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Thetexashammer

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Posts posted by Thetexashammer

  1. On 4/6/2024 at 4:39 PM, TxTower said:


    Barring some completely foreseeable economic collapse, June is now definitely off the table and cuts for the rest of 2024 are in question as well.

    Higher for longer.

    FIFY, good sir. While I correctly assessed that Michael Burry was early, fiscal accountability is indeed nigh. Gird thy loins.

    • Haha 1
  2. 3 minutes ago, Brisketexan said:

    Actually, the solution you just proposed - driving the ENTIRE population out of Gaza - is literally textbook genocide.  Drive out Hamas?   No.  Drive out EVERYONE.  That's the stated Israeli goal.  Which is a confession of genocide.

    They just.  Fucking.  Did.  They did it by blowing up three separate vehicles of the most recognized, most impeccable food distribution NGO on this planet.  Israel imposed the policy by killing WCK workers as a warning.  It fucking worked.  The ships full of food?  They all turned back.  That's EXACTLY how you shut down food shipments.  It's the guaranteed, time-honored way to shut down aid: kill the aid workers.

    Yet you still support Israel's actions.

    A country and people can be wronged, and can be justified in responding.....yet can ALSO respond in a way that is an independent wrong.  If I cheat you out of your delivery of widgets, you are wronged, and you are justified in taking action (sue me for breach of contract).  You are NOT justified in responding by slaughtering my entire family, including members who have nothing to do with my business, burning our house down, and claiming a desire to drive us out of Texas altogether.

    Israel was wronged.  It could and should respond and defend itself.

    It cannot commit genocide. 

    image.png.5604275b86e11915373939486d6e18df.png

    I can live with a "genocide" that doesn't involve killing anyone. In fact, it involves a whole lot less killing and war. Peace, you even might call it. But you hate that LOL.

    The palestinians are human beings. They need to move to a place where they can be citizens and get on with their lives. Being dominated by Hamas, living in Gaza, it offers them nothing.

    • Fuck You 5
  3. 4 minutes ago, Brisketexan said:

    Israeli finance minister:

    Official intelligence ministry proposal:

    Israeli troops on the ground in Gaza:

    National Security minister proposing his "solution" to the Gaza problem (side note: Jesus tapdancing Christ, the ironic word choice alone - I presume he means a "final solution" to the problem):

    It is a plainly stated goal to remove Gazans from Gaza.  Driving an entire people out of their home is bullseye-genocide.

    Enough.  Israel has abused the latitude that they had and deserved.  They have decided to become the monster.  Enough.

    Again, the permanent solution is to remove the Palestinians to outside of missile range of the Israelis. We all want that, even you I hope.

    • Fuck You 3
  4. 3 minutes ago, 956 Worldwide said:

    I gotta be real man, and I’ve supported Israel’s right to defend itself aggressively- they haven’t been working very fucking hard to let aid in.  It’s been pulling teeth to get them to do anything. 
     

    The take from the administration is correct, if you break a place you own it and if they aren’t going to do relief work as you invaded then at a bare minimum you need to dedicate IDF forces to protect aid workers.  When we’ve gone in heavy it’s always been with a plan to secure civilian essentials.

    I have almost zero situational awareness of what's happening on the ground. I welcome more information on all of that. To be fair, it's a war zone, it's a little tense.

    • Fuck You 2
  5. 5 minutes ago, Brisketexan said:

    And maybe they never did.

    The Palestinian/Israeli conflict was always headed for genocide, I guess.  Everyone loses, because your choices are 1) end up being the party genocided, or 2) end up being the party that becomes a global pariah because you committed genocide.

    Enough people on each side wanted and insisted on a final battle of extermination of their enemies.  They got what they wanted.  It's fucking stupid and evil, but they got what they wanted.

    When your population doubles in 20 years, it's hard to understand a claim of genocide. 

    As for you statement that all of Israel want them gone, of course. So do I. So should you. The only actual solution to the problem is to put physical distance between the two groups. Meaning, Israel need to be outside of Hamas missile range.  A desire for peace does not equal genocide.

    Get back to me when Israel shuts down food shipments and you will have my 100% support.

    • Fuck You 4
  6. 2 hours ago, Brisketexan said:


    This.

    Here’s the problem. Israel is saying “whoops it was a mistake.” The problem is…I don’t believe them. I believe that they are lying.

    “It was an accident. I was cleaning my gun and it went off…three times.” I don’t believe stupid lies. And you shouldn’t either.

    In this post, you state the following:

    Quote

    It is indisputable that Israel is purposefully targeting civilians and civilian resources/structures.  Numerous high-ranking Israeli officials have said so, plainly. 

    You are, to be kind, experiencing hallucinations. Israel said no such thing.

    If Israel is targeting civilians, I will advocate for the US to withdraw its support and for a war crimes tribunal to be established, similar to Nuremburg. As we did with Milosevic and his ilk, and we should do to Putin and his cronies and his whole fucking country, they should be tried and executed for war crimes.

    The issue is, Israel doesn't target civilians. You stated they "plainly" confessed to the crime. No they didn't. The end. It's not worth discussing.

     It's no different than you stating that Israel has made a strategic decision to starve them out. But they are working with Egypt, the US, and many NGO to bring tens of thousands of tons of food into Gaza. Your argument make no sense. If they do that, I will condemn them. But they are not doing that.

    There are literally teenagers fighting for their lives, I absolutely get that they shoot first and pick up the pieces later. No soldier is a philosopher king, possessed of perfect knowledge and able to execute the morally perfect tactical maneuver. It's not a movie or a video game.

    I am going to donate $500 to WCK, they deserve it.

    LOL you just repeated you hallucinatory claim. Do you have a link to their confession?

    • Fuck You 4
  7. 2 hours ago, pacman said:

    Pretty sure people belittle the effectiveness of that "experience" and correctly lament the fact he has experience.

     

    For all Flood's recruiting accomplishments, watching him march Conner and Hutson out there over the last two years has been puzzling. Cam, Neto, and Campbell seemingly can stand in place and be more effective. It's not like Conner/Hutson have shown some mastery in understanding their assignments either.

    There has been an unacceptably high number of times where defenses are getting to Quinn. Our OL is vastly improved, to my ignorant eye. But there is still room for improvement, at least compared to what I see at the top of the league tables. We nearly lost several games this year, in part due to lack of good OL play. Quinn was getting pressured at exactly the wrong times, if I remember correctly.

  8. 1 minute ago, Hagbard Celine said:

    if the tweet above documenting the geography and timeline of the WCK strikes is accurate, someone took the decision to give the finger to the west

    i don't think this is going to go well for benny

    Yeah I don't think they should have been targeting them to begin with. Even if there was one high value target, there were better ways to go about it.

    My experience being involved in stories that made the news was that the backstory, the real story, was totally unrelated to the reported story. So I tend towards skepticism. I wouldn't just believe what the IDF puts out either. 

  9. 3 minutes ago, Brisketexan said:

    Cop out.  Hamas fucked up by committing war crimes.  And a shitload of Palestinians continue to fuck up by siding with Hamas.  Israel is fucking up by committing war crimes.  And a shitload of Israelis continue to fuck up by siding with Israel in committing those war crimes.

    It's not hard.  Have a standard.  Then apply it objectively.  Given the stated goals of significant Israeli leaders and combatants, it is not unreasonable to be open to the possibility that "targeting aid workers who make life tolerable for the Gazans we want to drive out of Gaza" was what happened.

    The facts don't warrant your conclusion. IDF is working with Egypt, the US, and many NGO to coordinate the delivery of humanitarian aid. A single event is not equal to a strategic decision.

  10. 11 minutes ago, Brisketexan said:

    As is my postulate that the IDF strike against WCK may have been intentional because multiple voices within Israeli leadership and the IDF have said that making Gaza unlivable for Palestinians so as to drive them out is their goal thus is likewise "not an extraordinary claim."

    The fact that you see fit to attribute bad acts to open and admitted bad actors....but only when those bad actors are Palestinian...is embarrassing.

    One can support the broad Israeli cause while also seeing and calling out the current shitty strategy of forcing ALL Palestinians from Gaza, using force and threats of violence to do so.  Bad shit is bad shit. I don't care if it's your pal doing it.

    My advice is almost always the same. Don't do war. I said it in 1991. I said it in 2003. I said it about Afghanistan. Nobody listens to me.

    • Fuck You 1
  11. 16 minutes ago, Foosters said:

    So, no? No evidence?

    I am inclined to do the same. I have always like what they do. It's terrible they are caught up in this. LOL I was trying to respond to the post about donating to WCK.

  12. 1 minute ago, Foosters said:

    Lol, so you don't have any evidence to support your claim? 

    Why bother responding? 

     

    It's not a controversial thing. They put their military headquarters under a hospital. They've been doing it for decades. It is well established. And again, their last military elements are hiding in Rafah amongst women and children.

  13. 5 minutes ago, Foosters said:

     

     

    hmm

    It is not an extraordinary claim. To the contrary, it is the explicit hamas strategy. It's not new news, they love human shields, sacrificing their women and children. Their political elements and last remaining battalions are hiding behind women and children as we speak. 

    • Hook 'Em 3
  14. Kill authority is delegated from the CDR in Chief down to operational level commanders. If this were the US, the investigation would likely recommend these types of authorizations go to a higher level of commander. Higher level have a different education, and thus more sensitivity to politics. 

    Personally, I would set the policy so you don't attack third parties under any circumstances. However, that is likely to be the exact reason the high value Hamas target was intending to travel with WCK in the first place. So it's like every other fucking war dilemma. You don't win, not matter what you do. Nobody wins in war.

    • Hook 'Em 1
    • Fuck You 3
  15. 42 minutes ago, wildcat09 said:

    It's very obviously not a fucking mistake. Jesus christ.

    Have you ever been in a TOC? Have you ever commanded men in war? How do you know what goes on inside a military command? Please tell us.

  16. 8 minutes ago, Brisketexan said:

    Occam's razor also said it's insane to think that the very group that made the crime of genocide "a thing" in global consciousness is actively and openly pursuing a campaign and goal of genocide, but here we are.

    Is a mistake the most LIKELY explanation?  Yeah.  But can you categorically rule out a purposeful strike meant to terrorize (and thus limit) aid to civilians, in furtherance of an Israeli goal to maximize civilian suffering?  Nope. You can't rule that out.  Which means that the current state of Israel - both as-governed and as the people wish (the polling backs this up) - is shit.

    Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.

    If you want to convince me the IDF are targeting civilians, I think it would be stupid, for lots of reasons even down to the point of its just a waste of ammo. However, I am sure there is some of that. I understand the logic, there are Israelis who have a burning hate for Palestinians. I would not be surprised or shocked.

    If you think Israelis have a burning hate for aid convoys and want to destroy them, and they have no idea of the strategic implications of said targeting, then you've lost the plot. Or more accurately, you are probably an antisemite.

    I just rewatched the scene from Band of Brothers where Mularkey meets a Nazi soldier who grew up near him in Washington. They're shooting the shit, Mularkey leaves, next thing you hear is automatic gunfire (killing the unarmed German prisoners). We were still the good guys.

  17. 1 hour ago, Pato del Muerto said:

    Wtf is this shit?  Send her ass to the Tower of London for the rest of her days. 

    Narrator: Its not a Tower.

    The first time I went, I was like "so when do we get there" LOL.

  18. 1 hour ago, RDCanecutter said:

    I am a simple caveman when it comes to stocks, especially on things like gold stocks, so I'll leave that side be.

    On buying actual coin-sized chunks of gold at low premiums, I'll share what I know.

    Bad deals are entirely possible, like your example of 30% mark-up. Fakes are possible (bars are easier to fake than coins.)

    It pays to have two or three things you are interested in, that you learn all you can about. So you can spot a prize if it is on special. The saying is "Buy the book before you buy the coin," which can involve a lot of internet perusing as well.

    Get to know brick-and-mortar coin shops. You might catch one on cash-flow-crunch day when they've bought a ton of stuff under spot. Or use the old "what's the price if I get 5 at once? angle.

    If your friends realize you are interested in an occasional gold coin, you might get offers to buy things they hid away. I usually offer spot, or in between what they'd get and what I'd pay. We both do a little better. I have even (rarely) bought gold at under spot from a friend because he wanted it gone and we had already done a couple of deals.

    There used to be tricks like using eBay bucks where you could get even small fractional coins at spot. Those appear to be extinct, but some of the guys scoring gold on Costco appear to get the price down via credit card kickbacks and what-not. I am a recovering heroin I mean CC addict so I let that pass.

    It looks like Monex has some pretty tight spreads around the 1oz American Eagle gold coin. I will probably buy a couple soon just for fun.

    • Hook 'Em 1
  19. 19 hours ago, Incredulity said:

    I understand.  Its just a bit shocking to feel that when you are stopped no matter the physics/science/engineering/logic behind it.

    Same principle with skyscrapers. You have to stop and concentrate, but it's wild when you can feel the sway.

  20. 7 hours ago, RDCanecutter said:

    You may be right about everything else in the post, but this one jumped out at me. If you are willing to poke around, and you want gold, you can get it with a 0% to to 3% mark-up. I don't doubt that the elder-abuse crowd are flogging it at 20 (to 50?)% percent mark-up. Pretty much if it's on a national radio show or TV, run.

    It's not really my argument. I am probably 80% on it. There are some underlying assumptions, some have great evidence, others not so much. The basic point seems true, insofar as it's better than gold surely. Better than bonds? Almost 100%. Stocks? I am not even sure there is a real bubble. I made some decent money on an E&P stock trading at 3x earnings. Meta trades around 25x current earnings. Not insane to me.

    I was really referring to physical gold, which is the best analogue to bitcoin in a wallet. You can buy gold stocks, which are a proxy. Or you can do futures, which are basically frictionless, however, that probably requires active management and some financial sophistication. I think you can still take physical delivery of a gold contract. However, you have to store it and you have to get a metallurgist if you want to sell your brick.

    I am not a gold bug, but if you know how I could buy (and sell) coins without a huge markup I would probably be into that. Having some gold in the safe would be cool. But I feel like buying gold is like buying a car, meaning you lose 30% when you drive off the lot.

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