US Politics, January 2020. Because we hate ourselves.

thread

1) The United States is an empire. This shouldn't be controversial, but let's get it out of the way; empires don't all look alike, they do different things with different goals and approaches and technologies, and nobody who studies empires thinks the US isn't one.

— Patrick Wyman (@Patrick_Wyman) January 5, 2020

It's really weird. Denmark isn't an elite, and yet we have a fucked up ruling elite as well. So so weird. Almost like that thread is complete nonsense.

Denmark is not an empire

You’ve still got Greenland.

... and the Faroe Isles?

That's 100.000 people. That's no empire. We're a colonial power, sure.

u r really dumber than your reputation, amazing

wow sounds bad pic.twitter.com/Hrr8neNnWj

— jordan (@JordanUhl) January 3, 2020

Just, if people don't know, the US isn't in the top 15 when it comes to Military spending / Total government spending. It's 9% according to the World Bank. Which is a lot, it's 2,3% in Denmark. But it's not why you don't have M4A. In Israel it's 11,1%, and afaik, Israel has better social services. Anti-imperialism is just the completely wrong way to look at this.

interesting. the CBO thinks it's about 14.8%

Link?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_budget_of_the_United_States

The U.S. Department of Defense budget accounted in fiscal year 2017 for about 14.8% of the United States federal budgeted expenditures. According to the Congressional Budget Office, defense spending grew 9% annually on average from fiscal year 2000–2009.[43]

Hm, the note there leads to a completely different report, and the first sentence doesn't actually seem to be according to the CBO. I can't see where that claim comes from?

I mean, Fred's right, even if we cut military spending in half there is zero chance that money wouldn't somehow end up in the pockets of the rich

good morning!

Lincoln Chafee's running for President as a Libertarian.

lol wait isn't John McAfee too

also Sam Seder

I'm just hyped for Chafee/McAfee 2020: Rhyme & Reason

more like Crime and Reason, am I right folks??

John McEnroe also running

we've def been obsessing over the wrong primary

A guy I worked with at the time claimed Obama nothing at all to do with the mission, and it was Panetta all the way.

I imagine this guy now thinks that Trump himself is taking on secret missions to the Middle East and taking out terrorists himself, with his own bare not-small-at-all hands.

No need to anecdatalyze - Trump himself tweeted "Stop congratulating Obama for killing Bin Laden. The Navy Seals killed Bin Laden." (Oct 22 2012)

And then he OF COURSE proceeded to whine about how little credit he got for killing Baghdadi.

Can the dude even hold a weapon at this point

he's right, he should get more credit for murdering those two children alongside baghdadi

i see that trump is threatening sanctions on IRAQ now, threatening to make them larger than those on Iran now. while also saying stuff like

“They’re allowed to kill our people. They’re allowed to torture and maim our people. They’re allowed to use roadside bombs and blow up our people,” he said. “And we’re not allowed to touch their cultural site? It doesn’t work that way.”

...and yet i am going to carry on with my day, i guess. after all, he's actually been a very ineffective president who doesn't have much of an effect on the world because of how incompetent he is, right

the euphemism "cultural sites" makes me wanna barf

why

maybe "designated collateral damage"

I mean as employed by numbnuts himself, because he dgaf about culture

what makes you say that?

https://i.imgur.com/uHJgcQ7.jpg

at least Little Bush had The Fart Book

that poor kid looks so sad :(

Don't think that I won't judge him the instant he chooses to become a public figure.

Just, if people don't know, the US isn't in the top 15 when it comes to Military spending / Total government spending. It's 9% according to the World Bank. Which is a lot, it's 2,3% in Denmark. But it's not why you don't have M4A. In Israel it's 11,1%, and afaik, Israel has better social services. Anti-imperialism is just the completely wrong way to look at this.

― Frederik B, Monday, 6 January 2020 bookmarkflaglink

Just hundreds of billions, anti-imperialists are so greedy they just want it all for cultural sites!

I wouldn't be able to keep myself from peeling off the gold foil and eating the load-bearing chocolate superstructure

New John Bolton statement: "I have concluded that, if the Senate issues a subpoena for my testimony, I am prepared to testify." pic.twitter.com/1UIVIhLVb6

— Dustin Volz (@dnvolz) January 6, 2020

chances of senate issuing a subpoena to bolton?

subpoena the tax returns

good morning!

Fri. (12/27): we notify Deutsche Bank about our piece

Sun. (12/29): Trump + Putin have mystery phone call

Wed. (1/1): we tell DB we are publishing Fri.

Wed. (1/1): Trump decides to kill Soleimani

Thurs. (1/2): Soleimani assassinated

Fri. (1/3): we are cyberattacked

😳 weird

— Robert J. DeNault (@robertjdenault) January 5, 2020

xp

I mean, Fred's right, even if we cut military spending in half there is zero chance that money wouldn't somehow end up in the pockets of the rich

― frogbs, Monday, January 6, 2020 9:43 AM (three hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

yes but this is mostly* useful as a rhetorical strategy, i.e. "if you're concerned about that cost, you should logically also be concerned about this cost, unless your concern isn't actually about cost"

* except maybe not really, because the likely retort to that would probably be something along the lines of "we need to do this, we don't need universal health care," and then it's a stalemate, because what do you even do with that?

My point was more that the anti-imperialism argument just messes things up further. Isn't the point also that the US spends more on Health Care as a percent of GDP anyway? So the money is there.

General Milley has just said the letter regarding troop movements out of Iraq was a draft, and releasing it was a "mistake." It was however delivered to the Iraqi military. It seems the U.S. military is as confused as everyone else about what their intentions are.

— Liz Sly (@LizSly) January 6, 2020

hell of a story here
https://www.npr.org/2020/01/05/785672201/deceased-gop-strategists-daughter-makes-files-public-that-republicans-wanted-sea
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1Pw3lc2QPJ-eEeHszCdcfjbe3uZC1DbKz

Wow indeed.

fucking "trade secrets"

Correcting Bolton:

"I have concluded that, because the Senate will not issue a subpoena for my testimony, I am prepared to testify."

My point was more that the anti-imperialism argument just messes things up further. Isn't the point also that the US spends more on Health Care as a percent of GDP anyway? So the money is there.

― Frederik B, Monday, 6 January 2020 bookmarkflaglink

Tankie twitter has really wound up your soft left technocratic politics has it not?

you're obsessed

He is inventing a weird straw man to justify hundreds of billions in defence expenditure.