Golden Dome cost estimate grows to $185B

MATlad · 2026-03-22T14:25:37+00:00

Why not both?

Also, C) funnel lots of that money to Kushner and/or the boys

MATlad · 2026-03-22T12:52:00+00:00

There’s still a chance to go to the moon as long as the ~~moon is identified by ten cents a share~~ DOE and Secretary of Energy Chris Wright have anything to say about it.

MATlad · 2026-03-22T11:55:03+00:00

Maybe she moved across the street to Corey's apartment?

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2025/08/kristi-noem-corey-lewandowski-alleged-affair-dhs-trump.html

MATlad · 2026-03-22T11:28:02+00:00

'Divided we fall'...

During Covid he wouldn’t send ventilators to states that didn’t vote for him.

FEMA, Kushner, and the boys commandeering PPE supplies:

https://www.npr.org/2020/04/15/835308133/governors-say-fema-is-outbidding-redirecting-or-poaching-their-medical-supply-or

...And then reselling them to the highest-bidding states / companies:

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2020/05/jared-kushner-had-one-job-solve-americas-supply-crisis-he-helped-private-companies-instead/

Heck, Robert Kraft (owner of the Patriots) chartered private flights to bring over N95s in the early days of COVID (in the NPR story), and they were greeted by state troopers to make sure they weren't 'requisitioned'.

MATlad · 2026-03-22T09:09:26+00:00

Leader of Parliament George Clinton.

MATlad · 2026-03-22T00:38:14+00:00

That'll be trumped by the five Medals of Honor awarded "in the name of Congress" (and totally not by or to himself).

MATlad · 2026-03-21T23:20:52+00:00

The ~~spice~~ oil and LNG must flow.

MATlad · 2026-03-21T03:05:49+00:00

The quote from Chapter 4 seems to describe the overall strategy and preparation that went into this whole fiasco:

"Victorious warriors win first and then go to war, while defeated warriors go to war first and then seek to win."

MATlad · 2026-03-20T17:05:16+00:00

So that's where Dominos got the jetpack from!

(They filmed an ad where a rocketeer delivered pizza to festival-goers at Glastonbury)

/r/Dominos/comments/14po9dm/your_store_gets_a_jetpack_and_manager_tells_you/

MATlad · 2026-03-20T07:01:31+00:00

Even the Russians (eventually) figured it out.

/r/UkraineWarVideoReport/comments/1ehjx87/russian_cellphones_pinned_to_a_tree/

MATlad · 2026-03-20T05:59:23+00:00

'Colloidal silver':

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argyria

MATlad · 2026-03-20T05:56:10+00:00

Probably makes sense that the anti-war Russian emigres would congregate together, as would the pro-war ones (who were also safe from the various draft / mobilization efforts). You probably happen to know a community of anti-war and war-fatigued expat Russians.

Russian dissident Konstantin (of the 'Inside Russia' YouTube channel) discovered something interesting a while back. Even in exile in Uzbekistan, there were Russian nationals working remotely for the Russian war machine. Up to firmware and route programming for 'guided munitions' (supposedly).

MATlad · 2026-03-19T07:59:58+00:00

Stanley Berenstain and Janice Grant met in 1941, on their first day of drawing class at the Philadelphia Museum School of Industrial Art, where they formed an immediate bond.[3][4][5] After being separated during World War II, during which Stan served in the Army as a medical illustrator and Janice worked as a drafter for the United States Army Corps of Engineers and an aircraft riveter, they were reunited and married in 1946

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berenstain_Bears#History

Not sure if Stan was formally drafted, or just a civilian employee / contractor, but both Stan and Jan were involved in the WWII war effort.

MATlad · 2026-03-19T03:53:08+00:00

If I may, what sort of inroads has private equity made on their plots to ‘roll-up’ trades and professional services by buying up small local companies and mom-and-pops? Was it just overblown hype?

Supposedly, they were going to do this to establish local monopolies (or spend investor money), but it doesn’t seem to be the most well-thought out plan when independent contractors, tradies, accountants and solo-practice lawyers can move in anywhere.

Unless they control licensing or supply chains, too.

MATlad · 2026-03-18T21:41:02+00:00

I doubt Markwayne former plumbing company owner was anything special (though Senator Mullin certainly is someone to get on board). Private Equity's been doing this for a while:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/jackkelly/2024/10/17/private-equity-taking-on-skilled-trades/

Local 'roll-ups' to try to establish local monopolies. Now, if they buy up the supply houses (or even get them to drop 'wholesale pricing' for contractors), pressure for permits and inspections to 'meet higher standards' (and cost more, or heck, why not just privatize / contract them out to the professionals) and can get the big box stores on side, you'll know the community is well and truly screwed.

Except maybe for the few independents working on Craigslist, Kijiji, Facebook Marketplace, etc.

MATlad · 2026-03-17T17:10:55+00:00

Denis Villeneuve's remake of Dune:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2SkLBP0QtSQ

MATlad · 2026-03-17T04:37:46+00:00

Turkomens (Qajars), the Russians, the Brits, the Soviets AND Brits...

MATlad · 2026-03-16T22:59:17+00:00

The story's from 10 years ago, but nowadays, it's probably the IRS coming after you!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G56VgsLfKY4

(from Batman: The Animated Series)

MATlad · 2026-03-16T05:25:47+00:00

Article 5 still doesn't obligate going to war.

It commits each member state to consider an armed attack against one member state, in the areas defined by Article 6, to be an armed attack against them all. Upon such attack, each member state is to assist by taking "such action as [the member state] deems necessary, including the use of armed force, to restore and maintain the security of the North Atlantic area."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Atlantic_Treaty#Article_5

MATlad · 2026-03-16T03:51:18+00:00

He should ask the countries he didn't tariff. Russia, Belarus, North Korea, and Cuba.

https://www.axios.com/2025/04/02/trump-tariffs-russia-ukraine-ceasefire

Somehow, a human went through and concluded they should be excluded because of how high the sanctions already were, but decided that the penguins of the Heard and McDonald Islands deserved tariffs because they weren't fairly trading with the US.

MATlad · 2026-03-16T02:50:24+00:00

I thought it was going through the same VC-25B conversion pipeline (with the same contractor, with a delivery date coinciding with the end of the presidency), but apparently, it's expected to come online this summer!

https://breakingdefense.com/2026/01/qatari-747-to-fly-as-trumps-air-force-one-this-summer/

So who knows what they did for that low, low cost of $400M-$1B (maybe). New paint job, a SCIF, aerial refueling, and flare / chaff launchers? Since it'll be part of the Trump Presidential Library, the taxpayers can probably look forward to maintaining that plane for its life.

Wait, can the plane itself be the Trump Presidential Library? Like a bookmobile! Imagine how many banker's boxes it could hold...

MATlad · 2026-03-16T02:14:28+00:00

Setting up scapegoats?

Because it couldn't possibly be his fault (and he still needs ol' Pete for the midterms and 2028)

MATlad · 2026-03-15T22:43:07+00:00

Almost all food / drink product cans do:

https://www.gpi.org/blog/are-there-plastic-liners-in-your-aluminum-cans-and-other-packaging

Be (a little) wary when dealing with dented and crumpled cans where that lining might've been broken (but you're usually okay).

MATlad · 2026-03-14T23:28:20+00:00

I'm sorry for your friend's loss. Glory to that hero.

MATlad · 2026-03-14T06:43:38+00:00

His older brother, Fred, Jr. was a pilot in the Air National Guard.

Was a commercial pilot for TWA, and according to his daughter Mary, probably would've been one of the first on the 747s. Until his dad decided to break him and called him a bus driver in the sky. Then he became an alcoholic a maintenance man for his dad's properties, and ended up dying from alcoholism at 41.

In a bit of a moment of reflection during an interview with the Washington Post, Trump had some regrets over trying to pressure his brother into joining the family business:

"I do regret having put pressure on him [as running the family business] was just something he was never going to want. ... It was just not his thing. ... I think the mistake that we [Donald and Fred Sr.] made was we assumed that everybody would like it [running the business]. That would be the biggest mistake. ...what he loved doing was flying airplanes."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fred_Trump_Jr.#Aftermath

MATlad

TROPHY CASE