Let’s be aware, were not even giving our troops proper armor and helmets vs IEDs, nor are we taking care of vets who lost their minds (and body parts) fighting for freedom. Instead, were cutting fat checks to Lockheed Martin for experimental tanks with active camouflage, or planes that are way too expensive and don’t work very well.
So we’re not just spending tax dollars on the military, we’re spending it badly on the military, and then cheating our soldiers of their benefits (who we funnel from the poor who have no other opportunities).
Joining the armed forces will ruin your life, unless you personally know a governor or senator who will vouch for your character. And then still you have to get past senior officers who want to ruin you.
Also every year in the service, roll a D20. On a 1 you’re either dead or too shot up / blown up to have a quality of life. You get to live the rest of your life a shell of who you once were.
Counter-recruitment writes itself.
Don’t forget the “fast attack” ships that cost twice what they were bid at, and have hulls that crack when you exceed a slow crawl.
That’s not true, they also defund the IRS and give their rich buddies tax cuts.
We only have 2 major political parties, and one of them has decided science and learning are evil…and like half the country votes for them. We’re completely fucked.
Correction: half of the voters vote for them. If all the apathetic people started to vote, Republicans would be forced to adapt or would never win any election anymore.
That’s exactly why Republicans fight against early voting, Mail voting, absentee voting, etc. If you make it too easy to vote, the single mom working 2 jobs might actually be able to
workvote, and they absolutely DO NOT want that.Correction: less than half of the voters vote for them, but because of the way the government is structured they still control half or more of the government and can take the presidency despite losing the popular vote and now control the Supreme Court forever.
We also have to consider how many people are salvagable but are voting for republicans as compromise candidates, much like how radicals tend to do with SHADOWLORD JOE BIDEN
Yeah a lot of single issue gun voters vote Republican despite agreeing with Democrats on almost everything else.
I’m Jewish, and having lost far too many relatives to centuries of bigotry in Europe culminating in the Holocaust, you can bet I’m not giving up my weapons. I don’t care what anyone says, I won’t vote for a single Dem because any compromise puts my family at further risk. It doesn’t take a history degree to look at the world and see that having limited methods of defense is all but guaranteeing another pogrom starts claiming my family. Heck, the police are all very cozy with the groups spouting Great Replacement propaganda and the Dems want me to believe the police will keep my family safe? How’s that working for other minorities?
Im also Jewish, and what scares me is antisemitism becoming more and more common, as well as the Republican lawmakers openly being antisemitic. Maybe worry about that first and foremost.
It feels like one of the few positive outcomes of the Cold War was the Sputnik shock.
The public and politicians suddenly got very worried about actual scientific competitiveness and winning a competitive race on something other than bombs.
I wish we’d have a similar moment when it came to China and infrastructure.
This is a country that was built by railroads. Even today, you can see the strings of towns spaced to the size of a steam locomotive’s water capacity. But what do we see from that legacy now? The Acela, an effort that would barely be competitive in the 1970s, on a minimal set of routes. Meanwhile, the Chinese are laughing from the windows of their 300kph trains.
(Yes, I’m aware that American freight rail is efficient and impressive, but somehow almost every other industrialized country has figured this one out)
But what do we see from that legacy now?
It bothers me so much. I wanted to pay for a friend’s ticket to visit us. By train, it was $200, a 16hr trip, of which 2/3rds was by bus thanks to Amtrack’s garbage infrastructure/system.
By plane for the same trip, it was a $180, 2hr direct flight.
It’s so god damn ass backwards. Trains produce a fraction of the emissions of planes, so why are we ok with trains being uncompetitive?
I wish we’d have a similar moment when it came to China and infrastructure
It’s a shame that the culture in mainland China is so isolated because otherwise some Americans might have bit of an existential crisis about this right now if they knew.
In the top tier Chinese cities, people board the train by scanning a qr code on their phone, which is linked to a wallet in their chat app. The subway system is extensive, well though out, clean and fast. Most of the private cars are electric, and when a car isn’t the right choice, the sidewalks are often smooth and suitable for an electric scooter or bicycle. Food and transportation is cheap, even when ordering food to your apartment or house. 5G mobile internet is smoking fast and cheap. The local equivalent to Amazon.com delivers just about anything in a day or two. Over the course of a year I watched the city building an entirely new subway line - they just decided it was needed and bam! They built it and it didn’t take 10 years. Most importantly, the younger generations have a real chance to do better than mom and dad, which is what every generation needs, and the last couple American generations seem to have been robbed of.
I’m an American and was surprised and impressed on my first few trips. Why don’t American’s have anything like this yet? Why is the US so bogged down in the little things that it can’t dream anymore? It can hardly solve it’s most basic problems at the moment. I wish more Americans could see how far it’s slipped.
(Just because this is Lemmy, no, I’m no Chinese shill. There are other issues there and I wouldn’t wish their system of control or surveillance on anybody.)
politicians suddenly got very worried about actual scientific competitiveness and winning a competitive race on something other than bombs.
They just feared possible military applications and didn’t want to fall behind.
Point completely taken, but they at least managed to provide some window-dressing that they were advancing the state of science and knowledge.
advancing the state of science and knowledge
I mean they did, and then they used it to build arms.
That is clearly not true.
We also give massive tax breaks to corporations that then don’t do the things for which the breaks were given — e.g. Foxconn in WI. Build a chip plant? Nah we’re good.
Reminder that the US Congress gave AT&T and Verizon BILLIONS of dollars to build out a national broadband network decades ago. They pocketed that money and didn’t lay a single
meterfoot of fiber with zero consequences.Billions of taxpayer money gone to AT&T and Verizon? Sounds like their infrastructure should be seized and nationalized.
Is this an old tweet? This year alone $1.2 trillion was passed in spending on infrastructure at the federal level.
Eh sorry buddy on lemmy we hate the USA and love China. Also blame everything on capitalism, even - and especially - if it has nothing to do with it
Having legitimate criticisms of the country you live in
wHy Do YoU hAtE aMeRiCa?!?!
Fuck China. Fuck the CCP. But damn if they don’t get shit done.
Somebody should probably mention the fact that there are storm clouds a-brewing on China’s economic horizon as well. And that’s not to mention their little demography problem.
I’m not bashing China, I just want to provide a little perspective.
