The Trump Presidency

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Dienekes said:
While he needed a new talking point in the media to cover up his shit, this will ultimately backfire on Trump and make him look weak. Congressional Republicans COULD see this as a chance to both expand their power relative to him, and recruit a more liberal younger base by just passing a law saying that transgender people can serve. "Hey we don't care what you identify as or do in your spare time. We just want to be fair to everyone and worry about much more important things to ensure the safety of our country and its citizens." Now, are they that smart? Unlikely...
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I saw a news report on this - I think in Politico - that talked about what a surprise his announcement was to the Pentagon. Apparently the President had been in a discussion with several conservative congresspeople about defunding surgery for trans people from the budget - as a tradeoff for support of the border wall. The President decided to go even further.

The funny/horrifying thing about his tweets - at least by this report - was in the 9 minutes between the tweets the situation room in the Pentagon was freaking out. Reportedly folks had briefed the President on options with North Korea and they thought his next tweet might be announcing some sort of strike DoD was supposed to conduct on North Korea.

If you believe that report - and it seems very plausible to me given the President's behavior - that's the state of our national security apparatus. The President claimed to have a secret plan to destroy ISIS in 30 days and that the Obama administration Pentagon was stupid for announcing plans against ISIS because it cost us the 'element of surprise.' The President has claimed the element of surprise against the Pentagon - still working on ISIS I guess.

Edit: Ok, traced back to the original news source on the Pentagon worries. First reported by Buzzfeed: Trump Says Transgender People Cannot "Serve In Any Capacity" In The Military

Buzzfeed is certainly not a neutral site when it comes to politics - but I'd put their accuracy in the same realm as mainstream news. Which, though far from perfect, is pretty good. Understand those that buy the 'fake news' and 'biased media' argument won't feel the same.
 
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Il Duce said:
First reported by Buzzfeed: Trump Says Transgender People Cannot "Serve In Any Capacity" In The Military

Buzzfeed is certainly not a neutral site when it comes to politics - but I'd put their accuracy in the same realm as mainstream news. Which, though far from perfect, is pretty good. Understand those that buy the 'fake news' and 'biased media' argument won't feel the same.
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Well, there is fake news, and there's biased news. But, yeah, if you can separate the shit from the shinola from any agency you can get good, real news.
 
Just got an Air Force wide email sent from the CSAF that basically said,

"Uh, hey guys. Er, girls. Or, neither. Whatever. Anywhoo, I understand you're all pretty confused by the trans order thingy, and uh, to be honest, us too.

SOOOOOOOOO, yea. Have a great day!"

Actuall message traffic reads-
"I know there are questions about yesterday's announcement on the transgender policy by the President. There will be no modifications to the current policy until the President's direction has been received by the Secretary of Defense and the Secretary has issued implementation guidance.

In the meantime, we will continue to treat all of our personnel with respect. As importantly, given the current fight and the challenges we face, we will all remain focused on accomplishing our assigned missions."

"After consulting with my generals..."

O RLY?
 
amlove21 said:
But yeah, some dude that sold data from Pakistan tried to go home. I guess it depends on what you care about in your news cycle.
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The fact that he and his relatives stole information on House members, and possibly used it for blackmail, at the time that the DNC was refusing the FBI's offer to investigate the hack on their system, that is being blamed on Russia.

You're right, I care about the wrong things. ;-)
 
Il Duce said:
I saw a news report on this - I think in Politico - that talked about what a surprise his announcement was to the Pentagon. Apparently the President had been in a discussion with several conservative congresspeople about defunding surgery for trans people from the budget - as a tradeoff for support of the border wall. The President decided to go even further.

The funny/horrifying thing about his tweets - at least by this report - was in the 9 minutes between the tweets the situation room in the Pentagon was freaking out. Reportedly folks had briefed the President on options with North Korea and they thought his next tweet might be announcing some sort of strike DoD was supposed to conduct on North Korea.

If you believe that report - and it seems very plausible to me given the President's behavior - that's the state of our national security apparatus. The President claimed to have a secret plan to destroy ISIS in 30 days and that the Obama administration Pentagon was stupid for announcing plans against ISIS because it cost us the 'element of surprise.' The President has claimed the element of surprise against the Pentagon - still working on ISIS I guess.

Edit: Ok, traced back to the original news source on the Pentagon worries. First reported by Buzzfeed: Trump Says Transgender People Cannot "Serve In Any Capacity" In The Military

Buzzfeed is certainly not a neutral site when it comes to politics - but I'd put their accuracy in the same realm as mainstream news. Which, though far from perfect, is pretty good. Understand those that buy the 'fake news' and 'biased media' argument won't feel the same.
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General Dunford is making it clear to his subordinates (all of us) that the DOD follows orders, not tweets.
 
Interesting points about the transgender ban in this article

What do we make of all of this? Is there a point of rationality we can grasp onto while everyone else screams louder and louder?

I argue that there are a few issues to consider from the perspective of military readiness, and maybe a few other thoughts on our socio-political sphere, as well.
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PeopleYelling.jpg
 
One of my Army buddies posted this on FB, and I totally agree with it...

What do you do when the ceo of your company simply tweets something like, "we are getting rid of your department?" Nothing more, nothing less.

Ok so does that mean everyone in that dept is fired effectively immediately? Is there a date in the future? Does that mean they just arent hiring anyone else in that dept? Does that mean once they finish their contracts they are terminated? Do those people get a severance package? Do they lose the benefits they'd otherwise be entitled to?

Whether you agree or disagree with whether trans people should be in the military is irrelevant to what I'm saying. What you would struggle to dispute is that the "order" isn't some half cocked plan with little to no thought put into implementation or execution. Ya know, the kind of order given by a ceo with dementia.
 
I truly wonder if anyone has had the balls to say to the President, "Sir, please delete your Twitter account and let the marketing/image professionals in the White House do their jobs." Or even "Mr. President, when you're finished defeating the mainstream media via Twitter, could you maybe step into the situation room for a sec?"
 
TLDR20 said:
One of my Army buddies posted this on FB, and I totally agree with it...

What do you do when the ceo of your company simply tweets something like, "we are getting rid of your department?" Nothing more, nothing less.

Ok so does that mean everyone in that dept is fired effectively immediately? Is there a date in the future? Does that mean they just arent hiring anyone else in that dept? Does that mean once they finish their contracts they are terminated? Do those people get a severance package? Do they lose the benefits they'd otherwise be entitled to?

Whether you agree or disagree with whether trans people should be in the military is irrelevant to what I'm saying. What you would struggle to dispute is that the "order" isn't some half cocked plan with little to no thought put into implementation or execution. Ya know, the kind of order given by a ceo with dementia.
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This is absolutely right on. But, I think it also opens up another problem with the administration. I think this decision is super fucked-up - in tone, presentation, substance, etc. - but it's (what passes for) a Presidential decision. I think it's very bad for the country - and bad for the government - to essentially say 'yeah, the boss is talking crazy again so let's just hold off on following his instructions - let's see if he calms down, gets his shit together, stops being a moron, whatever.' I've worked in organizations that were like that - and they were always dysfunctional - where people decided they weren't going to follow the boss's instructions. I've always felt like you owe it to the boss to be straight up with him/her instead of slow-rolling or ignoring them. If you can't do that you owe it to them to resign.

But, when looking at the situation the government is in now what choice do you have? If you're Mattis or Dunford do you upend thousands of your troopers lives, repurpose money, change strategies or any of the other shit because the boss is mouthing off? If you're the DOJ do you launch (or terminate) investigations off it? But, if you start ignoring stupidity/incompetence/bad policy on one platform where does it stop?

Sometimes watching this administration I feel like my definitions of leadership, strength, and effectiveness are 180 degrees from at least 40+ percent of the population.

I saw somebody post on FB - quoting someone else - 'It's Team of Rivals, but for morons'
 
@Il Duce, I think that many today mistake managers for leaders and there is a difference -- at least IMO. The administration comes across as being in more turmoil than any I have seen in the last few administrations.
 
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