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Ted Parry said:
We have moved into the 21st century and surprisingly majority rules ... Suck it up Buttercup ...
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Unless you forget about the 60 vote majority needed in the Senate... It is meant to stop harebrained bills from the House becoming law. It's been that way for over 200 years and no one has removed that obstacle yet...
 
thehangingtree said:
Unless you forget about the 60 vote majority needed in the Senate... It is meant to stop harebrained bills from the House becoming law. It's been that way for over 200 years and no one has removed that obstacle yet...
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Sorry old friend ... One side of the Senate lost any credibility after the second impeachment ... Well over your 60 agreed there was only one outcome but guess what ... forget our responsibility to democracy ... Lets stick to party lines ... I could go on but I'm sure you need to top up on the Seagrams ... (but I still like you)
 
Frank Petrexa said:
It is worth noting that the United States did indeed botch this, but there is a question of whether anyone could succeed. The country has been at war for so long and has built up so much animosity that only an effort and occupation like those of the Second World War could possibly change things. That said, the real villain is Pakistan. They have been playing the "Great Game" in Afghanistan for years to counter India. The Indian-Pakistani conflict is the real problem. Without that, the stakes would be much smaller and the arms much less potent. The Taliban are simply a group of religious gangsters who use Islam to cover their own greed and lust for power--it reminds me of right-wing preachers in the United States, who would be just like this if they could (blocked still by 200+ years of the rule of law). The ones with the most to lose are the women of Afghanistan.
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Although the land that is now Afghanistan had many different rulers and incoming peoples in the past - 'Aryans', Scythians, Greeks (Alexander), Persians, Turks, Mongols - it's been a ghastly graveyard for European forces - British, Russian, American ...

Kipling gave a grim view of the land in the last verse of 'the Young British Soldier':

When you're wounded and left on Afghanistan's plains,
And the women come out to cut up what remains,
Jest roll to your rifle and blow out your brains
An' go to your Gawd like a soldier.
Go, go, go like a soldier,
Go, go, go like a soldier,
Go, go, go like a soldier,
So-oldier of the Queen!

The whole poem is at:
 
Ted Parry said:
Sorry old friend ... One side of the Senate lost any credibility after the second impeachment ... Well over your 60 agreed there was only one outcome but guess what ... forget our responsibility to democracy ... Lets stick to party lines ... I could go on but I'm sure you need to top up on the Seagrams ... (but I still like you)
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Seems like a party had it in for him. Impeach twice and lose both times? Not at strong showing at all...
 
When I was twenty, I had a long series of conversations about Afganistan with one of my college professors. He knew Pashto and a bit of Dari(?) and had lived there several times for a total of about six years. He loved the people, said they were proud in their poverty, and nevertheless exceedingly generous to visitors.
However, he said it wasn't a country. It was a cutoff geographical region with a slight unity of language and perhaps religion. It is like those African countries where the colonizing Europeans drew boundaries based on their conquests with nothing to do with the people there. Afghanistan is what you have left after you carve out Pakistan, Iran, and the old Russian Empire to the north.
Most people live in the lowland plains and cities and are rather peaceful. Those who live in the mountains are very different, tougher, and more warlike. They traditionally have descended on Kabul when they didn't like what the authorities there (in the old days, a king) did, killed them all, and then went back to the mountains.
The Taliban are of this type, but with a fanatical religious streak added that causes them to want to stay and enforce their ideas. I am not a fan of the religious right in the US, but I think comparing them to the Taliban is about as honest as lumping Bernie Sanders in with Joseph Stalin.

For a horrifying vision of the fate of women under the Taliban, watch the 2003 movie Osama (Dari: اُسامه‎, romanized: Osamah). Warning: you may have trouble sleeping for days after. I saw it in a movie theater with my wife and I've never had a more disturbingly moving experience.
 
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Ted Parry said:
As I said it just reinforces the lunacy of political blindness ... "I know it's wrong but if I don't vote this way I might lose at the next primary"
Is it true that your state has banned the wearing of facemasks ... Pray you make it through ...
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A few things...
One, I haven't had any Seagrams in over a year and a half.
Two, I've had my shots for months.
Three, the Dems went for impeachment twice and walked away empty... and they only needed 60% of the senate. an empty case.
No, my state has not banned facemasks. Where do you get your news?

How about we get back on the topic of the thread?
 
thehangingtree said:
One, I haven't had any Seagrams in over a year and a half.
Two, I've had my shots for months.
Three, the Dems went for impeachment twice and walked away empty... and they only needed 60% of the senate. an empty case.
No, my state has not banned facemasks. Where do you get your news?
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That all sounds good and I'm with you, man.

Except - don't expect me to believe "I haven't had any Seagrams in over a year and a half." :D :D :D
 
Praefectus Praetorio said:
When I was twenty, I had a long series of conversations about Afganistan with one of my college professors. He knew Pashto and a bit of Dari(?) and had lived there several times for a total of about six years. He loved the people, said they were proud in their poverty, and nevertheless exceedingly generous to visitors.
However, he said it wasn't a country. It was a cutoff geographical region with a slight unity of language and perhaps religion. It is like those African countries where the colonizing Europeans drew boundaries based on their conquests with nothing to do with the people there. Afghanistan is what you have left after you carve out Pakistan, Iran, and the old Russian Empire to the north.
Most people live in the lowland plains and cities and are rather peaceful. Those who live in the mountains are very different, tougher, and more warlike. They traditionally have descended on Kabul when they didn't like what the authorities there (in the old days, a king) did, killed them all, and then went back to the mountains.
The Taliban are of this type, but with a fanatical religious streak added that causes them to want to stay and enforce their ideas. I am not a fan of the religious right in the US, but I think comparing them to the Taliban is about as honest as lumping Bernie Sanders in with Joseph Stalin.

For a horrifying vision of the fate of women under the Taliban, watch the 2003 movie Osama (Dari: اُسامه‎, romanized: Osamah). Warning: you may have trouble sleeping for days after. I saw it in a movie theater with my wife and I've never had a more disturbingly moving experience.
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They also grew a lot of opium. That is one attraction for colonialists.
 
Eulalia said:
Although the land that is now Afghanistan had many different rulers and incoming peoples in the past - 'Aryans', Scythians, Greeks (Alexander), Persians, Turks, Mongols - it's been a ghastly graveyard for European forces - British, Russian, American ...

Kipling gave a grim view of the land in the last verse of 'the Young British Soldier':

When you're wounded and left on Afghanistan's plains,
And the women come out to cut up what remains,
Jest roll to your rifle and blow out your brains
An' go to your Gawd like a soldier.
Go, go, go like a soldier,
Go, go, go like a soldier,
Go, go, go like a soldier,
So-oldier of the Queen!

The whole poem is at:
Click to expand...
If I recall, Victoria's Afghan expedition went very badly and only one guy on a horse made it back to India. When Holmes first meets Dr. Watson, Watson is "brown as a nut". "Been to Afghanistan, I see", Holmes immediately deduces.
In that exchange, Holmes is also ignorant of Copernicus' theory. Watson is trying to figure out what Holmes does. He has a "profound" knowledge of chemistry and popular literature, but doesn't know Copernicus.
"You say we go round the sun. What do I care?"
 
Eulalia said:
Although the land that is now Afghanistan had many different rulers and incoming peoples in the past - 'Aryans', Scythians, Greeks (Alexander), Persians, Turks, Mongols - it's been a ghastly graveyard for European forces - British, Russian, American ...

Kipling gave a grim view of the land in the last verse of 'the Young British Soldier':

When you're wounded and left on Afghanistan's plains,
And the women come out to cut up what remains,
Jest roll to your rifle and blow out your brains
An' go to your Gawd like a soldier.
Go, go, go like a soldier,
Go, go, go like a soldier,
Go, go, go like a soldier,
So-oldier of the Queen!
Click to expand...
That poem was on American media a lot back in October 2001.
 
thehangingtree said:
Unless you forget about the 60 vote majority needed in the Senate... It is meant to stop harebrained bills from the House becoming law. It's been that way for over 200 years and no one has removed that obstacle yet...
Click to expand...
To be clear, the 60-vote (2/3) majority is only for conviction upon impeachment and treaties and constitutional amendments, not for every piece of legislation. The requirement of 60 votes to break a filibuster is a custom, not a constitutional mandate. In fact Mitch McConnell did away with it for confirmation of judges (and now Democrats have a much freer hand for Biden's appointments).

I hope everyone is vaccinated. That should not be political. In fact, McConnell is using some of his leftover campaign money to run ads in Kentucky urging people to get vaccinated.
 
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thehangingtree said:
A few things...
One, I haven't had any Seagrams in over a year and a half.
Two, I've had my shots for months.
Three, the Dems went for impeachment twice and walked away empty... and they only needed 60% of the senate. an empty case.
No, my state has not banned facemasks. Where do you get your news?

How about we get back on the topic of the thread?
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Have to agree on progress Tree but had to have a go as I love America having visited a number of times ... Rode a Hog over 2,500mls through all the old western towns ...
1. That must have been quite a hit on the local economy but well done.
2. Well done ... Me too.
3. Believe it or not I watched the majority of the second over all three days of the hearing and came to the only possible conclusion.
4. https://edition.cnn.com/2021/07/25/politics/asa-hutchinson-mask-mandate-ban-cnntv/index.html
Have a nice day.
 
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