Oddly enough, religious arguments convince me the least. If there is God and a soul, heaven and all that - it doesn't even matter does it?

Even more oddly, we consider a heartbeating body without brain activity to be "dead" and allow that person's proxy to end any artificial life support, knowing that the body will expire.

I wonder why measurable in vitro brain activity isn't the red-line deliniation where an embryonic clump of dividing cells actually displays signs of probable life.

But more importantly is the fact that in death we admit that the physical body is simply a vessel for consciousness/interactive life/soul. Does destroying the vessel destroy the soul? No one believes that, and in that immutable truth may lie the reason the Christian bible does not contain a single reference to life beginning at conception nor deeming human intervention in terminating an in vitro embryo as an act of murder as determined by the Fifth Commandment.

My Roman Catholic orthodoxy taught me that souls are infinite and that the death of the body is not the death of the soul. If that is one's belief, then how does that square with abortion being the cessation of "life" when the body itself is not physically connected to the eternal soul?

Is it your position that the US needs to be less like Europe?

My position is one of common ------- sense, something you show little of when pimping your little VAT love.

European countries don't have minimum wages last raised when W was President. European countries don't have their governments controlled by monied elites who game their taxation systems to benefit the wealthiest citizens because their highest Court considers spending money to affect societal change is equivalent to "free speech." The US taxpayers already subsidize employers by acting as social backstops for companies always claiming that the cost of labor is too high while pocketing tax break after tax break and subsidy after subsidy.

Newsflash: Poor people pay taxes too, so even they are invisibly impacted by our imbalanced system.

And the biggest difference? Europeans have taken health insurance off the plates of business and placed it into the perview of government. American workers already struggle just to afford health insurance costs that Europeans workers don't.

The impediment to any US VAT lies with the reality that we don't have socialized health insurance removing the trillions of non-productive dollars sucked up by middlemen that don't deliver a single tangible benefit to healthcare delivery nor service provision.

It's also a tax that is almost impossible to avoid if you want to buy consumer goods.

Which is the precise reason the U.S. will NEVER adopt one. VATs are the most regressive taxes on the planet because those with the least wealth and income spend all or almost all of their income on goods and services - which means the poorest would be paying the highest percentage of their wealth/income in taxes just so the wealthier can escape meaningful taxation on all the revenue and wealth their investments generate.

Why not just bring back indentured servitude instead? There's barely a discernable difference. VATs will increase poverty, further exacerbate income/wealth inequality, and cause a drop in GDP because you're taking money out of the consumer economy that will not be replaced by the wealthy who already consume whatever they want anyway.

Those with the least contribute what they can least afford so that the wealthy skate by with their non-labor generated income virtually tax free. What a concept.

When I saw the word "Hunter" I assumed this had to be about Hunter Biden.
Nope.

Carry on.

Is inflation helping people?

Global inflation - which was and remains higher than in the U.S. - was not caused by pandemic relief. Pandemic relief kept tens of millions of Americans from losing their homes and helped to keep families fed when the worst effects of covid took hold and forced massed unemployment heretofore not seen since the Great Depression. And how long did that last without any appreciable stimulative help from the federal government?

We didn't see Americans starving in the streets and we didn't see an avalanche of foreclosures and evictions due to the help our government provided that ultimately went into the pockets of business owners, lenders, and landlords in lieu of the income many no longer had.

Pandemic relief was a matter of life or death and for once we had a Republican (Trump) understanding this dynamic even if it was more about his own personal political dynamics than it was based on logic and the economic reality that the only way to avoid a large recession is for government to temporarily replace much of the GDP lost by the economic slowdown.

Republicans like Trump and Murphy seriously expect voters to believe that there are women, medical professionals, and Democratic policymakers who "want abortion literally when the child is coming out of the birth canal." That's insane. There are no such people.

The problem, in other words, isn't just that guys like Trump and Murphy are lying. The problem is made worse by the fact that they feel like they need to lie in order to prevent more election defeats.

When you've got a sociopathic conman and ignoramous leading your party, his complete lack of integrity and constant reliance on party-over-all and projecting his own perversities upon perceived "enemies," this is where it leads.

I thought Biden was in PA in 1864.

I think it would be funny if Biden claims (tongue-in-cheek) that he personally tried to talk Arizonan men out of passing this law back in 1864 but they wouldn't listen to him.

Why this is so important on the national level:

I was pointing out that 275 Democrats did exactly what Trump told them to do.

As I already stated to those with functioning comprehension, the Democrats did what THEY wanted to do to help the American people regardless of Trump. The GOP controlled the Senate, so if Republicans wanted to stop this bill they had all the power to do so.

Only a moron keeps howling at the moon and blaming it for chasing the sun out of the sky. NO legislation that actually helps anyone but the wealthy receives backing by a majority of Republicans even when their own leader demands it. Again, have you been asleep since 2020 because the same is true today. If it were up to House Republican votes, there would be no budget, a shutdown government, and a debt default.

Republicans are the posterchildren of irresponsible, selfish and xenophobic governmental policy and most wear it as a badge of pride.

Today, six years after the pullout, Tehran has bolted past nearly all the pact's constraints on the amount and type of enriched uranium it can possess, IAEA documents show.

In factory chambers that had ceased making enriched uranium under a 2015 nuclear accord, the inspectors now witnessed frenzied activity: newly installed equipment, producing enriched uranium at ever faster speeds, and an expansion underway that could soon double the plant's output. More worryingly, Fordow was scaling up production of a more dangerous form of nuclear fuel - a kind of highly enriched uranium, just shy of weapons grade. Iranian officials in charge of the plant, meanwhile, had begun talking openly about achieving "deterrence," suggesting that Tehran now had everything it needed to build a bomb if it chose.

Fordow's transformation mirrors changes seen elsewhere in the country as Iran blows past the guardrails of the Iran nuclear accord.

While Iran says it has no plans to make nuclear weapons, it now has a supply of highly enriched uranium that could be converted to weapons-grade fuel for at least three bombs in a time frame ranging from a few days to a few weeks, current and former officials said. The making of a crude nuclear device could follow in as little as six months after a decision is made, while overcoming the challenges of building a nuclear warhead deliverable by a missile would take longer, perhaps two years or more, the officials said.

Heck of a job, idiots.

You've got to be kidding me.

Please. All this confirms is that you have no integrity nor honesty in your entire body. You are nothing but a simp masquerading as a sentient person, incapable of thinking or analysis beyond the level of a troglodyte.

Of course Democrats wanted to help struggling Americans trying to survive through a global pandemic. The misfortunate reality is that there were 134 RepubliCANTS who wouldn't lift a finger in such an effort, a sentiment you selfishly share.

So go ahead and flag this post Funny you sorry little clownman. You're as predictable as sunrise and sunset.

You mean "congress" was injecting trillions?

That Trump demanded that they do. Are you that forgetful of something that happened only 4 years ago right in front of God and man?

...doesn't ...

What, precisely, is the issue of life?

I can't tell you what it is, but I can tell you what it isn't. "Life" should encompass 'from womb to tomb,' not just the possible gestation of a fertilized embryo. If one wants to protect "life" then they would advocate states insuring that children born to less than successful parents have continuous access to comprehensive food and health support without any public shame, e.g., it takes a village ....

It also means taking a realistic view of the issue instead of trying to paint it as a hysterical, hair-on-fire act which occurs naturally far more than is publicly understood. According to medical researchers as many as 40+% of fertilized eggs miscarry or abort themselves naturally, probably due to nature's own built-in propensity for self-correction of non-viable embryos. Anti-abortion laws make no distinction in this area in regards to nature's own hand in abortion, holding individual women responsible for what their bodies do independently from their conscious control.

The viewpoints expressed by those in agreement with what's posted in #8 aren't people obsessed with the protection of all human life, they're only obsessed with controlling every woman through laws enshrined to control their personal rights and autonomy up to the moment the baby leaves the womb. After that, they don't support any universal safety net to protect and nuture that child's right to grow up well-fed and healthy - as has been shown by so many GOP governors refusing to allow their state's children to participate in the federal government's summer nutrition assistance program. This is simply a pro-birth ethos couched in their own religious beliefs that have no right usurping the secular and religious beliefs of others that human life does not begin at conception, it begins at the point the fetus is independently viable to survive outside its mother/host. Up until that point, the embryo is a multiplying group of cells that may have the potentiality of independent life but don't at that moment in gestation.

#2

So let's review. Lake opposes the law she had consistently said she supported. She denounces the court decision which ruled that the old law is in effect. She thinks the decision should be left to the states. She also opposes abortion. Also, Arizona is a state.

She also wants Governor Hobbs to solve the situation. Which would presumably mean making abortion legal. Even though Lake opposes abortion.

She then comes very close to saying that abortion is a very personal issue that should be left to a state and her doctor. No really. I'm not kidding. Here's the exact quote: "this is a very personal issue that should be determined by each individual state and her people."

Josh Marshall

Looks like the King is taking notice as well:

"If they were smart, they'd take the January 6 and go hard at it," Rove told MSNBC's Ari Melber at the Rancho Mirage Writers Festival in California earlier this year. "And they would say, He wants to pardon these people who attacked our Capitol.'"

Rove said the siege is "a stain on our history and every one of those sons of bitches who did that, we ought to find them, try them and send them to jail."

And now Trump promises to pardon/commute the sentences of the criminals who viciously and violently attacked Capitol and DC police officers; received their fair trials and sentences by the letter of the law? Nothing screams authoritarianism like a former leader advocating his supporters are justified in using violence and breaking laws as long as it's in his service.

Iowa's last five games on television have surpassed 3 million viewers, including the last three that have drawn at least 4.9 million.

LSU's victory over UCLA on Saturday, which preceded the Iowa game, averaged 3.8 million, the second most-watched Sweet 16 game on record.

South Carolina's win over Indiana on Friday averaged 2.1 million on ESPN and UConn's victory over Duke on Saturday, also on ESPN, drew 2 million.

Last year's LSU-Iowa national championship game, on ABC, drew 9.9 million viewers. Monday's LSU-Iowa rematch, on cable, crushed that number.

But make no mistake, this national popularity is driven by star power, namely Caitlin Clark, Angel Reese, Paige Bueckers, and Juju Watkins to mention last night's leading 4. Each woman is incredibly talented at their craft, with 3 of them being great shooters and prolific scorers from all over the floor and the fourth a dominating post presence on both offense and defense. It's likely that 2 of these ladies will move over to the WNBA which starts playing in only a few weeks after the tournament is over.

Being in Indianapolis, the town is overjoyed to become the new home of Caitlin Clark when she's chosen #1 in the draft by the Indiana Fever in two weeks. She already has multi-million dollar NIL contracts that will (at least initially) dwarf her WNBA salary of $76,535 in year one. That's only her base, she will be eligible for incentive bonuses. In my opinion, Clark is going to do for women basketball players what Tiger Woods did for golfers: She will draw eyeballs and sponsorship money by the busloads. And I predict that the premier WNBA players will soon be earning as much money as the top women tennis players due to the effect of these already famous college players taking their considerable talents to the pro league.

REALLY?? Then how about you then cite what actions/rules/regulations this anti-Oil&Gas administration has taken to increase the flow and sale of LNG. I'll wait...

Yes, really. You have the question backwards - which is precisely how your mind works anyway. No one here has made any case that Biden is bending over backwards or championing domestic fossil fuel production. With that being said, your destroyed-by-reality assersion that Biden is working against domestic fossil fuel production right now looks as stupid as you do considering this nation is setting all time records for the amounts of fuels extracted and exported.

If it were Biden's immediate goal to cut this production or stymie it, as all the right wing claims, then how is the industry breaking records for production? The point is that the industry has been met with a combination of positive conditions that have allowed it to thrive while Joe Biden has been President, while the former guy with his minions ignore this reality and say that his governance is hurting the industry while it sets both profit and production records.

Either Biden is the worst impediment to domestic oil/gas production in history - actually causing just the opposite to be true - or the right wing narrative of him harming average Americans by his policies is a bald-faced lie. You choose.

how so?

Federally defunding green energy projects and increasing subsidies for even more domestic fossil fuel production and exportation.

so politicians are worrying about their re-election more than the environment.

Tell me just how effective one unelected citizen is in getting Congress to do anything. You cannot affect change from the outside when you don't have a vote. The need to be elected/re-elected is obvious, and when your opposition continuously lies about, smears, and denigrates green energy at every turn, how your electorate feels about the subject may very well dictate whether one wins or loses.

Biden is pro-oil. pro fossil-fuels. Pro oil company profits.

That's precisely why he mandated a pause in allowing more permits for more exportation and construction of LNG infrastructure to allow even more LNG to enter the market. He's not trying to intentionally add immediate higher energy costs to the spike of inflation, burdening American businesses and consumers.

Republicans are still saying that Biden regulations are strangling domestic oil and gas production and this mantra is repeated ad nauseum by elected GOP politicians and right wing media. As Speaks noted, Biden championed the biggest climate change bill in US history while simultaneously navigating global energy supply issues caused by Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Honestly, Biden is trying to move towards green energy as quickly and effectively as public opinion and engagement will allow, the difference being that any Republican chosen to replace him will take a 180 degree different track. Biden is the current best hope for continuing the transition to renewable energy even if the fossil fuel industry is raking in record profits at present. One does not negate the other.

...those politicians who fought against an increase in the use of fossil fuels are fighting for their political lives.

As they have been in state/national elections since Jimmy Carter put solar panels on the White House roof because of two main factions: Big Oil and its most numerous political supporters, the GOP.

Acting as though the effort to move from fossil fuels to renewables is simply a choice of simple will isn't based in political reality. One has to be elected to influence energy policy from inside the federal government. And even there, those who do are faced with massive coordinated opposition, ridicule, anti-green propaganda along with personal and partisan demonization.

I'm shocked Tony would draw attention to the fact the US is contributing to the destruction of the planet by producing record amounts of fossil fuels and selling it.

I'm shocked (not) that both Lefty and Ebs completely missed the context in which this thread was posted, but understanding the dualality of the information actually takes comprehension and more than simplistic linear thinking.

Installations of wind turbines, solar panels and batteries hit a record high last year. But so, too, did oil production.

OMG... prudence, foresight, and the ability to work towards multiple goals at the same time.

One cannot simply flip a switch and eliminate the need for fossil fuels immediately in 2024 or any time soon. It will take decades to make this transition and no prognosticator (nor any living Republican) saw it possible for the Biden Administration to serve two masters while it was going on.

It cannot be said that Biden's quest towards renewable green energy itself is stiffling domestic production of fossil fuels when records in both types of energy production are being realized. So Dark Brandon is the right's unacknowledged wet dream hero for fostering conditions leading to all-time record domestic fossil fuel production and he's taking steps - with the pause on new domestic export permits and facilities - to limit even more future environmental damage while assessing how to best move forward with all interests in mind.

Further: