Chump's Consequences

[nomadpete]

Consequences....

 

Who do you think said this?

Hint: 

NOT Labor

NOT Liberals

NOT Nationals

Of course NOT Hanson or Palmer

 

“Pine Gap – they need it like no tomorrow. Just tell ‘em we’re going to switch it off in seven days.

“Obviously there’s no loyalty and mateship left here. He’s made that quite clear."

 

Oh, also NOT old mate GON

[Litespeed]

I would think the Greens would have that policy.

 

Meanwhile Canada has leapfrogged the USA and ordered our world best radar system for $5 billion- the Jindalee over horizon radar system (JORN).

 

America wants one on its west coast - tell they can pay now and have it in 2045 if we can be bothered.

[nomadpete]

I forgot to ad:

NOT the Greens

 

Who should have had the gonads to ride this sentiment.

 

No, it was a very minor politicsl party.

[rgmwa]

Sounds like something Jacqui Lambie would say.

Edited Thursday at 06:17 AM by rgmwa

[Litespeed]

Maybe the Teals? A grouping not a party.

 

Ah, Jacqui Lambie sounds likely.

 

Always happy to vent about defence.

[Marty_d]

If it were Jacquie there'd be more swearwords.

[nomadpete]

My point is, the other parties are too afraid to voice the 'will of the people'.

 

Oh, and this sentiment is a consequence of Chump's ramblings. I call them ramblings because they do not seem connected to rational outcomes.

 

 

Edited Thursday at 08:07 AM by nomadpete
added my ramblings. Can I stand for Pres next time?

[red750]

Trump has hurt one of America’s most lucrative industries

COMMENT by AMBROSE  EVANS-PRITCHARD.  SMH, 20 March 2025.

 

Donald Trump has inflicted enormous long-term damage on America’s defence export industry, a lucrative earner worth $US320 billion ($500 billion) a year in all its forms. Foreign defence sales are 10 times greater than US exports of liquefied natural gas.

First in line for collective repudiation is Lockheed Martin’s F-35 fighter jet. Mark Carney ordered a review of Canada’s order for 72 of these advanced aircraft within hours of becoming prime minister. It will determine whether ‘‘other options could better meet Canada’s needs’’.

 

Nuno Melo, Portugal’s conservative defence minister, says the F-35 is no longer considered a safe choice to replace his country’s ageing F-16s. ‘‘We have to know that an ally will be on our side whatever the circumstances,’’ he told Publico.

 

‘‘The world has changed. This ally of ours, so predictable over the decades, could limit the use, maintenance, components, and everything needed to ensure that the aircraft are operational in all scenarios,’’ he said. Portugal is looking at a European alternative. Germany may be next.

 

‘‘Nobody needs to buy an F-35,’’ said Tom Enders, ex-Airbus chief and now head of the German Council on Foreign Relations. He said Germany’s contract for these fighters was a misguided attempt by Angela Merkel to ‘‘appease’’ Trump during his first term. It should be cancelled forthwith.

 

Europe does not strictly need the US Patriot missile defence system either. The upgraded Franco-Italian SAMP/T rival is more or less ‘‘equivalent’’.

 

‘‘It is absolutely imperative that we free ourselves of dependence on US systems as far and as quickly as possible. We can’t simply close our eyes to the fact that this American government has become an adversary,’’ Enders said in an explosive interview with the Frankfurter Allgemeine.

 

He said Trump was likely to blackmail and coerce Europe in much the same way as he has coerced Ukraine. ‘‘No one believes any more that he will stand by Article 5 if Putin invades the Suwa›ki Gap,’’ he said.

 

One should be cautious of reading too much into share price movements. But it is striking that Lockheed Martin’s stock has dropped 23 per cent since late October, while Dassault Aviation has almost doubled in dollar terms on talk of more orders for the Rafale fighter aircraft. French missile maker Thales is up 90 per cent.

 

The European defence sector has seen an explosive rise over the last month, pushed even higher by Germany’s coalition deal for €1 trillion ($1.7 trillion) of rearmament and infrastructure – to be ratified this week by a constitutional amendment to the debt brake.

Enders, a no-nonsense parachute officer and former head of European defence group EADS said the US has access to the operating system of F-35s. ‘‘We know the Americans can shut the thing down whenever they want. We are totally dependent,’’ he said.

 

Experts disagree over what the Pentagon can or cannot do remotely to paralyse an F-35.

‘‘There is no explicit kill switch. It’s not something that can be turned off on any given day,’’ said Justin Bronk, an aviation specialist at the Royal United Services Institute. But the fact that this discussion is even going on in the highest circles of European defence and foreign policy exposes the complete collapse of confidence in the US military alliance. In my view, it is irreversible.

Enders has just launched Germany’s ‘‘Sparta’’ project, drafted by leading figures calling for immediate and massive German rearmament. It clearly has the backing of incoming chancellor Friedrich Merz.

 

Rather than trying to catch up with Russia in tanks and aircraft, Germany and Europe should together seek ‘‘asymmetric superiority’’ by building a drone wall on NATO’s eastern flank, according to Enders. This could be done very quickly and at a fraction of the cost. ‘‘We need tens of thousands of smart robots on the battlefield,’’ he said.

 

A few dozen people can make 1000 combat drones for less than it costs to make a Leopard 2 tank shell. ‘‘These drones can knock out enemy systems that cost several million with great precision,’’ he said.

 

Europe should also move fast to escape the clutches of Elon Musk’s Starlink. Enders said Eutelsat’s OneWeb could do much of the job if buttressed by the medium-orbit satellites of SES.

 

The focus should be on the ‘‘sharp end’’ of defence. Some of the weapons should be in the field in six to 12 months, but none beyond five years. ‘‘We’re not interested in a new arms system that takes 20 years,’’ he said.

 

Sparta includes a dash for ‘‘cloud-combat’’ hypersonic weapons, a European missile shield, as well as a joint nuclear deterrent in co-ordination with France and the UK that span the escalation ladder from tactical nukes to strategic missiles.

 

There have always been restrictions on how US weapon exports can be deployed, but the rules were clear. Trump has turned every form of vulnerability into a means of extortion.

 

He has shown that he will not hesitate to cut rough with military kit to get his way – in Ukraine’s case to force capitulation on Kremlin terms – or ‘‘dividing up certain assets’’ as he put it.

 

Those terms will probably be close to the Istanbul Protocol: neutrality, a skeleton military like Germany in the 1920s, Russian control over four annexed (but unconquered) oblasts, cultural re-Russification of Ukraine, plus a Vidkun Quisling-like figure to replace Volodymyr Zelensky.

 

Europe faces serious dangers trying to extricate itself from US dependency.

 

‘‘If European politicians provoke Trump, we could get into an even more precarious position, setting off a vicious cycle,’’ said one expert from a NATO state helping the Ukrainian military. But it cannot go on as before either.

 

‘‘The US has complete lockdown and ownership of our security architecture. Long-range fires and potentially the Patriot missiles and some intelligence systems could stop working if somebody in Florida or Washington presses ‘‘no’’ on a computer. You couldn’t keep the show on the road,’’ he said.

 

The Stockholm Institute says the US cornered 43 per cent of global weapons exports over the past five years. This cannot last. Japan, India, Latin America, and the Middle East will all be wary of locking into complex defence systems that could be used as leverage by the White House at any time and for any purpose.

 

It is no protection if suppliers are private companies: Trump compels corporate leaders to kiss the ring and execute his agenda. He is proactively imposing his ideology on capitalist America. Even the Washington Post has bowed to pressure, refusing to publish views that flout MAGA nostrums.

 

Two of the irresistible selling points of US arms exporters have long been that a) the dependency would not be abused and b) countries were implicitly coming under the US security umbrella by aligning their fortunes with America. Neither has currency in Trump’s Hobbesian world.
 

[Jerry_Atrick]

Maybe Australia should think about aligning its defence procurement for fighters somewhere else:

 

[red750]

[facthunter]

Israel and the Ruskies will be there.  Nev

[facthunter]

They will be required to let the USA win.. It's RIGGED  IF they don't win. Nev

[Marty_d]

Maybe there's hope for the US... https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/22/boycott-companies-tesla-trump-musk

[Jerry_Atrick]

There is no doubt going to be a knock on impact particualr to higher profile companies. But if you invested in a lot of these companies a year ago, you would be still up on your investment. Tesla is an example:

 

A year ago it was around 180 and now it is 248 - about a 35% fain in that period. It ballooned on the election and retracted by the same amount, so it is trading where it was pre-election ans pre protest dumping of the stock. So, at the moment* the market thinks it is at its core value.

 

However, the price/earnings ratio is huge at 122. Compare this to Meta which is traditionally high at around 24, unless Tesla's fortunes change in terms of revenue (remember,  cars is only one part of its business) that translates into profit, it probably has a way to go down yet as markets wake up and realise it is a manufacturing company and not a technology company in the traditional sense.  This has everything to do with its positioning in the market and its outlook as opposed to purely protest. But, the protest plays well into Trumps hands as he can blame the loony and now violent left. The fact the cybertruck has had 8 recalls, two major and for every one of them, and are costly to fix, and it hasn't had the market penetration Musk and his investors were betting on, has nothing to do with it in Trumps (and probably Musk's) mind.

 

Here is the share price of the other companies

 

Outside the election bump, they are all doing well. X (x-twitter) was recently valued at $44bn... this is after a bunch of users left the platform in protest.. that seem to have gravitated back: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/mar/19/value-elon-musk-x-rebounds-purchase-price

[facthunter]

Who wants to drive a TESLA these days? People are rebadging them as Mazda's etc.  People Power will triumph eventually. The Penalty for damaging a TESLA deliberately, is more than if you murdered someone in Trumps World, where the President In Person Promotes a Mates Brand of CAR. Easy way to Instant FAME without a guilty Conscience. "Assault on a Battery" is not the same as Assault & Battery.  Your mates in Gaol will be a better class of person than in past Times and at least you will be fed and safe from the Guns. Nev

[red750]

In 2016, Pete Hegseth castigated Hilary Clinton for using private emails with the chance that foreign governments may have access to classified security information. Now his department has included a journalist in a list of people circulated with secret details of the attack on the Houthis. 

[facthunter]

Plenty of IRONY (or HYPOCRACY) from this Aggregation of Incompetent Misfits.  Nev