There are statistics and there is life, which occurs to individuals. What is the impact of huge numbers on popular understanding? Does anyone comprehend what a billion dollars is? Well, it's 1000 million.
But who can grasp what 1000 million is when most people will never know what it feels like to have 1 million dollars? The scope is huge.
bipartisan, House-passed 2020 NDAA…that’s important, but what’s been removed.
According to Patrick Martin, wsws.org:
“The most important aspect of the legislation, besides the vast total sum authorized, was the stripping out of the bill of virtually every provision in the original House version that would have set limits on overseas military operations by the Trump administration.
The House-Senate conference removed a ban on US military support for the genocidal war by Saudi Arabia in Yemen, and a provision requiring that Trump obtain congressional approval before initiating any military operations against Iran.
Can't say I know much about the electoral process there, or can even offer a fair commentary of what to expect, or frame the situation for context.
Something to keep in mind…
Trump generally screws things up, makes them worse, or creates whole new problems.
But like a broken clock, on a rare occasion he gets it right, and we should acknowledge him when he does.
This is one of those times.
* The Horowitz Report's forgotten FISA applications: Carter Page's Role as U.S. Informant appears to have been withheld from an earlier set of Warrant Applications.
If you thought that the defense budget was completely out-of-control and couldn't get any worse, think again. The new, "totally bipartisan" defense bill is a perfect example of everything that is wrong with our political system.
The reasons are too numerous to count, so I'll just stick to the highlights.
There has to be a better name for this abomination than USMCA.
Everyone is for it, lotta smiles all round, bipartisanship.
Republicans gave here too. Instead of pharma being protected from generic competition in Mexico for 10 years they'll lose that monopoly, in Mexico. Of course we here will continue to pay the inflated outrageous prices. That must really sting. What a concession. Not.
If I was a cynical person, I'd say the Dems apparent decision to vote on two articles of impeachment of Trump (i.e.,his abuse of power in Ukraine in order to subvert democratic elections in the USA, and Obstruction of Congress) is purely a political gambit to keep media attention focused on the grand spectacle of a trial in the Senate rather than on the Democratic Party's primary. Actually, now that I think about it, I am that cynical.
Imagine for a moment that Trump, or Biden, or Mayor Pete saved someone's life.
The headlines would be screaming it. Their campaigns would be pushing the story hard.
It would make incredibly good PR.
...and then there is the Sanders campaign, which is like no other political campaign in my lifetime.
Remember this from late 2018?
The OIG report acknowledges, Carter Page was an “operational contact” from 2008-2013 for an unnamed US Government intelligence agency, and this was withheld from the FISA Court. What the Horowitz report fails to acknowledge, however, is had Page not been infiltrated into the Trump Campaign by his Agency handlers, there would have been no Steele Memo, and thus no probable cause for commencing FISA wiretapping or even an FBI investigation.
