The Trump Presidency 2.0
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The last few weeks have shown us why laws exist.
That said, I won't be surprised if the next round of cuts in how many weeks or months are severe. I expect some payback and them making cuts with a MOAB.
I tend to agree with you on Trump's statements on Ukraine. Generally, they're a miss for me (I said it earlier in the thread). I'd ask you what your rational solution would be that wouldn't be "bending the knee to Russia", which is a really cool CNN talking point. Diplomacy is compromise, and we are talking about ending a 3-year war that has already cost 1 million lives... Is another million enough? Another $100B in funding? What *exactly* is their nationalism worth *to you* the American tax payer so that other countries and the MSM are satisfied that we didn't "bend the knee"?
Your bolded is where we diverge the furthest. In an emotional sort of "you go guys!" way, sure, that sort of nationalism is cool. In the real world, men and women everywhere are willing to die for their nationalism. Until this very topic, I was duly informed that my American nationalism was akin to racism, xenophobia, and enough to put me on a list and stand down an entire SOF command. Ukraine's citizens nationalism is worth (to me) some thoughts and prayers, but it does not quite rise to "put Slava Ukraine" in my bio. It's more like "that sucks, hope you figure out this regional conflict".
We left Afghanistan and their women and children to the predation of the Taliban- we gave them $70B worth of equipment to boot. China is engaging in wholesale ethnic cleansing every day, India has organized gang-rapes, and the entire continent of Africa is a dumpster fire.
Everyone wants to fight for their home, we don't need to help them die for it. I'd argue it's immoral to continue this protracted killing field just because I really dig their willingness to fight from the comfort and saftey of America.
This is an overall good. Challenge the cuts, put it to the judiciary, get a ruling, formalize it into legislation and not EO.
It's almost like the founders had this process correct when they wrote it and somehow we drifted to where we are now.
I am 100% for every legal challenge and the resultant ruling, whether I personally agree with the outcome or not. Re-baseline the entire process and working of our government.
I know you are very pro-Trump so I appreciate you and those like you who don't rubber stamp the Administration's actions. Sometimes our tribes are indeed wrong and not every decision or action is a W.
Topkick
Verified Military
I think too many of our fellow Republicans conflate draining the swamp and burning it all down.
Topkick
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Kraut783
SOF Support
Then the US should not have made a treaty with Ukraine to protect them, when they agreed to give up their nukes.
Devildoc
Verified Military
Agreed. That was an awful piece of diplomacy. Doesn't negate that we should not be funding them now.
TLDR20
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Great precedent to sign a defense agreement, get someone to give up their true defense, then back out because reasons?
Box
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Devildoc
Verified Military
Are you OK with what we've given them? It's OK see see audits turn up billions of misspent money or "we don't know where that money went", all the while the great leader galivants around the US and Europe to show up on covers of magazines, go to awards shows, and be strutted around like a peacock? So no end: give them whatever they want until someone taps out or is vanquished? Full steam ahead, bad money after good.
Nah, I'm good. Leadership is hard. Sometimes telling someone "we've done what we can do" and stepping back and letting them sort it out is leadership.
All of Europe combined has given $132 billion. The US alone has given about $114 billion. How about we meet in the middle: an operational and financial pause while we audit the money and results, in the meantime let Europe pick up the slack.
Kraut783
SOF Support
I understand...but, I don't think the treaty had an expiration date on it.
Devildoc
Verified Military
The let's really back it up with teeth and send US troops over. In for a penny, in for a pound, ammirite?
When this thing kicked off I was all-in on Ukraine. And I am all for them defending their sovereignty, even though Zelensky is also a dictator, and their government is also corrupt. The scales have fallen from my eyes, I see the money laundering that has gone on, I have seen Zelensky look good while parading about and canceling elections (now that's not a dictatorial move is it?), I have seen Europe letting the US "be a leader" (code for having us do more and pay more), all for......?
TLDR20
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I’m ok with fighting a proxy war against the Russians and bleeding them out for every inch of the Ukraine. I find it difficult to put a price tag on that.
Yeah, just a point of clarification here- I am not "Very pro-Trump"; I am very "pro-conservative." I think in the (very false) binary we are confronted with, the conservative movement is what's best for America and the only ideology that preserves and supports our American way of life and values.
I am not "progressive" because I think burning our institutions down in favor of some ridiculous utopia is not only idiotic but toxic to the values, morals, and way of life in our country. I don't like Republicans, or Democrats, or politics in general. I am an outputs/spreadsheet guy. Do what's best for the country, protect American interests first and at all costs, everything else is secondary. If you're John Fetterman and you say a true and valuable thing, then I support Fetterman on that issue. The problem is the focus pool of calm, rational democrats making decisions or positions that support America are so few and far between I don't get a chance to highlight those. Ro Khanna approximates sanity on most things- the problem is the things (like his stance on trans issues and the like) is so far afield for me that I have trouble supporting him as a person, because there are red-line issues with me, and our children is the biggest one.
Politics is a bus- I don't care who the bus driver is; I want to get where I am going, and if the bus starts going further away from my destination, I am out. I have just been put in this pro-Trump category because he's the man driving the bus at the moment. In 4 years, I hope you'll say I am very pro-Vance. And I know I constantly highlight dem failures. Still, I would have time to highlight republican failures if I wasn't distracted by the fact that at the heart of it, republicans make memes that upset a sect of society. At the same time, the democrats desperately want to destroy the family structure, label "whites" as the devil, and chemically castrate kids without their parent's consent.
I give exactly zero fricks about the republican party as a whole, and most of the parts piss me off. Republicans have harmed America in irreparable ways as well, primarily due to their inaction and adherence to the "we are not going to play the same game as the Democrats even though they've been smoking us in every conceivable category for the last 20 years" nostrums. It's ridiculous to think you're winning a game no one else is even playing. That worm is turning now, and I am here for it, as long as they keep getting me where I want to go.
But yeah, the Trump schtick with Ukraine is stupid, but there are going to be misses.
Devildoc
Verified Military
I used to be registered Republican. Now I am unaffiliated (i.e., independent). I pretty much agree with most of what you said.
It took Trump turning on the lights to see the cockroaches, and now we know who the cockroaches are. I am OK with him stomping on them (metaphorically, of course). Trump's general agenda aligns more with mine, so in that light, I am pro-Trump. I do NOT like the way he communicates, belittles, talks down, etc. As for as his personal life, who am I to judge? But if it was someone else promoting that agenda, I'd be backing that horse.
I agree with the assertion of the binary choice, which I also dislike. Gone are days of the blue dog democrats and dixiecrats and the moderate Republicans. I never agreed with all of them on everything, but could agree with most of them on many things, and as an, ah, older adult, married with kids, I like to think compromise is an important virtue, which seems all but extinct.
I do not care for Trump cozying up to Putin, but I am OK with evaluating our position on Ukraine ad trying to find a way out (because no one else is interested).
It was a memorandum, Ambassador Blinken (Anthony Blinken's dad) helped negotiate the agreement.
"W" did nothing when Russia attacked the country of Georgia, and IMO this told Putin the west wouldn't care if he annexed the Ukraine.
Obama's (material) aid package to the Ukraine was a joke, and we don't know how much of the $1.0B Hunter and Joe got as kick backs.
Trump's package was much better (Javelin ATGM for example), but still had the "defensive use only" tag.
Biden (and Europe) didn't turn the money spigot on until just before the invasion.
IMO, Biden purposely added caveats that were designed to lengthen the war, and not allow a Ukrainian victory.
We now have a WW I style meat grinder, Russia can lose more than the Ukraine can, and that strategy ultimately dooms the Ukrainian side.
The Ukrainians haven't gone to a full-mobilization either, so how dire can it be?
So explain to me again why continuing the war is good for the American Taxpayer?
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