monitoring Trump and relevant contemporary events

@Olivier5,

Strength come in ideology too. Real, free democracy must remain strong somewhere so others can see it in action. In this case, I am describing the far right tribalism of the American right.

As to your assessment of tRump via Europe - yes, my point exactly. And, yes it is heavy, we are in heavy times!

BTW, I don't discount Canada either, but it isn't the match for the combined power of Europe. You are a world Economic Power - combined! Too bad Brexit happened, but, at least Britain stands with you.

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@Olivier5,

Quote:

There's no honor among them fascists.

The fascists run the government you prefer.

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@Olivier5,

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loath European institutions.

Has the EU been around long enough to be an institution?

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@BillW,

Understood. The NRA has been accumulating power over a long period of time. To change that will also take time.

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@blatham,

Strong protections for our civil rights are not something that we want to change.

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@blatham,

Absolutely...What really becomes scary is all the available military weapons in the hands of the right wing white supremacists. But, democracy is way to slow to counter that. Right now we have to pray for the ballot box to win this one first.

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Springtime for Sycophants

(White House Trade Cazar Gets Dismembered by Paul Krugman of The New York Times)

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@BillW,

BillW wrote:

Absolutely...What really becomes scary is all the available military weapons in the hands of the right wing white supremacists. But, democracy is way to slow to counter that. Right now we have to pray for the ballot box to win this one first.

Adding a pistol grip to a rifle does not make it a military weapon.

And liberals are not allowed to deprive people of their rights because of their political beliefs.

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"Russian Roulette" trumps Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee report. No pun intended because there is no correlation. The book represent the truth while tRump and the Republican House Intelligence Committee report represent a total unrepentant liar and total fiction.

This book shows exactly how dangerously vast a traitor tRump and his corrupt cronies truly are - including the Republican House Intelligence Committee .

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@oralloy,

Quote:

Strong protections for our civil rights are not something that we want to change.

The second time civil rights have been voted down. Do I see a pattern?

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@coldjoint,

Every time an innocent person is shot and killed, it is a far more basic and egregious violation of their civil rights, But oralloy and Joint completely ignore those violations of civil rights.

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@MontereyJack,

Quote:

But oralloy and Joint completely ignore those violations of civil rights.

We are supposed to stop crime? Criminals will always have guns.

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@MontereyJack,

MontereyJack wrote:

Every time an innocent person is shot and killed, it is a far more basic and egregious violation of their civil rights, But oralloy and Joint completely ignore those violations of civil rights.

I figured that it was understood that I have no objections to laws against murder.

In Michigan, people convicted of first degree murder receive a mandatory life sentence. And that's not something called life but you come up for parole after 20 years. It means stay in prison until you're dead. And no minimum security either, even if you behave. Eligibility for that requires that you be a few years away from reaching your minimum sentence, which will never happen if your minimum sentence is forever.

Second degree murder typically earns a 30 year minimum / 90 year maximum sentence if you have no criminal record. Having a lengthy criminal record will typically get you a 50 year minimum, although in that case you're more likely to be convicted of first degree murder. No sentence reductions for good behavior in Michigan either. You must serve the entire minimum before being considered for parole.

So if anyone wants to commit murder, please go do it in a different state. We don't want that sort of thing here in Michigan.

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Will Teresa May invoke Article 5 of the NATO Treaty for the unlawful Russian act of attempted murder for using nerve gas in an act of war?

Article 5

The key section of the treaty is Article 5. Its commitment clause defines the casus foederis. It commits each member state to consider an armed attack against one member state, in Europe or North America, to be an armed attack against them all.

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@BillW,

Yes, Canada remains wholesome and sane, also New Zealand and Australia...

(mentally welcoming himself to the resistance... counting potential allies on the fingers of one hand...)

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@MontereyJack,

Quote:

oralloy and Joint completely ignore those violations of civil rights.

In their understanding, one's rights are proportional to the size of one's gun.

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Four Years After Declaring War on Pollution, China Is Winning

Quote:

On March 4, 2014, the Chinese premier, Li Keqiang, told almost 3,000 delegates at the National People’s Congress and many more watching live on state television, “We will resolutely declare war against pollution as we declared war against poverty.”

The statement broke from the country’s longstanding policy of putting economic growth over environment, and many wondered whether China would really follow through.

Four years after that declaration, the data is in: China is winning, at record pace. In particular, cities have cut concentrations of fine particulates in the air by 32 percent on average, in just those four years.

(...)

To put the astounding scale and speed of China’s recent progress in context, it’s useful to think back to the severe pollution levels in many American cities in the 1950s and 1960s, especially in the Rust Belt.

The U.S. Clean Air Act is widely regarded as having produced large reductions in air pollution. In the four years after its 1970 enactment, American air pollution declined by 20 percent on average. But it took about a dozen years and the 1981-1982 recession for the United States to achieve the 32 percent reduction China has achieved in just four years. (...)

NYT

1 Reply

@hightor,

That's one of the advantages of authoritarian regimes, they can dictate stuff like this and not have to bother about lobby groups and other vested interests.

Not advocating it mind you, I'd rather have slow moving legislation and democracy.

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@izzythepush,

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That's one of the advantages of authoritarian regimes...

Yes, compare the disaster response in Cuba last summer as compared to Puerto Rico.

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...I'd rather have slow moving legislation and democracy.

Me too. But it seems to have gone out of fashion.

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@hightor,

WaPo: Trump ousts Rex Tillerson as secretary of state

Trump and Tillerson were at odds over the nerve agent used in the Salisbury attack which 'clearly came from Russia' - seems, this was the state secretary's final nail in the coffin.

2 Replies

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