U.S. Politics: The Biggest Trade in WNBA History

[bobjr]

Because at this point "Why can't we afford healthcare/education"have become irony. They literally don't want people to have healthcare/be educated, and the only solution is to get rid of people who don't support that.

 

[Pikachu52]

Why....Just why does the US need a Space Force? Are other nations secretly building TIE Fighters, X-Wings, or a Death Star? Are our enemies gonna attack us from space? Are we gonna have a war in space? Are we gonna have martians invade? No.

The sad thing is, we have far more important things that should be a priority like education and healthcare. This is one of my biggest issues with this administration. It prioritizes the wrong things.

The US does currently have the Air Force Space Command, a unit within the Air Force that maintains Space capabilities and employs around 36,000 people. It's primary missions are:

• Space forces support, involving the launching of satellites and other high-value payloads into space using a variety of expendable launch vehicles and operating those satellites once in space
• Space control, ensuring the friendly use of space through the conduct of counterspace operations encompassing surveillance, negation, protection and space intelligence analysis[10]
• Force enhancement, providing satellite-based weather, communications, intelligence, missile warning, and navigation; force enhancement is direct support to the warfighter

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_Force_Space_Command

And the idea of creating a Space Corps has bounced around Congress since 2017. Heck, Space force itself was first coined by Donald Rumsfeld in 2000.

https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2018/03/trump-space-force-nasa/555560/

The US does have strategic interests in Space. The other five branches of the military are heavily reliant on communication navigation and other satellites. And China has developed anti-satellite weaponry. If war was to break out, these Satellites could easily become targets. And of course, the notion of space warfare is something that world and military leaders have taken seriously, going back to the cold war. Though such a thing is far from imminent.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_warfare
https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2017/04/space-war/521910/

However, a "space force" as sixth branch of the military is excessive. The Pentagon itself didn't ask for this and by all counts doesn't seem to want it. The force's role isn't going to be far beyond launching, operating and maintaining the US's satellite infrastructure. It may collect all space professionals in the US Government and place them under one roof. Maybe it takes over NASA. There won't be any active "Astronaut soldiers" or any type of "TIE Fighters, X-Wings" because the technology doesn't exist.

The 1967 Outer Space Treaty bans States from placing weapons of mass destruction or nuclear weapons in orbit or on any celestial body, though it's silent on any other sort of weapon. As of now, no comprehensive treaty on the use of space weapons exists. There are attempts to create legal guides to war in space, though these incomplete and won't have any binding status under International or Domestic Law:

https://theconversation.com/were-dr...ace-hopefully-well-never-need-to-use-it-86677

But all of this aside, it's hard to take the "space force" seriously when Trump describes, at worst incoherently or at best like the narration to a bad star trek knockoff.

Or perhaps this :

And of course there’s the possibility Pence’s announcement was an expensive distraction form the Mueller investigation. I notice Donny’s back on his “17 angry Democrats” spiel again

 

[Trainer Yusuf]

In addition to that, Star Wars idea was a Republican dream for a long time, and it would good justification to expand military budget and metal tariffs.

Anyways, Turkish lira is continuing to melt, and Trump officially confirmed in his Twitter what we have suspected a long time ago, he is in a trade war with Turkey as well. Since Turkey doesn't actually have industrial scale steel(well, iron) and aluminium reserves, the new tariffs will wipe out Turkish economy, which currently focused on construction, vehicles and military. And since Pastor Brunson won't be given back it seems, actual sanctions on Turkey will likely be on the way in addition to penalties for Turkish banks for violating the Iranian embargo.

This is of course a good thing, actually, as the only real opposition to Erdoğan is really the economy, so yeah.

Edit: Meanwhile in the good news:
https://twitter.com/LGBTMarriage/status/1027687919635578880
Costa Rican Supreme Court approved gay marriage legalization. Now the legistation needs to be done.

 

[RedJirachi]

Why....Just why does the US need a Space Force? Are other nations secretly building TIE Fighters, X-Wings, or a Death Star? Are our enemies gonna attack us from space? Are we gonna have a war in space? Are we gonna have martians invade? No.

It's a favor for George Lucas. He wants to remake Star Wars: A New Hope before he dies of money overdose

 

[Trainer Yusuf]

Nightly update on Turkey:
Conversion rate has roughly doubled from the start of the year to 7.22 liras=1 dollar.
Last time this happened was the 2001 crisis, which brought in the AKP government and ended coalition governments, effectively ending the Kemalist era in the Turkey to get Turkey's support for Iraqi Kurds in the invasion of Iraq.
Obviously this is a repeat of the last time, though this time around it is the AKP government who will be kicked out by the US to replaced by a government who will accept the Syrian Kurdistan and the Iranian Kurds in the inevitable invasion of Iran.
It is a shame that it happened this didn't happen through the ballot, but alas. I hope this blatant regime change operation won't cause Turkey to become the first NATO country to enter a civil war or something silly like that.

 

[Scammel]

Trump has infected politics across the pond, too. The leader of the UK Labour Party, Jeremy Corbyn, was found to have laid a wreath to commemorate Black September terrorists who castrated and murdered Israeli athletes in the Munich Massacre.

Depressingly par for the course with life-long contrarian and anti-Semite Corbyn, but the Trumpism comes into play when his press team openly lied about the occasion, directly contradicting Corbyn's own words from an article he wrote at the time: https://twitter.com/labourpress/status/1028765819554213889

Screenshots from Corbyn's article: https://twitter.com/stephenpollard/status/1028965479354957830/photo/1

Edit: Netanyahu has now publicly condemned Corbyn for both the wreath-laying and for having hosted an event in Parliament predicated on the anti-Semitic comparison between Israel and the Nazis: https://twitter.com/netanyahu/status/1029046307481153542

 

[bobjr]

https://www.cnn.com/2015/10/21/middleeast/netanyahu-hitler-grand-mufti-holocaust/index.html

Netanyahu really should stop because it's sad to see Israel become the country it fled.

 

[Scammel]

Netanyahu really should stop because it's sad to see Israel become the country it fled.

This kind of casual anti-Semitic trope is all too easily gobbled up by certain elements of the left. The comparison between a heavily flawed democracy and the regime that attempted to exterminate its founding citizens is perverse and reserved almost uniquely for Israel.

Given the number of besieged and battered cities there have been in however many thousands of years of pitiless warfare there is only one explanation for this invocation of (the Nazis) before any of those – it is to wound Jews in their recent and most anguished history and to punish them with their own grief. Its aim is a sort of retrospective retribution, cancelling out all debts of guilt and sorrow. It is as though, by a reversal of the usual laws of cause and effect, Jewish actions of today prove that Jews had it coming to them yesterday.

10th bullet under the 'Contemporary examples', bob: https://www.holocaustremembrance.com/sites/default/files/press_release_document_antisemitism.pdf

Edit: Jesus Christ, bob. I just noticed how old your article was - literally the first thing you did at the mention of Israel is dig out a three-year article to justify your crass Nazi comparison?

 

[bobjr]

Really the problem is honestly Israel's leadership, it's not a unique problem. It's all an argument about how much power influences prejudice of course, but Netanyahu seems more like the person who deep in corruption scandals wants someone to blame. Corbyn might not have the right methods, but I think his message here isn't wrong. https://twitter.com/jeremycorbyn/status/1029075065550372864

But I bring that up because he hasn't done much to disprove it since then. Especially if he wants to hop on the limp dick that's American Fascism where Nazi's come marching and the best response you can get is a non statement about how good people can be on both sides.

 

[AuraChannelerChris]

Michael Cohen has plead guilty to eight counts involving payoffs and campaign contributions which, at the surprise of no one, was directed by his candidate Trump.

 

[Pikachu52]

Down goes Paul Manafort

https://www.vox.com/authors/andrew-prokop

 

[Poke Trainer J]

Given what recently transpired with Michael Cohen and Paul Manafort, what would happen If President Trump decides to pardon everyone that's been found guilty in the Russia Probe by Robert Mueller? Would that be enough for Republicans to side with Democrats in getting Trump impeached and removed from office? What If Special Counsel Robert Mueller's Team had been investigating the wrong U.S. Presidential candidate this entire time If we're led to assume that the DNC and Hillary Clinton colluded with the Russians?

To be fair we still don't know what was in Hillary Clinton's e-mail server, what If it's possible that we only know one side of the story in which the other side hasn't been thoroughly investigated by Special Counsel Robert Mueller's Team? I believe that If there was any hard evidence against Hillary Clinton and the DNC potentially colluding with the Russians then we would've already known about it right now. Why would someone go through the trouble just to keep something THAT important to the American people a secret? Could it be Vladimir Putin's doing in order to sow more discord in the United States?

 

[bobjr]

The problem partially is nothing has happened on this scale before, so who knows really. Granted State and Federal crimes are separate, which is why Mueller is setting it up where if they get pardoned for one they risk getting immediately guiltily for the other.

The second part is Hillary Clinton's team did turn over their servers and emails, so if there was something it would have been found by now. Why do you think the big thing was Pizzagate, where people thought that what staffers wanted on their pizza was code for a child sex trade scheme?

 

[RedJirachi]

I wonder if Donald Trump gets impeached, he'll escape being kicked out because much like Andrew Johnson no-one likes the guy who'd replace him even more

 

[Litleonid]

I'm really interested to see what will happen in the coming days. Michael Cohen just admitted that Trump ordered him to do this, and Paul Manafort has been convicted. This is huge and its going to be catching up with Trump very soon. If the Republicans don't impeach Trump for all of this, which is likely, the Democrats surely will if they take back the house and senate.

 

[Poke Trainer J]

Even If the Democrats manage to take back Congress in the Midterms this year, Trump still has an ace in the hole with Neil Gorsuch in the U.S. Supreme Court and If Brett Kavanaugh is confirmed then the odds of the other justices passing legislation to indict a sitting President of the United States becomes much harder since Congress remains powerless to pass any legislation in order to keep the President in check as he'd just veto it to protect himself.

The real question is whether or not the U.S. Supreme Court is willing to do what's best for the country instead of the 30% electorate that got Trump in the White House. One of the reasons why Kavanaugh is such a controversial pick for justice is due to his views on the 1974 case United States v. Nixon, stating that it was illegal to limit the power of any U.S. President from being able to claim executive privilege.

If confirmed he'll do whatever it takes to reverse that ruling with support from the Conservative wing of the U.S. Supreme Court.

 

[bobjr]

The 2013 case where the Supreme Court voided the Voting Rights Act (in effect) is probably the most important civil rights case of the last 30 years. We're gonna feel the repercussions forever unless the next President packs the court

Also Medicare for All is at 80% among Dems and 50% for Republicans. After the GOP messed up so bad on Healthcare it would be insane not to run on it.

 

[Baba Yaga]

Given what recently transpired with Michael Cohen and Paul Manafort, what would happen If President Trump decides to pardon everyone that's been found guilty in the Russia Probe by Robert Mueller? Would that be enough for Republicans to side with Democrats in getting Trump impeached and removed from office?

Nope, the Republicans are going to ride this ship straight into a constitutional crisis and then say it's not happening.

 

[Pikachu52]

What If Special Counsel Robert Mueller's Team had been investigating the wrong U.S. Presidential candidate this entire time If we're led to assume that the DNC and Hillary Clinton colluded with the Russians?

To believe that, one would need a provide a very compelling reason as to why the DNC and Clinton would, hack their own server, steal their own damning emails, leak said emails to wikileaks at extremely damaging times for Clinton, essentially commit.

To believe this, one also has to ignore Putin himself:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...-he-did/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.8aea3ff8fe8a

 

[RedJirachi]

While I wouldn't want this happening, what do you think the reaction would be if Donald Trump dies of a heart attack?