Negatory

This is an easy elephant in the room problem. Make a Mil-STD that will actually work for 50 years from now and allows for growth. Make it include all of the services from submarines to satellites. Then make a joint SPO to manage the US military’s data links. Force everyone to comply to the underlying structure. Stop developing platform specific solutions. Will never happen because DT/OT/acq is so platform/service specific that we shoot ourselves in the foot.

Can you please stop trying to make some moral comparison or argument that Biden will be a criminal? There is legitimately no evidence of that. Guardian, it’s hard to listen to you guys, when you basically get fully on board with conspiracy theories with almost no substance, just because they align with your politics. “But they have 500 affidavits!!” (You actually mistakenly said 11,000 here, but I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt). Have you read any of them? Almost none of them have any impact, and the vast majority are in the “I got a reminder to register to vote after I registered to vote.” A few allege that someone saw multiple signatures were the same. The biggest one was officially - in the justice system - recanted by a postal worker. In total, there is literally no way that they could affect the vote. It was a blowout. 3% margin. Unfortunate, but true. And with these fake votes, the GOP maintained control of the senate. Pretty bad fake voting, if you ask me. You guys are the same folks that said 5 months ago that the response to COVID was a liberal fraud. A global. Liberal. Fraud. Your ability to disregard aggregate scientific or sociological evidence and put your trust in one or two conflicting opinions is part of why we can’t get on the same page. I recently read a study about conservatives being more likely to overvalue experiential or personal stories, and I literally thought of you. I have spent entirely too much time on this forum. https://www.google.com/amp/s/theconversation.com/amp/conservatives-value-personal-stories-more-than-liberals-do-when-evaluating-scientific-evidence-149132 When it comes down to it, Biden is a super boring politician that has a kid who does drugs. And he’s open about it. It makes the “Hillary-esque” character attacks you guys want to make all the more absurd when you try.

Unfortunately not hard to believe Trump is one of the most unpopular.

Here's another rhetorical question in regards to the fraud. Why didn't dems take the senate? The ballots are the same piece of paper. Those votes are probably bad too?

I missed the meaning. Got it.

There are economics both for and against the minimum wage. I mean, really, there are for almost every argument: https://minimum-wage.procon.org The unions pay for one study, the companies pay for the other. There is probably some amount of truth to both sides, but I firmly disagree that in America the minimum wage should ever be "$0/hr." If you can't pay your employees a living wage, you should lose your rights to be an employer.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/postal-worker-fabricated-ballot-pennsylvania/2020/11/10/99269a7c-2364-11eb-8599-406466ad1b8e_story.html That kinda hurts the message.

I think that’s where you’re confused. Many on the left have lost support for the protests, especially after they have devolved to riots. I know most of the people I’ve talked to feel this way. Youre probably right that more dems would say they support protests. I don’t think almost any of them support burning stuff down. BLM started with reasonable intentions. But it has been brigaded into a shell of itself.

Okay, last example of a conservative movement gone wrong. How about the totally peaceful “Unite the Right Rally” in Charlottesville? Oh, doesn’t count either? If you can’t see the double standard of associating the dem party with rioters, anarchists, and looters while not associating the republicans with white supremacists and domestic terrorists, I don’t have much for you. You don’t get to pick and choose. When it comes down to it, they’re both absurd comparisons. The truth is the average dem and the average rep are both boring, non murdering, non rioting people. I don’t support rioters burning down a store any more than you do.

Your source doesn’t say, out of those that died, whether they were killed by conservatives or liberals. Your source said only 2/9 of those killed at BLM protests were conservatives. This is another straw man that doesn’t say who’s doing the violence. “Nine of the people killed during protests were demonstrators taking part in Black Lives Matter protests. Two were conservatives killed after pro-Trump “patriot rallies”. All but one were killed by fellow citizens.“ I mean, if you wanna keep staying straw man, I’ll just point to Kyle up in Kenosha bringing an illegal gun and killing some folks. The point is that both sides are bad. I don’t think you’ll convince me that it’s one sided.

Ill give you one more source you can try to debunk (with a source): https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.businessinsider.com/right-wing-extremists-kill-329-since-1994-antifa-killed-none-2020-7%3famp

Now it’s on you to cite a source that proves that leftist “terrorism” or acts are worse than that which I just provided.

You missed the point. Both sides arguments are strawmans, and neither is more valid. Be fair. How about this sort of activity? https://www.npr.org/2020/05/14/855918852/heavily-armed-protesters-gather-again-at-michigans-capitol-denouncing-home-order Here’s a GAO study showing that far right extremism/terrorism has caused more fatalities since 9/11 than Islam. https://www.gao.gov/assets/690/683984.pdf "Of the 85 violent extremist incidents that resulted in death since September 12, 2001, far right wing violent extremist groups were responsible for 62 (73 percent) while radical Islamist violent extremists were responsible for 23 (27 percent). The total number of fatalities is Page 5 GAO-17-300 Countering Violent Extremism about the same for far right wing violent extremists and radical Islamist violent extremists over the approximately 15-year period (106 and 119, respectively). However, 41 percent of the deaths attributable to radical Islamist violent extremists occurred in a single event—an attack at an Orlando, Florida night club in 2016 (see fig. 2). Details on the locations" (pg. 4)

I mean, you can take that multiple ways. It’s just as easy to say that Dems were scared of overly violent Trump supporters retaliating. Or that Democrats as a population are just more easily scared or anxious when compared to Republicans. Doesn’t mean much, IMO.

I appreciate your thought out counterpoints and disagreements. I know that my beliefs aren’t categorically true, and a lot of voting comes down to “feelings,” whatever those are. Cheers.

I’m genuinely curious as to what you thought would improve under Trump as well. I think the president really does a lot less than people give credit, but I still voted opposite you. Since you said you’re genuinely curious, here’s a few points: 1) I believe a lot more of America’s influence in the world comes from soft power than people realize. How the world perceives our president is important, and worldwide public perception of the status of America is at an all time low, in part due to rough rhetoric. I think this could improve. 2) I believe basic, preventative healthcare should be a fundamental right for the working class. This has a higher likelihood of happening now. Will be good for my children. 3) I don’t believe in social conservatism even slightly. Protect the rights to abortion/birth control/gay rights. Keep religion separate. 4) One of the biggest ones is probably income inequality. Trickle down economics does not work. I don’t care how many times you’ve been spoon fed that line. Productivity over the last 50 years has gone up - wages have stayed the same (inflation). The system is rigged against America’s youth whether you look at college that costs 70k a year (look up the costs), a dwindling job market (it’s been like this pre-Covid) that was propped up by min wage gig economy jobs, or the disastrous housing crisis. I’m glad I’m in the military, as it solved a lot of these problems, but is the American dream still alive as much as everyone says it is? Policies to increase min wage, provide healthcare, reduce student loans, support unions/workers rights - these will benefit the whole of America. It’s hard to vote for a “billionaire” who literally paid less than I did in tax for multiple years. And before you say he was just playing by the rules, if he cared about the system, he would make a concerted effort to fix the glitches. 5) Responses to pandemics or emergencies will actually have compassion or an iota of human decency. Handling of things like Puerto Rico or COVID have been terribly politicized and divisive for the nation when they shouldn’t have been. 6) The federal reserve has been used for quantitative easing in a dangerous precedent to prop up the stock market. The US government basically propped up $3T of stocks THIS YEAR and then the president took credit for the economy. The economy is a sham and the fed balance sheet should stop being manipulated. We’re using the coffers of our children for republican talking points. 7) Politics is nastier now than I’ve seen it. The media has been demonized, unless it rhymed with “Rox,” and I’ve never seen more conspiracy theories in people I know. I’d like someone that would like to improve America for all, not just red/blue voters. Also, I’d like the president to stop calling me a “hater and a loser”. You’re the leader of the free world, so act like it. Issues: 1) NATO and the EU have never pulled their weight, and we are probably going back to the one sided relationship that we all hate. 2) If Military acquisitions are cut anymore, maybe we’ll be fighting China’s 6th gen fighter with mech scanned vipers here in a decade. Although, to be fair, the Trump policies didn’t exactly FIX the acquisition problems that the military have had the last 20 years. 3) Racism is real, I believe. But the Democrats solution to be hypersensitive crybabys and cancel people is stupid. I agree with the recent push to limit diversity training, and I fear there are gonna be some STUPID policies. Did you see that survivor is gonna be 50% POC??? So dumb. 4) Biden is old and Kamala Harris is not someone I respect or like. This is the biggest drawback for me. I honestly am not worried about job security. I’m in defense, as I assume you are, and there are boundless opportunities for military officers in and out of the military. My wealth will continue to increase in the stock market just as much as it would have. I can still purchase property, but I am definitely not going to be part of the owner class (and none of you will be either). Bottom line, I want someone with a bit more moral compass and maybe slightly more progressive views. So that’s how I voted this election.

🥃

This letter from GWB is the type of presidential character that I cant imagine Trump having. And I’m looking forward to hopefully seeing more of it. https://www.bushcenter.org/about-the-center/newsroom/press-releases/2020/11/president-george-w-bush-statement-joe-biden.html

The question really comes down to what is national security? It’s less and less an ability to act, and more an ability to have influence and deter. I agree we have to pick our influence and we’re spread out too thin. If I was king for a day I would slash the vast majority (talking 70%+) of operational funding for CENTCOM/EUCOM and tell them to figure it out. COCOMs are a DISASTER, where they request the world every time and have literally no incentive to be efficient with their resources. Instead, MAJCOMs are supposed to “push back,” which basically never happens in a meaningful way. This leads to Russia getting almost the same foreign policy effects as us by flying 2 flankers twice a day around in circles with a couple of S-400s on the ground. In comparison, we’ll fly 20-30 airplanes at a time 24/7 in those theaters. Now that’s a waste of money and time. We need to focus on credible deterrence, so take the vast majority of that money and funnel it into acquisitions - which needs to be unified at the SECDEF level so we aren’t all simultaneously working on the same thing. Improve our networks, cyber, space, and weapons for common integration. The rest of the repatriated money can go to training. I hate to say it, but we probably also need drones that can do the low end A-A mission so that we don’t have F-22s and F-35s bleeding money and longevity by intercepting airliners over Baghdad during 8 hour missions. The MQ-9 can basically already do 90% what the F-15E/F-16 would be tasked for in these theaters. Same thing goes for all the ground troops we have deployed to the theater over the last few years. Its almost a pointless expense when it comes to national influence. Downsize the army/marine AD side significantly, bring them into the reserves, save money with a loss of combat power - but it’s combat power that we likely won’t need in the extreme short term, so hopefully the gamble will work out. Tough decisions. But we have to stop wasting our time in theaters that net us nothing other than debt. Focus back up on credible deterrence and technology or else we are doomed to lose the long game to China.

You guys would rather think the average Biden voter - not just Antifa and BLM - could be part of a giant conspiracy that stretches across America to falsely deny Trump the presidency than realize that mail in ballots have literally always been more blue than red. You think the government is absolutely inept and can’t accomplish anything, but at the same time you believe that 5+ states can all get away with massive, simultaneous, and complicated voter fraud on a scale that isn’t even within an order of magnitude of anything seen before. You believe this just because the president says it’s happening. Not Fox. Not AP. Not any normal news outlet, just the president. Put some more faith in your average friend that voted against Trump. The thing that’s actually messed up is that our President is trying to disenfranchise regular voters just because they are not in his favor. It’s messed up to declare victory when you have less than 220 electoral college votes on the first night and declare fake news to anything opposing this. It’s messed up to push for lawsuits to stop the counting on states you have a lead in while pushing lawsuits to continue the counting in states you’re losing. I voted by mail, as is my right in the state I’m registered in, and I intend to keep that right. Have an iota of integrity, and just take the results. One side hasn’t said anything of the sort. One side will do whatever it takes to ensure a win, even if that is destruction of faith in the literal American system that is the same as it has been for the last many decades. This election isn’t new, and the problems associated aren’t new. Remember GWB in 2000? I’m sorry that you potentially are going to lose, but we need to pull together and support the actual system of democracy.

I mean, she represents her base, isn’t that what a representative is supposed to do? She has insane policies but I don’t think you can fault her on job performance. If you wanna fault anyone, fault the voters.

It’s fine, I’ll drop this for internet discussion. I am plenty qualified on foreign policy/acquisitions and have valid reasons for my opinions, so I don’t need any holier than thou condescension.

Kind of begs the question because it seems like you're all on board: what technologies are worth keeping domestic due to the security risk? Would you sell F-22's to Russia if they would pay to open the production line? How bout somewhere like Turkey? Would you sell other technologies just because they would pay for a portion of them? This isn't as black and white as you guys are making it seem.

Another rational decision in the best interest of the USA, as well as all of you. https://www.timesofisrael.com/trump-approves-selling-f-22-raptor-to-israel-report/

Also a lot of people agree that 9/11 was an inside job and the Holocaust wasn’t real. And just because you say they are “doesn’t mean it’s not true.“ Id also like to add Qanon, pizza gate, forced microchipping, the us gov creating Covid, and vaccines intentionally killing babies and causing autism to the list of things that right leaning conspiracy theorists believe right now.