Donald Trump the Megathread part II - mod warnings in OP, Updated 06/06/25

He is one person. His experience is not universal, or without its own biases. I am no different.

This new bill increases american debt by 4 trillion and reduces tax revenue , eg debt increase of about 8 per cent .it takes 16 per cent of federal tax to pay american debt every year. TRUMP is taking apart the federal government and also reducing tax revenue and increasing the debt burden on middle class and ordinary workers .

quote

Debt hawks in the Republican party have been complaining about the Congressional Budget Office’s report that said the bill would add nearly $4 trillion to America’s $36 trillion in debt. That’s not just a number: America needs to pay interest on all that borrowing. This fiscal year alone, America has already spent $684 billion to maintain its debt, amounting to 16% of all federal spending — just on interest.

But the Treasury is about to fill its coffers again once Congress raises the debt ceiling, allowing the government to start borrowing again. If bond investors demand higher yields, that will make financing America’s debt significantly more expensive, putting at risk future safety net programs — one reason why Republicans are talking about big cuts to Medicaid.

https://edition.cnn.com/2025/05/22/investing/bond-market-selloff

So the debt burden go,s up while trump cuts medicaid which 75 million working americans use.Even when trump is gone america will be left with a massive debt to pay with less tax revenue and it will be more expensive for people to get any medical care ,This bill is really an attack on middle class and low wage workers . Investors are turning away from investing in america as its led by a reckless government and a president who seems to change his policys every week .Doge is laying off federal workers while american infrastructure needs more investment as the cost of climate change rise,s with more deadly fires and hurricanes / flooding in coastal area,s .

It looks like the medium & low waged in the US had better hold on to the table they're bent over as they are likely to get screwed harder and tighter by Trump and Co with less Medicaid to relieve the sensation. There's only one way to get over the pain, remove the cause.

Ok pal, ignore the quote I posted if you want. This is just a long winded deflection on your part, but Trump supporters are like that.

I've been asking you for the actual effect of the change on Joe.

The basic one would be soldiers choosing to not remain in the military. When you have basic living needs being ignored, when benefits are being stripped away, and then you have incompetent idealogues in charge, pushing discriminatory agendas, it can be no surprise that people will choose to walk away.

But the thing about dog whistles, as you termed it, is that they tend to make much ado about nothing. There haven't been many detrimental effects as a result either.

Once again, you are displaying a profound ignorance of your own biases here. It doesn't affect you, so it can't be a problem. You think female soldiers haven't been affected by their erasure of their legacies? How do you feel about trans soldiers being declared unfit and inherently untrustworthy due to their personal circumstances? You have a real vibe of a boomer home owner asking why a young doesn't simple pull themselves up by the bootstraps and work hard if they want a home.

However, to answer your direct question. There haven't been many improvements as a result. We get an hour back in our year. Presumably a bunch of personnel, contractors and dollars are no longer doing DEI things and are now doing other things. Maybe they moved across the hallway to the SHARP or EEO offices. That's about it. Hardly a monumental effect.

You have quite deliberately refused to acknowledge the purpose behind this push by Hegseth. You keep repeating this line about getting time back, as though they aren't thousands of empty hours in military life, filled with make work or office churn. That is a weak excuse to hide behind. With an organisation that has a long history of discrimination, an hour a year to education is no burden at all, and the fact you would portray it as such reflects poorly on imo.

However, I posit that a similar effect of making the military appealing can be achieved by walking the walk and having a culture where the only things which are relevant are the rank on the chest and the capability of the person wearing it. That reputation would achieve even better results than outreach.

You'd posit wrong. There are a wide variety of reasons people will sign up. Some will do so out of a sense of purpose, but for many it's a transaction. They give of themselves to gain some benefit. They will not be ignorant of the changes that have been brought in by Hegseth, and the culture it reflects. You won't see that reflected in your ranks, because you won't see the ones who choose not to join.

It's really refreshing to see a back-and-forth between two people that clearly know what they are on about, on a discussion board… in 2025

Many of Trump's actions elicit outrage and disbelief in a humorous way. Yet there are numerous actions and E.O.'s that slide under the radar and will have a lasting if not potentially disastrous consequences, if not eventually leading to violence.

For 60 years, Boston’s Museum of African American History has transported people to the past, letting visitors to a 200-year-old meeting house see where abolitionists like Frederick Douglass spoke and walk through halls where young Black soldiers once rallied to fight in the Civil War.

But recently, the museum’s history programs for schoolchildren were put at risk after the Trump administration canceled its federal grant, saying in a letter that the funding “no longer serves the interest of the United States.”

https://us.cnn.com/2025/05/22/politics/trump-culture-arts-humanities-grants-funding

Is that the theory proffered by a Canadian history student in the 90s that was then debunked? There was a great documentary about it on TG4 a while ago. That guy was fixated on the theory and in the end the only thread he hung it on was a misinterpretation of a conversation.

Found that chaps name, Peter Hart

though Fitzpatrick also observed that ‘on occasion he [Hart] miscited, miscounted or unintentionally misled readers in his rush to be interesting, original and provocative’ (Fitzpatrick, 2013, 143). The latter points are crucial to understanding Hart’s significance, as his public and academic profile became increasingly defined by allegations of flawed and imprecise scholarship.

A pre internet grifter by the sounds of it.

I'm currently in my 21st year, yes. I have seen fellow trans soldiers face discrimination and now ousting from service. I have seen female soldiers be dismissed based on nothing more than their gender. That was prior to the current push. I predict that it will continue to get worse. I have little doubt that the next effort will target gay servicemembers and seek a return to the days of don't ask, don't tell or worse. Stripping away programs that existed to rectify previous injustices are a first step in returning to them. It's no coincidence that Hegseth also fired a rake of JAG officers.

This is a first step in a broader campaign to transform the military into a compliant tool to carry out the Administration's goals. Hence the lowering of enlistment standards. Less intelligent soldiers, who won't question when they're ordered to violate the constitution.

It's bad enough when one is subjected to Fox news ad nauseum in office spaces. Now one has to listen to Trump supporters cheering the death of the Republic. I have little doubt that the Administration will attempt to employ the military against US citizens, and that they will find many willing footsoldiers to carry out their orders.

They fired Gen. Brown to replace him with an officer who doesn't meet the legally mandated requirements to hold the post, and whose only qualifications seem to be that he fawned over Trump previously.

https://www.npr.org/2025/02/22/g-s1-50348/dan-caine-new-chairman-joint-chiefs

The lowering of standards relates to education, and frankly intelligence. Basic training demand little of a person beyond the capacity to be somewhat in shape and breathing. At time of a recruitment crisis, this Administration is pursuing culture war nonsense instead of addressing issues facing the force. Billions put against a border wall and vaporware missile shield that makes Reagan's Star Wars seem mundane by comparison. Nothing to address the atrocious conditions existing in base housing. Education benefits being reduced. VA facing cuts. A situation where the defense budget is higher now than during the Forever Wars, yet units have less ammunition to train with.

Nothing Hegseth has done improves the readiness of the military. Replacing proven leaders with incompetent yes men. Demonstrating a disdain for laws and regulations with regards classified information. Enabling a culture that sees his staff abusing and insulting military leadership. Betraying our allies and hindering our ability to monitor and counter our adversaries. It is a shambles.

Let me ask you, in the event of a constitutional crisis concerning the military, how do you see it unfolding? The oath of service tells service members to uphold and protect the Constitution from enemies foreign and domestic. When push comes to shove, whose opinion will carry weight on what is or is not a legal order? If you say that a order received in unlawful and refuse, yet your commander says the opposite, who should be obeyed?

I assume that those military persons being forced out of serving their country by the Pentagon are already consulting lawyers to see if there is any illegality in the Trump Admin letting them go. I assume that there is a "must have" number in writing below which the military cannot go, or be shrunk to, below in order for it to be able to field, at short notice, a force fitting the needs of the US.

Noem seems to be a serving US military officer and Hegseth a former officer. I don't know if either of them have legal obligations to comply if "called up" for service again in the US military.

After the murders of the two Israeli Embassy staff members in Washington yesterday, the Trump Admin had it's head of the DOJ out condemning the murders, calling them Anti—Semitic acts. That's true enough but there still remains the problem for Trump and his MAGA; the sections of supporters which marched through US cities waving Nazi flags shouting they would never surrender to Jews.

Will he unleash the AG and Noem's mixed bag of Homeland Security agencies on those Anti-Semites or just brush them off and say there are some fine people amongst them.

Technically you're right, but in reality devaluing their debt obligations won't stop rapid import inflation in the event of a collapse in the USD.

Part of the dominance of the USD was the commitment to uphold global trade, which Trump is now scrambling with his incoherent and inconsistent tariffs.

The world is turning multipolar with trading blocs making alternative arrangements like central Bank currency swaps that reduces the need for a single dominant reserve currency.

So while it's true the USA could just print more cash to relieve it's domestic debt obligations that benefit could be nullified by massive import costs from a weakened currency.