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-- 2024 US Election Thread? 2024 US Election Thread
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Yeah man. Joint operational planning (at a combatant command, below national level) was my last job in the Army before I got out around the 15-year mark. Glad to not be in that world anymore.

I have some buddies who are at the Pentagon now in planning departments...I can't imagine what they're feeling.

Musk "exploring options" to "remove" Starmer? Can we stop giving this guy ink?

@72hr hope you're still OK down there. Looks like it's still raging.

quote:

Originally posted by SYSTEM-J I've just come here from a headline about Germany and France warning Trump not to use military force to occupy Greenland, and I'm possessed by the sinking realisation that we've got four more years of endless moronic news to endure.

yeah today i was reading about the supreme court decision not to postpone his sentencing for his multiple felonies when the story informed me the presiding judge (of the criminal complaint) has already said no fines, imprisonment or conditions will be applied. what the fuck else is left?

and that's when it really dawned on me his term was right round the corner and that, as you note, another 4 fucking years of fucking incompetent ridiculousness is upon us.

quote:

Originally posted by camshaft even my Trump-supporting family and the conservative subreddit are starting to say "I didn't vote for this."

yeah i don't accept this - everyone with half a brain knew trump is an unpredictable loose cannon who will veer from one shit policy decision to the next while literally telling everyone he's the greatest administration since 1776. those with buyer's remorse can suck my nuts because it's their fault we are where we are.

Yeah, agreed 100%. The subreddit r/leopardsatemyface has been good reading lately. Definitely had a few "you know what you're voting for" conversations that didn't seem to register at all. They only cared that he wasn't Biden or Harris, who apparently are the worst ever?

I really don't get it.

So it seems that Musk really does have the nazi type of autism instead of the My Little Pony one. I've quite succesfully isolated myself from MAGA people on Twitter, so I haven't seen many of their reactions, but according to Rick Wilson it's been something along the lines of:

1. "It wasn�t a Nazi salute."
2. "Maybe it was a Nazi salute but it was a joke."
3. "It wasn�t a joke but it was owning the libs."
4. "It wasn�t owning the libs but so what?"
5. "Actually, Hitler had some good ideas..."

What repercussions can there be for him in the US for openly doing that? My hunch is none. Was it just "an awkward gesture in a moment of enthusiasm" or the real thing? Seeing who he's been coddling in Germany, my money is on the latter.

They've been pulling those 'salutes' at Trump rallies since forever. Remember Laura Ingraham at the 2016 RNC?

I think this is a bit more clear-cut than Ingraham's gesture, which actually looks like an awkward mistake to me. Musk puts his hand on his chest first (which most neo-nazi groups I know do before the standard German thing), then extends his arm, and he does this two times.

I don't really have the energy to spend the next four years getting outraged by these semi-trolling micro gestures. They're all going to commit a whole cavalcade of offensive, politically incorrect shit and the leftwing media will be duly incensed by all of it. It's not even worth analysing the individual offences.

Well, sure, Apartheid Clyde's gesture was more 'mask off' than others, but its not like MAGA's intentions have been some secret that's only now being uncovered. They've been fascist-friendly all along, and that sort of salute has long been a symbol of strong-arm strength and obedience for such movements.

Looking at it, it just looks like another in a long list of Elmo's awkwardly cringe attempts at projecting strength, enthusiasm, and power, only to come off like the dribbling man-child muppet he is.

Yeah but aren't you all glad we can say retard/retarded again?

What are you referring to??

Read this in a FT column a few days back.

quote:

�I feel liberated,� said a top banker. �We can say �retard� and �pussy� without the fear of getting cancelled . . . it�s a new dawn.�

https://x.com/robertshrimsley/statu...112143062356373

Lol. Yes.

Aha, I think I'm starting to get it now. We're entering a sort of era of manchildren.

I'm sorry guys. We (the US) suck.

1500 criminals who attempted to overthrow the government were just pardoned. WTF!!!!

They aren�t criminally responsible because they are retards

quote:

Originally posted by planetaryplayer They aren�t criminally responsible because they are retards

quote:

Originally posted by JEO 2. "Maybe it was a Nazi salute but it was a joke."

This is the correct answer. Seeing as how he's a diehard Zionist, it's officially impossible for him to be a Nazi in any form. /s

I think Leon deserves a pass here, he doesn�t know how to spell his own name. He�s been retarded since birth. We can�t overlook his life�s greatest work of creating an automobile company for fellow retards. How else would we know a retard is behind the wheel and know to drive defensively? Not to mention the cyber tank is a badge of honour to those with the most advanced cases of retardation.

Greetings, fellow retards.... *does Nazi salute*



Its just DEI working as it's meant to, guys!

Fun fact: the Cybertruck is banned in the UK (and pretty much all of Europe) because it doesn't conform to our safety standards. And yet I drove past one about a week ago in Manchester, prompting a double "Was that...?" take. A few days later I read this headline:

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cz0lldd30xlo

I think the most interesting component of this whole transition is how to define what system of power we (the US) are evolving into. At what point is the legislative process just going to become superfluous in Trump's America? He clearly wants to just remove the middleman and run the country as a dictatorship with all the power of the US Military and all the influence behind the primary communication channels (Google, Facebook, X, etc) in his back pocket. At this point, he has basically collected all of the infinity stones. ICE trucks are already patrolling the streets in my city.

I guess I'm just glad I'm a white male right now

Ah, man. I still had a tiny bit of hope that it wouldn't come to this, but that's basically it for Ukraine and, possibly sooner than I'd like to imagine, big parts of Eastern Europe. I wonder if Trump's voters have any idea of what could be happening to the US's influence in the coming years and decades. Or is it what they want? For the US to be "just another country"? Because let me tell you... There's a fair bit of work to be done for you to be accepted among the normies.

quote:

Originally posted by ziptnf At what point is the legislative process just going to become superfluous in Trump's America?

Easy there, Nick. I know I've knocked the US elsewhere (being South American taught me to be a bit sceptical of your foreign policy), but the US is a pretty damn awesome country, albeit flawed as any human institution is bound to be. Here's why this democratic backsliding is much more difficult than you probably imagine.

Grab the popcorn, and here we go, because Virginia is not Venezuela just yet!

How to Kill a Republic if you're Fanta-stic (and Why It�s Bloody Hard)

There are two kinds of people who dream of dismantling a democracy: the ones who want to do it quickly, with tanks and flags and late-night emergency broadcasts (e.g. here, before I came into this world), and the ones who want to do it quietly, with technicalities and loopholes and the kind of legal jargon that makes even the keenest political nerds� eyes glaze over. The first lot always fail. The second lot mostly fail, too.

Let�s say you�re the Prime Minister � except not, because that wouldn�t work, would it? Let�s say you�re the President of the United States, which means you�re not just the Head of Government, you�re the Head of State, too. You�ve got everything lined up: the House, the Senate, the Supreme Court, the motorcade, the fancy pens. You tell yourself history will remember you, but not in the way you want. You tell yourself power is meant to be used, not borrowed. You tell yourself America is waiting for someone strong and orange enough to lead it. A very stable genius. The most stable

And yet.

Act I: The House of Commons, But Worse

Congress. On paper, it�s yours. But Congress is like a Thanksgiving dinner with 535 uncles. No one agrees on anything. Your party is your party, but half of them are thinking about their re-election campaigns, and the other half have convinced themselves they�re part of some grand institutional tradition. The few who actually have a spine are a nightmare, because they think they�re fighting for democracy rather than just making your life difficult.

• Step one: Get them in line. You try. You promise. You threaten. But American politicians, bless them, have a knack for looking after themselves first. Their donors come first. Their poll numbers come first. And when push comes to shove, half of them would rather be the heroic dissenter than your loyal foot soldier.
  
• Step two: Govern by emergency. Get the public scared. Tell them everything is a crisis. But the trouble with crises is that people get bored of them. They go back to worrying about petrol prices, their mortgage payments, whether their kid is failing maths. You can�t hold their attention forever, and when you lose the people, you start losing Congress.
  
• Step three: The law is only as strong as its enforcers. You tell the Department of Justice to sit this one out. Some do. Some don�t. Bureaucrats aren�t glamorous, but they�re stubborn. They delay. They resist. You fire one, but there�s always someone else to take their place. You fire enough, and suddenly, everyone starts paying attention.

• Step one: Get them to rubber-stamp your overreach. Some do. Some don�t. Some wring their hands and write long, agonised rulings that amount to �Well, technically, yes, but we don�t like it.�
  
• Step two: Expand the bench? In theory, great. In practice, even your own party starts backing away. They don�t want to be the ones who finally break the system, because they know the pendulum swings back, and when it does, they�d rather not be on the receiving end.
  
• Step three: Even the friendliest Court doesn�t enforce laws. It just interprets them. Someone still has to act on their rulings. States still have to comply. Federal agencies still have to do as they�re told. And inconveniently, they don�t always do as they�re told.

I wish I could share your jaunty optimism, Lira, but we're already seeing scenarios where Trump is talking about firing FBI agents or Musk is justifying gutting federal departments and authorising massive public data breaches on the grounds of hunting out vague, unproven "corruption". These are exactly the tactics we've seen in countless past dictatorships where political opponents and dissenters are dragged away on tenuous charges so quickly that the rule of fair law can't possibly be applied, and those left standing quickly become scared for their livelihood or even their freedom. In that kind of witch hunt, protecting your "reputation" quickly goes out the window for all but the most staunchly principled.

As for Ukraine... a month or so ago it briefly seemed like Trump was taking a positive anti-Russia stance on it, but that's predictably evaporated and he's going to thrash out a deal with Putin without even bothering to consult the rest of NATO. Trump rarely seemed that interested in foreign policy during his first term, but he seems vastly emboldened on the world stage this time around. Already his proclamations on Greenland, Gaza, Ukraine and international trade as a whole have been alarmingly aggressive.

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