OutByEaster? Posted January 5, 2022 Moderator Share Posted January 5, 2022 The equipment is equally profitable whether it works properly in the theatre you wind up in or not. It's like some of you don't understand the US military and the reasons for its giant budget. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fruitvilla Posted January 5, 2022 Share Posted January 5, 2022 11 hours ago, magnkarl said: The new superpowers of the world are EU, NATO and China. The US has lost all its soft power by being loonies if they reelect the guy that promoted horse medication as a cure to corona. I've no idea how the once sensible US managed to fall this far. That goes for both sides of the spectrum, MSNBC and Fox is just as bad as each other with constant opinion 'news'. No one in the US actually knows what the news is anymore as they're being spoon fed by Tucker Carlsson and Rachel Maddow. America's press freedom is ranked 41st in the world. That is a seriously crappy number for the country that claims to be nr 1. Similar data but with a reliability estimate can be found here:Interactive Media Bias Chart Public - Ad Fontes Media Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HanoiVillan Posted January 6, 2022 Share Posted January 6, 2022 The Republican will to win being demonstrated in Michigan (again) Michigan GOP petitions to rewrite voting, pandemic and school laws in 2022 'Michigan Republicans want to tighten voting laws, limit pandemic regulations and create a voucher-like school scholarship program in 2022. And they could do it all without approval from Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, who has already vetoed similar measures, and without a vote of the people in the next election. Instead, Republicans are circulating a trio of petitions that would allow them to circumvent Whitmer and create new laws of their own, a maneuver that experts say is clearly legal but has never been utilized with such frequency — and such high stakes. The Michigan Constitution includes an indirect initiative process allowing legislators to adopt measures initiated by petitions that are signed by at least 8 percent of voters in the state’s last gubernatorial election. And it is one of just two states with a provision expressly prohibiting a gubernatorial veto. The Republican-led Legislature used the process to avoid a Whitmer veto earlier this year, approving the Unlock Michigan initiative to repeal a 1954 emergency powers law the governor had used to issue stay-home and other orders early in the COVID-19 pandemic. And now, they’re at it again with a trio of initiatives proposing to toughen voter ID rules, limit unilateral health department pandemic orders to 28 days and create tax credit scholarship funds that parents could use to pay for private school tuition. Organizers will need to collect at least 340,047 valid voter signatures to send the Secure MI Vote, Unlock Michigan 2 and Let MI KIds Learn initiatives to the Republican-led Legislature for likely enactment next year. If they pull it off, Whitmer — who received 2.3 million votes in 2018 — could not stop them. Democrats argue the GOP is exploiting a constitutional “loophole” to push a conservative policy agenda that a majority of voters may not support. Republicans say their strategy is smart politics. "It's not a game," said Fred Wszolek, a veteran political strategist working on all three of the big Republican petition drives announced earlier this year and expected to continue into 2022. "This is a mechanism that (framers) put into the constitution to get policy accomplished,” he said. “And so this is what we're doing. No education reform worth its name would pass with this governor, so we're just doing it the other way."' more at: https://www.bridgemi.com/michigan-government/michigan-gop-petitions-rewrite-voting-pandemic-and-school-laws-2022 Seems like a brilliant system! Definitely worth riding roughshod over representative democracy to [checks notes] put in place a voucher system to help rich people pay for private school tuition. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OutByEaster? Posted January 6, 2022 Moderator Share Posted January 6, 2022 Privatise, deregulate, cut taxes, reduce democracy - same as it ever was. Sweet home Chicago. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
magnkarl Posted January 6, 2022 Share Posted January 6, 2022 (edited) 21 hours ago, Panto_Villan said: It’s only France that has nukes in the EU so conceivably Russia could gobble up quite a bit of Eastern Europe before someone decided to end the world, but yeah, you would hope nukes would act as a deterrent before it got that far. That said I’m curious as to what technology you think the EU has that’s vastly superior to Russian equipment, and who operates it? The Russians have run a massive military modernisation project since the 2000s and their equipment is generally on par with Western equivalents these days, plus it’s been battle tested in various places (e.g. Syria) so they know it works. You talk like they’re using old Cold War gear, but that Russia is long gone. I actually think it would be the other way around. It looks like the EU has more men and equipment overall than Russia does, but a lot of it would be more outdated than the stuff the Russians are using. For instance the Greeks have 1,600 tanks compared to the Russian 2,500 tanks, but the most modern Greek stuff is on par with the least modern stuff the Russians are using - and the Russians have another 7000 of those tanks sitting in storage! I guess it depends on who attacks and where. Finland, Norway, Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia have been gearing up for a grinding defense since forever. Finland's actually got practice beating the Russians and can conscript pretty much everyone of fighting age. Norway, Sweden and Finland's fighter jets are vastly superior to Russia's top of the line models (F35, JAS39, Hornets). Russia doesn't have enough high quality SU-27 and 35's to counter NATO\EU. If you attack the EU, you pretty much attack NATO, which ensures that the UK\USA and Turkey with their massive standing army joins in. It's not a gamble Putin wants at all, he's not got the finances behind him to even try. The Baltic States have actually been taking a fairly leading role within NATO lately, which is further proof that I think the alliance will be okay even without the US. Don't underestimate the hate found in Poland\Baltic states for their war mongering neighbour to the East. Edited January 6, 2022 by magnkarl 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Genie Posted January 6, 2022 Share Posted January 6, 2022 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sne Posted January 6, 2022 Share Posted January 6, 2022 I see the senile ol' dotards Biden and Trump are fighting it out after that Biden speech Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sne Posted January 6, 2022 Share Posted January 6, 2022 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
villakram Posted January 11, 2022 Share Posted January 11, 2022 I would suggest that all the war talk focus on the drone heavy tactics utilized in the recent conflict in Armenia, so your war fantasies are at least grounded in reality. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MakemineVanilla Posted January 11, 2022 Share Posted January 11, 2022 Chomsky doesn't seem to have anything good to say about any post-war President of either party. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nick76 Posted January 13, 2022 Share Posted January 13, 2022 (edited) Wow, first time after over 700 people already charged re Jan 6th that 11 people have been charged with something actually classed as trying to overthrow the government Quote Seditious conspiracy is a conspiracy to commit sedition. It is a federal crime in the United States per 18 U.S.C. § 2384: If two or more persons in any State or Territory, or in any place subject to the jurisdiction of the United States, conspire to overthrow, put down, or to destroy by force the Government of the United States, or to levy war against them, or to oppose by force the authority thereof, or by force to prevent, hinder, or delay the execution of any law of the United States, or by force to seize, take, or possess any property of the United States contrary to the authority thereof, they shall each be fined or imprisoned not more than 20 years, or both. For a seditious conspiracy charge to be effected, a crime need only be planned, it need not be actually attempted. Edited January 13, 2022 by nick76 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bickster Posted January 14, 2022 Moderator Share Posted January 14, 2022 15 hours ago, nick76 said: Wow, first time after over 700 people already charged re Jan 6th that 11 people have been charged with something actually classed as trying to overthrow the government Yeah, they were always going to get the small fry (relatively) out of the way first. The longer this goes on, the bigger the charges against people will be 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nick76 Posted January 14, 2022 Share Posted January 14, 2022 7 minutes ago, bickster said: Yeah, they were always going to get the small fry (relatively) out of the way first. The longer this goes on, the bigger the charges against people will be Yeah and maybe more well known people will start to get charged. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HanoiVillan Posted January 14, 2022 Share Posted January 14, 2022 Unfortunately, the first act of Trump (or whichever other Republican gets elected in 2024) is going to be to pardon all of these people anyway. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DCJonah Posted January 19, 2022 Share Posted January 19, 2022 Strong words. Will anything come from it. Boris could go and Trump could finally face legal consequences. Could things start to matter again? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
magnkarl Posted January 19, 2022 Share Posted January 19, 2022 18 minutes ago, DCJonah said: Strong words. Will anything come from it. Boris could go and Trump could finally face legal consequences. Could things start to matter again? I don't think this case will be what breaks the camel's back. It'll be if and when the Jan 6th committee subpoenas Roger Stone, Mark Meadows, Mike Pence, Kevin McCarthy and the gaggle of pseudo-nazi Republican senators like Josh Hawley etc. Cracks will form and they will start to oust each other on live TV when the hearings go public. Hopefully it'll be a Watergate moment where they can actually take legal action against the man himself. Alternatively when the leader of the Oathkeepers realises he's close to life in prison he'll start to tell everyone how Roger Stone planned the insurrection and recruited his nazi-militia group. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PussEKatt Posted January 19, 2022 Share Posted January 19, 2022 When did Trump ever listen to anybody except himself ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheAuthority Posted January 19, 2022 VT Supporter Share Posted January 19, 2022 3 hours ago, magnkarl said: I don't think this case will be what breaks the camel's back. It'll be if and when the Jan 6th committee subpoenas Roger Stone, Mark Meadows, Mike Pence, Kevin McCarthy and the gaggle of pseudo-nazi Republican senators like Josh Hawley etc. Cracks will form and they will start to oust each other on live TV when the hearings go public. Hopefully it'll be a Watergate moment where they can actually take legal action against the man himself. Alternatively when the leader of the Oathkeepers realises he's close to life in prison he'll start to tell everyone how Roger Stone planned the insurrection and recruited his nazi-militia group. McCarthy has already said he won’t talk to them. This is part of Bannon et als plan to de-legitimize existing structures and institutions. This committee is being made to look toothless and by extension so is Congress. Faith in government is at an all time low here. Bannon & Stone are getting exactly what they want and I don’t see anyone bright enough around to stop them Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sne Posted January 21, 2022 Share Posted January 21, 2022 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sne Posted January 22, 2022 Share Posted January 22, 2022 This will go down well with some very rich people, anyone got Cuban in their death pool? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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