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Edited by Mrph1 on Nov 30th 2023 at 11:03:59 AM

SciFiSlasher from Absolutely none of your business. Since: Dec, 2011 Relationship Status: YOU'RE TEARING ME APART LISA
#259651: Nov 1st 2018 at 5:52:08 PM

During the same interview, Trump claimed he is "pretty good at estimating crowd sizes," which is how he knows the group of migrants traveling north through Central America is "a lot bigger than people would think." (ABC News)

Is there anything Our Dear Leader isn't good at?

"Somehow the hated have to walk a tightrope, while those who hate do not."
kkhohoho (4 Score & 7 Years Ago)
BearyScary Since: Sep, 2010 Relationship Status: You spin me right round, baby
#259653: Nov 1st 2018 at 6:02:46 PM

Being a person with actual character?

Do not obey in advance.
Friendperson Since: May, 2018
#259654: Nov 1st 2018 at 7:24:55 PM

When did the concept of caring about your fellow human beings become "radical?"

Wildcard Since: Jun, 2012
#259655: Nov 1st 2018 at 7:41:04 PM

Honestly, I'm worried that a Military man with an itchy trigger finger is gonna kill a few with a rifle or handgun and a few more are gonna follow and then get called "a lone actor not influenced by Trump at all" or they will justify it and while he would get prison anyone else who fired wouldn't.

It is illegal, but the oversight the military has a lot of the same accountability problems the cops have.

kkhohoho (4 Score & 7 Years Ago)
#259656: Nov 1st 2018 at 7:52:29 PM

[up]Which would be a problem if they were expected to interact with the migrants, but they aren't. Mostly they will be doing logistics and behind the scenes stuff so that Border Patrol can do their job. Most of them shouldn't even be armed.

TechPriest90 Servant of the Omnissiah from Collegia Titanica, Mars, Sol System Since: Sep, 2015 Relationship Status: Above such petty unnecessities
Servant of the Omnissiah
#259657: Nov 1st 2018 at 8:21:27 PM

".....Costs up to a million dollars per day to send more soldiers to the border....."

Funny how silent the budget hawks of the Republican Party have gone. Is this not a clear cut example of wasteful public spending?

That money isn't the President's personal piggy-bank. It's public money, paid from taxes on hard earned wages.

But hey, I guess it's probably not wasteful when the ruling dispensation does it.

Edited by TechPriest90 on Nov 1st 2018 at 11:25:02 AM

I hold the secrets of the machine.
Wildcard Since: Jun, 2012
#259658: Nov 1st 2018 at 8:28:48 PM

[up][up]Thanks for the reminder. But I'm not sure Agent Orange would punish if anyone went awol and did go to border. Especially with his baseclamoring for a gun to go off.

M84 Oh, bother. from Our little blue planet Since: Jun, 2010 Relationship Status: Chocolate!
Oh, bother.
#259659: Nov 1st 2018 at 8:31:37 PM

[up][up]IOKIYAR (It's OK If You're A Republican)

Disgusted, but not surprised
Draghinazzo (4 Score & 7 Years Ago) Relationship Status: I get a feeling so complicated...
#259660: Nov 1st 2018 at 8:37:26 PM

If we listed all the double standards at play we'd be here all day.

One of the most transparent ones for me was how the Republicans hated Bill Clinton for being a democrat and beating Bush Sr, and so they prattled on about family values and how him being a horndog and an adulterer was a stain on the presidency.

That's not to say that Bill's behavior towards women was in any way appropriate, but Donald is on an entirely different level of debauchery and misogyny, and yet somehow there they are gassing him and pretending they still have the moral high ground.

Edited by Draghinazzo on Nov 1st 2018 at 11:37:47 AM

M84 Oh, bother. from Our little blue planet Since: Jun, 2010 Relationship Status: Chocolate!
Oh, bother.
#259661: Nov 1st 2018 at 8:44:28 PM

And as has been brought up before, no one in the GOP is raising a fuss about the many, many security risks such as Trump using unsecured phones. While with Clinton it was "EMAILEMAILEMAIL".

Disgusted, but not surprised
BearyScary Since: Sep, 2010 Relationship Status: You spin me right round, baby
#259662: Nov 1st 2018 at 8:55:39 PM

[up]Exactly.

Do not obey in advance.
kkhohoho (4 Score & 7 Years Ago)
MarqFJA The Cosmopolitan Fictioneer from Deserts of the Middle East (Before Recorded History) Relationship Status: Anime is my true love
The Cosmopolitan Fictioneer
#259664: Nov 1st 2018 at 9:14:39 PM

What would it take to add a rule that requires the Secret Service to confiscate any phone that the POTUS uses for government business involving sensitive/classified information if it's proven to be unsecure?

Edited by MarqFJA on Nov 1st 2018 at 7:15:14 PM

Fiat iustitia, et pereat mundus.
RedSavant Since: Jan, 2001
#259665: Nov 1st 2018 at 9:23:16 PM

I actually saw someone post on my (liberal) uncle's Facebook that the news story about Trump using an unsecured phone had finally convinced him that Trump was... as bad as Hillary's emails.

It's been fun.
Robrecht Your friendly neighbourhood Regent from The Netherlands Since: Jan, 2001 Relationship Status: They can't hide forever. We've got satellites.
Your friendly neighbourhood Regent
#259666: Nov 1st 2018 at 9:39:15 PM

Which would be a problem if they were expected to interact with the migrants, but they aren't. Mostly they will be doing logistics and behind the scenes stuff so that Border Patrol can do their job. Most of them shouldn't even be armed.

This would be more reassuring if not for the US already having a history of deploying military groups abroad under the notion that they are just 'advisers' going there to 'provide training'. And, crucially, 'they're just there to help with logistics' is one of the historic excuses for sending regular soldiers.

On account of you can defend sending a bunch of officers with a small group of specialists or a special forces unit under the excuse that they're there to advise and train the locals... But ain't nobody going to believe that Private third class Cooter from Bumfuck, Louisiana is in a position to advise or train anyone in anything other than which bits of a half-flattened roadkill possum are still halfway edible.

Still, 'logistics' just means carrying stuff around. You can justify deploying a lot of soldiers under the excuse that they're there for 'logistics'. And you can have a lot of 'accidents' if you decide that the area that most needs 'logistics' right now is the one right in the path of the people you want to have those 'accidents'.

Not saying that that's the plan here... Just saying that if that was the plan, 'logistic support' is exactly what they'd call it, because that's exactly what they've called it in the past.

Edited by Robrecht on Nov 1st 2018 at 5:42:50 PM

Angry gets shit done.
LeGarcon Blowout soon fellow Stalker from Skadovsk Since: Aug, 2013 Relationship Status: Gay for Big Boss
Blowout soon fellow Stalker
#259667: Nov 1st 2018 at 9:53:53 PM

Considering the Pentagon hates Trump's guts and has a history of finding ways to ignore or circumvent almost literally every order they've given him, I think its safe to assume nothing is going to happen.

Oh really when?
archonspeaks Since: Jun, 2013
#259668: Nov 2nd 2018 at 4:04:57 AM

[up][up] If a soldier somehow sees a migrant, the only thing they could do would be to call CBP. Anything else would count as enforcing domestic law, which is like the #1 thing the military isn’t allowed to do. Half of these guys won’t even be armed, or will be “directing traffic and handing out water” in the words of a local polician who went down to check out some border areas.

And the argument that they’ve used euphemisms for special forces action before so they might be doing it now falls completely apart when you take into account that we know which units are being sent, and they’re not combat units, and that they’re going to be doing the exact same thing the military has been doing on the border since the 80s.

Oh, and the additional soldiers being sent to the border probably won’t even be there when the caravan arrives. They’re only funded through December 15th, and the caravan isn’t supposed to arrive until after that.

Seriously, let’s not fearmonger about this so much. It’s an empty PR move by a president desperate to rally his base ahead of an increasingly challenging-looking election.

Edited by archonspeaks on Nov 2nd 2018 at 4:06:01 AM

They should have sent a poet.
Fourthspartan56 from Georgia, US Since: Oct, 2016 Relationship Status: THIS CONCEPT OF 'WUV' CONFUSES AND INFURIATES US!
#259669: Nov 2nd 2018 at 6:29:38 AM

I found this interesting table comparing early voting turnout between 2018 and 2014.

Voting amongst people aged 65+ has decreased by -14%.

Furthermore the number of people in Texas who are under 30 and have never voted at all before exceeds the total number of first time voters in other states.

Something closer to home for me is that 17.7% of the votes cast in Georgia so far have been from people under 40 and at this point in 2014 they only accounted for 9.6% of the vote.

If young people are turning out as much as this seems then I'm beginning to suspect that those D+9 polls may have drastically underestimated our chances.

Edited by Fourthspartan56 on Nov 2nd 2018 at 9:31:03 AM

"Einstein would turn over in his grave. Not only does God play dice, the dice are loaded." -Chairman Sheng-Ji Yang
M84 Oh, bother. from Our little blue planet Since: Jun, 2010 Relationship Status: Chocolate!
Oh, bother.
#259670: Nov 2nd 2018 at 6:31:25 AM

While it's better than the opposite situation, I'd still refrain from celebrating just by looking at Early Voting. Wait until 11/6.

Still, it's encouraging.

Disgusted, but not surprised
Fourthspartan56 from Georgia, US Since: Oct, 2016 Relationship Status: THIS CONCEPT OF 'WUV' CONFUSES AND INFURIATES US!
#259671: Nov 2nd 2018 at 6:34:02 AM

While it's better than the opposite situation, I'd still refrain from celebrating just by looking at Early Voting. Wait until 11/6.

I disagree, there's nothing irrational about acknowledging good data and extrapolating from there to form a positive opinion.

As long as you're free of complacency (as I am) there's no real harm to it, especially considering that such things can drive up enthusiasm.

Still, it's encouraging.

I agree. smile

"Einstein would turn over in his grave. Not only does God play dice, the dice are loaded." -Chairman Sheng-Ji Yang
Swanpride Since: Jun, 2013
#259672: Nov 2nd 2018 at 6:40:45 AM

I wouldn't worry about the early voter ballots too much. Young voters, new voters and swing voters tend to turn up on election day, and they are the ones which tend to put predictions out of whack.

Fourthspartan56 from Georgia, US Since: Oct, 2016 Relationship Status: THIS CONCEPT OF 'WUV' CONFUSES AND INFURIATES US!
#259673: Nov 2nd 2018 at 6:44:28 AM

I wouldn't worry about the early voter ballots too much. Young voters, new voters and swing voters tend to turn up on election day, and they are the ones which tend to put predictions out of whack.

Oh certainly, my point was just that early voting indicators are looking good and if that reflects election day (as it very well may due to all of the things you've said) then things could go very well for us.

So my feelings on the matter are the opposite of worry smile

"Einstein would turn over in his grave. Not only does God play dice, the dice are loaded." -Chairman Sheng-Ji Yang
thok That's Dr. Title, thank you! (4 Score & 7 Years Ago) Relationship Status: Non-Canon
That's Dr. Title, thank you!
#259674: Nov 2nd 2018 at 6:48:09 AM

The problem with judging things by early voting is that it might just be shuffling the timing of when votes appear and not who is actually voting, and there's no good way to tell which is the case. It's not bad news, but it's also not necessarily good news. It's just news.

Friendperson Since: May, 2018
#259675: Nov 2nd 2018 at 7:23:05 AM

I think we can wait four days without wringing our hands about early voting. Be patient, intelligence and common decency will win in the end.


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