I flagged this. There are a million places on the internet talking about it: Twitter, news outlets, Instagram… even my loony relatives have all weighed in on Facebook.
No need to add this forum to that list of places talking politics - it’s against the guidelines for HN anyway.
The devaluation of the US Dollar that is likely outcome of this will disrupt our supply chains leading to chaos. I expect 80% or worse.
Also, this will drive interest rates through the roof, drying up funding.
Even if you're not interested in politics, it's interested in you.
The early days of Silicon Valley were literally the product of defense contracts and defense research spending. The whole consumer and business products thing (hardware or software) came much later. Even the early days business computing, the days of mainframes and minis, were largely driven by east coast companies.
Yes it's a bad joke
Probably a good time to read up again on Poe's Law[0], which does always pertain to attempted sarcasm in online forums.
I for one am tired of 'interesting times'.
Being assigned to the "premier Arctic and cold-weather formation" sounds like the worst possible posting a young soldier could get. Is this drawing the shortest straw, or do people have any flexibility in getting deployed here? For something so remote/frigid/generally terrible, do you get shorter rotations?
Others join to broaden their horizons and see the world. This unit would check that box too.
Personally I'd love to go to the Arctic or Antarctic as a civilian as it would be an interesting challenge.
And for that I am grateful
This is actually possible! Friends of friends have done it (with NSF I believe).
Research expeditions to the arctic sometimes take civilians as support (janitors, IT, cooks, medics, etc). It can be a cool way to spend a few months aboard a boat in the arctic.
https://betterhumans.pub/how-to-join-a-scientific-expedition...
https://science.nasa.gov/citizen-science/fjord-phyto/
https://news.airbnb.com/wanted-five-volunteers-to-join-scien...
(Hehe, ow, sowwie about triggering someone’s feelings. Fun to see that jingoism should have safe spaces even as the same electorate railed against it on college campuses).
While I'm not certain of how desirable an Arctic posting is, I do know that Antarctic postings are heavily oversubscribed (more demand than spots available), and I rather suspect that the Arctic stuff is in the same boat. It's not like there's a huge amount of spots that need to be filled, so even if getting an "Arctic soldier" tab appeals to only like 1% of the soldiers, well, that's enough to fill all the slots.
What kind of shitty plotline is this? I swear, Call of Duty games were more realistic.
Time is running out, his private storm troops are already flooding the cities of the opposition.
"The selection of the 11th Airborne Division has immediately drawn scrutiny. Reconstituted and reoriented in recent years, the division is widely regarded as the Army’s premier Arctic and cold-weather formation, optimized for sub-zero operations, austere airfields, glacier movement, and high-latitude logistics.
Military planners note that for domestic crowd-control or security missions in the Midwest, National Guard units or conventional active-duty formations are typically preferred. “This is an Arctic hammer being readied for an urban nail,” said a retired logistics officer familiar with force-generation planning. “That mismatch is what’s raising eyebrows.”"
it's about to get really effing cold in Minnesota.
Just another click/rage bait article...
You say this like it's better?
I feel bad for the people in Minnesota though.
FTFA> "Adding to the unease are unconfirmed reports of increased Special Operations Forces activity linked to Arctic training and reconnaissance."
Narrator> it's Winter in the US..
This is what everybody hopes for, myself included.
If the article isn’t booted from this site for being too political, it would probably be beneficial to edit the headline somewhat, to note that it is speculation.
Although, to be fair, the Trump administration might 'just' be planning a military occupation of some of Minnesota.
One thing is for sure: If Trump for whatever reason manages to attack Greenland, there will be some signals beforehand. Like moving any and all US personnel currently in Denmark, out of Denmark. There's a good chance US personnel in neighboring countries would also need to be moved out, like in Norway.
A military attack on Greenland would send the US and Europe into a geopolitical crisis.
So that might indicate some of the apparent urgency to make this happen now before SCOTUS rules.
Unfortunately a lot of damage is already done, even if we walk it all back our allies will no longer trust us - nor should they.
Why? I mean, if this was another president and another scenario, I'd agree. But I can very well imagine Trump taking Greenland by force and at the same time leaving all American units in Europe as they are.
I am not from the US. If I was I wouldn't be very thrilled for it, no.
I live in the EU, and I think it will actually be very positive in the medium to long term that the EU sheds its dependency on the US and starts treating it for what it is - a hostile foreign nation.
The Mercosur trade agreement, for example, is something great that came out of this. Trump finally pushed the EU to look for good partnerships elsewhere.
So, in a sense, this whole bullshit with Greenland may have positive outcomes still. I am hoping that the EU uses the anti-coercion instrument against the US and their companies.
rayiner•1h ago
nick_•1h ago
Jtsummers•1h ago
fhdkweig•58m ago
https://www.cnbc.com/2016/08/03/trump-asks-why-us-cant-use-n...
rayiner•44m ago
dvfjsdhgfv•18m ago
fhdkweig•10m ago