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Amazon asks court to halt Microsoft's work on Pentagon 'war cloud'

thehill.com

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Re: Amazon asks court to halt Microsoft's work on Pentagon 'war cloud'

#201

Post by ta999999171 »

throwaway23954 wrote: post #163
hopia wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Trump attacked Amazon because of business; he seems to think Amazon is profiting from the US taxpayers' money. Now Amazon has a strong financial incentive to go to court in this case as winning can lead to potentially securing a 10b$ contract. Whereas losing costs maybe some millions? Both Bezos and Trump are very pragmatic business men. I think this is all just about money.

If you really thing Trump dislikes Bezos because of "profiting from the US taxpayer" instead of "owning The Washington Post", I don't even know what to say.

See: USPS subsidization of Amazon packages.

Re: Amazon asks court to halt Microsoft's work on Pentagon 'war cloud'

#202

Post by ta999999171 »

corporate_shi11 wrote: post #62
james-mcelwain wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's a huge, gigantic difference between not having a military at all and spending 1 trillion a year to be an imperialist superpower. It's almost like... there's a middle ground.

The US is not imperialistic, that's just a cute talking point. That said I do agree we spend too much on our military. We should always spend more than any other nation to ensure dominance, but I'd imagine cutting the budget down would force efficiency and actually improve the military at this point. However it seemed the person above was saying that militaries in general are bad or murderous which is very different…

> The US is not imperialistic, that's just a cute talking point.

Cuba's shiny new banking system, Japan's Navy(?), and Afghanistan's poppy fields disagree.

Re: Amazon asks court to halt Microsoft's work on Pentagon 'war cloud'

#203

Post by ta999999171 »

kec wrote: post #189
tracker1 wrote: post #187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As if cost is actually a deterrent for war...

It certainly is, compare Vietnam to Iraq. If LBJ and Nixon had predator drones we never would have left.

The only difference is drone operators don't speak out publicly at the same rate when they get home as boots on the ground who saw the carnage more directly and personally back then.

Re: Amazon asks court to halt Microsoft's work on Pentagon 'war cloud'

#204

Post by TallGuyShort »

shadowgovt wrote: post #199
TallGuyShort wrote: post #197

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I disagree that any vote on the matter of how much power the executive should have, or if any specific executive should be punished for an abuse of that power, would fall along anything other than party lines, with those in the same party as the current executive voting in his or her favor.

Ah, okay. So at least one of the two parties is corrupt.

Yes, and I think both. The Republicans aren't the only ones that put party above principal in votes. I mean ask a Democratic official why they oppose the electoral college, and then ask if they would support getting rid of superdelegates in the primary. And look at the reactions to Tulsi Gabbard's "present" vote in the impeachment. Absolute furor that she broke party lines and subsequent exclusion from debates.

Re: Amazon asks court to halt Microsoft's work on Pentagon 'war cloud'

#205

Post by shadowgovt »

TallGuyShort wrote: post #204
shadowgovt wrote: post #199

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ah, okay. So at least one of the two parties is corrupt.

Yes, and I think both. The Republicans aren't the only ones that put party above principal in votes. I mean ask a Democratic official why they oppose the electoral college, and then ask if they would support getting rid of superdelegates in the primary. And look at the reactions to Tulsi Gabbard's "present" vote in the impeachment. Absolute furor that she broke party lines and subsequent exclusion from debates.

Are you aware of anybody asking them, or is that a hypothetical?

Re: Amazon asks court to halt Microsoft's work on Pentagon 'war cloud'

#206

Post by TallGuyShort »

TallGuyShort wrote: post #204
shadowgovt wrote: post #199

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ah, okay. So at least one of the two parties is corrupt.

Yes, and I think both. The Republicans aren't the only ones that put party above principal in votes. I mean ask a Democratic official why they oppose the electoral college, and then ask if they would support getting rid of superdelegates in the primary. And look at the reactions to Tulsi Gabbard's "present" vote in the impeachment. Absolute furor that she broke party lines and subsequent exclusion from debates.

I'm sick of waiting for the reply button to show up and I'm heading out for the day. But it's not hypothetical. My state voted to give our electoral college votes to the popular vote a few years back. I emailed all the state representatives and got canned emails back along party lines, some explaining how anything but direct democracy causes people's voices to not be heard. I asked the Democrats if they would support a proposal to eliminate superdelegates in the primaries, and I didn't get any responses. I've asked two directly at various events, one told me "I'm not concerned about that particular issue" and the other one told me that they've already made the opinion on that clear (I never found where and was asked by an usher to move back for other questions). Don't know how or if they voted when the party eventually did change that, but I have little hope that asking them questions in the future would mean anything.

Re: Amazon asks court to halt Microsoft's work on Pentagon 'war cloud'

#207

Post by ericd »

tracker1 wrote: post #176
ericd wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you have a source for that quote about dropped ordnance? I’d be very surprised if he beat out the strategic bombing and artillery shelling of WW2.

Here's an article with stats from 2015 and 2016... I spent a few minutes trying to find an article I recall from around 2014 or so, but unable to find it. There's a lot of information out there, and the number of drone strikes are incredibly large. I think the record under Trump has been roughly the same, but it's a dramatic change over before Obama. The kiloton size may or may not be smaller. More targeted drone/mis…

That article seems to imply in the 10s of thousands per year, which is certainly a lot of airstrikes. US and Britain dropped something like 3 million tons of bombs during the strategic bombing of WW2, though. IIRC the 500 pound bomb was the most common.

And then there’s tens of millions of artillery shells, if you’re counting all ordnance.

Vietnam war had a huge amount of bombing too, with cluster bombs and the like.

I’d be a bit surprised if Obama made the top 5, but maybe.

Re: Amazon asks court to halt Microsoft's work on Pentagon 'war cloud'

#208

Post by tatersolid »

godelzilla wrote: post #142
SamReidHughes wrote: post #108

It is strange to me that there are even rules about this. Imagine if we decided to halt the Manhattan Project for a few months so the courts could work out whether contracts were properly awarded.

Millions of people might not have died unnecessarily. The horror!

Actually, millions of people would have died unnecessarily. Japan wouldn’t surrender, and was planning to slowly sacrifice its entire population to bleed the allied invasion of the home islands.

Somehow people forget Japan started the war in the Pacific and murdered tens of millions of Chinese, Koreans, and other Asian civilians in the process.

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