The Trump Presidency

[ponderingturtle]

If contraception doesn't work, why does the Catholic church forbid it?

Ask them, they are the ones with the crazy contradictory beliefs. Probably has to do with the intent being immoral regardless of efficacy. Kind of like how catholic hospitals will never perform an abortion even to save some sluts life, but will do more invasive and damaging procedures that have the side effect of killing the fetus to save said sluts life. Because the extra damage to a woman makes it all ok that you killed the baby.

 

[ponderingturtle]

I don't want another war. I would be happy to see an increase in defense spending because I have complained for years that the military was underfunded and that point was made when I tried to order safety gloves for my workers but was told the Air Force didn't have the money at that time to fill my order. In fact, some squadrons were financially broke.

Those do not necessarily follow. Think of all the safety gloves that they could have bought with the money they spent on building tanks the army doesn't want. But the only answer is spending more money so that defense contractors get the profits they need.

What next making sure you have body armor for your troops before invading a country? That is crazy talk that no one in the military would ever really back, why else do they vote republican so strongly?

How will Trumps plan to build more battleships get your men gloves?

 

[Fast Eddie B]

I don't want another war.

Nor do I.

I marched against the Vietnam War a lifetime ago. I still contain vestiges of my anti-war past.

But read any history of WWII and it's hard not to come away frustrated, it being SO clear in retrospect how much easier it would have been to have confronted Hitler militarily before millions had to die in the battlefields and camps.

I find it hard not to look at N Korea in that light, and to try to see it as historians might decades from now. That the cautious hesitancy of Obama, Bush and Clinton may have been exactly the wrong course of action.

But it's complicated, and Lord knows getting involved in conflicts in SE Asia does not have a great track record for the US. Then again, the Viet Cong did not have the bomb!

 

[ponderingturtle]

Nor do I.

I marched against the Vietnam War a lifetime ago. I still contain vestiges of my anti-war past.

But read any history of WWII and it's hard not to come away frustrated, it being SO clear in retrospect how much easier it would have been to have confronted Hitler militarily before millions had to die in the battlefields and camps.

I find it hard not to look at N Korea in that light, and to try to see it as historians might decades from now. That the cautious hesitancy of Obama, Bush and Clinton may have been exactly the wrong course of action.

But it's complicated, and Lord knows getting involved in conflicts in SE Asia does not have a great track record for the US. Then again, the Viet Cong did not have the bomb!

The thing is the waning power of the US and the rising power of china make a limited war in Korea very likely to turn into WWIII. The situation there is not at all uncommon to cause major wars when one nation supplants another as the larger power.

So any such war needs China as our ally. Or are you ignoring that it was china who pushed the allies back so that there is a North Korea now?

Look at WWI, was stopping the Austro Hungarian invasion of Serbia worth it all?

 

[Fast Eddie B]

So any such war needs China as our ally. Or are you ignoring that it was china who pushed the allies back so that there is a North Korea now?

Nope. Just pondering!

Look at WWI, was stopping the Austro Hungarian invasion of Serbia worth it all?

I think that's unknowable.

 

[TofuFighter]

Nor do I.

I was watching BBC about a week ago. They were covering the French election issues and interviewed a young french person who said (and i paraphrase) "we're millennials, we never experienced war, so we're not afraid like the older people are"

It came across to me as something she thought was a positive thing. IMO it is exactly the opposite. Younger generations (and that includes me at 42) do not understand the horrors. "Lest we forget". I read WWII history as a hobby and it's one of the few things that really shakes me.

The point I'm trying to make is that people, now, seem far too cavalier about the threat of a potential war. Trump does nothing to help that situation, despite the occasional comment about 'the nuclear being so bad'. Maybe if he hadn't been so unfortunately afflicted by heel spurs, that might not be the case.

 

[The Don]

I was watching BBC about a week ago. They were covering the French election issues and interviewed a young french person who said (and i paraphrase) "we're millennials, we never experienced war, so we're not afraid like the older people are"

It came across to me as something she thought was a positive thing. IMO it is exactly the opposite. Younger generations (and that includes me at 42) do not understand the horrors. "Lest we forget". I read WWII history as a hobby and it's one of the few things that really shakes me.

The point I'm trying to make is that people, now, seem far too cavalier about the threat of a potential war. Trump does nothing to help that situation, despite the occasional comment about 'the nuclear being so bad'. Maybe if he hadn't been so unfortunately afflicted by heel spurs, that might not be the case.

It's easy to be sanguine about the prospect of war when there is little or no prospect of having to serve (armed forces in most developed countries are fully professional) and any fighting is likely to happen a long, long way away so the direct impact on the individual is minimal.

 

[Tony Stark]

Saying that war with NK might be necessary because WW2 is such nonsense reasoning. Kim Jong un is not Hitler. It seems pretty clear that the Kim dynasty's number one goal is to stay in power.

Americans are such chicken littles. People in freaking South Korea are probably less scared of Kim than Americans are.

 

[Matthew Best]

Think Benny Hinn will be surgeon general?

Or maybe Benny Hill?

 

[Matthew Best]

Holy ****. This may the most Trump Trump has ever been. It's from the summer of 2015, but my god:

As the Washington Post says today:

"It is urgent for Americans to think and speak clearly about President Trump’s inability to do either."

 

[Armitage72]

Saying that war with NK might be necessary because WW2 is such nonsense reasoning. Kim Jong un is not Hitler. It seems pretty clear that the Kim dynasty's number one goal is to stay in power.

Americans are such chicken littles. People in freaking South Korea are probably less scared of Kim than Americans are.

Frightened people are easier to control. Look at how many political campaigns in the past 16 years have included some variant of "If you don't vote for me, you'll be killed by the terrorists who are hiding behind every bush. BOO!!"

 

[turingtest]

As the Washington Post says today:

"It is urgent for Americans to think and speak clearly about President Trump’s inability to do either."

It's pretty common, I think, for American presidents from any position on the ideological spectrum to say things that are taken out of context (or deliberately misunderstood) so their partisans then have to explain what he meant when he said something. Trump is the first one I can think of that you have to begin by explaining what he said when he said something.

I can't be the only one who's thought that a perfect SNL sketch would have Alec Baldwin as Trump running off at the mouth in one of his streams of addled consciousness, then having Samuel L. Jackson standing up at the back of the room and yelling "English, ************! Do you speak it?"

 

[skyeagle409]

It's not clear to me that the highlighted is the case. The US spends more on its military than the next 'n' countries combined so a claim that the military is underfunded IMO needs to be examined carefully.

Now the fact that you were unable to obtain safety gloves for your workers indicates that something is wrong but an increase in military spending may not fix that issue. I've worked on defence procurement projects in the UK and to my civilian ears the sums involved are huge but quite often military personnel complain that money is being spent on the wrong things, that the specifications are far too complicated (like the apocryphal combined sniper rifle and entrenching tool), the military is being fleeced by overcharging suppliers or some combination of these.

Believe me, the military was so seriously underfunded, that there were units in Afghanistan that had to cut back on breakfast items and flight crews who were unable to replace their worn flight suits due to lack of money, not to mention that flight training was seriously cut back as well. Other services for military personnel were cut back and not only had I had difficulty ordering safety gloves, but difficulty receiving replacement parts for aircraft as well, so what we did, we took perfectly good airplanes and used them to cannibalize parts in order to keep other aircraft flying.

 

[skyeagle409]

Those do not necessarily follow. Think of all the safety gloves that they could have bought with the money they spent on building tanks the army doesn't want. But the only answer is spending more money so that defense contractors get the profits they need.

At that time, I was a defense contractor working on an Air Force contract at Travis AFB, CA. Without the required safety equipment and replacement parts, planes don't fly.

What next making sure you have body armor for your troops before invading a country?

That's something for the politicians to ponder.

That is crazy talk that no one in the military would ever really back, why else do they vote republican so strongly?

How will Trumps plan to build more battleships get your men gloves?

You need to understand that without the proper safety equipment, Trump's battleships won't get built.

 

[ponderingturtle]

Believe me, the military was so seriously underfunded, that there were units in Afghanistan that had to cut back on breakfast items and flight crews who were unable to replace their worn flight suits due to lack of money, not to mention that flight training was seriously cut back as well. Other services for military personnel were cut back and not only had I had difficulty ordering safety gloves, but difficulty receiving replacement parts for aircraft as well, so what we did, we took perfectly good airplanes and used them to cannibalize parts in order to keep other aircraft flying.

That does not show what you think it means. There are individual budgets that are under funded. That is a given, but you are assuming no waste or excess, and there is tons of that as well. Maybe you can get some of the tanks the army was forced to buy. That should work as PPE.

 

[ponderingturtle]

At that time, I was a defense contractor working on an Air Force contract at Travis AFB, CA. Without the required safety equipment and replacement parts, planes don't fly.

Yes and??? The F35 boondogle is a major part of that as well. Those inexpensive new high tech planes were supposed to replace all those outdated ones. Just didn't work out that way.

I am sure the new battleships will help with that situation as well.

You need to understand that without the proper safety equipment, Trump's battleships won't get built.

Sure they will, that was the benefit of getting Gorsuch on the court, killing your employees will be getting much much more acceptable soon. They used to build all kinds of ships with little or no PPE. That was when america was great and we are going back to that of course. It is what the military wanted when they voted for him.

 

[skyeagle409]

The thing is the waning power of the US and the rising power of china make a limited war in Korea very likely to turn into WWIII.

So any such war needs China as our ally. Or are you ignoring that it was china who pushed the allies back so that there is a North Korea now?

Definitely false. It won't take much to put North Korea out of action in the early stages of such a conflict and you don't know the reality of North Korea's military status. Do you think those missiles that North Korea tows on the parade route are real?

 

[skyeagle409]

That does not show what you think it means.

I know what it means because I have been associated with the military for well over 40 years. In fact, I have invented equipment, special tools and components for military aircraft.

 

[ponderingturtle]

Definitely false. It won't take much to put North Korea out of action in the early stages of such a conflict and you don't know the reality of North Korea's military status. Do you think those missiles that North Korea tows on the parade route are real?

And so? You can't exactly fight everything from 35,000'. I figure it will make Iraq look like the easy short war it was. Maybe though we will get fewer reboots instead of a new invasion with every republican administration.

 

[ponderingturtle]

I know what it means because I have been associated with the military for well over 40 years. In fact, I have invented equipment, special tools and components for military aircraft.

And you haven't shown that the budget expansion would do anything for the budgets that prevent you from buying gloves. It will go to develop fancy new toys not that kind of boring crap.

You can expand the budget as much as you want doesn't mean it trickles down do where you want it. Just like the economy it has expanded a lot in the past 40 years, just not for the vast majority of people. So will your budget be part of the figurative 1% that is being expanded or is it not?