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Trump administration 2024-2028

Czech_pivo said:
From Golden Dome to Golden Dust?


Trump’s Golden Dome, a year in, is struggling to take shape​

The president vowed to build a missile defense shield for the country in three years. It’s nowhere close to being done.

One year and billions of dollars later, his “Golden Dome” dream is no closer to reality.

The people warned that Trump’s desire to create such a Herculean feat in three years has been further hampered by inconsistent communication to industry. And they noted some of the technological and logistical hurdles facing the program are likely insurmountable.

Space Force Gen. Michael Guetlein said the Defense Department is planning to test a space-based interceptor in 2028, but the department hasn’t specified what it will demonstrate or how complex the test will be.

Despite the uncertainty, defense contractors are eyeing the massive pot of money and racing to prove how their systems can fit into Trump’s Golden Dome vision.

The Pentagon has already doled out small contracts to start developing space-based interceptors. The expectation is that companies will spend their own money in the development phase, in hopes of winning big production contracts down the line.

But companies are frustrated that the Pentagon hasn’t tapped into the $23 billion already appropriated by Congress in the reconciliation package passed last summer.

“I don’t think anyone in industry is banking on [space-based interceptors] surviving into the next admin,” the second industry representative said. “To the extent possible, they are going to package together existing [research and development] efforts and bank on the Trump admin deciding to spend money faster to show progress.”

Appropriators have criticized the Pentagon for the lack of information on Golden Dome. They asked the department to provide a comprehensive spending plan for the effort within 60 days of the annual defense appropriations bill becoming law.

Pentagon officials have attributed the secrecy, in part, to protecting its classified plans from adversaries. Guetlin said in January that bad actors have already been “hacking” into the defense industrial base.

The Defense Department held one industry conference in August to discuss its plans, but Guetlein said the office doesn’t plan to hold another one any time soon because the Pentagon became “too exposed” to security threats after the first conference. The Golden Dome czar said he’s instead been meeting one-on-one with companies in classified settings to communicate its needs.

Golden Dome will also require buy-in from key allies, such as Canada and Greenland, to use Arctic radars and airspace to track incoming missiles. But trade wars have stymied Guetlein’s interactions with allies, the general said last week — adding another layer of complexity to the effort.

This stuff reminds me of an old phase that was common under the Mulroney years about Canada's role in missile defense systems in North America - 'Incineration without Representation'.
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So he's not just going to contract it out to Musk?

I'm shocked...
 
HavokFour said:
Trump says Republicans should ‘nationalize’ elections
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For those keeping score, this would be consistent with step 6 of the stages of authoritarianism. One might argue that the ICE raids and demonstrations are step 7, completing the transition, but I think that will be reserved for invocation of the Insurrection Act.

The seven stages, according to Protect Democracy and other analyses, are generally described as:
  1. Politicizing Independent Institutions: Filling the civil service, law enforcement, and judiciary with loyalists to ensure compliance and prevent oversight.
  2. Spreading Disinformation: Using state media or aligned networks to spread falsehoods, creating an echo chamber that blurs the line between truth and lies.
  3. Aggrandizing Executive Power: Expanding executive authority while undermining legislative and judicial checks, often using "legal" loopholes.
  4. Quashing Dissent: Limiting freedom of speech, restricting the press, and using regulatory power to punish critics and universities.
  5. Scapegoating Vulnerable Communities: Demonizing minorities, immigrants, or political opponents to create division and rally a base through fear.
  6. Corrupting Elections: Altering electoral rules, gerrymandering, or using state resources to ensure the ruling party wins, even if elections still occur.
  7. Stoking Violence: Encouraging or enabling political violence, threats, or intimidation against opposition members and civic society.
 
brihard said:
And those people were also wrong
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Which I was happy to point out at the time.
brihard said:
Were any of them the then sitting President of the United States?
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Not on this particular issue (although Hans Spakovsky disagrees), but it's not the first time a president has mused about doing something unconstitutional, let alone following through. What the "ordinaries" have done doesn't muster additional outrage when Trump, who is so very much extraordinary (beyond "normal parameters", as PJ O'Rourke might have put it), does it. As usual it's fine to indulge in the latest round of "how can things like this happen", but important to not lose sight of the fact that it's happened before and that the fix will have to come from the "sober serious civil decorum-and-comity" faction, not Trump. And it's just as bad if it's done one executive order at a time instead of one lump.
 
ModlrMike said:
For those keeping score, this would be consistent with step 6 of the stages of authoritarianism. One might argue that the ICE raids and demonstrations are step 7, completing the transition, but I think that will be reserved for invocation of the Insurrection Act.

The seven stages, according to Protect Democracy and other analyses, are generally described as:
  1. Politicizing Independent Institutions: Filling the civil service, law enforcement, and judiciary with loyalists to ensure compliance and prevent oversight.
  2. Spreading Disinformation: Using state media or aligned networks to spread falsehoods, creating an echo chamber that blurs the line between truth and lies.
  3. Aggrandizing Executive Power: Expanding executive authority while undermining legislative and judicial checks, often using "legal" loopholes.
  4. Quashing Dissent: Limiting freedom of speech, restricting the press, and using regulatory power to punish critics and universities.
  5. Scapegoating Vulnerable Communities: Demonizing minorities, immigrants, or political opponents to create division and rally a base through fear.
  6. Corrupting Elections: Altering electoral rules, gerrymandering, or using state resources to ensure the ruling party wins, even if elections still occur.
  7. Stoking Violence: Encouraging or enabling political violence, threats, or intimidation against opposition members and civic society.
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Democrats have already been at 1 through 7 for a while. They don't get a pass on their self-serving uses of public employment and appointments, media, executive authority, illiberal actions against freedoms of expression, disparaging and violent rhetoric against political opponents, open political gerrymandering and "machine" politics, or their own tactics against political opponents and rule of law.

Better find a different yardstick if the goal is to single out Trump.
 
Brad Sallows said:
He isn't the only one. Back when it was perceived that state control of elections helped Republicans at inconvenient times, a lot of people opined that a single federal system ought be imposed.
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Trump didn’t propose a federal elections system. He proposed that the Republicans take it over … he proposed a single system controlled by one of the parties.
www.bbc.com

Trump says Republicans 'should take over the voting' and 'nationalise' US elections

American elections are primarily run by state law, and voting is administered by local officials across the country.
www.bbc.com www.bbc.com
 
McG said:
Trump didn’t propose a federal elections system. He proposed that the Republicans take it over … he proposed a single system controlled by one of the parties.
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In a limited number of locations. It doesn't sound like "nationalized" election laws if it doesn't cover the entire country. It does sound like state governments continuing to do their thing, but adhering to some sort of common framework, aimed at districts or perhaps entire states that displease Trump. First "Republicans" will have to win the state houses and senates. They can only wish; I doubt that many of the locations are not solidly "blue". Another possibility is that he got wind of, without understanding, the proposed "SAVE" act. (Registration is already subject to federal legislation.)
 
HavokFour said:
China is successfully and completely taking over the once Great Country of the United States of America. So sad to see it happen. I only hope they leave Football alone!

View attachment 98299
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Glazing Yes Man GIF by Noise Nest Network
 
Czech_pivo said:
www.cnbc.com

Trump says U.S. and India reached trade deal, will lower tariffs immediately

The U.S. and India have reached a trade deal to lower tariffs, President Donald Trump announced.
www.cnbc.com www.cnbc.com

Trump says U.S. and India reached trade deal, will lower tariffs immediately​


Prime Minister Narendra Modi committed to “stop buying Russian Oil, and to buy much more from the United States and, potentially, Venezuela,” Trump said on Truth Social.

"we agreed to a Trade Deal between the United States and India, whereby the United States will charge a reduced Reciprocal Tariff, lowering it from 25% to 18%."

This runs counter to our hopes of sending them our oil in the future. Either way, this should NOT prevent us from moving forward on our new oil/gas pipelines to the coasts.
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Or perhaps that wasn't actually agreed to.

www.tribuneindia.com

Energy security of 1.4 billion people remains supreme priority: India rejects claim it will halt Russian oil imports - The Tribune

India reaffirmed that energy security for its 1.4 billion people remains its supreme priority, pushing back against Donald Trumps claim on Russian oil. MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal stressed diversified sourcing, while PM Narendra Modi confirmed the US trade deal without referencing oil.
www.tribuneindia.com www.tribuneindia.com


Bonus, and still might be in play.

India was willing to wait out Trump term on trade deal​

 
MilEME09 said:
tariffs are here to stay, thanks america

https://twitter.com/x/status/2019437143618121839
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Like I keep saying, there’s no particular reason to believe there’s a good deal to be had. Kick the can down the road the road, hope SCOTUS strikes down one version of the tariffs, and keep CUSMA going as long as we can. But don’t think there’s anyone on either side of Canada’s political spectrum who can reason the Americans into basic economic rationality that they’ve consciously abandoned.
 
Brad Sallows said:
In a limited number of locations ... aimed at districts or perhaps entire states that displease Trump. First "Republicans" will have to win the state houses and senates ...
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Bang on - and also why it looks pretty partisan/authoritarian (depending on how harshly one wants to judge).
Brad Sallows said:
... They can only wish; I doubt that many of the locations are not solidly "blue" ...
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One hopes, but if things like gerrymandering can work, "central control" in certain spots couldn't hurt - the Republicans in this case.
 
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