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On December 31 2025 11:10 KwarK wrote:
The railguns are just waiting for the special science fiction alloys that they’re made from to be discovered. Once that’s done the rest will fall into place in no time.
I mean yeah the biggest issue is keeping the rails aligned in such a way that the thing doesn't rip apart when fireing. Most of the energy is used to keep the thing algned. Its a lot easier to do for a carrier catapault beacuse you can hard lay the rails and simply shuttle mass along the same track every time.
Now take those issues with keeping the thing aligned and put it on the open sea, make the targeting accurate and dynamic, protect it in a way that it won't be rendered useless the first time anything touches or looks at it.
Oh and prevent rust beacuse salt water. Just a little rust and the entire thing is useless.
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United States43677 Posts
The House ethics report for Trump AG nominee Gaetz has been released.
The committee summarized it withsubstantial evidence that Representative Gaetz violated House Rules, state and federal laws, and other standards of conduct prohibiting prostitution, statutory rape, illicit drug use, acceptance of impermissible gifts, the provision of special favors and privileges, and obstruction of Congress.
Between 2017 and 2020, Gaetz paid women tens of thousands of dollars “that the Committee determined were likely in connection with sexual activity and/or drug use,” the report said.
That sum includes money spent at a July 15, 2017, party, at which “the record overwhelmingly suggests that Representative Gaetz had sex with multiple women ... including the then-17-year-old,” according to the report.
Gaetz, who was 35 at the time, and the underage girl had sex twice at that party, including at least once in front of others, the report found. The girl, referred to as “Victim A,” said she remembered Gaetz gave her $400 that evening for what she understood was payment for sex, the report said.
“At the time, she had just completed her junior year of high school,” the report said.
Gaetz’s prior assertion that he has not had sex with a 17-year-old “since I was 17” was untrue, the committee concluded.
His “statutory rape of Victim A was a violation of Florida law, the Code of Official Conduct, and the Code of Ethics for Government Service,” the report said.
https://www.cnbc.com/2024/12/23/matt-gaetz-sex-drug-report-house-ethics.html
Presumably he was overqualified for a position in the Trump administration.
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On December 31 2025 02:52 Introvert wrote:
I don't know enough about the design of ships to comment too much but when it comes to actually building them, I think the administration has been working with Japanese and South Korean companies to have them buy American shipyards and spend at least part of their time building ships for the Navy. I don’t think they are starting big, but that's the idea.
Also, the problem with American ship building is bipartisan. There are a lot of bad laws and rules that no one wants to touch. It's not really about wasting $$$
Hasn't South Korea already bought like half of US shipyards? They're responsible for 25% of ship building worldwide...
Also, wasn't part of Trump's plan to bring back manufacturing and jobs to US? AFAIK there's plenty of SK investment in the US but they tend to fire local workforce and bring their own under the pretense of locals not being as good/efficient as Koreans.
Might be just rumors of course.
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On December 31 2025 11:17 Sermokala wrote:Show nested quote +On December 31 2025 11:10 KwarK wrote:
The railguns are just waiting for the special science fiction alloys that they’re made from to be discovered. Once that’s done the rest will fall into place in no time. I mean yeah the biggest issue is keeping the rails aligned in such a way that the thing doesn't rip apart when fireing. Most of the energy is used to keep the thing algned. Its a lot easier to do for a carrier catapault beacuse you can hard lay the rails and simply shuttle mass along the same track every time. Now take those issues with keeping the thing aligned and put it on the open sea, make the targeting accurate and dynamic, protect it in a way that it won't be rendered useless the first time anything touches or looks at it. Oh and prevent rust beacuse salt water. Just a little rust and the entire thing is useless.
Then you hit a destroyer with it and it just shrugs it off because just like the old battleships the round overpenetrates and unless it hits something critical there is going to be very little kinetic energy transfered.
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On December 31 2025 17:29 CuddlyCuteKitten wrote:Show nested quote +On December 31 2025 11:17 Sermokala wrote:On December 31 2025 11:10 KwarK wrote:
The railguns are just waiting for the special science fiction alloys that they’re made from to be discovered. Once that’s done the rest will fall into place in no time. I mean yeah the biggest issue is keeping the rails aligned in such a way that the thing doesn't rip apart when fireing. Most of the energy is used to keep the thing algned. Its a lot easier to do for a carrier catapault beacuse you can hard lay the rails and simply shuttle mass along the same track every time. Now take those issues with keeping the thing aligned and put it on the open sea, make the targeting accurate and dynamic, protect it in a way that it won't be rendered useless the first time anything touches or looks at it. Oh and prevent rust beacuse salt water. Just a little rust and the entire thing is useless. Then you hit a destroyer with it and it just shrugs it off because just like the old battleships the round overpenetrates and unless it hits something critical there is going to be very little kinetic energy transfered.
I mean, that problem has been solved for centuries. If you can shoot a pellet of lead at hypersonic velocities, you can also shoot a pellet of lead with a bomb inside it at hypersonic velocities. The engineering of the bomb might be a little bit more complicated, but armor piercing vs incendiary rounds is not a new concept. The problem isn't so much the payload, it's the delivery system. In much the same way early muskets were almost useless: we have the science to shoot things out of rail guns, but we don't yet have the metallurgy (or other material science) to build them in such a way that it can be repeated reliably at a high enough rate to replace competing technologies.
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Trump's first two vetoes of his second term are against a Colorado clean drinking water bill and against a Florida bill aimed at supporting Native Americans. The former veto is being viewed as retaliation against members of both parties who have been standing up against Trump's friends (Epstein and his files + Peters and his election tampering). The latter veto is being viewed as a way to continue pushing Trump's unethical immigration policy.
U.S. President Donald Trump vetoed a major drinking water project in Colorado, drawing immediate condemnation from Colorado Republican lawmaker Lauren Boebert, a former loyal MAGA ally who also recently challenged Trump over the Jeffrey Epstein files. The White House announced Trump's veto of the Finish the Arkansas Valley Conduit (AVC) Act, which was approved unanimously by both the House of Representatives and the Senate, and a second measure affecting a Florida project, late on Tuesday. They were the first two vetoes of Trump's second term.
The veto of the Colorado project came after Trump's vow to retaliate against the state for keeping his ally Tina Peters in prison, despite his attempt to pardon her earlier in the month, and Boebert's action to force the release of the government's files on the late convicted sexual offender Epstein. Peters, a former Colorado county clerk, is serving a nine-year prison term after being convicted on state charges for illegally tampering with voting machines in the 2020 presidential election. Trump's pardon covers only federal charges and the state has refused to release Peters. Boebert, who sponsored the bill, condemned Trump's veto of what she called a "completely non-controversial, bipartisan bill" in a statement on X, adding her hope is that "this veto has nothing to do with political retaliation for calling out corruption and demanding accountability." The bill was aimed at funding a decades-long project to bring safe drinking water to 39 communities in Colorado's Eastern Plains, where the groundwater is high in salt, and wells sometimes unleash radioactivity into the water supply. ...
The White House said Trump had also vetoed a measure to spend $14 million to protect an area known as Osceola Camp within the Everglades National Park that is inhabited by members of the Miccosukee tribe of Native Americans, which has fought Trump's makeshift immigrant detention center "Alligator Alcatraz" in the Everglades. A federal judge has now ordered the detention center to be shut down. Trump said the tribe was never authorized to inhabit the Osceola Camp area, and his administration would not support projects for special interests, especially those "unaligned" with his immigration policies. https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trump-issues-first-second-term-vetoes-colorado-water-project-florida-tribal-2025-12-31/
President Trump used his veto power this week for the first time since returning to the White House, rejecting a pair of bipartisan bills designed to make it easier to build a water pipeline in Colorado and give a Native American tribe more control over a portion of the Everglades. Mr. Trump vetoed the two bills on Monday, the White House announced on X, after they were sent to his desk earlier this month. The bills had backers in both parties, and they passed the House and Senate through voice votes. Both houses of Congress would need to pass the bills again by a two-thirds margin to override the president's veto. It's fairly rare for the president to exercise his veto power, especially when the president's party controls Congress. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-issues-first-vetoes-of-this-term-water-pipeline-everglades-tribal/
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On December 31 2025 20:18 DarkPlasmaBall wrote:Trump's first two vetoes of his second term are against a Colorado clean drinking water bill and against a Florida bill aimed at supporting Native Americans. The former veto is being viewed as retaliation against members of both parties who have been standing up against Trump's friends (Epstein and his files + Peters and his election tampering). The latter veto is being viewed as a way to continue pushing Trump's unethical immigration policy. Show nested quote +U.S. President Donald Trump vetoed a major drinking water project in Colorado, drawing immediate condemnation from Colorado Republican lawmaker Lauren Boebert, a former loyal MAGA ally who also recently challenged Trump over the Jeffrey Epstein files. The White House announced Trump's veto of the Finish the Arkansas Valley Conduit (AVC) Act, which was approved unanimously by both the House of Representatives and the Senate, and a second measure affecting a Florida project, late on Tuesday. They were the first two vetoes of Trump's second term.
The veto of the Colorado project came after Trump's vow to retaliate against the state for keeping his ally Tina Peters in prison, despite his attempt to pardon her earlier in the month, and Boebert's action to force the release of the government's files on the late convicted sexual offender Epstein. Peters, a former Colorado county clerk, is serving a nine-year prison term after being convicted on state charges for illegally tampering with voting machines in the 2020 presidential election. Trump's pardon covers only federal charges and the state has refused to release Peters. Boebert, who sponsored the bill, condemned Trump's veto of what she called a "completely non-controversial, bipartisan bill" in a statement on X, adding her hope is that "this veto has nothing to do with political retaliation for calling out corruption and demanding accountability." The bill was aimed at funding a decades-long project to bring safe drinking water to 39 communities in Colorado's Eastern Plains, where the groundwater is high in salt, and wells sometimes unleash radioactivity into the water supply. ...
The White House said Trump had also vetoed a measure to spend $14 million to protect an area known as Osceola Camp within the Everglades National Park that is inhabited by members of the Miccosukee tribe of Native Americans, which has fought Trump's makeshift immigrant detention center "Alligator Alcatraz" in the Everglades. A federal judge has now ordered the detention center to be shut down. Trump said the tribe was never authorized to inhabit the Osceola Camp area, and his administration would not support projects for special interests, especially those "unaligned" with his immigration policies. https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trump-issues-first-second-term-vetoes-colorado-water-project-florida-tribal-2025-12-31/Show nested quote +President Trump used his veto power this week for the first time since returning to the White House, rejecting a pair of bipartisan bills designed to make it easier to build a water pipeline in Colorado and give a Native American tribe more control over a portion of the Everglades. Mr. Trump vetoed the two bills on Monday, the White House announced on X, after they were sent to his desk earlier this month. The bills had backers in both parties, and they passed the House and Senate through voice votes. Both houses of Congress would need to pass the bills again by a two-thirds margin to override the president's veto. It's fairly rare for the president to exercise his veto power, especially when the president's party controls Congress. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-issues-first-vetoes-of-this-term-water-pipeline-everglades-tribal/
It is funny/sad how literally everything Trump does can be explained with schoolyard bully tactics. Maybe there is an unfit for office guiness world record, and Trump wants to beat it by being unfit for office in as many ways as possible as quickly as possible?
And of course, very soon oBlade will turn up and explain how this is totally sensible and reasonable behaviour, and really how could we ever be so silly to question it.
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On December 31 2025 22:00 Simberto wrote:Show nested quote +On December 31 2025 20:18 DarkPlasmaBall wrote:Trump's first two vetoes of his second term are against a Colorado clean drinking water bill and against a Florida bill aimed at supporting Native Americans. The former veto is being viewed as retaliation against members of both parties who have been standing up against Trump's friends (Epstein and his files + Peters and his election tampering). The latter veto is being viewed as a way to continue pushing Trump's unethical immigration policy. U.S. President Donald Trump vetoed a major drinking water project in Colorado, drawing immediate condemnation from Colorado Republican lawmaker Lauren Boebert, a former loyal MAGA ally who also recently challenged Trump over the Jeffrey Epstein files. The White House announced Trump's veto of the Finish the Arkansas Valley Conduit (AVC) Act, which was approved unanimously by both the House of Representatives and the Senate, and a second measure affecting a Florida project, late on Tuesday. They were the first two vetoes of Trump's second term.
The veto of the Colorado project came after Trump's vow to retaliate against the state for keeping his ally Tina Peters in prison, despite his attempt to pardon her earlier in the month, and Boebert's action to force the release of the government's files on the late convicted sexual offender Epstein. Peters, a former Colorado county clerk, is serving a nine-year prison term after being convicted on state charges for illegally tampering with voting machines in the 2020 presidential election. Trump's pardon covers only federal charges and the state has refused to release Peters. Boebert, who sponsored the bill, condemned Trump's veto of what she called a "completely non-controversial, bipartisan bill" in a statement on X, adding her hope is that "this veto has nothing to do with political retaliation for calling out corruption and demanding accountability." The bill was aimed at funding a decades-long project to bring safe drinking water to 39 communities in Colorado's Eastern Plains, where the groundwater is high in salt, and wells sometimes unleash radioactivity into the water supply. ...
The White House said Trump had also vetoed a measure to spend $14 million to protect an area known as Osceola Camp within the Everglades National Park that is inhabited by members of the Miccosukee tribe of Native Americans, which has fought Trump's makeshift immigrant detention center "Alligator Alcatraz" in the Everglades. A federal judge has now ordered the detention center to be shut down. Trump said the tribe was never authorized to inhabit the Osceola Camp area, and his administration would not support projects for special interests, especially those "unaligned" with his immigration policies. https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trump-issues-first-second-term-vetoes-colorado-water-project-florida-tribal-2025-12-31/President Trump used his veto power this week for the first time since returning to the White House, rejecting a pair of bipartisan bills designed to make it easier to build a water pipeline in Colorado and give a Native American tribe more control over a portion of the Everglades. Mr. Trump vetoed the two bills on Monday, the White House announced on X, after they were sent to his desk earlier this month. The bills had backers in both parties, and they passed the House and Senate through voice votes. Both houses of Congress would need to pass the bills again by a two-thirds margin to override the president's veto. It's fairly rare for the president to exercise his veto power, especially when the president's party controls Congress. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-issues-first-vetoes-of-this-term-water-pipeline-everglades-tribal/ It is funny/sad how literally everything Trump does can be explained with schoolyard bully tactics. Maybe there is an unfit for office guiness world record, and Trump wants to beat it by being unfit for office in as many ways as possible as quickly as possible? And of course, very soon oBlade will turn up and explain how this is totally sensible and reasonable behaviour, and really how could we ever be so silly to question it.
nah, Trump is just another Republican Prez. I think you're losing your historical perspective and have become a prisoner of the moment. As extremely powerful men, US Presidents do nasty stuff all the time. Usually, Republican Presidents do more mean nasty stuff than Democrat Presidents. Trump is no different. Current day media only covers the shiny stuff. We get a very thin slice of curated reality.
Many world leaders over the past 20+ years consciously decided to lower their military budgets opening themselves up to the tactics Trump employs. Canada decided to centre all their trade and economic activity around the USA. Now, they're getting crushed for it. Sooner or later a US leader was go to call down Canada's weak hand. It makes it tougher to swallow when it is a reality TV star. meh.
On a more light hearted note, as a big RTS fan, I'm kinda surprised and disappointed I have not seen more Kane style "Peace Through Power" memes about Trump.
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I very much disagree. Just compare the scandals which killed previous presidencies with whatever Trump did just in the last week (at any point in time, not this last week specifically).
Stuff like Watergate or Bill Clintons Blowjob thing would just be an average Tuesday for Trump.
I know that you are absurdly focused on Canada for some reason. But i am not even talking about the insane foreign policy. I am talking about the corrupt grift, the utter lack of any decorum whatsoever, the petty childish bullying and the overall incompetency.
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The focus on Bill Clinton's blow job issues pointed out to me he was doing a great job as Prez and they had nothing on him. The blow job thing is all the opposition could come up with. The blow job thing makes Clinton's performance appear better.
IMO opinion Clinton the best best prez since ~1950. It woulda been JFK but the damn fool tried to colour outside the lines and got himself shot.
Canadian PM Pierre Trudeau beat his repeatedly wife for years... and this is all the media could come up with on Clinton? please....
On January 01 2026 10:00 Simberto wrote:
I know that you are absurdly focused on Canada for some reason.\
Canada is a curious case because they sit on the other side of the world's longest undefended border; also, i lived there for 22 years.
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On January 01 2026 10:00 Simberto wrote:
I very much disagree. Just compare the scandals which killed previous presidencies with whatever Trump did just in the last week (at any point in time, not this last week specifically).
Stuff like Watergate or Bill Clintons Blowjob thing would just be an average Tuesday for Trump.
I know that you are absurdly focused on Canada for some reason. But i am not even talking about the insane foreign policy. I am talking about the corrupt grift, the utter lack of any decorum whatsoever, the petty childish bullying and the overall incompetency.
Bush was pretty bad. Think Kwark among most others came down on the "worse than Trump's first term". Not sure if that applies to his second term so far?
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United States43677 Posts
Issue with Bush2 is that he killed millions of Arabs, started multiple unwinnable wars that fucked things long after his presidency ended, demolished public finances with his tax cuts + wars, and oversaw the collapse of the financial system which he had in part entrusted to his buddies from Enron.
Bush2 was certainly more dignified than Trump and raped fewer children. He was bad on a policy level rather than a personal level. Trump is personally irredeemable. Bush2 has more blood on his hands.
It basically comes down to how you measure it. I’d sooner invite Bush to a dinner party than Trump but that’s not the only factor.
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Bush was completely justified in attacking Afganistan, and I do not agree that war was unvinable. US should focus all their resources to either stabilize them or contain them from radical extremists as much as possible. Instead, they invaded Iraq on BS justification, dispercing their efforts too wide and creating one big security hole on entire middle east.
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Great, Mamdani is now Mayor and he is supposed to be some kind of big time socialist. Super cool. Mamdani must demand the state government repeal the 1982 law that exempts MSG from paying property tax. The rich should pay their fare share of taxes right? The City of New York should start collecting property tax from MSG next week. Until MSG begins to pay voluntarily the city workers, who are paid by taxpayers to maintain the areas around the arena, should shut the arena down.
How many players on the New York Rangers and New York Knicks have a net worth over $10M? The teams can afford to pay their players.. the teams can pay the proper property taxes.
Here is a broader, international/global look at the MSG scam.
https://www.amazon.ca/Field-Schemes-Stadium-Swindle-Expanded/dp/0803260164
This is a great book.
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United States43677 Posts
Must he? Where is that requirement specified?
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Are there any hopes that the EU will ban X now that it's become the world's largest distributor of publicly available CSAM of any business in human history?
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On January 02 2026 09:20 JimmyJRaynor wrote:
Great, Mamdani is now Mayor and he is supposed to be some kind of big time socialist. Super cool. He talks a big game, but we'll see if he's more true believer than pragmatist under a DSA banner.
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On January 02 2026 13:28 dyhb wrote:Show nested quote +On January 02 2026 09:20 JimmyJRaynor wrote:
Great, Mamdani is now Mayor and he is supposed to be some kind of big time socialist. Super cool. He talks a big game, but we'll see if he's more true believer than pragmatist under a DSA banner.
All of the above?
He's a true believer in (the right-wing of) DSA which is fundamentally "pragmatist" in many of the ways revolutionary socialists distrust, social democrats crave, and liberals ostensibly support while undermining with a rotating cast of "purple pragmatists" that stop all of us short of the progress we desperately need.
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Can't even work for 2 days before the purity tests are once again in full force.
The biggest obstacle for the left in the US is the left itself.
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On January 01 2026 20:23 hitthat wrote:
Bush was completely justified in attacking Afganistan, and I do not agree that war was unvinable. US should focus all their resources to either stabilize them or contain them from radical extremists as much as possible. Instead, they invaded Iraq on BS justification, dispercing their efforts too wide and creating one big security hole on entire middle east.
The war was entirely winnable.
The peace however...
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EPT
