2016 Presidential Debate III

Puppycow said:
That might be politically risky. Remember when the Republicans shut down the government? That hurt them for a while although they got a reprieve when the Obamacare rollout was such a disaster. If only the Obamacare rollout had gone smoothly from a technical perspective, it would probably have been a bigger problem for Republicans. It was such a blown opportunity for Democrats.
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It doesn't seem that the GOP sustained any lasting damage. If it wasn't for Trump, I doubt whether they'd be in any serious difficulties in the House and Senate races.

As people who are more knowledgeable than I am have pointed, gerrymandering has ensured that for most GOP representatives, their opposition doesn't come from the Democratic Party candidate but instead a more rabidly conservative primary opponent. Under those circumstances being obstructive actually enhances their chances of re-election and provides a political benefit rather than a political risk.

The Senate is a different matter but there aren't many Senate candidates who wouldn't be doing themselves a favour by appearing to be more conservative.
 
The Don said:
It doesn't seem that the GOP sustained any lasting damage. If it wasn't for Trump, I doubt whether they'd be in any serious difficulties in the House and Senate races.

As people who are more knowledgeable than I am have pointed, gerrymandering has ensured that for most GOP representatives, their opposition doesn't come from the Democratic Party candidate but instead a more rabidly conservative primary opponent. Under those circumstances being obstructive actually enhances their chances of re-election and provides a political benefit rather than a political risk.

The Senate is a different matter but there aren't many Senate candidates who wouldn't be doing themselves a favour by appearing to be more conservative.
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It is a near guarantee that Republicans would lose Senate seats no matter who was the candidate given which seats are up for reelection. Though Donald may cause them to lose more than they would have otherwise.
 
Tony Stark said:
It is a near guarantee that Republicans would lose Senate seats no matter who was the candidate given which seats are up for reelection. Though Donald may cause them to lose more than they would have otherwise.
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Thank you for the correction.

I thought that Democratic Party optimism regarding getting control of the Senate (and possibly even the House) really only started when Trump's numbers took a dive in Mid-August, receded when those numbers improved in early-mid September and has recently returned thanks to the recent meltdown.

http://fivethirtyeight.com/features...-very-kind-to-democrats-hopes-for-a-majority/
 
The Don said:
Indeed, she could have just been using the 4 minute timeline because that's what's in the movies. Perhaps the real figure is 2 or 6 minutes.
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Nope, it's 4. The time limit for a Flash precedence message is 2 minutes from "press send" to "in the customer's hands." We did it in the 80s with AUTODIN terminals that required manual correcting of the Optical Character Reader used to input hand-typed messages the com center was handed by senders. We had a tube system in the building to send Flash messages to Silk Purse. (I googled to make sure I'm not revealing things that might still be classified) The system was exercised very regularly.


{ETA} Wikipedia says Flash is ten minutes; this site http://www.computerculture.org/2012/03/recalling-the-autodin-part-ii/
confirms my memory that we were held to a 2 minute standard for station to station, but not station to customer. Our customer was just a pneumatic tube away, and my understanding is that most regular customers for Flash messages were physically close to the message center for this reason.

Arg! Now I remember how it worked - We had 2 minutes of the President's 10. Nuke missile silos have(had) the message printer inside the launch room, so two minutes from "send" to customer was possible and expected in this case.
 
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Jrrarglblarg said:
Nope, it's 4. The time limit for a Flash precedence message is 2 minutes from "press send" to "in the customer's hands." We did it in the 80s with AUTODIN terminals that required manual correcting of the Optical Character Reader used to input hand-typed messages the com center was handed by senders. We had a tube system in the building to send Flash messages to Silk Purse. (I googled to make sure I'm not revealing things that might still be classified) The system was exercised very regularly.


{ETA} Wikipedia says Flash is ten minutes; this site http://www.computerculture.org/2012/03/recalling-the-autodin-part-ii/
confirms my memory that we were held to a 2 minute standard for station to station, but not station to customer. Our customer was just a pneumatic tube away, and my understanding is that most regular customers for Flash messages were physically close to the message center for this reason.

Arg! Now I remember how it worked - We had 2 minutes of the President's 10. Nuke missile silos have(had) the message printer inside the launch room, so two minutes from "send" to customer was possible and expected in this case.
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Well either way she's proved how untrustworthy and unfit to be President she is.

If it is actually 4 minutes then she was revealing state secrets and should immediately withdraw from the Presidential contest. If it isn't then she's Lying Crooked HillaryTM and should therefore be impeached and jailed :rolleyes:
 
The Don said:
Thank you for the correction.

I thought that Democratic Party optimism regarding getting control of the Senate (and possibly even the House) really only started when Trump's numbers took a dive in Mid-August, receded when those numbers improved in early-mid September and has recently returned thanks to the recent meltdown.

http://fivethirtyeight.com/features...-very-kind-to-democrats-hopes-for-a-majority/
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Most people thought that Democrats would pick up Senate seats (because of which ones are up for reelection) way before Donald became the nominee.
 
Tony Stark said:
Most people thought that Democrats would pick up Senate seats (because of which ones are up for reelection) way before Donald became the nominee.
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Yep. Point is, a tie is broken by Vice President. That's why chances have gone up as Trump drops in the polls.
 
The Don said:
Indeed, she could have just been using the 4 minute timeline because that's what's in the movies. Perhaps the real figure is 2 or 6 minutes.
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As I recall, the 4 minutes was the time from detection to impact. Theory was that you had to get the missiles away before they got blown up. The technology was pertinent to how long before impact you could detect incoming missiles, not how long it took us to get a launch order to the missiles.
 
The Don said:
I guess that's a risky ploy in case the Democratic Party require the filibuster at some point in the future.
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The Republicans will probably eliminate it if they ever get the Presidency, Senate, and House anyway.
 
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Jrrarglblarg said:
Nope, it's 4. The time limit for a Flash precedence message is 2 minutes from "press send" to "in the customer's hands." We did it in the 80s with AUTODIN terminals that required manual correcting of the Optical Character Reader used to input hand-typed messages the com center was handed by senders. We had a tube system in the building to send Flash messages to Silk Purse. (I googled to make sure I'm not revealing things that might still be classified) The system was exercised very regularly.


{ETA} Wikipedia says Flash is ten minutes; this site http://www.computerculture.org/2012/03/recalling-the-autodin-part-ii/
confirms my memory that we were held to a 2 minute standard for station to station, but not station to customer. Our customer was just a pneumatic tube away, and my understanding is that most regular customers for Flash messages were physically close to the message center for this reason.

Arg! Now I remember how it worked - We had 2 minutes of the President's 10. Nuke missile silos have(had) the message printer inside the launch room, so two minutes from "send" to customer was possible and expected in this case.
Click to expand...

Good info but I find the use of "customer" very strange, almost eerie.
 
Tony Stark said:
I believe he forbade them from making jokes about how rich he is.
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Actually, I just watched a bit of the "Roast" that Hillary and Donald just did to each other. I couldn't believe it: First of all, Trump was actually doing something that in my opinion, is the essential proof that one has sense of humor: He actually made fun of himself. He said something about the media being biased because Michelle Obama gave this speech and everybody loves her, then his wife gives the exact same speech and they hate her.
Then when Hillary went on to speak and invited Trump to feel free to say "WRONG" anytime he didn't like what he was hearing, I saw a Donald Trump that was actually laughing. Not a tense, corporate, politically incorrect laugh. No. He was laughing in a relaxed, natural way. It almost triggered the feel of that old conspiracy-theory feeling that these two have been pulling our strings all this time and that deep down, they're allies and it's all part of some sort of theatre where they pretend to be fighting each other, when in reality, they've made a deal, where Hillary will win and Trump will get paid for pretending to be her opponent.

But even if this theory isn't true, it was just so refreshing to see these two actually loosening up and having fun, and being genuinely funny.
 
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Ron_Tomkins said:
Actually, I just watched a bit of the "Roast" that Hillary and Donald just did to each other. I couldn't believe it: First of all, Trump was actually doing something that in my opinion, is the essential proof that one has sense of humor: He actually made fun of himself. He said something about the media being biased because Michelle Obama gave this speech and everybody loves her, then his wife gives the exact same speech and they hate her...
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The gig calls for self-deprecation. I found it telling that Trump's "self" deprecation was pointed at Melania.
 
marplots said:
Good info but I find the use of "customer" very strange, almost eerie.
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I'm using the term in a generic, non-technical nonspecific manner, but the AUTODIN mailroom was a customer service job.

Would you prefer sender and receiver? Those are both incorrect, give that the sending and receiving stations were separate entities from the message generation and consumption entities. Messages crossing my desk ranged from routine personnel matters to war plans for bombing Libya (cancelled, after a mysterious fire in the chemical plant) that included 10-digit grid coordinates for every single SAM site in the country.
slyjoe said:
I've seen that in request for proposals. Often used when they don't want to spell out who you are talking about.
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In my case it's because the customer might've been anything from the billeting office to the General of 3rd AF.
 
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