The all things Political Topic - When the sun Rises, the shadows must retreat Fleeing in fear from the Fires of dawn

[HoonDing]

So the apocalypse will happen before I'm dead. Thx, Biden.

[Guard Dog]

In the long run we’re all dead.

[Pidesco]

How long do you want the run to be though?

[Zoraptor]

Taliban add 2 (3) new provincial capitals to its recent captures. The most recent and significant capture- Faizabad- isn't mentioned in that article; it was absolute core Northern Alliance territory previous and never came within 100+ km of being captured in the war of 1996-2001. Mazar-e-Sharif is also under siege, if that falls all the previous long term NA territory is gone. That leaves the Pakistan border as the one least (overtly) controlled by the Taliban. You would have thought the US would have had a plan to get the Uzbeks/ Tajiks to prop up their minorities via the NA as the Russians had last time, the only conclusion to be drawn is that this time that isn't what the Russians (or Chinese) want and the Uzjiks have made the calculation that US influence is gone permanently and unlike the Russians they can be ignored.

The US envoy is now desperately trying to get the Taliban to hold off capturing the whole country until after the US formally withdraws, hard to see them lasting that long though with every supply line either cut or under threat.

[Guard Dog]

2 hours ago, Pidesco said:

How long do you want the run to be though?

LOL I’m a little shocked I’ve lasted as long as I have!

Edited August 10, 2021 by Guard Dog

[Gorth]

How Russia's interference in other countries is more than the odd, botched poisoning of traitors...

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-58009514

A long read with "sub links". Excerpt of key parts (imho)

 

The tablet was left behind by an unknown Wagner fighter after the group's fighters retreated from areas south of Tripoli in spring 2020.

Its contents include maps in Russian of the frontline, giving confirmation of Wagner's significant presence and an unprecedented insight into the group's operations.

...

Officially, it does not exist - but up to 10,000 people are believed to have taken at least one contract with Wagner since it emerged fighting alongside pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine in 2014.

About 1,000 Wagner men are estimated to have fought with Gen Khalifa Haftar in Libya from 2019 to 2020.

...

The BBC in Russia asked one of the ex-fighters to describe Wagner. He replied: "It is a structure, aimed at promoting the interests of the state beyond our country's borders."

As for its fighters, he said they were either "professionals of war", people looking for a job, or romantics looking to serve their country.

...

Andrey Chuprygin, an expert working with the Russia International Council, said the stance of the Russian government was - "let them join this thing, and we'll see what the result is. If it works out well, we can use it to our advantage. If it turns out badly, then we had nothing to do with it".

 

 

[Zoraptor]

Pretty much nothing new there even if they have got a tablet. Not like anyone's mercenaries are renowned for their adherence to the rules of war, that and the deniability factor are precisely why they are used instead of regular forces.

You can also tell a lot by what has been left out. ie, no mention of Pantsirs. Because they were absolutely 100% documented as having come from a UAE purchase and supplied to Haftar along with Wagner operators. Of course, the UAE is a strong British ally, so the fact that it was them rather than Russia supplying and paying for Wagner in Libya is just a bit too inconvenient to bother mentioning.

[Guard Dog]

Wow. I just saw Cuomo is resigning. I have to say I’m very surprised. I really thought he would be evil/narcissistic enough to fight it out. And I was betting against the state actually impeaching him. Typically Democrats do not eat their own no matter what horrible things they’ve done.

Edit: Cuomo’s comments about Brett Kavanaugh didn’t age well did they LOL!

Edited August 11, 2021 by Guard Dog

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

1 hour ago, Guard Dog said:

Typically Democrats do not eat their own no matter what horrible things they’ve done.

[Gromnir]

34 minutes ago, KP the meanie zucchini said:

pic

the reason why the observation from @Guard Dog  (again) is particular funny is 'cause the guy cuomo replaced, also a democrat, resigned following a scandal, a fact we reminded him o' not long ago in point o' fact when he made a similar observation. jim mcgreevey, the governor o' new jersey, also had to resign following sexual harassments claims.

national, is kinda tough to forget mr. weiner, yes? elizabeth esty was big news for ten minutes.

'course, for those who think republicans haven't faced similar issues and resignations, they is deluding selves. (edit: do self a favor and google "trent franks" if you do not recall who he is. same time as franken. initial bigger scandal. quickly forgotten somehow.)

truth to tell, trump and clinton stand kinda apart, so might be more accurate to observe how Presidents get a weird double-standard. 

but serious, is functional spam and somebody is a dog with a bone.

 

HA! Good Fun!

Edited August 11, 2021 by Gromnir

[Guard Dog]

Yes those guys all resigned. They weren’t removed. That was what I was talking about. If Cuomo had dug his heels in and absolutely refuse to resign and damned them all for asking him to that would’ve been interesting.

Edited August 11, 2021 by Guard Dog

[Guard Dog]

1 hour ago, KP the meanie zucchini said:

You were definitely right about that one. I remember Charles Schumer told him if he didn’t resign he would’ve been stripped of his committee assignments. Whether or not he would actually have done it is anyone’s guess. I think he probably would have.

[Gromnir]

2 minutes ago, Guard Dog said:

Yes those guys all resigned. They weren’t removed. That was what I was talking about. If Cuomo had dug his heels in and absolutely refuse to resign and damned them all for asking him to that would’ve been interesting.

dog and bone show.

2 hours ago, Guard Dog said:

Typically Democrats do not eat their own no matter what horrible things they’ve done.

the reason why the aforementioned democrats and republicans didn't fight is 'cause they believed (typical they were informed by party leadership) that combat would be worse than going meek. want us to predict which republicans and which democrats is gonna get the defense o' their party in spite o' scandal? we cannot do that. nevertheless, you trying to distinguish the functional indistinguishable is not the best play.

HA! Good Fun!

[Guard Dog]

17 minutes ago, Gromnir said:

dog and bone show.

the reason why the aforementioned democrats and republicans didn't fight is 'cause they believed (typical they were informed by party leadership) that combat would be worse than going meek. want us to predict which republicans and which democrats is gonna get the defense o' their party in spite o' scandal? we cannot do that. nevertheless, you trying to distinguish the functional indistinguishable is not the best play.

HA! Good Fun!

You don’t need to convince me the Republicans have no integrity. They just spent the last four years doing that. And they’re still doing it. That’s hardly new. They were not exactly piling on Nixon back then. Political power > integrity. Every day of the week and twice on Sunday

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

Didn't Gaetz get caught with underage girls or something? And the dude in a wheel chair had like 150 women from his alma mater write a letter saying he was a sex pest. More and more it seems Republicans will either not care or approve of it as evidence the fake news is trying to smear patriots or some other dumb ****.

[Elerond]

5 minutes ago, KP the meanie zucchini said:

Didn't Gaetz get caught with underage girls or something? And the dude in a wheel chair had like 150 women from his alma mater write a letter saying he was a sex pest. More and more it seems Republicans will either not care or approve of it as evidence the fake news is trying to smear patriots or some other dumb ****.

He is accused having sexual relationship with 17 year old girl and trafficking her over state lines in order to have sex with her. But even though age of consent in Florida is 18, he isn't currently accused of stationary rape, because accused sexual relationship is believed happened in District of Columbia where age of consent is 16, but because girl isn't from DC, house opened investigation if Gaetz violated federal sex trafficking laws.

[Gromnir]

8 minutes ago, KP the meanie zucchini said:

Didn't Gaetz get caught with underage girls or something? 

is gonna sound like am defending gaetz. not true. have referred to him as a carnival barker many times. however, so far is not a matter o' victims coming forward and accusing gaetz o' impropriety. has been leaks regarding an fbi investigation, leaks which were amusing the result o' gaetz accusing impropriety o' the fbi investigation 'bout which almost nobody previous knew anything. has also been indictments against a co-conspirator who accuses gaetz o' a whole laundry list o' misdeeds, but the indicted co-conspirator is not an ideal witness. again, is not victims coming forward. gaetz is accused o' paying underage women for sex and other stuff, but is not difficult to see why gaetz treatment has been different compared to other sexual harassment scandals.

as for voters in north carolina looking the other way regarding madison 'cawthorn's sexual improprieties and overt stoopidity, am having no response. was admitted pre election and the voters knew, so ain't like he were caught doing something bad while a Congressman, but why should that make his sexual predator antics ok with voters? trump normalized such for the republican party? if you would be offended by madison regarding his pervy and alleged assaultive beahviour, then how would you explain support for trump? the same folks voting for madison voted for trumps, so recognizing the transitive obtuse property at work...

dunno.

HA! Good Fun!

[Guard Dog]

Hypothetically speaking here. Suppose Senator “Smith” was caught in a very unsavory scandal involving sexual harassment. Suppose the governor of Senator Smith’s home state is the opposite party as him. Now suppose that the Senate is divided 50-50. Or 49-51 If Senator Smith were to resign or be expelled from the Senate it would shift the balance of power. Do you think Senator Smith’s party would not be fighting like hell to extend him to the end of his term no matter what he did? That they wouldn’t be trying to make the whole scandal quietly go away? Or all of that aside no matter what they say publicly would they take any action that would see him removed from his seat? I doubt it. 

[Gromnir]

15 minutes ago, Guard Dog said:

 Do you think Senator Smith’s party would not be fighting like hell to extend him to the end of his term no matter what he did? 

is where we differ. am thinking it would matter very much "what he did."  defending a man or woman senator from stomach churning charges which has a great deal o' evidence to support is presumptive gonna be untenable regardless o' numeric splits. keep senate majority today and lose a considerable number o' voters in the next election is not a winning strategy. you can add all kinda what ifs to make more or less plausible, but after #metoo, am thinking the democrats in particular is gonna find it difficult to sanitize a sexual harassment scandal once it inevitable becomes public. any politician who is later seen as having been covering up such a scandal is likely gonna personal pay with lost votes. 

maybe you see such long view pragmatism as no less skeevy than myopic and mindless defense? fair. that said, while am not able to look into hearts and minds, am thinking there is bound to be at least a couple individuals who, like romney during the trump impeachment stuff, choose conscience over practical political concerns... also recognizing these guys in the senate serve six years so if you just got reelected you personal is insulated for a good period o' time from potential backlash.

gonna suggest you once again wanna oversimplify based on your they are all bad world view. 

HA! Good Fun!

Edited August 11, 2021 by Gromnir

[Guard Dog]

1 hour ago, Gromnir said:

 

gonna suggest you once again wanna oversimplify based on your they are all bad world view. 

HA! Good Fun!

I’m not so stubborn I won’t adjust my world view if it’s proven wrong. The collective of “they” haven’t given me cause to do so. Although there are always individuals with integrity as you pointed out. They deserve respect. IMO McCain and Manchin and a few others from recent memory. But for most politicians that appears to be the very first quality they compromise. 
 

What is it that drives someone to seek political power over there fellow people?  I asked Don Garlits that a long time ago. He was a “true believer” in Reagan style conservatism. I’ll give him that. And I do believe even after all these years he was an honest man. But he didn’t know the first thing about Congress, about government, or about any other things that he frequently gave speeches about. His reason for running for Congress was “it looks like it will be a hoot“. 

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

Am I hallucinating or is GD's avatar changing every few minutes?

Anyways on politics, I got nothing new except there's different degrees of bad. Like privately ignoring the covid recommendations you've been pushing to have dinner at a place where a meal costs more than minimum wage pays in a week is bad, but using knowledge of covid received in congresional briefings to do some insider trading while simultaneously downplaying covid for political gain is just another level of bad that equating the two makes you look like a doofus. In line with the latter is the Governor of my state, who is setting course steady ahead on downplaying the rona while the Greater Houston area has 27 open ICU beds for a population of 6.6 million and Austin is down to 2 ICU beds. I may think the Democrats are useless at best, but they aren't actively trying to kill me yet. 

[Guard Dog]

Speaking of COVID hypocrisy. I got quite a chuckle out of some analyst on CNN making a comment about Barack Obama‘s birthday party. First of all just let me put my position in the clear that was a nothing burger. They had a big party, they weren’t wearing masks, they were dancing clothes, who cares. But of course a lot of the news channel is fox in particular were making hay out of it. So CNN was mentioning the fact that he was being made on it and they asked some analyst, newspaper reporter I think, and she made a comment about that that was a “smart and sophisticated crowd“ and they knew what they were doing. I got a good laugh out of that because I cannot imagine a comment more design to infuriate the red state crowd than that one.

edit: oh you’re not crazy I’ve changed a couple of times today. Trying to find a GIF of a dog with a bone. One that I like and shows up good.

Edited August 11, 2021 by Guard Dog

[Pidesco]

When was the last time you changed avatar?

[Guard Dog]

3 minutes ago, Pidesco said:

When was the last time you changed avatar?

Twice today. Before that? Long time. Years maybe 

[Pidesco]

You had a dog for a long time right? A retriever or something?