Miscellaneous And Off Topic Subjects

[Da Geezer]

The Texas provision is probably just a poorly thought out law. The cynical part of me might say state Republicans figured their voters are too smart and sophisticated to let this trip them up, heh, but it didn’t work out that way.

Whatever the motivation the only reason the provision exists it to pander to election fraud fantasists. And the result is 28,000 people had their votes thrown in the trash. And because it’s extremely difficult for anyone under 65 to vote by mail in Texas anymore they were almost all seniors.

I read the Texas Tribune piece and still don't know what part of the law disenfranchised 24,000 people, mostly seniors. Can you clarify?

[Da Geezer]

Either that or they recognize that stupid people disproportionately vote in their favor.

Reread Jon's post. Confirmed.

[Da Geezer]

Today, I heard a guy in the coffee shop say, "Why don't they deadbolt lock the classroom doors from the inside."? Why not?

[Dr. Strangelove]

I read the Texas Tribune piece and still don't know what part of the law disenfranchised 24,000 people, mostly seniors. Can you clarify?

They added a new provision that for your mail ballot to count you had to provide EITHER your Driver License ID # or the last four digits of your SS#. Which sounds easy enough but you had to use whichever of the two you put on your forms when you first registered to vote. Which was possibly decades ago. So if you used your Driver License to register but wrote down your SS# on the ballot, your ballot got rejected. If you waited till the last week before the election to mail it in, there probably wouldn't be much time if any all to fix the mistake and try again.

On top of that the new law is vaguely written enough to potentially make it a crime for election workers to provide much assistance or tell you why your ballot was rejected. Conservative activists in multiple states were angry that election workers were reaching out to people to help them "cure" their ballots, thinking that's tampering with their votes somehow.

[Da Geezer]

Thanks. DSL

Seems to me that people could put in both numbers.

Imagine if only those with SS# could vote by mail. The screeching would be deafening.

Again, I'll say it. I believe, with limited exceptions related to health, all voting should be in person with a photo ID (free to the voter). We should have a 4-day holiday weekend (Sat-Tues) and give people lots of time to vote.

Both parties have fallen into the pattern of accusing the other of cheating if they lose. People need to have confidence that the elections are fair and the results are true. It seems to me that attacking the validity of so many elections harms democracy.

And for those who pine about some people not being able to get an ID, I'd say "Is that because those folks are too stupid. Or are they too lazy"?

[CGVT]

Those buoy tender crews were a special kind of goof balls. Most tenders had skippers who were LT's or LCDR's and ran the ships kind of loosely. Most guys I knew that were stationed on tenders seemed to like being assigned there.

The 378's were another story.

Yes, they were. It was a different time for sure. was 24 when I joined and went to Sundew in May 1983. When I got there the Warrant Bos'n told me at my check-in that "We work hard and we play hard." He wasn't lying on either count. It was heavy grunt work. Dragging buoy chain around the deck, lifting battery racks into buoys and muscling shit around in general. I gained 20 lbs in three months, and did not go up in pants size. It was all upper body weight, mostly back and shoulders. I have never been so strong in my life.

About 6 months before I reported, part of the crew got all liquored up in a bar during a port call in Houghton/Hancock. They got into a big brawl with the Michigan Tech Hockey team. Let's just say that the hockey team got the best of it. There were still guys getting dental work done when I showed up. Ha!

[lineygoblue]

CGVT .. did you do boot camp in Cape May?

I did, and I was in Yankee 22. January - April 74. 12 weeks of fun on the Jersey Shore ... lol

BMC Bobby Chambers was the CC. I'll never forget him. I hated his guts.

[Jeff Buchanan]

Orwellian? The photo below is a "mobile information complex" deployed by the Russians in Mariupol. Content is Russian state news and pro-Russian political talk shows.

There are still residents there but without food, gas for cooking, electricity, running water or functional sanitation. The city has been completely destroyed by Russian bombardment. Those that are left are being processed through "filtration centers." They are offered a choice between Russian passports or for men over 18 and under 65, conscription in military service. That alternative may only be attractive by virtue of food and shelter being provided for soldiers. Duties might include local policing or grave duty. There are still lots of dead bodies to gather up and bury, reportedly in mass graves.

The way Ukrainians are talking about this is to scoff at it saying, "since there is no food to eat, feed them lies." It’s “cynicism of the highest level”. The lies and the propaganda,” wrote Anton Gerashenko, an adviser to the Ukrainian interior ministry, posting a video of the trucks superimposed over images of the ruins of the city. This is “the Russian world”,

Zelenski recently castigated the west for sidelining NATO while standing by and letting Ukrainians be killed by the Russians in the 10s of Thousands. "we appreciate the arms," he said, "but the lack of heavy weapons, long range artillery and air defense systems is preventing us from saving lives, stopping the genocide."

Yesterday, Henry Kissinger speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, said that Ukraine should seek a negotiated peace implying that the Ukrainian territory Russia has already seized should be ceded to them. Zelenski went ballistic, saying, " Ukraine is not giving up and inch of Ukrainian territory ...... this is akin to the appeasement of Germany in 1938 and the surrender of the United States in it's (winnable) campaign in Vietnam to halt the spread of Communism in SEA. Genocide ensued he added and the appeasement in both cases resulted in further aggression. Putin must not succeed in Ukraine or the rest of E Europe is at risk of being swallowed by the Russian Bear.

That tone has been echoed today in Berlin where Scholz walked back his dumb-ass statement yesterday in Davos where he said, Ukraine cannot win. Germany is playing a waiting game on Putin to decide what he wants to do........Biden is not alone in dumb-ass gaffs.

Russian TV.JPG

[Dr. Strangelove]

Couple sad updates...

That clip I posted last night of Anderson Cooper interviewing a dad? Apparently he's the same person cops pinned to the ground and handcuffed because he tried to charge into the school when he heard from another girl his daughter had been shot.

The husband of one of the two teachers killed (Irma Garcia) apparently had a heart attack and died himself this morning. They were high school sweethearts, married 24 years, had 4 kids. His heart apparently couldn't take the grief.

[Dr. Strangelove]

Don't want to rush to judgment but starting to get a bad Parkland vibe to the police response to this shooter. The few released details surrounding the police who first encountered Ramos keep changing. Some say they exchanged fire; others say they didn't. One account says they forced him into the classroom; others say he locked the door himself. It apprently took near an hour between when he first entered the school to when he was shot.

There's video floating around of a few dozen parents angrily screaming at the police outside to stop standing around and do something. Another shows cops pinning one man (presumably a parent) to the ground while others hover with tazers in their hands.

So now they are admitting there was in fact no school police officer at all and no cops tried to stop him from entering the school. A lot of the information from the press conference yesterday was "faulty", to put it as charitably as possible. The first cops to arrive were fired upon so they took cover and waited for "backup". It was about another hour before they took any action against the shooter.

[THE_WIZARD_]

Shaddup the fucketh uppeth.

[crashcourse]

So the two cops that got shot both were apart of that final assault team Im assuming

I don't know how you live with yourself

for some reason i thought the new cop strategy is all out rush in as soon as you have a few to do it

the last two mass shooting cops agressivly tried to take down shooters and undpoubtedly saved lives--both in denver and in buffalo cops were killed

who knows what the initial response was from the locals there in uvaldem but it certainly doesnt look good

[CGVT]

CGVT .. did you do boot camp in Cape May?

I did, and I was in Yankee 22. January - April 74. 12 weeks of fun on the Jersey Shore ... lol

BMC Bobby Chambers was the CC. I'll never forget him. I hated his guts.

Yes I did. I talked to a recruiter a few years before I joined but at 20 years old, I couldn't see signing up for 4 whole years. It seemed like such a long time back then... The recruiter tried to sell me with "Since we're in the middle of the country, you might be able to go to boot camp in California" When I came back a few years later they had shut down recruit training in Alameda and all recruits went to Cape May. I guess I missed out on a California vacation. Ha!

Charlie 119. May 1983. BMC Mike "Killer" Cosmo. I hated that bastard too.

[lineygoblue]

Back in '74, the CC's were still talking to us almost exactly like the movie "Full Metal Jacket". We were called 'faggots' all the time. It was just part of their everyday language. And we had about 5 guys in our company that we all knew were gay, but there were no 'feelings' to be hurt back then. If you admitted to being homosexual, you were immediately discharged. So, they kept quiet about it. They were trying to get CC's to stop using the f-bomb so much because females were just starting to be enlisted, and they were training with us. Back then 'gentlemen' did not use the f-bomb in the presence of ladies. Nowadays 'ladies' tell guys to f-off all the time.

By time you guys got there in '83, you had the new mess hall. Our mess hall was directly across from the Admin building and had been built sometime in the 20's. It was horribly infested with vermin and bugs. Normally, I'd never eat in a place like that, but in training you get so doggone hungry, that you'll eat anything, anywhere they serve it to you.

They finally built the new place in the late 70's, I believe.

[CGVT]

Back in '74, the CC's were still talking to us almost exactly like the movie "Full Metal Jacket". We were called 'faggots' all the time. It was just part of their everyday language. And we had about 5 guys in our company that we all knew were gay, but there were no 'feelings' to be hurt back then. If you admitted to being homosexual, you were immediately discharged. So, they kept quiet about it. They were trying to get CC's to stop using the f-bomb so much because females were just starting to be enlisted, and they were training with us. Back then 'gentlemen' did not use the f-bomb in the presence of ladies. Nowadays 'ladies' tell guys to f-off all the time.

By time you guys got there in '83, you had the new mess hall. Our mess hall was directly across from the Admin building and had been built sometime in the 20's. It was horribly infested with vermin and bugs. Normally, I'd never eat in a place like that, but in training you get so doggone hungry, that you'll eat anything, anywhere they serve it to you.

They finally built the new place in the late 70's, I believe.

Things weren't a lot different in 83

I wrote a letter to a friend and told him that the food sucked and the bastards don't give you enough...

By the time I got there they had cut back from 12 to eight weeks, but the CCs were still bastards. You tried never to be walking (running) somewhere alone so you wouldn't get surrounded by a "wolf pack" .

I remember being in formation once and one of the women in the company was apparently moving a bit. The CC yelled at her "(Name), if you don't stop wiggling that ugly fucking body of yours, I'm gonna...."

The other CCs were telling him to stfu.

When I went back to Cape May in about 2008 as a BMCM and took over command of Mako (87' Patrol boat that replaced the 82s) things had changed quite a bit. It was a kindler, gentler boot camp. Ha!