Politics

SpaceNut · 2018-10-13 16:47:50

Another email investigation on going for Hillary review at the agency of the former secretary of state and her private email server..
Hillary Clinton's security clearance withdrawn at her request amid email investigation

Her clearance was pulled just days after President Donald Trump revoked the clearance of former CIA Director John Brennan.

The State Department noted to Grassley and Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the top Democrat on the judiciary committee, that it was still examining all of the documents it received from the FBI after the bureau's investigation was completed.
After its review is complete the State Department said it will begin investigating whether there were any "valid security incidents" and whether Clinton or her staff broke any rules.

I would say this will not be a limited review by the FBI if its done....

SpaceNut · 2018-10-13 19:45:29

I am not surprised with the Rich thinking that they are above the law.....How Jared Kushner Avoided Paying Taxes; President Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser appears to have paid almost no federal income taxes for several years running.

SpaceNut · 2018-10-16 20:49:13

maybe enough is enough with the U.S., Afghan forces troops battle Taliban, ISIS ahead of elections

Seems they have joined forces on the wrong side....Taliban territory, is also an ISIS stronghold
Sound firmilar...al-Qaida, So-called Islamic State, the Taliban, and al-Qaeda are all radical jihadist groups focused on ridding the world from the threat, as they perceive it, that Western culture poses to Islam.

SpaceNut · 2018-10-17 18:45:34

Most of us envision the Secret Service as a way to protect the President and his family from physical harm. We are generally okay with this. This is not a normal Presidential family, in case you are living on Mars and just catching up. CBS News says a Secret Service agent blocked one of its correspondents from asking Jared Kushner a question when he was walking out of an airplane, saying there was a “time and a place” for such interactions. 'I don't give a damn who you are': Secret Service blocks CBS reporter

The Secret Service says it is reviewing an incident in which an agent blocked CBS News correspondent Errol Barnett from trying to question White House adviser and President Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner about the disappearance of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

Its getting stupid out there....

SpaceNut · 2018-10-18 17:25:22

The War in Afghanistan followed the 2001 United States invasion of Afghanistan. Supported initially by Canada in the form of JTF2 and the United Kingdom, the US was later joined by the rest of NATO, beginning in 2003. Its public aims were to dismantle al-Qaeda and to deny it a safe base of operations in Afghanistan by removing the Taliban from power.

The Taliban must believe that our generals are structured like there tribal leaders.... as Afghan officials killed in attack; US general survives

A gunman on Thursday killed three top leaders in Afghanistan's Kandahar province, while US Gen. Austin 'Scott' Miller escaped the attack unharmed. Two US citizens were wounded and a local police chief killed when Afghan guards opened fire at Austin S. Miller, the NATO and US forces commander in Afghanistan, after his meeting with Kandahar officials in the city.

Its not time to close up shop and leave but it sure seems like its time to take care of business.

kbd512 · 2018-10-18 19:07:34

As it pertains to Afghanistan, I think it's long past time to close up shop. There's no clear military objective to achieve and nation building takes decades. Most of al-Qaeda is now in Pakistan. Once we leave Afghanistan, they'll be back. The people living in Afghanistan and Pakistan must decide that they want their country back from the Taliban and are willing to fight for it. If not, then nothing we do will change the situation on the ground.

Our military leadership is emotionally invested in Iraq and Afghanistan because of all the US service men and women who have died there, along with many of their friends from the militaries of their host countries. If they're dead set on staying in Afghanistan and won't leave, then we need to find more economical means to support combat operations there.

I thought former President Obama would bring the troops home when he was elected to office, but that never happened. I'm not too sure about what we're doing there now. Absent some sort of economic collapse, I'm not sure we're ever going to leave that place. That said, it's amazing how many countries have committed combat troops or logistical support in an effort to stabilize Afghanistan.

Looking back on it, it's hard to believe it was 17 years ago when we invaded. I distinctly recall how crazy base security was immediately after 9/11. I was finishing a C-school in San Diego and reported to VAQ-138 aboard Stennis (CVN-74) immediately after graduation. CAG-9's Hornets and Tomcats were heavily laden with JDAM's and iron bombs for the first few months of the war. They typically came back clean. I forget how many months we did that for, but I was amazed by how much ordnance our air wing dropped. Every time I went through the chow line, there were more bombs loaded on trucks (think Radio Flyer for ordies, but they were white, not red, and nobody looses their mind if you sit on their Radio Flyer) a few feet from where we were eating. Mostly Mk 83's, with a few Mk 84's when required.

SpaceNut · 2018-10-18 19:52:40

Ya I remember too as just 2 shorts months later I was unemployeed for multiple years getting a job for a couple and then going multiple years again without employment.. It sucked....but I kept the roof over our heads and was able to still feed all of us...plus got them all through school, high school as well....near zero income and no benefits....
By the way thank you for you years of service...as what I do for work now is my service to those that are serving....

kbd512 · 2018-10-18 20:23:18

SpaceNut,

And thank you for what you do for our service members. My six years spent in our Navy was an honor, a pleasure, and an invaluable learning experience that I don't believe could be replicated elsewhere. It was a once in a lifetime opportunity to live a life most will never know. I've never heard anyone say they didn't learn something from it.

I am now unemployed and find myself looking for work. It's just a matter of sending enough resumes and being flexible. It normally takes about a month to find a new job, but this is a bad time of the year. At least there was severance pay. The number of projects for the stats software I work on is rapidly dwindling since only companies that clear about $2B+ in profits seem to be able to afford the software. It's $1.5M+ per processor license and software support requires that the company fork over a percentage of their COGS to the vendor. I'm looking for stable jobs at a local employer now. Consulting work is never guaranteed. You're always looking for your next project. After more than ten years in the business, it's time to start thinking about stability. My wife is having some more health problems, but she just had her MRI after her second craniotomy and it's clear this time! Yay!!!

SpaceNut · 2018-10-20 21:34:06

Its not the first time and will not be the last.

A small group of angry diners confronted Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell at a restaurant, at least one diner berating McConnell on issues such as Social Security. Of course not everyone shared the view of the angry diner.

Cruz confronted by 2 Female protesters over his vote to confirm Kavanaugh a man lying about his alcohol in front of the Senate and perjury...

Trump says US will pull out of intermediate range nuke pact

Trump feels that Russia has violated the agreement.

The agreement has constrained the U.S. from developing new weapons, but America will begin developing them unless Russia and China agree not to possess or develop the weapons, Trump said. China is not currently party to the pact.
U.S. officials have previously alleged that Russia violated the treaty by deliberately deploying a land-based cruise missile in order to pose a threat to NATO. Russia has claimed that U.S. missile defenses violate the pact.
"We'll have to develop those weapons, unless Russia comes to us and China comes to us and they all come to us and say let's really get smart and let's none of us develop those weapons, but if Russia's doing it and if China's doing it, and we're adhering to the agreement, that's unacceptable," he said.

With China not part of the pact I could see that we do need to redo this treaty and make it more inclusive to keep the world at peace.

SpaceNut · 2018-10-21 09:52:18

Remember the tax cut which were for the corporate and rich well its time to do so for the remaining population that they did not cover.
Trump says team working on tax cut for middle-income earners trying to get it rolled out some time around the beginning of November, just before pivotal congressional elections.

Hoping much to change votes.. after a 2018 fiscal year with a $779 billion deficit....which means cuts will further cause a rise in that deficit....which means the value of the dollar will drop...

The tax cut slashed the corporate rate from 35 percent to 21 percent and temporarily reduced the tax burden for most individuals as well. Of course the current budget proposal is to cut spending by their agencies by 5 percent.

SpaceNut · 2018-10-24 17:20:33

Sort of knew this was going to happen at some point... Man accused of groping woman on flight: Trump 'says it's OK to grab women by their private parts' The #MeToo movement tried to say it was a problem but look what we got instead. More attacks on women of all ages....

Trumps stomping has been calling Democrats the problem and that they are evil and will do harm to all of the country....Well see what that has gotten Amid a poisonous political campaign, GOP... Explosive devices were mailed to multiple targets across the US, including the homes of former President Obama and former Secretary of State Clinton. “The packages were immediately identified during routine mail screening procedures as potential explosive devices and were appropriately handled as such,” the agency said in a statement.

The packages were mailed in manila envelopes with 6 Forever stamps on the Suspicious packages: Potential explosive devices were mailed to Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, liberal billionaire George Soros, former CIA director John Brennan and Former Attorney General Eric Holder where the Bomb squads went to the Sunrise, Fla., office of Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, a former chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee

181024-cnn-pipe-bomb-2x1_a024cd4928cec7de050f15bffab61956.fit-560w.jpg

https://www.wsj.com/articles/suspicious … 1540388652

kbd512 · 2018-10-24 18:42:44

SpaceNut,

Rape and sexual assault are real problems, but "guilty until proven innocent" only flies in communist dictatorships. Last time I checked, America wasn't one of those... yet. Since you don't have slightest clue about who did this yet, you might want to lay off blaming our President until our FBI has some vague idea about who did this.

Wherever you're getting your information from, it isn't very good. The devices weren't "potential explosive devices", unless by that remark you mean that none of them detonated. They were very real, but exceptionally crude. Thankfully, none of the devices exploded. That was either intentional or the person(s) who put them together had no clue about what they were doing (most probable explanation). I would hope that a billionaire like George Soros has a camera system monitoring his mailbox. If the US Secret Service isn't monitoring their mail room with video surveillance, especially to protect former US Presidents, then I consider that criminally negligent.

SpaceNut · 2018-10-28 19:33:05

Remember the last crash and how Obama got us out of it, well its coming again and its Trump that has drove us backwards....
The sign of the collapse:

2008, when Lehman Brothers was down brought by bad mortgage investments, and was liquidated; 25,000 employees lost their jobs. Fearing it would be next, Merrill Lynch agreed to a shotgun marriage with Bank of America. Meanwhile, two of the country's largest mortgage lenders, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, required a government bailout.

The banking crisis 10 years on, and the danger of another crash

SpaceNut · 2018-10-29 17:00:59

I think some one had talked and or complained about the law and how you are expected to obey commands. I can now see why some do not as there is a fictial law group playing the police in Michigan. They look like cops, but they're not. And they're all over Michigan.

They have guns, wear badges and patrol Michigan’s streets. They're even in uniform. But they’re not real cops.
Across Michigan, police departments have enlisted civilians to work alongside licensed officers to patrol communities and even assist real cops with arrests. But unlike the regular officers licensed by the state, these armed civilians are unregulated.

I would not like that as they are not declared as real so why would I obey them?

The Free Press investigation also found:
There are about 3,000 unlicensed civilians supplementing the ranks of law enforcement agencies across Michigan, based on information compiled by the newspaper through Freedom of Information Act requests filed last year. Most are considered reserves or auxiliary officers, but the newspaper also identified other unlicensed civilians, such as members of sheriff’s posses and mounted and marine units.It is believed to be the first such accounting of this group of officers.
Michigan has fallen behind other states that have already implemented standards for reserve officers. The responsibility to set training requirements in Michigan falls to MCOLES, the Michigan Commission on Law Enforcement Standards — but the agency has no immediate plans to take on such a task, despite gaining the authority to do so nearly two years ago.
Responsibilities of these civilians, who are mostly unpaid volunteers,vary widely — from serving as the partners of licensed cops on patrol to riding horses in parades in units that are, generally, ceremonial.

Seems like they are out of the box with regards to law enforcement....

IanM · 2018-10-29 21:35:36

Things do not look too good for Brazil as Brazil elects Bolsonaro for President.

kbd512 · 2018-10-29 23:16:55

SpaceNut,

This will come as a shock, but the opinions of Gina Kaufman and Jim Schaefer from "Detroit Free Press" do not determine what constitutes a real Police Officer or deputized citizen. There's this power that our Police have, and have had since our policing forces existed, called "deputization". It means our Police can authorize citizens who are not sworn Police Officers to work on their behalf and even assist them with law enforcement activities. It's quite legal, quite real, and the practice predates Jim and Gina by at least several centuries or so. If the Police in Michigan have their citizen helpers wearing uniforms, badges, and sidearms, that's about as real as it gets. Leftist media are always complaining about how our Police need to be more accountable and that civilian oversight is required. Well, guess what? This is their opportunity.

The only requirements I'd have for the program are thus:
* same background check as sworn officers
* same use of force training as sworn officers
* same weapons training and qualification scores as sworn officers

It doesn't take two years to teach that stuff, but that's the minimum investment in time for a sworn Police Officer. The rest of the indoctrination is about our laws and Police Procedure. In the real world (where budgets are not unlimited) the Police may opt to put a qualified deputized citizen in a patrol car with a sworn officer. It's not an affront to the citizens of Michigan. It's a recognition that more and better service could be rendered using less tax money.

Imagine that an officer and his civilian helper roll up to a bad car accident. A mother and her child are the victims. Would you rather have two people there to treat the wounded and extract them from their car or only one? That's what 75% of their job will likely be. The citizen helper has no power to arrest, even though he may assist a sworn officer in making an arrest. I can't speak for anyone else, but provided those listed minimum requirements are met, I think having a Police Officer with on-scene citizen oversight is a great idea. The presence of an independent but sufficiently trained third party to whatever happens is a great way to prevent abuse of power or excessive use of force.

SpaceNut · 2018-10-30 17:19:14

Have created the topic Erroding birthright citizenship

SpaceNut · 2018-11-02 20:38:30

Only time will tell if cutting the head off is enough or not as the Pakistani cleric who was called the ‘father of the Taliban’ is killed at his home

SpaceNut · 2018-11-03 17:20:50

NATO: US soldier killed in 'insider attack' in Kabul

One American service member was killed and another wounded in eastern Afghanistan on Monday in what officials described as an apparent insider attack. The death of a U.S. service member in an apparent insider attack was the sixth American killed in Afghanistan this year.

SpaceNut · 2018-11-04 12:25:42

Update:L
Utah mayor killed while deployed in Afghanistan, Mayor Brent Taylor was identified as the service member killed by a member of the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces. In what is being termed Saturday in an apparent “insider attack”. He leaves behind his wife and seven children..

SpaceNut · 2018-11-07 18:48:41

True to Trump Attorney General Jeff Sessions resigns at Trump’s request

Sessions recused himself from control of the investigation of Russian interference..

casualties of the Trump administration

BBPsmyk.img?h=400&w=262&m=6&q=60&o=f&l=f

SpaceNut · 2018-11-10 19:58:02

The observence of the fallen veterans of the ww1 & ww2 in France was not in the cards by the current president Trump whom has shown his hand again as to what he is.
Trump faces criticism over canceled cemetery vist in France because of bad weather, which grounded the presidential helicopter that was to fly him to Belleau, outside of Paris.

"53,000 US combat deaths. 63,000 dead of disease. 320,000 wounded,"

but he has one more chance before heading home tomorrow....

RobertDyck · 2018-11-12 08:46:42

Not sure where to post this, so it goes in the generic "Politics" thread. Canadian Prime Minister Just Trudeau is asked by reporters about signing the USMCA, successor to NAFTA. Reporters ask about whether tariffs on iron and steel will be held as a per-requisite to signing. They also ask about the Saudi thing, but that's not my point. Video on the news page here.

SpaceNut · 2018-11-12 09:51:58

Ya that is in this topic Isolationist, Buy American, Trumps Tariff war

In Paris, a relatively understated Trump finds he’s still the center of the world’s attention — and outrage

Trump walks alone as French president rips nationalism

In what appeared a direct rebuke, French President Emmanuel Macron warned President Donald Trump and other leaders Sunday that a dark new tide of nationalism, the label Trump recently embraced for his "America First" movement, ignores the painful lessons of history and threatens a fragile global order. Macon did not name Trump or his "America First" stand. But he cast nationalism as a dangerous and selfish ideology, one that led to two world wars.
"Patriotism is the exact opposite of nationalism. Nationalism is a betrayal of patriotism," Macron said as Trump sat, unsmiling, with more than 100 other world leaders at a commemoration at the Arc de Triomphe of the moment when World War I ended 100 years ago.
"Old demons are coming back to the surface," Macron said, citing the dangerous resurgence of the ethnic and religious hatred that led to that devastating conflict - and the cataclysmic global war that followed three decades later.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel, warned against taking peace for granted. "We have to work for it,"

Terraformer · 2018-11-12 11:12:07

"Patriotism is the exact opposite of nationalism."

Macron needs to brush up on his English.

New Mars Forums

Announcement

#1326 2018-10-13 16:47:50

Re: Politics

#1327 2018-10-13 19:45:29

Re: Politics

#1328 2018-10-16 20:49:13

Re: Politics

#1329 2018-10-17 18:45:34

Re: Politics

#1330 2018-10-18 17:25:22

Re: Politics

#1331 2018-10-18 19:07:34

Re: Politics

#1332 2018-10-18 19:52:40

Re: Politics

#1333 2018-10-18 20:23:18

Re: Politics

#1334 2018-10-20 21:34:06

Re: Politics

#1335 2018-10-21 09:52:18

Re: Politics

#1336 2018-10-24 17:20:33

Re: Politics

#1337 2018-10-24 18:42:44

Re: Politics

#1338 2018-10-28 19:33:05

Re: Politics

#1339 2018-10-29 17:00:59

Re: Politics

#1340 2018-10-29 21:35:36

Re: Politics

#1341 2018-10-29 23:16:55

Re: Politics

#1342 2018-10-30 17:19:14

Re: Politics

#1343 2018-11-02 20:38:30

Re: Politics

#1344 2018-11-03 17:20:50

Re: Politics

#1345 2018-11-04 12:25:42

Re: Politics

#1346 2018-11-07 18:48:41

Re: Politics

#1347 2018-11-10 19:58:02

Re: Politics

#1348 2018-11-12 08:46:42

Re: Politics

#1349 2018-11-12 09:51:58

Re: Politics

#1350 2018-11-12 11:12:07

Re: Politics

Board footer