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Read the rules in the OP before posting, please.In order to ensure that this thread continues to meet TL standards and follows the proper guidelines, we will be enforcing the rules in the OP more strictly. Be sure to give them a re-read to refresh your memory! The vast majority of you are contributing in a healthy way, keep it up! NOTE: When providing a source, explain why you feel it is relevant and what purpose it adds to the discussion if it's not obvious. Also take note that unsubstantiated tweets/posts meant only to rekindle old arguments can result in a mod action. |
Washington (CNN)With tensions flaring between President Donald Trump and national security adviser Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster, the Pentagon is considering options that would allow the President to potentially move the three-star general out of his current role and back into the military, according to half a dozen defense and administration officials.
A search is quietly being conducted by the Pentagon to see if there is a four-star military job suited for McMaster, these officials said.
Several sources told CNN that the push for a replacement comes after months of personal tension between McMaster and Trump. The task of easing McMaster out of his role as national security adviser presents a unique challenge for the White House.
While administration officials have privately said the preference is to move McMaster into a position within the Army or Defense Department that qualifies as a promotion, some within the Pentagon feel he has become politicized in the White House and have expressed reservations about him returning to the military in a prominent role. Some defense officials caution that the President could also go as far as not to offer him a fourth star and force him to retire.
This is not the first time McMaster has faced speculation that his job may be in jeopardy and sources with knowledge of McMaster's standing in the White House have repeatedly said that he has been on thin ice for months.
There was discussion in the West Wing about replacing him last fall, but he ultimately survived because officials, including the President himself, were skeptical about the optics of appointing a third national security adviser in less than a year, several sources told CNN. Trump's first national security adviser, Michael Flynn, resigned amid controversy over his contact with Russian officials within a month of taking the job.
The decision was also driven by the White House's challenge attracting top talent for jobs in the administration due to Trump's "blacklist" of individuals who have criticized the President, his personality and the Russia investigation, according to a senior Republican source.
However, those familiar with the President's thinking don't believe McMaster's job is any safer now. "He is safe until he's not," the senior Republican with knowledge of the White House added.
The White House did not respond to CNN's request for comment. White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said Tuesday that Trump "still has confidence in General McMaster."
Source
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Hopefully Trump will get back to having loyalists in administrative positions rather than allowing people like McMaster to just push them out.
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On February 22 2018 23:07 LegalLord wrote:
Hopefully Trump will get back to having loyalists in administrative positions rather than allowing people like McMaster to just push them out.
Is that what McMaster's been doing?
Weren't most of the people recently 'pushed out' pushed out because of various scandals?
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On February 22 2018 23:11 iamthedave wrote:Show nested quote +On February 22 2018 23:07 LegalLord wrote:
Hopefully Trump will get back to having loyalists in administrative positions rather than allowing people like McMaster to just push them out. Is that what McMaster's been doing? Weren't most of the people recently 'pushed out' pushed out because of various scandals? But who leaked the scandals forcing them out?
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On February 22 2018 21:47 iamthedave wrote:Show nested quote +On February 22 2018 21:29 Biff The Understudy wrote:On February 22 2018 21:00 GreenHorizons wrote:On February 22 2018 20:40 Biff The Understudy wrote:On February 22 2018 20:26 iamthedave wrote:On February 22 2018 15:44 Biff The Understudy wrote:On February 22 2018 13:43 xDaunt wrote:On February 22 2018 13:32 Plansix wrote:
In retrospecte, that post is pure bait and people should just ignore it. The worst of the left isn’t trying to discredit a bunch of school kids, which is more than I can say for some NRA board members. Since when is a bunch of ignorant school kids the authority on anything? Of course their opinions should be discounted. The average person -- and even moreso, the average high school student -- is a goddamned moron. I don't want them deciding any kind of substantive policy. And of course the ignorant school kids would latch on to the easy, emotional, and lazy response to a tragedy like this: blame the guns. I'd expect nothing less from the bleeding heart left. What I am still waiting for is a real discussion regarding how thoroughly the community failed this kid. God forbid we ever engage in a little introspection. Indeed. Let’s keep shitting on those emo « goddamned morons » and not reflect on the fact that the idiot you voted for (that disqualify you to even talk about morons for a while, or at least it really should) signed a bill making sure nutcases could buy war weapons without being controlled whatsoever and made a budget cutting into the already abysmal mental health provisions. Your gigantic hypocrisy aside, I don’t know how you can lack so much empathy. It’s painful. The right is the home of HARD MEN, haven't you heard? And HARD MEN have no emotions. They have only GUNS and MONEY. They don't care about children getting shot, unless they haven't been born yet! Then their lives are EXTREMELY IMPORTANT. I know. It’s a pity that our fucked up view on masculinity means men think themselves strong for being emotionally crippled, unaware and shut down, and borderline psychopathic when it comes to empathizing. It produces angry and violent people unable to take care of others or think remotely humanly. Oh. And Trump. It has it's uses. Primarily in warfare (not that Trump would know anything about that). But is that it on the P6 thing? Did I clear it up for you? Yup, it looks to me that America is a nation of soldiers, and that militarism leaves a trace deeper in the country psychee than it looks at first glance. Which is why it’s so fucked by the way. I have a theory that a lot of America's problems come out of being a stillborn nation. If you look at how powerful America became, how quickly, and look at from a historical perspective, it seems to me that America pretty clearly reached the stage where in the past it would have been forming an Empire. Almost every major country had a go at it at some point during their development, to varying success. The problem is America reached full ascendance in an era of mutually assured destruction and a generally dismissive view of expansionism, not to mention that everywhere major is controlled by people who can defend themselves or have defensive alliances. America's not able to expand proportionate to its power, so it's never really reached its full potential, leading to a lot of internal problems that would have naturally been dealt with in the expansion/collapse process that everyone else that built an empire went through.
Love everything in this post. Now do you understand why Musk is taking us to Mars?
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On February 22 2018 23:26 ZerOCoolSC2 wrote:Show nested quote +On February 22 2018 21:47 iamthedave wrote:On February 22 2018 21:29 Biff The Understudy wrote:On February 22 2018 21:00 GreenHorizons wrote:On February 22 2018 20:40 Biff The Understudy wrote:On February 22 2018 20:26 iamthedave wrote:On February 22 2018 15:44 Biff The Understudy wrote:On February 22 2018 13:43 xDaunt wrote:On February 22 2018 13:32 Plansix wrote:
In retrospecte, that post is pure bait and people should just ignore it. The worst of the left isn’t trying to discredit a bunch of school kids, which is more than I can say for some NRA board members. Since when is a bunch of ignorant school kids the authority on anything? Of course their opinions should be discounted. The average person -- and even moreso, the average high school student -- is a goddamned moron. I don't want them deciding any kind of substantive policy. And of course the ignorant school kids would latch on to the easy, emotional, and lazy response to a tragedy like this: blame the guns. I'd expect nothing less from the bleeding heart left. What I am still waiting for is a real discussion regarding how thoroughly the community failed this kid. God forbid we ever engage in a little introspection. Indeed. Let’s keep shitting on those emo « goddamned morons » and not reflect on the fact that the idiot you voted for (that disqualify you to even talk about morons for a while, or at least it really should) signed a bill making sure nutcases could buy war weapons without being controlled whatsoever and made a budget cutting into the already abysmal mental health provisions. Your gigantic hypocrisy aside, I don’t know how you can lack so much empathy. It’s painful. The right is the home of HARD MEN, haven't you heard? And HARD MEN have no emotions. They have only GUNS and MONEY. They don't care about children getting shot, unless they haven't been born yet! Then their lives are EXTREMELY IMPORTANT. I know. It’s a pity that our fucked up view on masculinity means men think themselves strong for being emotionally crippled, unaware and shut down, and borderline psychopathic when it comes to empathizing. It produces angry and violent people unable to take care of others or think remotely humanly. Oh. And Trump. It has it's uses. Primarily in warfare (not that Trump would know anything about that). But is that it on the P6 thing? Did I clear it up for you? Yup, it looks to me that America is a nation of soldiers, and that militarism leaves a trace deeper in the country psychee than it looks at first glance. Which is why it’s so fucked by the way. I have a theory that a lot of America's problems come out of being a stillborn nation. If you look at how powerful America became, how quickly, and look at from a historical perspective, it seems to me that America pretty clearly reached the stage where in the past it would have been forming an Empire. Almost every major country had a go at it at some point during their development, to varying success. The problem is America reached full ascendance in an era of mutually assured destruction and a generally dismissive view of expansionism, not to mention that everywhere major is controlled by people who can defend themselves or have defensive alliances. America's not able to expand proportionate to its power, so it's never really reached its full potential, leading to a lot of internal problems that would have naturally been dealt with in the expansion/collapse process that everyone else that built an empire went through. Love everything in this post. Now do you understand why Musk is taking us to Mars? Going to Mars won't solve any of the issues facing America. Unless you want to forceable relocate half the country there (either half)
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It’s a great way to believe in a feel-good fantasy and nothing else, really. Some people need to believe that Trump will make America great again, others need to believe in Mars BS.
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Should have added the /s. Didn't think it would be needed. I was wrong. So, so very wrong.
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On February 22 2018 23:36 Gorsameth wrote:Show nested quote +On February 22 2018 23:26 ZerOCoolSC2 wrote:On February 22 2018 21:47 iamthedave wrote:On February 22 2018 21:29 Biff The Understudy wrote:On February 22 2018 21:00 GreenHorizons wrote:On February 22 2018 20:40 Biff The Understudy wrote:On February 22 2018 20:26 iamthedave wrote:On February 22 2018 15:44 Biff The Understudy wrote:On February 22 2018 13:43 xDaunt wrote:On February 22 2018 13:32 Plansix wrote:
In retrospecte, that post is pure bait and people should just ignore it. The worst of the left isn’t trying to discredit a bunch of school kids, which is more than I can say for some NRA board members. Since when is a bunch of ignorant school kids the authority on anything? Of course their opinions should be discounted. The average person -- and even moreso, the average high school student -- is a goddamned moron. I don't want them deciding any kind of substantive policy. And of course the ignorant school kids would latch on to the easy, emotional, and lazy response to a tragedy like this: blame the guns. I'd expect nothing less from the bleeding heart left. What I am still waiting for is a real discussion regarding how thoroughly the community failed this kid. God forbid we ever engage in a little introspection. Indeed. Let’s keep shitting on those emo « goddamned morons » and not reflect on the fact that the idiot you voted for (that disqualify you to even talk about morons for a while, or at least it really should) signed a bill making sure nutcases could buy war weapons without being controlled whatsoever and made a budget cutting into the already abysmal mental health provisions. Your gigantic hypocrisy aside, I don’t know how you can lack so much empathy. It’s painful. The right is the home of HARD MEN, haven't you heard? And HARD MEN have no emotions. They have only GUNS and MONEY. They don't care about children getting shot, unless they haven't been born yet! Then their lives are EXTREMELY IMPORTANT. I know. It’s a pity that our fucked up view on masculinity means men think themselves strong for being emotionally crippled, unaware and shut down, and borderline psychopathic when it comes to empathizing. It produces angry and violent people unable to take care of others or think remotely humanly. Oh. And Trump. It has it's uses. Primarily in warfare (not that Trump would know anything about that). But is that it on the P6 thing? Did I clear it up for you? Yup, it looks to me that America is a nation of soldiers, and that militarism leaves a trace deeper in the country psychee than it looks at first glance. Which is why it’s so fucked by the way. I have a theory that a lot of America's problems come out of being a stillborn nation. If you look at how powerful America became, how quickly, and look at from a historical perspective, it seems to me that America pretty clearly reached the stage where in the past it would have been forming an Empire. Almost every major country had a go at it at some point during their development, to varying success. The problem is America reached full ascendance in an era of mutually assured destruction and a generally dismissive view of expansionism, not to mention that everywhere major is controlled by people who can defend themselves or have defensive alliances. America's not able to expand proportionate to its power, so it's never really reached its full potential, leading to a lot of internal problems that would have naturally been dealt with in the expansion/collapse process that everyone else that built an empire went through. Love everything in this post. Now do you understand why Musk is taking us to Mars? Going to Mars won't solve any of the issues facing America. Unless you want to forceable relocate half the country there (either half)
Would we consider Mars to the left or right of Earth? If our other planetary neighbor wasn't so inconveniently sulfuric, we could have a "Republicans are from Mars, Democrats are from Venus" situation. I guess the coloration vaguely maps well, at least.
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The United States has the luck to being separated from most modern wars. Only since the Civil War has the United States actually suffered from a total war. Ever since then they have been far distant ones and being unable to connect with the suffering and loss besides being soldiers unlike in Europe which has had hundreds of years to learn from. Even during WWII we were never in danger of being attacked or invaded even bombs from japan called Fire Balloons or w/e failed to do any impact only hitting empty forests and fields and killing, i believe, two hikers who came upon them.
We see suffering and loss from a distance and in small samples.
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I may be wrong, but I think the idea was that we're going to Mars because there's room for empire in space. Not so much that it solves the problems of pursuing empire and it's inevitable collapse.
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Unless we find some way to get Mars' core ticking again, it's nothing more than exploration.
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On February 22 2018 23:41 Gahlo wrote:
Unless we find some way to get Mars' core ticking again, it's nothing more than exploration.
Unrealistic expectations of the frontier are part and parcel of empire building/collapse. That is to say I didn't mean we would effectively build a space empire.
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Nationalism in Space is actually a very valid concern among Space faring nations. Hence treaties and the eventual discussion with colonists whether they are on Mars, or even the Moon.
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On February 22 2018 23:44 {CC}StealthBlue wrote:
Nationalism in Space is actually a very valid concern among Space faring nations. Hence treaties and the eventual discussion with colonists whether they are on Mars, or even the Moon.
That the UN (whose effective enforcement arm is the US) is the enforcement body behind the idea that the US wasn't laying claim to the moon when we put our flags on it is not lost on me.
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Yes... but I'm party talking about there being nobody to prevent colonists on the Moon, or Mars from building up a self sustaining colony and simply asking why they are loyal to people millions of miles away.
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On February 22 2018 23:48 {CC}StealthBlue wrote:
Yes... but I'm party talking about there being nobody to prevent colonists on the Moon, or Mars from building up a self sustaining colony and simply asking why they are loyal to people millions of miles away.
Because self sustaining isnt going to happen for a long time
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On February 22 2018 23:40 ZerOCoolSC2 wrote:
Should have added the /s. Didn't think it would be needed. I was wrong. So, so very wrong.
There was clearly no point to it other than to just gush over cool-sounding ideas. Everyone needs their personal delusion.
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On February 22 2018 23:48 {CC}StealthBlue wrote:
Yes... but I'm party talking about there being nobody to prevent colonists on the Moon, or Mars from building up a self sustaining colony and simply asking why they are loyal to people millions of miles away.
And the US will be there to light the Declaration of Independence ablaze with the friction of their bones if that's what it takes to bring them into submission. Any space colony better be well and sure they have a MAD plan before they reach for any sense of independence. The moon probably is the better contender there, but notably less so with the self sustenance.
I'd prefer we just stop ruining this planet before we spread across the system like a virus though.
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The physics behind large scale space colonization would require us to develop tech to move asteroids and other large objects in space into earth orbit. And once you do the math for capturing anything worth using as building material, it is a short leap to crashing the thing into the side of the planet and a whole lot of people. That is the cool part about space. Everything is moving so god damn fast that you don’t even need bombs.
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EPT
