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[US Foreign Policy] Iran Response: Missile strikes US Al-Assad, Kirbil base in Iraq pg 90

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    Mild ConfusionMild Confusion Smash All Things Registered User regular
    Maybe that’d be a way to get legislation passed; just tack on some cheap vanity project to go stroke Trump’s ego, then attach real legislation too it. He’s so vain and easy to manipulate that he’d pressure McConnell to let it pass. Then just tear it down after Trump is out of office.

    Health care reform? Gun control? Immigration? Trade it for a base name then rename it once he’s out of office.

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    GONG-00GONG-00 Registered User regular
    Thankfully, a Space Force re-org is a relatively harmless move for Trump. The real danger is if he decides to void treaty and precedent to deploy space based weapon systems to compensate for his near infinite shortcomings.

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    RaijuRaiju Shoganai JapanRegistered User regular
    Perhaps they can get Hugo Boss to work up a design?

    It worked for Starship Troopers.

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    NobeardNobeard North Carolina: Failed StateRegistered User regular
    H0b0man wrote: »
    I wouldn't be surprised if the day to day uniform is just the OCP. It's what the army uses and the air force recently made the switch to them within the last year.

    Any difference is probably going to be in the other uniforms (stuff like dress and pt uniforms).

    From what I can tell the whole thing is just a waste of administration dollars. You could make an argument that SPACECOM could use some reorganizing or change, but to spin them out as a Marines equivalent for the Air Force is going to cost so much more money for so little gain.

    I think the gain would be large. So large it would weigh, oh I dunno, about 40k.

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    ElvenshaeElvenshae Registered User regular
    Don't worry, folks, Captain Kirk can still be in charge.

    He'll just be demoted.
    LIKE HE SHOULD HAVE BEEN, REPEATEDLY!

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    CouscousCouscous Registered User regular
    https://theguardian.com/us-news/2019/dec/09/trump-seoul-evacuation-north-korea-book
    According to Bergen, Trump was also shown a satellite image of the Korean peninsula at night, showing the lights of China and South Korea and the blackness of North Korea in between. Trump initially mistook the void for an ocean. When he was shown the bright lights of Seoul just 30 miles south of the demilitarized zone separating the two Koreas, the president asked: “Why is Seoul so close to the North Korean border?”

    Trump had been repeatedly told that US freedom of action against North Korea was constrained by the fact that the regime’s artillery could demolish the South Korean capital in retaliation for any attack, inflicting mass casualties on its population of 25 million.

    “They have to move,” Trump said, according to Bergen, who adds that his officials were initially unsure if the president was joking. But Trump then repeated the line. “They have to move!”

    No action was taken in response to Trump’s bizarre remark,
    but the situation grew steadily worse, with a series of North Korean intercontinental ballistic missile tests and a hydrogen bomb test in September 2017.
    A senior official warned that such an evacuation would be interpreted as a signal that the US was ready to go to war, and would crash the South Korean stock market, but Trump is reported to have ignored the warning, telling his team: “Go do it!”

    Alarmed Pentagon officials ignored the order, and – according to Bergen – Trump eventually dropped the idea. It was one of a number of occasions that the defense secretary at the time, James Mattis, ignored direction from the White House. He also refused to send defense department officials to a planned Korea war game at Camp David in the autumn of 2017, or to provide military options for intercepting North Korean ships suspected of sanctions busting.

    I am frightened that I find this entirely believable.

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    Styrofoam SammichStyrofoam Sammich WANT. normal (not weird)Registered User regular
    edited December 2019
    It passed over the opposition of a bloc of progressive Democrats and libertarian-minded Republicans who objected to its steep price tag and its omission of provisions they had proposed to limit the president’s power on an array of military matters.
    While it does not authorize any money to replenish military construction funds Mr. Trump diverted to pay for his wall on the southern border, it also does not contain a measure backed by Democrats to prevent him from raiding the fund in the future.
    Neat!
    Representative Adam Smith, Democrat of Washington and the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, issued a scathing defense of the bill on Wednesday, calling it “the most progressive defense bill we have passed in decades.”

    Gag

    https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/11/us/politics/house-ndaa-space-force-leave.html

    Styrofoam Sammich on
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    Mild ConfusionMild Confusion Smash All Things Registered User regular
    edited December 2019
    That Seoul pullout brain fart is scary as all hell.

    Like, if something like that was ever even hinted at being implemented, you might as well paint a giant sign that says, “HEY KIM, GET READY TO ATTACK!!!” that’s visible from fucking Pluto!

    Millions dead and the world economy has a heart attack.

    Mild Confusion on
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    CelestialBadgerCelestialBadger Registered User regular
    Trump must be really confusing the North Koreans. They usually get to pull the "erratic and crazy leader" gambit, but Kim Jong Un is really outclassed by Trump in that regard.

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    TNTrooperTNTrooper Registered User regular
    Literally did not know where Seoul was on a map while ranting about how Hillary was going to cause NK to start nuclear armageddon.

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    monikermoniker Registered User regular
    A lot of people don't know that Korea is south of North Korea. A lot of people are learning that.

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    VeagleVeagle Registered User regular
    Maybe that’d be a way to get legislation passed; just tack on some cheap vanity project to go stroke Trump’s ego, then attach real legislation too it. He’s so vain and easy to manipulate that he’d pressure McConnell to let it pass. Then just tear it down after Trump is out of office.

    Health care reform? Gun control? Immigration? Trade it for a base name then rename it once he’s out of office.

    This was kinda what I was expecting would happen when he first got elected. That theory pretty much died about a week into his term though.

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    Captain InertiaCaptain Inertia Registered User regular
    How the fuck is it ok to ignore his orders?

    Or did the story omit the part where they weren’t official orders

    Or did it omit the part where Trump’s military advisors post-hoc’d a need for the orders to be more formal to excuse ignoring them

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    XaquinXaquin Right behind you!Registered User regular
    How the fuck is it ok to ignore his orders?

    Or did the story omit the part where they weren’t official orders

    Or did it omit the part where Trump’s military advisors post-hoc’d a need for the orders to be more formal to excuse ignoring them

    I don't think the president can order the capitol of a foreign nation to 'move'

    unless you're talking about another stupid trump order

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    PhillisherePhillishere Registered User regular
    How the fuck is it ok to ignore his orders?

    Or did the story omit the part where they weren’t official orders

    Or did it omit the part where Trump’s military advisors post-hoc’d a need for the orders to be more formal to excuse ignoring them

    The system is broken, the leader has dementia, and the professionals are struggling to put up a facade that all is normal. Pretty standard failing state stuff, really.

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    Mild ConfusionMild Confusion Smash All Things Registered User regular
    How the fuck is it ok to ignore his orders?

    Or did the story omit the part where they weren’t official orders

    Or did it omit the part where Trump’s military advisors post-hoc’d a need for the orders to be more formal to excuse ignoring them

    John Kelly reportedly ignored Trump’s insane orders all the time. Tillerson supposedly did too.

    And there were a couple times we found out about DoD slow walking Trump’s orders until he forgot or public pressure changed his mind.

    I’m torn in this actually. While I’m glad they are limiting his insanity, it’s still a dangerous precedent for the military to be able to unilaterally ignore orders of the President.

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    RaijuRaiju Shoganai JapanRegistered User regular
    What was Trump expecting the U.S. military to do in Korea? Forcefully evacuate everyone in Seoul out of the country's capital and relocate millions of people to where exactly while also tipping off a disastrous preemptive attack by the North?

    Bad enough that he drove the ROK's government into the arms of the Chinese out of a sense of self preservation by eroding trust in our alliance.

    Ignoring unlawful orders is exactly what the military is supposed to do, by the way.

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    NSDFRandNSDFRand FloridaRegistered User regular
    Raiju wrote: »
    What was Trump expecting the U.S. military to do in Korea? Forcefully evacuate everyone in Seoul out of the country's capital and relocate millions of people to where exactly while also tipping off a disastrous preemptive attack by the North?

    Bad enough that he drove the ROK's government into the arms of the Chinese out of a sense of self preservation by eroding trust in our alliance.

    Ignoring unlawful orders is exactly what the military is supposed to do, by the way.

    It generally isn't likely that the service member receiving the order will be able to determine the legality of that order, which is a discussion we have had before. The chance that a given service member, including a commissioned officer in a command position, is capable of discerning the legality of anything but the most grossly illegal action is almost zero.

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    shrykeshryke Member of the Beast Registered User regular
    Raiju wrote: »
    What was Trump expecting the U.S. military to do in Korea? Forcefully evacuate everyone in Seoul out of the country's capital and relocate millions of people to where exactly while also tipping off a disastrous preemptive attack by the North?

    Bad enough that he drove the ROK's government into the arms of the Chinese out of a sense of self preservation by eroding trust in our alliance.

    Ignoring unlawful orders is exactly what the military is supposed to do, by the way.

    They aren't refusing unlawful orders though. They are ignoring the comments and orders of the rambling man in charge because they think they are stupid and bad, not cause they are unlawful.

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    MazzyxMazzyx Comedy Gold Registered User regular
    NSDFRand wrote: »
    Raiju wrote: »
    What was Trump expecting the U.S. military to do in Korea? Forcefully evacuate everyone in Seoul out of the country's capital and relocate millions of people to where exactly while also tipping off a disastrous preemptive attack by the North?

    Bad enough that he drove the ROK's government into the arms of the Chinese out of a sense of self preservation by eroding trust in our alliance.

    Ignoring unlawful orders is exactly what the military is supposed to do, by the way.

    It generally isn't likely that the service member receiving the order will be able to determine the legality of that order, which is a discussion we have had before. The chance that a given service member, including a commissioned officer in a command position, is capable of discerning the legality of anything but the most grossly illegal action is almost zero.

    Since most is funneling down via the very up echelons I can say there are folks there who will look and stop the order before it moves anywhere at least to think through it. This is more just because stuff from the WH tends to go through the civilian leadership and Joint Chiefs.

    I mean we have stories of a drunk Nixon saying to nuke folks and the military just ignoring it. So this type of thing isn't new. There are kind of odd unofficial systems in place for this as well.

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    Mild ConfusionMild Confusion Smash All Things Registered User regular
    Raiju wrote: »
    What was Trump expecting the U.S. military to do in Korea? Forcefully evacuate everyone in Seoul out of the country's capital and relocate millions of people to where exactly while also tipping off a disastrous preemptive attack by the North?

    Bad enough that he drove the ROK's government into the arms of the Chinese out of a sense of self preservation by eroding trust in our alliance.

    Ignoring unlawful orders is exactly what the military is supposed to do, by the way.

    It’s not that the military cannot ignore illegal orders, it’s that there is a way to do that and they aren’t doing it that way. It’s just a flat ignoring of orders unilaterally. The difference between is small but it matters.

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    CelestialBadgerCelestialBadger Registered User regular
    The danger is that the military will get used to ignoring orders that they think are "stupid" and do the same thing to the next Democratic President, because there's always a tension between a Democratic commander-in-chief and the military, because he is seen as an "outsider" to the conservative military culture.

    But probably not a huge danger. If the next Democratic President gives the military an order and they just don't do it, he/she will be at the meeting next morning saying "So, how's our peacekeeping mission doing? Is the base established? Did the helicopters deploy correctly?" rather than completely forgetting he/she asked for it.

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    Captain InertiaCaptain Inertia Registered User regular
    edited December 2019
    Xaquin wrote: »
    How the fuck is it ok to ignore his orders?

    Or did the story omit the part where they weren’t official orders

    Or did it omit the part where Trump’s military advisors post-hoc’d a need for the orders to be more formal to excuse ignoring them

    I don't think the president can order the capitol of a foreign nation to 'move'

    unless you're talking about another stupid trump order

    The article states Mattis ignored orders “on a number of occasions”

    Of course evacuating Seoul isn’t a real order but that’s not the part I was referencing

    I am glad Trump’s worst impulses were checked but also incensed at choosing this remedy

    Captain Inertia on
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    XaquinXaquin Right behind you!Registered User regular
    Xaquin wrote: »
    How the fuck is it ok to ignore his orders?

    Or did the story omit the part where they weren’t official orders

    Or did it omit the part where Trump’s military advisors post-hoc’d a need for the orders to be more formal to excuse ignoring them

    I don't think the president can order the capitol of a foreign nation to 'move'

    unless you're talking about another stupid trump order

    The article states Mattis ignored orders “on a number of occasions”

    Of course evacuating Seoul isn’t a real order but that’s not the part I was referencing

    ahh gotcha

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    Captain InertiaCaptain Inertia Registered User regular
    Sorry to come across angry to you all

    As hard as it is to add an amendment to the constitution we fucking were able to put one in for this exact situation

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    DocDoc Registered User, ClubPA regular
    The danger is that the military will get used to ignoring orders that they think are "stupid" and do the same thing to the next Democratic President, because there's always a tension between a Democratic commander-in-chief and the military, because he is seen as an "outsider" to the conservative military culture.

    But probably not a huge danger. If the next Democratic President gives the military an order and they just don't do it, he/she will be at the meeting next morning saying "So, how's our peacekeeping mission doing? Is the base established? Did the helicopters deploy correctly?" rather than completely forgetting he/she asked for it.

    Right, it seems to have more to do with how easy it is to ignore confusing, damaging, and infeasible pseudo-orders like "take their oil."

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    NobeardNobeard North Carolina: Failed StateRegistered User regular
    The military is made up of human beings, not robots. Expecting the rank and file to judge orders on their logical, practical, and moral aspects is a poor idea, but it is 100% appropriate for the very higher ups who take orders from the president. They are not ignoring orders because of political ideology, they are ignoring orders because they are not insane monsters. They have fucking standards.

    Worrying that this sets a precedent for the military to ignore or future orders is wasted concern. I get where people come from on this, but if future generals use this as a precedent to ignore or orders, then they are just looking for excuses.

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    GvzbgulGvzbgul Registered User regular
    Is this or the Middle East thread more suitable to discussion of Afghanistan?

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    shrykeshryke Member of the Beast Registered User regular
    Gvzbgul wrote: »
    Is this or the Middle East thread more suitable to discussion of Afghanistan?

    https://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/210938/the-middle-east-bouteflika#latest

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    ArcTangentArcTangent Registered User regular
    (Legal author)

    Whoa: Federal court orders the government to grant birthright citizenship to individuals born in America Samoa, a U.S. territory. Currently, American Samoans are deemed non-citizen nationals.

    This is a big deal.

    Seems crazy it wasn't already the status quo.

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    Mild ConfusionMild Confusion Smash All Things Registered User regular
    edited December 2019
    Wow, that is a big deal.

    I hope this allows them to get basic government services like VA support or anything else that was denied because of century old racists. Assuming it survives any appeals.

    Mild Confusion on
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    monikermoniker Registered User regular
    Wow, that is a big deal.

    I hope this allows them to get basic government services like VA support or anything else that was denied because of century old racists. Assuming it survives any appeals.

    I mean, it's the right thing to do and has clear Constitutional cause to happen. So... maybe 40/60 with SCOTUS.

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    autono-wally, erotibot300autono-wally, erotibot300 love machine Registered User regular
    edited December 2019
    Xaquin wrote: »
    How the fuck is it ok to ignore his orders?

    Or did the story omit the part where they weren’t official orders

    Or did it omit the part where Trump’s military advisors post-hoc’d a need for the orders to be more formal to excuse ignoring them

    I don't think the president can order the capitol of a foreign nation to 'move'

    unless you're talking about another stupid trump order

    The article states Mattis ignored orders “on a number of occasions”

    Of course evacuating Seoul isn’t a real order but that’s not the part I was referencing

    I am glad Trump’s worst impulses were checked but also incensed at choosing this remedy

    What else is there?

    autono-wally, erotibot300 on
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    Stabbity StyleStabbity Style He/Him | Warning: Mothership Reporting Kennewick, WARegistered User regular
    Are there any other US territories that don't have birthright citizenship?

    Stabbity_Style.png
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    JragghenJragghen Registered User regular
    Last one, I think. There was a radiolab about the situation/case earlier this year. Interestingly, a number of residents were against changing the situation. Largely because it changes who is able to purchase land on the islands, probably fully putting them into the grips of capitalism.

    https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/radiolab/articles/americanish
    In 1903 the US Supreme Court refused to say that Isabel González was a citizen of the United States. Then again, they said, she wasn’t a exactly an immigrant either. And they said that the US territory of Puerto Rico, Isabel’s home, was “foreign to the United States in a domestic sense.” Since then, the US has cleared up at least some of the confusion about US territories and the status of people born in them.

    But, more than a hundred years later, there is still a US territory that has been left in limbo: American Samoa. It is the only place on earth that is US soil, but people who are born there are not automatically US citizens. When we visit American Samoa, we discover that there are some pretty surprising reasons why many American Samoans prefer it that way.

    It covers pretty well the awful situation for people who live there already and want the stats quo to change, and also the bad ways things will probably change, too.

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    MillMill Registered User regular
    Mazzyx wrote: »
    shryke wrote: »
    Mazzyx wrote: »
    TryCatcher wrote: »
    The Space Force managed to make it through the budget, so is going to be live on 2020:
    It’s really happening. A bipartisan budget agreement for 2020 will see the creation of a new branch of the military specifically oriented towards space. The United States Space Force will be the first new service branch in more than 60 years, tasked to ensure America’s freedom to operate in outer space—or take space away from somebody else.

    According to a draft of the 2020 National Defense Authorization Agreement, also known as the 2020 U.S. defense budget, the Pentagon will redesignate the U.S. Air Force’s Space Command the U.S. Space Force, spinning it off from an arm of the Air Force into a separate service.

    The service will be headed by a Chief of Space Operations, similar to how the U.S. Navy is headed by a Chief of Naval Operations and consist of “the space forces and such assets as may be organic therein.” That’s pretty ambiguous language but probably means most of the Air Force’s space assets, from satellite launching facilities like Vandenberg Air Force Base in California to spacecraft ground control bases like Schriever Air Force Base in Colorado. It'll also include america’s network of GPS satellites, the X-37B spaceplane, and other military space assets. The Space Force will also likely strip away a smaller number of assets and personnel from the U.S. Army and Navy.

    The budget agreement says the Space Force will be “organized, trained, and equipped to provide— (1) freedom of operation for the United States in, from, and to space; and (2) prompt and sustained space operations.” The Chief of Space Operations will report to the Secretary of the Air Force, much the way the Commandant of the Marine Corps reports to the Secretary of the Navy.

    The militarization of space is very much a foreign policy topic, so might as well put it here.

    Reading through it is SPACECOM under another name.

    Just a short reminder to folks, the US Military already has a "Spaceforce." This is already under the Air Force mostly with assets under the Department of Navy and Army as well. It was considered one of the regional combat commands like AFRICOM and EUROCOM.

    From what I am reading is they are just moving around names and maybe adding uniforms and ranks but the overall militarization of space actually will be limited to none since we are still signatories of treaties (which are considered law) that do not allow for militarization of space.

    As an insider this is more just annoying because I do have to basically redo a whole bunch command structure analyses.

    It's a bunch of bullshit so that Trump can jackoff to Space Force in front of his crowds.

    Hopefully the Dems traded something good for it.

    12 Weeks paid parental leave for all federal employees and repeal of a thing called a widow tax which is something the Dems have been trying to repeal for years.

    This isn't terrible. Also saw mention that this could be a stealth increase for NASA, since the Airforce had authority to divert some funds that were tagged as part of the NASA budget, but open to the Airforce to repurpose. If so, that could pretty good depending on how much was being siphoned by the Airforce. Granted this assumes the bill doesn't let the Spaceforce do the same.

    I'm not terribly worried about this accelerating any sort of militarization of outer space, that was already a thing. Hell, looking at the wording for their mission, this could be exploited for the good of humanity. Part of the mission freedom of operations in space, as well as, sustained operations. Last I checked the biggest hazard to that is all the space trash up in near Earth orbit. So this could result in a fair bit of research into methods to clean that shit up without creating more. Might even be able to stretch that cover handling near earth asteroids that could pose a danger and maybe even getting weather satellites. Cloud cover can really fuck with ground reception of satellite signals and better tools to observe the weather can help with mitigating those issues (good way to get some climate research in as well). I mean, if they are getting the people that were already working the Airforce's Spaceforce, they likely will want things to justify their agencies existence, while also getting that you do not want to be blowing satellites up in orbit since that will fucked things up for everyone.

    I doubt it moves votes. People that would care enough about more military stuff were either already voting for Trump or weren't going to count this as more military stuff because they already don't view the Airforce as real military stuff.

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    RickRudeRickRude Registered User regular
    North Korea is talking about that Christmas gift again. I hope it's a joke.

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    FencingsaxFencingsax It is difficult to get a man to understand, when his salary depends upon his not understanding GNU Terry PratchettRegistered User regular
    Jragghen wrote: »
    Last one, I think. There was a radiolab about the situation/case earlier this year. Interestingly, a number of residents were against changing the situation. Largely because it changes who is able to purchase land on the islands, probably fully putting them into the grips of capitalism.

    https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/radiolab/articles/americanish
    In 1903 the US Supreme Court refused to say that Isabel González was a citizen of the United States. Then again, they said, she wasn’t a exactly an immigrant either. And they said that the US territory of Puerto Rico, Isabel’s home, was “foreign to the United States in a domestic sense.” Since then, the US has cleared up at least some of the confusion about US territories and the status of people born in them.

    But, more than a hundred years later, there is still a US territory that has been left in limbo: American Samoa. It is the only place on earth that is US soil, but people who are born there are not automatically US citizens. When we visit American Samoa, we discover that there are some pretty surprising reasons why many American Samoans prefer it that way.

    It covers pretty well the awful situation for people who live there already and want the stats quo to change, and also the bad ways things will probably change, too.

    One of Franken's books talks about how awful the status quo was before vis a vis unchecked capitalism, so I'm not sure how things could get significantly worse.

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    JragghenJragghen Registered User regular
    Locals are mostly concerned with Chinese purchasing all the land, I believe.

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    FoefallerFoefaller Registered User regular
    Mill wrote: »
    Mazzyx wrote: »
    shryke wrote: »
    Mazzyx wrote: »
    TryCatcher wrote: »
    The Space Force managed to make it through the budget, so is going to be live on 2020:
    It’s really happening. A bipartisan budget agreement for 2020 will see the creation of a new branch of the military specifically oriented towards space. The United States Space Force will be the first new service branch in more than 60 years, tasked to ensure America’s freedom to operate in outer space—or take space away from somebody else.

    According to a draft of the 2020 National Defense Authorization Agreement, also known as the 2020 U.S. defense budget, the Pentagon will redesignate the U.S. Air Force’s Space Command the U.S. Space Force, spinning it off from an arm of the Air Force into a separate service.

    The service will be headed by a Chief of Space Operations, similar to how the U.S. Navy is headed by a Chief of Naval Operations and consist of “the space forces and such assets as may be organic therein.” That’s pretty ambiguous language but probably means most of the Air Force’s space assets, from satellite launching facilities like Vandenberg Air Force Base in California to spacecraft ground control bases like Schriever Air Force Base in Colorado. It'll also include america’s network of GPS satellites, the X-37B spaceplane, and other military space assets. The Space Force will also likely strip away a smaller number of assets and personnel from the U.S. Army and Navy.

    The budget agreement says the Space Force will be “organized, trained, and equipped to provide— (1) freedom of operation for the United States in, from, and to space; and (2) prompt and sustained space operations.” The Chief of Space Operations will report to the Secretary of the Air Force, much the way the Commandant of the Marine Corps reports to the Secretary of the Navy.

    The militarization of space is very much a foreign policy topic, so might as well put it here.

    Reading through it is SPACECOM under another name.

    Just a short reminder to folks, the US Military already has a "Spaceforce." This is already under the Air Force mostly with assets under the Department of Navy and Army as well. It was considered one of the regional combat commands like AFRICOM and EUROCOM.

    From what I am reading is they are just moving around names and maybe adding uniforms and ranks but the overall militarization of space actually will be limited to none since we are still signatories of treaties (which are considered law) that do not allow for militarization of space.

    As an insider this is more just annoying because I do have to basically redo a whole bunch command structure analyses.

    It's a bunch of bullshit so that Trump can jackoff to Space Force in front of his crowds.

    Hopefully the Dems traded something good for it.

    12 Weeks paid parental leave for all federal employees and repeal of a thing called a widow tax which is something the Dems have been trying to repeal for years.

    This isn't terrible. Also saw mention that this could be a stealth increase for NASA, since the Airforce had authority to divert some funds that were tagged as part of the NASA budget, but open to the Airforce to repurpose. If so, that could pretty good depending on how much was being siphoned by the Airforce. Granted this assumes the bill doesn't let the Spaceforce do the same.

    I'm not terribly worried about this accelerating any sort of militarization of outer space, that was already a thing. Hell, looking at the wording for their mission, this could be exploited for the good of humanity. Part of the mission freedom of operations in space, as well as, sustained operations. Last I checked the biggest hazard to that is all the space trash up in near Earth orbit. So this could result in a fair bit of research into methods to clean that shit up without creating more. Might even be able to stretch that cover handling near earth asteroids that could pose a danger and maybe even getting weather satellites. Cloud cover can really fuck with ground reception of satellite signals and better tools to observe the weather can help with mitigating those issues (good way to get some climate research in as well). I mean, if they are getting the people that were already working the Airforce's Spaceforce, they likely will want things to justify their agencies existence, while also getting that you do not want to be blowing satellites up in orbit since that will fucked things up for everyone.

    I doubt it moves votes. People that would care enough about more military stuff were either already voting for Trump or weren't going to count this as more military stuff because they already don't view the Airforce as real military stuff.

    I've read in a lot of places that the idea of a Space Force isn't stupid at this point, but that it would be much smarter to make it more like the Marines than the Army, i.e. it would get it's own budget line and do it's own promotion and recruitment but at the end of the day it would be under the Air Force, not it's own separate branch.

    So I'm ok with the Dems using it to accomplish some policy goals. Especially since most likely Dem voters see the whole thing as the sequel to Reagan's Star Wars program and wouldn't be impressed about it's passage.

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