Tinidril @ Tinidril @midwest.social

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Modern, as in trained for flexible mission parameters in a modern urban environment where earning/keeping the respect of the local civilian population is a critical part of the mission. A step beyond the reactionary notion that Brute force and brutal suppression are always the most effective path. A military where soldiers are trained to question orders and made individually responsible for following illegal orders.

For example, say what you will about America's ultimate failure in Afghanistan, our soldiers on the ground became experts in local culture and factions and built cooperation to achieve mission objectives without alienating the population. If our political leadership was as professional as our soldiers I think things would have ended a lot differently.

No, I never heard of Kent State. If I had I might have mentioned it in my above comment. Oh, wait.

Even truer for the National Guard when it has to call up soldiers.

The average age for active duty enlisted is 28.5yo, not 18.

Yes, active duty law enforcement is more competent at the intricacies of law enforcement, but that's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about things like trigger discipline and doing proper reconnaissance before charging into a situation.

As far as I'm aware, the guard still doesn't have the power of arrest anyways. They will have to coordinate such actions with local law enforcement. They have no prosecutors or jails store detainees.

I don't want to downplay the alarm bells going off over this move. It's definitely as bad as many are saying. On the other hand, I do want to set some right expectations. National guardsmen are modern professional soldiers and, as such, are far more disciplined than average police officers. Civilian casualties are always a possibility, and might even be what this administration wants, but I think it's unlikely that we'll see anything like another Kent State. If anything, I'll bet most of the guardsmen are pretty frustrated with Trump for being called up for bullshit reasons.

State militias were never intended to fight the national government. In fact, they were intended to help fight insurrection.

Article 1, Section 8, Clause 15. The Congress shall have Power To provide for calling forth the Militia to execute the Laws of the Union, suppress Insurrections and repel Invasions.

Sounds good to me. My main point was that a state could do it.

Just declare that jobs within the state no longer collect it, and provide a hotline to identify employers who don't comply. It's not like the IRS has the people to manage federal enforcement.

That's not all bad. At least mom and dad are fighting over who gets custody of MAGA. It would actually kind of suck if Elon went back to pretending to be a good guy and fronting for liberals pretending to address climate change.

We all are gonna die someday.

It also doesn't work. It completely gives in to conservative framing, and conservatives will always win against liberals on being "tough" on the border.

Whatever it is, it's not whataboutism when it involves the same exact war and what instigated it. That applies directly to the question of why the US got involved.

Did I say I drive a Tesla? No, I don't believe I did. Nice try though.

The cars shouldn't have ever even been built in the first place then.

Perhaps, but they were in fact built, and destroying them will likely result in more cars being built.

If these drivers cared about the environment, they wouldn't be driving cars anyway.

Perhaps, but judging the motives of the drivers has zero relevance to anything I said.

Anyways, the whole "You can't live within the rules of the existing system and try to change it without being a hypocrite" edgelord schtick is dumb.

Electric cars make sure effective transportation remains a luxury only for those who can afford one.

That's news to me. I have been saving a ton of money by driving used electrics. The savings on gas and maintenance more than make up for the extra up front costs. You are parroting common knowledge that's dead wrong. Teslas are luxury vehicles, and that's what makes them more expensive.

It could be a liability thing though. An organization that sells expired product might be in for bigger judgements if something does happen.

That's a money saver vs. "donated" or "sold at discount".

Food banks that I'm familiar with won't distribute expired food because it's a liability. Of course there is a big difference between "expired" salt and meat, but it's safer for them to have a blanket policy than count on the workers' judgement.

But at least it doesn't have any chemicals. /s

From an environmental standpoint (something likely important to most Tesla drivers) scrapping all those vehicles would be insane.

It was just some gallows humor. Real tiny gallows.

At the moment they are pretty much the same thing. The big shitty bill passed the House because three House Democrats died in office so far this term. Is that not a problem?

We would not have so much aged representation if the party didn't put so much favor on seniority. We can have some old leadership, which is actually a good thing, but the party currently looks like a make a wish foundation for elderly politicians.