Look I fully appreciate that this is a thread full of people perfectly willing to match Putin every turn in the hope of crippling Russia. I understand the logic and the rationale. I just don't agree with it, and would prefer we not mess with a cornered and crazed animal over cause that, while I sympathize with deeply, I also have no wish for us to be involved with. Agree to disagree.
I’m reading this and getting an image of some 50 year old guy continuing to give up his lunch money to the grade school bully 40 years later. Why? Because the ultimate goal is to not end up in a fistfight with a bully. Let’s just continue to give him my wallet every day and maybe sometime in the future he’ll leave me alone.
He's not taking our lunch money. Or even a close friend's lunch money. He's taking the lunch money of a country that was part of Russia in my lifetime. I'm all for taking every non-military measure in the book against Russia. Decouple our economies. Kick them of SWIFT. Etc. But the bottom line is nuclear war is the worst outcome from the whole world, and I do not support us being the world's police.
Are you willing to risk your entire family on that premise? I'm not. He's paid a grave price for his invasion of Ukraine. Russia is a pariah, both economically and politically. It's not near the price he deserved to pay, but it is a price, and once the seal is off a nuclear warhead, I think we're all toast. If you don't die in the initial blast, you'll starve. That's the choice we're looking at.
I'm all for staring down Putin, standing up for Ukraine, etc. But the ultimate goal of what we do should be this: do not end up a nuclear conflict. If that means giving Russia the annexed lands, so be it. I have no interest in America (and the world) being vaporized over a country half a world a way. Putin needs an off ramp so he can save face, and I'm all for giving it to him. I doubt that he's learned his lesson or anything, but the odds that he actually mount another land grab in his lifetime seems remote. He doesn't have the political capital internally to do it.
What makes you say that? Maybe this is my cold hard political heart talking, but I don't think a damn thing would happen. To be sure, democrats would rage at CNN and google how to move to Canada, but I doubt there would be an ounce of real violence. Similarly, democratic law makers would clutch their pearls and complain about norms being broken and the rule of law, but republicans would get away with it.
They literally stole a supreme court seat in front of God and everyone and did not pay a single political price for it. Their base cheered. There was an armed uprising against the government and, not only was Trump not prosecuted, there's a significant chance he's elected again.
Someone posted a tweet a couple of days ago that compared republicans to the school shooter and democrats to the Uvalde cops. It's the perfect metaphor.
Yep.
And the rationale (as I remember it being explained to me) was that it prevented poor kids from feeling bad that they didn't have brand name clothes. That seems a bit too liberal of explanation for the Forney I grew up in, but that was the party line.
I went to Forney High School years ago. They've had a dress code that was basically this as far back as I can remember (late 90s?). People would try to get around having to wear a logoless polo by putting on a hoodie, jacket, etc. Not sure why this is a news story now?
Today was a horrible day for folks who care about the rights of women to choose what goes on in their own bodies and for people who care about a SCOTUS with any air of legitimacy. That being said, can you imagine how much more volcanic it would have been had that draft opinion not been leaked? People were ready for it and had already let off some steam. A conservative judge leaked it - wouldn't be surprised if it was Roberts himself.
I don't disagree with the premise that old people (including old people I like, like RBG) shouldn't get to pick and choose when they deem themselves ready to step down. There's mandatory retirement ages in almost every major law firm for exactly this reason.
I don't disagree with the premise that the Republican gloves were off and the Democrats failed (and are continuing to fail) at addressing it. That being said, I don't know how you can fault them for not anticipating that McConnell would refuse to hold a hearing, contrary to how every other supreme court justice nominee has been treated to my knowledge, with 1+ year left in Obama's presidency.
Per the NYT, the Border Patrol swat team unit was there at noon - far earlier than previously disclosed - and was ordered by the UPD not to go in (Border Patrol had no idea why).
Maybe we could also shift some of that police funding to teachers. If we expect them, on top of teaching overcrowded classes with limited resources, navigating all the testing bureaucracy, etc. to risk their lives to protect their students (including by being armed and exchanging gunfire with shooters!), maybe we should pay them more than $40k/yr.