Trump on Pregnancy (1 Viewer)

Doc, you keep referring to money. I am guessing you are referencing overseas aid?

If so, I kind of agree with you. Last year we gave £400 million to India to help them supply clean water, etc etc etc. Coincidentally, the Indian government spent £400 million on developing a space programme.
We also gave a couple of hundred million to another country (I forget who) and the government there spent it on funding their civil war. Not on rebuilding their country.

As far as I can see, the USA has made its bed as I said earlier and the " pulling up the drawbridge, I'm alright Jack" attitude is the wrong approach. I think the word not in the US vocabulary is "subtlety", do things quietly so nobody notices and don't Tweet every 5 seconds telling an uninterested world.

Col

Colin, on this subject we can probably agree.

The USA is many things to many people but "subtle" isn't among the "many things."

However, I wasn't ONLY referring to formal governmental aid. The USA is not a centralized government in some ways. People don't understand that about our government. The states are individually sovereign though also in some ways bound to the US constitution. The EU is a similar if not identical concept. The USA people make charitable donations out of their own pockets unrelated to taxes that become government foreign subsidies. So the money to which I referred was not only USA government grants to other countries but also USA citizen-donated monies to charities that can't catch a break.

We had a big scandal a few months back where workers for Oxfam and other charities are spending our donations on prostitutes and other non charitable things. Plus the bosses were skimming money for themselves.

Since then, apparently, millions of people don't now donate to these charities. I stopped donating also, charity begins at home, it's better in my pocket.

It's the USA attitude, look after number one, sod the rest.

Col

Ah, but Col... don't we all know that phrase, "Charity begins at home" ??

ColinEssex said:

It's the USA attitude, look after number one, sod the rest.

Col

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I think that's Bill Clinton's. Since neither is in office any more, the Clinton foundation has ceased to be.

I'm led to believe that Americans (just to be awkward) still use imperial weights and measures.
Why are guns measured in millimetres? Or is point 22 something else.

It's just that I'm reading a book and its annoyingly set in America and written by a Yank. It mentioned a 9mm gun, so it struck me as odd as I also know USA gallons are not even the same size as proper gallons.

Plus Americans always use initials for things we never know what they are like CIA, FBI, SWAT, NCI, SEALS etc etc, the list is endless, it's so annoying, you never know if they are goodies or baddies, a bit like American real life I suppose.

Col

ColinEssex said:

Why are guns measured in millimetres? Or is point 22 something else.

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Point 22 inches.

A "45" is 0.45 inches

We could have a salient discussion about why United States adopted the 9mm, a firearms cartridge that was designed by Georg Luger and introduced in 1902 by the German weapons manufacturer Deutsche Waffen und Munitionsfabriken for their Luger semi-automatic pistol.

But somehow, I doubt explaining the differences between .357-inch Magnum and 9mm is what you are trolling for.

Americans always use initials for things we never know what they are like CIA, FBI, SWAT, NCI, SEALS etc etc, the list is endless, it's so annoying

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You are only looking at the short abbreviations. I used to work as a contractor for the U.S. Navy where EVERYTHING was abbreviated into levels approaching true insanity. When I started 30 years ago, I worked for CNRF Code 10 but that changed when they decided that the Commander, Naval Reserve Force had to be the commander of a command. So it became CNRFC Code 10. That's Commander, Naval Reserve Forces Command. The code 10 is so that nobody would mistake CNRFC10 for CNRFCIO, who was the Information Officer for CNRFC. With me so far?

Then, because Congress decided they wanted to reorganize the support groups and because we had been growing in scope of responsibility, CNRFC10 became NAVRESINFOSYSOFF, the Naval Reserve Information Systems Office, which was an Echelon III command under CNRFC. We wanted NRISO but some other group had already taken that one.

Of course, BUPERS didn't like that - but it didn't surprise anyone that the Bureau of Naval Personnel would dislike having a personnel office not under their command. In all of this, the surprise player was SPAWAR, the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command, who took over ALL of the computer-related offices that had been growing like weeds with the greater availability of very powerful computers to provide previously unimagined services. (Previously unimagined by the unimaginative military mind, that is.) Have I lost you yet?

So SPAWAR took over and consolidated literally THOUSANDS of small offices that had computer centers where the personnel really weren't needed full-time but they had to be available for emergencies at any time. All those underutilized sys admins and DBAs and operations staffers and project programmers etc. got jammed together in several NEDCs - Navy Enterprise Data Centers. That way, they would be run ragged by the larger number of servers and projects they had to manage, thus soaking up all of those underused personnel.

I was in NEDC NO (that's the New Orleans center) where we had at least 60 projects and over 1200 servers. But of course, to assure continuity of operations, we had stand-by sites that had mirrors of our production systems under the COOP - that's Continuity Of Operations Program - and in fact that is why NEDC NO has such a good reputation. We survived Hurricane Katrina that devastated a city, but we kept on serving the USN (that's United States Navy, of course) with minimal down-time.

Of course, just for snorts & giggles, our COOP site was San Diego, the home of USPACFLEET HQ - the USA Pacific Fleet Headquarters...

Is that enough alphabet soup for you, Col? And for what it is worth, what I just described to you is absolutely factual (except for the editorial comments about the military mind, which is almost but not quite an oxymoron).

AB, what you need to remember is that a lot of the rest of the world a) does not use or carry guns, most UK people have never seen a real gun let alone know what point 22 means, and b) most USA initials are peculiar to the USA unless we read them in books or see them on those Z rated USA cop shows, even then it can be a guessing game.

There is a real world outside your picket fenced glorious USA. Not every civil question asked is a "troll" as you ridiculously seem to think.

Thanks Doc for your interesting answer.
Oh by the way, your idol and loving leader Donald is in the UK now, it's cost us £30 million to facilitate him and all his entourage. That's £30 million not now able to be spent on our ailing NHS or decrepit roads. What a waste!

Col

What is a "NHS"? One of those pesky organizations like a "CIA" or "FBI"? Or is it related to a "HMS" something?

So confusing when you post...

Then again, I'm still not sure what "Col" stands for... to many possibilities!


You may wish to talk to some people from outside of the UK though. From what I can tell, most of the worlds population is at least passingly familiar with firearms. Outside of Europe many nations have these people called "Police" (specific term being nation-specific) that do carry firearms. Likewise with nations with something terms "Conscription" where by the majority of their male population serve in their nations military for some period of time.

Ah, Col -it is also 30 million that can't be spent on your refugees. Look at it on the bright side. And I'm absolutely SURE that Donald would agree that the 30 million was being wasted on the influx of immigrants anyway.

most USA initials are peculiar to the USA

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To be totally honest, we find some of them peculiar too, Col.

Mark_ said:

What is a "NHS"? One of those pesky organizations like a "CIA" or "FBI"? Or is it related to a "HMS" something?

So confusing when you post...

Then again, I'm still not sure what "Col" stands for... to many possibilities!


You may wish to talk to some people from outside of the UK though. From what I can tell, most of the worlds population is at least passingly familiar with firearms. Outside of Europe many nations have these people called "Police" (specific term being nation-specific) that do carry firearms. Likewise with nations with something terms "Conscription" where by the majority of their male population serve in their nations military for some period of time.

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Mark, you now see how difficult it is when initials or abbreviations are used? Glad my demo worked. NHS is National Health Service. But I have no idea what SWAT or SEALS is, apart from yahoo yanks that shoot everything that moves, but that describes some "normal" USA people too.

Read my username and you have "Col" not exactly rocket science.

I did say "most" which means not all, as in total. Some police do carry guns in some countries. But they are usually in a holster with a flap so not easy to see, it's not the Wild West where the guns are exposed, and it is usually illegal to own a gun without a mountain of red tape. Unlike the USA where you get them at Walmart with the weekly shopping.

Col

ColinEssex said:

Read my username and you have "Col" not exactly rocket science.

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Quite right Colonel... As you were...

ColinEssex said:

Not every civil question asked is a "troll" as you ridiculously seem to think.
Col

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You deliberately post messages with the intention of causing maximum disruption and argument.

AccessBlaster said:

You deliberately post messages with the intention of causing maximum disruption and argument.

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If you take a step back from the personal nature of that statement, it is actually a general observation about the whole of the bloody internet!

Sent from my SM-G925F using Tapatalk

ColinEssex said:

But I have no idea what SWAT or SEALS

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S.W.A.T. is usually the name of a police unit, Special Weapons and Tactics - employed when the officers need to attack an area expected to include heavy resistance. So they wear heavier than normal body armor, carry fully-automatic rifles or long-range sniper rifles, and often drive an armored vehicle. They are the equivalent of military style assault teams for the police force.

They are most often used in cases where suspects are barricaded with hostages or when they have to serve a search warrant on a suspected drug house where the residents are heavily armed and will shoot back. They might also be called on to quell riots.

SEALs (no, the little "s" is correct here, it's not a typo) represents specially trained military types who can perform assaults on SEa, Air, or Land (SEAL). The Navy originated the program. SEALs can attack just about any enemy strong point and learn how to do that by going through a really grueling training program.

While it might be hyperbole, it is often said that after a person becomes a member of the SEALs, they swim better than a seal (the aquatic mammal). I can also add that SEALs are in a special operations group, part of SOCOM (Special Operations Command) because they are very often sent on Secret or Top Secret missions. For instance, when Osama Bin Laden was killed, that was carried out by a team of SEALs.

In a very real sense, they are elite troops with a good reputation and a very high level of esprit de corps.

AccessBlaster said:

You deliberately post messages with the intention of causing maximum disruption and argument.

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Wrong.
I like to have discussions about various subjects. My posts are designed to promote discussion. They are never personal attacks - unlike others, I never use foul language - unlike others.
Sometimes it is necessary to seek clarification on one nations ways, as this can be confusing if one is not familiar.

So, to clarify, yes I do deliberately post in order to promote discussion, not disruption. If my posts annoy you then block me like Frothy has or did. These forums have become so boring and it can be days with no one posting - what's the phrase? "Use it or lose it".

Thanks Doc, another excellent post, now I understand it a bit better. See, it's simple to discuss things, I can't understand why AB is so difficult and reads things that aren't there.

Col

Col, Col, Col.

Trolling requires neither personal attacks nor swearing. Trolling is simply posting or saying something deliberately intended to provoke a negative reaction. Nearly every post you make is obviously written in such a way as to attempt to piss off Americans, be it through insulting the character, the intelligence, the morals, or the ideals of the entire nation. That is, whether you like it or not, textbook trolling. (In fact, you're actually fairly good at it, as good trolls always walk the line without crossing it by swearing or attacking people directly. While I've been accused of trolling, myself, I don't, as a rule, actively try to troll, since I have a wee bit of a temper.)

It seems roughly 99% of the posts you have made since I've been a member have been obviously intended to piss people off, so you may as well take that troll hat and wear it proudly, since that's precisely what you've been doing.

If you're really trying to facilitate discussion, then try talking to people WITHOUT slamming the US in every post. You might find yourself receiving a better response.

ColinEssex said:

Sometimes it is necessary to seek clarification on one nations ways, as this can be confusing if one is not familiar.
Col

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I will address this quote since Frothy has already dealt with your other remarks.

Has anyone ever seen the Movie with Bill Murray called "Ground Hogs Day"?
Everyday you wake up and login to the forum, and there it is. Col asking "why do Americans hate blacks" or "why are Americans on the inch system when the rest of the world is on metric"?

No matter how much effort people like Doc try to explain American culture to Col, the less he knows.

So either you can't retain basic information or you are a troll, I contend it's the latter.

P.S. please critique the grammar because that never gets old.