USPOL Oct: So this is how the thread dies: with a Star Wars derail

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Debate & Discussion > USPOL Oct: So this is how the thread dies: with a Star Wars derail

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fade5: May 31, 2012; by exmarx

Rhesus Pieces posted:

Holy poo poo these people are monsters and have absolutely no self-awareness at all.

Related, the Republican primary polls have been basically consistent for the last week-and-a-half:
Trump leads the pack, Carson's next, Fiorina's place fluctuates between tying with Carson and being with the rest of the (single digit) pack, and then you've got the rest of the high single-digit pack: Jeb! and Cruz, with new addition Rubio.

The next debate cuts off at 3%, and assuming polls stay consistent, those 6 are the only ones above 3%. So say hi to your top 6 Republican candidates: Trump, Carson, Fiorina, Cruz, Jeb!, and Rubio.

The only establishment guys among them are Jeb! and Rubio, and Jeb!, uh...

Jeb!'s got problems. Many, many problems.

So let's see if Rubio can stand up to Trump, or crumble into a sweating, dry-mouthed heap.

# ¿ Oct 1, 2015 17:23

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# ¿ May 11, 2024 09:08

fade5: May 31, 2012; by exmarx

computer parts posted:

I dunno, the Iraqis seem to have done a good job.

The ISIL ones we're bombing, the ISF who cut and run before just about every fight, or the Kurdish ones we're backing?

Cuz anyone resisting the US military would quickly end up in category one, and category one is not a fun place to be:

BI NOW GAY LATER posted:

You could hold out with some guerrilla tactics, sure. But effectively, if the US Military wanted to enact martial law, it wouldn't exactly be short of a crap shoot.

# ¿ Oct 1, 2015 22:20

fade5: May 31, 2012; by exmarx

computer parts posted:

I would assume the ones that existed during the US occupation.

So category one: the ones we're bombing.

I mean if guns are really that important, you can go to Syria/Iraq and have all the shooting and guns you want. You probably won't live very long but you can do it, just ask Caro.

fade5 fucked around with this message at 22:33 on Oct 1, 2015

# ¿ Oct 1, 2015 22:29

fade5: May 31, 2012; by exmarx

FourLeaf posted:

CNN has switched between saying 10 people are dead and 11 people are dead four times now

Schrodinger's Victim.

I hope that person end ups surviving though, seriously. :ohdear:

# ¿ Oct 2, 2015 00:42

fade5: May 31, 2012; by exmarx

Rhesus Pieces posted:

He actually loving doubled down on it when given a chance to clarify:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJp4WhIASVk

Is he purposely killing his campaign or is he really this stupid?

He really is that stupid.

# ¿ Oct 2, 2015 21:56

fade5: May 31, 2012; by exmarx

Rhesus Pieces posted:

lmao

How is Jeb so loving bad at this?

George W. Bush was the smart one.

It's still amazing every time I say it, but it's true.

# ¿ Oct 5, 2015 03:18

fade5: May 31, 2012; by exmarx

Tatum Girlparts posted:

I'm not doubting that we're dumb enough to allow it but...why do we let Afghan forces say 'yo airstrike now' like it's loving CoD?

I mean we're basically doing the same thing in northern Syria by letting the YPG call down airstrikes against ISIL:
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/10/world/middleeast/syria-turkey-islamic-state-kurdish-militia-ypg.html
There's US coordination, but the YPG are the ones giving the coordinates of what/where to hit.

Part of it is that we trust/assume the forces on the ground are at least somewhat competent, when in reality:

Rent-A-Cop posted:

Well theoretically the US would like them to become a real country that can be trusted to have an army without instantly descending into warlordism and atrocity. In reality Afghanistan is a country that couldn't organize an orgy in a whorehouse and there isn't any point in the foreseeable future when the Afghan government should be trusted to wipe their own asses let alone call in airstrikes.

We probably shouldn't trust them to call in dinner, much less an airstrike.

fade5 fucked around with this message at 17:45 on Oct 5, 2015

# ¿ Oct 5, 2015 17:36

fade5: May 31, 2012; by exmarx

euphronius posted:

What definition of intentional should I be using.

Some dude flying a plane is told to airstrike [x] coordinates in Afghanistan just like he's done tens of times before, to support local forces on the ground. He does this intentionally, but doesn't know he's striking a hospital.

"String him up for doing his job even though he wasn't aware he was attacking a hospital, and probably wouldn't have attacked if he had known!"

# ¿ Oct 5, 2015 20:08

fade5: May 31, 2012; by exmarx

Taeke posted:

So how difficult is it to verify a target? How does that work? I mean, it seems to me that in this day and age it's pretty inexcusable for any site capable of doing something like that not to have, hell I don't know, a tablet or whatever with a do not bomb list they could easily reference within a minute. I would kind of understand if it were a secret site because of security issues or something or that it's short term so it wasn't in the list yet because bureaucracy, but we're talking about a hospital here.

I have no idea how these things work though.

It's a different country, but here's how we call down airstrikes in Syria:

fade5 posted:

I mean we're basically doing the same thing in northern Syria by letting the YPG call down airstrikes against ISIL:
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/10/world/middleeast/syria-turkey-islamic-state-kurdish-militia-ypg.html
There's US coordination, but the YPG are the ones giving the coordinates of what/where to hit.

# ¿ Oct 5, 2015 21:55

fade5: May 31, 2012; by exmarx

euphronius posted:

It's not clear. The General said it was a mistake but that could mean many things. It is clear from the evidence we have in my opinion they knew -the military knew - it was bombing a hospital. What the mistake is - if it is not just after the fact PR- is an interesting question.

Regardless they loving blew up a hospital.

euph, you don't get to a blanket statement like "the military knew it was bombing a hospital" when it's not actually clear if the "military" (which one by the way: the Afghani Army, US special forces, the command and control for US special forces, the guys flying the planes) knew that the thing they were attacking was a hospital.

It's certainly possible one or more of the above did, but we don't loving know right now, it's your opinion that they knew, but that's not fact.

# ¿ Oct 6, 2015 20:54

fade5: May 31, 2012; by exmarx

euphronius posted:

As I said inferences from evidence is a normal thing to do.

You can certainly make inferences. The point I'm getting at is saying that "the military" knew something is kind of a useless statement, because "the military" is a gargantuan loving organization with hundreds of levels of bureaucracy. You want to say which specific parts of the military knew what and when, go right ahead.

# ¿ Oct 6, 2015 21:01

fade5: May 31, 2012; by exmarx

JT Jag posted:

Can someone summarize what has gone on in this thread over the last 2,500 posts because hell if I'm gonna read all that.

I already made that mistake once this week reading the entire RSF democrat thread in one sitting.

The US blew up a Doctors Without Borders hospital in Afghanistan.

Republicans said stupid poo poo.

Hillary came out against TPP, putting her to the left of Obama and in agreement with Bernie Sanders.

Republicans said more stupid poo poo, including Ben Carson saying this:
http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2015/10/08/ben_carson_tells_cnn_holocaust_could_have_been_different_if_jews_had_guns.html

quote:

And Carson�s views on gun control, laid out in his book A More Perfect Union, bubbled to the surface again on Thursday during an interview with CNN�s Wolf Blitzer, where he suggested that the outcome of the Holocaust would have been different if Jews had guns.

Russia's still blowing up poo poo in Syria.

And Boehner agreed to stay as Speaker of the House, because something odd/interesting/hosed up happened.

# ¿ Oct 9, 2015 05:10

fade5: May 31, 2012; by exmarx

Lyapunov Unstable posted:

The platinum coin thing being bullshit, I actually don't know whether there is an option.

*Joementum bat signal*

Joementum appears to have vanished, unconfirmed rumors are that it's related to Jeb!'s piss-poor polling and Trump's continued lead in the polls, something about "an impossibility". :v:

Seriously though, Joementum hasn't posted for a while for whatever reason.

# ¿ Oct 9, 2015 05:31

fade5: May 31, 2012; by exmarx

How about some more interesting gun-chat:
http://www.cnn.com/2015/10/12/politics/syria-rebel-groups-ammunition-50-tons/
http://uk.reuters.com/article/2015/10/12/uk-mideast-crisis-syria-idUKKCN0S506M20151012

quote:

U.S. military cargo planes gave 50 tons of ammunition to rebel groups overnight in northern Syria, using an air drop of 112 pallets as the first step in the Obama Administration's urgent effort to find new ways to support those groups.

Details of the air mission over Syria were confirmed by a U.S. official not authorized to speak publicly because the details have not yet been formally announced.

C-17s, accompanied by fighter escort aircraft, dropped small arms ammunition and other items like hand grenades in Hasakah province in northern Syria to a coalition of rebels groups vetted by the US, known as the Syrian Arab Coalition.

All pallets successfully were recovered by friendly forces, a U.S. official said.

The US dropped 50 tons of ammunition to the Syrian Arab Coalition/Syrian Democratic Forces aka the new alliance of Kurdish YPG/YPJ fighters, FSA groups who are part of YPG-FSA Euphrates Volcano, Assyrian Christian groups, local anti-ISIL Arab Bedouin tribes like the Shammar, and Jaysh al-Thuwar who are a mixture of Kurdish groups like Jabhat al-Akrad and groups we used to arm with TOWs like the Hazzm movement and company (before Jabhat al-Nusra attacked Hazzm).

Say hi to our new strategy in Syria: "gently caress the Train and Equip program aka trying to build an army from scratch, we're just going to back the anti-ISIL group that already exists". This continues the recent US direction of "gently caress Turkey/Erdogan, back the YPG instead".

fade5 fucked around with this message at 20:02 on Oct 12, 2015

# ¿ Oct 12, 2015 19:58

fade5: May 31, 2012; by exmarx

Mr Interweb posted:

Has this been posted?

Bernie gonna Bernie, right?

Nope!

This was said by The RNC.

How in the...

My brain just short-circuited, there is no goddamn way the Republicans are attacking Hillary on Iraq, right?

:irony:

X 600,000 (dead Iraqis)

# ¿ Oct 13, 2015 20:49

fade5: May 31, 2012; by exmarx

Fried Chicken posted:

"Obama's economy", Jeb Bush wins in a landslide

I mean I said it up thread, but again, the insanity of the past 15 years has made them overwhelmingly the dominant political party of this country

Actually defaulting would make the Republican money guys jump ship from the Republicans to the only sane party left, the Democrats.

It's all fun and games until you actually wipe out those billions stashed away and wreck the world economy, then it's not fun at all because it hurts your bottom line, and loving hard too.

# ¿ Oct 13, 2015 21:06

fade5: May 31, 2012; by exmarx

Zeroisanumber posted:

This was probably too easy...

I think Democratic Socialist came up at the very start of the debate.

Ferdinand the Bull posted:

Does anyone else think that Hillary skidded and burnt out in the final words of the debate when speaking after Bernie?

All she had to do is say that money was a corrupt influence in politics, just make one non-vague reference to any issue, and she failed to do so.

Bernie Sanders rocked it. I'm interested to see what happens to his campaign after tonight.

I think all that's really gonna come out of this debate is Sanders saying "enough with the drat emails" and Chafee charging right on ahead with the emails anyway, leading to:
Anderson Cooper: "Secretary Clinton do you want to respond?"

Hillary Clinton: "No." :vince:

It's the sequel of "Please Proceed, Governor".

# ¿ Oct 14, 2015 05:16

fade5: May 31, 2012; by exmarx

C2C - 2.0 posted:

I dunno, she name-dropped Obama enough that I began to believe she was trying very hard to create that association.

Also, Webb: in addition to acting like a ninny about equal time, why did he keep bringing up Vietnam?

He served in Vietnam (hence the grenade line at the end), and he's a warhawk Blue Dog.

# ¿ Oct 14, 2015 05:22

fade5: May 31, 2012; by exmarx

TheRamblingSoul posted:

Anyone got a link or summary of what Chafee did to gaffe so badly for those who didn't watch the debate?

In addition to the horror show discussed above, Chafee was an unwitting part of the best part of the debate: after Anderson Cooper brought up Hillary's email thing, Bernie went in defense of Clinton and said "enough with the drat emails", and then Chafee went charging on ahead with the emails anyway, and set himself up for Hillary to put his head on a loving pike with one single word:

Anderson Cooper: "Secretary Clinton do you want to respond?"

Hillary Clinton: "No." :vince:

In video form:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9P5JTQLdPLA
Part one
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f06slMOBfMg
Part two

fade5 fucked around with this message at 05:53 on Oct 14, 2015

# ¿ Oct 14, 2015 05:49

fade5: May 31, 2012; by exmarx

James Garfield posted:

Chafee: "anyway, it was 35 to -17.2"

Is there a decision on why he's running yet? I can understand O'Malley (cabinet), Webb (Reagan) and Lessig (Lessig) but does Chafee expect to get anything out of it?

The metric system, peace, and apparently the desire to get clowned hard on national/international TV.

# ¿ Oct 14, 2015 06:16

fade5: May 31, 2012; by exmarx

FAUXTON posted:

In a Bernie Sanders administration we wouldn't be bombing/invading any Mideastern countries.

Mainly because we'd be arming and bankrolling Israel to self-defend Arab cities into rubble on a larger scale, but hey no American boots on the ground or birds in the air.

Correction: Bernie mentioned more than once in the debate that he supported Kosovo and Afghanistan, and he supports airstrikes on ISIL (and :supaburn:

drones

).

Chafee's the peace guy, Bernie has basically got Bill Clinton's foreign policy.

# ¿ Oct 14, 2015 20:59

fade5: May 31, 2012; by exmarx

greatn posted:

I like when they went with Webb and were like "Webb,are YOU ok with giving healthcare to undocumented immigrants?" and he is silent for a moment and the camera zooms in waiting for him to say something bad and then he just goes "Yeah sure, whatever, that's fine, yeah."

This was the one of the few things that made me think "oh that's why he hasn't jumped ship to the Republicans".

Webb is to the right on a lot of stuff, but considering ~~them durn illegals~~ undocumented immigrants to actually be human and deserving of health care makes him definitely out of step with the hosed up xenophobia of the Republicans.

fade5 fucked around with this message at 04:08 on Oct 15, 2015

# ¿ Oct 15, 2015 03:26

fade5: May 31, 2012; by exmarx

Fried Chicken posted:

Carson joins Trump, sends joint letter threatening debate boycott

Well that escalated quickly

Trump is amazing, this could escalate to insane levels incredibly quickly if it isn't resolved fast. :getin:

pathetic little tramp posted:

Trump: YOU GIVE ME OPENING REMARKS OR I DON'T SHOW, END OF STORY.

Jeb:

Gee guys, if you think I could be there, that'd be swell and I'd sure like to say something, but I don't have to if you think that's okay.

How is Jeb so so so bad.

Low energy as hell.

# ¿ Oct 15, 2015 20:19

fade5: May 31, 2012; by exmarx

UberJew posted:

paging fade5 to the thread to answer this in detail

in the meantime, it's loving HORRIFYING

I'll just borrow a post by DarkCrawler that sums up the Middle East right now pretty drat good:

DarkCrawler posted:

Ok, so thus far we have:

Libya: Actually three different countries all at war with all the moment
Egypt: A brutal military dictatorship that is starting to look worse then anything before that
Yemen: The new civil war on the block, except the loving Gulf dictatorships are sending other things then money and guns there so that's a whole new layer of awful
Iraq: Actually three different countries at the moment but only one that actually recognizes that is the only one that nobody recognizes. Somehow not the worst Iraq has been in the 21st century.
Bahrain: What revolution?
Lebanon: Oh, yeah, we didn't have enough refugees to begin with. No yeah, come in, its not like there is a loving government to do anything about it
Turkey: Alarmingly starting to resemble Germany in '38, complete with a total megalomaniac mustached lunatic in charge
Iran: Straight up taking on the Arab world by itself on multiple fronts and at least stalemating. While having been hamstrung by some of the most massive sanctions a country has ever faced.
Kurds: BRING IT
Islamic State: Yup, an actual 21st century caliphate. That's how crazy this all is.
Syria:

Tunisia: "What the gently caress did we start?"

Arab Winter is loving cold

Now with:
-50% more Putin in Syria
-The Gulf Countries/Turkey giving the Syrian rebels (including the al-Nusra front/literal al-Qaeda) a free-for-all on TOWs (aka Wire-Guided Anti-Tank Missiles)
-The US knowingly blowing up a MSF hospital in Afghanistan
-Troops staying in Afghanistan for the foreseeable future
-Continued violence and unrest in Turkey between the Turkish forces and the PKK
-A potential Kurdish Civil war in Iraqi Kurdistan
-The US openly arming a socialist/communist-linked group while spitting in Erdogan's face, a stunning reversal of the normal US Middle East policy

So how do you think it's going? :v:

fade5 fucked around with this message at 22:16 on Oct 15, 2015

# ¿ Oct 15, 2015 22:07

fade5: May 31, 2012; by exmarx

Now I want you to take all of the Middle East stuff I posted above, think about it for a minute, then imagine the poor, poor advisers who would be tasked on trying to explain all of that insanity to President Donald Trump, President Ben Carson, or President Carly Fiorina.

Now after thinking about that, I want you to think about the fact that thanks to the US Congress refusing to pass a new AUMF, the old AUMF would give President Donald Trump, President Ben Carson, or President Carly Fiorina carte blanche to do whatever the gently caress they felt like doing in the Middle East to deal with all of the above, up to and including starting a shooting war with Putin/Russia over Syria.

But nah, there's no difference between the two parties.

fade5 fucked around with this message at 22:20 on Oct 15, 2015

# ¿ Oct 15, 2015 22:15

fade5: May 31, 2012; by exmarx

Epic High Five posted:

What's a moderate Republican? I thought those were extinct

Jim Webb.

# ¿ Oct 15, 2015 23:52

fade5: May 31, 2012; by exmarx

Mr Interweb posted:

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/benghazi-chairman-trey-gowdy-to-gop-colleagues-shut-up/

We've had 7 prior committees to allegedly investigate the death of Amb. Stevens, and for some reason no one bothered to request any e-mails that were sent by said Ambassador until now?

I'd be willing to bet money that almost all of these fuckers don't even know that we've caught the guys responsible, or that the Libyans tried to help the Ambassador get to safely after the attack:

quote:

Some of the Libyans who entered the compound apparently tried to rescue Stevens after they found him lying alone on the floor in a dark smoke-filled room with a locked door accessible only by a window. A group of men pulled him out of the room through the window, and then placed him on the courtyard's stone tile floor. They were unaware of his identity. Abdel-Qader Fadl, a freelance photographer who was with the Libyans at the scene, told the Associated Press that Stevens was unconscious and "maybe moved his head, but only once." The crowd cheered "Allāhu Akbar" when Stevens was found to be alive though it is unclear whether it was in response to Stevens being found alive. Ahmed Shams, a 22-year-old arts students who was among the Libyans, told the Associated Press that they were happy when they found Stevens alive and tried to rescue him but there were no security or any ambulances available. A freelance videographer, Fahd al-Bakoush, later published a video showing Libyans trying to extract the ambassador from a smoke-filled room, where he was found unconscious. According to al-Bakoush, the Libyans saw he was alive and breathing, his eyelids flickering. Though they took him to be a foreigner, no one recognized him as Stevens.

At around 1 am, he was rushed to the Benghazi Medical Center, a hospital controlled by the Ansar Al-Sharia militia, in a private car as there was no ambulance to carry him.

At the hospital, Stevens was administered CPR for 90 minutes by Dr. Ziad Abu Zeid. According to Abu Zeid, Stevens died from asphyxiation caused by smoke inhalation, and that Stevens had no other injuries. The doctor said he believed that officers from the Libyan Interior Ministry transported the body to the airport and into United States custody. State Department officials said they do not know who took Stevens to the hospital or transported the body to the airport and into U.S. custody.

Fast forward about a year:

quote:

On August 6, 2013, it was reported that the U.S. had filed criminal charges against several individuals, including militia leader Ahmed Abu Khattala, for alleged involvement in the attacks. Khattala has been described by Libyan and U.S. officials as the Benghazi leader of Ansar al-Sharia, which was listed in January 2014 by the U.S. Department of State as a terror organization. On the weekend of June 14, 2014, U.S. Army special operations forces, in coordination with the FBI, captured Khattala in Libya.

Congratulations, if you read all of this then you now know more about the Benghazi attack then any of the Benghazi "investigation" congressional meetings/groups.

# ¿ Oct 19, 2015 02:34

fade5: May 31, 2012; by exmarx

ComradeCosmobot posted:

Clock Kid is moving to Qatar. Good going, conservatives! You sure revealed the truth about this dastardly terrorist in training! by basically terrorizing him and his family into it

Woo, brain drain of the US continues on schedule.

Seriously that's kinda sad, good luck to the family and hopefully Qatar stays stable and doesn't end up having issues in the future like Syria/Iraq/Yemen(/Turkey/Somalia/Afghanistan).

fade5 fucked around with this message at 23:41 on Oct 20, 2015

# ¿ Oct 20, 2015 23:38

fade5: May 31, 2012; by exmarx

Thump! posted:

I'm whiter than milk.

You're good to go.

But really though, we won't default. The last time we got close a bunch of the House reps started getting calls from the huge money billionaire guys who basically said "Hey you stupid fuckers this could actually seriously gently caress everything up bad, stop playing around already" and then magically the crisis resolved fairly quickly.

# ¿ Oct 21, 2015 02:26

fade5: May 31, 2012; by exmarx

blue squares posted:

if we default does Fallout 4 still come out a week later?

marshmonkey posted:

If we default we get to play Fallout IRL.

Russia even made a preview of what it might look like:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Q60yBQG8XI
_{(As a warning, this is Syria footage, and it's depressing as hell.)}

But yeah, playing with the debt limit is a really loving bad idea, cuz it could lead to Greece-style hosed up-ness in the US if it got really bad.

fade5 fucked around with this message at 02:44 on Oct 21, 2015

# ¿ Oct 21, 2015 02:41

fade5: May 31, 2012; by exmarx

LORD OF BUTT posted:

HFC = House Freedom Caucus = Raiders of the Tortilla Coast = insane teabaggers who love death

I think they're also called the suicide caucus, correct?

Raskolnikov38 posted:

Oh, yeah the debt limit will get raised. It might not get raised until a minute before midnight but it'll be raised.

If I recall right, the last time it got close some Republicans started getting phone calls from a few of their billionaire backers saying "Okay fuckers the fun's over, rase the debt limit now because we do not want loving economic Armageddon, tell the crazies it's time to get back to reality".

fade5 fucked around with this message at 01:45 on Oct 22, 2015

# ¿ Oct 22, 2015 01:42

fade5: May 31, 2012; by exmarx

Kaal posted:

Almost certainly not true. If the GOP pushes the country over the cliff, we'll have to spend months or years rebuilding depending on the scale of the fallout. If a sitting president just seized power and broke the constitution over his knee, the nation would never recover (nor would the Democratic Party).

A default could send us in Greece-style hosed up-ness, and cause a worldwide recession as hard as 1929 if not harder.

So try "decades" of rebuilding; we cheated last time with WW2.

# ¿ Oct 22, 2015 02:05

fade5: May 31, 2012; by exmarx

Couple pages back, but it a relevant topic:

MariusLecter posted:

So with an Army man dead in a hostage rescue mission in Iraq, will this lead to more Benghazi style select committees?

Republicans don't actually care about what happens in other countries, just if they can attack Democrats over it. So no, they won't do any committees, especially after how bad the last one went.

But on the topic of the rescue itself, even ISIL can't spin this as anything other than a defeat for them:

Darkman Fanpage posted:

ISIS says "Nu-uh! It was a poopy bad raid!" about the raid on one of their prisons.

http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/isis-terror/isis-hostage-rescue-militants-call-deadly-u-s-raid-failure-n449826

quote:

ISIS dismissed as a failure the U.S. and Kurdish raid that rescued dozens of hostages who officials said were about to be slaughtered by the militant group in northeastern Iraq. The group's statement also called it a cowardly operation.
--
American military officials said they responded to a request from the Kurdish regional government in Iraq, which had learned that the hostages faced "imminent mass execution," perhaps within hours.

"Mass graves were already dug," according to a senior U.S. military official with direct knowledge of the raid.

ISIS said that three of its militants died during the raid, according to a translation of the statement by security firm and NBC News intelligence consultant Flashpoint.

According to the Pentagon, ISIS fighters were killed in the overnight raid, and five others were handed over to Kurdish authorities.

The commandos rounded up 75 hostages, a group that included more than 20 members of the Iraqi security forces. Fifty of the hostages were civilians and another five were members of ISIS who were being held prisoner by their colleagues, a senior defense official told NBC News.

"We commend and congratulate the brave individuals who participated in this successful operation that saved many lives, despite the casualty," Gen. Lloyd Austin, commander of U.S. Central Command, said in a statement.

70 hostages rescued (the mass grave was literally already dug for their bodies), at least 3 ISIL fighters dead, 5 ISIL prisoners for the Kurds, and only 1 US casualty from the operation. It's sad that the guy got killed, but there's no question ISIL would have loving murdered those 70 people without US/Kurdish rescue.

fade5 fucked around with this message at 21:59 on Oct 23, 2015

# ¿ Oct 23, 2015 21:49

fade5: May 31, 2012; by exmarx

MariusLecter posted:

What's the story on some of those hostages being ISIS people accused of being spies?

Exactly what it sounds like, they're (at least nominally) ISIL members who ISIL accused of being "double agents" aka posing as ISIL members.

They might be local anti-ISIL guerrilla forces and/or secretly affiliated with the Kurdish Peshmerga forces, Iraqi Security Forces, Assyrian Christian forces, or any other anti-ISIL group.

Or they might be regular civilians jailed by ISIL for whatever reason, or even actual ISIL fighters jailed by some paranoid higher-up in ISIL's organization.

# ¿ Oct 23, 2015 22:07

fade5: May 31, 2012; by exmarx

MariusLecter posted:

And the chances of that becoming a talking point?

Negative infinity.

This is like a textbook action movie story: "We went in with the Kurds and hosed ISIL's poo poo up, saved a bunch of hostages in a daring rescue at the last second, and got out successfully with only one casualty, may he rest in peace."

America loving loves stories like that, and we generally think of the Kurds as "the good guys" so this is about as close to a clear-cut "good guys vs bad guys" story as you can get from the Middle East.

I mean if the Republicans want to attack Obama over a successful joint US-Peshmerga raid when ISIL had literally already dug the loving mass grave for the hostages then they can go ahead and try. Hell, it would backfire so hard I'd almost be happy if they'd do so, and make themselves look even dumber than the Benghazi stuff.

fade5 fucked around with this message at 22:26 on Oct 23, 2015

# ¿ Oct 23, 2015 22:22

fade5: May 31, 2012; by exmarx

Internet Kraken posted:

I thought maybe being a neurosurgeon, healthcare would be the one thing Carson isn't completely out of his mind on. I guess you can be technically skilled on that field without understanding the economics and social factors that play into it though.

This same expectation was why my dad and I though Carson would eviscerate Trump on Trump's Anti-Vaxx comments during the Republican debate. When Carson gave some mealy-mouthed equivocation it was really shocking, although in hindsight:

Mr Interweb posted:

Yeah it's kinda like how I thought someone going to medical school would have to believe in evolution. Nope.

It probably shouldn't have been.

# ¿ Oct 26, 2015 01:38

fade5: May 31, 2012; by exmarx

KingFisher posted:

What would happen to those of you on expensive meds before they existed? Or if you lived somewhere they didn't exist?

You die. Look at Africa and south-east Asia for general miserable examples like Tuberculosis, Malaria, and HIV/AIDS:

quote:

HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis (TB) and malaria are preventable and treatable diseases that disproportionately affect the world�s poor. Sub-Saharan Africa is the hardest hit region, accounting for 90% of malaria deaths, more than 70% of all people living with HIV and nearly one-third of all TB cases.

We can treat Tuberculosis and Malaria fairly easily, and yet:

quote:

In 2012 there were an estimated 627,000 malaria deaths worldwide in 2012 (uncertainty interval, 473,000�789,000).

In 2013, there were an estimated 584,000 malaria deaths (with an uncertainty range of 367,000 to 755,000).

So again, if you need expensive meds and you can't get them, you loving die. It's miserable and sad to think about.

All the "post-apocalyptic" poo poo conservative survivalists love to fantasize about sounds fun in their minds, versus the very un-fun reality where you're making GBS threads out blood and parasites every night and trying to sleep while dealing with a wet, hacking cough and an oozing rash over most of your body.

Fun, huh? :zombie:

fade5 fucked around with this message at 02:50 on Oct 26, 2015

# ¿ Oct 26, 2015 02:44

fade5: May 31, 2012; by exmarx

pathetic little tramp posted:

The New York Public Library has digitised all their copies of the Green Book:

http://digitalcollections.nypl.org/collections/the-green-book#/?tab=about&scroll=6

These were travel guides for black people that allowed them to navigate the country while avoiding towns where they would be lynched after dark.

Here on page 116, we have a listing of safe places you can spend the night in West Virginia:

http://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/5ae34320-942e-0132-7630-58d385a7bbd0#/?uuid=655e5570-942e-0132-3d17-58d385a7bbd0

Clarksburg has a hotel named Mrs. Ruby Thomas Lodgings? That's an odd name for a hotel, right? Because there were actually no hotels that served [edited to add]: black* people in Clarksburg, so this is literally the address of someone who lists their home as a place to spend the evening.

*Kind of an important adjective I forgot here.

Huh, very interesting.

Unrelated, when you said "The Green Book" I thought you meant this Green Book.

Nelson Mandingo posted:

Err why would you cut this kind of deal with terrorists? I don't get it. This is an insanely bad deal.

Bob Ojeda posted:

What the gently caress else are you going to do?

e: this is a serious question

Hold out until they cave over the debt limit like they did last time. (Read: until the billionaires start making GBS threads their pants over the idea of a default.)

Comedy answer: actually treat them like terrorists.

fade5 fucked around with this message at 00:40 on Oct 27, 2015

# ¿ Oct 26, 2015 23:58

fade5: May 31, 2012; by exmarx

Luigi Thirty posted:

The Senate is opening a hearing into Obummer literally pulling the trigger on that one guy who died saving 70 people from an ISIS death camp.

They're actually loving doing it, holy poo poo I can't believe it. Since this is now a relevant political issue (somehow), have a 15 minute video full of interviews with the hostages/prisoners rescued from that joint US-Peshmerga raid on Hawija:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hMFDjUUwjP8
Turn on the youtube English subtitles for the English translation.

As a warning holy loving poo poo the stuff they talk about is Grade A+ disturbing; make sure you don't have anything important to do for about an hour after you watch the video. :gonk:

# ¿ Oct 27, 2015 20:25

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# ¿ May 11, 2024 09:08

fade5: May 31, 2012; by exmarx

Joementum posted:

Presumably, President McCain would have followed Truman's lead and nuked the hostage camp.

I mean after we rescued all the hostages/prisoners from the prison that's basically what we did:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eBJZmI1O2T4

# ¿ Oct 27, 2015 20:38

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Debate & Discussion > USPOL Oct: So this is how the thread dies: with a Star Wars derail

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