Source: (consider it)
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Thread: US election aftermath
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Leorning Cniht
Shipmate
# 17564
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Posted
quote: Originally posted by Lamb Chopped: In other words, since he is a politician, and women (just like men) need access to him, occasionally in private, then he is morally bound to make that possible and to an equal degree--that is, to build the freaking glass office, to take along a personal minder on all (not just female) meetings, and so forth.
Yes, I'd agree with this. Working late with lone men, but not lone women is a problem for the woman's career. Etc, etc.
So if you're going to have this kind of rule at work (rather than in your social life), you need to apply it to men as well. If you need to work late, keep two aides to work with you, or none. (I don't think Mike Pence is exotic enough for any impropriety that might involve more than two people.) Travel and dine with two staffers, not one - or take your wife along all the time.
But what if you can only afford to employ one aide? Would a Mike Pence ever hire a woman as his single aide? It's hard to see how he could, and remain within his other strictures. It's rather like the dentist, but expanded to be any woman, rather than just a woman he finds attractive.
We had an argument some time ago about barbers, brought on by a woman who wanted a male-style cut from a barber (much cheaper than the ladies' hairdresser) and was denied service. One of the examples that arose in that discussion was a potential barber who didn't want to cut a woman's hair for reasons of his own personal modesty (perhaps his religion doesn't allow physical contact between unrelated men and women). Should he be permitted to offer barbering services to men only?
(Privacy and decency are generally exceptions to sex discrimination law. If you're hiring someone to provide you with intimate personal care, it is legal to require them to be the same sex as you. It would seem to be a rather large stretch to extend this to aides you hire to travel with you, but perhaps you could make that fly.)
Posts: 5026 | From: USA | Registered: Feb 2013
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lilBuddha
Shipmate
# 14333
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Posted
quote: Originally posted by Leorning Cniht: No, that's not what I'm saying. I'm saying that the dog wants to chase the postman, but I've chained it up / shut it in the living room, and that the combination of dog, chains, and living room door is the thing called "behaviour".
You are repressing a desire, refraining from a behaviour, not modifying behaviour. You are not changing the way you think, is this better? Whatever reason Pence has in his own head for what he is doing, it is still a behaviour that hurts women. And I maintain that people are allowing the idea that humans are helpless sinners that must fight to control their terrible desires is underpinning this thought pattern. And that denies agency, and doing so is antithetical to Jesus' teachings.
Posts: 17627 | From: the round earth's imagined corners | Registered: Dec 2008
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Leorning Cniht
Shipmate
# 17564
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Posted
quote: Originally posted by lilBuddha:
You are not changing the way you think, is this better?
No, that's completely not what I am saying. If you are overruling your monkey-brain response with rational thought, you are exactly changing the way you think.
Rational thought is thinking. It's the instinctive monkey response that isn't thinking.
Overriding the monkey is exactly what agency is. [ 02. April 2017, 06:17: Message edited by: Leorning Cniht ]
Posts: 5026 | From: USA | Registered: Feb 2013
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Bishops Finger
Shipmate
# 5430
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Posted
Good grief. I still find it hard to believe that (some) Americans actually chose this man as their President.
Hopefully, it won't be too long before he shoots himself down in flames....
IJ
-------------------- Our words are giants when they do us an injury, and dwarfs when they do us a service. (Wilkie Collins)
Posts: 10151 | From: Behind The Wheel Again! | Registered: Jan 2004
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Augustine the Aleut
Shipmate
# 1472
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Posted
Leorning posts: quote: But what if you can only afford to employ one aide? Would a Mike Pence ever hire a woman as his single aide? It's hard to see how he could, and remain within his other strictures. It's rather like the dentist, but expanded to be any woman, rather than just a woman he finds attractive.
As Vice President Spence has 24 officer-level staff, and Lord knows how many support staff, it would not be a problem to set up a two-member rota to assist him after the regular work day (although, if it's anything like a Canadian ministerial work day, it's 12-14 hours).
Challenges to this pattern would occur more at the MP/Representative level, where staff tends to be less numerous but, as I've suggested before, some effort needs to be made to avoid problems and perceptions of problems.
Posts: 6236 | From: Ottawa, Canada | Registered: Oct 2001
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Leorning Cniht
Shipmate
# 17564
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Posted
quote: Originally posted by Augustine the Aleut:
Challenges to this pattern would occur more at the MP/Representative level, where staff tends to be less numerous but, as I've suggested before, some effort needs to be made to avoid problems and perceptions of problems.
Yeah - that's what I meant by "a Mike Pence" - someone of his views, but a junior politician with limited staff.
Posts: 5026 | From: USA | Registered: Feb 2013
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lilBuddha
Shipmate
# 14333
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Posted
quote: Originally posted by Leorning Cniht: No, that's completely not what I am saying. If you are overruling your monkey-brain response with rational thought, you are exactly changing the way you think.
What you are doing is attempting to control the desire, not trying to modify that desire. You dog will still bite, given the opportunity. My dog can be trusted alone with the postman.
quote:
Overriding the monkey is exactly what agency is.
I think it more than this. When Jesus spoke about lusting in the heart, it doesn't make sense to think of it in terms of the automatic responses which humans have. This removes agency and is, in part what you are doing. You will be attracted to whatever floats your boat, that is difficult to control. What you can control is where your mind goes from there. Other than bastards who just cheat, affairs are not a matter of opportunity, it is a process. And controlling that process is what avoids an affair, not slavish adherence to segregation.
-------------------- I put on my rockin' shoes in the morning Hallellou, hallellou
Posts: 17627 | From: the round earth's imagined corners | Registered: Dec 2008
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quetzalcoatl
Shipmate
# 16740
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Posted
I like lilbuddha's idea of retraining, but I think it can be very hard for some people. Some people have learned to eroticize lots of things, for example, loneliness, power, shame, and moving out of this is very difficult.
By exploring this stuff explicitly (talk therapy), you can retrain your mind and automatic reactions. If you keep it repressed, it may rear up and bite you. Hence, headlines about 'homophobic preacher caught with rentboy'.
'Helpless sinners' is an interesting idea in this context; must think more on it. [ 03. April 2017, 17:48: Message edited by: quetzalcoatl ]
-------------------- I can't talk to you today; I talked to two people yesterday.
Posts: 9878 | From: UK | Registered: Oct 2011
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lilBuddha
Shipmate
# 14333
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Posted
quote: Originally posted by quetzalcoatl: I like lilbuddha's idea of retraining, but I think it can be very hard for some people. Some people have learned to eroticize lots of things, for example, loneliness, power, shame, and moving out of this is very difficult.
I am not saying that it is easy. But we do it all the time, especially in the workplace. We are social creatures, but nothing in our evolution points directly to large populations. These are a result of retraining, not merely restraining.*
*Unless you are into that. #not judging. [ 03. April 2017, 18:25: Message edited by: lilBuddha ]
-------------------- I put on my rockin' shoes in the morning Hallellou, hallellou
Posts: 17627 | From: the round earth's imagined corners | Registered: Dec 2008
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quetzalcoatl
Shipmate
# 16740
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Posted
Well, some people want to shag everything that moves, but maybe this is going o/t.
-------------------- I can't talk to you today; I talked to two people yesterday.
Posts: 9878 | From: UK | Registered: Oct 2011
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rolyn
Shipmate
# 16840
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Posted
The US election aftermath and effect of Trump's shock victory quote: Originally posted by quetzalcoatl: Well, some people might want to shag everything that moves
Just trying link back on topic
-------------------- Change is the only certainty of existence
Posts: 3206 | From: U.K. | Registered: Dec 2011
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Crœsos
Shipmate
# 238
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Posted
quote: Originally posted by Eutychus: Bannon is no longer on the NSC.
Hooray?
What struck me about that article was this bit:
quote: The aide said Mr. Bannon was only given a seat on the NSC to keep an eye on National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, who was fired in February.
Maybe it's just me, but if you feel the need to "keep an eye on" someone it's a bad idea to make them your National Security Advisor or have them on the National Security Council.
Also, given that that source of this article is an anonymous "White House aide" I'd say Trump's crackdown on leaking is going about as well as his Obamacare repeal.
-------------------- Humani nil a me alienum puto
Posts: 10706 | From: Sardis, Lydia | Registered: May 2001
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Eutychus
From the edge
# 3081
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Posted
quote: Originally posted by Crœsos: quote: The aide said Mr. Bannon was only given a seat on the NSC to keep an eye on National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, who was fired in February.
Maybe it's just me, but if you feel the need to "keep an eye on" someone it's a bad idea to make them your National Security Advisor or have them on the National Security Council.
It also suggests they knew Flynn shouldn't have been there in the first place. Hardly a foresighted defence strategy?
-------------------- Let's remember that we are to build the Kingdom of God, not drive people away - pastor Frank Pomeroy
Posts: 17944 | From: 528491 | Registered: Jul 2002
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Brenda Clough
Shipmate
# 18061
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Posted
Remember that "keep an eye on" means a different thing in the PGinC's lexicon. You and I assume that it means that Flynn was untrustworthy, incapable, liable to fail at being NSC chief, all the usual things. And that therefore this called for close parental supervision, so that bad things would not happen. The same way you would 'keep an eye on' your six-year-old when you sit him at the wheel of your car. Lyin' Don keeps an eye on people for one thing only -- disloyalty to himself. On every other subject and eventuality, the chips may fall where they will.
-------------------- Science fiction and fantasy writer with a Patreon page
Posts: 6378 | From: Washington DC | Registered: Mar 2014
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Brenda Clough
Shipmate
# 18061
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Posted
OK, this is -great-. A minor bureaucrat ("seemed destined to pass directly from obscurity to oblivion") steps into the lists against the PGinC and becomes a hero ("brad pitt for us smart girls!"). He even attended the high school in my town. What a pity his term is coming to an end! I tremble to think who might next get the job. You think Jared Kushner has any spare time?
-------------------- Science fiction and fantasy writer with a Patreon page
Posts: 6378 | From: Washington DC | Registered: Mar 2014
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Hedgehog
Ship's Shortstop
# 14125
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Posted
quote: Originally posted by Brenda Clough: I tremble to think who might next get the job. You think Jared Kushner has any spare time?
Maybe not, but now Bannon does!
-------------------- "We must regain the conviction that we need one another, that we have a shared responsibility for others and the world, and that being good and decent are worth it."--Pope Francis, Laudato Si'
Posts: 2740 | From: Delaware, USA | Registered: Sep 2008
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Martin60
Shipmate
# 368
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Posted
I don't understand how Trump's view of Assad could have changed.
-------------------- Love wins
Posts: 17586 | From: Never Dobunni after all. Corieltauvi after all. Just moved to the capital. | Registered: Jun 2001
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Golden Key
Shipmate
# 1468
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Posted
Martin--
Two possibilities, that I can think of:
1) He watched so much CNN that he was made to see injured and dead kids over and over, and he finally got it.
2) Ivanka and/or Melania had a private discussion with him, and he finally got it.
I think he's pre-disposed to like any of the "strong-man" leaders. He even admires Mubarak of Egypt. So he's got to have a lot of clashing in his mind about this. We'll see how long his momentary insight lasts.
-------------------- Blessed Gator, pray for us! --"Oh bat bladders, do you have to bring common sense into this?" (Dragon, "Jane & the Dragon") --"Oh, Peace Train, save this country!" (Yusuf/Cat Stevens, "Peace Train")
Posts: 18601 | From: Chilling out in an undisclosed, sincere pumpkin patch. | Registered: Oct 2001
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lilBuddha
Shipmate
# 14333
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Posted
I think it is fairly obvious that he didn't pay great attention to world events prior to being elected. And he never had to do more than bloviate.
-------------------- I put on my rockin' shoes in the morning Hallellou, hallellou
Posts: 17627 | From: the round earth's imagined corners | Registered: Dec 2008
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Brenda Clough
Shipmate
# 18061
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Posted
A how-things-stand-now piece from New York Magazine. It should be a free click. The author argues that Lyin' Don may be the final nail in the GOP coffin.
-------------------- Science fiction and fantasy writer with a Patreon page
Posts: 6378 | From: Washington DC | Registered: Mar 2014
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Brenda Clough
Shipmate
# 18061
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Posted
Drat, forgot to append the money quote, which is a gem: 'Michael Anton’s now-iconic essay, “The Flight 93 Election,” made the case for Trump as a desperation gamble. (Hence the metaphor to a hijacked airline flight whose passengers had to choose a desperate and probably doomed fight over certain death.) Anton, now a staffer in Trump’s administration, saw another four years of Democratic presidencies as the end of white America and conservative America. Most Republicans — even those, like Anton, deeply suspicious of Trump — ultimately agreed. Almost the entire GOP decided its hatred or fear of Clinton overrode their misgivings about their own nominee, and, with varying levels of enthusiasm, supported Trump. They brought disaster upon their country, but as a small measure of compensatory justice, they have also brought it upon their party. By the time Trump has departed the Oval Office, they will look longingly at a staid, boxed-in Clinton presidency as a road not taken.'
-------------------- Science fiction and fantasy writer with a Patreon page
Posts: 6378 | From: Washington DC | Registered: Mar 2014
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L'organist
Shipmate
# 17338
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Posted
QUESTION: Do you think if you gave Trump a globe with no writing on it he'd be able to locate, even approximately, Syria? Just idle conjecture.
-------------------- Rara temporum felicitate ubi sentire quae velis et quae sentias dicere licet
Posts: 4950 | From: somewhere in England... | Registered: Sep 2012
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Stercus Tauri
Shipmate
# 16668
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Posted
quote: Originally posted by L'organist: QUESTION: Do you think if you gave Trump a globe with no writing on it he'd be able to locate, even approximately, Syria? Just idle conjecture.
His first question: "It's round? Like a golf ball?"
-------------------- Thay haif said. Quhat say thay, Lat thame say (George Keith, 5th Earl Marischal)
Posts: 905 | From: On the traditional lands of the Six Nations. | Registered: Sep 2011
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Brenda Clough
Shipmate
# 18061
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Posted
Sadly, a significant proportion of the American population probably could not. So in that he probably fairly represents the nation. We are as a nation painfully light on geography. There are some appalling late-night TV man-on-the-street interviews about this.
-------------------- Science fiction and fantasy writer with a Patreon page
Posts: 6378 | From: Washington DC | Registered: Mar 2014
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Pigwidgeon
Ship's Owl
# 10192
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Posted
Last fall when Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson asked "What is Aleppo?" the Opinions Editor of the Phoenix newspaper was quite snarky -- after all, EVERYONE knows that Aleppo is the capital of Syria! (I sent her an email correcting her.)
A Presidential candidate should know what and where Aleppo is. A Newspaper editor should know what and where Aleppo is, especially before she's contemptuous of someone else.
Unfortunately, they're both pretty typical.
-------------------- "...that is generally a matter for Pigwidgeon, several other consenting adults, a bottle of cheap Gin and the odd giraffe." ~Tortuf
Posts: 9835 | From: Hogwarts | Registered: Aug 2005
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Martin60
Shipmate
# 368
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Posted
Russia will not give Assad up. Ever.
They will not allow the UN in to prove he did what no one else could.
Taking out his air force means the Russians will take up the slack.
Take out his air force and enforce a no-fly zone for any surviving Syrian aircraft.
That way he can't gas babies and bomb the hospitals they're taken to.
Anything less and Trump will look as nearly as weak as Obama.
Anything more destabilizes Syria and the entire Sunni-Shia patchwork balance.
-------------------- Love wins
Posts: 17586 | From: Never Dobunni after all. Corieltauvi after all. Just moved to the capital. | Registered: Jun 2001
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Barnabas62
Host
# 9110
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Posted
50 to 60 US Tomahawks have just hit a regime airbase in Syria. An early report also says that Putin was not informed in advance. The targeting is connected with intelligence re chemical weapons capability.
Reality just bit.
-------------------- Who is it that you seek? How then shall we live? How shall we sing the Lord's song in a strange land?
Posts: 21397 | From: Norfolk UK | Registered: Feb 2005
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Brenda Clough
Shipmate
# 18061
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Posted
Now would be a good time to pray.
-------------------- Science fiction and fantasy writer with a Patreon page
Posts: 6378 | From: Washington DC | Registered: Mar 2014
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jedijudy
Organist of the Jedi Temple
# 333
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Posted
I really, really wish that Trump wasn't going to be in my state. If there is retaliation, I don't want any of my loved ones to be collateral damage.
Praying seems to be the best idea right now.
-------------------- Jasmine, little cat with a big heart.
Posts: 18017 | From: 'Twixt the 'Glades and the Gulf | Registered: Aug 2001
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cliffdweller
Shipmate
# 13338
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Posted
quote: Originally posted by Brenda Clough: Now would be a good time to pray.
God help us-- and them.
-------------------- "Here is the world. Beautiful and terrible things will happen. Don't be afraid." -Frederick Buechner
Posts: 11242 | From: a small canyon overlooking the city | Registered: Jan 2008
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Brenda Clough
Shipmate
# 18061
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Posted
A hundred years ago today was the day that the US entered WW1. No writer would ever have set up events this way, it's too pat. We are trapped in a melodrama written by a hack.
-------------------- Science fiction and fantasy writer with a Patreon page
Posts: 6378 | From: Washington DC | Registered: Mar 2014
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simontoad
Ship's Amphibian
# 18096
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Posted
The Sunni/shia balance is well and truly destabilised Martin. Yemen is the immediate proof, but the existence of ISIS and the civil war in Iraq are too.
I'm glad the United States attacked Syria in this way, although an attack on the compound where Assad is staying would be good too. I think its a measured response to chemical weapons use. Every time a government uses these weapons there should be a response like this. Attacks on the individuals involved in making a decision to use chemical weapons are the best way to make the decision harder in the future.
-------------------- Human
Posts: 1571 | From: Romsey, Vic, AU | Registered: May 2014
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Eutychus
From the edge
# 3081
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Posted
The thing that bothers me about it is its unpredictability in the light of former policy orientations. I would imagine that other states that have previously had support, albeit arms'-length support, of the US, must be wondering if the tune might suddenly change for them too.
The way the action was taken (rather than the action itself) appears destabilising to me.
-------------------- Let's remember that we are to build the Kingdom of God, not drive people away - pastor Frank Pomeroy
Posts: 17944 | From: 528491 | Registered: Jul 2002
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Martin60
Shipmate
# 368
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Posted
quote: Originally posted by Barnabas62: 50 to 60 US Tomahawks have just hit a regime airbase in Syria. An early report also says that Putin was not informed in advance. The targeting is connected with intelligence re chemical weapons capability.
Reality just bit.
I was out by 10-20.
This will give North Korea pause for thought.
-------------------- Love wins
Posts: 17586 | From: Never Dobunni after all. Corieltauvi after all. Just moved to the capital. | Registered: Jun 2001
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Martin60
Shipmate
# 368
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Posted
@simontoad. My realpolitik wiring agrees.
-------------------- Love wins
Posts: 17586 | From: Never Dobunni after all. Corieltauvi after all. Just moved to the capital. | Registered: Jun 2001
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Eutychus
From the edge
# 3081
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Posted
quote: Originally posted by Martin60: This will give North Korea pause for thought.
Again, maybe it will, but mostly in the way that the Dear Leader gives the rest of the world pause for thought, i.e. not in a good way but on grounds of unpredictability.
-------------------- Let's remember that we are to build the Kingdom of God, not drive people away - pastor Frank Pomeroy
Posts: 17944 | From: 528491 | Registered: Jul 2002
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Martin60
Shipmate
# 368
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Posted
That's all factored in. Kim Wrong Un can be as unpredictable as he wants, he can't launch a nuke. Yet. Trump is implying he NEVER will.
-------------------- Love wins
Posts: 17586 | From: Never Dobunni after all. Corieltauvi after all. Just moved to the capital. | Registered: Jun 2001
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Martin60
Shipmate
# 368
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Posted
quote: Originally posted by jedijudy: I really, really wish that Trump wasn't going to be in my state. If there is retaliation, I don't want any of my loved ones to be collateral damage.
Praying seems to be the best idea right now.
There will be no retaliation. An unstable lone wolf might be encouraged to go berserk.
Praying is good for the prayor.
-------------------- Love wins
Posts: 17586 | From: Never Dobunni after all. Corieltauvi after all. Just moved to the capital. | Registered: Jun 2001
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Martin60
Shipmate
# 368
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Posted
quote: Originally posted by Brenda Clough: Now would be a good time to pray.
What?
-------------------- Love wins
Posts: 17586 | From: Never Dobunni after all. Corieltauvi after all. Just moved to the capital. | Registered: Jun 2001
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Kwesi
Shipmate
# 10274
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Posted
Who knows what Trump is trying to do in Syria, but his intervention is in line with his obsession with Obama: anything Obama did or failed to do has to be reversed. It is also the case that the US has an interest in keeping the Syrian situation on the boil because it gets Russia further embroiled at increasing financial, military and political cost to itself. Missile strikes at Syrian military targets, by contrast, are low cost to the US. How this helps the Syrian civilian population is anyone's guess.
Posts: 1641 | From: South Ofankor | Registered: Sep 2005
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Martin60
Shipmate
# 368
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Posted
They won't get nerve gassed again. Unless Assad uses ground based missiles. Mortars more likely. Which he will if he can. He has no internal Western constraints whatsoever. It would be the smart thing to do in fact as that would force Trump to attack army and government targets to little effect, Assad isn't Gaddafi with a couple of jeepsful of thugs, and would further demoralize the Sunni insurrection. The region plays by Hama Rules, always has, not just since '82 when Hama was levelled. Assad CANNOT lose.
-------------------- Love wins
Posts: 17586 | From: Never Dobunni after all. Corieltauvi after all. Just moved to the capital. | Registered: Jun 2001
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mousethief
Ship's Thieving Rodent
# 953
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Posted
quote: Originally posted by Martin60: Praying is good for the prayor.
This is a bad thing how?
-------------------- This is the last sig I'll ever write for you...
Posts: 63536 | From: Washington | Registered: Jul 2001
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Martin60
Shipmate
# 368
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Posted
Not at all. Au contraire. It's at least the ultimate placebo. I'm all for it. I may talk to God about it all at some point, but probably not. Although I don't want to backslide in to advocating war as the result of realistically analysing such situations. I'd happily pray to endorse and encourage any incarnational action by anyone. And bow my head and assent amen in any placebo ritual.
I do take up God's complete and utter ongoing nonintervention with Him. As if He weren't. We have a laugh about it even. [ 07. April 2017, 13:43: Message edited by: Martin60 ]
-------------------- Love wins
Posts: 17586 | From: Never Dobunni after all. Corieltauvi after all. Just moved to the capital. | Registered: Jun 2001
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Martin60
Shipmate
# 368
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Posted
quote: Originally posted by Barnabas62: 50 to 60 US Tomahawks have just hit a regime airbase in Syria. An early report also says that Putin was not informed in advance. The targeting is connected with intelligence re chemical weapons capability.
Reality just bit.
Whose early report? Of course he was, and he was. I was out by 11 or 12 if they can make their minds up.
-------------------- Love wins
Posts: 17586 | From: Never Dobunni after all. Corieltauvi after all. Just moved to the capital. | Registered: Jun 2001
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