For putting the various actors along the timeline leading up to the hit on suleimani, and set against the backdrop of Pompeo’s kooky rapture zealotry.

Am fortunate that I lucked into getting a liberal education. I chose a long time ago to be secular, as I saw/learned of the abuses and cruelties that some Christians, etc. have perpetrated over the course of history. I will never understand how so many people could think that breaking the Ten Commandments will somehow give them a shortcut to heaven.

I am intrigued by the title, and suspect it will be right up my alley. Will get in on the Kickstarter.

Thank you for slogging through the mess of it all - I laugh, sigh, and catch things I may have missed when reading your work.

Thank you, Icy - I’ve bookmarked it. I was just going back over the turnover in the military leadership in recent months. Am glad you brought up that and other pointers.

The evening before the new year, that is - I didn’t have time to process.

I find the language of the op dangerous. I’m glad you posted it.

I’ll have thoughts on this, later. Am journaling.

Had a great time with friends, and I’m grateful for it.

I’m excited to write the digits, 2020*. Am glad to have had a mostly good set of holiday weeks (I never really know what to expect).

And! I’m thrilled to be freed up to comment more easily to my favorite website of all my time on the web: DU

Let’s rock 2020.

*Are some good looking numbers.

Am journaling to read again tomorrow.

By voting present for the final vote. She also voted against advancing kavanaugh to the senate floor for confirmation. It was the best decision for her state’s interest as Alaska has unique challenges, and should be commended for her independence in thought and principles from her party whipped into line with the tRump cult.

I don’t see much benefit in flattening her record on this, as yet again, voting for what’s best for her state that is geographically close to Russia is a set of decisions unlike that of her, um, southern colleagues. She doesn’t have the luxury of the political insurance that comes from a sweetheart deal for a russian aluminum plant or cushy federal construction contracts like Moscow Mitch ensconced within the boundaries of the lower 48, etc.

I say her party should think pretty hard about her arguments and position, and I hope others follow her lead for doing what’s best for their constituents and the entire Country.

Source: Washington Post

Schumer holds news conference after release of House report on impeachment articles
December 16, 2019 | 12:55 PM EDT

Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) holds a news conference after pressing to subpoena several senior Trump administration officials including White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney and former national security adviser John Bolton who did not testify in the House’s impeachment probe as witnesses for the president's expected trial next month in the Senate.

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/video/national/schumer-holds-news-conference-after-calling-for-more-witnesses-in-senate-trial/2019/12/16/56e5ee95-4b1e-488f-b92d-1dd153bbc891_live.html

Am not a constitutional lawyer, so there’s that, but I like the idea. Whether it’s their testimony or some other blocked witnesses/materials.

Green jobs: give them something to look to, and to work hard for - something real. This as opposed to being asked to keeping running on a coal/fossil fuel hamster wheel of waste, like my Gen X peers and I were expected to do. Yes, we had the dot com and computing revolution, but pulling away from cruel, arcane ideologies has not been easy or well timed (lemme point a finger at zuckerberg & fb) for the skill sets the younger folks have in abundance. They have good, technical and digital intuition, and their hard work is valuable for its time and life-saving potential.

Legalization of marijuana: The war on drugs hasn’t legislated away human nature, rather has only strengthened cartels and their black market profits. We need to get real about how dopamine pathways work and other human biochemical reward systems, because even drunken drivers draining ‘The Swamp’ fiddle with them. Stop disrupting people’s lives by demonizing them with false calls for morality, and needless trips to court/jail for a substance that isn’t as harmful as alcohol.

The irony of those old egg-cracking PSAs from the 80s comes to mind for all the worthless help they did other than make me hungry. Would have been better if they’d had some random dude hose a pile of cotton candy, while saying, “Stay off drugs, kids, if you don’t want to hose your ability to feel joy without dragging eight tons of cotton candy thru life. Just leave your dopamine pathways alone!”

(Editing to add - fuck a bunch of karl rove and his ilk. This is just common sense stuff.)