Random political thought thread.

[Julius_Van_Der_Beak]

I really seriously got to wonder at the moment, like I dont doubt that Trump's firing of people in the Pentagon and recall of all troop deployments could in part be retaliation for perceived disloyalty but ultimately if all is true and the troops are brought home and the US does cease to be a nation of "perpetual war" then that would be a shock to the military-industrial complex and a real conundrum for the survival of capitalism as we know it.

Capitalism is freedom, bra. It's never needed force to prop it up.

 

[Lark]

Capitalism is freedom, bra. It's never needed force to prop it up.

In that case I would like to interest you in some reading literature on "Good Consent"

 

[Tater]

I find eating mayonnaise in public to be an effective deescalation technique in these times of heightened racial tension.

 

[Jaguar]

Stone encouraged Trump to consider declaring "martial law" should he lose reelection, or invoke the Insurrection Act. Using those new powers, Stone suggested, he should order the arrest of Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Apple CEO Tim Cook, "the Clintons," and "anybody else who can be proven to be involved in illegal activity."

Roger is out of his fucking mind.

 

[FemMecha]

'Opposite of reality' headline tactic once again...

Trump is blasting the military-industrial complex. But he's one of its biggest boosters.

 

[ceecee]

OK, is this for real??

Look, regardless of your thoughts of Trump, we need to acknowledge that he has kept his 2016 campaign promise of bringing our troops home after fighting a freaking 20-year clusterf**k of whatever the Middle East is. To his credit, he hasn’t gotten us into any new wars and he has begun to bring our troops home. Surprise to no one, sadly, the war machine is alive and well and has been actively fending off any challenge. Gotta make that money...

Without using some grifting dumbass podcaster like Tim Pool, can you tell me exactly what troops from what 20 year Middle East clusterfuck are coming home?

About 1000 troops were shifted from Syria to western Iraq - they were never brought home. Last number I saw was about 20,000 troops sent to the Middle East since 2019. I have no idea how one comes to the conclusion that he kept any promises regarding the military.

US general says troop surge in Middle East may not end soon

Trump not ending 'endless wars,' increasing US forces in Middle East - Business Insider

 

[Dreamer]

Without using some grifting dumbass podcaster like Tim Pool, can you tell me exactly what troops from what 20 year Middle East clusterfuck are coming home?

About 1000 troops were shifted from Syria to western Iraq - they were never brought home. Last number I saw was about 20,000 troops sent to the Middle East since 2019. I have no idea how one comes to the conclusion that he kept any promises regarding the military.

US general says troop surge in Middle East may not end soon

Trump not ending 'endless wars,' increasing US forces in Middle East - Business Insider

So the pentagon lying to the president to maintain troops in the US is not worthy to discuss? Unless there is a rebuttal to the claim of dishonesty between the pentagon and the president, I have little interest. Please do fact check me, I sincerely hope there is a source to debunk that article shared.

 

[ceecee]

So the pentagon lying to the president to maintain troops in the US is not worthy to discuss? Unless there is a rebuttal to the claim of dishonesty between the pentagon and the president, I have little interest. Please do fact check me, I sincerely hope there is a source to debunk that article shared.

I never said it was not worth discussing. I said to do so without using a video from a grifting dumbass like Tim Pool. Why are you taking my critique of your source as some kind pf personal attack? The only question I asked you is - can you tell me exactly what troops from what 20 year Middle East clusterfuck are coming home? What troops are involved in this 2016 campaign promise? I would hope you don't require a video to answer that question.

 

[Jaguar]

Troops coming home. Was I put in a coma and missed it? All I recall is watching Kurds throw food at the troops for backing out on them and running off to Iraq with their tails between their legs.

US troops pelted with rotten fruit and stones as they leave Syria – video | World news | The Guardian

 

[Dreamer]

I never said it was not worth discussing. I said to do so without using a video from a grifting dumbass like Tim Pool. Why are you taking my critique of your source as some kind pf personal attack? The only question I asked you is - can you tell me exactly what troops from what 20 year Middle East clusterfuck are coming home? What troops are involved in this 2016 campaign promise? I would hope you don't require a video to answer that question.

I admit I likely took that particular claim at face value. I try to cross check the media these days with what, massive wildly conflicting information, but eh...

The immediate emotional reaction I had over the pentagon official’s admission is largely why I posted the video, the last bit of my post regarding Trump’s campaign promise shouldn’t have been included.

 

[Jaguar]

.

 

[Red Herring]

Trump did withdraw (or announce the withdrawel of) US troops, that much is true.... from Germany!

He claims they are stationed there to protect the Germans and since their defense budget is still too low (because our army is disfunctional and chronically underfunded and has been for decades because there is little popular support in the somewhat antimilitaristic population and increasing the defense budget won't win anyone any votes). The German version of things is that we are doing you a service by letting them be stationed here as they are there for geostrategic/logistical reasons that have little to do with protecting Germany and much more with getting people and supplies from A to B and probably the range of the weapons stationed there.

 

[Lark]

Sometimes I wish that all the Koresh style lunatics dreaming of a second civil war would go ahead and pull some stunt in the US and get put down once and for all.

Like I wonder what things would look like if all hope of some kind of short circuiting of reality back to the days of slavery disappeared and they all killed themselves or otherwise disappeared. So tired of them, pasty, burn out, meth and cousin abusing alcoholics the lot of them.

 

[FemMecha]

So the pentagon lying to the president to maintain troops in the US is not worthy to discuss? Unless there is a rebuttal to the claim of dishonesty between the pentagon and the president, I have little interest. Please do fact check me, I sincerely hope there is a source to debunk that article shared.

It appears that there was not a refusal to obey an order to withdraw, but that the military leaders were being vague with Trump about actual numbers, so intentional manipulation was happening to help insure troops would not be removed. It reads as though they did not specially state a false number, but implied fewer troops than were present.

James Jeffrey, the “US Special Representative for Syria”, had admitted to lying to the former US president, Donald Trump, about the real number of US troops in Syria

"We were always playing shell games to not make clear to our leadership how many troops we had there," Jeffrey said...
"What Syria withdrawal? There was never a Syria withdrawal," Jeffrey said.
"We then decided to come up with five better arguments for why we needed to stay. And we succeeded both times. That's the story."

It looks like James Jeffrey is said to be stepping down.

This article provides some background to why the U.S. had a presence in Syria.
"Many people fled because they're very concerned about these Turkish-supported Syrian opposition forces, as we are. We've seen several incidents which we consider war crimes," Jeffrey said
Jeffrey called Turkey's crossing the border and offensive against the Kurds "a tragic disaster for northeast Syria."
U.S. forces found evidence of war crimes by Turks in Syria

 

[Dreamer]

It appears that there was not a refusal to obey an order to withdraw, but that the military leaders were being vague with Trump about actual numbers, so intentional manipulation was happening to help insure troops would not be removed. It reads as though they did not specially state a false number, but implied fewer troops than were present.

James Jeffrey, the “US Special Representative for Syria”, had admitted to lying to the former US president, Donald Trump, about the real number of US troops in Syria

"We were always playing shell games to not make clear to our leadership how many troops we had there," Jeffrey said...
"What Syria withdrawal? There was never a Syria withdrawal," Jeffrey said.
"We then decided to come up with five better arguments for why we needed to stay. And we succeeded both times. That's the story."

It looks like James Jeffrey is said to be stepping down.

This article provides some background to why the U.S. had a presence in Syria.
"Many people fled because they're very concerned about these Turkish-supported Syrian opposition forces, as we are. We've seen several incidents which we consider war crimes," Jeffrey said
Jeffrey called Turkey's crossing the border and offensive against the Kurds "a tragic disaster for northeast Syria."
U.S. forces found evidence of war crimes by Turks in Syria

Appreciate the links shared, Powehi!

I mean like, I get presidential candidates will often say one thing regarding international policy, then carry out differing action once they actually get elected and briefed by the generals with all the necessary information, so whether Trump stuck to a campaign promise or not was a huge disservice to my actual concern here in that it’s imperative the president be presented with real data to then make a call as our commander in chief. What I fear, is the potential for many other miscalculations that could’ve occurred due to a lack of transparency, outside of our interventions with Syria.

 

[FemMecha]

My interpretation is that James Jeffrey was very invested in what was happening in Syria and felt there were war crimes and atrocities occurring. He did allow a personal level investment that led him to an "end justifies the means" to cross a line to protect his morally based interests. This is a different picture than war-mongers longing for violence and profit tricking Trump because he has the nobler cause. I think James Jeffrey did cross an ethical line, but did it because he allowed himself to become personally invested in what he witnessed as human tragedy. I can see the necessity of him stepping down, since the military cannot operate in that manner, but I don't see it in the way the blogger posted that Trump is a pacifist fighting against the war-mongers. Trump has enacted military violence and he is building up military forces for a reason. This military build up is profiting the military industrial complex and I believe it is done for the purpose of future wars. A true pacifist puts money into medical research, education, and social program, not bombs, fighter jets, and missiles.

 

[Lark]

Trump did withdraw (or announce the withdrawel of) US troops, that much is true.... from Germany!

He claims they are stationed there to protect the Germans and since their defense budget is still too low (because our army is disfunctional and chronically underfunded and has been for decades because there is little popular support in the somewhat antimilitaristic population and increasing the defense budget won't win anyone any votes). The German version of things is that we are doing you a service by letting them be stationed here as they are there for geostrategic/logistical reasons that have little to do with protecting Germany and much more with getting people and supplies from A to B and probably the range of the weapons stationed there.

Probably means that they are going to use somewhere else as Airstripe one rather than Germany.

 

[Kingu Kurimuzon]

My wife said she views me as a feminist man, based on how egalitarian she thinks my worldview is. I’ve been trying to politely explain to her why I tend to want to reject the label based on taking issue with core ideological dogma (which most of the definitions conveniently leave out or obfuscate). I’ve tried to point out actual harmful policy advocated for and pushed by feminist organizations (Duluth Model, for instance), and every time, she just shrugs it off and says something like “well those weren’t really feminists, they were female supremacists masquerading as feminists”.


She didn’t even know patriarchy theory was a thing until I explained it to her about two years ago. “I have literally never heard of that”

 

[The Cat]

 

[Kingu Kurimuzon]

Hahahahaha fucking snowflakes