When visiting Shrewd'm with a laptop, it can be pleasant to hold Command (or Ctrl with Windows) and '+' a few times. The site scales to allow any font size, and the larger font can be pleasant to read even for Shrewds with perfect sight! For luxury Shrewdness, you can combine that with setting the browser to full screen. You'll then find yourself Shrewding a lot.
- Manlobbi
Personal Finance Topics / Macroeconomic Trends and Risks
No. of Recommendations: 3
This is getting good:
https://x.com/disclosetv/status/204372317073412516...Quoting part of it:
Under the MDCP framework, the USA and Indonesia will explore mutually agreed cutting-edge initiatives, including the co-developing sophisticated asymmetric capabilities pioneering next-generation defense technologies in the maritime, subsurface, and autonomous systems domains, and cooperating on maintenance, repair, and overhaul support to improve operational readiness.Bolding mine.
The first bolded part is terrific. Hello to bases scattered among 17,000 islands with 54,000km of shoreline. Plenty of spaces to drop shallow-draft autonomous vehicles and submersibles right into the South China Sea.
The second bolded part is music to my ears: Indonesia has extensive ship yards and can take ~900,000 dry weight tons in their docks. That means maintenance and repair depots for fully crewed US Navy vessels.
Hallelujah!
No. of Recommendations: 2
The second bolded part is music to my ears: Indonesia has extensive ship yards and can take ~900,000 dry weight tons in their docks. That means maintenance and repair depots for fully crewed US Navy vessels.
What is *really* important, to the Pirate King, is he could charge tolls to transit the Malacca Strait, just like he has floated the notion of charging tolls to transit Hormuz.
Steve
No. of Recommendations: 2
What is *really* important, to the Pirate King, is he could charge tolls to transit the Malacca Strait, just like he has floated the notion of charging tolls to transit Hormuz.
More like we've ID'd a partner who understands what the stakes are in the South China, doesn't want the belligerent party up there to seize any of their islands, is willing to help us give The Dragon an asymmetric hotfoot from time to time, and has repair facilities they'd like the US to use (very likely in exchange for some protection).
I get that this board AT BEST views China as some distant, far-off curiosity that supplies the gear that Costco and WalMart sell...but the government doesn't see it that way.
No. of Recommendations: 3
but the government doesn't see it that way.
To a degree, I would agree with you on that. The obvious location to increase US basing is in the Philippines. The Big O, and Biden, did that.
Indonesia is quite remote from China. But ideally located for anther Trump extortion racket.
Steve
No. of Recommendations: 3
To a degree, I would agree with you on that. The obvious location to increase US basing is in the Philippines. The Big O, and Biden, did that.
Indonesia is quite remote from China. But ideally located for anther Trump extortion racket.
Which is why you should read the entire thing. Indonesia is to be the home of asymmetric naval warfare; autonomous subs and the like. 25% of the world's goods flow through the Straits of Malacca, including massive tonnage heading to and from China.
If I wanted to forward deploy my Hands off, China toys...Indonesia is where they would go.
This is a brilliant move by the administration.
No. of Recommendations: 0
25% of the world's goods flow through the Straits of Malacca, including massive tonnage heading to and from China.
Like I said, the perfect place for another Trump extortion racket.
Steve
No. of Recommendations: 4
Like I said, the perfect place for another Trump extortion racket.
It's a different racket than what you think. This one is more, Nice commercial fleet you have there. Be a shame what would happen to it if you were to bomb Taiwan.
Everything the government is doing is aimed at China.
No. of Recommendations: 2
Please- no more daydreams.
Anyway, China and the rest of the world might want a word.
No. of Recommendations: 4
In the ships thread I mentioned the SURTASS purchase. Those are vital capabilities. Submarines are vital defenders of the sea lanes...or deniers of it.
China is prepping for extensive use of subs to defend their commercial ships:
https://www.reuters.com/investigations/china-is-ma...China is conducting a vast undersea mapping and monitoring operation across the Pacific, Indian and Arctic oceans, building detailed knowledge of marine conditions that naval experts say would be crucial for waging submarine warfare against the United States and its allies.Note the presence of the Arctic ocean.
In one example, the Dong Fang Hong 3, a research vessel operated by Ocean University of China, spent 2024 and 2025 sailing back and forth in the seas near Taiwan and the U.S. stronghold of Guam, and around strategic stretches of the Indian Ocean, ship-tracking data reviewed by Reuters shows. In October 2024, it checked on a set of powerful Chinese ocean sensors capable of identifying undersea objects near Japan, according to Ocean University, and visited the same area again last May. And in March 2025, it criss-crossed the waters between Sri Lanka and Indonesia, covering approaches to the Malacca Strait, a critical chokepoint for maritime commerce.
According to the university, the ship was carrying out mud surveys and climate research. But a scientific paper co-written by Ocean University academics shows it has also conducted extensive deep-sea mapping. Naval-warfare experts and U.S. Navy officials say the type of deep-sea data being collected by the Dong Fang Hong 3 – via mapping and placement of sensors in the ocean – is giving China a picture of the subsea conditions it would need to deploy its submarines more effectively and hunt down those of its adversaries.The deal with Indonesia is a part of the broader strategy of containment and in putting the US near all the world's choke points and energy sources as well.
So far
Panama Canal - check
Venezuela - check
Persian Gulf - in progress
Straits of Malacca - check
We're going to probably have to mend a fence or two with Canada and build some Arctic base way up north as another listening post in addition to beefing up Alaska.
No. of Recommendations: 2
Yup Glomar Explorer
type cloak and dagger stuff.
No. of Recommendations: 2
Yup Glomar Explorer
type cloak and dagger stuff.
And we've been excellent at the cat-and-mouse game that is submarine warfare for 80 years.
