'Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, whoosh': Trump describes missile defense in bizarre rant

I have been to Alice Springs a couple of times.

 

Absurdly oversimplified, and this kind of thinking is exactly why I question voters' competence to evaluate policy outcomes. Just because something happened during a presidents term doesn't mean he had anything to do with it. Some consequences of actions take years to develop, and some clearly are related to causes that aren't the president. Inflation would be a good example. Predictable GLOBAL response to surging demand after supply disruption from covid. Neither Trump nor Biden had much to do with that.

Each of these points needs to be supported by an action or inaction, in the overall global context, and a measurable and actually measured effect.

I am grateful for Biden on Afghanistan, and to a lesser extent Trump. Trump would have messed it up just as bad because there was no way to get out without downsides. Trump did lay the foundation for an unfavorable deal to get us out, though I still prefer that to not getting us out so I don't really fault him for it.

Ukraine is a good investment, even if they ultimately lose. It's a better investment than just having a stronger military for sure. Russian aggression needed to be checked. They needed to pay for trying to be imperialistic. Now they know the costs are high and the rest of the world won't look the other way when they take over countries.

 

What brains?

 

LOL........... she is an optimist

 

Biden's cowardly skedaddle from Afghanistan killed a lot of people, armed the Taliban so that he ensured many more people would die, and embarrassed America like no ona elese ever has. His demonstrated cowardice is what enabled Putin to attack Ukraine.

Ukraine is a wsate of money. I still can't identify anything about Ukraine that is essential to US national security. They aren't the world's primary source of microchips like Taiwan. They have no unique natural resources. They were part of the USSR for decades and no one cared. They aren't in NATO. What the heck are we doing there? If Biden hadn't been on the board of one of their big energy companies... I doubt we'd be there at all.

 

These talking points have been debunked hundreds of times on this forum alone.

I'm not going to waste my time trying to pry you from your love of that fat Orange rump.

 

Russia hasn't paid for the war, economically they have benefited. China has benefited even more as Russia-China relations have warmed up. This war is strengthening the power of BRIC nations, it is not weakening them.

Given that Russia has hypersonic missiles that our defense weapons can't touch, it is also shown the shocking state of America's defense technology. Billions of dollars into a defense industry that can't match what Russia is putting on the battlefield is shameful. It shows a lack of creativity and engineering/manufacturing expertise. Most importantly it demonstrates that America is no longer the hard power hegemon. The other marker of this is that China paid no price for unleashing Covid on the world.

Lastly BRICs just surpassed America in GDP. If current trends continue, they will double up on Americas GDP in a decade. I see nothing to stop this.

This war has damaged Ukraine the most and erased an entire generation of young men.... the cream of Ukraine's crop. It has also damaged America immensely. This will become evident as time goes on. The Chinese are actively fretting about America engaging a nuclear war to avoid being replaced the global hegemon.... they have already decided that it is inevitable. Perhaps their looming population bomb will stop that from happening.

https://carnegieendowment.org/politika/90648

https://www.rand.org/pubs/commentar...tes-russias-use-of-hypersonic-daggers-in.html

 

I don’t buy it, but even if I did, it would have been a far greater prize crushing Ukraine more easily.

We’re in no danger, and it’s fairly sad how little impact their wunder weapon has had. (Misspelling is a jab at Hitler).

China certainly ought to. Massive population. Don’t care much.

okay now we’re in tinfoil hat territory. But on the less insane part of what I quoted: Russia has suffered immense losses as well. Much like Stalin, Putin doesn’t care. And better for him to inherit ashes than an intact prize.

 

more secure borders - Trump did NOT let millions simply walk into America ... that's a FACT
stronger military - Biden's military is critically short of recruits... Trump's wasn't
no new wars - No new wars started under Trump... Biden has Israel and Ukraine
cheaper gas - averaghe US gas price when Trump left office was $2.37
safer streets - Ask San Franciscans about this
lower inflation - simple matter of record
no endless billions sent to Ukraine - simple matter of record
no gifting billions in weapons to the terrorist Taliban - all on Biden
no cowardly skedaddle from Afghanistan - all on Biden
more secure US airspace - You didn't hear about the intelligence gathering Chinese balloon?

 

Dude I always provide receipts. What I posted may seem insane but it is based on media reports. America is not losing hegemonic power, IT HAS LOST HEGEMONIC POWER. The Chinese are well aware that hegemons rarely if ever fall without massive and catastrophic war. This is the reason that their military spending has exponentially increased.

China has a population of 1.4 billion people with an average IQ of 104, America has a population of 331 million with an average IQ of 97. In a technological world where cognitive ability is king, only the most utterly delusional could believe this ends favorably for America.

 

MHO.... China's army walks across our border every day... they are among us... any attack will be from within and will be much harder to defend against than any armed conflict..... and all without firing a shot...

 

That's ominious thinking, seriously. China will not rule America unless it's American's selling out the country for their own presonal profits and power.

 

I notice you make no attempt to provide any links proving your claims. Got proof?

 

more secure borders -
US Border much less secure under Biden than under Trump - "According to a Newsweek analysis of data from U.S. Customs and Border Protection, overall encounters under the Biden administration have continued to trend higher than in previous years before recently decreasing in June. While the number of migrant encounters has fallen, those figures remain significantly higher than when Trump was in office.

Migrant encounters during the Trump administration did generally trend downward after he instituted the Remain in Mexico policy, which required asylum-seekers to wait in Mexico for their hearings in U.S. immigration court. Initially, there had been an uptick in encounters after the policy took effect in January 2019. However, by the end of that year, encounters had fallen below the figures seen a year before and remained relatively low until March 2021, which was when the Biden administration first faced national criticism related to the border." (Is the Border More Secure Under Biden Than Trump? What We Know (newsweek.com))

The US Military is weaker under Biden than Under Trump -
- US military getting weaker; Navy 'weak', Air Force even worse: Heritage (americanmilitarynews.com)
- America’s Declining Military - WSJ

There were no new wars under Trump -
- its impossible to prove a negative. There simply were no new wars under Trump. If you think there was... please name it.
- Ukraine War started (24 February 2022).... Timeline of the Russian invasion of Ukraine: What we know so far | CNN) and Palestine War started (7 Oct 2023, 2023 Israeli invasion of the Gaza Strip - Wikipedia), BOTH under Biden

Gas was cheaper under Trump -
- "The national average for regular gas on his last day in office, January 20, was $2.393 per gallon" (https://www.cnn.com/2021/11/24/politics/fact-check-trump-gas-prices/index.html)
- One year later, the average cost of gasoline in America was $3.34 (AAA Gas Prices)

Even Biden sees violent crime on the rise
- Examining Biden’s 5-part plan to tackle rising violent crime rates | PBS NewsHour

Trump kept inflation under control... Biden sent it skyrocketing
- PolitiFact | Yes, inflation is at a 40-year high, and rates have been climbing throughout Biden’s time in office

Billions were not sent to Ukraine to help defend their borders under Trump
- There was no war in Ukraine, as noted above. The war didn't start until Biden got in office (see above)


Biden's cowardly skedaddle from Afghanistan was all on Biden
- Joe Biden's botched Afghanistan exit is a disaster at home and abroad long in the making | CNN Politics

Trump had secure US airspace - Biden left it wide open
- 2023 Chinese balloon incident - Wikipedia

 

Thank you. I do appreciate the effort.

Regarding the border, point given. However, are you aware of this:

https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/4429211-romney-trump-border-bill-biden/

Congressional Republicans don't care about border security as long as they can use it as a political cudgel. Trump has been "pushing Republican lawmakers to oppose a border deal so that he could use the issue to campaign against President Biden in the 2024 presidential election."

The military was already fading a bit under Trump. He made no policies or urged no legislation that I'm aware of to change anything as far as defense spending is concerned. Congress controls that budget. Is the military truly weakening? Or is that perception at least partly due to our culture wars, with conservatives often voicing discontent over what they see as "wokeness" policies?

Biden did not invade Ukraine, nor did he order or persuade Hamas to attack Israel. Those events simply happened during his term, like COVID happened during Trump's term. It's how a president responds to such crises that tells a tale. Biden isn't perfect, but he's don't the right thing in helping Ukraine without committing our troops. I for one appreciate that. Trump, On the other hand, spent the pandemic in denial, at the cost of tens of thousands of American lives.

As for Afghanistan, another war that Biden didn't start, extracting ourselves was always going to be a cluster**** regardless of who occupied the Oval Office. Reminder: the last three president's who put our troops in harm's way were all Republicans. And while you're in the mood to blame, remind yourself of this:

https://apnews.com/article/donald-t...ews-politics-ac3115b4eb564288a03a5b8be868d2e5

Gas prices are not controlled by president's. They can release reserves to ease prices, and increase drilling. Biden has done both of those things. Trump just rode the trend and did nothing, just took credit for it.

Regarding inflation, I call bee ess. Trump did nothing to control prices other than add tariffs that were passed on to consumers. He gave the greedy CEOs the biggest tax break in history, and they did not use the largess to improve the lot of their workers. Inflation is cyclical, and always has been. There is very little a president can to to fight that.

The Chinese balloon thing had great entertainment value. And remember, we didn't dare shoot the thing down over U.S. soil, not knowing a thing about its possible payload. What do you think Biden should have done?

 

I think it would be an interesting discussion if Trump sat down with Biden and talked about this.

 

Biden should have shot it down. It was an intelligence gathering balloon. We monitored its transmissions.... SIGINT... ELINT... and imagery. Biden let it drift freel over sensitive areas gathering data until its mission was finished and it headed into the Atlantic. It should have been shot down the moment it entered US air space.

 

I'd buy a ticket to that.

 

Do we know for certain that it was an intelligence balloon? I don't remember anything about monitoring, and I don't remember what they were able to retrieve after shooting it down over relatively shallow water in the Atlantic. I do know that we did not know the entire payload until after we shot it down. It could have been carrying a dirty bomb, or even a nuke. Biden did the right thing by waiting.

 

Yes... we did know. Here's more to read about it:

Chinese spy balloon: US officials disclosed new details about the balloon's capabilities. Here's what we know | CNN Politics