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1. Much narrower focus: The Obama administration conducted a review in 2011 of the vetting procedures applied to citizens of a single country (Iraq) and then only to refugees and applicants for Special Immigrant Visas (SIVs), created by Congress to help Iraqis (and later Afghans) who supported the United States in those conflicts. The Trump executive order, on the other hand, applies to seven countries with total population more than 130 million, and to virtually every category of immigrant other than diplomats, including tourists and business travelers.

2. Not a ban: Contrary to Trump’s Sunday statement and the repeated claims of his defenders, the Obama administration did not “ban visas for refugees from Iraq for six months.” For one thing, refugees don’t travel on visas. More importantly, while the flow of Iraqi refugees slowed significantly during the Obama administration’s review, refugees continued to be admitted to the United States during that time, and there was not a single month in which no Iraqis arrived here. In other words, while there were delays in processing, there was no outright ban.

3. Grounded in specific threat: The Obama administration’s 2011 review came in response to specific threat information, including the arrest in Kentucky of two Iraqi refugees, still the only terrorism-related arrests out of about 130,000 Iraqi refugees and SIV holders admitted to the United States. Thus far, the Trump administration has provided no evidence, nor even asserted, that any specific information or intelligence has led to its draconian order.

4. Orderly, organized process: The Obama administration’s review was conducted over roughly a dozen deputies and principals committee meetings, involving Cabinet and deputy Cabinet-level officials from all of the relevant departments and agencies — including the State, Homeland Security and Justice Departments — and the intelligence community. The Trump executive order was reportedly drafted by White House political officials and then presented to the implementing agencies a fait accompli. This is not just bad policymaking practice, it led directly to the confusion, bordering on chaos, that has attended implementation of the order by agencies that could only start asking questions (such as: “does this apply to green card holders?”) once the train had left the station.

5. Far stronger vetting today: Much has been made of Trump’s call for “extreme vetting” for citizens of certain countries. The entire purpose of the Obama administration’s 2011 review was to enhance the already stringent vetting to which refugees and SIV applicants were subjected. While many of the details are classified, those rigorous procedures, which lead to waiting times of 18-24 months for many Iraqi and Syrian refugees, remain in place today and are continually reviewed by interagency officials. The Trump administration is, therefore, taking on a problem that has already been (and is continually being) addressed.

Fake news is likely to be on both sides.

That is, things are always NOT simple as black and white, as MSM, and some people here try to paint.
Recently, the Poles nationalists shouted slogans against Ukrainians, and a day later Poland quickly blamed Russia for this.
So, Yushchenko pro-Western president in 2004, granted Bandera "Hero of Ukraine", and Poroshenko pro-Western president in 2016, renamed "Moscow Avenue" to "Bandera Avenue", which more or less have raised the long, hidden conflicts between Ukraine-Poland are also Russian hybridwar?

Note: for another perspective, the difference between Time magazine 2016 and 1996?
1996: Yanks to the rescue. The secret story of how American advisers helped Yeltsin win

For four months, a group of American political consultants clandestinely participated in guiding Yeltsin's campaign. Here is the inside story of how these advisers helped Yeltsin achieve the victory that will keep reform in Russia alive.

2016: Russia Wants to Undermine Faith in the US Election Don't Fall for It

Three and a half years ago the US government, under the Obama administration, let the ban on propagandizing US citizens expire - and immediately began writing and spreading "fake news".

From an FP article dated July 14, 2013:

U.S. Repeals Propaganda Ban, Spreads Government-Made News to Americans

For decades, a so-called anti-propaganda law prevented the U.S. governmentâ(TM)s mammoth broadcasting arm from delivering programming to American audiences. But on July 2, that came silently to an end with the implementation of a new reform passed in January. The result: an unleashing of thousands of hours per week of government-funded radio and TV programs for domestic U.S. consumption in a reform initially criticized as a green light for U.S. domestic propaganda efforts.

So the only thing new here is US citizens noticed one of the government's renewed, official, domestic propaganda operations.

Actually, Obama got rid of the prohibition on propaganda aimed at Americans then by "modernizing" the act that prohibited it, as you can see here:

https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/...

You can read more about it here:

http://foreignpolicy.com/2013/...

https://www.ivycoach.com/2016-ivy-league-admissions-statistics/
http://foreignpolicy.com/2016/01/04/the-most-chinese-schools-in-america-rankings-data-education-china-u/

Here are a couple of links that I hope are not in any way connected to this:

http://foreignpolicy.com/2016/...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

The youtube clip is 8 years old, and has approximately the same borders as the new October map. This has been simmering for 98 years, and seems to be gathering steam in recent years. Note that Turkey is following the long established practice of demanding territory where ethnic Turks live while refusing to give up territory where non-Turks live.

Erdogan has been consolidating power since the failed plot to remove him, which was about 4 months ago now. (Also see Sledgehammer.)

Syria was a civil war incited by the Arab Spring and a dictator butting heads that we were keeping our collective noses out of for a decade.

Bullshit! https://www.washingtonpost.com...

Classified U.S. diplomatic cables show that the State Department has funneled as much as $6 million to the group since 2006 to operate the satellite channel and finance other activities inside Syria.

Once the fire finally ignited you added more fuel:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06...

Same sort of thing for Libya, Iraq[1] etc. The US has been helping to start fires and keep them ablaze for decades.

As for 9/11 guess who helped Osama bin Laden and gang grow in power: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/sou...
http://archive.is/1wddN

Open your eyes. These are all mainstream articles not conspiracy nut sites. You bunch are far from the good guys. Heck even the Russians have more legal justification for messing with Syria (the Syrian government asked them to help).

If you think a country having a corrupt evil government doing really bad stuff gives other countries the right to help overthrow it perhaps you should look at the USA sometime. Corrupt? Evil? Actively doing really bad stuff? All checked.

[1] Yeah Saddam was an evil dictator, guess who helped him get in power and kept supporting him? http://foreignpolicy.com/2013/...
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/03...

As I said, the US is imperfect. But as the old saw goes, and particularly so WRT freedom of speech, it's the worst -- except for all the others.

I'd rather have an Internet where I can speak about superstition (and religion - but I repeat myself) without being stepped on for "intolerance."

This is an interesting read. Once you click the advertising sludge out of the way, sigh.

And what about Tim DeChristopher's message about protecting the environment? Oh, the court explicitly banned any mention or consideration of his message or even motives. The system can declare open season on activists whenever it wants.

BTW, a party that will commit fraud in order to hoard money away from state/local campaigns into the hands of the already wealthy Clinton is no doubt interested in creating as much hysteria as possible to deflect attention.

Hacking voter registration systems is a serious issue for sure. For one thing, those systems should not be online. Another thing is that the Snowden leaks show the US routinely breaks into foreign municipal and university systems to steal their data. They even leak data for political impact. But no corp. infotainment brand in the US is going to make an issue out of it. Which is odd, because supposedly Americans would be the first people you would expect to be capable of stopping our government from doing this.

And lets not forget infotainment's penchant for labeling any activity by Russian or Chinese individuals as a government conspiracy against the West. They segue from intentionally vague language intended to erase any distinction, to more serious language calling for bombing campaigns. A similar tactic was used in the coverage over Iran's "nuclear program", an erasure of the nuclear power / nuclear weapons dichotomy they do not commit when discussing US programs.

As for Russian government involvement in the two voter db hacks: Contrasted with the DNC hack, it looks rather iffy. Did N. Korea's government commit the Sony hacks? Probably not, but interestingly enough we expect our government to keep blaming them anyway.

EVEN our NATO allies are not trusted... they are spied upon in minute detail. So the good will that had grown for a time between nations has been pissed away because of this paternalistic, power-mad attitude emanating from the US establishment (and assorted hangers-on in the other four of the Five Eyes). And please don't pretend that we didn't set the bar...or that it's not an important issue.

In 1991, Goldman bankers, led by their prescient president Gary Cohn, came up with a new kind of investment product, a derivative that tracked 24 raw materials, from precious metals and energy to coffee, cocoa, cattle, corn, hogs, soy, and wheat. They weighted the investment value of each element, blended and commingled the parts into sums, then reduced what had been a complicated collection of real things into a mathematical formula that could be expressed as a single manifestation, to be known henceforth as the Goldman Sachs Commodity Index (GSCI).

-we have more allies than just Israel. and most of them were alienated by bush the lesser, and those relationships repaired by Obama.

W put together a coalition of 48 countries for the Iraq war. Most of those contributed little but they were signed on.

I'm really interested to hear which countries were alienated by W and when the alienation occurred. I Googled for "George W Bush alienated" and found this, which is an article saying that President Obama's administration is doing such a horrible job that it makes the W administration look good.

-our military is in NO WAY in shambles

http://www.ibtimes.com/us-navy-doesnt-have-enough-ships-send-marines-crisis-zones-may-borrow-foreign-vessels-1990659

https://news.usni.org/2015/11/04/navy-half-the-carrier-fleet-tied-up-in-maintenance-other-5-strained-to-meet-demands

https://news.usni.org/2015/11/19/report-navy-and-marine-corps-strained-to-breaking-point-second-forward-carrier-in-the-pacific-could-help

https://military.id.me/aircraft/marines-forced-raid-military-museum-aircraft-parts/

"The U.S. Air Force is now short 4,000 airmen to maintain its fleet, short 700 pilots to fly them and short vital spare parts necessary to keep their jets in the air. The shortage is so dire that some have even been forced to scrounge for parts in a remote desert scrapheap known as 'The Boneyard.'"

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2016/05/14/wiped-out-air-force-losing-pilots-and-planes-to-cuts-scrounging-for-spare-parts.html

http://dailysignal.com/2015/12/04/is-the-obama-administration-trying-to-wreck-the-military/

-labor participation is dropping regardless of anything any one does. it has to do with the boomers retiring, not the economy.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/louisefron/2014/08/20/tackling-the-real-unemployment-rate-12-6/

http://www.investors.com/politics/editorials/sorry-but-the-real-unemployment-rate-is-9-8-not-5/

-inequality is horrible, but its not thanks to the current occupant, but rather the past several decades of structural issues in the economy

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/11/income-inequality-obama-bush_n_1419008.html

-maybe you forgot, but the economy crashed a few years ago. of course stamps are up, and will remain up until people get back to where they were. that's what they are for

As a candidate, and then as President, Mr. Obama was quite willing to blame W for the economy. Mr. Obama didn't cut W any slack on the economy; why should I be more forgiving toward Mr. Obama than he was toward his predecessor?

And a robust economy helps people... "a rising tide lifts all boats." The Obama recovery is the worst economy recorded in modern times. It's nearly flatline.

The CIA isn't a terrorist organization. They are the ones protecting your rights to say stupid things on the Internet and allowing Allu Akbar from chopping your head off for belonging to the wrong religious group.

http://foreignpolicy.com/2013/...
Mapped: The 7 Governments the U.S. Has Overthrown. Yes, we now have confirmation that the CIA was behind Iran's 1953 coup. But the agency hardly stopped there.
By J. Dana Stuster
August 20, 2013

Iran, 1953

Guatemala, 1954

Congo, 1960

Dominican Republic, 1961

South Vietnam, 1963

Brazil, 1964

Chile, 1973

http://www.alternet.org/world/...

  “I don't see why we need to stand by and watch a country go communist due to the irresponsibility of its people. The issues are much too important for the Chilean voters to be left to decide for themselves.” -- Henry Kissinger

Interesting how all the examples above are not only from the last millennium, but also from the Communist period. Has any US government - (D) or (R) - ousted any regime since 1992? Aside from Afghanistan, Iraq & Libya?

The CIA isn't a terrorist organization. They are the ones protecting your rights to say stupid things on the Internet and allowing Allu Akbar from chopping your head off for belonging to the wrong religious group.

http://foreignpolicy.com/2013/...
Mapped: The 7 Governments the U.S. Has Overthrown. Yes, we now have confirmation that the CIA was behind Iran's 1953 coup. But the agency hardly stopped there.
By J. Dana Stuster
August 20, 2013

Iran, 1953

Guatemala, 1954

Congo, 1960

Dominican Republic, 1961

South Vietnam, 1963

Brazil, 1964

Chile, 1973

http://www.alternet.org/world/...

  “I don't see why we need to stand by and watch a country go communist due to the irresponsibility of its people. The issues are much too important for the Chilean voters to be left to decide for themselves.” -- Henry Kissinger

This just is not true. Food (groceries) have increased significantly, by nearly a third in the last 4-5 years. Although Meat has mostly been unaffected. How Goldman Sachs Created the Food Crisis | Foreign Policy

The parent is obvious flamebait, but I like history, so I'll share some here...

There was an interesting article in Foreign Policy a couple years ago (possibly paywalled link here) which argued that the Soviet declaration of war was what really prompted the surrender. The author bases this on several arguments, among them:

* The atomic bombing of Hiroshima did not particularly stand out in the context of a huge and destructive conventional bombing campaign.
* The Japanese Supreme Council did not discuss the Hiroshima bombing at all, and indeed, did not seem to care much about the destruction of cities.
* Soviet mediation was seen as the last hope for avoiding an unconditional surrender.
* Japanese forces were deployed to defend against a U.S. invasion, not a Soviet invasion from the opposite direction.
* Giving the atomic bomb credit for provoking the surrender was politically convenient for the emperor as well as the United States.

It's worth a read if you can actually get to the article. There's a comment on the AskHistorians Reddit about the article by Restricted Data (Alex Wellerstein), which gives the original source of this argument (Tsuyoshi Hasegawa), and offers some historiographical context:

Hasegawa's book is very well done. He has managed for the first time to really put together a cohesive, persuasive argument about the end-game machinations in Japan, the United States, and Soviet Union. The other historians of the bomb I know are pretty convinced at least to the point that the Soviet invasion was more influential on the Japanese than the bombs. Not all of them think the bomb was of no influence, or that it would have ended without using them, though Hasegawa himself is apparently convinced of this, from what I've read.

(Personally, I am on the fence to the degree that I just don't see how we can disentangle the atomic bombs from the Soviet invasion as fully as would be necessary to say this with authority, but I am convinced that the Soviet invasion mattered at least as much, if not more, than the atomic bombs.)

The same comment also points out an important aspect of the "moral" debate:

Note that the question of whether the bombs "worked" or not is a completely separate one from whether the people who used them were justified in doing so according to what they knew at the time. People tend to think that the former implies a moral argument about the latter, but it is an entirely separate issue regarding motivation and "the decision." (Note that even characterizing the use of the bomb as being the result of some large moral deliberation, or some sort of invasion vs. bombing tradeoff, is kind of anachronistic.)

He also has a related article here.

I don't have much of an opinion on whether the atomic bombing was "justified" or not. Large-scale attacks on civilians were common through the war in both theaters, so focusing solely on the atomic bomb seems rather limited to me.

Except that domestic companies are even worse. Owned by internal corrupt government members, they're pretty much above the law and all the money goes back to those same corrupt governments. Since they have no international presence, there's not the same international pressure to clean up their act either.

There is no software on the planet that is more scrutinised and more meticulously developed than software for spacecraft

There's at least one. Software for US nuclear weapons systems. I once watched a USAF nuclear safety audit over the course of a few years. I was thoroughly impressed with the quality of the work.

...and then, as an added assurance to make sure that nothing would slow down the ability to launch missiles, the code to launch missiles was set to all zeros, and never changed.

http://arstechnica.com/tech-po...
http://www.theguardian.com/wor...
http://foreignpolicy.com/2014/...

It's the Occupation, S---

In Europe majority of refugees or "refugees" have lost all their ids but not their iphones. Another funny fact is that many of them claim to be minors, being a bit too tall or overall big for their age.

If we've learned anything from the Arab Spring it's that most of the people living there favor these types of religiously oppressive governments, ...

Then you have indeed learned nothing from the Arab Spring.

Millions of young Arabs really did take to the streets demanding liberty, and dignity, and justice. .... It wasn’t a mirage. We really do exist.

We’re not a minority, either. We only appear to be a minority because we’re not organized; we’re not on the menu. When the only options presented are black or white, it does not mean that red or green or blue are a minority. When the only options presented are religious authoritarianism or nationalistic fascism, it does not mean that a third option doesn’t exist. It’s just not on the menu.

Indonesia has a larger Muslim population than any other country in the world. Practicing a moderate and peaceful Islam. Modernized much like Christianity was.

You may wisht to keep up with current events.
https://www.worldwatchmonitor....
http://foreignpolicy.com/2015/...

Brennan also said the United States had strategic warning about the terrorist attack in Paris, but did not provide details, other than to say it was not a surprise.
The same subordinate status that makes it OK for the ruling class to violate citizens' privacy means it's not a big deal if they are blown up. Sheep are herded, sheep are slaughtered.

COINTELPRO https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
The part about "All three intelligence services sent the names of Americans to the... " shows the historic domestic and global US list making.
also see Project MINARET
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
"Secret Cold War Documents Reveal NSA Spied on Senators" (SEPTEMBER 25, 2013)
http://foreignpolicy.com/2013/...

The FBI is no longer in the law enforcement business. The FBI is now primarily concerned with 'national security.'

New York Times:

Following the 9/11 attacks, the FBI picked up scores of new responsibilities related to terrorism and counterintelligence while maintaining a finite amount of resources. Whatâ(TM)s not in question is that government agencies tend to benefit in numerous ways when considered critical to national security as opposed to law enforcement. âIf you tie yourself to national security, you get funding and you get exemptions on disclosure cases,â(TM) said McClanahan. âYou get all the wonderful arguments about how if you donâ(TM)t get your way, buildings will blow up and the country will be less safe.â(TM)

foreignpolicy.com:

Instead of declaring âoelaw enforcementâ as its âoeprimary function,â as it has for years, the FBI fact sheet now lists âoenational securityâ as its chief mission.
[â¦]
âoeWe rank our top 10 priorities and CT [counterterrorism] is first, counterintel is second, cyber is third,â [FBI spokesman Paul Bresson] said. âoeSo it is certainly accurate to say our primary function is national security.â

Why are you purposely pretending not to understand what people are saying? They are basically always referring to the 1% of their own country. You're moving goalposts, and then pretending that everyone else is with the Orange County argument.

And even so, I don't think he'd have to exclude himself because he's not the top 1% of Orange County -- because there's a 99% chance he isn't in the top 1% of the US (assuming he's from the US, and assuming that slashdot's 1%er commenters are in proportion to the greater population). With this said, Cost of Living, tax differences, and government benefits are real factors that makes the actual worldwide 1% a little fuzzy.

In addition, you're quoting income numbers, not wealth numbers. Just because you have a higher income than 99% of people, doesn't mean you have a higher wealth than 99% of people.

Also, the 1% of the world is $34k from what I've read: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new..., http://foreignpolicy.com/2012/...

This other source says $47.5k: http://dailycaller.com/2011/11...

This site puts it at around $32.5k: http://www.globalrichlist.com/

So there's a variety of estimates, and note most of those sites are actually explicitly making the same point you are so they aren't biased against you. Where's 22k coming from?

This makes a pretty convincing case, IMHO:

http://foreignpolicy.com/2014/08/18/would-sweden-ever-extradite-assange-to-the-united-states/

I'm not scratching my head because it doesn't stop US from exporting cluster bombs to Saudi Arabia where become part of our strategic ally's war against the Houthis in Yemen, killing civilians in the process. Why should anyone worry that their DARPA funded tech will be less profitable than one might hope. Just because you may not be able export to Russia or North Korea? The world is still a pretty big place full of lots of opportunity, especially if you can build a better rat trap.

Let me say that again, the second bomb came just seventy-two hours later. In the age before satellites or the internet.

74 hours actually.

Do you think the Japanese government had any idea what the casualty count was?

Yes. They knew that within a few hours.

At that point in time, do you think that the majority of officers in their military and advisers to the emperor even fully appreciated what an atomic bomb was?

Yes. Japan had its own nuclear program. They knew very well what an atomic bomb was.

And they didn't care. It was not Hiroshima nor Nagasaki that made them surrender. In the summer of 1945 over 300000 Japanese were killed. The atomic bombings were just added on the pile. They were just bigger bombs.

For some background on this, since you take your arguments from wikipedia (as if they get anything about politics right), look here:

http://foreignpolicy.com/2013/...

In many parts of India, rape is still considered to be a hobby, a "real man's" sport. And none other than the chief minister of one of the states backed it in the name of cultural heritage:

http://foreignpolicy.com/2014/...

http://foreignpolicy.com/2013/... But let's not kid ourselves: the domestic propaganda has been going on since before 2013. If you think our government actually follows the law in secret, i have a bridge to sell you.

Except it's not just one link, there are many more, to quote from the linked article:

National newspaper Svenska Dagbladet, explicitly using the term “no-go zones”:

http://www.svd.se/opinion/leda...

National newspaper Aftonbladet on the rampant ISIS recruitment taking place in these areas:

http://www.aftonbladet.se/nyhe...

Dr Magnus Ranstorp on the rapid growth of radicalized Islamists (in English):

http://foreignpolicy.com/2015/...

An article about the police incident deserting their own and ceding control to criminals in Landskrona. They literally use the term in the headline, adding that the police are now pulling out of the area:

http://hd.se/landskrona/2014/0...

The local police chief explaining why the officers are not to exit their vehicles and make arrests:

http://www.hd.se/lokalt/landsk...

More from the police chief on how they now deal with the area:

http://hd.se/landskrona/2014/0...

Also, if these areas do not exist, why is the ambulance union demanding military-grade protection gear to enter them?

http://mobil.svd.se/nyheter/am...

Another article interviewing the ambulance union chief on why they need bulletproof vests, helmets and similar gear:

http://magasinetneo.se/artikla...

As for the police report, it clearly states that there are indeed informal courts and parallel justice systems (page 12, third paragraph (3.4.3)). Anyone who has read about Södertäljenätverket knows how broad the extent of this clan-based influence can be.

http://polisen.se/Aktuellt/Rap...—Nationellt/Ovriga-rapporterutredningar/Kriminella-natverk-med-stor-paverkan-i-lokalsamhallet/

The vehicle checkpoints are mentioned on page 15, fourth paragraph (3.5.3).

On page 13, second paragraph (3.4.4) you find the frequent attacks on police. Here is just one of many news stories on how police have to install shatterproof glass on their vehicles because they get rocks hurled at them whenever entering these areas:

http://www.svt.se/nyheter/regi...

There are numerous newspaper articles, police reports and even Youtube videos by the gangs themselves bragging about how they’re chasing off the cops from “their” area, but I think this list should be enough.

I've nothing against Muslims in general myself, the same as I've nothing against Hindus, Christians or Buddhists. I do have a big problem with people obscuring the truth, and thus far you've presented no compelling evidence to suggest the above information is untrue. A rambling collection of anecdotes and opinions, sure, but no evidence.

Comments

The CIA doesn't need black income... Maybe, *maybe* it did at one point, but that's definitely not true today.

http://foreignpolicy.com/2015/...

http://foreignpolicy.com/2015/...

Link is a fucking paywall, nevertheless it does outline how the family of that American hostage paid the $250K ransom ~ with the help of Pakistan

Personally I do not know why any American (or anyone with sane mind) wants to go to places like that in the first place?

I mean, if that American didn't go to Pakistan he wouldn't be kidnapped by those moslem fuckers, and his family wouldn't be out of $250K with the end result of getting the news of he was blown to bits in a drone strike

That guy was a very selfish asshole for forcing his family to go through so much stress and miseries

That's right. Iraq actually had a valid complaint about Kuwait's pumping oil in a way that interfered with Iraq's oil. The U.S. told Sadam Hussain to settle it with Kuwait himself. Then when he followed U.S. advice, they went to war with him. There was no U.S. interest in getting involved. Kuwait bought influence.

http://foreignpolicy.com/2011/...

In a now famous interview with the Iraqi leader, U.S. Ambassador April Glaspie told Saddam, ‘[W]e have no opinion on the Arab-Arab conflicts, like your border disagreement with Kuwait.’ The U.S. State Department had earlier told Saddam that Washington had ‘no special defense or security commitments to Kuwait.’ The United States may not have intended to give Iraq a green light, but that is effectively what it did."

The war was justified, as usual, with lies, like Nayirah's story about the incubators, which she later admitted was a lie, created by one of Kuwait's lobbying and PR firms, Hill & Knowlton.
http://www.csmonitor.com/2002/...

That "we don't negotiate with terrorists" is a lie:

http://foreignpolicy.com/2014/...

http://www.thedailybeast.com/a...

http://www.thedailybeast.com/a...

Please stop repeating it.

Thank you.

Prove it! Not with hyperbole but actual proof. Did we drop any atomic bombs in any non-civilian areas to demonstrate that we could decimate large populations and Japan seeing this refused to surrender? NO! We dropped 2 atomic bombs on two cities full of civilians. We never attempted to drop the atomic bombs on more sensible targets, such as a military base on the coast. We went right after two large civilian targets, killing for "maximum psychological effect". Here is a source for you to read, but you can find plenty of sources to debunk your belief.

The majority of the arguments attempting to back bombing 2 cities relates to "invading japan" and claiming how impossible it would have been. More horse shit, because Japan was out of resources and could not produce any longer. They had no planes to defend themselves, and no fuel. Japan had to import petroleum, metals, sulfur, and potassium. The US had decimated their shipping. Further, they lost most of their conquered territory on mainland Asia where they were able to get these resources. In one Tokyo bombing raid 100,000 civilians were killed because Japan COULD NOT DEFEND ITSELF! Russia had just declared war and almost immediately captured one of their puppet states and Japan was already negotiating with Russia to end that part of the war.

There is no truth to the claim that the US was still under threat from Japan at that point, and there is no proof that Japan would not have surrendered prior to dropping the atomic bombs. There is evidence that they were already considering surrender when the bombs were dropped. Make sure to follow all the links in that one, where you will find both US and UK intelligence documents showing that Japan was trying to negotiate surrender 3 weeks prior to the bombs.

Generally, the ACLU does in meat-space what the EFF does in cyberspace.

BS. Once, a decade ago, I donated enough to ACLU to warrant sending me a membership card. Still have it somewhere. Guess what? 2 weeks later an invitation to subscribe to a disgusting far-left magazine showed up, sent to the same "tagged" address as what I gave the ACLU. It had a picture of the then-President in shackles on it — showing today's President that way would've been a national scandal.

Do you suppose, the USSR or Cuba, that American Left love some much, were any better on LGBT rights, than the US is today?

Having aligned themselves so solidly with the Left — and outright communists among them — indeed, having concentrated on the nonsense like "LGBT rights", they've lost the hearts and minds of the rest of us...

Here are some citations to get you started:

• Merkel is deliberately cutting green energy subsidies
• her predecessor left directly to Gazprom
• first link out of Google about Hungary
• more on Merkel

And you think altruism is purely the cause?

More likely, Cuba is using health care politically:

"Cuba is doing this first and foremost to polish its political image, secondly for economic reasons, and thirdly, so that countries that have received their help will vote in Cuba's favor in international forums like the United Nations," Guedes [a Cuban dissident and exile] told DW.

Of course, money's also a motive, especially considering the economic sanctions still in place against Cuba:

The government in Havana earns more than six billion euros a year ($7.6 billion) through these doctors, because only a fraction of what the doctors cost these foreign nations are paid out in their salaries.

Brazil pays Havana 3,100 euros per doctor per month. Only because of pressure from Brazil's government do these doctors now get at least 900 euros per month. According to WHO representative Di Fabio, the Cuban government receives a daily flat rate of 190 euros per helper.

Sure, I'd love to see Cuba join the world as a serious economic player, but not so much that I'll ignore the other reasons why Cuba has recently been exporting more medical care than cigars.

GP is a chickenhawk.

Bzzz... Ad-hominem detected. Attaching labels to your opponents does not win an argument.

People like him are the reason for the current mess in Iraq.

The current mess in Iraq (and Libya) is the doing of your Nobel Peace Prize boy-wonder. Had we pulled troops from Western Germany in 1950ies, there would've been a new wave of violence there too — gleefully supported by the Communists occupying the Eastern part...

Sure, it was Bush, who prepared the plan for our withdrawal, but only someone trying to appease the "anti-war" crowd would execute the final part of it, given the ISIS' growing power.

Obama's weakness — and the catastrophic results of that weakness — were predictable. And unavoidable, given the sort of lunatic, that is the fount of "foreign policy expertise" of the Administration.

Besides, the mess in Korea was American's fault in first place - they have supported a bloody dictator for the sole reason of being an anticommunist. It was so bad that up to the 1970ies North Korea had higher standard of living. Without that meddling things could have been way better.

I can well see, how a kinder gentler Southern regime would get overrun by Communist North — turning the entire Korean peninsula into a hellhole. But I fail to understand, what would have made things better for today's North Koreans, had the South Korea become democratic earlier. Could you elaborate?

-your assertion that the 'kurd lobby' drives international geopolitics

Start here. Kurdistan doesn't drive international geopolitics, they lobby to get their little piece of it.

your assertion that the U.S. didnt get involved in syria

If you'd like me to clarify, it was a A reference to this event. I don't know if you remember those events. Putin managed to solve it without the US using violence. Obama very clearly did not want to get any more involved in Syria.

your whole 'mainland attack' notion.

What are you saying here, do you think both of the world trade center attacks were a conspiracy theory or something?

Any election or referendum that ends with >95% of the votes for one option goes into the Kim Jong-Il category: http://blog.foreignpolicy.com/...

I expect Obama will handle Ukraine much better.

The same way he handled Libya, Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq, North Korea, Iran, and Egypt?

I guess since Obama has never really taken his job seriously, you can make up your fantasy world about what it might be like if he actually started paying attention, unconstrained by pesky little facts and actual actions and results :)

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/a...

http://internationalextraditionblog.files.wordpress.com/2010/12/us-sweden-extradition-supplementary-treaty-35-ust-2501.pdf
The supplementary treaty between Sweden and U.S.

http://blog.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2012/06/25/the_brilliant_legal_calculus_behind_assanges_asylum_request
The legal calculus behind Assange's asylum request

And you also have this monster thread regarding this (in Swedish) with over 62000 comments!
https://www.flashback.org/t1275257
Wikileaks grundare Julian Assange eftersokt for valdtakt i Sverige

You're demonstrably wrong. The government has been sending paid trolls over the last couple years more than ever. Domestic propaganda was made legal again last year for the first time since the cold war. http://thecable.foreignpolicy....

Except it might... Ebola is one of the few diseases, like Anthrax, remains contagious after host death:

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/a...

Similarly, despite the media stating otherwise, it can be transmitted through the air:
http://www.nature.com/srep/201...

Thats interesting AC but recall the FBI infiltration program called Patcon (Patriot Conspiracy) around 1991?
The laws, funding, interest was always ready. This new more simple legal listing is just a new next step to gather more people onto new and existing databases.
Patriot Games
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/a...
If you want to go back further you had Project MINARET http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P...
i.e. "watch lists" of American citizens around 1967 and 1973.
No judicial oversight, no warrants for interception and even got some UK help too :)

> either the rockets are really crappy,

You hit the nail on the head. You just didn't realize it.
The vast majority of hamas's rockets are crap, locally manufactured with shit fuses.

But they are getting better. So far it is just a handful. But it is inevitable that they will get even more and even better models And when they start using them in earnest, that iron dome propaganda won't protect anyone.

This is a convenient story, but there is reason to believe that the russians had more to do with it than the nuclear bombs.

Hell, a potato gun qualifies as a WMD under US statute.
(block javascript to read that site)