I don’t necessarily disagree with your final point. As an American, I’m of the opinion that we are currently getting exactly what we asked for, damning as that fact might be about the American people. Regardless, though, the reason we complain about people like Newsom is because he is cut from the very same neoliberal (read: conservative anywhere other than the US) cloth that ratcheted us to this position in the first place. There’s a nonzero risk that with him as the rising star, he could be yet another uninspiring Democratic candidate who fails to galvanize the American people into actually showing up for once in our fucking lives, and I worry that even if we somehow pull ourselves out of this spiral, we may end up back here again in a decade or two

Make no mistake, I understand necessity perfectly well, and, presidentially, I would happily cling to Newsom like a drowning man at the moment if I had the chance, but that doesn’t mean he shouldn’t be criticized as a figurehead of the left, because he’s not really representative of the left, nor is he necessarily even on the left in the first place. Still, there’s really no time to purity test right now, and purity testing something like this is, to me, absurd. I’d happily take a “turncoat” Republican (so long as it’s one of the less morally bankrupt of the lot, at least) as an ally in this fight, so why the hell not Newsom?

Fair. My intention was more to say ‘giving the appearance of fighting back’. My thinking on it was that it is, on net, better to have even an ineffectual example to serve as a reminder that dissent is a choice which both has been and remains available to us all. Your concern about the potentially performative nature of the situation doing damage by muddying the decision making of how that dissent should be handled, however, is extremely valid. Hell, a misunderstanding of what was happening in California even skewed my analysis of the situation until I just looked into it more.

Either way, though, I still fucking hate the guy. I suppose I shouldn’t be too surprised, either; talking a big game and then doing exactly nothing while shit falls apart around you is a textbook Democrat move.

God I’ve hated watching the way that this shitshow has turned Newsom into the Dem’s new darling rising star. He’s just more of the same neoliberal shit that got us here in the first place.

Still, though, I’ll acknowledge that he’s at least publicly fighting back, and the more voices that we have screaming “this isn’t normal, this isn’t okay,” the better imo. I think he’d be a shit president, but in comparison to the situation we have going on now? He’d be a fucking dream.

Is that more or less powerful than god and anime?

Sokka is a Raytheon engineer? Say it ain’t so 😭

Good. We saw what happens when you give those fuckers an inch in 2014; they take a mile in 2022. Especially because Crimea is a bit more than an inch, and the claimed/annexed/occupied regions are a hell of a lot more than a mile.

Anyone who thinks that Ukraine ceding any of their sovereign territory is a strategy to buy long-term peace is either a Russian asset or fucking stupid. Full stop.

Certainly, but that wasn’t really known at the time, and if that’d been their grievance they could have just voted no. Instead, they refused to vote entirely

Oh I know, I just like complaining. I stopped trying to catch Republicans on contradictions and double standards years ago, because they never care - logical consistency isn’t the point. Put another way, contradictions don’t matter, because nothing they say is actually what they believe. Instead, they say whatever they need to appear to believe for that particular moment, so they can justify doing whatever the fuck it is they actually want but won’t say.

Real fucking rich from the guys who just outright refused to vote on Merrick Garland’s SCOTUS nomination in direct violation of their duties.

Cunts.

Uhh… yeah. I know? That’s why I said the US’s actions are indefensible? I feel like you’re shadowboxing a point that I’ve never made here lol

If you believe I am “both-sidesing” this, then you have missed the point. I’m not going to defend the actions of the US because, frankly, they are indefensible, but that doesn’t mean that China or Russia as regional hegemons would be a good outcome either, because their actions are also indefensible. I’m advocating for Taiwanese autonomy here, because their right to self-determination is something that is worth preserving, just as is the case for any self-governing nation.

And even Russia’s is only 5th gen if you really squint.

Surprise! The world is complex and all three can be not good for anyone, with room for more bad actors besides. Plus, while China isn’t at war with anyone (and hasn’t, as you said, been at war for fifty years), it doesn’t mean that they haven’t signaled their intention to take Taiwan - militarily, if needed, nor that they aren’t abhorrent in just the same way their international peers are (See: Uyghurs, the Chinese surveillance state, excessive force response to protests, etc.). This isn’t a defense of the US, but rather to say that acknowledging the shortcomings of China and Russia (which frankly should not be in the same category as the US and China) is not a way of blaming them for the shortcomings of the US, it’s just being realistic.

All cops are bastards, especially the one you know

I feel like this absolutely would have been almost everyone’s first guess lmao.

Though, on second thought, maybe it would’ve come second after his lust for minors.

Patrolling the Mojave almost makes you wish for a nuclear winter.

Jfc they really keep finding ways to outdo themselves here

Interesting question! I hadn’t heard about the royal navy looking into this recently! The last I was aware they had discussed retrofitting the QE carriers around 2011-2012, but the project cost estimation at that time was ~£2b, two thirds of the approximate procurement cost of one carrier at ~£3b.

I wasn’t able to find anything definitive about if this more recent proposed retrofit will go forward, but I will say that the UK’s 2025 Strategic Defense Review white paper specifies in section 7.2 they will be using F-35B for their carrier air wings. The full section is as follows:

“The Royal Navy must continue to move towards a more powerful but cheaper and simpler fleet, developing a ‘high-low’ mix of equipment and weapons that exploits autonomy and digital integration. Carrier strike is already at the cutting-edge of NATO capability but much more rapid progress is needed in its evolution into ‘hybrid’ carrier airwings, whereby crewed combat aircraft (F-35B) are complemented by autonomous collaborative platforms in the air, and expendable, single-use drones. Plans for the hybrid carrier airwings should also include long-range precision missiles capable of being fired from the carrier deck.”

My guess is that they found similar results to the previous time they looked into retrofitting the carriers. The language here makes me think they’re moving toward more drone integration (manned-unmanned teaming is all the rage right now) in order to offload extra munitions and capabilities to autonomous platforms which compliment and counterbalance the weight limitation weaknesses of F-35B rather than broadening the scope of their available air wing, but it’s hard to say as I didn’t see any mention for or against the retrofits in that whitepaper. Definitely something to keep an eye on, though, as I doubt they would have reconsidered the retrofits in the first place without some reason to make it potentially more viable. Good looking out!

I suppose you could but it would be both incredibly time consuming and incredibly expensive, and you’d be more likely to end up with a worse carrier than if you’d just built in those launch capabilities in the first place.

You’d need to rip out the deck, and then retrofit it and the internals to accommodate the rail and launch system. You’d also need to reinforce the deck and remove the ski jump as the jets you’re flying will now be heavier and the jump will just get in the way of the launch system. The system itself could either be electromagnetic (like the EMALS system) but that would require several times the current energy output of a Queen Elizabeth class carrier, so would involve extensive engine upgrades. You could use steam instead, but you have a similar problem in that a whole bunch of infrastructure that you didn’t design space for now has to fit. You’d also probably have to overhaul the fueling, munitions, and maintenance facilities to accommodate the new jets. I’m sure there are other things that would have to be adapted but this is just from the top of my head.

All told, you’d probably be spending a similar amount or more to building a new carrier in order to take one of your own carriers offline for years and at the end of it you’d be left with an incredibly expensive carrier which would likely still be subpar to something custom built for this purpose.

TLDR: You could, but it’d involve a lot of work, a lot of money, a lot of trade offs, and would be unlikely to yield something better than if you’d just put that money into building a new carrier.