno if they still top Honda or not.

https://www.statista.com/statistics/252220/worldwide-motorcycle-retail-sales-of-harley-davidson/?__sso_cookie_checker=failed

Here's what the always iffy AI says:

I wonder if Honda sells a lot of mopeds or something that would distort the numbers like that.

Completely different numbers
https://www.motorcyclesdata.com/2025/10/25/united-states-motorcycles-market/