[Bilgemaster]

With a perpetually leaky kitchen faucet my Trophy Wife finally coerced me into pulling on my manly cisgendered Harry Homeowner overalls today and installing a brand new "Wanjinli Kitchen Faucet" care of Amazon. It's not so shabby for $36. At least it seems a bit more robust in its honest stainless steel construction than its Costco predecessor, which appeared to have been crafted from chrome-painted zip ties and old bottle caps. But I just know you and your womenfolk will all be seething with envy when I assure you that not only does it offer "SWEET INTELLIGENCE CONCISE BUT NOT", but is also "SIMPLE AND THE UTMOST ENJOYMENT TASTE", just like it says on the box. Indeed!

[Adrian II]

Worth it if only for the Ingrish on the box...

A.

[Richard230]

With a perpetually leaky kitchen faucet my Trophy Wife finally coerced me into pulling on my manly cisgendered Harry Homeowner overalls today and installing a brand new "Wanjinli Kitchen Faucet" care of Amazon. It's not so shabby for $36. At least it seems a bit more robust in its honest stainless steel construction than its Costco predecessor, which appeared to have been crafted from chrome-painted zip ties and old bottle caps. But I just know you and your womenfolk will all be seething with envy when I assure you that not only does it offer "SWEET INTELLIGENCE CONCISE BUT NOT", but is also "SIMPLE AND THE UTMOST ENJOYMENT TASTE", just like it says on the box. Indeed!

Did you develop "plumber's butt" while installing your new faucet?   

[Bilgemaster]

Did you develop "plumber's butt" while installing your new faucet?   

Nah...I always have that handy. In fact, I keep some droopy oversize Dad jeans just for the neighbors' amusement whenever I clean out the gutters.

[Karl Fenn]

I think l will just stick to odd tap here and there l don't know much about dual fuel.

[cyrusb]

After reading that box I would have sent it right back. 

[AzCal Retred]

At 12,000 miles of open water away from the U.S. & our Pacific Fleet, the Philippinos and Australians are certainly taking notice. China is today what America was in the 1950's, technical products supplier to the world. It would be difficult to ramp up domestic supply to meet demand if that stopped, the factory capacity just doesn't exist. These are folks that build moon rockets, space stations, hypersonic ship killing missiles, high speed rail lines, nuclear reactors and submarines, not just low-buck faucets for export. They are even working out a deal for a joint moon base with the Russians. Not a good candidate for someone to be complacent about.

South China Sea dispute: Huge Chinese 'fishing fleet' alarms Philippines
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-56474847

How Australia-China relations have hit 'lowest ebb in decades'
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-54458638

“2034,” a Cautionary Tale of Conflict with China
https://www.newyorker.com/podcast/political-scene/2034-a-cautionary-tale-of-conflict-with-china
American naval vessels routinely patrol the South China Sea. It is a shared maritime space, but China claims much of the area as its own. That much is true. What if one of the ships was torpedoed? The retired admiral James Stavridis teamed up with Elliot Ackerman, a journalist and former marine, to write about how, in the shadow of an increasingly tense relationship between the U.S. and China, such an incident could spiral into catastrophe. The result is “2034: A Novel of the Next World War.” The book is a thriller and also a cautionary tale; Stavridis cites Nevil Shute’s post-apocalyptic novel “On the Beach” as an inspiration. The writers tell Evan Osnos that they intend to deliver in fiction an ingredient that’s missing in military planning: “We have plenty of intelligence, we have plenty of hardware,” Ackerman notes, but “what we often lack is imagination.”

BBC: China and Russia to build lunar space station
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-56342311

[zimmemr]

At 12,000 miles of open water away from the U.S. & our Pacific Fleet, the Philippinos and Australians are certainly taking notice. China is today what America was in the 1950's, technical products supplier to the world. It would be difficult to ramp up domestic supply to meet demand if that stopped, the factory capacity just doesn't exist. These are folks that build moon rockets, space stations, hypersonic ship killing missiles, high speed rail lines, nuclear reactors and submarines, not just low-buck faucets for export. They are even working out a deal for a joint moon base with the Russians. Not a good candidate for someone to be complacent about.

South China Sea dispute: Huge Chinese 'fishing fleet' alarms Philippines
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-56474847

How Australia-China relations have hit 'lowest ebb in decades'
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-54458638

“2034,” a Cautionary Tale of Conflict with China
https://www.newyorker.com/podcast/political-scene/2034-a-cautionary-tale-of-conflict-with-china
American naval vessels routinely patrol the South China Sea. It is a shared maritime space, but China claims much of the area as its own. That much is true. What if one of the ships was torpedoed? The retired admiral James Stavridis teamed up with Elliot Ackerman, a journalist and former marine, to write about how, in the shadow of an increasingly tense relationship between the U.S. and China, such an incident could spiral into catastrophe. The result is “2034: A Novel of the Next World War.” The book is a thriller and also a cautionary tale; Stavridis cites Nevil Shute’s post-apocalyptic novel “On the Beach” as an inspiration. The writers tell Evan Osnos that they intend to deliver in fiction an ingredient that’s missing in military planning: “We have plenty of intelligence, we have plenty of hardware,” Ackerman notes, but “what we often lack is imagination.”

BBC: China and Russia to build lunar space station
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-56342311

I'll be looking for that book on my next trip to Barnes and Nobel. Do you recall the movie "The Bedford Incident?"

[Karl Fenn]

Well china is a superpower now, come a long way since buying buying redundant spitfires, the probably have the largest spy network in the world, they have masses of nukes stored under mountains, the technology there has grown beyond proportion is true.

[AzCal Retred]

Zimmemr @ #7: Sure do. WW1 started with some dumbass and  bad attitude, lots more willing participants this time around trying to replicate "Fight Club". I haven't forgotten about what a great idea the "Southeast Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere" was in 1939 either, just maybe the players have changed. Regardless of what you think about the Chinese battle prowess, starting with a 12,000 mile open ocean supply chain to a battle front is a very bad idea. Modern weaponry rather stalemates your ships. The hypersonic ship killers reduce you to aircraft & submarines. The very best we could do is to jump off with aircraft from an Argentinian base over the South Pole to Australia, and that will require some very fancy footwork to repair the rift between the US and Argentina, not to mention all of those other South American countries the CIA has hammered on inbetween.

China is patient. The reinforced islands are part of their 50 year plan. Hard to sink an island unless you go nuclear, and then the rules get real ugly fast. You know it's part of the long plan because the Chinese have recreated the flying boat. ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AVIC_AG600 ) Flying boats don't need a landing strip. ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-runway_penetration_bomb ) If the opposition makes your runway unusable, you still get to resupply. The artificial islands all have landing strips. There is virtually no other justification for flying boats, they were phased out in the 1950's when wheeled planes became stone reliable. It's not a good idea to underestimate these boys.

[Karl Fenn]

Ho they will just abide their time, they are not in any rush.

[viczena]

I think this plane is quite useless. How do you want to load or unload cargo without a dedicated harbour? And a new landing strip is much more easy to reconstruct than a harbour.

[zimmemr]

I think this plane is quite useless. How do you want to load or unload cargo without a dedicated harbour? And a new landing strip is much more easy to reconstruct than a harbour.

They off-load onto an LST type lighter, then run the lighter onto a beach, it's not the most efficient way to do it, but it gets the job done. Think of D-day plus 1.

[zimmemr]

Zimmemr @ #7: Sure do. WW1 started with some dumbass and  bad attitude, lots more willing participants this time around trying to replicate "Fight Club". I haven't forgotten about what a great idea the "Southeast Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere" was in 1939 either, just maybe the players have changed. Regardless of what you think about the Chinese battle prowess, starting with a 12,000 mile open ocean supply chain to a battle front is a very bad idea. Modern weaponry rather stalemates your ships. The hypersonic ship killers reduce you to aircraft & submarines. The very best we could do is to jump off with aircraft from an Argentinian base over the South Pole to Australia, and that will require some very fancy footwork to repair the rift between the US and Argentina, not to mention all of those other South American countries the CIA has hammered on inbetween.

China is patient. The reinforced islands are part of their 50 year plan. Hard to sink an island unless you go nuclear, and then the rules get real ugly fast. You know it's part of the long plan because the Chinese have recreated the flying boat. ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AVIC_AG600 ) Flying boats don't need a landing strip. ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-runway_penetration_bomb ) If the opposition makes your runway unusable, you still get to resupply. The artificial islands all have landing strips. There is virtually no other justification for flying boats, they were phased out in the 1950's when wheeled planes became stone reliable. It's not a good idea to underestimate these boys.

The Chinese are patient, imaginative, and have a national will that's second to none. They'd be a formidable adversary, and you're right it's a really bad idea to underestimate them. My guess is that their idea of forward planning extends well into the next century. I'd be surprised if ours extends much past labor day.

[Karl Fenn]

Well we are falling into chaos now with all this short term fix it. The Chinese on the other hand have great foresight, history always does a complete circle and goes round and round, the covid chaos is just a glimpse of things to come to pass.

[Bilgemaster]

After reading that box I would have sent it right back. 

What? And risk the chance to partake in whatever ""SIMPLE AND THE UTMOST ENJOYMENT TASTE" may be? I think not, esteemed 'Cyrusb'!

[AzCal Retred]

Re: #11:
Amphibious means water or land usage. These are man-made islands dredged up from Ocean bottom, the slope is gradual. There's lots of footage of PBY's & Grummands powering up a ramp or being towed up onto shore. The idea here is that troops, ammo, food & supplies can be rapidly moved to these offshore islands to resupply. They are near China, so chances are excellent that they'd control the air space. Wartime Chinese & Russian air defenses make it risky for others to operate in their airspace, you aren't talking Iraq , Syria or even Iranian air defenses, these are major league.
Chinese Hypersonic missiles keep the carrier groups safely far offshore, the DF-21 has a 1000 mile range. Three guesses why we don't send the 7th Fleet to Taiwan, about 100 miles offshore of mainland China. At maybe 90 seconds flight time for the Dong-Feng 21 and equipped with either a nuclear or conventional HE warhead, you'd need a really good reason to go there. And we didn't even touch on their ultra-quiet coastal sub fleet. It's a long way to go for a shooting war, and that puts you at the wrong end of a vulnerable supply line. It would not be anything like WWII, Korea or Vietnam; the first 90 days would unleash tech that's never been seen or deployed anywhere, ever. Hopefully ours will work the best.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-03-09/china-tested-top-anti-ship-missile-in-drill-u-s-admiral-says
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DF-21

[AzCal Retred]

Re. #11:

"Runway Denial" ordinance is more wicked than just making two foot holes at random all over the surface of the runway...

" Another was the JP233, a submunitions system in which an aircraft would fly over the target runway and a mixture of penetrating and anti-personnel submunitions would be dispensed to both crater the runway and impede repair work. The submunitions could be armed with delayed-fuses, meaning that work crews run the risk of death or bodily injury as they worked on runway repair. "

The TD fuses keep anyone but prisoners and conscripts from doing airfield repairs. These flying boats tell you the Chinese fully expect trouble and they were willing to spend money towards a single purpose solution.

[Bilgemaster]

With its long sprayer hose, I'm pretty sure I could use my new wonder faucet as a pair of nunchuks.

[GlennF]

There's lots of footage of PBY's & Grummands powering up a ramp or being towed up onto shore. The idea here is that troops, ammo, food & supplies can be rapidly moved to these offshore islands to resupply.

I am sure the Chinese would be terrified of a force equipped with lovingly restored examples of historic Grumman Goose/Albatross and PBY 

[gizzo]

With its long sprayer hose, I'm pretty sure I could use my new wonder faucet as a pair of nunchuks.

Maybe you could use it to squirt all those delayed fuse munitions off the runway for them.

[AzCal Retred]

These can fly as long as China controls the airspace. A gradual slope, some Marston matting and virtually any beach on the island becomes an unloading area. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marston_Mat

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AVIC_AG600
General characteristics:
Capacity: 50 rescued or 12 t (26,000 lb) of water
Length: 36.9 m (121 ft 1 in)
Wingspan: 38.8 m (127 ft 4 in)
Height: 12.1 m (39 ft 8 in)
Max takeoff weight: 53,500 kg (117,947 lb) from land, 49,800 kg (109,800 lb) from choppy sea[2]
Powerplant: 4 × WJ-6 turboprops
Propellers: 6-bladed
Performance:
Maximum speed: 560 km/h (350 mph, 300 kn)
Cruise speed: 500 km/h (310 mph, 270 kn) max[6]
Range: 4,500 km (2,800 mi, 2,400 nmi)
Endurance: 12h[6]
Service ceiling: 6,000 m (20,000 ft)
Operations from: 1,500 m (4,900 ft) of water[6]

AVIC AG600 Chinese giant seaplane
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AE3dV7OH8jw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKM0zlcXwvs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZVh2JRBwsos

xx

[Karl Fenn]

Howard Hughes is resurrected by the look of that thing it would take more than a few years to restore, we must not underestimate the Chinese hypersonic missiles thecnology they could take out a carrier, and they are bevering away at newer technologies, even their small arms have come a long way, it's safe to say they have the equipment. They hide their nukes in mountains, but its kind of clever the way they make those islands do you think they will build a Chinese version of Dubai complete with giant hotels and swimming pools. I wonder how much headway they have made on the submarine aircraft carrier.

[AzCal Retred]

Apparently Australia is looking at the islands at a series of unsinkable stepping stones pointed at them. Duterte of the Philippines has 200 "fishing boats" circling his islands, loaded with Chinese marines and weaponry. Looking pretty real to me. "War is good business, invest your sons!" 

[Karl Fenn]

Oh what that one, good at murdering the political opposition, my sources tell me in his early days he had a liking for a motor bike balaclarver and 9 mm pistol, not to mention his Russian underground intel links, he is pretty much a sad dictator who will come to a sticky end, all the people he ordered be put to death, many juveniles.

[Karl Fenn]

So they say the police get a monthly bung from the undertakers, the last interview l saw with one they were working flat out 24/7.

[AzCal Retred]

He mostly seems to prey on drug dealers & associates. He's very popular in the P.I., like Trump was here. The P.I. is also a Pacific base for our military - might be a valuable thing to have soon.

[Karl Fenn]

He says that people believe it, he kills a lot of others as well, but he has been trying to kick the US out for ages that is why he forged links with Russia, l don't trust him. Well Trump has gone now doubt he will make a come back.

[AzCal Retred]

Lessee now...Have your country get overrun, occupied & invaded by Chinese troops vs. host U.S. troops on their own base, make some extra cash & continue to be a sovereign nation...tough choice.

[Karl Fenn]

Well l think at the end of the day money talks and promises always work in shifting things your way, look at Africa the Chinese are gaining a foot hold there, you have to be realistic even the west is in a deep hole, corruption grows day by day, there's bad clouds on the horizon for sure.

[cyrusb]

What? And risk the chance to partake in whatever ""SIMPLE AND THE UTMOST ENJOYMENT TASTE" may be? I think not, esteemed 'Cyrusb'!

Well, since you put it that way..........

[Karl Fenn]

Well it's the only way you can put it.