Jump to content

Starfleet Command

Full Members
  • Posts

    769
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Posts posted by Starfleet Command

  1. 44 minutes ago, berlinerbaer said:

    In a visit with a friend in 2012, I had a long chat with a young active duty marine who her younger sister had recently eloped with. The dude was kind of a bum and a weirdo for sure, but what he said about his tours in Iraq and Afghanistan have since been prophetic to me. He swore that the Iraqis would fight alongside the Americans when they came under attack, while the Afghans would drop their weapons and retreat when things got too hot. Fast forward almost a decade and the Iraqis have since driven ISIS out of their country, admittedly under cover of US airstrikes and special forces, but the Afghan army is now literally melting away despite there still being a few thousand US troops there and the same degree of air support.

    The fact is that the 20 years of nation building we've payed billions for haven't convinced Afghans to risk their skin to protect it. A soldier deserting their post in the middle of the night doesn't feel compelled to fight for the generation of girls who have been able to go to school, to speak nothing of their government. There isn't much inspiration in defending what an occupying force has constructed. Let's look at morale. While one side is deserting, the other is sending suicide bombers. 

     

    https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2021/07/06/afghanistan-war-malkasian-book-excerpt-497843

    Can’t believe Afghans wouldn’t risk their skin  helping prop up a bunch of child raping heroin traffickers. 

  2. I don't know how people continue to defend this idiot.  The rationales that people invent on twitter and on blogs defending Dusty's actions are a 1000x more coherent than Dusty's own though processes as evidenced whenever someone bothers to ask him why he did something stupid.

    • Fuck You 1
  3. 1 hour ago, Mantis Toboggan, MD said:


    Sure I remember. Bregman was also a 1-2 pick, was far more productive in a the minors, and ended up hitting 264 in 49 games even after his awful start. So Toro is hitting 193 over 93 games. I have watched most of those games but I agree it is a small sample size. It is possible he develops into a legitimate player, but it my untrained eye, I don’t see it. I am also confident that he has a noodle arm and is a below average fielding 3rd baseman after watching him play a number of games.

    Comparing him to Bregman is just…fatuous. No one is saying he’s potentially a future superstar. But bases on how he projects there’s a decent enough chance he could be a 2-3 WAR player moving forward, and with four years of control thats pretty valuable. 
     

    Josh Rojas would be a much better comparison to Toro. 

    • Like 1
  4. 25 minutes ago, Gourmand said:
    31 minutes ago, Starfleet Command said:
    It sucks they lost Toro for a rental reliever but at least it’s a good one and they dumped some salary. B- move I guess. Hopefully they use they have something special planned for that money they dumped. 

    This is nothing but an A+ move given the third base and bullpen situation.

    I could easily see Toro developing at least into an average if not better 3B, and with 4 years of control, that could be quite valuable. I think in terms of value the Mariners will win this trade but Graveman should be an asset. I would have preferred Bleier but maybe Miami wanted too much. 

  5. I’m all for this. The level of competition will be tougher in football but it’s best in the long-run to be part of the best conference in college sports. It will also be funny as shit watching the also rans of the big 12 drown following it’s dissolution. 

  6. It’s going to be really interesting to see what Click does in the next few weeks with the stable of OFs the Astros have collected between Siri, Dawson, De La Cruz, Meyers, and Chas.
     

    I think the Astros believe in Meyers or they would have brought him up already for a test drive. He’s nearly as good as Straw as a fielder with potentially a much better bat. I wouldn’t be surprised at all if Chas is traded to make room and cash in on his MLB success thus far. 

  7. I'd put the chances of JV contributing in October at 10-20%.  I don't know if the year off really mattered in Smith's instance though.  He's just old and his velo was already super low begin with.  When you get down to 85-86 anything not on the edges is liable to get blasted and Smith doesn't have the super-precise command to survive at those speeds.

  8. I'm sure Click will loath to do it, but they have to cut bait with Smith at some point.  It doesn't appear that he'll ever regain his lost velo and I don't see him ever being that reliable throwing mid-80s.  

  9. 7 minutes ago, F250 said:

    The obsession with Communist Cuba seems weird with it being a 21st century issue. The way some people talk about it seems like they are still concerned about Domino theory being a thing as if the Soviets are waiting in the shadows to jump out and invade the U.S. As has already been mentioned in this thread, there are a lot of shitty countries in the world but the obsession with Cuba seems so out of place.

    The cold war ended a long time ago and Russia, well you know.

     

     

    I think it’s pretty simple in that interests in the US want to loot Cuba and will play up any card they can to get their way. 
     

    I love that people act like Cuba is some dystopia when they have a longer life expectancy than we do. What does that say about our “regime”?

    • Hook 'Em 2
    • Like 1
  10. On 7/17/2021 at 7:51 AM, Fudge Nuggets said:

    Lol.  I'm sure it will work out just like it did in Russia when communism fell.

    Some big shot Cubano in Miami will "buy" 20 miles of primo beach real estate for about $200,000.

    Cuba would be a paradise like Haiti if the US got its way. 

    • Like 1
  11. 25 minutes ago, 956 Worldwide said:

    I think that, at best, the claims of someone who was last on the “inside” 45 years ago is irrelevant to Cuba, 2021. 

    For one, he has direct knowledge about CIA operations which took place immediately following the revolution when most of those atrocities are alleged to have taken place. Second, why would you suppose that the CIA is not now engaged in similar operations when US policy regarding Cuba has not changed since the 60s?

    A large reason for those operations is to get credulous idiots like yourself to believe our monstrous behavior towards Cuba and it’s people since the beginning of the embargo is actually good and the sensible thing to do. And it obviously works when viewing this thread. 

  12. 3 minutes ago, 956 Worldwide said:

    Ah yes, it’s all the lugenpresse. I really like it when the veil slips and the far left and far right make it obvious that politics doesn’t exist on a continuum but a closed circle. With two diametrically opposed points of reality/pragmatism and conspiracy/ideology.

    You think Stockwell is making that up for laughs?  

  13. 11 hours ago, Gourmand said:

    Korey Lee is imo the Astros #1 prospect at this point

    It's been pretty amazing that he's actually improved his performance thus far following his promotion to AA, including maintaining the second lowest swinging strike rate on the hooks this season. imo, since AAA has moved to the MLB ball, I think the jump to AA is by far the most difficult one for position players within the minors with AAA being the biggest challenge for pitching prospects.  Lee looks like he's ready to hit MLB pitching now although we probably won't see him till next September at the earliest.  

  14. 13 minutes ago, Jshep34 said:

    Was at texans game that day. Most of fourth quarter there was a lets go astros chant going on. Lots cheering and celebrate for berkman and ausmus home runs.

    Sent from my SM-G960U using Tapatalk
     

    Can hardly believe the Texans have been around that long. Amazing what little they’ve achieved since their inaugural season. 

    • Like 1
×
×
  • Create New...