Scrutable

sTeamTraen wrote: ↑

Sun Nov 22, 2020 11:24 pm

dyqik wrote: ↑

Sun Nov 22, 2020 11:14 pm

My reference is probably Tom Clancy, but that's one policy I'd suspect he got right.

Anyway, declaration of war does require Congress, and it's hard to see the military agreeing to a nuclear strike without a declaration of war (different to a drone strike or cruise missile attack).

My understanding is that the nuclear strike protocols are designed to deal with a situation where it's 3am and the President gets a call from NORAD saying multiple ICBMs are incoming. At that point he inserts the "biscuit" into the "football" (apparently that's the terminology) and off we go. The point is that there's only 20 minutes or so until the incoming ICBMs hit, so there is no time for calling Congress. I have seen suggestions that the Secretary of Defense has to sign off, but nothing else (and even that isn't clear).

The story of Harold Hering is interesting in this regard, as are the reports of James Schlesinger, in the late stages of Nixon's presidency, having a quiet word with the generals to get them to check with him if a launch order appeared.

That's my point - launching an attack without clear provocation is a completely different thing to launching in response to an attack, and is a different procedure.

The military taking the orders would know if an incoming attack had been reported to the president.

Yeah, I don't think we need to worry too much about the military going along with anything iffy. Trump's no Bolsonaro - he's continually pissed off military and intelligence top guns since day 1, ridiculing the dead and tweeting spy photos and abandoning allies and so on. I mean, they may have followed his orders to teargas priests for a photo op, but some of them looked grumpy afterwards.

I expect the military are considerably less keen on going to war - especially nuclear war - than Trump, especially if it's a choice between "push button immediately" and "wait for confirmation".

But he's got a load of angry young men who own assault rifles hanging on his every word. The fact that he's letting this all fizzle out in frivolous lolsuits suggests he's not about to try and start a violent uprising. I don't know if he even sees himself in that role - a guy who was beaten who fights for what he most wants? I don't think so. He's more of a "I actually won but they're being a bunch of meanies and I don't want to play with them any more" type, right down to the wee in his pants and everything.

Vertigowooyay wrote: ↑

Sun Nov 22, 2020 11:19 pm

14th Nov:


B5371BB8-A11F-4518-AFDC-5057EC61782D.jpeg


22nd Nov:


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And just in case you’d like the missing piece between the above dates, it might be Powell’s absolutely f.cking unhinged interview for Newsmax accusing Gov. Kemp and the Georgia Secretary of State of accepting financial incentives as part of a conspiracy defeat Trump.

No, can't write Sidney Powell out of the series now, she's too good a character. I definitely want her to appear in more episodes.

lpm wrote: ↑

Sun Nov 22, 2020 11:58 pm

No, can't write Sidney Powell out of the series now, she's too good a character. I definitely want her to appear in more episodes.

I’m surprised at you there. I thought it was desperate last minute stunt casting.

When is sweeps week again?

malbui wrote: ↑

Mon Nov 23, 2020 7:21 am

When is sweeps week again?

Genuinely, now. November is one of the sweeps months.

Vertigowooyay wrote: ↑

Mon Nov 23, 2020 6:13 am

lpm wrote: ↑

Sun Nov 22, 2020 11:58 pm

No, can't write Sidney Powell out of the series now, she's too good a character. I definitely want her to appear in more episodes.

I’m surprised at you there. I thought it was desperate last minute stunt casting.

Sometimes a last minute or guest casting is so good that they steal the show

Bird on a Fire wrote: ↑

Sun Nov 22, 2020 11:29 pm

I expect the military are considerably less keen on going to war - especially nuclear war - than Trump, especially if it's a choice between "push button immediately" and "wait for confirmation".

My point is that from what I've read, there is no formal provision for such confirmation (e.g., phoning NORAD to see if anything is actually incoming). Maybe the generals have discussed this and decided that they will, in defiance of the Commander-in-Chief, refuse a spontaneous launch order, and I suppose they probably wouldn't issue a press release if they had done that, but the probabilities don't seem homeopathic, which is how I like my chances of nuclear holocausts happening.

It would also be amusing (to the gods surveying the wreckage) if Putin were to take advantage of the situation to launch an actual pre-emptive first strike just as the US descends into chaos. I suspect this is unlikely since the oligarchs quite like the existence of decadent Western luxury brands that rely on New York and Münich not being reduced to rubble, but if the Soviet Union were still around I imagine that the calculations could get pretty complex.

Putin and the oligarchs went to a lot of trouble to launder money into New York property using a corrupt and blackmailable real estate crook. They don't want nuke their own condos.

Carl Bernstein (of Watergate fame) has tweeted a list of 21 Republican senators who (he says, but there seems no reason to disbelieve him) "have repeatedly expressed extreme contempt for Trump & his fitness to be POTUS" in discussions with journalists.

He claims that he is "not violating any pledge of journalistic confidentially in reporting this", which I think is a bit of a stretch, but (a) he's Carl f.cking Bernstein and (b) this is arguably not the time for niceties.

I believe that four of the 21 (Romney, Sasse, Murkowski, and Collins) have already congratulated Biden on his win, thus at least beginning the process of pissing off the Trumpistas and thinking about a post-Trump GOP. Presumably the purpose of the tweet is to get the others to publicly whether to lash themselves to the mast with Trump or make some move in the opposite direction.

sTeamTraen wrote: ↑

Mon Nov 23, 2020 12:11 pm

Carl Bernstein (of Watergate fame) has tweeted a list of 21 Republican senators who (he says, but there seems no reason to disbelieve him) "have repeatedly expressed extreme contempt for Trump & his fitness to be POTUS" in discussions with journalists.

He claims that he is "not violating any pledge of journalistic confidentially in reporting this", which I think is a bit of a stretch, but (a) he's Carl f.cking Bernstein and (b) this is arguably not the time for niceties.

I believe that four of the 21 (Romney, Sasse, Murkowski, and Collins) have already congratulated Biden on his win, thus at least beginning the process of pissing off the Trumpistas and thinking about a post-Trump GOP. Presumably the purpose of the tweet is to get the others to publicly whether to lash themselves to the mast with Trump or make some move in the opposite direction.

No surprise about Romney, who said four years ago that:

Donald Trump is a phony, a fraud. His promises are as worthless as a degree from Trump University.

Romney also voted for impeachment, did he not? He's probably the only Senate Republican with any residual integrity at this stage. Let's see whether the rest follow, or if he remains an outlier - not holding my breath to be honest...

sTeamTraen wrote: ↑

Mon Nov 23, 2020 12:11 pm

Carl Bernstein (of Watergate fame) has tweeted a list of 21 Republican senators who (he says, but there seems no reason to disbelieve him) "have repeatedly expressed extreme contempt for Trump & his fitness to be POTUS" in discussions with journalists.

He claims that he is "not violating any pledge of journalistic confidentially in reporting this", which I think is a bit of a stretch, but (a) he's Carl f.cking Bernstein and (b) this is arguably not the time for niceties.

I believe that four of the 21 (Romney, Sasse, Murkowski, and Collins) have already congratulated Biden on his win, thus at least beginning the process of pissing off the Trumpistas and thinking about a post-Trump GOP. Presumably the purpose of the tweet is to get the others to publicly whether to lash themselves to the mast with Trump or make some move in the opposite direction.

Toomey also publicly called Biden President-elect and called on Trump to stop delaying the transition over the weekend.

He's retiring in 2022.

Woodchopper wrote: ↑

Mon Nov 23, 2020 12:23 pm

No surprise about Romney, who said four years ago that:

Donald Trump is a phony, a fraud. His promises are as worthless as a degree from Trump University.

Cruz and Graham said similar things, mind.

Edit got posted as a new post.

It would be amusing if Trump is impeached before Jan 20th. And this time with sufficient GOP Senators in support.

Oh. I'm sure it won't happen.

jimbob wrote: ↑

Mon Nov 23, 2020 4:04 pm

It would be amusing if Trump is impeached before Jan 20th. And this time with sufficient GOP Senators in support.

Oh. I'm sure it won't happen.

Only needs a simple majority to make him ineligible for Federal office, which would probably stop him from being reinaugerated

lpm wrote: ↑

Mon Nov 23, 2020 11:49 am

a corrupt and blackmailable real estate crook.

He sounds like the sort of businessman WHO GETS THINGS DONE!

For the lulz we should make him President, that would be a funny 4 years, possibly even 8.

Poor racistDonaldTrump, nothing's going well for him today.

Michigan has certified. Another lolsuit lost in Pennsylvania.

He might be slowly realising Giuliani is conning him...

President Trump is worried that his campaign’s legal team, which is being led by his personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani, is comprised of “fools that are making him look bad,” @NBCNews reports. https://t.co/Cc2hDTzAMT

lpm wrote: ↑

Mon Nov 23, 2020 9:52 pm

Poor racistDonaldTrump, nothing's going well for him today.

Michigan has certified. Another lolsuit lost in Pennsylvania.

He might be slowly realising Giuliani is conning him...

President Trump is worried that his campaign’s legal team, which is being led by his personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani, is comprised of “fools that are making him look bad,” @NBCNews reports. https://t.co/Cc2hDTzAMT

Wow, he hires all the best people. From that link:

Also still on the Trump campaign team is senior legal advisor Jenna Ellis.

Within hours of the Trump campaign suffering its major defeat in the Pennsylvania election case Saturday night, Ellis tweeted that respected Republican pollster Frank Luntz had “MicroPenis Syndrome.”

Luntz’s sin was linking to a tweet from Ellis last week that suggested Giuliani, a former New York City mayor, was getting on swimmingly with the judge in the case.

So now it's his lawyers' fault that he lost?

Transition is now formally started, with the GSA Administrator seeming to not want to be held in contempt by Congress.

I want Trump to tweet more. His tweets on this would be highly amusing. Give him back his phone!