USPOL Nov: I would've preferred Huckabee have said nothing at all

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Debate & Discussion > USPOL Nov: I would've preferred Huckabee have said nothing at all

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fade5: May 31, 2012; by exmarx

zoux posted:

How many times a day do you think Jeb mutters "It wasn't supposed to be like this" under his breath?

At this rate it's probably a constant refrain.

Also, a crosspost:

Jagchosis posted:

btw jeb! bush said he had never seen the slides that got leaked until the press reported them lol

I can't decide if it's sadder if this is true, or sadder if Jeb! is just transparently lying for whatever dumb reason.

Each scenario is sadder than the other one, it's the infinite sadness of Jeb!

# ¿ Nov 2, 2015 21:02

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# ¿ May 14, 2024 15:21

fade5: May 31, 2012; by exmarx

Rhesus Pieces posted:

He just looks drained now. Every photo of him lately has a middle-distance stare and a fake smile like someone's jamming a gun into his back.

Does anyone think he's gonna stick with this if he starts polling in Scott Walker territory and gets demoted to the kiddie debate?

I think a kiddie table debate might be the last straw that would get Jeb! to finally drop out.

It's one thing to be in the middle of the pack behind Trump/Carson and still be at the main debates, it's another to be in the lowest dregs with Bobby Jindal, Rick Santorum, and Lindsey "I literally won a debate by showing up half drunk, making jokes, and talking about bombing people a lot" Graham.

# ¿ Nov 2, 2015 21:15

fade5: May 31, 2012; by exmarx

Combed Thunderclap posted:

I gotcha: a Hispanic student protestor was assaulted during a Trump rally just a week ago.

EDIT: Here's a link to the full video.

Wait that's not the event I was thinking of:
http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2015/08/20/donald_trump_boston_immigrant_attack_beaten_homeless_hispanic_man_should.html

quote:

Two Boston brothers were arrested early Wednesday and accused of severely beating a homeless Hispanic man on their way home from a Red Sox game; police say one of them cited Donald Trump's positions on immigration to justify the attack. From the Boston Globe:

Police said Scott Leader, 38, told them it was OK to assault the man because he was Hispanic and homeless.

�Donald Trump was right, all these illegals need to be deported,� he allegedly told the police.

So it's happened at least twice. Fun, huh? :smithicide:

# ¿ Nov 2, 2015 23:49

fade5: May 31, 2012; by exmarx

Luigi Thirty posted:

A confederate flag supporter bombed a Wal-Mart's vestibule in Tupelo.

For as much as these guys claim to hate the Middle East, they sure seem to want America to feel like the Middle East, bombings and all.

# ¿ Nov 3, 2015 01:31

fade5: May 31, 2012; by exmarx

DemeaninDemon posted:

I miss the spergin amergin.

Hope he didn't stare too deeply into the abyss.

I think he got bored with trolling after a while.

# ¿ Nov 3, 2015 02:22

fade5: May 31, 2012; by exmarx

Boon posted:

Isn't Jindal also very unpopular? Something to do with utterly destroying the state's economic stability?

Learned from the kiddie table debate:

Before Bobby Jindal became Governor, Louisiana had a budget surplus. They're now in the hole $1.6 Billion dollars.

Gosh that sounds like a time in US history, I just can't put my finger on it. Something about 1999-2000, maybe? Hmm, what happened after 2000?

# ¿ Nov 3, 2015 02:43

fade5: May 31, 2012; by exmarx

Early voted last week, so no worrying about voting today.

Fried Chicken posted:

Counterpoint: The Singularity

Singularity is just the Rapture for people who aren't Christian, so same difference.

# ¿ Nov 3, 2015 18:20

fade5: May 31, 2012; by exmarx

Joementum posted:

Quote of the week, "We're a country now where you can basically lie and get away with it." ~ Jeb!

SubponticatePoster posted:

^^^ Joe please stop posting poo poo like this, it causes my brain to short out.

My brain likewise just shorted out.

Seriously after his brother invaded Iraq over fake WMD's how does Jeb! have the loving balls to say something like that?

# ¿ Nov 4, 2015 01:05

fade5: May 31, 2012; by exmarx

Zoran posted:

Because the incumbent is a Democrat and the winner is a Tea Partier who wants to drug-test Medicare recipients and may end up destroying the state healthcare exchange for no reason other than that he wants to.

Also Kentucky was basically the last hold of the southern/blue dog Democrats (West Virginia excepted) so this means the realignment of the parties is basically complete. :smith:

# ¿ Nov 4, 2015 02:49

fade5: May 31, 2012; by exmarx

hangedman1984 posted:

Guys, I just found out my roommate voted for the fark guy

Punch him in the face. Repeatedly.

# ¿ Nov 4, 2015 03:24

fade5: May 31, 2012; by exmarx

Fix posted:

Gonna miss Lindsay Graham at the kids' table debate, but replacing him with Huckabee and Christie will certainly make it more entertaining.

Sober Lindsey, maybe.

Half-drunk Lindsey, not a chance. Half-drunk Lindsey Graham is a national treasure and should be at every single Kiddie Table debate.

# ¿ Nov 6, 2015 02:28

fade5: May 31, 2012; by exmarx

If it helps for a comparison, here are the results from Virginia's 2013 elections. You'd expect the D vs R totals to be roughly similar in these three races but they weren't, they changed based on the electorate's views of the candidates.:

Virginia gubernatorial election, 2013
Democratic Terry McAuliffe 1,069,859 47.75%
Republican Ken Cuccinelli 1,013,354 45.23%
Libertarian Robert Sarvis 146,084 6.52%

Terry McAuliffe beat Ken Cuccinelli by 56,505 votes, because Ken Cuccinelli was an insane conservative Tea Party rear end in a top hat. It takes skill to lose to Terry McAuliffe aka a guy who could be described as "every slimy used car salesman ever", and who did an interview while wearing a Puerto Rican poo poo and brandishing a bottle of rum: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rPoWWzpqwds

But noted Clinton bag man Terry McAuliffe is now the Governor of Virginia, and by all accounts seems to be doing a good job.

--
Virginia lieutenant gubernatorial election, 2013
Democratic Ralph Northam 1,213,155 55.12%
Republican E.W. Jackson 980,257 44.54%

Ralph Northam beat E.W. Jackson by 232,898 votes, because well...

quote:

In an October 2012 op-ed essay in The Washington Times, Jackson wrote:

Democrats now have fully embraced an abortion policy that amounts to infanticide. They have also made the lesbian-homosexual-bisexual-transgender agenda their vision for America. How have they managed to hold on to black Christians in spite of an agenda worthy of the Antichrist? They have shown a ruthless willingness to frighten black voters with outright lies about the plans of conservatives and Republicans. Vice President Joseph R. Biden�s 'they gonna put y�all back in chains' was not a gaffe. It is part of the Democrats� strategy of using fear to keep blacks as a captive audience.

E.W. Jackson is a completely bugfuck insane evangelical, who has said stuff crazier than Carson's and Huckabee's pure evangelical insanity. :stare:

--
Virginia Attorney General election, 2013
Democratic Mark Herring 1,105,045 49.91%
Republican Mark Obenshain 1,104,138 49.87%
Mark Herring won by just 907 votes, because his opponent wasn't as visibly insane as Ken Cuccinelli or E.W. Jackson was.

Assuming straight-ticket voting doesn't work all the time, it sometimes really depends on who a candidate is, not just their political affiliation.

fade5 fucked around with this message at 00:00 on Nov 9, 2015

# ¿ Nov 8, 2015 23:54

fade5: May 31, 2012; by exmarx

Fried Chicken posted:

In what probably qualifies for self harm, I ended up volunteering for a 2016 race before the results for 2015 were even in. (There will be a primary fight to take on Susan Brooks, so Election Day is in May as far as it matters for us right now)

Where I'm going with this is that I'm still overworked so can someone give me a tl dr for the new title?

US Pol Nov: Murdering Baby Hitler

or

US Pol Nov: Jeb! would "fix" baby Hitler

# ¿ Nov 10, 2015 00:05

fade5: May 31, 2012; by exmarx

Artificer posted:

I don't suppose Supreme Courts can overturn its own decisions, huh.

Goddammit.

The do indeed overturn their own decision, look at Plessy vs Ferguson (Separate but Equal) in 1896 getting overturned by Brown vs Board of Education (1954).

Also note that sometimes that poo poo takes a very, very long time.

# ¿ Nov 13, 2015 22:43

fade5: May 31, 2012; by exmarx

Talmonis posted:

ISIL related? If so, this really just emboldens right-wing nationalists to close their borders to muslim immigrants and refugees. lovely stuff.

Apparently ISIL twitter is blowing up right now, and ISIL just got their asses handed to them with Sinjar, Al Hawl, and Jihadi John being killed, so it's looking probable that it's ISIL-related.

(ISIL did a super deadly suicide attack on Kobani after they lost Tal Abyad; they tend to be sore losers.)

# ¿ Nov 13, 2015 22:49

fade5: May 31, 2012; by exmarx

FlamingLiberal posted:

So two things here:

1. It's pretty funny that these states are saying this when they have no say over refugees. The Feds handle where people actually go. So this is only some gross cheap political scoring.

2. Obama actually did send a Declaration of War bill against ISIS to Congress earlier this year, but it was voted down by Republicans who said it was not needed since he is already authorized to attack them based on the 2001 AUMF that has been used to justify all of the drone strikes and other things barely related to Al Qaeda over the last 14 years.

That second one is absolutely hilarious and insane. Republicans are always complaining about Obama having too much power, but when they had the opportunity to limit the executive branch they just gave him a blank check, even though Obama himself has said he's not sure if the 2001 AUMF covers attacking ISIL.

Spiritus Nox posted:

https://www.tedcruz.org/news/cruz-america-must-stand-with-our-allies-against-the-scourge-of-radical-islamic-terrorism/

Don't think this has been shared yet - Cruz is criticizing Obama for being too careful not to blow up civilians.

Emphasis mine.

This is like the whole goddamn reason the stuff we're currently doing is working better than 2003 Iraq, because we don't just go in and blow up everything that moves, civilians be damned.

# ¿ Nov 16, 2015 21:55

fade5: May 31, 2012; by exmarx

Antti posted:

Didn't Bin Laden release a tape as an October surprise in 2004?

It's simultaneously depressing and awe-inspiring to see how a bunch of men with guns can make grown men in charge of the most powerful country in the world quake in their boots.

They can make a bunch of powerless idiots who jump at the shadow of the word "Muslim" terrified, sure. Luckily, Obama is not one of those people.

Filthy Hans posted:

Nah, the Huckster already took that position in the first debate (~"The job of the military is to kill people and break stuff") so if anything, Cruz is just catching up

There's also this:
http://time.com/3999799/mike-huckabee-abortion-rape/

quote:

GOP presidential candidate and former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee said that he supports the decision to deny an abortion to a 10-year-old rape victim in Paraguay.

�I wouldn�t pretend it�s anything other than a terrible tragedy, But let�s not compound the tragedy by taking yet another life,� he said in an interview with Dana Bash on CNN�s State of the Union Sunday.

The victim, an unidentified girl in Paraguay, was raped by her stepfather in a case that has attracted attention worldwide. Laws in the South American country prevented the girl from receiving an abortion.

It would take something pretty bad to dislodge Huckabee after that.

# ¿ Nov 16, 2015 23:08

fade5: May 31, 2012; by exmarx

Dapper_Swindler posted:

Well its saudi arabia and toyota now.

Everybody drives Toyotas, even the Kurds.

So it's just Saudi Arabia. :v:

# ¿ Nov 16, 2015 23:23

fade5: May 31, 2012; by exmarx

Luigi Thirty posted:

He's so close to being right I can taste it, just needs the tiniest bit of introspection.

# ¿ Nov 16, 2015 23:37

fade5: May 31, 2012; by exmarx

Thump! posted:

lol

What the gently caress even is the point of having a complete triad now? To keep bomber pilots hopeful of doing something more than cargo duty?

Seriously, what delivery capabilities of a nuclear payload does a B-52 provide that an ICBM or SRBM off a sub not already provide? Not even touching on the ludicrousness of being in a nuclear weapons race with loving no one but ourselves.

There's gonna be a hot war with Russia or China any day now, just you wait. :tinfoil:

Really, the only thing bomber pilots are gonna be doing militarily is blowing up ISIL targets in the Middle East for the next few years, and that apparently isn't good enough as a dick-waving measure.

# ¿ Nov 18, 2015 00:24

fade5: May 31, 2012; by exmarx

HootTheOwl posted:

So serious question about the refugees: I know that the opposition to relocating them in America (amongst other places) is just racist shitheels but would it be politically expedient to create better conditions in current refugee tent-cities, leaving them in a position to re-settle their homes after the conflict?

A big problem is lack of funds. Forget making life in the tent cities better, right now there's not enough money to make them even barely livable. There's a serious risk of people freezing to death this winter in the refugee camps.

Another problem is that for many of the people in the refugee camps there's basically nothing to return to. A shitton of the buildings in Syria's cities are destroyed at this point, or are damaged enough to be unstable and dangerous as hell.

Even in Kobani where most of the city's population has returned, people are still living in tents pitched in the rubble or in half-destroyed buildings while the slow reconstruction of the city happens. Just because the fighting stops doesn't mean life can just go back to what it was before.

fade5 fucked around with this message at 01:19 on Nov 18, 2015

# ¿ Nov 18, 2015 01:01

fade5: May 31, 2012; by exmarx

As an example of why coming back and restarting life is so hard in a place like Syria: kids are going back to school in Kobani. You may be wondering how the town got the schools reconstructed.

They didn't. They're using whatever buildings are still standing. Some of those building are still damaged from the fighting but oh well, there's no alternative. There's no power and no electricity in the buildings, and running water is only available in certain parts of the city.

This is an example of a good outcome, because even though Kobani is hosed up, it's still generally peaceful. Most of the rest of Syria is not. Even if Syria would come to some sort of ceasefire, so much of it is destroyed with no facilities like electricity, gas, running water, or even usable roads that rebuilding will take billions of dollars of infrastructure investment (which isn't going to happen).

This is why so many people are leaving, they don't see a future for them or their children or grandchildren, all they see is death in the short term and struggle in the long term.

fade5 fucked around with this message at 01:25 on Nov 18, 2015

# ¿ Nov 18, 2015 01:20

fade5: May 31, 2012; by exmarx

Absurd Alhazred posted:

You run into the same problem agencies have with securing funds to rebuild Gaza: why bother if it's going to be bombed again soon anyway?

There's also the the good old :bahgawd:

"why are we sending money to them turrist Muslims" and also the callous line "by helping [Gaza/Syria/Afghanistan] rebuild you're helping [Hamas/Assad/Al Nusra/the Taliban] rebuild and get stronger". The Kurds are sort of an exception because they're "the good guys" to the west, but even so Kobani hasn't received all that much outside help to rebuild.

Thump! posted:

I suppose, but even then, when's the last time we've needed to carpet bomb anybody? We haven't done that since Vietnam, have we?

I mean, I'm hoping we don't carpet bomb Raqqa or Palmyra, but I guess there is a slim chance we get a Republican president next year.

Edit: Sorry if this is getting too Cold War Techie/Off-topic, I just figured US Nuclear policy would fit though

I can answer this one. The last time we've used the B-52 militarily was 2011 Libya:
http://www.wired.com/2011/07/two-bombers-24-hours-100-libyan-targets-destroyed-ready/
We probably didn't need to use the B-52 specifically, but it's not like the US is ever going to get in a war against an opponent who can actually shoot back.

fade5 fucked around with this message at 02:10 on Nov 18, 2015

# ¿ Nov 18, 2015 02:05

fade5: May 31, 2012; by exmarx

zoux posted:

Well, gee fellas I sure can't see how that could possibly be abused.

hobbesmaster posted:

Isn't Obama saying AUMF 2002 counts against ISIS?

Mr. Nice! posted:

Congress specifically said it was when he asked for a new AUMF.

BI NOW GAY LATER posted:

Yes, and the republicans refuse to call him on it, because they don't want to have that vote held over them.

Isn't Congress amazing? No, not amazing, nightmarish. :suicide:

Seriously it's amazing how hosed up this is. Obama has specifically said he's not sure that the 2001 AUMF gives him the legality to attack ISIL, and so he tried to do things "the right way" and have Congress pass a new AMUF specifically for fighting ISIL. Congress refused.

So now we're using a bill that Authorizes the Use of Military Force against Al-Qaeda to attack a group that is not Al-Qaeda, and is in fact fighting with Al-Qaeda in Syria right now. The only reason this isn't more of an issue is because everybody hates ISIL.

# ¿ Nov 18, 2015 19:33

fade5: May 31, 2012; by exmarx

hobbesmaster posted:

Thats why I said the AUMF 2002, which authorized war against Iraq. Conveniently ISIS claims to be Iraq so we're good to go!

So our airstrikes in Iraq might be legal, but not Syria. And by this logic, the 2003 Iraq War was legal. Terrific. :v:

Hodgepodge posted:

I see a lot of memes on Facebook about how the Nativity starts off with a middle eastern couple seeking refuge for the birth of their child. That, and since they have honest concern for at least Christian refugees and have some level of awareness and empathy for their plight, we may have a rare situation in which Evangelicals are too informed for right-wing rhetoric.

If the Evangelicals would be on the correct side of an issue for once that would be amazing.

# ¿ Nov 18, 2015 20:04

fade5: May 31, 2012; by exmarx

Riatsala posted:

Ben Carson re-imagines New England in bid to keep refugees out:

http://www.citylab.com/politics/2015/11/ben-carsons-us-map-gets-new-england-geography-all-wrong/416565/?utm_source=SFFB

As a GIS professional, I feel qualified to say that this original map was not a mistake. It takes a lot of effort of gently caress up a digital map that badly in any GIS software. Or at the very least, it takes about five times as much effort to do that editing than it does to make the map in the first place.

After looking at the map for a bit, it looks like Connecticut and everything northeast of it (Rhode Island, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Maine) was detached, and then the western border of Connecticut was attached to northeastern Vermont.

How and why the gently caress that happened is a mystery for the ages.

# ¿ Nov 18, 2015 20:52

fade5: May 31, 2012; by exmarx

zoux posted:

In uplifting news Jeb's campaign has spent $20m on TV ad buys, twice as much as any other campaign or PAC.

So we're up to 1/5 of that mystical $100 million dollars spent, and Jeb! is polling at 3% to 6%.

I'm sure it'll start working any day now.

Absurd Alhazred posted:

Yeah, this is just no longer fun for some reason.

Trump is clowning on other candidates a lot less, which is also making it less fun.

# ¿ Nov 18, 2015 23:46

fade5: May 31, 2012; by exmarx

Captain_Maclaine posted:

Hmm, despite his long anti-Carson rant from the other day, would say the energy levels of his campaigning are lowering?

More that they're being re-directed into things that aren't funny to laugh about. Trump's beating the anti-refugee/anti-immigrant/anti-Muslim drum harder now, and it's not fun to know that so much of America unironically agrees with him.

# ¿ Nov 18, 2015 23:59

fade5: May 31, 2012; by exmarx

Captain_Maclaine posted:

Yeah I know, I just wanted to make a "low energy" joke which is a lot less depressing.

In retrospect I should have gone along with the joke, we need some funny right now.

Unfortunately, Trump simply does not do low energy; even Trump as a reanimated zombie would still move faster and have more energy than Jeb!

# ¿ Nov 19, 2015 00:12

fade5: May 31, 2012; by exmarx

LeeMajors posted:

Man, gently caress this stupid country and the cancerous plague of conservatism.

There are candidates actively advocating that we help only christian refugees and test them before allowing them to enter, and no one seems to give a poo poo.

The ~~best~~ worst part is that most of those assholes would probably poo poo a brick if they knew the Christians they're talking about looked like this:

# ¿ Nov 19, 2015 00:21

fade5: May 31, 2012; by exmarx

WampaLord posted:

http://time.com/3773/coca-colas-its-beautiful-super-bowl-ad-brings-out-some-ugly-americans/

Of loving course. By the way, very nice ad.

Best (or worst) part of that:
http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2014/02/03/native-language-spotlighted-during-coca-cola-super-bowl-ad-153398

quote:

Languages featured in the Coca-Cola ad were English, Spanish, Tagalog, Hebrew, Hindi, Keres, and Senegalese-French.

Keres is a language spoken by the Pueblo people and is also known as Keresan. The language is spoken by nearly 11,000 people in the American Southwest today.

Many Native American languages are endangered and some tribes are working to preserve them. According to Native-Languages.org, Navajo is spoken by some 150,000 people.
--
A young woman named Christy provided the singing in Keres for the commercial. �Translating the words to �America the Beautiful� was difficult because Keres is not a written language, so we had to go back to our elders to help translate,� Christy said in a video from Coca-Cola. �I�m representing America, I�m representing my home. It just feels like I�m doing a good thing.�

One of the languages was the most American you can get.

# ¿ Nov 19, 2015 22:23

fade5: May 31, 2012; by exmarx

Hollismason posted:

Like seriously if he maintains his poll numbers is it possible we could see Trump as a presidential nominee because seriously when is he going to crash and burn.

Rubio is the guy to watch now. If he gets and holds at least second place, then he could knock down Trump. If Trump manages to do to Rubio what he did to Jeb! though, then all bets are off.

Combed Thunderclap posted:

It's especially glorious since we've been bombing the poo poo out of ISIS where possible for months.

gently caress, it's been more than a year now; Kobani was in September/October of 2014, and Sinjar's reclamation was literally a week ago.

# ¿ Nov 19, 2015 23:50

fade5: May 31, 2012; by exmarx

Pook Good Mook posted:

I would be blown away if Trump doesn't drop out voluntarily before the convention. Even if he's won a few states.

greatn posted:

Why? It's a vanity run and all of a sudden the delusion of hey I could win ain't a delusion no more.

Recently, Trump has gotten much more serious and much more politically savvy. He's learned not to push to hard on certain attacks (he got backlash when he talked about Carson's Christianity, so he backed off) and he's getting a decent ground game going. When he started to slip in Iowa, he didn't give up, he went and made speeches until he got back in first place.

Trump is definitely high on his own supply now, he seriously believes he can win, and I'm coming closer to the idea that if Rubio falls then Trump just might win the nomination.

Fried Chicken posted:

He won't be the nominee

I see we have someone not yet embracing the madness. Don't worry, Hillary will put Trump's yooge, luxurious scalp on the wall in a general election.

fade5 fucked around with this message at 23:58 on Nov 19, 2015

# ¿ Nov 19, 2015 23:56

fade5: May 31, 2012; by exmarx

zoux posted:

You still think he gets crushed in the general though, right?

evilweasel posted:

Definitely, nothing's changed about how toxic he is to everyone else. Republicans just have had it with this "sanity" business.

Yeah, when I say I think Trump might get the nomination I'm just saying that it's possible he wins the insanity primary. He would then get wrecked hard in the general, but not before showing how terrifyingly racist so much of America still is.

# ¿ Nov 20, 2015 00:11

fade5: May 31, 2012; by exmarx

zoux posted:

This and the fact that a Trump win would upend so much we think about politics are the only things that keep me from giving Trump the mortal lock. If Walker or Bush were polling Trump's numbers right now we'd say it was already over.

Instead Jeb! is polling at 3%-6%, and Walker has straight-up dropped out after polling at literally 0%.

That's also what's made me take Trump's candidacy more seriously than I might otherwise. Jeb! was supposed to be the unstoppable guy, the "smart Bush", with all the Bush family pull and a $100 million dollar SuperPAC behind him, crushing all who oppose him.

Instead he couldn't even answer "knowing what we know now, would you invade Iraq", and it's only gotten worse from there.

By conventional logic, Jeb! was supposed to sleepwalk to the nomination; instead there are people asking when (not if, when) he'll drop out.

fade5 fucked around with this message at 01:07 on Nov 20, 2015

# ¿ Nov 20, 2015 01:02

fade5: May 31, 2012; by exmarx

The other thing that gives me pause about Trump is that it's not like he hasn't left openings to attack him, it's that the other candidates didn't go after him when he gave those openeings.

When Trump said some anti-Vaxx poo poo at one of the debates, I was expecting him to get slammed hard for it by the other candidates, but Carson and Paul just sort of equivocated and let it go by. That was a perfect opening to hit Trump when he over-extended, and yet everyone else up there just let him get out of his blunder intact.

If nobody's going to actually attack Trump, then you're relying on Trump self-destructing (looking much less likely) or the base/voters getting bored with him (we're four months in, and they're not bored yet, and Iowa grows closer by the day).

# ¿ Nov 20, 2015 01:19

fade5: May 31, 2012; by exmarx

Meg From Family Guy posted:

But if this truly is the case, then I think we shouldn't be taking military action until we get a new AUMF passed and if the Republicans want to hold it up so be it. Let them be the ones politically on the line for "damaging national security."

Obama basically tried that for a while, then ISIL started attacking the Yazidis in Sinjar while saying their end goal was to exterminate the Yazidis. Not intervening would have (and almost did) mean letting the Yazidis be genocided, so we intervened. Then about a month later ISIL started their march on the Syrian town of Kobani, and we intervened again to try to stop ISIL from taking the town, murdering a bunch more people, and taking control of most of northern Syria and possibly beyond. (Also in that timeframe there was an intervention to stop an ISIL march towards the Iraqi Kurdish capitol of Erbil.)

Kobani was finally reclaimed in January, and around that same time Obama asked for the new AUMF. He didn't get it, but by that point we'd already intervened a bunch of times anyway, so it was basically :shrug:

"well I guess we're doing this then, didn't plan it like this but someone's gotta stop ISIL".

TL;DR: Obama cared/cares more about beating ISIL and saving lives than playing politics with the Republicans.

# ¿ Nov 21, 2015 22:27

fade5: May 31, 2012; by exmarx

CroatianAlzheimers posted:

Right after Paris, there were some links posted somewhere about how ISIS is losing ground and power and is on the brink of collapse, and that they're whining on Twitter about being bombed all the time and that even other terrorist groups are calling them out for being huge babies. I can't, for the life of me, find those links. Does anyone have them?

You can check my (many, many) posts in the Middle East thread for more info than you ever wanted to know about how ISIL is losing ground against the Kurds/YPG/SDF.

For the last part, here you go:

ISIL originally said to the US "bring your planes". After ISIL lost in Kobani and other places thanks to airstrikes, the commander of Ahrar al Sham (large Syrian Salafist rebel group backed by Turkey/Qatar/Saudi Arabia) mocked ISIL for complaining after the US did indeed "bring our planes".

fade5 fucked around with this message at 18:22 on Nov 24, 2015

# ¿ Nov 24, 2015 18:15

fade5: May 31, 2012; by exmarx

JT Jag posted:

Incidentally Something Awful has the same effect, except in the other direction. Someone who registers here to follow an LP and then browses to D&D might pick up on some poo poo that causes them to become more liberal than they would have been otherwise.

It's sort of the nature of multi-topic forums.

I joined for Fire Emblem. Somewhere along the line I ventured into D&D, turned into more of a leftist, and now I post enough about the Kurds and ISIL to have gotten 2 AVs, PMs, Search and a couple other things as a result. :v:

E:
Content, Russia has given their version of the plane incident:

The New Black posted:

So Russia finally released their map of the flight path, complete with convenient bend around Turkish airspace. Might as well have just drawn that bit in with crayon.

sparatuvs posted:

Russian jets are known for their ability to turn on right angles.

The US is siding with Turkey on this one. Russia has played brinkmanship/chicken before, and they pushed it too far this time, everyone (including Russia) knows it.

fade5 fucked around with this message at 00:18 on Nov 25, 2015

# ¿ Nov 25, 2015 00:15

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# ¿ May 14, 2024 15:21

fade5: May 31, 2012; by exmarx

computer parts posted:

There was a Russian helicopter shot down by rebels, that might be what you're thinking of.

Slight correction, that was a stationary Russian helicopter on the ground with nobody in it that was blown up by a TOW:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IschF-ihjS0
(Link is probably :nws:

just because it's a TOW shot from the Syrian Civil War)

But yeah, that was different from the plane that Turkey shot down. As this poster put it:

Anosmoman posted:

Turkey shot down the plane. Turkmen militias in Syria killed the pilots and TOWed a damaged helicopter on the ground.

It's a bad day for Russia in Syria right now.

fade5 fucked around with this message at 00:56 on Nov 25, 2015

# ¿ Nov 25, 2015 00:53

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Debate & Discussion > USPOL Nov: I would've preferred Huckabee have said nothing at all

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