RIMPAC 2026 has begun

[aleshanee]

this past week warships from many different nations sailed into pearl harbor in
preparation for rimpac 2026... .including the aircraft carrier uss theodore
roosevelt (cvn 71) and the amphibious warfare ship uss essex (lhd 2)
.

also.... at one point during this years exercise 2 retired navy warships will be used
as targets and sunk off shore of the hawaiian islands.... .

fighter jets and other military aircraft from other nations will be arriving during this
next week to prepare for their part in the exercise.... .this is set to be one of the
biggest rimpacs yet.. ..

 

[abcaines]

this past week warships from many different nations sailed into pearl harbor in
preparation for rimpac 2026... .including the aircraft carrier uss theodore
roosevelt (cvn 71) and the amphibious warfare ship uss essex (lhd 2)
.

also.... at one point during this years exercise 2 retired navy warships will be used
as targets and sunk off shore of the hawaiian islands.... .

fighter jets and other military aircraft from other nations will be arriving during this
next week to prepare for their part in the exercise.... .this is set to be one of the
biggest rimpacs yet.. ..

I toured the Teddy Roosevelt right after it was commissioned. I had just come off of my Mediterranean deployment in 1986. Forty years ago!!

 

[aleshanee]

I toured the Teddy Roosevelt right after it was commissioned. I had just come off of my Mediterranean deployment in 1986. Forty years ago!!

they had their open house last weekend... .. we went on board briefly but then had to go to another special event on the base..... ...there are also special events at the end of rimpac we are going to attend..... .... this is one of the busiest rimpacs i ever saw.... .many more drills and exercises scheduled than previous years.... ...more participants too - which means waikiki will be jam packed when it;s all over and sailors and airmen from all over the world go on liberty at the same time...... .....

 

[abcaines]

when it;s all over and sailors and airmen from all over the world go on liberty at the same time...... .....

 

[aleshanee]

​

the sea warfare phase of rimpac is about to begin..... . ships like this one...
the uss wayne e meyer... an arliegh burke class destroyer - began departing
pearl harbor today - and heading out to sea.... ..

and many others made their way out to sea as well.... .. it was a great day for
ship and submarine watching.. ... even more so for those who have friends
and family members serving on some of the vessels...

 

[aleshanee]

years ago the local news channels were excellent ways of keeping up with the activities
and developments of rimpac... ... but sadly - these days american news channels seem
to think they can;t report on rimpac without giving equal time.. or even greater time..
. to left wing detractors and other protesters - who want to do nothing but gripe and
whine about rimpac... ....

thankfully we can always count on news media from places like south korea - taiwan -
australia and japan to give a positive and informative account of what;s happening
around the islands..... .. they remain keenly aware of dangers many americans
tend to ignore... .

 

[aleshanee]

 

[aleshanee]

though most of them are out at sea now preparing to begin naval warware drills..
.. this is what pearl harbor looked like several days ago when many of the ships
participating in rimpac were still in port..... .

 

[aleshanee]

 

[aleshanee]

 

[aleshanee]

this past weekend from friday on u.s. marines and peruvian naval infantry forces
conducted joint training operations at bellows beach and airforce base in waimanalo
.... . this is one of the exercises we always get a chance to attend and observe - so we
were there for most of all 3 days... .. as well as last weekend when the u.s navy and
marines conducted amphibious landings on the beach at bellows... ....

.
interestingly ...this same spot being shown below where a v-22 osprey is operating is the
place where 2 ospreys collided and crashed several years ago - killing several servicemen
and destroying both aircraft...however - it was not during rimpac....

peru doesn;t fly the osprey.... but they did bring their own SH-3 Sea King helicopters to
practice combat operations.... ..

the waimanalo fire station is close to this area and in fact sits adjacent to the southern
border of it..... . growing up we used most of this area as a playground on weekends and
off days when the military wasn;t using it... .. the beach is open to the general public every
weekend all year long except for when rimpac or other major exercises are underway....

 

[aleshanee]

 

[sword]

I would identify as old school and ultra conservative but lately I have been thinking.
We are 40 trillion in debt
We spend 1.8 trillion more each year than comes in
We spend 35 billion dollars a day just on the national debt interest.
We are sending out 30% more in SS than is coming in
The SS trust fund (baby boomer surplus) will be at zero by 2032 and the loans to treasury will all be paid back by then.

We spend about a trillion dollars a year on national defecse (next years budget will ask for 1.5 trillion). We spend 2.5 times more than china andmore than the top 6 to nine other countries. Perhaps we need to cut back and let other countries do more to defend themselves. If the ukraine had been nato do you think Putin would have invaded? Most countries in Europe have single payer healthcare, government paid college, government paid childcare, and higher wages than us (in US dollars). just something to think about. We provide their defense while they provide social oprograms for everyone.

 

[abcaines]

Most countries in Europe have single payer healthcare, government paid college, government paid childcare, and higher wages than us (in US dollars). just something to think about. We provide their defense while they provide social oprograms for everyone.

How would they be able to afford single payer health without relying on us for their defense?

Also, what are their income tax rates?

 

[sword]

How would they be able to afford single payer health without relying on us for their defense?

Also, what are their income tax rates?

higher but if you consider we pay federal, state and sometimes local taxes Our property taxes as a percent of GDP are slightly higher. Their property taxes in US dollars tend to be less as well. That being said they do pay more than us in taxes on average. That would depend if we are talking red states or blue. We also have a much larger (%) of our population in poverity than most european countries.

 

[sword]

How would they be able to afford single payer health without relying on us for their defense?

Also, what are their income tax rates?

• Top Income tax rates.
  • Denmark: 60.5% (for top bracket earnings over DKK 2.8 million)
  • France: 55.4%
  • Austria: 55.0%
  • Belgium: 50.0% to 53.5%
  • Sweden: 52.3%
  • Spain: 47.0%
  • Netherlands: 49.5% [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]

Lowest Income Tax Rates

• • Bulgaria & Romania: 10.0% (flat rates)
  • Moldova: 12.0%
  • Hungary: 15.0%
  • Ukraine: 18.0%
  • Georgia: 20.0%
  • Estonia: 22.0

 

[aleshanee]

I would identify as old school and ultra conservative but lately I have been thinking.
We are 40 trillion in debt
We spend 1.8 trillion more each year than comes in
We spend 35 billion dollars a day just on the national debt interest.
We are sending out 30% more in SS than is coming in
The SS trust fund (baby boomer surplus) will be at zero by 2032 and the loans to treasury will all be paid back by then.

i realize it has become chic and fashionable to trash baby boomers these days... ... but the truth is baby boomers are the ones who paid the big premiums and have supported social security for decades... knowing all the while they would never get back an amount even close to what they paid in.... ... and some of the older baby boomers paid it even when social security was still paying money to people of a previous generation that retired before the program was started and who never paid into it... .or in many cases who never worked at all....

so i don;t think it;s fair to belittle them by referring to the money in a program they have worked for decades to pay money into as a baby boomer trust fund.... .... that leaves the impression that it was some rich uncle who paid into that fund rather than them paying it all themselves....

We spend about a trillion dollars a year on national defecse (next years budget will ask for 1.5 trillion). We spend 2.5 times more than china andmore than the top 6 to nine other countries. Perhaps we need to cut back and let other countries do more to defend themselves.

you are correct .... and the figures you gave in your first paragraph ..(minus the baby boomer quip)... are also correct...... . have you considered putting all that on a poster or a sandwhich board and joining the RimPac protesters?...... just a thought.....

If the ukraine had been nato do you think Putin would have invaded?

obamas push to put ukraine into NATO in violation of international agreements outlined in the budapest memorandums from the early 1990s is what set russia off on it;s warpath against ukraine in the first place....... . russia was promised when the soviet union dissolved that NATO would not be expanded an inch to the east.... .

now... i am not defending russias war against ukraine.... in fact we know and fully support several combat medics who have been volunteering with the ukrainian forces since the war began.... putin was wrong to invade...

Most countries in Europe have single payer healthcare, government paid college, government paid childcare, and higher wages than us (in US dollars). just something to think about. We provide their defense while they provide social oprograms for everyone.

true.... . but RimPac is not about showing them how we provide for their defense... . it;s about bringing them in as partners in their own defense and training them on how to fight future wars alongside us....... which is one of the things NATO was supposed to do before it became a lame kind of flood insurance for lazy europeans - that we ended up paying for........ .a major difference is RimPac takes place in our own back yard and even in our own house.... . when have you ever seen a NATO exercise done in the western atlantic to plan defending the american atlantic coast?... or even the atlantic ocean at all?...... .. and what is turkey doing in NATO?..... they should change the name to something else and take the north atlantic out of it.... ..