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[smjjames]

Go buy some plane tickets, and I'll let you crash at my place for a while so you can actually see the place, get a feel for it. Literally everybody here would laugh in your face for that statement, from the far right to the far left.

The truly ambitious hide their ambitions well - Put another way, Germany is not the vanguard of the 5th European attempt to attain world hegemony out of humility.

FIFY, 4th European attempt to attain world hegemeony kind of has certain... connotations... for Germany.

Germany (or at least Merkel does) certainly has great influence within the EU sphere, but as we saw in the G20, they are far from being able to swing the same kind of diplomatic weight that the US normally carries since Merkel was trying to fill in the vacuum that Trump is willingly leaving behind.

[Starver]

Pretty interesting, substantial interview with Gen. Mattis

   http://mihsislander.org/2017/06/full-transcript-james-mattis-interview/   

Their formatting is kind of odd with Mattis's name being inserted often a paragraph into a block of text.

Confused me too.  'Til I realised that it was "Teddy: {Teddy's Question} {Precis of Mattis' s answer} Mattis: {Mattis's Answer}" in sequence, except on the odd occasion where there's no precis (i.e. mildly paraphrased extract, usually from mid-answer) at all.

I suspect the intended stylesheet should set out the extract/summary as a quoteboxy-type thing in obviously different style (I'd have full-indented it/right-margin-flushed, italicised and either up-scaled or down-scaled the font, maybe), but on this device I don't get easy access to View Source to track down what they think they were doing in CSS and span/block ID stuff.

Anyway, go figure. Now to go back and read the article again without half an eye to the nascent web design... 

I got one sofa. The rest of you either need willingness to sleep in the kitchen or boobs and low standards.

But not standards and low boobs?  Darn.

[misko27]

Every one is just an octopus in disguise.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Ave, Russia and Prussia; we are all octopodes in disguise.  Because it was the time to fear the Czar.  Or another. And some Prusso-phobia for good measure.

EDIT: Heavens, those maps are huge; linked up instead.

No Serbia on those maps, except as a baby. But Europe lived to rue the day it forgot us.

Go buy some plane tickets, and I'll let you crash at my place for a while so you can actually see the place, get a feel for it. Literally everybody here would laugh in your face for that statement, from the far right to the far left.

The truly ambitious hide their ambitions well - Put another way, Germany is not the vanguard of the 4th European attempt to attain world hegemony out of humility.

Truly excellent hiders may even hide it from themselves. But that does not mean it isn't there.

I got one sofa. The rest of you either need willingness to sleep in the kitchen or boobs and low standards.

Well, having neither of those things, I call the sofa.

[Reelya]

Hey, don't say the Republicans never do anything for space ...

https://www.gizmodo.com.au/2017/07/congress-close-to-approving-a-new-space-army/

Apparently, funding NASA is a waste of money but training a Space Army can't happen soon enough.

[redwallzyl]

Hey, don't say the Republicans never do anything for space ...

https://www.gizmodo.com.au/2017/07/congress-close-to-approving-a-new-space-army/

Apparently, funding NASA is a waste of money but training a Space Army can't happen soon enough.

Isn't the militarization of space supposed to be internationally banned or something? also this is exactly the kind of stupid i would expect from them at this point. cut all the environmental monitoring and spend a hundred times as much on space guns.

[smjjames]

Hey, don't say the Republicans never do anything for space ...

https://www.gizmodo.com.au/2017/07/congress-close-to-approving-a-new-space-army/

Apparently, funding NASA is a waste of money but training a Space Army can't happen soon enough.

Isn't the militarization of space supposed to be internationally banned or something? also this is exactly the kind of stupid i would expect from them at this point. cut all the environmental monitoring and spend a hundred times as much on space guns.

I think theres a treaty on it *checks wiki* yeah, though it only applies to nukes/WMDs (including 'Rods from God' or kinetic drop missiles I think), and there's another one (same link) that is against an arms race in space.

Theres nothing against setting up some 'space corps' to manage sattelites and keep an eye on things and stuff.

[Starver]

Either here or elsewhere, I've seen it said that the pesky "keeping tabs on global warming, and keeping notes" part of the space-program is currently unaffected by the defunding of NASA's Earth Observation activites. But by wrapping it up in the new Space Force thing, suddenly there's oversight and thus the ability to mould it (and divert it from invonvenient truths) accordingly.

[smjjames]

Either here or elsewhere, I've seen it said that the pesky "keeping tabs on global warming, and keeping notes" part of the space-program is currently unaffected by the defunding of NASA's Earth Observation activites. But by wrapping it up in the new Space Force thing, suddenly there's oversight and thus the ability to mould it (and divert it from invonvenient truths) accordingly.

I haven't seen any of that, and the military would probably object and say "That's not our job!" if it was attempted to be rolled into military operations because it doesn't make sense to do so.

[sluissa]

Either here or elsewhere, I've seen it said that the pesky "keeping tabs on global warming, and keeping notes" part of the space-program is currently unaffected by the defunding of NASA's Earth Observation activites. But by wrapping it up in the new Space Force thing, suddenly there's oversight and thus the ability to mould it (and divert it from invonvenient truths) accordingly.

I haven't seen any of that, and the military would probably object and say "That's not our job!" if it was attempted to be rolled into military operations because it doesn't make sense to do so.

It already is their job. Air Force and Navy already put a lot of resources in environmental tracking and study. One of the biggest weather prediction programs is run by the US Navy because, hey, they like to know where it'll be safe to sail their ships.

Other branches have their own projects as well that you might not consider strictly "their job."

Army and Marines are putting a lot of attention towards renewable resources because they're starting to realize that even when they have the ability and blank check to transport gallons and gallons of diesel into remote places to stage a FOB, sometimes it's more efficient, and strategically safer to use renewables like wind and solar as their primary source with fueled generators as a backup. Fewer supply convoys on the road, and less dependence on a supply line that can be cut simply makes sense from a strategic standpoint.

The thing is, these branches already have their mandate, which while able to be tweaked, would frown heavily upon major changes to. An entirely new branch though. That's a blank rulebook waiting to be written.

Probably culturally insensitive edit: (Forgiveness asked in advance.) As for Europe's spirit animal, the bull is the perfect one. You've got Britain off to the side keeping it angry. You've got the cowboy Italians trying to ride it and falling off. And Spain missing the point entirely and stabbing themselves with swords. And then you've got Erdogan desperately following the bull around trying to scoop up some bullshit to feed his ego country.

[Starver]

(Part-ninjaed by sluissa, whilst writing.)

USAF handles various space-related items already, mostly without the bothersome hand of the Whkte House upon it (just existing appropriations committees, which one hopes default to practical continuity of proven programs), but now there's the opportunity to shift selections of this payload over to Space Command (and make the intended fate of the unconsidered items obvious) for wholesale restructuring...

As an example of the gutting, NASA has seemingly lost CLARREO and PACE (earth observation missions), and the perfectly good NISTAR (due to cost just millions to use, atop the billions already spent to launch the satellite it was already hoisted aboard - a typical Trumpish 'death of a thousand (very very small) cuts' thing to do) and there was originally a proposal to wholesale push NASA's 'home front' stuff onto NOAA (easier to control, it's one of the government agencies shorn of its Obama-era head and still only with an interim replacement, last I heard).

But, instead, the NSC in its Bush (Sr) incarnation was chaired by VOTUS and otherwise populated mainly by Secretary-level direct appointees of the POTUS, and it seems that the Trump revival is following the same pattern.

All in the name of 'Space Security' and implementing Presidential space-policy. Which I frankly (even as someone more under the aegis of ESA's plans) don't have much confidence in. Though don't worry about the Asteroid Redirection Program being scrapped, I'm sure we won't suddenly find that it might have been useful to have a tried and tested platform in place to mobilise in a few months or years, rather than try to cram a decade or so of work into an emergency-led far shorter lead-time.

(Ok, it's not (solely) America's (sole) problem, and not anywhere near a certainty, but imagine if it becomes Trump's anti-legacy that he was responsible for redooming the planet. (Among the various other ways he might be doing that!))

[wierd]

Well Helgo, I would love to see Germany, and I DID just take a week of vacation, but I am afraid that the thought of passing through US customs twice (as I live in neofascist america) and not only getting the complimentary pornoscopic exam and laptop rootkit, but also the gestapo asking annoyingly stupid questions about my reasons for leaving the country, etc-- I will have to decline your generous offer, even though I am quite content with an air mattress and a tent, as long as I can use the shower.

As acerbic as I can sometimes be on here, I am really not that big of a jackass in person. Honest.  I actually have a guest room downstairs, so if you feel like visiting the new home of corporate fascism (the US), and have a desire to see the less desirable states (like mine) I can totally put you up. An offer of hospitality is best reciprocated. Bear in mind that you would have to deal with the same border security bullshit that I myself would rather not deal with as well.

Glory to Aristotska! Erhm.. I mean, Make America Great Again!

[scriver]

But I do maintain that German politics seems intent upon going full Imperium someday, it just has to be insulated by being able to blame "Europe" instead of Germany.

When fascism comes to Europe, it will come holding a trade agreement and wrapped in the EU flag.

[Sheb]

But I do maintain that German politics seems intent upon going full Imperium someday, it just has to be insulated by being able to blame "Europe" instead of Germany.

When fascism comes to Europe, it will come holding a trade agreement and wrapped in the EU flag.

It'll also have strict regulation on the amount of noise the jackboots can do when marching with torchlight, and proper procedure to ensure the leather is sourced in a sustainable manner.

[smjjames]

Trump did his version of "You know what, nevermind that plan." regarding the cybersecurity unit thing.

Clever wheeling and dealing or not? Go figure.

Also: http://www.politico.com/story/2017/07/09/trump-russia-cyber-experts-240340

But I do maintain that German politics seems intent upon going full Imperium someday, it just has to be insulated by being able to blame "Europe" instead of Germany.

When fascism comes to Europe, it will come holding a trade agreement and wrapped in the EU flag.

It'll also have strict regulation on the amount of noise the jackboots can do when marching with torchlight, and proper procedure to ensure the leather is sourced in a sustainable manner.

I know we were discussing Europe stuff because G20 was going on and just having some fun, but can we bulldoze Europe stuff to the EU/Europe politics thread?

[Sheb]

I know we were discussing Europe stuff because G20 was going on and just having some fun, but can we bulldoze Europe stuff to the EU/Europe politics thread?

Jolly gosh, the colonials sure are getting arrogant.