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TheBigAristotle posted:In response to a question from Joe Biden on whether he had called the NAACP and other civil rights organizations "un-American", Sessions replied "I'm often loose with my tongue. I may have said something about the NAACP being un-American or Communist, but I meant no harm by it."
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Nov 21, 2016 01:35
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NikkolasKing posted:As I said, it was a feeble hope. Trump is a blatant liar and contradicted himself nonstop. What I'm mostly worried about is that we were dumb and pushed NATO all the way to the Baltics and it's all basically a bluff. It's always been a bluff of course, but now we've forced Russia into a position where calling the bluff is a reasonable option. If they invade the Baltics and call our bluff - we either chance nuclear war to defend them or expose NATO as a farce - the entire geopolitical basis for modern world peace unravels and we go down bad roads.
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Nov 21, 2016 01:36
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I just don't see Russia invading the Baltics. What would be the reasoning behind that?
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Nov 21, 2016 01:38
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Hollismason posted:I just don't see Russia invading the Baltics. What would be the reasoning behind that? A land connection to Kaliningrad. Same thing as with the invasion of Ukraine and Sevastopol.
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Nov 21, 2016 01:43
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BgRdMchne posted:A land connection to Kaliningrad. Same thing as with the invasion of Ukraine and Sevastopol. That plus there are a bunch of ethnic Russians who may or may not become "oppressed" at any point justifying an invasion. It's not like it's neither unprecedented nor hasn't been hinted at.
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Nov 21, 2016 01:47
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If for any reason the US initiates a war with Iran there will most certainly be a draft You can imagine how millennials would react to that e: And Putin doesn't have to beat NATO, he just has to undermine it. And will all the anti-NATO, anti-EU nationalism that is most definitely a possibility
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Nov 21, 2016 01:48
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Lightning Knight posted:What I'm mostly worried about is that we were dumb and pushed NATO all the way to the Baltics and it's all basically a bluff. It's always been a bluff of course, but now we've forced Russia into a position where calling the bluff is a reasonable option. If they invade the Baltics and call our bluff - we either chance nuclear war to defend them or expose NATO as a farce - the entire geopolitical basis for modern world peace unravels and we go down bad roads. Oh unquestionably a lot of this is the US' fault. Putin is the second coming of Stalin now but he was the first foreign leader on the phone with Dubya after 9/11 and offered Russia's full support in Afghanistan. But, as you noted, we pushed and we pushed and eventually Russia had to push back. I have no idea where we go from here. I just think Trump's non-aggressive, non-piss contest approach with Russia is one of his few saving graces.
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Nov 21, 2016 01:49
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size1one posted:North Vietnam will not initiate a war with the US. If North Vietnam attacks the US navy unprovoked Big Daddy and his cronies will have all the support they need to do whatever they want to North Vietnam. They lose more if the US public supports the war. North Vietnam's best chance is to turn an occupation into an unpopular bloody quagmire, or to avoid it in the first place. Not wrong in hindsight. But still missed the Gulf of Tonkin.
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Nov 21, 2016 01:51
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Dead Cosmonaut posted:If for any reason the US initiates a war with Iran there will most certainly be a draft There will never be a draft. The military realizes that a draft is a huge liability both politically and in terms of fielding an effective fighting force.
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Nov 21, 2016 01:51
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NikkolasKing posted:Oh unquestionably a lot of this is the US' fault. Putin is the second coming of Stalin now but he was the first foreign leader on the phone with Dubya after 9/11 and offered Russia's full support in Afghanistan. We were incapable of winning graciously. Instead of working to help Russia join the world community as democratic equals we tried to corral them into a corner like a Third World tinpot dictatorship to prevent them from challenging our geopolitical power. We inadvertently created the situation we were trying to prevent. As usual. I think it's too far gone to walk back now. As Mark Blyth put it, Trump will think Putin is his buddy and that they've got an accord until Putin decides he's had enough loving around and does what he wants to do. Trump clearly has no idea how much smarter Putin is than him.
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Nov 21, 2016 01:52
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Bip Roberts posted:There will never be a draft. The military realizes that a draft is a huge liability both politically and in terms of fielding an effective fighting force. Then good luck finding a million plus personnel it's going to take to properly occupy the country
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Nov 21, 2016 01:53
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Oh boy now we're at "Actually it's America's fault that Russia is terrible and doing terrible things." The transformation into neo-LF is nearly complete.
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Nov 21, 2016 01:53
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Sir Tonk posted:Goddammit, these people are so loving stupid. The new rules were going to be a huge boon for the economy and were decades late already. This is a positive for my wife. She works at a non-profit developmental treatment facility for people with disabilities. Her workload can't possibly be done in her 37.5 hour work week. She's currently salaried, but at 25k/year, gets turned into hourly Dec 1st. So now she can't get her work done or work OT.
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Nov 21, 2016 01:54
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Fojar38 posted:Oh boy now we're at "Actually it's America's fault that Russia is terrible and doing terrible things." The transformation into neo-LF is nearly complete. I think Putin is unquestionably a real, real bad dude. But we could've prevented this a long time ago well before somebody like him took power. We didn't.
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Nov 21, 2016 01:55
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Dead Cosmonaut posted:Then good luck finding a million plus personnel it's going to take to properly occupy the country They didn't in Iraq either. The same chucklefucks are gonna run this too if it happens. Of course they will gently caress it up the same exact way lmao.
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Nov 21, 2016 01:56
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Trabisnikof posted:Not wrong in hindsight. But still missed the Gulf of Tonkin. Right. I'm a much more worried that a minor event or intentional harassment of Iranian forces escalates. Just like Bush had to sell the American public on Iraq, Trump needs to do the same about Iran.
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Nov 21, 2016 01:57
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Bip Roberts posted:There will never be a draft. The military realizes that a draft is a huge liability both politically and in terms of fielding an effective fighting force. Isn't a draft (or no draft) decided by congress and the President?
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Nov 21, 2016 01:59
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size1one posted:Isn't a draft (or no draft) decided by congress and the President? A draft is possibly the quickest way they could get a Democratic supermajority and President by 2020.
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Nov 21, 2016 02:02
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I could totally see part of the Republican's brilliant plan for saving OUR COLLEGES is to institute a military service component for federal aid for College and just rehash the GI Bill.
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Nov 21, 2016 02:04
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FlamingLiberal posted:House Republicans have gone into some detail as to their main priorities at the beginning of next year I expect this one to be highly unpopular. People might ont notice their taxes going up a little bit at the end of the year, but they'll notice immediately if their paychecks start shrinking in February.
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Nov 21, 2016 02:06
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size1one posted:Isn't a draft (or no draft) decided by congress and the President? All the legislation for a draft is in place right now. 18 year old guys have to sign up as a precondition for basically anything federal whatsoever.
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Nov 21, 2016 02:08
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Hollismason posted:I could totally see part of the Republican's brilliant plan for saving OUR COLLEGES is to institute a military service component for federal aid for College and just rehash the GI Bill. Service guarantees citizenship? The amount of people who read Starship Troopers and think "this sounds great, how could it possibly go wrong?" is absolutely staggering.
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Nov 21, 2016 02:08
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Lightning Knight posted:Service guarantees citizenship? They're actually remaking Starship Troopers and it's going to be like the book.
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Nov 21, 2016 02:09
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Lightning Knight posted:Service guarantees citizenship? Speaking from experience it's people who have either never served in the military (but worship it for some nebulous reason) or never saw active combat. So you know, exactly the same sort of person Heinlein was.
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Nov 21, 2016 02:11
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Hollismason posted:They're actually remaking Starship Troopers and it's going to be like the book. 95% fascism apologia, 5% sick nasty anime mecha combat?
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Nov 21, 2016 02:11
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The only way we get a draft is ww3.
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Nov 21, 2016 02:11
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Lightning Knight posted:95% fascism apologia, 5% sick nasty anime mecha combat? Yeah, media is gonna be super loving bonkers for the next long while.
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Nov 21, 2016 02:13
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Hollismason posted:Yeah, media is gonna be super loving bonkers for the next long while. Actually it's going to be like the Bush administration and we'll see a resurgence of plucky underdogs rebelling in a psuedofascist dystopia (the fascists will be aliens though)
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Nov 21, 2016 02:14
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Angry_Ed posted:Speaking from experience it's people who have either never served in the military (but worship it for some nebulous reason) or never saw active combat. So you know, exactly the same sort of person Heinlein was. I mean I too thought Starship Troopers was unequivocally a great idea when I first read it. In 7th grade. The scary people are the ones like Flynn who reach the top levels of military command and are still that loving dumb.
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Nov 21, 2016 02:15
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Lightning Knight posted:I mean I too thought Starship Troopers was unequivocally a great idea when I first read it. To be fair I didn't clarify that I meant adults, but I did mean adults because we've all had ideas and thoughts at a high-school age that we look back on and go "Man what the gently caress I was I thinking"
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Nov 21, 2016 02:19
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Fojar38 posted:Actually it's going to be like the Bush administration oh god this means an emo revival
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Nov 21, 2016 02:22
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I watched X-Files and listened to Megadeth so I believe the fascism is here already.
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Nov 21, 2016 02:22
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Fojar38 posted:Oh boy now we're at "Actually it's America's fault that Russia is terrible and doing terrible things." Well it was true in the late 90s.
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Nov 21, 2016 02:25
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Also with regard to Tortilla Coast talk I had a friend who waited tables there (she was a congressional aid) and every time I was in DC we went there to hang out during her shift. The food is super bad but it's okay if you're getting free drinks.
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Nov 21, 2016 02:31
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Angry_Ed posted:To be fair I didn't clarify that I meant adults, but I did mean adults because we've all had ideas and thoughts at a high-school age that we look back on and go "Man what the gently caress I was I thinking" My point is that the amount of Just Worldism required to think that, that type of society is a good idea that would end well is incredibly childish. If you aren't literally a child and still believe in such things you're a massive idiot.
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Nov 21, 2016 02:36
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Angry_Ed posted:Speaking from experience it's people who have either never served in the military (but worship it for some nebulous reason) or never saw active combat. So you know, exactly the same sort of person Heinlein was. Yup. We have a huge number of people brought up on Hollywood-style hero narratives desperate to live out their dreams of being the lone badass to shore up their delicate ideals of self-worth by pushing it all off on others so they can live vicariously through the narratives right wing media will give of the glorious warriors. The horrors of war are completely abstract to most of the population and actual soldiers are usually brainwashed into the right wing infosphere.
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Nov 21, 2016 02:37
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https://twitter.com/Khanoisseur/status/798627223536209920 Also, McCrory is really trying to hold onto his governorship. What he's trying to pull is ridiculous: https://twitter.com/SeanMcElwee/status/800503524643704832 bowser fucked around with this message at 02:44 on Nov 21, 2016 |
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Nov 21, 2016 02:39
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Lightning Knight posted:I think Putin is unquestionably a real, real bad dude. But we could've prevented this a long time ago well before somebody like him took power. We didn't. Didn't he effectively "take power" like 20 years ago? What exactly could we have done to stop that?
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Nov 21, 2016 02:41
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A handful disgusted enough to see this man is too horrifying to allow the benefit of the doubt through traditional rules is an amazing statement on how far gone America has become. I know that it likely means nothing given how many he managed to get, but this alone is huge.
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Nov 21, 2016 02:45
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Hollismason posted:I just don't see Russia invading the Baltics. What would be the reasoning behind that? They need more land to perform a defense in depth when Germany invades. 
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Nov 21, 2016 02:49
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