Just read an article saying this TS contingency plan is still missing. It's a crime!

Exclusive: Trump attorneys haven't found classified document former president referred to on tape following subpoena:

Or Senator Tim Scott of SC or SCOTUS Justice Clarence Thomas from SC?

I wonder what Nikki Haley is saying about this sad racist murder that took place in her SC backyard.

The Great Lakes region, the Ohio River Valley, and the Allegheny Plateau region are among the prettiest temperate climate places in the USA there, there's ample clean fresh water, at least 6 months of shirt-sleeve weather, good transportation infrastructure, and affordable property values. Much of Disney involved indoor activities, so a shift from Orlando to the hills of Ohio, Western PA or Western NY is feasible: would be successful and a boost to that region's economy; and there's be slim likelihood of a DeSantis-like creep being elected governor here.

Oh Russia is in an incredible shrinking situation, only the Russian press cannot say anything honest about Putin or the problems Putin's causing for Russians. Putin's destroyed a free press in Russia, and while making himself perhaps the richest person on Earth, made Asian and Siberian Russia two of the poorest per capita places on Earth. What a hero!

Maybe someday they'll call some ghost town near the dried-up desert that once was the Aral Sea "Putingrad". Right up there with his heroes, Ivan the Terrible, Peter the Great, and Stalin.

Ukrainian drones ought to be bringing news of Putin's corruption and of Ukraine's legitimate sovereignty & righteous self defense from Russia's atrocities & invasion.

Where did Clarence Thomas get his law degree? A Cracker Jack box?

Article 1, Section 8 of the Constitution gives Congress authority to "all necessary and proper" laws to implement its powers. Unfortunately, Congress's handful of enumerated powers are limited to matters regarding war, commerce, taxes, post offices, etc. BUT ... common law and precedent has allowed Congress to make laws that prevent businesses from exploiting labor or consumers or destroying the environment to the detriment of other innocent parties.

While the Constitution didn't specifically spell out Congress's duty to promote ethical behavior in commerce, centuries of treatises on good governance emphasize the need for government to play a key role in creating a fair and equitable society for enduring liberty and public well-being. If Congress had no role to play toward that end, the SCOTUS would have said that long ago. Instead, the courts, legislature & executive branches all have a duty to ensure that the "Blessings of Liberty" for the people extend into posterity equitably.

When a media chief of a nation's premier TV news network is caught clumsily manipulating the sequence of an interview to create a ruckus against her dictator's critics, it's clear that that "journalism" has slipped in that outlet's ethic and that jingoism has become preeminent. But when she calls for "assassination", too, it's time for all media to call for that media outlet to be blackballed and its chief shamed by all self-respecting advocates of a free, fair & honest press.

Ugh!

RT is Russia's major international news network. But clearly it works as a propaganda shop. The article details how Graham's statements were spliced to distort his words and to stir up anti-US sentiment. What else to expect from Putin's propagandists?

In addition, Zakharova made the extrordinary claim that "US investments led to World War II and the Holocaust." No, RT. Hitler and Stalin and Mussolini and Tojo and Franco led to WW2 and the Holocaust. And if Stalin hadn't made a deal with Hitler in the 1930's maybe Hitler's aggression would have stopped sooner.

Propaganda for Putin needs to be challenged and fact checked every day or Russian's are going to march like zombies to do Putin's evil work.

For suburbanites the plug-in hybrid seems fine. Plugged in overnight the charge is plenty for most to get to work, and if work has a low cost plug-in charger, the return trip would also likely be gas-free. Problem is more low-cost high efficiency public access charging stations are needed. On longer trips, the hybrid increases the car's mileage too. But plug-ins & EVs are impractical for urban drivers who have no where to safely recharge in city streets overnight.

#27 & 28. Right. Hoping the CVN's "presence" in the area appears to be more USN joyride than prep for hostilities. Putin's monopoly on Russian media will lead to every perceived threat as being a provocation. Not needed as long as dictator Vlad is on the roles of domestic Russian politics. (IMHO)

I lived in an inner city projects for years where crime was unbelievably common. Was it the density of poverty? Was it hopelessness? Our "x***** x*** Houses" neighborhood had twelve 7-story buildings with 10 apartments per floor. So 840 subsidized apartments were owned by the public housing authority for low income families. If memory is correct, there were more than 8 stabbings a year in that "neighborhood". Many petty larcenies occurred, and given the rate of crime many who could move away did so as soon as possible.

Is it possible that in some places there is greater confidence in one's chances of a sufficiently wealthy and secure future than in others? Is it likely that having ample evidence that one's peers can "succeed" by conforming to norms the larger society accepts leads to greater conformity, while ample evidence that one's future is doomed or that one's opportunities are limited might lead to resentment bordering in hostility?

It seems to be human nature that when hope is diminished or when fairness is lacking in one's environment crime increases. It's easier to break rules if those rules seem to keep you down and it's harder to dare break the rules if you have more to lose by breaking them.

There are times to show the potential for military force, but IMHO, US DOD should ease back. To my NSC friends, tread lightly please.

If NATO needs to exercise resources to prepare to respond to any Russian attack on Norway or Poland or the Baltics, those exercises could be carried out far away, say in Newfoundland or somewhere in the western US. Doing any major scaled NATO exercise within striking range of Russia is unnecessary and potentially provocative to Putin's propaganda machine. And anything that gives Putin more material for anti-West propaganda strengthens Putin's power and makes the possibility of irrational responses higher.

As far as just bringing CVN-78 to the region for familiarization with the navigation and geography of the landscape, that's a sensible reason for its short-term presence. But DOD just has to beware of the visit's potential to feed Putin's propaganda apparatus.

Scary stats:

There are 17,985 police agencies in the US; from the federal level to state troopers, county sheriff offices, and local municipal police. Of the more than 800,000 officers for these agencies, 5 of 6 are state or local employees. How hard it must be for local police departments to find the brightest and the best to protect the public with the only tools available to the officers being the officer's control over his or her own personal inclinations and tools that can instantly cripple or kill others? The numbers suggest a high probability of accidental (or deliberate) danger exists.

Across the US places where hiring officials are biased and where autocracy is trending up are on the rise. While a national minimum standard for law enforcement probably won't ever exist some guidance needs to be provided to ensure that every uniformed officer knows that they must rise above their biases and that shooting the public they have the duty to serve and protect is a cardinal sin, and that their badge is a sign of each officer's integrity. Those who confer such a badge must remain accountable for the actions of the officers they have hired.

Before Facebook & Instagram, kids sort of sucked it up if other friends hung out with their other friends or if some friends got to a scene where they weren't invited. Now kids see the fun "friends" had the weekend or night before without them, and might even get the sense that they were dissed. Or they might see disparaging comments made about them on someone's posts. What happens after that could range from introspective depression to hostile rage. Neither is a high EQ response, but in the public realm of online "humiliation" anything is possible.

George Will was an old fashioned "conservative" journalist and widely syndicated columnist. He loved the comforting repetitive rhythm of the sport of professional baseball. At one point, Yale Professor Donald Kagan (a neo-conservative historian) called Will "democratically modern" because Will cited baseball's equal accessibility to aristocrats and to the masses as particularly virtuous. Will replied pointedly: "I have been called many things, but rarely, if ever, democrat or modern. This mudslinging must cease."

Sometimes sports is a pleasant diversion and a way of burning off energy competitively but not destructively. And baseball has its own parallels to life.

Hi Gal & Donner, agree with you both. But go back to the childhood story of the King With No Clothes. Sure every child thinks that the kid who told the emperor he was naked was heroic. But it also showed how many adults and powerful were afraid to tell the truth to power.

Now, in Meadows case, history WILL show he was complicit, and perhaps even a co-conspirator. But isn't it better to give Meadows immunity and for the real kingpin to get the jab?

The map is correct. My grandpa, who knew Ukraine's and Russia's history like a scholar told my mom and me (when I was still very young) that Russia wanted to rule Ukraine for a long time, but Ukraine didn't want to be ruled by Russia. For centuries it was part of the Kingdom of Lithuania. Then parts of Ukraine were under Poland, ... then Austro-Hungary ... Until the end of Ww1. But like that map shows, my grandpa said that "Ukrania" was a borderless steppe that for a millennia or more was "land of the Cossacks". Amazing to see an ancient map describing it exactly as my Pops said.

Even Rome after Caesar Augustus, most emperors who followed were tyrants until Diocletian. And the death of one generally led to nothing better.

A narcissist led autocracy is tough to abolish. Look at Nicaragua today. Look how Xi in China has consolidated his power. Belarus's Lushenko's been in power 30 years. The Kim family of N. Korea's been in power 83 years. The Castros in Cuba 64 years. Once autocracy gets control, it's almost as tough as abolishing monarchy. But in most dictatorships, there's no incentive to governing benevolently.

There are plenty of co-conspirators to go around. But just because the Emperor with no clothes listened to his sycophants tell him otherwise didn't mean mirrors are wrong. But Tchum,p like most narcissists, only believes the praise his suck-ups lay on him. Does telling a narcissist what they want to hear make Meadows a co-conspirator?

Saddest of all developments since the Berlin Wall came down is how Putin screwed up Russia. It had potential to incorporate itself into a European-style social democracy along the lines of Sweden. It could have embraced East Germany's unification with West Germany and watched how East Berlin flourished as did the rest of East Germany. Or followed the progress of Poland and the Baltics as they integrated into the EU. But Putin's greed drove him to attempt to recreate the KGB Soviet system in his fascist mafia modeled image. Poor path,Russia.