So you’re saying that my other two points are robust, then. Thanks!
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thanks, I missed this.
the most comprehensive analysis I am aware of was commisioned by The Left parliament faction - with a similar assessment: very likely but not in a manner that will stand up in court
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I don’t really have a comment on point 1, but I certainly agree with point 3. I disagree with your takeaway on point 2. The fact that we have a country using it’s using its military and intelligence agencies to target the US in an effort to manipulate an election really is very significant. The DNC revelations themselves weren’t nearly as serious or noteworthy in comparison in my judgment.
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That would seem like reasonable thinking, but the type of people who want perpetual war won’t let a little thing like reason or thought get in the way.
If you really want perpetual war, the best/easiest way to accomplish that is to not have an enemy. Declare war on some vague concept that anyone could be accused of or related to (infidel, inferior race, communist sympathizer, terrorism), or on some common inanimate objects. That has the bonus of letting you target anyone you want. If things get dull, just shift the category or reclassify and add new items to it. There will always be plenty of vague concepts and inanimate objects.
It’s the international version of laws that make anyone a criminal and can therefore be selectively enforced to oppress whoever you want.
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I disagree. That Russia, or any country, tried to influence the US elections is banal, expected, a yawner. If you’re shocked (SHOCKED!) by this then you haven’t been paying attention over the last, uh, 1,250 years. Me, I would have been shocked if neither Russia, China, Saudi Arabia, etc, along with Kissinger, Kristol, Cheney, and the Koch brother DIDN’T try to manipulate the US election. THAT would be news. But this?
By way of illustration, take the OJ Simpson trial. I do remember being gob smacked that CNN persisted in calling it “The Trial Of The Century”.
Excuse me? I thought that the Nuremberg Trials had that trophy locked down, and by a country mile. The OJ Simpson affair was, it’s sad to say, a perfectly ordinary, everyday, run of the mill wife-beating and -murder. Do not think, for a second, that I think wife-beatings aren’t important. But the OJ Simpson murder was no extraordinary case. The really sad part is that this happens every day, or moreso about every six hours in the 'States.
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The DNC deciding on a candidate early in a primary and focusing on electing them is banal, expected, a yawner. Russian or other foreign interference in US elections, when pointed out, has always been a major news story. Doing so by using a military branch to attack the US makes it far more notable.
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I think the US is leading in this regard - the 9/11 state of emergency was a few days ago extended again (16 years! dafuq!). The French emergency state since November 2015 gives the police some rather extensive rights, does someone know the meaning of the US National Emergency?
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“We are at war with Eurasia. We have always been at war with Eurasia.”
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Curtis LeMay said, “Actually I think it’s more immoral to use less force than necessary, than it is to use more. if you use less force, you kill off more of humanity in the long run, because you are merely protracting the struggle.”
I agree with him, although where he probably would have used nuclear weapons in Syria, I would prefer to stay out of it entirely. Very few people’s lives have been improved by American military interventions since World War II.
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Nice. From the URL I expected something about Alice’s Restaurant but I’m glad it was something educational.
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Put ketchup on my hotdog?
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When I first saw that topic, I thought it would be a writing exercise.
Like, "Write a 1200 word short story starting with the words, ‘I ordered a hotdog at Burger King, and …’ "
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That made me curious so I looked up the act referenced in the extension letter (50 U.S.C. 1622(d)). There was no real mention of anything but declaration and termination of National Emergencies, so I went up a level. There in Title 50, you find chapters about Alien Enemies, Espionage, Atomic Weapons, Insurrection, Defense Against Weapons of Mass Destruction, etc.
So from what I can tell, the government sold some land to the girl scouts for $1 in exchange for the right to build a helium pipeline. They surveyed it by putting an X on a rock and guessing at the size of it, more or less.
The National Emergency is probably similar - the government bought or sold something, someone signed with an X, and they agreed to blow things up and kill people until whenever, more or less.
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One of the things the National Emergencies Act does is require the president declaring a national emergency to say what powers are being activated. For the one you linked, you can see that in the original by looking up Proclamation 7463. I was able to find an analysis of the sections cited, in this doc: http://fas.org/irp/crs/RS21017.pdf
For this particular national emergency, they all have to do with special powers of the President to control how the military is staffed, call up reservists, change terms of duty, active duty status, things like that.
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This is from a couple of days ago.
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All the more reason to NOT vote for Hillary Clinton. She is not an honest person, Carter was. She manipulated her way to the nomination, depriving many of the small hope in Sanders that America could find a new direction, for our country and for the world. There can be no doubt that another Clinton Family presidency will bring us more of the same; more foreign intervention, more endless war, more poverty, more climate change (the biggest polluter is the US military), and less hope.
Except the effective choice for this general election is between a person who has changed stories over the course of years and a person who changes stories over the course of a single interview.
Pretty much agree with the rest of your assessment, though. Both are hawkish—Clinton demonstrably so. Once again, the real hope lies in legislature. All that’s needed is a coalition of Dems and Reps to oppose maintenance/extension of the aggressive aspects of the Bush and Obama doctrines. My only concern is that the Republican component of that coalition will balk when it comes to cutting military spending.
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