While Phelan’s financial acumen is undeniable, his lack of direct military experience may raise concerns as the Navy faces significant challenges, including a deteriorating fleet, escalating tensions in the Indo-Pacific and Red Sea, and the need for modernization to counter rival powers such as China and Russia.
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I put the over/under on when this thread get locked at 1200 NY Saturday the 30th 
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Nomination makes sense.
How so?
I guess 'cause rich guy donated a bunch to the campaign and hosted a fancy dinner for other big donors?
Otherwise I don’t see any connection or specific qualification that says “Yeah, this guy will be an amazing Secretary of the Navy”.
He is well known as an art collector so perhaps he will have some bold aesthetic choices that will help with recruiting?
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Rich Harvard grad . Many of Trumps appointees are wealthy hedge funders. Treasury appointee is an acolyte of George Soros who helped break the bank of England. Trump’s kinda people
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I’ll take the under. By a lot.
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Most people appointed to the cabinet in any administration come from wealthy backgrounds, and Ivy League pedigrees are also pretty common.
My question isn’t meant to either praise or bash Trump, I was hoping someone knew what Phelan’s views on seapower.
For that matter, what are Trump’s views on maritime? both military and commercial.
What insights does anyone have.
We can safely ignore Konrad, he’s crushing hard on Trump, we also need to ignore those who despise Trump.
He’s the President elect, for better or worse, and we will need to deal with that.
My thoughts;
There is broad bipartisan support for the Jones Act, so I don’t think it will repealed (though I’m not sure, and could well be wrong about this)
Tariffs will hurt us
Abandoning Ukraine is an extremely bad plan, Trump is way to deferential to Putin.
Abandoning NATO is a worse idea.
The last two may not seem maritime related, but they are.
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1 Don’t think the general public even knows about the Jones Act.
2 Tariffs will increase costs
3. The Ukraine war cannot be won. Best case? Give Russia a bit of territory and call it game over. Russia learned a lesson from this unlike Crimea where the west did nothing. They’ll declare victory and go home
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Don’t think the general public even knows about the Jones Act.
So what?
That has little to nothing to do with the point
2 Tariffs will increase costs
Yes
- The Ukraine war cannot be won. Best case? Give Russia a bit of territory and call it game over. Russia learned a lesson from this unlike Crimea where the west did nothing. They’ll declare victory and go home
Doubtful on all points
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I agree with you on all 3 points, especially this one. If little ole Ukraine can fend off giant Russia for +3 years, half the countries in NATO could probably kick their asses by themselves. But I don’t think Putin would fall into such a trap & be served such a defeat. Since a Russia ground war is off the table & there’s things blowing up INSIDE of Russia because of U.S ATAMCS missles, U.S. guidance systems & U.S satellites, Russia doesn’t have many options except for nuclear ones. Unless Putin & Trump can somehow pull an olive branch out of their asses I suspect Russia will drop a small nuke on a small town in Ukraine to show the world what it is willing to do. Not a city or a small village, a token location like Hiroshima to let US/NATO know that blowing shit up inside of Russia isn’t cool & won’t be tolerated. Just my opinion.
It won’t matter to people who first tied the knot when they’re dead. From Nakita Khrushchev from another time when our 2 countries were at the brink.
“Mr. President, we and you ought not now to pull on the ends of the rope in which you have tied the knot of war, because the more the two of us pull, the tighter that knot will be tied. And a moment may come when that knot will be tied so tight that even he who tied it will not have the strength to untie it, and then it will be necessary to cut that knot, and what that would mean is not for me to explain to you, because you yourself understand perfectly of what terrible forces our countries dispose.”
Sure…
And Hitler had no territorial aspirations beyond Alsace-Lorraiane
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No one is dropping a nuke on anyone. The fear of the possibility is 1,000 times more valuable than any of the possible outcomes of actually doing it
There is no appeasement with Putin - and they have a very different view of time than we do. You give him some of the Ukraine for a cease fire, he will take it. We will declare victory that we ended the hostilities- and in 3,4 5 or 10 years from now- he will be back for the rest.
Putin knew about a month into the conflict he was going to fight a war of attrition- he has more humans he is willing to sacrifice than the Ukraine, and he can outlast the wests commitment to support Ukraine- he seems 100 pct correct in this calculus
We are duped by power hungry politicians into the belief we cannot continue to give $ we can make with a key stroke to US companies to make weapons and give to Ukraine. We can, if we choose, to do this indefinitely.
There is no winning scenario in this “game” for the west, other than supporting Ukraine as long as they are willing to fight and die. Any other option Russian aggression has won.
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I hope not, it’s just my opinion a NATO/US ground war with Russia isn’t going to happen. We would woop their asses. They can’t even conquer Ukraine with all their might in 3 years. But with NATO/US using a proxy to launch US made, US gifted & US guided ATAMCS missles inside of Russia what do you think Russias next move will be? No escalation? More of the same, Putin sending more of his young to the slaughterhouse on the Western Front? Maybe Putin will tuck tail & run back to Moscow defeated & we can all celebrate? I don’t think any of those things will happen. History shows he will escalate, we will escalate & a lot of foolhardy patriotic young people will die on both sides. I was happy with the Charlie Wilson, proxy Vietnam War approach NATO/US was doing before. But using our bombs & our satellites to bombs Russia soil is escalation on our part that will be answered. If Russia or China did that to us when we were stupidly fighting in Vietnam it would have been WW3 back then. We wouldn’t have tolerated Russian or Chinese bombs blowing up on US soil.
I’m serious about the question of opinions of what Putins next move will be?
If they don’t like it then they shouldn’t have invaded Ukraine. If they really want it to stop they can stop the war any time they choose since they’re the aggressors.
Putin has been bluffing about using nukes the whole conflict and hasn’t yet.
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We’re not even giving money, we’re giving supplies. Most of what we’re giving is USA made so it’s a massive stimulus to the US economy. Cutting off aid to Ukraine will not only fuck over a European ally but it will fuck the US economy. (Add that to all the other Trump admin plans to fuck the US economy and it’s workers.)
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I don’t think Putin loses one minute of sleep sending more Russian’s to die on the Ukraine front.
He has a firm belief that the US lacks the political will to continue to support Ukraine, and is equally sure he can erode US support for US armament to be used on Russian soil, politically and with fear.
Russian history would suggest he is willing unimaginable losses and hardships for extended periods of time, and they believe they are stronger mentally than the west, they will never give in. They believe the west lacks that kind of strength of will and will back out. And they are sure they can outlast the west
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How is it helping the economy? We’re paying people to make shit that we just give away for free. That math doesn’t math to me.
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You answered your own question right here.
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But we give it away. So we’re just adding to more debt. So is it really adding to the economy? Or is it a net loss?
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