This happened last July. The cop has been at work ever since. The police video was finally released as part of a civil lawsuit.

..." Republicans are the kind of people who would cut back on Mental Health Services while loosening gun control restrictions and then winter shooting Rampages claim with a straight face that Hollywood is to blame. ..."

You make that statement as if it hasn't happened but the Rs have done exactly that.

After the Civil war nearly all Americans had come to the conclusion that black people were probably NOT inferior. This was actually a change from just 5 years earlier when most Americans really did believe that Blacks were fundamentally deficient, even though most believed they didn't deserve slavery. There is no other way to explain the 14th and 15th amendments.
Thus, after the war, southern gentlemen were presented with a dilemma. How could they justify the real reason for the war they just fought when the entire nation realized it was a sham reason? So they set about re-writing the reason for the war. And over time, since northern historians didn't have a bone to pick on this issue, the southern explanation became dominant even in the north.
But since original documents and newspaper headlines exist from those days, we can now know the truth. But that doesn't change the motivation of many southerners to deny the truth in order to be able to honor their own heritage and ancestors.

".... Both parties are failing this nation and ...."

This is a typical right wing talking points. When your side is collapsing because you have zero arguments and zero ability to defend your side, you try to color both sides as the same. This is classic sports strategy... If you can't win outright, at least go for a tie.

And coloring both sides as the same is the reason we are in this mess. When that argument takes hold people stay home and don't vote. And then the right wing wins again because they know how to use hate and fear to get out the vote.

And over time, when Republicans win again and again, both parties start moving more and more to the right.

Eisenhower, Hebert Hoover, Reagan and even Nixon would be appalled at how far to the right the R party has moved. And Kennedy, LBJ and FDR would be appalled at how far the Democratic party has ALSO moved to the right wing.

And Biden now is only asking for a tiny correction back towards the middle and he's a socialist communist radical.

"... It has the raw ingredients to be the Saudi Arabia of lithium which is quite popular nowadays. ..."

Not exactly. We are finding lithium deposits everywhere. And unlike oil, lithium is permanently recyclable so can be used over and over forever. The reason we haven't recycled the lithium in phones is because the phones hold such a small amount. Not true with car batteries.

So while lithium isn't worthless, it will never rise to the value that oil had. Not to mention that lithium may not even be the mineral we use for batteries in the future. We've barely touched the surface of what battery tech will hold for us in the future.

"...This Taliban offensive is designed to keep us in Afghanistan, not hasten our leaving. ..."

That was exactly my take on this. I suspect the Taliban did some calculations and decided that they are making greater gains on taking over that nation by playing up the USA presence. Lose that American presence and their task will be harder.

Hence this offensive.

This audit has nothing to do with the 2020 election and everything to do with manipulating the masses so voting restrictions can be put in place to protect Republican seats because less and less people vote in favor of the party that exists to help the super rich. I.e. the Republican party.

Just like the Mexican wall had nothing to do with immigration or drug interdiction but was only a creation to manipulate the masses using xenophobia, racism and fear. And it worked.

Flavored cigarettes were banned 20 years ago but Menthol cigarettes were exempted. All they've done here is remove that exemption for Menthol and removed the exemption for all flavored cigars.
This is not a big thing and is long overdue. Any product that induces people to kill themselves should not be out there.

" ... Not sure how fair it is to give him credit for it. Did he change anything significant to make it happen? ..."

Mainly due to his stimulus package and the likelihood of another one. American history is filled with examples of when the government spends large dollar amounts and then the economy explodes.

Though we also now know that when that money is in the form of tax cuts for the rich, the growth still occurs but pales in comparison to when that money goes to common people like the Obama stimulus and the Biden Covid relief package.

And the Trump covid relief package mainly went to the rich so while it did help the economy, no where near as much as the Biden plan.

So yeah, this market increase is primarily due to Biden policies. And if he can get his second stimulus plan passed we'll see a similar market rally.

This is probably good news for Democrats. The new districts will be in cities and cities tend to vote Democratic.

"....Manchin isn't getting re elected again. He can either go out as the man who fixed countless problems and helped countless people, or the man who prevented countless people from being helped, in the name of seeming bipartisan and trying to be elected president (and failing). ...."

There's another reason why Manchin is willing to screw the working people. Very rich people have a way of assuring wealth for politicians who go along with them.

1. Manchin could get paid very big bucks as a lobbyist but then never have to ever do any lobbying beyond a phone call or 2. Manchin could write a book that some billionaire buys 100,000 copies thus making it a best seller so Manchin starts actually selling books.
3. Manchin could be given a seat of the board of directors of some giant corporation and get paid a stipend of hundreds of thousands of dollars for a few hours work per year.

And there are other ways Manchin can get paid off for assuring the very rich corporate interests (AKA Republican interests) are satisfied.

" We need Trump as the negotiator"

Actually, based upon what happened over the last 4 years and how Kim was handed anything he wanted, it's KIM that would benefit from Trump being the negotiator.

How do you negotiate w someone who kills his own releative?

Easy answer... Leaders like this guy don't want to die. Convince him that he might and you will get tons on compliance. He might TALK the TALK that he's prepared to die in a blaze of glory as he sends his misiles to the US. But that's bluster.

Saddam and Osama Bin Laden didn't have a martyr bone in their bodies. They were cowards and most dictators are.

Can anyone explain why it took a week to charge this guy? Other that the obvious corruption?

I'm serious. Is there any other explanation?

IOW, I think what I'm asking is shouldn't a prosecutor be called upon to explain?

Airplanes have devices that work with devices along the runway to make sure they land straight regardless of the fog. Considering the value of that canal seems to me a no brainer soulution that they have such devices as a requirement to pass thru the canal. Then visibility becomes moot.

Saudi Arabia had significantly boosted oil production from about 2011 until the Wednesday after the election of Benedict Donald in 2015. Oil analysts the world over were trying to figure out why they were doing that and theories were to bankrupt the tar sands operations or to bankrupt Russia.

But when the Saudi's announced massive cutbacks in production just 2 days after the election of Trump, analysts concluded that Saudi Arabia simply had concluded that the planet was taking global warming seriously and they didn't want to be stuck with millions of barrels of oil in the ground. And they figured out that with the election of Benedict, it was happy days are here again for oil sales. So they cut production to get prices back up.

So now, with the glut from the pandemic, Saudi Arabia is in a bind. They want to increase production but can't due to the glut. And this current glut is mainly due to the pandemic but also due to their overproduction back in 2015. That glut only recently started to decline. But that pressure to get rid of their oil won't go away.

Meanwhile, gasoline prices, which are less a factor of oil production and more a factor of refinery processing, is still reeling from the massive lack of regulation in Texas that resulted in so many refineries not being able to stand up to cold weather. So less gas is being refined.

Plus, gas prices always go up this time of year.

"Sleepy Joe" ?

So if Joe is so sleepy why is it that he's running rings around the Republican agenda?

Why is it that when he's asked an off the cuff question when he meets with the press he consistently hits the answer out of the park?

I think you need to catch up on your talking points. Most of the mainstream right wing agenda media has moved on from the "Sleepy Joe" meme because it is having the opposite affect now. Rather than making a fool out of Biden, that phrase is now making a fool out of the person still using it.