Devildoc
Verified Military
The Trump Presidency 2.0
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Even if you keep the COCOMs they need to be chopped by 80-90 percent, but I question if you need them at all.
Another fun one to look at are US Defense Attache's. Most are O-6's but Saudi has a 1-star and the UAE has a 2-star! The UAE was a 2-star position when I was there a decade ago and still when I left in '21. Even Llyod Austin's incompetent ass moved some positions back to O-6.
https://www.gomo.army.mil/public/Biography/usa-11135/richardj-quirkiv
https://www.nationalguard.mil/portals/31/features/ngbgomo/bio/2/2200.html
We have an O-6 in Germany, but an O-8 for the UAE?
There are also some commands run by an O-6, but with an SES-1 as the civilian deputy. Why do we need a GO equivalent as the deputy to a military O-6? People screaming that a GS-9 loggie is wasteful and should be RIF'ed, but this other shit flies under the radar.
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Not COCOM-related but this is going to make a cut: https://media.defense.gov/2025/May/...RECTOR-OF-OPERATIONAL-TEST-AND-EVALUATION.PDF
Roughly 100 personnel down to 30. If my memory is correct, 5-6 SES positions just became 1.
You had me at deleting AFRICOM. I had a mentor say something pretty prescient that changed my whole view of AFRICOM.
"Aaron, all the best leaders go to CENTCOM, not AFRICOM. AFRICOM is the minor leagues, and the talent reflects." Completely unnecessary layer of bureaucracy where it doesn't need to exist.
Devildoc
Verified Military
I have a friend who said AFRICOM is where good careers go to die.
Some good things came out of the Goldwater -Nichols Act but I think the COCOMs are an example of good initiative, poor judgment. The need for joint this and that exploded staffs and skewed the curve to a top-heavy bureaucratically cumbersome inertia.
We fought the battle of the bulge off of like 1 telegram. To think that we need 2k personnel staffing a command for Africa is ridiculous.
ThunderHorse
Verified Military
AFRICOM is like FUTURES Command, it was creates to give another 4 star a reason to exist, even though it had no raison d'etre. I'm wondering how this whole transfer merging of TRADOC with FUTURES and stuffing them into that Austin high rise. It's not like we didn't have real estate on some random base...as I said previously. ARCIC existed, so why did they create a 4 star command to not exactly replace it.
I had Musk pissing off Trump on my 2025 bingo card, but I didn't see it playing out like it has.
It will be fun to watch the "Elon is a great American" turn to "Elon is a turd interfering with Trump's vision" talking points. You'll also have a billionaire potentially spending a lot during the next election cycle on candidates he supports, not Trump's camp. Splitting the Republican party on votes for Trump's agenda will also be a bit spicy to watch.
And through it all the Democrats STILL won't know what to do which is pretty wild.
It will be fun to watch the "Elon is a great American" turn to "Elon is a turd interfering with Trump's vision" talking points. You'll also have a billionaire potentially spending a lot during the next election cycle on candidates he supports, not Trump's camp. Splitting the Republican party on votes for Trump's agenda will also be a bit spicy to watch.
And through it all the Democrats STILL won't know what to do which is pretty wild.
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Fuck Boner - fuck him right in his stupid self important misinformation spreading Irish asshole.
IDK who is saying that, but certainly not me. This statement from Elon only cements my feelings about Elon- he truly cares about America and wants what's best for her. He sacrificed billions of dollars, suffered his own character assassination and paid a real personal price for the country and DOGE.
Really, he just speed-ran the game of "liberal, disaffected liberal, conservative, super motivated conservative, disillusioned conservative when the reality of the Republican Party slaps you in the face" over the course of a year. He's a genius, it took me like 15 years to do that.
ETA- Your bolded is simultaneously the best and worst thing about the Republican party- they have bloody primaries, have real and substantive infighting, coalesce into factions that are at odds with each other- the left doesn't really do that. The get a narrative and march out in lockstep. The wider the tent on the right, the more this stuff is going to happen- it's Schroedinger's political party. Exactly what you want- discourse, a fight for ideals and at the same time fractious and an obstacle to getting a lot of shit done quickly.
I wasn't speaking to specific people but generalizing because I've seen the great American or similar statements scattered around the net and social media. Elon's great when he supported Trump, but now that they are at odds Elon's (insert cynical personal attacks here). To be fair, these same people probably cheered Trump "stacking" the Supreme Court and then lost their shit when those justices didn't support his decisions 100% as we've seen with some recent rulings. Weird, it's almost as if the Supreme Court cares about the law.
I'm gonna slightly disagree with the end of your statement here. The "left" is much more fractured than the right, but to the point that very rarely do any of those factions gain power. This leads to a party that can't function because there's no "push-pull" to make it do anything other than performative tasks.
The right will Balkanize but all together still be "conservative".
The left will do what this Emo Philips joke highlights, which means only "party line" get in.
757
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I've found that these same people often forget, or don't know, that attorneys argue before the SCOTUS judges and that stupid mistakes can ruin your case for you, even if the judges would have most likely otherwise been sympathetic to your argument.
Is this why all Dems vote in lockstep (literally 100%) against everything the other party does with very few notable exceptions? While the right (with a majority in Congress) constantly has to whip votes to do anything because 5-8 folks consistently vote against Republican bills? Looking at you, Massie and Rand Paul. For the record, I appreciate their voting record in principle, not in practice.
"The left" has been consistently dragged further to the left by these small factions and rarely (SUPER rarely) do you see the sort of infighting amongst those factions you do on the right. When someone dares speak up, they enjoy the same attacks usually reserved for conservatives, it happens so often I don't even need to post links, I have 40 posts on this thread for when it's happened.
Why is AOC the perceived leader of the Dems? Why are Temu Obama and the "old guard" of Pelosi, Schiff, Sanders et al trying desperately to reign the likes of the Squad and others? Yet when it comes time, all those folks are told how to vote and do so en masse?
Think my point might have been misunderstood. I'm talking about the overall groups that make up the left in society eating their young, which results in lockstepping for those elected.
I actually think you bringing up AOC+the squad is a great comparison point. That's the only "breakaway" group I can think of within the Dems in my adult life.
The DSA/Green/other leftists supporters/candidates often view "Dem" as a bad word, so they break off and essentially become nothing but mosquitoes. Those factions are crabs in a bucket, so they never rise to a level where it's even noticed.
The GOP has a bunch of factions that will infight, but almost all of those are still accepted as "Republican". Continuing the animal analogy; The GOP actually embodies their elephant, since factions get to vie for control.
Ironically, the GOP is less "conservative" in the fact that factions can actually grow, develop, and gain political power. They will adapt to change in political environment, whereas the Dems take years to turn the ship, if at all.
ETA: I firmly think that the back and forth of the GOP factions fighting is healthier for a party than whatever elected Dems do.
Given the fact that many of our fellow Americans are morons, it's not surprising that the biggest, loudest media whores of the Democratic party are considered the leaders.
Ok, gotcha, I don't necesarily disagree.
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