Thus far, authorities have not yet determined the motives of the Austin bomber. Typically, "terrorism" has social and/or political overtones--the Boston Marathon bombers had been radicalized overseas, Eric Rudolph had an anti-abortion and anti-homosexual agenda, and Ted Kaczynski was an anti-technology anarchist. This Conditt guy apparently just decided to see if he could get away with it, which won't fit the traditional definition of "terrorism" despite the fact that people in the Austin area were, in fact, terrified.
I could see the very act of sending out or planting explosive devices as being classified as "terrorism" even without a social or political motivation--a few random explosions with no known pattern or target group would be enough to make everyone afraid. That was the motivation of the Beltway Snipers--they didn't target specific people.
The numbers are in. Premier approval ratings for all the provinces:
In comparison, Trump is currently sitting at a 40% (HOW?) which is better than 6 of the premiers. Maybe Canadians are more cynical or hold their politicians to a higher standard, but those numbers are horrid.
@Mathsorcerer I was thinking of the Beltway Sniper (BS) guys this morning. Virginia has definitely been working on the domestic terror classification. They used a new law created after 911 against them first, but was I think, originally more concerned over big events, like 911. This was used to include just the fact of using terror tactics themselves, without political motivations, and helped up it to a least one of the capital murder charges against the BS's. That's where I think it could get a bit dodgy on moving convictions up depending on how a crime is viewed.
Virginia is moving on this again I see, big time, and will be a real doozy if passed, especially about the part about listing hate groups as DT's and preventing assembly. A short but interesting read. State of Virginia proposes domestic terrorism law
Virginia is moving on this again I see, big time, and will be a real doozy if passed, especially about the part about listing hate groups as DT's and preventing assembly.
It's stuff like this that means terrorism has won.
Trump has axed HR McMaster and replaced him with John Bolton. One of the biggest proponents of the Iraq War (to this day). There are no words for just how big a disaster this is going to be. I doubt there is a bigger foreign policy hawk in any sector of American life than John Bolton. Don't say you weren't warned. Trump with Bolton whispering in his ear about Iran and North Korea is straight-up dangerous. Everyone who voted for Trump on the idea of his isolationism in regards to foreign policy needs to crawl in hole for a good long while after this appointment. This is the worst choice he has made by leaps and bounds.
Also, Trump is now enacting MASSIVE tariffs on Chinese goods. Everyone is going to be very, very surprised in regards to their Christmas gift spending come December.
Trump has axed HR McMaster and replaced him with John Bolton. One of the biggest proponents of the Iraq War (to this day). There are no words for just how big a disaster this is going to be. I doubt there is a bigger foreign policy hawk in any sector of American life than John Bolton. Don't say you weren't warned. Trump with Bolton whispering in his ear about Iran and North Korea is straight-up dangerous. Everyone who voted for Trump on the idea of his isolationism in regards to foreign policy needs to crawl in hole for a good long while after this appointment. This is the worst choice he has made by leaps and bounds.
Also, Trump is now enacting MASSIVE tariffs on Chinese goods. Everyone is going to be very, very surprised in regards to their Christmas gift spending come December.
I really dont understand how Trump can say that the war in Iraq was one of the largest blunders in American foreign policy history, and then hire Bolton on as his NSA. Talk about speaking out of both sides of your mouth...
Trump has axed HR McMaster and replaced him with John Bolton. One of the biggest proponents of the Iraq War (to this day). There are no words for just how big a disaster this is going to be. I doubt there is a bigger foreign policy hawk in any sector of American life than John Bolton. Don't say you weren't warned. Trump with Bolton whispering in his ear about Iran and North Korea is straight-up dangerous. Everyone who voted for Trump on the idea of his isolationism in regards to foreign policy needs to crawl in hole for a good long while after this appointment. This is the worst choice he has made by leaps and bounds.
Also, Trump is now enacting MASSIVE tariffs on Chinese goods. Everyone is going to be very, very surprised in regards to their Christmas gift spending come December.
I really dont understand how Trump can say that the war in Iraq was one of the largest blunders in American foreign policy history, and then hire Bolton on as his NSA. Talk about speaking out of both sides of your mouth...
More like both sides of his ass. It was simply a talking point for the Republican primaries to use against Jeb Bush, and since Republican primary voters were QUITE thirsty for a get out of jail free card on Iraq, they ate that shit up like it was a steak at Ruth Chris. It was total bullshit, it's ALL total bullshit. He has no beliefs beyond what the person in the room at the moment is conveying to him, or what will help in in the moment. Trump cares about money, power and being perceived as a winner in whatever he is doing at the time.
1. Bolton was a primary cheerleader of the War in Iraq and stands for everything Americans rejected about the Bush administration's foreign policy. 2. Bolton wanted the U.S. to go to war with Cuba over WMDs that also didn't exist 3. Bolton really, really wants to bomb Iran 4. President Obama followed Bolton's terrible advice about Libya and then Bolton blamed Obama for the resulting mess 5. Bolton suggested Israel should unleash nuclear weapons against Iran There's more than five, believe me. Just listen to the guy talk.
Who the eff thinks this guy is competent to run a deli much less act as national security advisor? This is the crazy guy yelling about everything. This guy could not qualify for a security clearance in a sane world where he wasn't appointed by the president to run a department. One would hope congress does not confirm him but our fate is again in spineless republican's hands who have shown they will bend over meekly for everything the President does.
Larry Kudlow, his new attorney AND Bolton. They all share one similarity, and this is seriously no joke. They are all combative cable TV personalities. However much I have next to no actual respect for people like McMaster or Gary Cohn for standing next to this freak-show for so long, they had SOME qualifications for their job. Trump is now (and this is almost an inescapable conclusion) staffing the major posts being vacated in the White House by people he likes to watch on cable news. For instance, as wrong as John Bolton was on Iraq, Larry Kudlow is the economic version, who just days before the financial crisis of 2008 was insisting the markets and economy were in phenomenal shape.
Larry Kudlow, his new attorney AND Bolton. They all share one similarity, and this is seriously no joke. They are all combative cable TV personalities. However much I have next to no actual respect for people like McMaster or Gary Cohn for standing next to this freak-show for so long, they had SOME qualifications for their job. Trump is now (and this is almost an inescapable conclusion) staffing the major posts being vacated in the White House by people he likes to watch on cable news. For instance, as wrong as John Bolton was on Iraq, Larry Kudlow is the economic version, who just days before the financial crisis of 2008 was insisting the markets and economy were in phenomenal shape.
He consistently picks people who are not qualified, who are corrupt and abuse their offices, and all of them generally have the wrong opinions about everything.
I just don't even know where to go with this. His pick to replace his economic adviser is someone who has been a Wall Street mouthpiece everyday for the last 20 years on CNBC, and his pick for national security adviser has been creaming his pants over the idea of a war with Iran for nearly just as long. These choices fly so explicitly in the face if two of the main reasons people claimed they voted for him that it almost defies belief. The amount of turnover taking place at the White House is absurd. Nothing remotely like this has ever happened before. It's getting to the point where it's hard to ignore the likelihood that Trump is simply firing and hiring people for the simple fact that he is bored. This isn't being given any more thought than a decision on The Apprentice. Who the hell gets rid of their economic adviser, national security adviser, and Secretary of State within a 14-day time period??
Virginia is moving on this again I see, big time, and will be a real doozy if passed, especially about the part about listing hate groups as DT's and preventing assembly.
It's stuff like this that means terrorism has won.
Every time we drone someone without first verifying whether they are a militant or combatant...every time the FISA Court--a *secret* court--issues a warrant against a United States citizen...every time the TSA pats down an elderly person or a child...every time we engage in a military action under the auspices of the AUMF...and every time some Federal agency uses an "administrative subpoena" to search through phone or e-mail records stored in a service provider's system...those are the times when the terrorists already won.
If the War on Terror really is a war, then we lost.
Here's John Bolton addressing Russians and wishing them the best and expressing his hopes for them to loosen gun restrictions in 2013.
The founder of the group Bolton recorded that video for, Alexander Torshin, is reportedly at the center of an FBI probe into whether he illegally sent money to the NRA in order to help the Trump campaign in 2016.
As usual, the media reported that Trump was going to dismiss McMaster and choose Bolton quite a bit ago. The White House denied this as recently as one week ago. This is nothing new, but shows that they expect the voters to have a very short memory.
Bolton is a terrible choice. Without trying to be overly dramatic, it makes me afraid for the future.
As usual, the media reported that Trump was going to dismiss McMaster and choose Bolton quite a bit ago. The White House denied this as recently as one week ago. This is nothing new, but shows that they expect the voters to have a very short memory.
Bolton is a terrible choice. Without trying to be overly dramatic, it makes me afraid for the future.
The first part is key, but so is another, which is a product of what happens when you lie on a constant basis as a way to push through every situation. I was listening to the horror-themed podcast "Last Podcast on the Left" this week, an episode about Casey Anthony, a young mother who was acquitted but almost certainly killed her young daughter. But the focus of the episode was the commitment to a lie, and that even it's a bad lie, it fundamentally puts the liar at an advantage. Because people are forced to do one of two things faced with blatant lies: One is to bend reality to fit the lie, or the other is to expend all your energy trying to prove the lie, at which point the liar will just move on to the next one as if the previous never existed.
Larry Kudlow is the economic version, who just days before the financial crisis of 2008 was insisting the markets and economy were in phenomenal shape.
In my opinion, Bolton is the second worst pick that Trump has made for a substantial office. The only one worse was Sessions.
Devos is the least qualified (worst) if you have kids or are concerned about education. People that don't and already have their education may not but she's terrible for the future. But yeah at least her power is somewhat handicapped by incompetence and inability to muster competence to overcome red-tape.
Sessions was investigated for his 'lack of candor' during his congressional testimony when he suddenly developed amnesia to everything and this was authorized by McCabe who Sessions later fired for supposedly lack of candor during congressional testimony. When Comey was fired he passed off his notes to McCabe and like three other people at the FBI who have now all been fired by Trump and Trumpists. All the people that could be in a position to testify against Trump from the FBI have been fired in a preemptive character assassination attack. Hey it's easy to fire a guy and ruin his credibility, it's harder to gather facts and present a case and ruin a guy's credibility.
And yeah Bolton is a terrible awful no good choice to run anything. Wrong about everything.
Love Betsy Devos as a person, so I don't mind her appointment. I'm actually happy that an incredible philanthropist and school choice advocate has received recognition.
In 2017, Sinclair-owned Circa reported that Baker was under a Department of Justice criminal investigation for allegedly leaking classified national security information concerning the Trump administration to the media. The probe, described as "a strange interagency dispute that ... attracted the attention of senior lawmakers", ended with a decision not to charge anyone, per the Washington Post.
And McCabe was fired by Jeff Sessions two days before we was supposed to retire setting up the situation where when he later testifies truthfully against Trump or Sessions or whatever, the story on Fox News and Trump will cry about how he's only butthurt about getting fired and a total partisan!
Love Betsy Devos as a person, so I don't mind her appointment. I'm actually happy that an incredible philanthropist and school choice advocate has received recognition.
Strongly disagree. The problem with school choice is it takes tax payer funding from public schools and diverts it to for profit schools with lax or no oversight. It's a scam basically with worse outcomes than public schools.
And have you heard her speak? There's a million examples of her being clueless about the basic facts about anything including the job.
Love Betsy Devos as a person, so I don't mind her appointment. I'm actually happy that an incredible philanthropist and school choice advocate has received recognition.
Strongly disagree. The problem with school choice is it takes tax payer funding from public schools and diverts it to for profit schools with lax or no oversight. It's a scam basically with worse outcomes than public schools.
And have you heard her speak? There's a million examples of her being clueless about the basic facts about anything including the job.
First off, most recipients of voucher programs and other school choice initiatives are non-profits. Secondly, on average school choice initiatives have led to slightly higher or comparable results, with a few exceptions (Michigan is actually one). Finally, without school choice initiatives children in failing schools will have no out. These children are typically lower income and minority. Increasing the funding of their public schools has not helped. To deny them even the chance to have an education comparable to what you and I had is cruel.
Love Betsy Devos as a person, so I don't mind her appointment. I'm actually happy that an incredible philanthropist and school choice advocate has received recognition.
Strongly disagree. The problem with school choice is it takes tax payer funding from public schools and diverts it to for profit schools with lax or no oversight. It's a scam basically with worse outcomes than public schools.
And have you heard her speak? There's a million examples of her being clueless about the basic facts about anything including the job.
First off, most recipients of voucher programs and other school choice initiatives are non-profits. Secondly, on average school choice initiatives have led to slightly higher or comparable results, with a few exceptions (Michigan is actually one). Finally, without school choice initiatives children in failing schools will have no out. These children are typically lower income and minority. Increasing the funding of their public schools has not helped. To deny them even the chance to have an education comparable to what you and I had is cruel.
I suspect that the majority of private school kids are rich and not the failing kids from failing schools if you look at the numbers. I doubt that the single mother on food stamps with two jobs living in poverty is going to send her kids to a charter or private school. I also suspect that the majority of schools are for profit and are going to far out number non-profit outliers. And when you take tax dollars and give them to these for profit schools, it's money out of the budget from traditional schools hurting those in public school.
Much like crime, performance in ANY type of school has everything to do with how much money your family has, as more money means more time for parental involvement, which is way more important than any contribution from individual teachers or schools can provide.
. I doubt that the single mother on food stamps with two jobs living in poverty is going to send her kids to a charter or private school.
I don't know what to tell you. That's...the... entire premise of school choice. The whole point of school choice is to increase access to successful private or public charter schools for children from poor families. Especially with voucher programs, they almost exclusively go to low income families and children in districts with failing schools. School choice is designed for your "single mother on food stamps with two jobs living in poverty".
As far as Michigan goes, I agree Michigan is the exception and probably the worst example of charter schools being executed. Then again, their charter program has been overseen by Democratic administrations that have not wanted them to succeed due to the influence of the teachers unions.
The biggest school choice success stories have come in places like Cleveland, where private religious schools have been able to take students. These are preferable to for-profit schools, but Democrats have opposed them on (frankly ridiculous) non-establishment grounds.
Love Betsy Devos as a person, so I don't mind her appointment. I'm actually happy that an incredible philanthropist and school choice advocate has received recognition.
Strongly disagree. The problem with school choice is it takes tax payer funding from public schools and diverts it to for profit schools with lax or no oversight. It's a scam basically with worse outcomes than public schools.
And have you heard her speak? There's a million examples of her being clueless about the basic facts about anything including the job.
First off, most recipients of voucher programs and other school choice initiatives are non-profits. Secondly, on average school choice initiatives have led to slightly higher or comparable results, with a few exceptions (Michigan is actually one). Finally, without school choice initiatives children in failing schools will have no out. These children are typically lower income and minority. Increasing the funding of their public schools has not helped. To deny them even the chance to have an education comparable to what you and I had is cruel.
I suspect that the majority of private school kids are rich and not the failing kids from failing schools if you look at the numbers. I doubt that the single mother on food stamps with two jobs living in poverty is going to send her kids to a charter or private school. I also suspect that the majority of schools are for profit and are going to far out number non-profit outliers. And when you take tax dollars and give them to these for profit schools, it's money out of the budget from traditional schools hurting those in public school.
I live in Michigan and I wouldn't recommend anybody use the charter schools here. I think DeVoss has a good heart and I like her as a person but if she wants to extend Michigan's charter system to the whole country, absolutely not!
I'm probably going to sound a bit like a red-neck here but one of the problems with the charter schools my stepkids attended is their sports programs sucked! Say what you want about 'focus on education', but sports keeps a lot of kids out of trouble when they're not in class. If that's taken away or shoddily run kids lose out on that opportunity. Another big problem is they pay their teachers diddly-squat so as soon as a job in a real school opens up, the good ones hit the road. My daughter is enrolled in the public education system, just like I was...
Comments
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/29/opinion/the-never-ending-cold-war.html
I could see the very act of sending out or planting explosive devices as being classified as "terrorism" even without a social or political motivation--a few random explosions with no known pattern or target group would be enough to make everyone afraid. That was the motivation of the Beltway Snipers--they didn't target specific people.
The numbers are in. Premier approval ratings for all the provinces:
In comparison, Trump is currently sitting at a 40% (HOW?) which is better than 6 of the premiers. Maybe Canadians are more cynical or hold their politicians to a higher standard, but those numbers are horrid.
Virginia is moving on this again I see, big time, and will be a real doozy if passed, especially about the part about listing hate groups as DT's and preventing assembly.
A short but interesting read.
State of Virginia proposes domestic terrorism law
TX seems to have a little more broader definition of terrorism and punishments. Just threatening someone with violence is viewed as terroristic.
Terroristic Threats: What They Are and How Texas Treats Them
Texas Penal Code - PENAL § 22.07. Terroristic Threat
It's stuff like this that means terrorism has won.
Also, Trump is now enacting MASSIVE tariffs on Chinese goods. Everyone is going to be very, very surprised in regards to their Christmas gift spending come December.
I really dont understand how Trump can say that the war in Iraq was one of the largest blunders in American foreign policy history, and then hire Bolton on as his NSA. Talk about speaking out of both sides of your mouth...
Last month, Bolton wrote an op-ed for the Wall Street Journal titled “The Legal Case for Striking North Korea First”
2008 Bolton: Striking Iran ‘Is Really The Most Prudent Thing To Do’
rant continued..
Five Horrifically Bad Foreign Policy Ideas That Should Disqualify John Bolton From Being Secretary of State (or anything ever in the government)
1. Bolton was a primary cheerleader of the War in Iraq and stands for everything Americans rejected about the Bush administration's foreign policy.
2. Bolton wanted the U.S. to go to war with Cuba over WMDs that also didn't exist
3. Bolton really, really wants to bomb Iran
4. President Obama followed Bolton's terrible advice about Libya and then Bolton blamed Obama for the resulting mess
5. Bolton suggested Israel should unleash nuclear weapons against Iran
There's more than five, believe me. Just listen to the guy talk.
Who the eff thinks this guy is competent to run a deli much less act as national security advisor? This is the crazy guy yelling about everything. This guy could not qualify for a security clearance in a sane world where he wasn't appointed by the president to run a department. One would hope congress does not confirm him but our fate is again in spineless republican's hands who have shown they will bend over meekly for everything the President does.
If the War on Terror really is a war, then we lost.
The founder of the group Bolton recorded that video for, Alexander Torshin, is reportedly at the center of an FBI probe into whether he illegally sent money to the NRA in order to help the Trump campaign in 2016.
Trump's boundlessly corrupt.
https://www.npr.org/2018/03/22/595897412/john-boltons-curious-appearance-in-a-russian-gun-rights-video
He could melt Merkel's icy heart
Sessions was investigated for his 'lack of candor' during his congressional testimony when he suddenly developed amnesia to everything and this was authorized by McCabe who Sessions later fired for supposedly lack of candor during congressional testimony. When Comey was fired he passed off his notes to McCabe and like three other people at the FBI who have now all been fired by Trump and Trumpists. All the people that could be in a position to testify against Trump from the FBI have been fired in a preemptive character assassination attack. Hey it's easy to fire a guy and ruin his credibility, it's harder to gather facts and present a case and ruin a guy's credibility.
And yeah Bolton is a terrible awful no good choice to run anything. Wrong about everything.
https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/6/7/15751336/fbi-trump-russia-comey-trump-flynn
FBI Director Chris Wray "replaces" James Rybicki, Comey-era chief of staff who is forced to leave the Buera
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2018/01/23/james-rybicki-who-was-chief-staff-to-james-comey-and-current-fbi-director-christopher-wray-has-quit.html
The FBI’s top lawyer, James Baker, was being reassigned — one of the first moves by new director Christopher A. Wray.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/fbis-top-lawyer-said-to-be-reassigned/2017/12/21/2ac76640-e6b5-11e7-833f-155031558ff4_story.html?utm_term=.da56751be71a
In 2017, Sinclair-owned Circa reported that Baker was under a Department of Justice criminal investigation for allegedly leaking classified national security information concerning the Trump administration to the media. The probe, described as "a strange interagency dispute that ... attracted the attention of senior lawmakers", ended with a decision not to charge anyone, per the Washington Post.
And McCabe was fired by Jeff Sessions two days before we was supposed to retire setting up the situation where when he later testifies truthfully against Trump or Sessions or whatever, the story on Fox News and Trump will cry about how he's only butthurt about getting fired and a total partisan!
And have you heard her speak? There's a million examples of her being clueless about the basic facts about anything including the job.
79 percent of Michigan’s charters are for-profit. while more than 80 percent of charters nationwide are nonprofit. DeVos has also owned shares in K12 Inc., the nation's largest operator of for-profit charter schools. So it sounds like she probably wants to do that nationwide, privatize education into a for profit enterprise.
I suspect that the majority of private school kids are rich and not the failing kids from failing schools if you look at the numbers. I doubt that the single mother on food stamps with two jobs living in poverty is going to send her kids to a charter or private school. I also suspect that the majority of schools are for profit and are going to far out number non-profit outliers. And when you take tax dollars and give them to these for profit schools, it's money out of the budget from traditional schools hurting those in public school.
As far as Michigan goes, I agree Michigan is the exception and probably the worst example of charter schools being executed. Then again, their charter program has been overseen by Democratic administrations that have not wanted them to succeed due to the influence of the teachers unions.
The biggest school choice success stories have come in places like Cleveland, where private religious schools have been able to take students. These are preferable to for-profit schools, but Democrats have opposed them on (frankly ridiculous) non-establishment grounds.
I'm probably going to sound a bit like a red-neck here but one of the problems with the charter schools my stepkids attended is their sports programs sucked! Say what you want about 'focus on education', but sports keeps a lot of kids out of trouble when they're not in class. If that's taken away or shoddily run kids lose out on that opportunity. Another big problem is they pay their teachers diddly-squat so as soon as a job in a real school opens up, the good ones hit the road. My daughter is enrolled in the public education system, just like I was...