Bay 12 Games Forum

Quote from: Folly on November 28, 2018, 05:49:25 pm

John Bolton refuses to listen to Khashoggi murder tape.

Anyone who has the words 'National Security' in their job title, and can with a straight face make the argument that audio tape offers no advantage over a written transcript for purposes of information gathering, that person needs to be fired immediately.

While I have no love for Bolton...if a qualified translator listened to the tape and gave him the substance of it...does he actually need to listen to it?

If you're going to then argue that the tapes are irrelevant and we should overlook this as a minor incident because the relationship is too important, then yeah...I think he needs to man up and listen to Khashoggi's death cries.

It's the depersonalization of evil that allows normal people to go accept it. (Not that I'd consider Bolton a "normal" person.)

Quote from: RedKing on November 28, 2018, 02:47:08 am

Quote from: Madman198237 on November 27, 2018, 04:16:50 pm

Quote from: RedKing on November 27, 2018, 04:09:19 pm

So...he's going to protect American workers by hurting GM so that it has to lay off more American workers. Seems legit.

I don't like Trump, but I think you're just being unfair here. What alternative(s) do you propose? Penalizing the company specifically and obviously for removing jobs in America is a good way to encourage companies to, you know, hold jobs in America. It's not the best method, but it's one that is simple and possible to implement...or at least threaten to implement...before the plants actually close.

If they lay off more American workers, well, what do you propose? If they do that then there's no point subsidizing them if they're not actually creating jobs here. Well, even LESS of a point subsidizing them than there is now that they're closing down a bunch of plants here.

How about making the subsidies based on the workforce? Like, "For every US worker you employ, you get a shiny new nickel" (or whatever...I'm throwing out random numbers here). Then it's just a matter of adjusting the subsidy amount to make it economically feasible for GM to employ US workers instead of moving those jobs offshore. Which is about the only reason ANY industry should be getting taxpayer subsidies in the first goddamn place, IMHO.

Trump is using the subsidies as a blunt object rather than a carrot-and-stick. He's using tariffs the same way. Hell, he uses Twitter the same way.
All he knows is stick.

Meanwhile, Mississippi reminded everyone why it's last in the country in most metrics of being a good place to live.

Thank God for Mississippi, otherwise my great state of Idaho would be.

Most of the Deep South feels the same way about Mississippi. It's like that one cousin you have that helps keep you from being the black sheep.
"Well, I may have flunked out of school, and Alabama might have wrecked his car while drunk, but at least we didn't get an underage girl pregnant while high on meth and trafficking migrants, like Mississippi!"

Oh Lord....I never knew I wanted to see this, but somebody needs to make something like Hetalia but with the fifty states.

Trump responded today to GM's announced plant closings by threatening to remove all subsidies:

Very disappointed with General Motors and their CEO, Mary Barra, for closing plants in Ohio, Michigan and Maryland. Nothing being closed in Mexico & China. The U.S. saved General Motors, and this is the THANKS we get! We are now looking at cutting all @GM subsidies, including for electric cars. General Motors made a big China bet years ago when they built plants there (and in Mexico) - don’t think that bet is going to pay off. I am here to protect America’s Workers!

So...he's going to protect American workers by hurting GM so that it has to lay off more American workers. Seems legit.

Guys, guys....you're missing the real meaning of Thanksgiving here. Trump remembered.

I'm pretty sure saying you're thankful for yourself gets your ass smacked with a wooden spoon in most dining rooms in this country. 

Also, he turned the traditional Thanksgiving call with troops overseas for the holidays into a chance to rant about the judiciary, border security, and Mueller. If he was any more self-absorbed, he'd disappear into a black hole. A yuuuge black hole. The biggest.

@MSH: Bro....dial it back a notch. (And when *I'm* the one saying dial it back a notch, that should tell you something). I have a lot of extended family in the military. My family has a long and quietly honorable history of military service. None of them were trigger-happy killboys. MOST of the military aren't trigger-happy killboys. And the military has done an admirable job, imho, of finding and removing those killboys from the ranks (or at least steering them to Marine units).

Haditha was the consequence of Marines who had been in-country too long, with a lax chain of command who were being pressured to deliver results, instigating a "whatever it takes" mentality in the ranks. I've never been a fan of the Marine Corps precisely for the reason that we groom them (and they have happily adopted the persona) to be "the sharp tip of the spear", the wild dog, the Action Hero, the whatever-trope-you-want-to-call-it. And that has a lot of drawbacks in peacetime or really any situation that is not an actual combat mission.

But what we've sent to the border are not Marines.

The first round of those troops are also being sent home, because there's nothing for them to do.

And according to that article, most of the troops are unarmed personnel from support units. Trump asked for "Army guys" so the Army sent supply clerks and engineers and the like, because they're not about to waste combat soldiers on shit like that. Which is both trolling Trump and probably exactly what he wanted. The MAGAts can imagine 6000 seething Marine warbeasts ready to send a rain of steel upon those scary brown MS-13 "invaders", which makes Trump seem badass in their minds. And there's little chance of this blowing up in his face (literally) if they're unarmed.

More worrisome are the militia guys who are taking it on themselves to show up and "help out". Those fuckers will be happy to start the shooting, and they're probably playing dress-up in Army fatigues with their AR-15, so casual observers won't distinguish them from the active duty units.

I have to trim my beard back every week or so, or I begin to look like Rasputin. Although in my case, it grows less down from my chin and more down my neck. Like, I'll have eight inches of hair running down my throat. Makes ne look like a balding Wolverine.

Interestingly, the CIA hadn't released the Khasoggi report officially yet, which put Trump in an awkward position when reporters began asking his reaction, and all he could say (whether true or not) was that he hadn't been briefed on it yet.

One of the things I wanted to do in my "If I become a billionaire" list is build an ancient style stone house like that that could basically survive the apocalypse.  I'm told no homeowner's association ever would ever let that idea fly though, and I would need to be near other people for decent internet.

If you're a billionaire, you can have them run a T3 up the side of your mountaintop fortress. Seriously, decent Internet would be the least of your concerns.


@Frumple: FEMA flacks telling poor people with no electricity, computers or Internet to "go online to apply" sounds like the most Kafkaesque nightmare imaginable. I'm surprised somebody hasn't been fed to a gator.