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Vincent Van Goatse
Nov 8, 2006

Enjoy every sandwich.

Smellrose

SimonCat posted:

He said he'd veto it if it wasn't paid for. Remember, Biden partnered with Chuck Grassley to freeze Social Security and VA benefit COL increases for a year because he was worried about the deficit in 1984.

OK then, I won't vote for Biden in 1984.

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Wrong Theory
Aug 27, 2005

Satellite from days of old, lead me to your access code

Wingnut Ninja posted:

What are they going to do with them? They've pretty much shut down all DOD travel and reservists are barely better than useless at the best of times. This just doesn't seem like something the military is very well suited for, unless they're mobilizing the world's largest janitorial force.

I can just imagine IRR nurses getting pulled out of hospitals and put to work reviewing JKO completion stats or something.

Time for some area America beautification

M_Gargantua
Oct 16, 2006

STOMP'N ON INTO THE POWERLINES

Exciting Lemon

mlmp08 posted:

Then I think you are ignorant. Sorry.

Status quo is a fucker, but to say there is no difference between generic Democrats and Trump/GOP is to be willfully ignorant.

If there is truly no difference, you’re saying a Trump supporter equals a Democrat voter.

I acknowledge that there is a difference. That doesn't mean Biden should just coast to the general without fighting for a majority of voters by courting them with policies they care about. Legalizing marijuana would be a great literal fig leaf to gain him a huge segment of voters. March is not the point to circle the wagons and ask every breathing adult to just accept a half assed canidate just because he's less worse.

Nostalgia4Butts
Jun 1, 2006

WHERE MY HOSE DRINKERS AT

A Bad Poster posted:

My IRR time just ran out a month ago, thank loving christ.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kLojMGNEJ1M

Vincent Van Goatse
Nov 8, 2006

Enjoy every sandwich.

Smellrose

M_Gargantua posted:

That doesn't mean Biden should just coast to the general without fighting for a majority of voters by courting them with policies they care about.

Nobody here thinks he should.

SimonCat
Aug 12, 2016

by Nyc_Tattoo
College Slice

Vincent Van Goatse posted:

OK then, I won't vote for Biden in 1984.

What makes you think he's changed his views regarding the debt and deficit since then? His answer regarding vetoing M4A is completely in line with his previous views.

Buttcoin purse
Apr 24, 2014

CRUSTY MINGE posted:

Visions of bigfoot here aren't reported as frequently as the PNW. Those folks practically run into him at the Starbucks drive-thru.

Here's some stats.

https://www.bfro.net/GDB/#usa

Colorado - 128 reports
Oregon - 253
California - 445
Washington - 673

Alaska - 22

Come on Alaska, get your poo poo together and go squatching.

Using the "Population estimates, July 1, 2019, (V2019)" from https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/, here are the number of reports per million people:



You'd think that with all those people it'd be hard for him to hide in California and yet that's a pretty low reporting rate. Seems like he is hanging out in the expected places, and Alaska is doing their part.

mlmp08
Jul 11, 2004

Prepare for my priapic projectile's exalted penetration
Nap Ghost

M_Gargantua posted:

I acknowledge that there is a difference. That doesn't mean Biden should just coast to the general without fighting for a majority of voters by courting them with policies they care about. Legalizing marijuana would be a great literal fig leaf to gain him a huge segment of voters. March is not the point to circle the wagons and ask every breathing adult to just accept a half assed canidate just because he's less worse.

I voted against Biden. I’d like him to be better. He’s a deeply disappointing and lovely candidate. Sucks that he’ll be the candidate barring some really unexpected changes.

I just think people who think he equals Trump are morons.

Vincent Van Goatse
Nov 8, 2006

Enjoy every sandwich.

Smellrose

SimonCat posted:

What makes you think he's changed his views regarding the debt and deficit since then? His answer regarding vetoing M4A is completely in line with his previous views.

We went through this already, you dolt.

Old Boot
May 9, 2012



Buglord
'Hey people like me who voted for Bernie in the primary: gently caress you for voting Bernie in the primary, I guess, IDK who I'm fighting against here but apparently it's you guys.'

Buttcoin purse posted:

Using the "Population estimates, July 1, 2019, (V2019)" from https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/, here are the number of reports per million people:



You'd think that with all those people it'd be hard for him to hide in California and yet that's a pretty low reporting rate. Seems like he is hanging out in the expected places, and Alaska is doing their part.

:lol: This isn't what I expected when I reopened the thread, thank you.

I'd vote Bigfoot but my state actually matters as a swing state again :sigh:

CRUSTY MINGE
Mar 30, 2011

Peggy Hill
Foot Connoisseur

Buttcoin purse posted:

Using the "Population estimates, July 1, 2019, (V2019)" from https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/, here are the number of reports per million people:



You'd think that with all those people it'd be hard for him to hide in California and yet that's a pretty low reporting rate. Seems like he is hanging out in the expected places, and Alaska is doing their part.

BFRO is old school, so that's like, every report going back into the 90s. So that's not even yearly.

Love that a bunch of this bigfoot poo poo exists. Gonna be easy to source a bunch of bullshit for the bigfoot bible.

Vincent Van Goatse
Nov 8, 2006

Enjoy every sandwich.

Smellrose
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=in1eK3x1PBI&t=10s

Acebuckeye13
Nov 2, 2010
Ultra Carp

SimonCat posted:

There was also the talk from Biden's staff of re-instituting the judicial filibuster.

Can anybody find a source on that because it's come up multiple times here and in USPOL, and I have never found one.

Best Friends posted:

So the pro-Biden story is he was on her side, but just incredibly dumb and bad at politics and aw shucks looks like those mean republicans lapped him again. Obviously I can't prove or disprove what's in his heart of hearts, but I will say that your defense of Biden as "he's just incredibly bad at politics and had a whoopsie" is arguably more disqualifying of him than my charge, that he was actively playing the game to assist the conservative agenda. The end results are the same in both our narratives, but at least in my narrative he wasn't a moron.

A: Oh come the gently caress on, that isn't what I said and you know it.

B: Jesus not everything is a conspiracy. You know what I think happened? Biden wanted to do "diligence" to the accusations, but didn't want to appear partisan in dragging them out and tarring Thomas' reputation, and may not himself have taken the accusations as seriously as he should have, because at the time he was almost certainly a sexist rear end in a top hat, which was practically a given for a senator in those days. So he did the hearings, got them over with, and then voted against Thomas. I mean for god's sake, if he was trying to protect Thomas (Which is a loving insane and extremely ahistoric accusation) he wouldn't have asked for the FBI investigation or held the hearings in the first place. And that didn't stop Thomas' nomination because there were 11 lovely dems, of whom Biden was not one, who decided to vote for him anyway.

e: tl;dr he wasn't incompetent or some kind of republican plant, he was just an rear end in a top hat

Acebuckeye13 fucked around with this message at 02:12 on Mar 28, 2020

Acebuckeye13
Nov 2, 2010
Ultra Carp

Stultus Maximus posted:

Acebuckeye13, I really admire your commitment to effortposts despite... all this.

Thanks, I really appreciate it.

mlmp08
Jul 11, 2004

Prepare for my priapic projectile's exalted penetration
Nap Ghost
Current Event: King Princess is really good; her latest album (Cheap Queen) is very enjoyable.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lhYhA6eQ9do

mlmp08
Jul 11, 2004

Prepare for my priapic projectile's exalted penetration
Nap Ghost
NYT has a new report on alleged plans to potentially escalation in Iraq and with Iran.

quote:

WASHINGTON — The Pentagon has ordered military commanders to plan for an escalation of American combat in Iraq, issuing a directive last week to prepare a campaign to destroy an Iranian-backed militia group that has threatened more attacks against American troops.

But the United States’ top commander in Iraq has warned that such a campaign could be bloody and counterproductive and risks war with Iran. In a blunt memo last week, the commander, Lt. Gen. Robert P. White, wrote that a new military campaign would also require thousands more American troops be sent to Iraq and divert resources from what has been the primary American military mission there: training Iraqi troops to combat the Islamic State.

The Pentagon directive and General White’s response — both classified internal military communications — were described by several American officials with direct knowledge of their contents. The exchange comes amid a simmering fight inside the Trump administration over policy toward Iran and the course of America’s war in Iraq, which began just over 17 years ago.

Some top officials, including Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Robert C. O’Brien, the national security adviser, have been pushing for aggressive new action against Iran and its proxy forces — and see an opportunity to try to destroy Iranian-backed militia groups in Iraq as leaders in Iran are distracted by the pandemic crisis in their country.

Military leaders, including Defense Secretary Mark T. Esper and Gen. Mark A. Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, have been wary of a sharp military escalation, warning it could further destabilize the Middle East at a time when President Trump has said he hopes to reduce the number of American troops in the region.

Still, American officials said Mr. Esper authorized planning for a new campaign inside Iraq — even as the military reduces its counterterrorism presence there — to provide options for Mr. Trump in the event that Iranian-backed militia groups escalate their own attacks against American troops, said two senior administration officials.

During an Oval Office meeting on March 19, Mr. Trump did not make a decision about whether he might authorize the new campaign in Iraq, but allowed the planning to continue, according to American officials.

A spokesman for the National Security Council declined to comment. Cmdr. Sean Robertson, a Pentagon spokesman, said in a statement: “Operation Inherent Resolve is in Iraq at the invitation of the Iraqi government and remains focused on partnering with Iraqi security forces for the shared goal of permanently defeating ISIS remnants. We are not going to discuss hypotheticals or internal deliberations.”

The debate is happening as top Pentagon officials and senior commanders worldwide are also expressing growing concerns about coronavirus cases expanding rapidly in the ranks, potentially threatening the military’s ability to field combat-ready troops.

Several American officials said they were struck by the blunt tone of General White’s memorandum — sent on March 16, the day after he received the Pentagon directive to start the planning — which they said emphasized the costs and risks against an effort to try to destroy the militia group, known as Kataib Hezbollah.

The memo also pointed out that such a campaign might run afoul of the current agreement with the Iraqi government that allows American troops to operate in the country.

Beyond that, it would most likely put the Iraqi leadership and especially its military in the position of having to choose between its American allies — whose leaders are far away — and the Iranians, whom many senior Iraqis do not like but believe they have to live with because they are neighbors.

“Iraq cannot be a victim of the Iranian-U.S. conflict, because that would end up going in favor of Iran,” said Karim al-Nuri, a senior figure in the Badr Organization, an Iranian-backed militia, meaning that it would force Iraq closer to Iran.

Iran has long used Shiite militia groups in Iraq as proxy forces both to battle American and Iraqi troops and to exert political influence inside the government. Like Lebanese Hezbollah, Kataib Hezbollah has both military components and political operations, and links to Iraq politicians, businesses, charities and a web of other networks, several regional specialists said.

“It’s like a shadow state,” said Michael Knights, an analyst at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, who has studied the group for more than a decade.

As a result, carrying out any large-scale plan to destroy Kataib Hezbollah poses huge political and security risks for the Trump administration, and practical challenges for the military.

It would also strain already frayed relations with Iraq's weak central government. In January, members of Iraq’s Parliament called for the ouster of all U.S. troops in the country after the American drone strike at Baghdad’s international airport that killed Maj. Gen. Qassim Suleimani, a top Iranian commander, as well as Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the de facto leader of Iraq’s militia groups.

Several top American officials, including Mr. Pompeo and General Milley, have urged the Iraqi security forces to crack down on rogue Shiite militia groups that are attacking American troops, or else the United States will be forced to retaliate.

The Pentagon directive ordered planners at the military’s Central Command and in Iraq to draw up a strategy to dismantle the militia group’s operations, according to several American officials who saw the order or were briefed on it. The directive said that Iranian paramilitary forces — members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps — could be legitimate targets if they are located with the Kataib Hezbollah fighters.

Kataib Hezbollah rocket attacks killed two American troops and one British soldier at a military base this month — prompting a reprisal strike by American warplanes one day later.

Even so, American officials said there was no firm evidence that Iran ordered the attack by the militia group. But Mr. Pompeo and other senior officials in recent weeks have argued for aggressive military action not only against Kataib Hezbollah but also against Iranian military forces.

During a White House meeting on March 12, Mr. Esper and General Milley argued for a more limited response to the rocket attacks — a view that prevailed on Mr. Trump, who ordered nighttime raids on five suspected weapons depots in Iraq used by Kataib Hezbollah.

Several American officials said there was an increased urgency in planning attack options against Kataib Hezbollah as the group, perhaps along with other Shiite militias, has threatened to ramp up strikes against U.S. troops stationed on Iraqi bases after the celebrations for Nowruz, the Iranian New Year, end soon. American military intelligence agencies have detected signs that big attacks could be in the works, according to a senior U.S. military official who has been briefed on some of the contingency planning in Iraq.

Kataib Hezbollah, in a statement on Wednesday, warned its fighters to prepare for possible attacks from the United States, and threatened to retaliate against Americans and any Iraqis who help them. “We will respond with full force to all their military, security, and economic facilities,” said the statement, according to SITE, a private company that monitors jihadists’ websites and postings.

The immediate targets of a Pentagon campaign against Kataib Hezbollah most likely would be the group’s leadership, bases and weapons depots, Mr. Knights said. In addition to a vast array of rockets, the group is believed to have access to a hidden arsenal of short-range ballistic missiles funneled into Iraq by Iran over the past several months, according to American intelligence and military officials.

An extended campaign could hit militia targets across a wide swath of Iraq and Syria, and possibly other Shiite militias in Iraq that are loosely aligned with Kataib Hezbollah. “You can’t just hit rank-and-file fighters, you’d have to hit leadership, most of whom have probably dispersed,” Mr. Knights said.

At the same time, American officials said the risks laid out in General White’s memo are genuine, and some military planners believe it would be foolish for the Trump administration to escalate military operations inside Iraq anytime soon.

More than 5,000 American troops are currently stationed in Iraq, most of them part of the mission to train and advise Iraqi security forces in the mission against the Islamic State. Pentagon officials had been seeking to reduce that presence to about 2,500 troops in the coming months.

Any campaign against Kataib Hezbollah is likely to draw from the roughly 70,000 American military personnel currently deployed around the Middle East, including in Saudi Arabia and other Persian Gulf nations. More than 14,000 of those troops have moved into the region since last May amid rising tensions with Iran.

The Pentagon has also sent Patriot air and missile defense batteries, B-52 bombers, a carrier strike group, armed Reaper drones and other engineering and support personnel.

Commanders are still rushing more Patriot antimissile batteries and other weaponry into Iraq, but are still a week or two away from having the additional defensive systems in place there, a senior U.S. military official said.

In recent weeks, as the threat from militia attacks and exposure to the coronavirus has increased, the United States and its European allies have been turning over smaller coalition bases to their Iraqi counterparts, and either moving to a handful of larger Iraqi bases or leaving the country altogether.

Speaking to reporters the day after the United States hit the five Khatib Hezbollah weapons depots this month, Gen. Kenneth F. McKenzie Jr., the head of Central Command, said that the threat from Iran and its proxies remained “very high” and added that tensions “have actually not gone down” since the United States killed General Suleimani.

While American officials say they have no clear evidence that Iran specifically directed the deadly attack on Camp Taji on March 11, they say that Kataib Hezbollah and the Iranian Quds Force coordinate closely.

General McKenzie said the United States was poised to strike additional militia weapons storage sites and other targets should attacks against American forces continue. He blamed Kataib Hezbollah for about a dozen rocket attacks against American troops based in Iraq in the past six months.

Mr. Esper suggested on Wednesday that the United States could respond further to the militia’s rocket attacks, but offered no details.

“You don’t get to kill or wound Americans and get away with it,” Mr. Esper said in an interview with NPR. “We will respond at the time, place and manner of our choosing. We will hold them accountable.”

Alissa J. Rubin contributed reporting from Baghdad.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/27/world/middleeast/pentagon-iran-iraq-militias-coronavirus.html?auth=login-email&login=email

EBB
Feb 15, 2005

the balloon going up right now would be a mercy

Eej
Jun 17, 2007

HEAVYARMS
https://twitter.com/jbouie/status/1243711273608589314?s=19

https://twitter.com/kyledcheney/status/1243664679479791622?s=19

bird cooch
Jan 19, 2007
Yeah except that line item veto was deemed unconstitutional.




Clarence Thomas was a big part of that.
Congress has the absolute power of the purse. So we're going to have to see what happens.

Also gently caress whoever wrote that tweet. What an obnoxious rear end in a top hat.

egyptian rat race
Jul 13, 2007

Lowtax Spine Fund 2019
Ultra Carp

bird cooch posted:

Yeah except that line item veto was deemed unconstitutional.




Clarence Thomas was a big part of that.
Congress has the absolute power of the purse. So we're going to have to see what happens.

Also gently caress whoever wrote that tweet. What an obnoxious rear end in a top hat.

Yeah but
https://twitter.com/Arr/status/1012397416429940736

PookBear
Nov 1, 2008

if you want me to vote for a rapist then please gargle my poo poo & cum hope this helps

AreWeDrunkYet
Jul 8, 2006

M_Gargantua posted:

I acknowledge that there is a difference. That doesn't mean Biden should just coast to the general without fighting for a majority of voters by courting them with policies they care about. Legalizing marijuana would be a great literal fig leaf to gain him a huge segment of voters. March is not the point to circle the wagons and ask every breathing adult to just accept a half assed canidate just because he's less worse.

For better or worse, the primaries are effectively over. If millennials and/or progressives had turned out for once we wouldn't be having this discussion.

Best Friends
Nov 4, 2011

Acebuckeye13 posted:



I mean for god's sake, if he was trying to protect Thomas (Which is a loving insane and extremely ahistoric accusation) he wouldn't have asked for the FBI investigation or held the hearings in the first place. And that didn't stop Thomas' nomination because there were 11 lovely dems, of whom Biden was not one, who decided to vote for him anyway.

Biden was pressured by other Dems to investigate and pressured to get the FBI involved. He then (by some accounts) used the FBI investigation as evidence for private belief Hill was lying. If this sounds familiar, it's exactly what Republicans did with Kavanaugh

quote:

The staffers working for Metzenbaum and Kennedy, however, took Hill’s allegations more seriously and were the first to reach out to her. They urged Biden’s staff to talk to Hill as well. But the effort languished in Biden’s office, where his staff followed his personal rules, which went beyond those of the Senate. The aide who investigated the claim, for instance, declined to call Hill, requiring that Hill instead initiate contact. Once they spoke, the aide declined to act on Hill’s allegation unless Hill consented to Biden’s office confronting Thomas directly and disclosing Hill’s name to him. Hill, who hadn’t asked for any of this, demurred. Biden’s aide concluded that Hill had merely wanted to “get it off her chest.” The public, meanwhile, heard nothing about it.

Talk of Hill’s allegations spread on the committee, however, and as it reached other Democratic senators, they worried they would be accused of a coverup. Democrats then pressed Biden to take action, which he did, asking the F.B.I. to get statements from Hill and Thomas.

quote:


Biden said in a later interview that he believed Hill from the start, but Thomas and his wife have said that Biden called them after reading the F.B.I. reports and assured them that there was “no merit” to Hill’s accusations. Further, Senator John Danforth, a Republican from Missouri who was Thomas’s primary sponsor, later said that Biden promised Thomas and his wife that, if Hill’s allegations leaked, he would be Thomas’s “most adamant and vigorous defender.”

https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/what-joe-biden-hasnt-owned-up-to-about-anita-hill





quote:

e: tl;dr he wasn't incompetent or some kind of republican plant, he was just an rear end in a top hat

Your argument literally is that he got played. That's not incompetence? You are too used to defending dems if that seems routine to you.

Old Boot
May 9, 2012



Buglord

Old Boot posted:

'Hey people like me who voted for Bernie in the primary: gently caress you for voting Bernie in the primary, I guess, IDK who I'm fighting against here but apparently it's you guys.'

EDIT: I guess some of us got the chance to vote Warren but she's a turncoat rear end in a top hat Republican now or something idk I can't keep up with the whitebro misery tourists and their purity tests anymore.

SimonCat
Aug 12, 2016

by Nyc_Tattoo
College Slice
Oh here's Joe Biden speaking in 2010 from Baghdad about the handover to the Iraqi government. Doesn't take much credit for it, keeps talking about how they are fulfilling the deal made by W. States that the Iraqi forces are more than capable of a handling any threat and that the Iraqi Special Forces are on par with any in the world.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kpff6B9yzZY

Casimir Radon
Aug 2, 2008


Hey McNally. How about you move BidenChat to it's own thread for a week or so, so that the main offenders can tire themselves out, and it stops clogging out everything else that's going on.

Hekk
Oct 12, 2012

'smeper fi

PookBear posted:

if you want me to vote for a rapist then please gargle my poo poo & cum hope this helps

Can you guys please shut the gently caress up with all this nonsense? Holy hell this loving thread has continually gone downhill and each day I keep opening it up thinking we've found the bottom and each day it keeps getting worse.

I have a lot of love in my heart for GIP because most of us are kindred dumb enlisted spirits. loving disagree and bust each others chops but save the hatred for those that really deserve it.

Acebuckeye13
Nov 2, 2010
Ultra Carp

Best Friends posted:

Your argument literally is that he got played.

how is this my argument

Vincent Van Goatse
Nov 8, 2006

Enjoy every sandwich.

Smellrose

Acebuckeye13 posted:

how is this my argument

Because he said so.

davecrazy
Nov 25, 2004

I'm an insufferable shitposter who does not deserve to root for such a good team. Also, this is what Matt Harvey thinks of me and my garbage posting.
https://twitter.com/santucci/status/1243708703972433927?s=21

Mr. Bad Guy
Jun 28, 2006

PookBear posted:

if you want me to vote for a rapist then please gargle my poo poo & cum hope this helps

bird cooch
Jan 19, 2007
You guys ever talk to real people out loud?

SimonCat
Aug 12, 2016

by Nyc_Tattoo
College Slice

Vincent Van Goatse posted:

We went through this already, you dolt.

I mean, here's Joe describing his healthcare plan on CNN. He looks pretty cogent and aware, he just thinks that he can get a Republican Senate to pass his plan while they wouldn't pass Bernie's. IMO, they wouldn't pass either.

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

FrozenVent
May 1, 2009

The Boeing 737-200QC is the undisputed workhorse of the skies.
Point of order.

Can we have a containment thread for the dem v dem poo poo? It makes me miss the cop chat.

Woofer
Mar 2, 2020

Trump might end the country but at least I’ll have the moral high ground for his second term.

Casimir Radon
Aug 2, 2008


FrozenVent posted:

Point of order.

Can we have a containment thread for the dem v dem poo poo? It makes me miss the cop chat.
BidenChat to a quarantine thread where they can all scream at each other about who hates Joe more, and accuse each other of being CENTRISTS.

Patware
Jan 3, 2005

let's all get some perspective with this

https://twitter.com/cefaankim/status/1243715077204856832?s=21

Vincent Van Goatse
Nov 8, 2006

Enjoy every sandwich.

Smellrose

FrozenVent posted:

Point of order.

Can we have a containment thread for the dem v dem poo poo? It makes me miss the cop chat.

It's a pity Kamala Harris dropped out so soon or we could have both. :v:

Eej
Jun 17, 2007

HEAVYARMS
https://twitter.com/AP/status/1243421505272217601

Thank god Trump said the name of a controlled substance and not methanol

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Casimir Radon
Aug 2, 2008


Eej posted:

Thank god Trump said the name of a controlled substance and not methanol
Or is it?

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