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956 Worldwide

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Everything posted by 956 Worldwide

  1. If you will recall the DOGE people also spent a lot of time tweeting about how they discovered evidence of potentially fictitious federal government employees connected to email addresses that don’t offer responses.
  2. Virtually every grant that is listed here is a bespoke project designed to keep potential illegal immigrants from trying to move north.
  3. Also, this type of talk from MAGA is especially infuriating given the extreme wilting hothouse flower sensitivity they all demonstrate at even the mildest slight. We are in the midst of a sustained eight year temper tantrum because Hilary aptly referred to them as “deplorable.” The entire career of JD Vance was basically launched on the thesis that it is unkind to inform the menagerie of pillbillies, incels, and semi-hominids that make up the GOP base that most of their problems are due to their own manifold and manifest inadequacies and failings.
  4. Today Trump’s Special Envoy compared Ukrainians to barnyard animals who need to be beaten into submission. It is exhausting, the rudeness and arrogance and causal cruelty. This is the language of a spoiled and decadent despot, language that should make every American bristle. This is before we even begin to discuss the depravity of letting children and families be killed in their sleep so we can “get the attention” of a friendly nation. Beyond that, mules and donkeys are some of God’s strongest soldiers and we didn’t reach the apex of the food chain without them. Their inner light would blind General Kellog.
  5. These are good points and get at the heart of the issue. Before settling on a common defense policy and posture, Europe first has to decide what “Europe” is and second has to determine what role it wants to play as a geopolitical actor. Both questions are still very much open. What is “Europe?” Is this the EU 27? What about Britain? What about Turkey? Will it simply be NATO minus the U.S.? These are contentious and not at all settled questions. A big reason that everyone just let NATO continue to be the main security architecture is simply because it already existed and agreeing on a new one was too hard. None of those problems have gone away. And because “Europe” doesn’t exist, it can hardly settle on a defined strategic concept. Yes, Europe has shitty strategic airlift capacity but does a Europe that only cares about defending its common eastern flank need the robust capacity we have? The only reason we have it is because for decades we’ve known that any war we fight will be far, far away and across oceans. But maybe Europe does want force projection? At least Britain and France will want some level of blue water capability, and maybe an at-sea-deterrent that is uninteresting to Poland or Germany. The Baltics will squeal about anything that takes force away from the eastern flank, and we aren’t even beginning to talk about Balkans or potential Turkish interests. How do you reconcile member states competing priorities. U.S. defense production and posture is full of irrationalities and tradeoffs introduced by things like congressional politics and intra-service rivalries and state clout. And we ARE a defined political unit with a common foreign policy. There are massive frictions to a common European approach to defense at the structural and political level before we even address the technical.
  6. Many if not most already do have subsidiaries. The big ones you’ve heard of certainly. For example Lockheed builds F-35s in Italy, General Dynamics Land Systems has a European HQ in Spain that produces locally, and the M777 that is our own towed artillery piece is made by BAE with most production in England. The problem facing Europe is how deeply integrated and dependent their own production is with the United States (take a look at where components for a Gripen come from). Second is complete U.S. tech dominance in exquisite, strategic, and high-end capabilities. We guard it jealously and that kind of knowledge can’t be reproduced easily. Lockheed can’t just announce they are giving the F-35 radar to its European branch. These are vulnerabilities for us, too, but not near the extreme. Truly decoupling European and U.S. defense production would be deleting System 32 for Europe and they are going to have to be deliberate and cautious about how and where they choose to do this.
  7. I wish this were true but it is much more complicated. There are multiple elections this year across the continent where Kremlin aligned or Kremlin open populists stand a very real chance of prevailing. They will for sure gain more ground. Most of that is going to be driven by local level concerns and grievances but the Kremlin will exploit that. Instability and uncertainty introduced by U.S. actions also will benefit anti-system and populist groups. Destabilizing propaganda will be a big part of this effort.
  8. America is rapidly reaching pre-Civil Rights era levels of shamefulness. The difference is the scope of the targeted groups and not the utter hatred and inverse morality.
  9. We are likely going to help the Russians with that. We kind of already are. It’s clear we are going to try and put our thumb on the scale for national populist movements across Europe.
  10. In addition to @InkaUtexas’ they have cyber, sabotage, and other hybrid measures. Their big military advantage is the ability to forward deploy pure mass against the very hard to defend Baltics. They could achieve an advantage there. To rapidly move in against overwhelmed local forces, then begin making nuclear threats as Europe tried to mobilize to get them out. Europe has to figure out a way to extend deterrence without the U.S., and fast. Which is why Macron is floating the idea. One interesting option might be a European Ally only nuclear sharing program with the Baltics but that brings the risk of a hysterical Russian reaction. The introduction of another party trying to solve the extended deterrence problem in Eastern Europe introduces some real destabilizing elements that neither Trump or Putin has fully thought through.
  11. I’ve been decently impressed with European diplomacy over these first six weeks, but this is a long haul. They’ve avoided prompting any major Trump eruptions, managed to maintain maximum flexibility to have the U.S. remain engaged as much as possible, while setting the tone and table to fundamentally rebuild European security. That said there are many structural and political obstacles to translating European latent power into actual power. The current security architecture is not built for it and any new blueprint will face the familiar challenge of European unity. There will be considerable efforts to keep the U.S. somewhat onside and not to close any doors. Europeans have been fairly adept at working with and productively channeling a U.S. that wants to use the post war order it built mostly for its own interests and ends. The new challenge is how to engage a U.S. that is actively working against its own interests, or at least one that has radically reevaluated its own interests in a way incomprehensible to democratic and liberal counterparts.
  12. Sure am glad we have this group of tech geniuses to warn us that Elon Musk is doing exactly what he constantly talks about doing.
  13. Pure American juche. Genuine Dear Leader shit.
  14. I think these breaking news items are a bit overheated. Baerbock is not discussing mobilization in the sense of putting Germany on a war footing but is encouraging them not to wait to make major decisions on defense investment. Macron’s statements were much more measured although it is a momentous sign that he wants to discuss extending the French deterrent to other countries. We are on unprecedented ground as is, so capturing an accurate image will be important. I do think the ground has irreversibly shifted within the Transatlantic Alliance in a way that will be difficult for us to come back from.
  15. The calculation here is that Ukrainian leaders care about their people but Putin’s regime does not care about Russians. Thus, the clearest path to a “deal” is to speed up the deaths of Ukrainians.
  16. It’s been clarified that ALL intelligent e sharing has been stopped. Not only targeting assistance and imagery of the movement of Russian forces. We’ve stopped sharing information for advance warning of drone and missile strikes on Ukraine. The point is “leverage” and to force Ukraine to get serious about negotiating. At least, according to the White House. Trump wants a deal, and he thinks that more dead Ukrainian children and civilians will offer the shorter route to get there. So that’s what you’ve voted for, Spankytoes and Anastasis. We have to let Russia kill the Ukrainian kids if we want peace. Repulsive behavior by America, and entirely fitting because the people who voted for this are repulsive themselves. Promises made, promises kept.
  17. Pure fucking hathos for me here. Inject I into my veins straight.
  18. Tim Pool, who told the FBI he was too stupid to realize he was a paid Russian agent, has thoughts on how tariffs will result in lower prices.
  19. I’ll read the transcript. No upside to watching his bullshit in real time.
  20. I don’t often like to psychologize stuff but I think a lot of MAGA can be explained as the thinking of people who have never had a friend and can’t conceptualize what it would be like to have one.
  21. Guess what dipshit, European Allies have comfortably outspent and donated the United States for support for Ukraine. Maybe come back to talk when you actually know something.
  22. Lech Wałęsa and Solidarity showing moral courage again.
  23. I do think that Elon Musk is obsessed with the AI singularity and interplanetary travel and he’s trying to manufacture a collapse so he can get more and more buy-in for his monomania.
  24. My new stance on public education is that we need to make sure that kids are reading 19th century novels where the little brother or sister dies of measles or scarlet fever. At least one a year. That wasn’t just a plot device.
  25. I continue to avoid this thread because it’s just doing nothing good for me considering that Ukraine has consumed and continued to consume my life for the past 3.5 years. But I recommend this initiative and have helped buy a modernized T-72 tank, a Vampire rocket launcher system, and the helicopter. My understanding from friends is that Czechs donated 800k in the hour following the shitshow in the oval. Someone has to remember how to be Americans.
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