They did past tense. How about with a 140%+ tariff?

We talk about it. A lot. At least my division and command does, both enlisted and officers. There were vets on April 5th that talked about it too, on the bullhorn.

Fortunately this community is on slrpnk.net which might not have the same kinds of trigger happy mods as .world?

Until nukes start flying. I pray every day for the light of a thousand suns. We deserve it.

https://www.cnn.com/2025/01/07/tech/meta-hateful-conduct-policy-update-fact-check/index.html

There’s 120 guns per 100 people in the US, a huge veteran population with combat training, most of them armed, multiple armed paramilitaries, militia groups, and a large number of people with military-grade munitions and equipment all over the nation. As the old quote goes, “behind every blade of grass, a gun”. It only takes about 3.5%. And there’s only a few million people in the government, and 300 million disgruntled individuals, many of whom know the exact tactics, exact procedures, cryptographic codes, techniques and practices of infantry, marines, special forces, SWAT, police, the DHS and ICE. Not to mention, disgruntled active-duty servicemembers on the inside - the “insider threat” they keep lecturing us about.

Tobacco/nicotine pouches.

If any enlisted person or even junior officer did this, straight to Leavenworth, do not pass go, do not collect $200. Who wants to bet they’ll accuse the journalist of treason and then deny that SecDef leaked anything?

But I liked profile pics and signatures! /owmyback

How’s it going?

Paging the colorful plumbers?

The tree of liberty must at times be watered with the blood of patriots. What is the Second Amendment for, if not for moments such as this? “But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.”

It’s being blocked from the main pages of every mainstream American media source, including social media and mainstream “alternative media”, usually relegated to the second or third page, but you can usually see it on !politics@lemmy.world, !news@lemmy.world, and !50501@piefed.social as well as on Mastodon. There’s millions of people protesting, tens of thousands at some places.

https://www.newsweek.com/photos-show-trump-musk-50501-protests-across-us-2032448

Ironfox seems to work well on Android.

Welcome! Do keep in mind that different communities and instances all have their own rules, and some will be just as petty as Reddit mods, but that’s why Lemmy is great - you can always spin up your own instance, with your own communities and make whatever rules you want, or find an identical community on a different instance. If you spin up your own instance, your account also can’t get suspended, only banned from specific instances or communities, because Lemmy is decentralized like that. If you don’t like the rules of one instance, look around for another - there’s plenty enough that I’m sure you’ll find your niche. Welcome again!

Welcome!

Welcome!

Again, I’ll repeat what I posted below:

I don’t think he understands just how difficult it is to actually form a competent military, and how much bureaucracy even a bunch of mercenaries like Blackwater actually needs in the background. Sentries fall asleep on watch, roving patrols don’t actually rove, logs get routinely blazed along with routine maintenance, inspections are marked complete while sweeping discrepancies under the table, supplies are rerouted or just plundered. And then there’s the manning issue. And again - millions of disgruntled, highly trained service members who know a thing or two about US strategic weaknesses, tactics, and standard operating procedures.

That’s when it gets real interesting to see if 120.5 firearms for every one hundred civilians actually does anything, as the 2A folks keep insisting.

When you have 300 million civilians with 1.2 guns each, and even a small portion of that decides to “do something about it”, that’s how you make the US cease to exist as a nation-state. Lots and lots of disgruntled, highly trained servicemembers.

You’d be surprised how many junior enlisted get up into shenanigans once they get past the boot camp phase. They get very quickly disillusioned once they reach the real military and realize their role isn’t to be Rambo or some COD fantasy but to hold a bucket and a mop, take out the trash, fetch coffee for officers and stand watch in the pouring rain with standard issue raingear that soaks all the way through in the first hour. Then the NCOs start revealing to them, privately, that upper brass is full of shit, the officers are all morons, and the SNCOs are all out of touch old men, and the disgruntlement really begins.

Sentries sleep on post. Roving patrols don’t do their rounds. Logs get blazed and backdated. Contraband gets passed around and “tactically acquired” in exchange for Monsters and tobacco dip. Chits get “lost” in routing, orders are conveniently “forgotten” or very interestingly “interpreted” and stretched.

The military functions because somehow, despite all the sandbagging and blazing, shit actually gets done if and only if the enlisted have a vested interest in it getting done (like keeping a ship from colliding or sinking, or a promise from an NCO with a history of following through that everyone goes home as soon as the paperwork is done), or if they’re not against it (get the equipment from point A to point B, figure it out). If enlisted don’t want something done, it’s hilariously easy for the thing not to get done, delayed, or done “strictly in accordance with”.

See that’s the thing, the enlisted are chock-full of contrarians ready to do “sneaky and enlisted” shenanigans just for kicks, contrary to popular belief. There’s an understanding that the officers are mostly full of stuck-up nepo pricks with unrealistic expectations and no understanding of the reality on the ground and in the shops. There’s a whole E4/E5 mafia at every command “tactically acquiring” contraband, goods, and services in exchange for favors. Sentries fall asleep on watch if they think they won’t get caught, and roving patrols simply don’t rove if they think they can get away with it, and usually, they can. The logs get blazed all the time without anyone noticing, maintenance isn’t actually completed, gauges aren’t actually read, doors aren’t checked and safes aren’t locked. There’s unauthorized videogame consoles installed in the back of the shop behind a bunch of crates, and you can get your qualification papers signed off in exchange for a Monster Ultra and apack of Slim Jims, or a log of dip. The SNCO can come through ripping down posters and crumbling them up and tossing them in the trash, but the E4 is just gonna come up behind him once he’s gone and put it right back up.

The military is a sprawling bureaucracy because people are people and people like cushy jobs where 90% of the time they’re not actually doing it. Your supply chit could get routed in a single day, but that would require effort in the entire supply chain, so instead it’ll be about 3 or 4 months before you receive the critical maintenance part. It doesn’t matter how many admirals and generals he fires, if the boots on the ground just grind the gears to a near standstill - and that’s where I’m putting my hopes for now.