November 2019 Current Events: Blade Runner happened this month

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Internet VFW > November 2019 Current Events: Blade Runner happened this month

Nick Soapdish: Apr 27, 2008

Fister Roboto posted:

It means that people are aware that things are hosed up right now and need to change, but at the same time they've been brainwashed for decades into thinking that being seen as anything other than moderate or in the center is bad.

Iowans want a moderate D who will enact fascist R policy to fundamentally change our society.

Bingo, bango so simple

# ¿ Nov 1, 2019 16:12

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ¿ May 14, 2024 05:05

Nick Soapdish: Apr 27, 2008

Vasudus posted:

I've owned labs for most of my life and if I ever get another dog, I'll probably get another lab. Love those big dopey bastards.

https://twitter.com/TheGoldenRatio4/status/1190005819301085195

Edit: actual news, great that we're respected and feared in the Mideast

https://twitter.com/Reuters/status/1190031023058440192

Nick Soapdish fucked around with this message at 19:00 on Nov 1, 2019

# ¿ Nov 1, 2019 18:57

Nick Soapdish: Apr 27, 2008

Live from Who Cares, Mississippi, your good (great) President

https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1190434301436928001

# ¿ Nov 2, 2019 02:04

Nick Soapdish: Apr 27, 2008

https://twitter.com/sahilkapur/status/1190646096147685377?s=19

gently caress off Nancy, guess we should just never try to do anything that will actually change and improve American's lives

# ¿ Nov 2, 2019 22:21

Nick Soapdish: Apr 27, 2008

colachute posted:

https://twitter.com/cancel_sam/status/1190855113373560833?s=21

Just another rich person.

Citations Needed (https://soundcloud.com/citationsneeded/episode-91-its-time-to-retire-the-term-middle-class) did a really good episode about why we need to get rid of "middle class" as a term in politics.

# ¿ Nov 4, 2019 03:59

Nick Soapdish: Apr 27, 2008

I guess the UCMJ and LOAC don't matter anymore; more suggestions than laws.

https://www.navytimes.com/news/your-navy/2019/11/04/report-trump-makes-seal-gallagher-a-chief-again/

quote:

President Donald J. Trump has decided to restore convicted SEAL Edward Gallagher�s pay grade to chief petty officer, overriding a decision last week by the Navy�s top admiral, both Navy Times and Fox News learned.

Although naval officials and Navy Times discussed Trump�s looming decision on Sunday, it was announced on the morning Fox and Friends show by network contributor Pete Hegseth, who said he spoke directly with the president about intervening in three war crimes cases.

A week before Veterans Day, Trump�s move clears the way to free Army 1st Lt. Clint Lorance, who was convicted a pair of murder charges for ordering his platoon to shoot and kill three Afghan men on a motorcycle in 2012 and is serving a 20-year sentence at the U.S. Disciplinary Barracks at Fort Leavenworth.

It also is poised to end the prosecution of Green Beret Maj. Matt Golsteyn, who is accused of executing a suspected Taliban bomb maker in Helmand Province nine years ago.

�This president recognizes the injustice of it,� Hegseth said during the broadcast. �You train someone to go fight and kill the enemy. Then they go kill the enemy the way someone doesn�t like, and then we put them in jail or we throw the book at them.�

On Tuesday, Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Mike Gilday decided to retain the spirit of a military jury�s recommended sentence for Gallagher, 40, letting stand the panel�s call to demote him but keeping him a petty officer first class and not the E-1 pay grade where Navy regulations would�ve automatically left him after more than two decades of service.

That same panel of his peers, mostly composed of Marine combat veterans, acquitted Gallagher on a string of war crimes charges during a trial that presented evidence of corruption inside the Navy�s Judge Advocate General�s Corps and the Naval Criminal Investigative Service.

Gallagher was convicted on the sole charge of posing for a snapshot with a dead detainee. A dozen service members, including a commissioned officer senior to Gallagher, were not indicted or apparently punished for a crime resolved in the past through mild administrative actions.

And it remained unclear if Naval Special Warfare truly had finished with Gallagher, at least administratively.

Navy Times had been tracking the fate of the highly decorated SEAL on Friday, after he�d been ordered to report to duty at Naval Base Coronado in his dress white uniform.

Rumors swirled throughout the base that senior officers were poised to unleash a series of sanctions on him, including sending him to a Trident Review Board to strip him of the SEAL insignia, whispers also overheard by Gallagher�s defense attorney, Timothy Parlatore.

At the close of business in California, however, no action had been taken by embattled Rear Adm. Colin Green and new rumors percolated out of headquarters that senior officials had stepped in to halt the proceedings.

�We didn�t reach out to the president, but we�re grateful that he�s taking this action,� Parlatore told Navy Times on Monday. �The idea that even after everything Green did to still go after Eddie�s trident, that�s not the action of a SEAL admiral. That�s the action of a petulant child. It�s a good thing the adults in the room are standing up.�

Parlatore said he had yet to speak to Gallagher because it was 4 a.m. in California when Hegseth announced the impending intervention by the president.

�In 3 � hours, I have the expectation that Green might still pull Eddie�s trident when he shows up for duty," Parlatore told Navy Times by telephone.

Late Sunday, Parlatore emailed Green�s staff a scathing letter addressed to the admiral, urging him to abandon �your fixation on harming Eddie Gallagher and his family.�

�He has already suffered indignities that vastly outweigh the severity of his alleged offenses. Continued unlawful attacks will serve only to undermines your ability to effectively lead the NSW community,� Parlatore wrote.

Pointing to interviews he conducted with a number of SEALs during his defense of Gallagher, Parlatore wrote that he continued to hear a common complaint that Green�s command �uses operators and then casts them away like garbage the moment they no longer satisfy your needs.�

In the wake of Gallagher�s acquittal, Green in August issued a four-page �back to basics� directive designed to shore up shoddy conduct, restore moral accountability and create better leaders.

Released to senior leaders and then obtained by Navy Times, Green�s guidance sought to return his SEAL and boat teams to standards expected of service members across the fleet, with a mandate for leaders to conduct �routine inspections of your units and strictly enforce all Navy grooming and uniform standards, including adherence to all Navy traditions, customs and ceremonies.�

But Parlatore�s letter warned Green that mandating haircuts, outlawing unit patches �are not the problems� plaguing Naval Special Warfare and instead directed Green�s attention to a high tempo of overseas operations �and a lack of proper support from failed leaders� and �scapegoating� Gallagher will only undermine �good order and discipline; men are losing respect and confidence in their leadership.�

Pentagon officials did not respond to requests by Navy Times for comment on Sunday or Monday morning.

Fox�s announcement of Trump�s impending action isn�t the first time he�s intervened in Gallagher�s case.

On March 30, the president took to Twitter to announce that he ordered the Pentagon to release Gallagher from pretrial confinement in San Diego�s Naval Consolidated Brig Miramar.

�In honor of his past service to our Country, Navy Seal #EddieGallagher will soon be moved to less restrictive confinement while he awaits his day in court," Trump tweeted. �Process should move quickly!�

And it did, with Navy officials immediately moving to spring Gallagher from the brig.

A day after the verdict in Gallagher�s court-martial case, Trump also tweeted congratulations to the SEAL, his wife Andrea, and his entire family.

�You have been through much together. Glad I could help!� the president wrote.

And the president still wasn�t done with a case plagued by allegations of prosecutorial and police misconduct.

Before Gallagher�s trial kicked off, Navy judge Capt. Aaron Rugh sanctioned prosecutors for violating the SEAL�s constitutional rights.

Part of his punishment included booting Cmdr. Christopher Czaplak, the lead prosecutor, for a warrantless surveillance program cooked up with NCIS agents to track emails sent by defense attorneys and Navy Times.

Agents and prosecutors also were accused of manipulating witness statements to NCIS agents; using immunity grants and a bogus �target letter� in a crude attempt to keep pro-Gallagher witnesses from testifying; illegally leaking documents to the media to taint the military jury pool; and then trying to cover it all up when they got caught.

After the Navy bestowed achievement medals on several prosecutors and their enlisted aides, Trump stepped in on July 31 to nix the decorations, lampooning them as �ridiculously given" awards.

# ¿ Nov 4, 2019 15:40

Nick Soapdish: Apr 27, 2008

US invaded Mexico in late 2020 in the Ghost in the Shell universe

# ¿ Nov 5, 2019 17:21

Nick Soapdish: Apr 27, 2008

Fallom posted:

lmao the Democrat won the Governor's race in Kentucky and his Republican opponent immediately started shrieking about voter fraud and refuses to concede

I mean, certainly those 1000s of absentee ballots I drove down to Louisville isn't a crime is it?

# ¿ Nov 6, 2019 05:19

Nick Soapdish: Apr 27, 2008

Current Event: Hope everyone's having a Wednesday

https://twitter.com/communistbops/status/1192182039375753216

# ¿ Nov 6, 2019 22:31

Nick Soapdish: Apr 27, 2008

Eej posted:

Also, jump on the Bill Gates discourse train everyone!

https://twitter.com/bobservo/status/1192290506190942208

# ¿ Nov 7, 2019 05:46

Nick Soapdish: Apr 27, 2008

stealie72 posted:

Ugh, seems to be the case. Sigh.

Are you sure it is the right Hogg? Because one was a CHUD and the other was an activist

# ¿ Nov 11, 2019 04:42

Nick Soapdish: Apr 27, 2008

colachute posted:

if all you did on deployment is beat off then you are just as entitled to your free olive garden as i am

Many years ago when I was a young Sailor at an Air Force base that serviced the joint force, I often wondered why anyone would signup to be in Services to hand out basketballs. Years later I realized that those Airmen doing that job got the same pay as me and same post service benefits and mostly no one in the civilian world cares about what we did in the military.

# ¿ Nov 11, 2019 23:59

Nick Soapdish: Apr 27, 2008

Fister Roboto posted:

WHY IS JIM JORDAN YELLING

https://twitter.com/gaywonk/status/1194689985892540421

# ¿ Nov 13, 2019 19:57

Nick Soapdish: Apr 27, 2008

Casimir Radon posted:

Pretty sure most campaign store items are marked up to some degree for fundraising.

Yes, remember Jeb!'s guacamole bowl

# ¿ Nov 15, 2019 00:44

Nick Soapdish: Apr 27, 2008

quote:

The court says its penalties are designed "not primarily to punish a judge, but rather to preserve the integrity of and public confidence in the judicial system" and, when necessary, to remove those who are unfit.

Wow, let's hope they do that to more individuals.

[Ron Howard] They wouldn't

# ¿ Nov 15, 2019 03:11

Nick Soapdish: Apr 27, 2008

We do live in interesting times

Only registered members can see post attachments!

# ¿ Nov 15, 2019 16:47

Nick Soapdish: Apr 27, 2008

https://twitter.com/DanLamothe/status/1195484671758483456?s=19

It is finally official. Absolute garbage

# ¿ Nov 16, 2019 00:42

Nick Soapdish: Apr 27, 2008

colachute posted:

https://twitter.com/bymikebaker/status/1196531425152880642?s=21

This is the best thing I’ve seen all month.

E:

https://twitter.com/caitlinzemma/status/1196467289400528898?s=21

I could see this one lasting a while.

A Minneapolis for got almost a cool half mil to poo poo out that dumb campaign

# ¿ Nov 18, 2019 22:34

Nick Soapdish: Apr 27, 2008

https://twitter.com/cmclymer/status/1196802436138184706

Can't wait to see the R fuckers continue to slander this man's good name

# ¿ Nov 19, 2019 15:53

Nick Soapdish: Apr 27, 2008

https://twitter.com/HeerJeet/status/1196817415813812225

The Extended Universe is always so terrible for anything

# ¿ Nov 19, 2019 17:45

Nick Soapdish: Apr 27, 2008

And like clockwork the Rs and Twitter shitheads are questioning the LTCs service, his loyalties, why he's wearing a uniform, his purple heart, etc.

Great to see the Karl Rove 2004 Kerry attacks still working

# ¿ Nov 19, 2019 19:43

Nick Soapdish: Apr 27, 2008

https://twitter.com/thatbilloakley/status/1195016894962470912?s=19

While running errands today turned on Rush and he was making this exact Sideshow Boy defense for DJT

# ¿ Nov 19, 2019 21:48

Nick Soapdish: Apr 27, 2008

For once in a blue moon, good on NSW for doing the right thing. I wonder if that E-7 can still carry the SO rate without the Trident or if he has to crossrate?

# ¿ Nov 20, 2019 02:18

Nick Soapdish: Apr 27, 2008

Y'all are going at this wrong, make him have to be a Milton. Assign him to the basement where his only job is to be there to answer a random phone and nothing more until he quits, gets written up enough, or has a psychotic break

# ¿ Nov 20, 2019 03:45

Nick Soapdish: Apr 27, 2008

pantslesswithwolves posted:

Yeah, about that.

https://twitter.com/kt_so_it_goes/status/1197508911202545664

Gallagher�s attorney called the commander of the SEALs a coward. When even the most toxic part of the SOF community wants you out, that�s really saying something.

Eddie can just do the usual ~oPeRaToR~ grift and go work for Black Rifle Coffee Company and write butthurt posts on SOFREP until he�s done with his book or whatever.

https://twitter.com/halbritz/status/1197515220027158528

Hot Karl Marx posted:

5 massive Pinocchio's for Bernard

God drat fact checkers are useless fucks

# ¿ Nov 21, 2019 15:12

Nick Soapdish: Apr 27, 2008

Viva Miriya posted:

Lol just lol that you listen to chapo

You can take Matt out of the Midwest but you can't take the Midwest out of Matt

# ¿ Nov 21, 2019 16:20

Nick Soapdish: Apr 27, 2008

That picture: Thanks, I hate it.

https://twitter.com/ZeroBlog30/status/1197549859210960896

VBSS just got fun

# ¿ Nov 21, 2019 18:24

Nick Soapdish: Apr 27, 2008

LingcodKilla posted:

But what about the Fox interview? Oooh this is gonna be ratings gold! Gold I say!

https://twitter.com/HansNichols/status/1198581502411444231

I was going to do a 'gotta hand it to the E7' comment but then I remembered the dril tweet and no, don't gotta hand it to him

# ¿ Nov 24, 2019 17:14

Nick Soapdish: Apr 27, 2008

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1198746358091530241?s=19

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1198746377720909824?s=19

:chaostrump:

# ¿ Nov 25, 2019 00:58

Nick Soapdish: Apr 27, 2008

That Works posted:

"Exonerated on all major charges"

[Arrested Development] I might have committed, light war crimes

# ¿ Nov 25, 2019 01:04

Nick Soapdish: Apr 27, 2008

hobbesmaster posted:

And letting them think that they could have a competitive bid for HQ2. Indianapolis: the famous tech hub world reknown for.... angies list?

Salesforce

# ¿ Nov 26, 2019 21:42

Nick Soapdish: Apr 27, 2008

https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/2019/11/27/ice-arrested-250-foreign-students-fake-university-metro-detroit/4277686002/

quote:

About 90 additional foreign students of a fake university in metro Detroit created by the Department of Homeland Security have been arrested in recent months.

A total of about 250 students have now been arrested since January on immigration violations by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) as part of a sting operation by federal agents who enticed foreign-born students, mostly from India, to attend the school that marketed itself as offering graduate programs in technology and computer studies, according to ICE officials.

Many of those arrested have been deported to India while others are contesting their removals. One has been allowed to stay after being granted lawful permanent resident status by an immigration judge.

The students had arrived legally in the U.S. on student visas, but since the University of Farmington was later revealed to be a creation of federal agents, they lost their immigration status after it was shut down in January. The school was located on Northwestern Highway near 13 Mile Road in Farmington Hills and staffed with undercover agents posing as university officials.

Out of the approximately 250 students arrested on administrative charges, "nearly 80% were granted voluntary departure and departed the United States," the Detroit office of ICE's Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) told the Free Press in a statement Tuesday.

Out of the remaining 20%, about half of them have received a final order of removal; some of them were ordered removed by an immigration judge, and others "were given an expedited removal by U.S. Customs and Border Protection," said HSI Detroit.

The remaining 10% "have either filed for some sort of relief or are contesting their removals with Executive Office for Immigration Review," said HSI Detroit.

ICE said in March that 161 students had been arrested, which has now increased to about 250.

Meanwhile, seven of the eight recruiters who were criminally charged for trying to recruit students have pleaded guilty and have been sentenced in Detroit, including Prem Rampeesa, 27, last week. The remaining one is to be sentenced in January.

Attorneys for the students arrested said they were unfairly trapped by the U.S. government since the Department of Homeland Security had said on its website that the university was legitimate. An accreditation agency that was working with the U.S. on its sting operation also listed the university as legitimate.

There were more than 600 students enrolled at the university, which was created a few years ago by federal law enforcement officials with ICE. Records filed with the state Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs (LARA) show that the University of Farmington was incorporated in January 2016.

Many of the students had enrolled with the university through a program known as Curricular Practical Training (CPT), which allows students to work in the U.S through a F-1 visa program for foreign students. Some had transferred to the University of Farmington from other schools that had lost accreditation, which means they would no longer be in immigration status and allowed to remain in the U.S.

Emails obtained by the Free Press earlier this year showed how the fake university attracted students to the university, which cost about $12,000 on average in tuition and fees per year.

The U.S. "trapped the vulnerable people who just wanted to maintain (legal immigration) status," Rahul Reddy, a Texas attorney who represented or advised some of the students arrested, told the Free Press this week. "They preyed upon on them."

The fake university is believed to have collected millions of dollars from the unsuspecting students. An email from the university's president, named Ali Milani, told students that graduate programs' tuition is $2,500 per quarter and the average cost is $1,000 per month.

"They made a lot of money," Reddy said of the U.S. government.

No one has filed a lawsuit or claim against the U.S. government for collecting the money or for allegedly entrapping the students.

Attorneys for ICE and the Department of Justice maintain that the students should have known it was not a legitimate university because it did not have classes in a physical location. Some CPT programs have classes combined with work programs at companies.

"Their true intent could not be clearer," Assistant U.S. Attorney Brandon Helms wrote in a sentencing memo this month for Rampeesa, one of the eight recruiters, of the hundreds of students enrolled. "While 'enrolled' at the University, one hundred percent of the foreign citizen students never spent a single second in a classroom. If it were truly about obtaining an education, the University would not have been able to attract anyone, because it had no teachers, classes, or educational services."

In the memo, federal prosecutor Baker said the case raises questions about the U.S. "foreign-student visa program."

Baker wrote that "immigration and visa programs have been hot-button topics in the United States for years and national scrutiny has only been increasing. Fairly or unfairly, Rampeesa�s conduct casts a shadow on the foreign-student visa program in general, and it raises questions as to whether the potential for abuse threatens to outweigh the benefits."

Reddy said, though, that in some cases, students who transferred out from the University of Farmington after realizing they didn't have classes on-site, were still arrested.

Rampeesa was sentenced Nov, 19 to one year in prison by Judge Gershwin Drain of U.S. District Court in Detroit. With time already served of 295 days, he should be out in about two to three months, and will then be deported to India, said his attorney Wanda Cal. He pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit visa fraud and harbor aliens for profit.

Detroit ICE spokesman Khaalid Walls said the other recruiters sentenced so far are Barath Kakireddy, 29, of Lake Mary, Florida, 18 months; Suresh Kandala, 31, of Culpeper, Virginia, 18 months; Santosh Sama, 28, of Fremont, California, 24 months; Avinash Thakkallapally, 28, of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, 15 months; Aswanth Nune, 26, of Atlanta, Georgia, 12 months; Naveen Prathipati, 26, of Dallas, Texas, 12 months.

Phanideep Karnati, 35, of Louisville, Kentucky, is to be sentenced in January.

In court, Rampeesa's attorney, Cal, said his client had no criminal record and came from a rural background in India.

He was trying to "help his family back home," Cal said before Judge Drain. "My client is very remorseful. He is really a good person caught up in a bad situation."

Rampeesa arrived in the U.S. legally a few years ago on a student visa and earned in 2016 a master's degree in computer science at Northwestern Polytechnic University. But the university later lost its accreditation, which put his immigration status in jeopardy. He had spent $40,000 in tuition and fees for his studies at the university.

"He was desperate to find a way to stay in the United States," Rampeesa's attorney, Cal, wrote in his sentencing memo. He wanted to get a Ph.D. in computer science, she said.

Rampeesa then met Sama, who recruited him to attend the University of Farmington and told him he could get tuition credits if he recruited other students, Cal said.

Sama and Rampeesa were working with people they thought were university officials, but were actually undercover agents for the Department of Homeland Security.

"My client has no other criminal history, not even a traffic ticket," Cal said in court last week.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Baker said in court that Rampeesa was "aware it was completely fake," that "it was just for maintaining status."

"He chose the University of Farmington for a reason," Baker said of Rampeesa.

In calling for a sentence of 24 to 30 months, Baker said: "It's important to send a message ... this type of crime will not be tolerated."

Accompanying Baker in the court last week was Assistant U.S. Attorney Ronald Waterstreet, who helped prosecute the case.

Judge Drain sentenced him to 1 year, but he will be released in two to three months because of time served, and then deported.

Drain said of Rampeesa: "You don't have any criminal history. ... I don't think you're a danger to the public."

Rampeesa received a shorter sentence than Sama because he was not recruiting other students for cash, but for tuition credits provided by the university, Judge Drain said.

Rampeesa wrote a letter to the court pleading for leniency that was read before the judge. A Telugu-speaking translator was at his side in court, translating the courtroom proceedings. Most of the students were from Telugu-speaking regions of India in the state of Andhra Pradesh.

He said he was trying in the U.S. after his previous university's loss of accreditation made his master's degree "worthless."

"I am ashamed," Rampeesa wrote. "I made a very bad decision" to recruit students that "bought shame to my family name."

Contact Niraj Warikoo: nwarikoo@freepress.com or 313-2234792. Twitter @nwarikoo

We're really going to need a South Africa style Truth and Reconciliation Commission in the 2020s

# ¿ Nov 27, 2019 16:39

Nick Soapdish: Apr 27, 2008

Flying_Crab posted:

What the gently caress?

Don�t worry:

https://twitter.com/realdonaldtrump/status/1199718185865535490?s=21

It is great that his CHUD supporters somehow think the "239lb" never exercising, McDonalds eating, good genes having good (great) President is the height of masculinity

# ¿ Nov 27, 2019 17:30

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# ¿ May 14, 2024 05:05

Nick Soapdish: Apr 27, 2008

Flying_Crab posted:

https://twitter.com/washingtonpost/status/1199745805990727680?s=21 CRIMES CRIMES CRIMES

https://twitter.com/KevinMKruse/status/1067431464524869633?s=19

Just change Manafort to Giuliani

# ¿ Nov 27, 2019 18:55

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Internet VFW > November 2019 Current Events: Blade Runner happened this month