2024 US Election

  On 2/14/2025 at 3:36 PM, decibal cooper said:

Yeah for sure - the only Trump adjacent person that has advocated for cutting defense in last few weeks was Steve Bannon, and he advocated for cutting the budget in half. I’m all for it if it’s real. 
 

Biden gave Israel 8 billion in his last week in office, not to mention a lot of other billions during his last 15 month collective punishment extravaganza. Why not mention that chengod? It is illegal what he did as Israel was murdering civilians openly and denying food and medicine. That money is basically US taxpayer donations to Israel for them to invest in America’s defense manufacturers for the weapons of war. Not saying that trump is gonna be any different here but I am saying that your political posts have a penchant in my opinion for hypocrisy

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Whereas trump is going to use those billions for good, like building the riviera of the Middle East in the ruins of Gaza, or building new homes for the Palestinians in Saudi Arabia 

  On 2/14/2025 at 3:36 PM, decibal cooper said:

Yeah for sure - the only Trump adjacent person that has advocated for cutting defense in last few weeks was Steve Bannon, and he advocated for cutting the budget in half. I’m all for it if it’s real. 
 

Biden gave Israel 8 billion in his last week in office, not to mention a lot of other billions during his last 15 month collective punishment extravaganza. Why not mention that chengod? It is illegal what he did as Israel was murdering civilians openly and denying food and medicine. That money is basically US taxpayer donations to Israel for them to invest in America’s defense manufacturers for the weapons of war. Not saying that trump is gonna be any different here but I am saying that your political posts have a penchant in my opinion for hypocrisy

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You asked when the last time any American president even talked about cutting the us military budget. I provided you two examples of presidents who actually cut the budget, not just talked about it. Not sure why you’re talking about giving money to Israel, except for to move the goalposts.

  On 2/14/2025 at 9:22 PM, chenGOD said:

You asked when the last time any American president even talked about cutting the us military budget. I provided you two examples of presidents who actually cut the budget, not just talked about it. Not sure why you’re talking about giving money to Israel, except for to move the goalposts.

 

 

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Fair enough. The Israel situation really pisses me off, but I think you are right, posting about it obsessively and trying to drive the convo in that direction is not productive or healthy online behavior on my part. 
 

at the same time the convo was based on trump saying he wanted to have talks with China and Russia about reducing the military budget in half. I also couched my question in relation to Eisenhower, who in his farewell address and in his great Cross of Iron speech approaches these issues in honest and thoughtful ways which makes these cuts that you mention by Obama and Biden, which I was not aware of and which were most likely very negligible cuts and I would imagine if you look at military spending in total under their regimes it either increased or was otherwise completely enormous and bloated, comparing those things from Biden and Obama with what Eisenhower talked about and also what Trump has proposed does not make sense to me.

tldr- just because this proposal is coming from Trump does not mean that it should be dismissed. If it materializes into talks with Xi and Putin about this and leads to meaningful cuts in America military budget and new ballistic missile and nuclear arms treaties, then how is that not a good thing? I get it, Trump says all kinds of wild shit that does not pan out, either out of stupidity or to gauge people’s reactions for approaching deals, but there are things happening these first few weeks that I definitely agree with, while at the same time being very skeptical about whether or not it will lead to any real policy changes.

tldr 2 : political rant sry boys

  On 2/14/2025 at 10:13 PM, decibal cooper said:

I also couched my question in relation to Eisenhower, who in his farewell address and in his great Cross of Iron speech approaches these issues in honest and thoughtful ways which makes these cuts that you mention by Obama and Biden, which I was not aware of and which were most likely very negligible cuts and I would imagine if you look at military spending in total under their regimes it either increased or was otherwise completely enormous and bloated, comparing those things from Biden and Obama with what Eisenhower talked about

Why don’t you look at the actual numbers instead of making assumption? In 2009, when Obama took office, the defense budget was $698B. His last budget in 2016 was $624B. The year before that it was under $600B. 
 

Eisenhower took power when the US had been spending inordinate amounts of money on the military both in total and a percentage of the US GDP. 
If you look at any charts, US spending on defense as a percentage of GDP has actually gone down. Now of course, I would be in favour of further cuts (in a post-scarcity world military should no longer be necessary at all, except for doing search and rescue type stuff).

I’m skeptical because Trump has four years, and China and Russia still want to show they are global superpowers, China especially. If it happens great, but I ain’t holding my breath, especially based on Trump’s past actions. 

  On 2/14/2025 at 11:48 PM, chenGOD said:

I’m skeptical

me too. there's been years when the pentagon submitted their budget request and congress would give that +$50 billion more just for fun.. and the pentagon would say "no really.. we don't need that" and congress would say "too bad.. you're getting that extra $50 billion regardless"

  On 2/14/2025 at 11:48 PM, chenGOD said:

Why don’t you look at the actual numbers instead of making assumption? In 2009, when Obama took office, the defense budget was $698B. His last budget in 2016 was $624B. The year before that it was under $600B. 
 

Eisenhower took power when the US had been spending inordinate amounts of money on the military both in total and a percentage of the US GDP. 

Okay now do Trump one and as I mentioned in post do Biden. I see your point, though, and it a good one to check my assumptions.

also worth mentioning that DoD is only one component of defense budget. You also have dept of veterans affairs, dept of Energy (has oversight of our nuclear arsenal, which trump called for NOT expanding in that press conference), and the state dept, which is more or less another arm of the military, as Biden’s state dept showed when they rushed the weapons approvals to active war zones in expedited fashion).

you need to factor these in to get a complete picture of US militarism. 
 

I also see your important point about Eisenhower years and Cold War context, but his advocacy is maybe just talk but that Cross of Iron speech and farewell address are prophetic in my eyes, cross of iron in particular, almost poetical rhetoric, and it still a viable philosophy for foreign policy especially today.

  On 2/13/2025 at 11:51 PM, ignatius said:

 

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As an Illinoisan, my respect level for this dude jumped 1000% for that. 

  On 2/15/2025 at 8:46 PM, Silent Member said:

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replace Country with 'fellow human/fellow lifeform' in that shit-eating Trump tweet and you might be getting somewhere.

  On 2/15/2025 at 8:46 PM, Silent Member said:

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boy he really knows how to trigger people 

the empire self destructs

the libs are seething - and also the republicans are seething (and no doubt coping)

  On 2/14/2025 at 11:48 PM, chenGOD said:

Why don’t you look at the actual numbers instead of making assumption? In 2009, when Obama took office, the defense budget was $698B. His last budget in 2016 was $624B. The year before that it was under $600B. 
 

Eisenhower took power when the US had been spending inordinate amounts of money on the military both in total and a percentage of the US GDP. 
If you look at any charts, US spending on defense as a percentage of GDP has actually gone down. Now of course, I would be in favour of further cuts (in a post-scarcity world military should no longer be necessary at all, except for doing search and rescue type stuff).

I’m skeptical because Trump has four years, and China and Russia still want to show they are global superpowers, China especially. If it happens great, but I ain’t holding my breath, especially based on Trump’s past actions. 

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post scarcity?

  On 2/20/2025 at 12:27 PM, Crazing said:

post scarcity?

Post scarcity

  On 2/20/2025 at 1:14 PM, chenGOD said:

Post scarcity

A soon to be redundant term. 

  On 2/20/2025 at 2:06 PM, Crazing said:

A soon to be redundant term. 

How do you figure?

the precariat

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Precariat

  On 2/15/2025 at 8:46 PM, Silent Member said:

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He obviously talking about Luigi

  On 2/20/2025 at 7:14 PM, colunga said:

He obviously talking about Luigi

he ordered the death penalty be sought in luigi's case. 

anyway.. short and to the point. 

https://www.politico.com/news/2025/02/19/donald-trump-king-imagery-02101

waiting on our friends & secret factions in the CIA/FBI/armed forces to do what i know they’ve been planning on for a long long time. 

  On 2/20/2025 at 7:55 PM, auxien said:

 

https://www.politico.com/news/2025/02/19/donald-trump-king-imagery-02101

waiting on our friends & secret factions in the CIA/FBI/armed forces to do what i know they’ve been planning on for a long long time. 

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he's purging the deepstate.. FBI etc. USAID was part of that. they did feed a lot of people but were often a front for CIA operations. regardless, it's a lever of power he's breaking and this will allow other countries into those spaces for better or worse. but they're breaking things and not really thinking about it and it probably leads to an unwinding of US power around the globe and collapse of the empire maybe. but we'll see.. it'll be messy and get worse. this shit is gonna have consequences and these people aren't smart enough to be thinking about all of that. or they don't care. 

i'd be surprised if there's a faction in the CIA that makes some kind of move against trump. i'm sure there's contingency plans but the CIA is probably all on board with a surveillance state that's emerging in the USA and keeping people in line. remember, they're partnered up with peter theil and palantir

  On 2/20/2025 at 7:55 PM, auxien said:

waiting on our friends & secret factions in the CIA/FBI/armed forces to do what i know they’ve been planning on for a long long time. 

yeah where the hell is this guy when you need him

  On 2/20/2025 at 8:07 PM, ignatius said:

he's purging the deepstate.. FBI etc. USAID was part of that. they did feed a lot of people but were often a front for CIA operations. regardless, it's a lever of power he's breaking and this will allow other countries into those spaces for better or worse. but they're breaking things and not really thinking about it and it probably leads to an unwinding of US power around the globe and collapse of the empire maybe. but we'll see.. it'll be messy and get worse. this shit is gonna have consequences and these people aren't smart enough to be thinking about all of that. or they don't care. 

i'd be surprised if there's a faction in the CIA that makes some kind of move against trump. i'm sure there's contingency plans but the CIA is probably all on board with a surveillance state that's emerging in the USA and keeping people in line. remember, they're partnered up with peter theil and palantir

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all pretty close to true/what he’s trying for, but that to my mind just makes it even more likely some status quo factions are going to want to curb those changes ASAP, and his (Elon’s) move fast and break stuff trajectory right now seems perfect for forcing a worst case scenario play for keeping power out of the wrong hands that is trying to shit all over the plans & energies in place. there’s a lot of money involved in this stuff, a lot of power. a lot of legacy. 

  On 2/20/2025 at 8:11 PM, zero said:

yeah where the hell is this guy when you need him

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exactly.