Politics' Official Eighteenth Thread

[Amentep]

Old Thread: https://forums.obsidian.net/topic/96601-politics-thread-edge-of-seventeen/page-32?do=findComment&comment=2017662

 

Last time, on the Obsidian Forum's political thread...

 

Guard Dog gave two cents...

 

Meh, don't care anymore. There is barbarism enough to go around in the middle east. I say we wash our hands of it and turn our backs on it. Civil wars, terrorism, Return to Zion, jihad, protests, embassies, West Bank, Gaza, houses, rockets, rocks, it's just enough already. They have been trying to make peace there for 50 years. Concessions offered and rejected. Deals made and broken. It's a fools errand. If you put a Sunni, a Shia, and a Jew in a room together and told each the other two was the last of their kind they would probably all fight to the death. I'd say give every man, woman, and teenager in the ME a rifle with three full magazines and a box of grenades and tell them to do what you think is best. Make peace, don't make peace, whatever. It's past time to be done with the whole lot of them.

 

Civil war in Syria? Nukes in Iran, Saudi Arabia funding terror? Screw them all. You cannot stop any of it and you shouldn't try. Just let it be known that if you use nukes you will be attacked with nukes. Fire one off at Tel Aviv and the US, UK, & France will exterminate your entire population. Still want them? Go ahead and make them. Enjoy the expensive upkeep of weapons you dare not use.

 

Most of the problems in the world today stem from the powers in Europe reorganizing the world to suit their ends after WW1 and WW2 (to a lesser extent). The only thing that ever held artificial countries like Iraq together was violence. First the British, then the Baathists with a few in between. Take away the violence and all these groups who hate each other start fighting each other. What a shock. It's best to just let them sort it out. Had the US never invaded Iraq ISIS would still be just a figure from Egyptian mythology and Syria would not be in the mess it's in. There was nothing to like about Hussien but a whole lot of people would still be alive and whole today today if he were.

 

But it's a lesson we are incapable of learning because here we all go interfering again. Last year US combat troops were killed in Niger. When did we declare war on Niger? Oh they were hunting terrorists? Right, don't let the public forget to be afraid of that hobgoblin. Injurai was right. Past time we worried about our own s--t and left everyone else to theirs. Don't send arms, don't send aid. None of it ever gets into the hands of the people who need it anyway. Besides, there and thousands of charity groups already doing that and doing a better job of it.

 

Just my $.02

 

 Drowsy Emperor said "I ran"...

Invading Iran is not feasible, in practical terms, for the U.S.

 

Contending with the Iranians would be a feat in itself, but even more so when Russia and China start flooding them with latest generation of ballistic missiles and assorted weaponry. And you better believe they would, with a hostile army drawing so close to their spheres of interest all bets that apply in a country of middling importance such as Syria, would be off. And when a Russian or Chinese anti-ship ballistic missile tanks a U.S. aircraft carrier, drowning most of its crew and destroying it's air assets, what then? Declare war on Russia or China?

 

There's no doubt that one of Washington's wet dreams is to see Iran in flames and a new Shah type government in it, but that's not on the cards soon. If they didn't do it back in the post-Cold War drunk-with-power late 90's early 00's era, they're not doing it now.

 

 Chilloutman gave up plans on invading...

I don't think anyone want to invade anything by now

 

smjames talked about people giving up plans on invading...and those who didn't...

 

I don't think anyone want to invade anything by now

 

Except John Bolton apparently, and maybe the audience where he was speaking at.

 

Anyways, while I can see spec-ops happening onshore in Iran or occupying islands used as military bases, a full on invasion or even a half measure would be a worse idea than Vietnam.

 

 

 

...and now...the political thread.

[Malcador]

...and now...the political thread.

And it's legal!

[injurai]

As Venezuelans suffer, Maduro buys foreign oil to subsidize Cuba

 

"Venezuela’s state-run oil firm PDVSA has bought nearly $440 million worth of foreign crude and shipped it directly to Cuba on friendly credit terms - and often at a loss, according to internal company documents reviewed by Reuters. The shipments are the first documented instances of the OPEC nation buying crude to supply regional allies instead of selling them oil from its own vast reserves."

[Gfted1]

How does that even make sense? Buying it must be less expensive than pumping it?

[HoonDing]

Commies need to stick together.

Edited May 15, 2018 by HoonDing

[Bartimaeus]

North Korea threatens to cancel Trump summit (poor article, but whatever): https://www.axios.com/north-korea-threatens-to-cancel-trump-summit-f9eee700-97b4-4e68-9ccc-68d2745dd701.html

 

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Ecclesiastes+1%3A9&version=NIV

Edited May 15, 2018 by Bartimaeus

[smjjames]

How does that even make sense? Buying it must be less expensive than pumping it?

The only way that seems to make sense is if they’re trying to pay off debt, though it seems like an impractical way of paying off debt, unless you’re using the stock market perhaps.

[smjjames]

North Korea threatens to cancel Trump summit (poor article, but whatever): https://www.axios.com/north-korea-threatens-to-cancel-trump-summit-f9eee700-97b4-4e68-9ccc-68d2745dd701.htmlhttps://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Ecclesiastes+1%3A9&version=NIV

Seems to be over something that happened last week when they usually respond right away. I wonder if Kim is trying to deal with some internal political pressures. Can be hard to tell from them sometimes.

[Zoraptor]

Set volume contracts is the reason iirc with Venezuela struggling to fulfill their commercial contracts due to poor maintenance. They do get some reciprocation from Cuba though, since Cuba has an excess of medical personnel and also makes a lot of drugs etc and they're things that Venezuela needs.

 

North Korea threatens to cancel Trump summit (poor article, but whatever): https://www.axios.com/north-korea-threatens-to-cancel-trump-summit-f9eee700-97b4-4e68-9ccc-68d2745dd701.html

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Ecclesiastes+1%3A9&version=NIV

 

Heather Nauert looked the most nervous I've seen her in her press briefing when asked about it, fluffing lines and fiddling with a disorganised sheaf of papers. NK has already cancelled the meeting with Moon scheduled for tomorrow. That's the problem with bigging up the meeting as a Trump masterstroke, it give Kim a whole lot of PR leverage if he threatens to pull out as that would make Trump look weak and not like the master negotiator he wants to look like- Kim is meant to be desperate to have it, and Trump is meant to be the one threatening to walk out.

[HoonDing]

Kim is playing 6D chess.

[smjjames]

Fuller article: https://www.vox.com/2018/5/15/17357928/north-korea-trump-summit-south-korea-cancel

 

Kim has too much at stake to just up and cancel over something they regularly complain about.

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-watch/wp/2018/05/11/the-protect-and-serve-act-is-political-grandstanding-over-a-nonexistent-problem-and-it-could-cause-real-harm/

 

It always gets worse.

[Blarghagh]

Looks like the US Senate blocked the Net Neutrality repeal for now.

[ShadySands]

It's widely popular among the peasants so it has no chance passing the house

[Bartimaeus]

Looks like the US Senate blocked the Net Neutrality repeal for now.

Not quite. It's only one half of the block - has to go through the House, which it almost certainly will not.

[Blarghagh]

You mean Twitter lied to me again?

[Bartimaeus]

I guess we'd have to see the tweet in question to know for sure.

[Amentep]

Twitter always lies.

[Blarghagh]

I guess we'd have to see the tweet in question to know for sure.

 

It said:

 

"US Senate blocked the Net Neutrality repeal"

 

So

[Guard Dog]

I like her! http://www.foxnews.com/us/2018/05/16/conservative-students-parting-shot-at-colleges-anti-gun-policies-goes-viral-come-and-take-it.html

[Amentep]

I like her! http://www.foxnews.com/us/2018/05/16/conservative-students-parting-shot-at-colleges-anti-gun-policies-goes-viral-come-and-take-it.html

 

While I think guns on campus is dumb, I think the inconsistent policies around campus carry is also dumb (removing police from the equation, I'm talking laws that allow students to arm themselves but not faculty/staff or laws where visitors can be armed but not student/faculty/staff).  Either guns are okay on campus or they're not.

[smjjames]

Saw that one on The Hill. Isn’t she wearing it rather low down though? I thought it was usually bandoliered on the back, not around the butt/hip.

Edited May 17, 2018 by smjjames

[Guard Dog]

Saw that one on The Hill. Isn’t she wearing it rather low down though? I thought it was usually bandoliered on the back, not around the butt/hip.

Don't read too much into it. It's just a picture to make a statement and stir the pot.

[Guard Dog]

Speaking of gun control and inconsistencies: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2018/05/17/boulder-passes-sweeping-anti-gun-bill-pro-2a-nonprofit-vows-to-sue-individual-councilmembers.html

 

For the most part the this is a "nothing to see here" story. City passes heavy handed gun control ordinance. Citizens are suing, yadda, yadda, yadda.

 

But I was struck by this one paragraph:

 

Certain law enforcement and military personnel are exempted from the ordinance.

Really? Why is that? Police service weapons are pistols, not rifles. The rifles used by SWAT are not owned by the officers. They are kept in the police armory when not in use. Ditto for military personnel. This is not the Confederate army. Military members do not provide their own weapons. And I can 1000% guarantee you they cannot take their weapon off base. In fact unless they on guard duty, training, or deployed they don't even have access to their weapons. So why the exemption?

[smjjames]

I’m not, was just wondering if that was the correct way to carry it. Maybe it’s just the most comfortable way for her. *shrug*