On May 6, 2010, at 2:45pm the stock market plunged almost 1,000 points in a matter of seconds. It became known as the Flash Crash, and it spooked a lot of retail investors.

Back in 2013, in the aftermath of his murder of Americans Anwar al-Awlaki and his 16 year old son, when Mr. Obama was trying to justify his arrogated powers to incinerate people with his fleet of flying death robots, he made certain assertions about the process by which he and his merry minions selected victims [bolding mine]:

First, there must be a legal basis for using lethal force, whether it is against a senior operational leader of a terrorist organization or the forces that organization is using or intends to use to conduct terrorist attacks.

Second, the United States will use lethal force only against a target that poses a continuing, imminent threat to U.S. persons. It is simply not the case that
all terrorists pose a continuing, imminent threat to U.S. persons; if a terrorist does not pose such a threat, the United States will not use lethal force.

Third, the following criteria must be met before
lethal action may be taken:

1) Near certainty that the terrorist target is present;

2) Near certainty that non - combatants will not be injured or killed;

3) An assessment that capture is not feasible at the time of the operation;

4) An assessment that the relevant governmental authorities in the country where action is contemplated cannot or will not effectively address the threat to U.S.
persons; and

5)An assessment that no other reasonable alternatives exist to effectively address the threat to U.S. persons.

Do we live in a democracy? Most of you are probably aware of the Princeton study that concluded that we are closer to oligarchy than democracy.

Testing Theories of American Politics: Elites, Interest Groups, and Average Citizens

This evening's music features Texas blues guitarist Phillip Walker.

The Democrats in the House celebrated Earth Day by proposing a ban fracking on federal land. Texas Republicans celebrated the day by passing a bill to deny communities the ability to restrict fracking in their areas.

first posted at Wimpy Badger in 2009. I'll use this as a test for future diaries.

The world, which began in 1950, was a nice enough place, consisting of rugs, drapes and the undersides of chairs. Shortly after that windows were invented along with ways to get up high enough to look out of them.

Today is Saint George's Day, at least in England. He is probably best known for snuffing a dragon. As a child, I always heard and saw references to "Saint George and THE Dragon", leaving me to wonder if he slaughtered the last dragon, but I suspect that this is just a quirk of the English Language.

Good Morning, Everyone! What's on your minds today? This is an Open Thread and every thing you want to rant about is a okay. That includes hugs, kisses and an occasional (silent) middle finger towards your favorite political jerk.

I am your silly Thursday host. As I said yesterday, I can't come up with something that is to be taken seriously. So, bare with me, I have nothing new and am outta here to hit the road again in a minute.

Just one giggling question for today:

Why do Democratic politicians have to lie to stay in office?

Case in point. In an article published today at the Huffington Post, Sam Levine covers the president’s recent attack on Elizabeth Warren for criticizing the TPP. As Levine points out:

While Obama criticized Warren for being wrong on the facts of the deal, it's difficult to know exactly what the deal contains because his administration has deemed the negotiations to be classified.

The long 4-year civil war has had many ebbs and flows, but that can only go on for so long before one side collapses from exhaustion.
President Assad's time in power may be coming to an end.