monitoring Trump and relevant contemporary events

By the evening of that next day, Commander-in-Chief Barack Obama was jetting off to a campaign fundraiser in Las Vegas, followed by parties with Jay-Z and Beyonce. Chris Stevens was already out of sight, out of mind. Except that Commander Obama could not wash off the stench of dereliction of duty, duty to far more worthy American warriors and servicemen, dereliction in failing to authorize worthy security for those who were sent in harms way under his leadership, and to order a timely rescue when he could. For such failure, any commander serving under the commander-in-chief should be court martialed. But the President expects you to give him four more years of such “leadership.”

georgeob1 wrote:

Are there any truly sovereign nations left in Europe?

Well, we've got here the 47 member states of the Council of Europe, but even the non-members Belarus, Kazakhstan and Vatican City have more than limited sovereignty.

izzythepush wrote:

They didn't do it because attacking heads of state and their lieutenants is against international law.

International law is non-binding and only followed if that country wants to follow it. The is no enforcement, only useless sanctions like the hundreds against Israel by a useless UN.

One of these days Trump and by unhappy extension, we (US) are going to suck it up when we tick off enough people. Rome fell too and I bet no one expected it.

Besides all that, we are supposed to be a nation of laws, abide the treaties and agreements we sign, including in the UN.

We are not supposed to be the world's bully.

Iran has declared that it will no longer abide by any of the restrictions imposed by the 2015 nuclear deal.
In a statement it said it would no longer observe limitations on its capacity for enrichment, the level of enrichment, the stock of enriched material, or research and development.
The statement came after a meeting of the Iranian cabinet in Tehran.

There is no constitutional limit to the powers of the EU government. The illusion that it's members are truly sovereign is contrary to the relevant facts.

UNESCO said on Monday that the United States has signed treaties committing it not to harm cultural heritage in the event of armed conflict.

U.S. President Donald Trump on Sunday stood by his threat to go after Iranian cultural sites, warning of a "major retaliation" if Iran strikes back for the killing of one of its top military commanders.

The UN cultural body said that under provisions of the 1954 and 1972 conventions - which have been ratified by both the United States and Iran - signatory states undertake not to take any deliberate measures which might damage cultural and natural heritage on the territory of other states party to those conventions.

So I came back to see him a few weeks later, and by that time we were bombing in Afghanistan. I said, “Are we still going to war with Iraq?” And he said, “Oh, it’s worse than that.” He reached over on his desk. He picked up a piece of paper. And he said, “I just got this down from upstairs” -- meaning the Secretary of Defense’s office -- “today.” And he said, “This is a memo that describes how we’re going to take out seven countries in five years, starting with Iraq, and then Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and, finishing off, Iran.” I said, “Is it classified?” He said, “Yes, sir.” I said, “Well, don’t show it to me.” And I saw him a year or so ago, and I said, “You remember that?” He said, “Sir, I didn’t show you that memo! I didn’t show it to you!”

My point on this is not that the Iranians are good guys -- they're not -- but that you shouldn't use force, except as a last, last, last resort. There is a military option, but it's a bad one.

The EU is still trying to save the deal - and is risking the wrath of the USA.

I don't trust Johnson to make the right call.