[Cause]

When Trump is out of power it occurs to me so much of what he has done, is doing, plans to do will be reversed. Needs to be reversed.

My worry is will this start an unending cycle of presidents just reversing course every 4-8 years? The only thing less efficient than doge will be hiring everyone back, reorganizing the state department back the way it was and then reversing course again.

Also it’s so much harder to build than destroy. Growing the federal workfare by 100k in one year will cause the republicans to care about the debt again.

[Gwynn ap Nudd]

Republicans always pretend to care about the debt when there is a Democratic president. That would be nothing new.

The bigger problem is that hiring personnel, building up institutional knowledge and expertise, and developing connections in branches that deal with foreign governments takes longer than four years. Especially with the US federal government now. There is no job security beyond a four year window. So attracting the best and brightest is less likely. Some agencies may be permanently crippled - which is what Republicans wanted.

E.g. the republican donor who owns either Acuweather or the weather network (I can't remember which) has been trying to get the government to stop providing forecasts for years. He wants the government to still collect the data, but then only sell it exclusively to his companies so they can make the forecasts and generate more profit. Now, the government does not have enough qualified people to make full forecasts everywhere. I won't be surprised to see Republicans start talking about privatizing weather forecasting once the government struggles to provide those services this year.

Its the standard ploy. Say government shouldn't be doing something and that the private sector could do it better, then defund the parts of government that provide the service to prove that the government can't do it right. Thus justifying privatizing it at more cost to the consumer and with more profits for large corporations.

This post has been edited by Gwynn ap Nudd: 13 June 2025 - 01:04 AM

[Macros]

Acuweather

[Cause]

Im curious how this parade is going to turn out. Apparently the last US military parade was in 1991. What little footage I found was kind of lackluster.

North Korea, China, Russia drill their soldiers for parades all the time. They look better than they fight. They goose step, they parade in dress uniforms. It looks like a human printer at the clone factory spit out 100k copies of the same man marching in perfect synchronization. They put pins in their collars to remind the soldiers to keep their heads straight. They drill for hours. Every arm and leg moves to the same angle.

The US army doesn’t do this. Since it’s supposedly celebrating their anniversary I suspect they will march in uniforms from various eras but I suspect they will just march. The parade won’t be filled with the noise of their boots slapping the ground in perfect synchronization as they goose step.

Likewise France, who Trump apparently for this idea from, has over a thousand years of military tradition and history to draw on. Its sappers march with silver axes and its uniforms include some spectacular ornamentation and styles.

The US does have highly trained ceremonial units like the tomb guard but they are too small for a mass parade I think. Maybe I’m wrong, I’ll watch some YouTube clips later (don’t want to add to its ratings in any way) but the us army drills for combat not spectacle. I wonder if Trump will be disappointed..

[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

Cause, on 14 June 2025 - 09:44 PM, said:

Im curious how this parade is going to turn out. Apparently the last US military parade was in 1991. What little footage I found was kind of lackluster.

North Korea, China, Russia drill their soldiers for parades all the time. They look better than they fight. They goose step, they parade in dress uniforms. It looks like a human printer at the clone factory spit out 100k copies of the same man marching in perfect synchronization. They put pins in their collars to remind the soldiers to keep their heads straight. They drill for hours. Every arm and leg moves to the same angle.

The US army doesn't do this. Since it's supposedly celebrating their anniversary I suspect they will march in uniforms from various eras but I suspect they will just march. The parade won't be filled with the noise of their boots slapping the ground in perfect synchronization as they goose step.

Likewise France, who Trump apparently for this idea from, has over a thousand years of military tradition and history to draw on. Its sappers march with silver axes and its uniforms include some spectacular ornamentation and styles.

The US does have highly trained ceremonial units like the tomb guard but they are too small for a mass parade I think. Maybe I'm wrong, I'll watch some YouTube clips later (don't want to add to its ratings in any way) but the us army drills for combat not spectacle. I wonder if Trump will be disappointed..

Wow those wheels were squeaky:

https://twitter.com/...018229661565431

How inspiring.

You can see how inspired Rubio was:

https://x.com/atrupa...021531136381203

Thought of going to the Philadelphia "No Kings" protest (wait, does that include AI? would be Go*-Emperor, not king! no blood to be royal Jesus-spawn or whatever) despite wildfire smoke from New Jersey and rain, decided against it. Mass shooter at the Salt Lake City (Mormontopia) No Kings protest... guess that could've been almost anywhere. At least the police stopped him instead of looking the other way (and inwardly applauding, and fantasizing about joining in... with tanks...).

This post has been edited by Azath Vitr (D'ivers: 15 June 2025 - 11:23 AM

[Cause]

It was worse than I expected. They marched in the army combat uniform and didn’t even march in lock step. How well the army marches has nothing to do with how well they fight but honestly it looked so bad that it made the army look weak. Terrible optics all around.

[Tsundoku]

Cause, on 15 June 2025 - 11:12 PM, said:

It was worse than I expected. They marched in the army combat uniform and didn’t even march in lock step. How well the army marches has nothing to do with how well they fight but honestly it looked so bad that it made the army look weak. Terrible optics all around.

Large formations that march in perfect lockstep obviously have nothing better to do and are only good for parades.
Do you realise how much practice is required to get more than a few dozen soldiers to march perfectly? Even just a march past? A LOT.
A lot of time that could be spent doing pretty much anything else that has actual value.

This post has been edited by Tsundoku: 16 June 2025 - 06:45 AM

[Tiste Simeon]

I've seen a few posts purporting to be from military folks in the states who said a lot of that was a sly form of resistance like they had to do this on a day off so we're gonna tdo the bare minimum which would explain a lot. It also made the moron quite upset by the looks of it (especially looking at the meagre crowd sizes) and overall anything that achieves that is a cause for celebrations!

[QuickTidal]

Tsundoku, on 16 June 2025 - 06:44 AM, said:

Cause, on 15 June 2025 - 11:12 PM, said:

It was worse than I expected. They marched in the army combat uniform and didn’t even march in lock step. How well the army marches has nothing to do with how well they fight but honestly it looked so bad that it made the army look weak. Terrible optics all around.

Large formations that march in perfect lockstep obviously have nothing better to do and are only good for parades.
Do you realise how much practice is required to get more than a few dozen soldiers to march perfectly? Even just a march past? A LOT.
A lot of time that could be spent doing pretty much anything else that has actual value.

[Cause]

 Tsundoku, on 16 June 2025 - 06:44 AM, said:

 Cause, on 15 June 2025 - 11:12 PM, said:

It was worse than I expected. They marched in the army combat uniform and didn’t even march in lock step. How well the army marches has nothing to do with how well they fight but honestly it looked so bad that it made the army look weak. Terrible optics all around.

Large formations that march in perfect lockstep obviously have nothing better to do and are only good for parades.
Do you realise how much practice is required to get more than a few dozen soldiers to march perfectly? Even just a march past? A LOT.
A lot of time that could be spent doing pretty much anything else that has actual value.

I have no desire for the us military to spend any more time or money practicing marching. Still the parade was so lackluster that it looked lame. I’d put any random army of the us military against any random NK battalion but nevertheless im sure Americas foes got a laugh out of this parade.

Also who in the god damn whitehouse thought it would be a good idea to pay millions for this parade and still get corporate sponsors. Or more specific sponsors would be fine, have a banner somewhere but to periodically interrupt the parade to thank crypto sponsors and energy drinks company is so tacky. The us army proudly brought to you by …..

[Tsundoku]

Tiste Simeon, on 16 June 2025 - 07:52 AM, said:

I've seen a few posts purporting to be from military folks in the states who said a lot of that was a sly form of resistance like they had to do this on a day off so we're gonna tdo the bare minimum which would explain a lot. It also made the moron quite upset by the looks of it (especially looking at the meagre crowd sizes) and overall anything that achieves that is a cause for celebrations!

Cause, on 16 June 2025 - 11:39 AM, said:

Tsundoku, on 16 June 2025 - 06:44 AM, said:

Cause, on 15 June 2025 - 11:12 PM, said:

It was worse than I expected. They marched in the army combat uniform and didn’t even march in lock step. How well the army marches has nothing to do with how well they fight but honestly it looked so bad that it made the army look weak. Terrible optics all around.

Large formations that march in perfect lockstep obviously have nothing better to do and are only good for parades.Do you realise how much practice is required to get more than a few dozen soldiers to march perfectly? Even just a march past? A LOT. A lot of time that could be spent doing pretty much anything else that has actual value.

I have no desire for the us military to spend any more time or money practicing marching. Still the parade was so lackluster that it looked lame. I’d put any random army of the us military against any random NK battalion but nevertheless im sure Americas foes got a laugh out of this parade.Also who in the god damn whitehouse thought it would be a good idea to pay millions for this parade and still get corporate sponsors. Or more specific sponsors would be fine, have a banner somewhere but to periodically interrupt the parade to thank crypto sponsors and energy drinks company is so tacky. The us army proudly brought to you by …..

Yeah, I've seen some of the footage and that may very well be the case for some of the soldiers. I pity the fuck out of those guys though when their senior NCOs, Sergeant Majors and Warrant Officers get their hands on them. Even if they hate Trump's guts they'll not tolerate anything that brings their service into disrepute. I foresee many, many shitty duties for any identified troops who their seniors think did it half-arsed. Probably missing out on promotion courses, sweet trips, put on every shitty exercise, painting rocks and digging holes, you name it. An elephant's memory is long, but not as long as an angry senior's. Elephants don't do as much damage when they are angry, either.

EDIT: and not to forget the drill "retraining". Dear God, it would be hours and hours every day out in the sun, with just enough breaks for water and shade as mandated by the work/rest ratio tables. No more than that. And it's summer over there isn't it?

This post has been edited by Tsundoku: 16 June 2025 - 12:23 PM

[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

Azath Vitr (D, on 30 May 2025 - 05:04 PM, said:

So since it turns out Trump actually can grant individual countries reductions on section 232 industry-specific sectoral tariffs, he could effectively reconstitute his country-wide tariffs by tariffing every industry/sector---with the judgment that each industry/sector tariff is justified on "national security grounds" being left by the Supreme Co(U)r(u)pse to the discretion of President Dictator. It would take time though---not sure to what extent in practical terms the industry/sector-specific tariff investigations and commentary periods could be simultaneous, or whether the Supreme Court would try to hold the "investigations" or "national security" justifications to any standards whatsoever. Like would they let Trump appoint some random janitor to "investigate" a given industry and come up with some absolute bullshit as the "national security" reason?

Some experts are predicting he really will apply "industry-specific" 232 tariffs to almost everything:

Quote

Nazak Nikakhtar, [...] former senior Commerce official during Trump's first term, said [...] "These 232 actions are very likely going to result in import restrictions on almost every good entering the US, and the size and scale of these restrictions will be so massive [...]"

The latest example of Trump's wider targeting under his 232 powers came last week when the Commerce Department announced that 50% duties on steel and aluminum products would be expanded to cover home appliances including dishwashers, dryers and washing machines. All of those items are deemed vital to national security under the law Trump invoked to impose duties.

[...] US companies can petition the administration to add the goods they produce domestically to the 232 tariffs. Included on Trump's list of steel and aluminum tariffs this year are gymnasium equipment, clothes hangers and door thresholds.

https://finance.yaho...-040001084.html

[Cause]

Well the 9th circuit has ruled that judges must give the president significant deference when he federalizes the national guard and have ruled he can keep control of the national guard of California. Not a great decision for America.

Also TikTok has another 90 days. This is the 3rd extension Trump has given to extend a lifeline to TikTok after he was the one who passed the law that will ban it. This is becoming a farce.

[HoosierDaddy]

Cause, on 20 June 2025 - 04:18 PM, said:

Well the 9th circuit has ruled that judges must give the president significant deference when he federalizes the national guard and have ruled he can keep control of the national guard of California. Not a great decision for America.

Also TikTok has another 90 days. This is the 3rd extension Trump has given to extend a lifeline to TikTok after he was the one who passed the law that will ban it. This is becoming has been a farce (since Trump came on the seen).

Fixed.

[Garak]

Since Trump is back I need to double check everything I read online since I can't tell what's satire anymore.

[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

Garak, on 20 June 2025 - 06:00 PM, said:

Since Trump is back I need to double check everything I read online since I can't tell what's satire anymore.

Quote

[US Secretary of Defense] Pete Hegseth today working hard preparing for war in the Middle East [video:]

https://x.com/RonFil...238847307989461

Not satire...

Spoiler

Quote

Hegseth Performs Bizarre Fruit Ritual as War Rages in Middle East

[...] the head of the United States Department of Defense made a juice offering on the Pentagon's Parade Field. Hegseth was there to meet with Coca-Cola 600 champion rally driver Ross Chastain. [...] Chastain smashes watermelons after every win as a means of paying tribute to his family's legacy. "To be able to smash watermelons here near the front steps of the Pentagon is something my family will talk about for the rest of time,"