Justin Trudeau hints at boosting Canada’s military spending

I'll believe it when I see it.

 

[ytz]

Or he'll pull a Medvedev/Putin. I'll be a puppet master VP to a puppet POTUS then run for POTUS the next term. What does the 22nd Amendment say about that?

He pretty much ran the Republican Party for the last 4 years while being out of office. He could get them to even reverse on legislation they proposed. So what exactly would be different with any of his successors?

 

[PrairieFella]

Man, we're in the shittiest timeline.

 

[dapaterson]

Man, we're in the shittiest timeline.

The shittiest timeline so far.

 

[ytz]

i admire your faith that the constitution would hold sway here

Or they just abuse the hell out of the Constitution. Just look at them going after judges who oppose them. Traditionally that wasn't seen as acceptable, even if it was legal. Now? Perfectly acceptable. We'll see how much rule of law survives in the US after 4 years of this.

 

[OldSolduer]

…until there’s an……..Amendment.

What is the criteria that they need to have to make sure it passes?

 

[QV]

Or they just abuse the hell out of the Constitution. Just look at them going after judges who oppose them. Traditionally that wasn't seen as acceptable, even if it was legal. Now? Perfectly acceptable. We'll see how much rule of law survives in the US after 4 years of this.

Trump said he would appeal lower court decisions he disagreed with. All perfectly within the law. His first term should be informative on how he will approach this.

 

[OldSolduer]

Trump said he would appeal lower court decisions he disagreed with. All perfectly within the law. His first term should be informative on how he will approach this.

And how the courts will react to his attempts to circumvent the laws.

 

[JLB50]

What is the criteria that they need to have to make sure it passes?

If I recall correctly it’s something like 2/3 of both Houses and 3/4 of the 50 states.

 

[QV]

And how the courts will react to his attempts to circumvent the laws.

What attempts to circumvent law?

 

[ytz]

What is the criteria that they need to have to make sure it passes?

From Wikipedia:

To become part of the Constitution, an amendment must be ratified by three-fourths of the states (38 since 1959) by either (as determined by Congress):

The legislatures of three-fourths of the states; or
State ratifying conventions in three-fourths of the states.

So will never get through, since they'd need some blue states signing on.

But why bother with all that when you can just get judges to interpret the law as you want? This seems to be what they are increasingly going for.

I don't think Trump will do a third term though. He'll retire in Florida and just control the party through social media. Way easier. He just needed to run this time to make all the investigations go away. Now he can make sure there will be nobody to investigate him when he's retired in 2029.

 

[ytz]

Trump said he would appeal lower court decisions he disagreed with. All perfectly within the law. His first term should be informative on how he will approach this.

I'm not referring to appeals. I'm talking about:

https://www.usnews.com/news/national-news/articles/2025-02-14/elon-musk-wants-federal-judges-impeached-if-they-block-trumps-agenda-can-that-happen

Or you know just posting details about the family members of judges:

Judge McConnell's Daughter Works At Department Of Education? Elon Musk Sparks Row

Elon Musk on Tuesday re-posted a tweet by influencer Laura Loomer, which accused US District Judge John McConnell Jr of a conflict of interest. The Trump ally's post claimed that Judge McConnell's daughter, Catherine, works at the Department of Education, an agency that Musk and the Trump...

www.timesnownews.com

"Will no one rid me of this turbulent priest?"

 

[QV]

I'm not referring to appeals. I'm talking about:

https://www.usnews.com/news/national-news/articles/2025-02-14/elon-musk-wants-federal-judges-impeached-if-they-block-trumps-agenda-can-that-happen

Or you know just posting details about the family members of judges:

Judge McConnell's Daughter Works At Department Of Education? Elon Musk Sparks Row

Elon Musk on Tuesday re-posted a tweet by influencer Laura Loomer, which accused US District Judge John McConnell Jr of a conflict of interest. The Trump ally's post claimed that Judge McConnell's daughter, Catherine, works at the Department of Education, an agency that Musk and the Trump...

www.timesnownews.com

"Will no one rid me of this turbulent priest?"

That seems like bringing attention to a conflict of interest, no?

Where were you when Schumer actually threatened SCOTUS? Or the protests outside their homes?

 

[daftandbarmy]

It will all end in tears...

https://twitter.com/x/status/1891306804933439899

 

[OldSolduer]

"Will no one rid me of this turbulent priest?"

I believe it was "meddlesome priest".

 

[ytz]

That seems like bringing attention to a conflict of interest, no?

Where were you when Schumer actually threatened SCOTUS? Or the protests outside their homes?

Was anybody sharing the details of their kids to tens of millions of followers? Or putting bills to the floor to impeach them?

I generally don't get wrapped up in American politics. It's a crazy show. But I don't recall their judges this threatened before. And that seems to me a new direction.

 

[PuckChaser]

I thought I clicked on the wrong thread for a minute, then realized the garbage can had overflowed from the politics board into this thread... Maybe we can stop piling onto garbage mountain here?

- Milnet.ca Staff

 

[KevinB]

Ukraine has shown they still have their place to deliver a large amount of ordinance accurately.

That is not at all what Ukraine has shown.
Hail Mary lobbing unguided rockets at max range isn’t accuracy or effective, unless one is simply counting terror against a civilian population as effective… The ordnance that Russia has used in both ‘precision’ missiles and their unguided rockets far outweighed the results.

EW still takes out 60+ of ukrainian FPV drones. An AH with laser guided missiles wouldn't have that issue. You just need EW to protect from FPVs

Lasers require active illumination throughout the engagement. So you’re limited to direct fire.

Better a NLOS system that uses a hand off from a MMWR lock - use a UAS as the old Loach/Kiowa Warrior for the acquisition process.

Then you can launch missiles from anything be it Helo, Fixed wing, or Ground system.

 

[Kirkhill]

The counter to the 2% target.

Arming Europe​

It’s very rare that I agree with Donald Trump about anything, but in his first term I applauded him for pointing out most European countries weren’t paying their way on defence. Many of them bucked up their ideas and nowadays 23 out of Nato’s 32 members do contribute at least 2 per cent of GDP – in 2014 only three did.

However, now the game has changed. The week’s summit of Europe’s leaders in Paris will, I am sure, result in a commitment to rearm and increase expenditure on defence. But can we please get away from this arbitrary percentage of GDP? Instead, each country should identify what it needs to spend money on to protect itself and wider European nations and calculate accordingly.

This should also be based on what each nation can contribute and specialise in. It’s not all based on increasing the size of our respective armies, navies and air forces. Britain is particularly good at cyber warfare, intelligence, naval power and global reach. France is good at rapid deployment and amphibious warfare while Germany excels at cyber defence and military hardware.

Poland, which already spends 4 per cent of its GDP on defence, has huge expertise in hybrid warfare and a rapidly expanding munitions and hardware manufacturing capability. I could go on.

If Trump delivers on his pledge (threat?) to decouple America from Europe, then make no mistake, Britain’s defence budget must rise to levels previously unthinkable. This year we will spend around £57 billion on defence (2.33 per cent of GDP). Labour’s strategic defence review, headed by former Nato secretary general Lord Robertson, is due to be published in March. If my sources are correct, he is planning to suggest a massive increase in defence spending, which is being resisted in No 10. That resistance may be weakening, so it would not surprise me at all if the review wasn’t delayed until the second half of the year.

Farage may not be the greatest danger facing the Tories

The Liberal Democrats are stealing the Conservatives’ clothing on most issues. It’s hard to tell their MPs apart

www.telegraph.co.uk

 

[Kirkhill]

Going back over this thread on Canadian military spending and the current government I am struck by how much time is spent wondering about our neighbour's constitutional issues.

....

Fuckem

...

That is the root of our problems. Better if we focused on Canada, and Canada's issues and Canada's interests and what we can do with the many levers we have in our possession.

 

[PrairieFella]

Pretty cool to see today that the Canadian Multinational Brigade contingent is getting Switchblade 300/600. I wonder who it goes to? Arty? Or dispersed amongst the manoeuvre elements?