Mega-Thread: Trump Focused Discussion

[cubby]

Maybe I misunderstood... to me it seems like he denied getting a call while driving to drunken donuts. It doesn’t mean he didn’t take the call at another time.

It's the specifics he provided that nail him down to an event he claimed didn't happen.

[Breccia]

And What He Meant Was.

I certainly don't think that the president at any point has done anything but condemn violence against journalists or anyone else. In fact, every single time something like this happens the president is typically one of the first people to condemn the violence and the media is the first people to blame the president.

She then stood, surprised by the silence. "Nobody's going to ask follow-up questions?"

A reporter shook his head. "No point. You basically just said that water is flammable and toxic at room temperature. Nobody who leads with that has anything remotely useful to say afterwards."

"But...it was such obvious bait!" Sanders screeched, waving a handful of papers, as the reporters en masse turned and walked away. "His tweets! What he said about protesters! What he did when Nazis fucking murdered someone in the streets! I have a defense for everything! I worked for weeks on this! Challenge me! CHALLENGE ME!"

She was standing alone. A light rain began to fall. In the distance, a dog barked.

[Zaydin]

Well, this is going to be a pickle for Trump. He loves being awarded, but I don't think he's going to be collecting his newest awards. He won Golden Razzie Awards for Worst Actor for footage of him used in Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 11/9 and Dinesh D'Szouzas 'Death of a Nation, while Worst Screen Couple went to Trump and his self-perpetuating pettiness. Kellyanne Conway won Worst Supporting Actress. Not the first time Trump has won a Razzie though; he got Worst Supporting Actor in 1991 for some bad movie called "Ghosts Can't Do It".

[Omega10]

Well, this is going to be a pickle for Trump. He loves being awarded, but I don't think he's going to be collecting his newest awards. He won Golden Razzie Awards for Worst Actor for footage of him used in Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 11/9 and Dinesh D'Szouzas 'Death of a Nation, while Worst Screen Couple went to Trump and his self-perpetuating pettiness. Kellyanne Conway won Worst Supporting Actress. Not the first time Trump has won a Razzie though; he got Worst Supporting Actor in 1991 for some bad movie called "Ghosts Can't Do It".

I find it interesting that Fahrenheit 11/9 slammed Obama a lot harder than it slammed Trump.

[Zaydin]

I find it interesting that Fahrenheit 11/9 slammed Obama a lot harder than it slammed Trump.

I never saw it because I figured it would just be confirmation bias for me, but I can only assume it was for Obama not letting the country know before the election Russia was trying to get Trump elected.

[Adam Jensen]

So I wanted to bring this up so we're all clear on what this is.

The Space Force is generally regarded an idea whose time has not yet come. The position of the Defense Establishment, experts and Congress has been, up to this point "let's talk about it over the next few years and see". Having an independent service regarded is as an inevitability, but there are and remain major questions as to sorting out responsibilities and jursidiction.

Yeah I don't get it. What would the "Space Force" do that isn't already covered by the Air Force, specifically, the AF Space Command? Defend us from Reapers?

[DarkTZeratul]

Not that interested in the rest but this is drivel. US hard power has not declined at all...

The US losing global trust is a decline of soft power.

[Dead Moose Fandango]

Yeah I don't get it. What would the "Space Force" do that isn't already covered by the Air Force, specifically, the AF Space Command? Defend us from Reapers?

Hot astronaut sex, dammit. I mean, isn't it obvious?

[Thekri]

Yeah I don't get it. What would the "Space Force" do that isn't already covered by the Air Force, specifically, the AF Space Command? Defend us from Reapers?

Ah, Reapers. The immortal race of starships allegedly waiting in deep space. We have dismissed this claim.

[Adam Jensen]

Ah, Reapers. The immortal race of starships allegedly waiting in deep space. We have dismissed this claim.

Crooked Shepard's investigation into the Reaper threat is FAKE NEWS!!!! Reapers are STRONG allies with US! WITCH HUNT!!!

Reapers won't invade Earth, Harbinger told me and I trust him. We're good friends.

[Zaydin]

Trump also repeatedly refused to talk about the Republican election fraud in North Carolina when repeatedly asked about it, instead trying to go on tangents about nonexistent fraud in California, Texas and Florida.

Not that it's surprising, since it doesn't fit his narrative about who is actually committing fraud.

[Stormspark]

Crooked Shepard's investigation into the Reaper threat is FAKE NEWS!!!! Reapers are STRONG allies with US! WITCH HUNT!!!

Reapers won't invade Earth, Harbinger told me and I trust him. We're good friends.

You officially win the internet.

[Dontrike]

https://twitter.com/economics/status...57290791022593

The best part of that video was the guy on the left chuckling each time Trump said something stupid. Still amazes me that people voted for this idiot.

[Worvon]

So this happened in front of reporters: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...rful-in-return

Just agree with whatever Trump wants then do whatever you were going to do anyway is the takeaway from that story.

Wow, he got laughed at by the foreign delegation IN the Oval Office. That just proves the world has literally zero respect for this moron.

[Zaktar]

The grand strategy was damaging Clinton, if you think America is chaos you should look at Russia and feel reassured.

Indeed. But it all feels more comfortable if someone is in control, even if it's someone we don't like.

[PosPosPos]

The fantasy that US is withdrawing from the world is a sign of stupidity. They are building an alliance structure between Australia and Japan, the bombers are still patrolling Korea, it is even more involved in Eastern Europe and it's presence in the ME is unchanged. What some European PM thinks about Trump or US for that matter is irrelevant.

The fantasy that "the US losing trust globally" is somehow equivalent to "US is withdrawing from the world" is a sign of stupidity too, but you don't seem to be above making ludicrous strawmen.

[Nellise]

Otherwise, you'll get to enjoy some fireworks with the guy that is tooootally your fave President!

Fireworks on the 4th of July, why I've never heard of such a preposterous thing! Trump really is changing things.

[Dontrike]

Why does that question at the end even exist there? I thought that was the goal all the way back to last year?

He ends about 25% of his tweets with a random one word question.

[Skroe]

Trump still talking about how great North Korea could be.

I understand wanting things to go well but, I've never seen someone brown nose a dictator so hard before.


Why does that question at the end even exist there? I thought that was the goal all the way back to last year?


Otherwise, you'll get to enjoy some fireworks with the guy that is tooootally your fave President!

Being Master of Ceremonies is pretty much all the power Individual-1 has left. First through his election loss in November, and then his shutdown farce where he negotiated himself downwards, he's weakened to the point of barely being relevant.

Donald Trump is basically a slimeball, cheesy Quentin Tarantino character. I envision him meticulously adjusting his "do", putting on his look and makeup, in front of some out-of-the-1970s mirror before every appearance. He's a hammy, shitstain of a person who has always wanted to be far more important and significant than he is. He's the kind of guy who wants to a big deal, but is most at home at the dingiest, cheapest all-you-can-eat Sunday afternoon buffets. He passes out after a full meal by drinking bad/cheap liquor and masturbating to well-worn issues of Hustler.

That's Donald J. Trump. As pathetic specimen of a man as America is able to produce. He'd deserve a level of sympathy if he weren't completely fucken evil.

- - - Updated - - -

Yeah I don't get it. What would the "Space Force" do that isn't already covered by the Air Force, specifically, the AF Space Command? Defend us from Reapers?

Pretty much nothing. And that's kind of the point. Right now, Space Force is going to be AF Space Command plus a little from other agencies, but not the biggest stuff. It's not taking over non-military NRO, or NGA activities, for example. The Pentagon realized Trump is driven by marketing, so they're going to allow him to market it. Standing up US Space Command though, to coordinate all military and some civilian space activities, is a practical and good plan. And when Trump's gone, they'll be able to quickly undo it, if they want to.

The issue of the future space-based missile defense network that I mentioned is a very non-trivial case of why Space Force is a big questionark right now. One day it may include interceptors, lasers and that sort of thing. But long before that happens, and much more practically in the near term, it's going to mean an absolutely enormous network of observation, tracking and relay sattelites to augment the largely ground-based system. This is an absolutely massive project. We're talking several dozen sattelites, probably with individual costs of ~$120-$450 million and launch costs of $90 million (for a military-spec Falcon 9) to $480 million (Delta IV Heavy). A tracking satellite with a big mirror or other sophisticated sensor could cost $1.5-$2.5 billion easily. Besides GPS, it might be the largest single-purpose network in orbit when built through the early 2040s. And it's going to be in the hands of the Missile Defense Agency, and not Space Force.

Yeah... how this thing fits and works... many, many stakeholders have been working on it for years now, and they don't have a clear picture yet.

My personal two cents? China plans to be positively imperial about it's off-world activities. It wants to go to the moon for military and colonization purposes. The United States will be setting up bases on the moon, and then Mars this century. China will not be far behind. I do not anticipate either to be in the spirit of cooperation. My perspective? Earth-centric activities belong in the hands of extant agencies, Space Force will be able securing defense of American territory and interest on the Moon, Mars, and defense of (rather than operation of) the Earth-centric space-based activities. The latter part of that is reasonable near term, and the US does need to begin deploying space-based weapons to strike other space-based weapons. The former portion is like, 50-70 years down the road and not worth worrying about now.

But that may be the best role of "space force" in the near term. They don't operate these huge constellations. They just defend them from attack using its own network.

[Zaydin]

Fireworks on the 4th of July, why I've never heard of such a preposterous thing! Trump really is changing things.

I'm not sure whether it's sad or hilarious that he's so desperate to be seen as some sort of innovator and be celebrated that he's trying to take credit for something that has been done for decades.