Yeah, Lee is pretty much universally regarded as a great general, in terms of his actual military prowess.
It’s just weird that Trump started talking about how great he was. I’m assuming he was saying this to lead to into Grant beating him, since Grant came from Ohio and that’s where Trump was speaking.
Ah, that makes sense, though it’s surprising that Trump might have been actually building towards something in his speech. He usually comes across as blah blah, random bullshit, more blah blah, more random crap in his speeches.
It’s also odd how Trump emphasized Grant’s drinking since Trump doesn’t drink. No idea what sparked that.
God damnit, freaking autocorrect made that terrible. I hate reading my own comments in quotes and being like, “wtf is that?” And what the hell with correcting to “jus”? That’s not even a word.
Yeah, well he’s been on this “drinking is cool” kick since Kavanaugh.
I figured he was talking about Grant’s drinking and being a great general as something about Kavanaugh drinking and being a great judge.
That makes more sense now. Hopefully that means Kavanaugh will be at war with racists the way Grant was. Ha ha, as if.
Yeah, that was my first reaction as well. But I’m from Virginia so I figured I should just shut up.
The problem with Trump is that even the things he says that are reasonable are unacceptable because he is completely untrustworthy. Space Force isn’t a terrible idea. Neither is a national alert system. But he’s so poisoned the well that even the rare good idea that filters through his administration is treated as risible. Because he cannot be trusted.
-xtien
Maybe he can have the FBI investigate, but not actually you know, get witnesses and stuff.
(I know the FBI wouldn’t deal with this, but the snark doesn’t work otherwise)
Both those ideas seem kind of silly to me. The right is fond of the pretense that the US is somehow threatened in an existential way, but it’s hard to imagine what yet another national alert system is actually needed for. And the current force organization is silly and anachronistic — two land forces, both of which dabble in air forces, plus a sea force which dabbles in air forces as well as ballistic rocketry and orbital payloads, plus an air force which dabbles in ballistic rocketry and orbital payloads, plus another sea force, plus a civilian space agency focused on rocketry and orbital payloads — is not a situation which cries out for yet another military force to dabble in flight and rocketry and payloads. Never mind that the militarization of space probably violates multiple treaties.
Space Force actually is a terrible idea. There is no reason for there to be a separate branch when there already is a command that exists for that function. There isn’t enough to do to warrant it. If you want to create another branch at least make it one that is useful, like a branch dedicated to peacekeeping and low intensity conflict operations, leaving the Marines and Army to focus on their traditional areas and not letting their high intensity conflict skills atrophy which is was happened when they spent all of their energy focused on Afghanistan and Iraq.
Your following words basically justify the idea. Look, I can’t stand Trump. And I think the idea sounds silly, because, well, it sounds silly. But since all of these agencies are “dabbling” as you rightly say, then shouldn’t we have a singular entity to regulate and protect our interests in space? At the very least, task and fund NASA to do that. Protect our satellites and monitor space activity. Rather than have a bunch of various organizations dabbling.
This is kind of my point. Fund NASA properly and they can do the things I’m suggesting, so the other branches can focus. My original point is that having the discussion is a good idea, because we should be monitoring and protecting what goes on in space, and not have it be dabbling or ad hoc. I didn’t mean we need a separate branch, but rather that it’s an idea to be explored and debated in a reasonable way. Think about how much our informational infrastructure relies upon information from space.
Furthermore, my point is that because it’s Trump bringing it up, we dismiss it out of hand. Because he’s an asshole and an idiot. So we don’t even consider the idea, or elements of the idea as reasonable.
-xtien
The difference is that Trump sounds like he is purely talking about a military branch to be focused on space. While there are certainly military assets in space – recon satellites, etc. – the Outer Space Treaty forbids weapons in space.
The Outer Space Treaty was created in 1967. It’s possible things have changed since then.
We have interests in space that are far different now. Again, as I said above, think about how much our informational infrastructure relies upon satellites. So the idea of revisiting it and protecting our interests in a more comprehensive way is not crazy. Just because the person who floated the idea is.
-xtien
No. Way.
(Of course, why should it surprise me?)
NATO was created in 1949. Let’s just ditch that too!
(Oh wait, that is in fact what Trump wants to do.)
Sigh. Forget it.
-xtien
So you’re saying we should ditch it.
At last someone who understands me.
-xtien
This is the thread for talking about how Trump thinks. For Trump, “Space Force” is a way for a narcissist to establish dominance. It’s a chance for him to wave his dick around, stamp his name all over the military, tell the rest of the world to go fuck themselves … and maybe a possible merchandising opportunity.
That’s it. That’s all there is and ever will be while Trump is in charge, because Donnie gives not a single solitary crap about the guts of policy or national security.
This is a sports bar and we’re talking about the game that’s currently on TV. Don’t be too disappointed if people aren’t lining up to discuss your proposed enhancements to the rules of fantasy football, whatever their virtues.