General Jack Ripper

Are you a small business owner that had to lay off a single person: Likely the answer is no.
Are you still getting paid every two weeks while working from home: Likely the answer is yes.
Are you in any discomfort: Likely the answer is no. 
Be happy and support the opening of small business. These family enterprises are being crushed for no reason. 
Kevin
 

 
 
 

Anyone notice the reporter's question yesterday in the WH briefing re Covid-19 starting as a Chinese Bio research virus that escaped?
Well... Trump did say Covid-19 was "genius" and "brilliant".
 
Just received this via e-mail:
From: Mr. Brilliant Genius
Sent: Thursday, April 16, 2020 9:26 AM
To: All my Fans
Subject: An Appeal for Understanding
While it is appreciated that President Trump regularly acknowledges that I am “brilliant” and “genius” I must protest the way that I am depicted by this appalling President who regularly uses the media to demean me in the worst openly racist terms. 
As a refugee from persecution in China I escaped custody and immigrated to the US because of what I thought was its open-minded attitude towards those who travel long distances to reach freedom.
Yes, bringing significantly different customs and values to this wonderful country may bring short-term disruption.  But, it is commonly recognized that new cultures enrich a society and perhaps after a few initial challenges bring great benefits.  Other immigrants have been criticized for hiding within their own communities and not taking part in the full life of what it means to be an American.  However, I am not hiding in sanctuary cities and instead am fully “integrating” into my new homeland so as to become a productive member of society by bringing greater employment and prosperity to those in the businesses of healthcare and medical hardware manufacturing.  In addition, by decreasing the world’s carbon footprint by reducing the need to burn fossil fuels, I am greatly helping reduce Global Warming due to “Greenhouse” dangers.
Instead of appreciation, attempts have been made to cordon me off by spreading resentment and fear.  This exposes the fascist-based intolerance that we have come to expect from the current hate-filled administration.  Fortunately, we have a chance this November to bring in a new polite government that is more sensitive and has more empathy and caring and doesn’t make hurtful pronouncements that wound my feelings.
As a result I am placing my full support behind Joe Biden, so that I can flourish in this wonderful country and continue to help bring even greater benefits (including subsidies and low/no interest loans) to all.
It is my greatest hope that my US born offspring, Covid-20, 21, 22 about whom I am so proud, and let’s not forget the grandkids Covid-23a, b and c (you will love their cute photos) will one day soon stand for election to show the world that the US is a beacon for all who come seeking a better life (even if it’s yours).
In the words of that great civil rights leader “Can’t we just get along?”
Paid for by the Committee to Elect Covid-2024.
 
 

Erwin bernie would never have beem elected.
Theres tape of him buying in wholeheartedly.to soviet propagamda in a USSR visit in 87.  Thatd be devastating.  Trump was supposedly planning to make his election fight socialism "whether or not the drms were socialist"
Bernie would habe beem the perfect bogeyman

Cannot disagree that S Korea and Taiwan and Japan were better prepared.  But that was certainly due to the fact that they have to be prepared for imminent chem/bio attack by N. Korea or China.
Am thinking that there are two types of folks.  Those who dislike Trump cos of what he says and how he says it, and those who only care about what he actually does, and find his performance on TV to be hugely entertaining and want to keep that wonderful TV show going as long as possible. 
So, perhaps change the constitution to allow a third term?   

Yes, as usual nice speech.  If only he had been President and actually been able to do something.

Well, that is clearly indisputable and irrefutable proof that no one can argue with.  Case closed your honor.  Get the black cap on..   

That was down to lens focusing.  If you use a longer focal length lens you can make objects look close that are actually not.  There may exist legit criticisms of Trump, but they are always undercut when people who want to vent personal animosity get hysterical over made up nonsense as that erodes their own credibility re legit criticisms.  Hysterical reactions to every little thing that certain people dislike about Trump erodes support for their position (and is what will help get him re-elected).  
It would be great if Bernie Sanders got the Dem nomination.  He is the best fighter the Dems have, and even if he didn't beat Trump, we would finally see a real discussion of radically different viewpoints as to what direction the US should go re social and economic issues.
And the debates would be very entertaining of course.  Max ratings.

Talking about "smoke and mirrors", China is an abominable authoritarian dictatorship which seems hell-bent on military expansion (eg: South China Sea and also the very little reported conflict with India in "3 Corners" area of Bhutan) and has put over a million people in forced labor camps: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/16/world/asia/xinjiang-china-forced-labor-camps-uighurs.html  while designing a ghastly police state where one's every movement, even facial expressions, are monitored by AI to detect possible dissent.  
One has to remember that the "modern face of China" is only represented by a thin strip of Economic Enterprise Zones that run along its coast.  If you travel a few hundred miles inland you step back a thousand years into a 3rd world country - the standard of living of the vast majority of its population. 
The point is that China is well known for consistent lying (remember how the artificial islands built in the S. China Seas were "only for research purposes and would never be militarized"?   We really do not know the truth about the pandemic in China.  Time will eventually tell as it's harder to lie for a long period of time about economic impacts.
"Our failures" fade into insignificance compared to China's.
 

Trouble is, the experts we rely on to give us our good information and plans seem to think the WHO is just amazing.
 
Aside from that, all I gotta say is this thread didn't age well. Remember when this was a global pandemic that was gonna kill millions of people?
Lame.
I didn't even get to see any zombies, and I went out and bought some extra ammo too just in case.

The Italians had lots of excellent designs for many weapon systems. The issue was they proved utterly unable to produce enough of them to matter frequently. The Italians may have had the best AAA gun of the war for instance, the Cannone da 90/53...but built less than 600 of them. Just about all of the fighters built by Macchi were not only competitive with Allied designs, but lethal to them in the hands of a good pilot. How many were built though? Between all the types of fighter Macchi built they just couldn't build enough of anything. 
One of the issues facing Italian war production was that the more the Italians tried to ramp up production, the more they came into competition over resources with Germany. At first the Germans tried to just pass engines and resources to the Italians but as the war's prospects turned against the Axis Germany began to turn partnership into exploitation. 
The lack of output meant that Italian forces were frequently unable to execute the mostly sound combined-arms theories their forces were constructed around. This imbalance led to lack of flexibility, the lack of flexibility led to lack of realistic force projection, lack of realistic force projection led to defeat on the battlefield which further constrained Italy's options to better balance its forces. Strategic failures caused tactical failures, then tactical failures backfired into the strategy causing its failure. 

If you have CMFB then you already have the Germans at their best equipped... their issues were beyond the tactical battlefield (as mentioned below) but the tactical battlefield was severely impacted by those factors.
It isn't what force you command though that makes this game amazing... and everybody likes commanding the Germans, even though by the end of the war the US probably had the most efficient Army (my opinion), the Russians the most feared, and the Germans had been outclassed in doctrine, training, logistics, replacement process, intelligence, and small unit capability.  A few scattered shiny Tigers could never make up for those shortcomings... occasionally they made a difference at the lowest level of course.. but there were too many other issues compounding the German's tactical finesse and capability in the negative.
CMFI is more of a challenge as there is more parity in armor and infantry.   
So.. if you are looking for parity between the forces go for any of the West front games especially CMFI, but CMFB, or CMBN as well.  You can set any small battle up to be as balanced or as realistically unbalanced as you like regardless of the actual game family.  If you are looking for historical accuracy though, by the end of the war the German Army was "challenged" to be kind. 
Bil

But they die GLORIOUSLY!

The only time you need to do this is if something goes wrong. Generally speaking heavy suppressive fires will cause the enemy to exit the building unless they are fanatics.
 
In 'Hell in the Hedgerows' I did successfully order a clearing of a defended building with grenades because my suppressive fire was unable to penetrate the building and pin the defenders.
All I did was split an Assault Team and order them to quick move into the house. I judged the enemy team to be sufficiently distracted to allow the maneuver with few casualties. They paused several times to shoot, stopped right outside the front door, threw a couple grenades, and went into the house blowing away anything remaining. It was over in a few seconds.
The relevant turn is time-stamped below:
 
The assault team did become pinned by my covering fire, but by approaching from an angle they were spared the full effect of it until they were inside the house.
Further down the street I attempted the same maneuver simultaneously to little effect. I did flush the enemy out of the building, but my squad took a casualty and also retreated. Clearing a house with grenade assault is a very dangerous thing to do no matter how you go about it.
That being said, I would absolutely love a Target Grenade command not necessarily for clearing houses, but because at very close range I would like to deliberately area fire onto terrain with grenades say from behind a wall or behind a hedgerow.

Um.
Yeah.
Dudes aim at other dudes.
That's how it works.
If the leader is the first one to be seen, given he's usually the first in line, then he's the first one to be shot at.
If the leader is shooting his SMG, then he's drawing more attention than the men around him, and is the one most likely to be shot at.
If the machine-gunner is doing all the shooting, and thus being spotted and noticed by the enemy constantly, then he's the one most likely to get shot at.
I don't know why this is difficult.
Unless you're ordered to fire at an area, you're going to aim at a specific enemy target and try to hit him.
There is no random area fire in this game unless specified by the scenario designer.
Every time you are being shot at, they can SEE you, and they're TRYING TO KILL YOU.
 
I gave you perfectly good advice. Try using it.

This went much better than I expected. I found a weak spot which allowed me to unravel the enemy positions in quick order.

Another great watch.

This went much better than I expected. I found a weak spot which allowed me to unravel the enemy positions in quick order.

Four pages later this key piece of information finally becomes available, after having literally everyone make false assumptions about it for a month.
The troops DID have contact with the tank! THEY KNEW IT WAS THERE!
Now we know there was some other mitigating factor for spotting, such as the unnecessary 360 degree target arc, or the presence of foliage, smoke, dust, etc.
See? We're finally making progress towards figuring this out. It only took a month and a half. It turns out your troops are not blind, or deaf.
 
Except they DID notice it, they had a contact marker the entire time!
/thread
 
Call me rude all you want, but I was correct about the lack of info, and the OP's inability or unwillingness to provide it.

The only time you need to do this is if something goes wrong. Generally speaking heavy suppressive fires will cause the enemy to exit the building unless they are fanatics.
 
In 'Hell in the Hedgerows' I did successfully order a clearing of a defended building with grenades because my suppressive fire was unable to penetrate the building and pin the defenders.
All I did was split an Assault Team and order them to quick move into the house. I judged the enemy team to be sufficiently distracted to allow the maneuver with few casualties. They paused several times to shoot, stopped right outside the front door, threw a couple grenades, and went into the house blowing away anything remaining. It was over in a few seconds.
The relevant turn is time-stamped below:
 
The assault team did become pinned by my covering fire, but by approaching from an angle they were spared the full effect of it until they were inside the house.
Further down the street I attempted the same maneuver simultaneously to little effect. I did flush the enemy out of the building, but my squad took a casualty and also retreated. Clearing a house with grenade assault is a very dangerous thing to do no matter how you go about it.
That being said, I would absolutely love a Target Grenade command not necessarily for clearing houses, but because at very close range I would like to deliberately area fire onto terrain with grenades say from behind a wall or behind a hedgerow.

Casualties are not random. Soldiers armed with automatic weapons are a higher priority for the TACAI to shoot. Leaders armed with SMG's and Gunners armed with LMG's stick out like a big neon sign saying 'Kill This Man First'.
The only way to mitigate leader casualties is to not expose them to so much fire. I usually split off an Assault Team from each squad as a way to protect the squad leader until use of their SMG and grenades becomes necessary. Otherwise they sit out of SMG range and use their binos while the team's rifles do the shooting.

Four pages later this key piece of information finally becomes available, after having literally everyone make false assumptions about it for a month.
The troops DID have contact with the tank! THEY KNEW IT WAS THERE!
Now we know there was some other mitigating factor for spotting, such as the unnecessary 360 degree target arc, or the presence of foliage, smoke, dust, etc.
See? We're finally making progress towards figuring this out. It only took a month and a half. It turns out your troops are not blind, or deaf.
 
Except they DID notice it, they had a contact marker the entire time!
/thread
 
Call me rude all you want, but I was correct about the lack of info, and the OP's inability or unwillingness to provide it.

Casualties are not random. Soldiers armed with automatic weapons are a higher priority for the TACAI to shoot. Leaders armed with SMG's and Gunners armed with LMG's stick out like a big neon sign saying 'Kill This Man First'.
The only way to mitigate leader casualties is to not expose them to so much fire. I usually split off an Assault Team from each squad as a way to protect the squad leader until use of their SMG and grenades becomes necessary. Otherwise they sit out of SMG range and use their binos while the team's rifles do the shooting.

Indeed, I grew tired of the old handle and so divested myself of it.
Before that I went by Dengar Roth, but that's neither here nor anywhere else that still exists.
I'm getting old myself...

My good man, the only age that matters is this one:

Anyone who joined before me is automatically 'old'.

Four pages later this key piece of information finally becomes available, after having literally everyone make false assumptions about it for a month.
The troops DID have contact with the tank! THEY KNEW IT WAS THERE!
Now we know there was some other mitigating factor for spotting, such as the unnecessary 360 degree target arc, or the presence of foliage, smoke, dust, etc.
See? We're finally making progress towards figuring this out. It only took a month and a half. It turns out your troops are not blind, or deaf.
 
Except they DID notice it, they had a contact marker the entire time!
/thread
 
Call me rude all you want, but I was correct about the lack of info, and the OP's inability or unwillingness to provide it.