... President Donald Trump suggested Thursday that the United States is preparing to take new action against alleged drug trafficking networks in Venezuela, telling service members during a Thanksgiving call that efforts for strikes on land will be starting "very soon." ...

So, Pres Trump admits he plans to invade a sovereign Country?

And this is A Good Thing?

Why?

@#2

gents

--- oops ---

agents

:)

imo, it is not only about the cost.

For me, what tasks were those FBI agents pulled away from?

What protections did the FBI not provide while the gents were on this task?

And what, exactly, was the task they were assigned to do? Has there been an official explanation?

@#8 ... $100 is one thing, but per person? So $400 for a family of 4? Some people may rethink that. ...

Ya think?

It looks to me like Pres Trump is just trying, yet again, to offset his Large Lousy Law that gave extreme tax cuts to billionaires and cut health-care and food for workers.

@#2

Once, my doctor said I needed an MRI for the symptoms I presented.

So, I went to the hospital, and participated in the MRI experience.

[my doctor said the MRI was good, fwiw]

Shortly afterwards, I received a letter with a bill enclosed. The letter was almost mocking in its tone. It said, and I paraphrase, ~we don't participate in any medical insurance plans, so you have to pay us directly. That will be (hundreds of dollars). Thank-you. Due date is (30 days later). Yes, it was valid.

OK, I never approved, or even asked, the entity who sent me that letter for their medical assistance. It seemed to be the private-equity-owned hospital having someone walk into a room and then charging me for their "consulting."

Fortunately, it was only a few hundred dollars?

I have seen reports on the local CT news of similar occurrences, but with tens of thousands of dollars involved.

Healthcare in the Country is broken.

Why cannot the wealthiest nation on the planet provide affordable healthcare for its citizens?

More from the article ...

... Our organization can't really handle much more demand," said Michael Sapienza, chief executive of the Colorectal Cancer Alliance, which helps patients pay for colonoscopies, tests and cancer treatment.

Financial assistance from the HealthWell Foundation, one of the largest charities in the country, is already 23 percent higher this year than all of last year. Requests swamped the fund it launched this month to help consumers offset higher Obamacare premiums that are likely if the subsidies expire, prompting it to stop taking new applicants after just two days. The Colorectal Cancer Alliance has seen a 26 percent increase in requests year-over-year, and CancerCare, another charity, has seen a 10 percent increase in year-over-year requests.

Michael Heimall, HealthWell's chief executive, expects the spike in assistance requests to continue next year and expressed concern over whether donors, who are also under price pressure, can maintain or ramp up their payments. ...

@#10

Yeah. See #3.

@#9

Updated version ...

... trying a criminal case against Trump would not be feasible. ...

So, he seems to be admitting that he is not up to the task before him?

Interesting article ...

How did the fire start?

Was it arson?

A spark from a faulty electrical system?

Someone ~lighting up~ and throwing a lit match in a wrong place?

And, as I noted above, why did it seem to spread so quickly within the apartment complex?

Too many unanswered questions at this point.

There are people in the upper floors who have not yet been rescued, trying to stay alive as the building below them looks to be going up in flames.

From the article in #4 ...

... Though the origin of the fire was unclear, investigators were focusing on the bamboo scaffolding and green netting that surrounded the towers at Wang Fuk Court as renovations were carried out.

Experts said they appeared to help flames leap from building to building as the blaze grew into an inferno that engulfed seven of the estate's eight towers.

Chan said: "Our preliminary view is that the fire spreading so fast is likely related to these materials. But ... whether that is actually the case, we have to wait for our fire investigation colleagues to conduct an investigation to confirm." ...

@#28 ... That's how I see it. ...

I guess the end goal is the difference.

If one does not want to try to change opinions (not only of the person being attacked but, importantly on a message forum, the opinions of other readers), then your approach works.

I don't view it as evasive, but more in wanting to explain a stance and try to change the opinions of others.

Stated differently, what if the person you have been castigating comes up with a comment that you strongly agree with (as, e.g., MSGT has done with me in the past). Since you had been degrading that person, now the current comment you agree with is also degraded?

I do readily admit, that is a tougher row to hoe, but, there is my view.

I try to look more to changing the future than changing the present.

More from the cited article ...

... "You see some of these other sports that have been fractured for so long," McIlroy told CNBC's CEO Council Forum. ...

"other sports?"

Wait what, golf is a sport?

Why is walking around on grass fields and hitting balls a sport?

@#26 ... So?

Isn't that exactly what those of us on this side of the aisle have been receiving for more than a decade now? ...

While I am not at all understanding of that comment.

Let me explain more of what I stated in #25, over-simplified ...

Bad: you are a piece of anal excrement.

Better: your comment makes you look like a piece of anal excrement.

See the difference?

The above aside ...

... those of us on this side of the aisle have been receiving ...

Huh?

Receiving?

From whom, or what?

Have you a radio implanted in your brain?

@#11 ... his Cult ...

Bingo!

Related?

... President Trump lashed out at the New York Times for a story ...

Again?

@#5 ... During his deposition, Hott acknowledged that ICE agents do not receive regular training on crowd control and that he too had no crowd control experience before arriving in Broadview, the site of tense demonstrations over the last few months. ...

Whoa, wait, what?

ICE agents being deployed to quell riots when they seem to acknowledge they have no training in how to do that?

@#2 ... One would think similar offers must also available to us Americans.

Torch an ICE vehicle, get $500 from Russia. ...

That would not surprise me.

@#23 ... Or it is the "wrong tack."

I respect you, Lamp.

Thank-you for that.

... What tack should I ... take? ...

Back when (decades ago) when I ran a message board, I used to tell the participants, attack the message and not the poster.

Your comment I replied to was nothing more than an attack of the poster, with little to gainsay what was said in its comments.

Now I am the first to admit that I am not perfect in this regard, but it is a posting policy I try to maintain for myself.

@#1 ... A C-SPAN caller who said she was upset by "hatred" in the media suddenly pivoted ...

Did she mention which media has upset her so?

And more ...

... Private interviews with other federal officials " Russell Hott, a US. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement official, and Daniel Parra, deputy chief patrol agent at Customs and Border Protection -- also showed bickering between attorneys and lawyers representing the federal government consistently objecting to questioning.

During his deposition, Hott acknowledged that ICE agents do not receive regular training on crowd control and that he too had no crowd control experience before arriving in Broadview, the site of tense demonstrations over the last few months. He also admitted that the consistent use of tear gas and pepper balls stopped after Illinois State Police took over responding to these protests.

Hott also dodged questions about use of force, including by saying he doesn't know the context when asked if use of force was justified against a pastor shot in the head with pepper balls while praying. Parra, meanwhile, repeated "I do not recall" when asked about specific incidents in use of force reports presented by attorneys during his deposition. ...

More from the article ...

... He continued to dodge questions, even after being shown a clip of himself tackling a man to the ground during a protest outside a federal immigration facility in the west Chicago suburb of Broadview.

After attorneys played footage of the man's arrest, Bovino repeatedly denied that he tackled "an older gentleman" in the video and dodged questions on whether he used force. ...

@#94 ... Trump is blaming Biden for the shooter that Trump gave Asylum to earlier this year. ...

You noticed that also?

From what I hear, the other National Guard peron is not in good shapte.

I hope he pulls through this heinous attack.