wolfriverjoe

We really need a 'sarcasm' font on here.

One of the reasons Trump is going to withdraw from the INF is because Putin told him to. There's also the fact that Trump has made it quite clear that he doesn't give a shit about anything outside the US borders. The INF was mostly to protect Europe from shorter range nukes, primarily 'cruise missiles'. Those don't represent any significant threat to the US mainland (threatened by ICBMs & SSBMs). Russia has been accused of being in violation of this agreement for a long time. The threat they see, where they need these sorts of weapons isn't the US or Europe, it's China. And China was not a participant in the INF. So Russia wants to have these weapons, but doesn't want to be the one who withdrew from the treaty. So Putin tells Trump to withdraw from the treaty, Russia gets to have these weapons and can blame the US for the failure of the agreement.

Well, based on what he wrote, if you choose to use it, I would think you would owe him the $300 for "other time, minimum billable time is 1 hour." Considering that you read the e-mail one day (1 hour) and then replied to it another day (1 more hour), then the ambulance chasers would owe you $600. So paying Mark $300 for his time composing the response wouldn't be too big of a burden.

On a more serious note, he has yet to apologize for forcing kids to go through his 'therapy'. Which has been outlawed for juveniles in several states. For good reason.

Pfft. I don't need a pic to know she has cute toes. I can tell by her smile. And, for the record, penguins are Antarctic critters. Promise may be low on Polar Bear power, but cannot, in any way be low on 'penguin power.' Wrong end of the earth.

Seriously? As noted above, the campaign "promise" was to "Build a Wall" (pause, put hand to ear, wait for the crowd to shout) "And Make Mexico Pay For It!!!" Only morons actually believed that. He had 2 years to get his 'wall money' passed. Through a R controlled House & Senate. Why didn't he do it then? Why wasn't it an emergency then? What changed after the election, when the Ds took control of the House that it suddenly became an emergency?

She's got cute toes. I'm willing to make special accommodations for that.

True to a certain degree. There's a certain amount of 'smoke' around HRC. Some of it was pure 'opponent generated', some was actual, real issues. The Rose Law firm, commodities speculation, travel office, 'vast right wing conspiracy' claims towards the beginning of the Lewinsky crap. She's no saint. Some of that was worth investigating and was. Similarly, many of Trumps shenanigans need to be investigated. And are being. I'm not rushing to judgement, but the continuing saga of indictments and guilty pleas are hard to dismiss. Which is what the Trumpettes are doing. I fully agree that the investigation needs to finish. Which is what Trump and his supporters do NOT want to see.

That's true. But when more than half of the respondents to a poll believe something, it's telling. Dan Rather on FB (I don't know how to make it a 'quote' with the shading): "Innocent until proven guilty. That is the bedrock of American jurisprudence and that standard must apply to the President. But that doesn't mean that those who have not yet been convicted cannot provoke strong suspicions of guilt. That's what drives law enforcement to investigate, when there's a lot of smoke, there's usually a fire. News of the Roger Stone indictment raises the number of close associates, very close associates, to the President who have either been indicted or pled guilty to a staggering number. No one can let themselves become inured to this. There can be no outrage fatigue. Our only historical measuring stick is Watergate. But even that stain on American history did not have the specter of foreign interference from a hostile power like this one. As the walls tighten around President Trump, his reaction in Tweet and tone resembles a mob boss. But with the President, his threats and talk of "rats" are there in the open. Many seasoned prosecutors say these actions clearly pass the bar of witness tampering. For many people, the credibility of President Trump claiming he didn't know or do anything wrong has long since been shattered. This latest news makes any such assertions even harder to take." There's a lot of 'smoke' going on here. It's only the true "Trumpettes" that refuse to see that something shady is going on.

Yup, I found it a couple seconds after I made the post (duh).

Is there a 'report post' button anywhere? I don't see it, but I may be missing it somewhere. There's a new thread in G&R about an "Afripacker", which seems to be spam for a poly bag filler/sealer machine. I wanted to 'report' it, but can't see any button to do that. Edit to add: Nevermind. I found it. Its hidden until it's 'hovered' over. Upper right of the individual post, just left of the 'share' icon.

Well, it wasn't Obama shutting the government down. It was the Republican Senate. They kept refusing to pass spending bills because... They didn't want to raise the debt ceiling. Or spend extra money. Remember the "Super Committee" that was going to sort out the budget and 'make hard decisions'?

The highlighting to show what's quoted and what's posted is nice. Much more readable. The 'auto double spacing' went away. I have doubled paragraphs forever. It takes away the 'wall of text that makes some posts very difficult to read. I prefer it this way, I can take a new sentence to the next line without double space, and still manually double for paragraphs. You folks are making progress. Rome wasn't burned in a day.

Well, after all of the 'anonymous source' stories that have come out, eventually one has to turn out to be incorrect. Although, BuzzFeed is standing by their story. And does this mean that you will accept what Mueller's report says as fact? Or is that only for things that match your agenda?

Well, those 'inalienable rights' can be made illegal. It's just that they shouldn't be. One example is free speech. Our 1st A is supposed to guarantee it. But, early in our country's history, the government passed the "Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798." Which clearly violated the 1st A. While never taken to the Supreme Court, they were one reason that Jefferson won the presidency in 1800. Wiki: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alien_and_Sedition_Acts The idea that Jefferson, Madison and the rest had was that these rights are "God Given". And that for the government to outlaw those rights is wrong. Not that it isn't done. The idea that King George was infringing on those 'inalienable rights' was part of the reason for the American Revolution. And the "Miranda Rights" that the cops are supposed to read before any questions are asked are just that. Rights. They've always existed, mainly 5th A against self incrimination. The reason the SC decided that the cops have to read them to you is because less educated (poor and minority) people are less likely to know what their rights are and aren't. So wealthy, educated people know to tell the cops "I don't want to say anything until my lawyer is present." While poor and uneducated folks are more likely to succumb to the techniques (lies and intimidation) that cops use in interrogation. The courts have found that for a person to lie to the cops is a crime. For the cops to lie to a suspect is just good technique.

I'm not 100% sure I understand what you are asking. But... Blue dots appear in front of all the posts I haven't read since the change over. It seems like blue stars appear in threads I have commented in. If I click on a thread that I have NOT read since the change over, it takes me to the first post. If I click on a thread I HAVE read since the change over, it takes me to the first post I haven't seen.

Magnifying glass, right side of top bar.

To be a bit pedantic, any 'right' that is granted (and controlled, subject to revocation) by the government isn't really a right. It's a privilege. For example, courts have found that there is a right to travel. With certain limitations, the government can't stop me from going to, say, Chicago. However, driving is a privilege. The government grants me the ability to drive myself. And can take that away. I would still have the right to go to Chicago, but I might have to take a bus. Or walk.

Funny. (or maybe not) My sigline disappeared, I had to figure out where it was (little arrow next to my profile pic on top bar brings up a drop down menu, account settings is near the bottom of that) and re-enter it. My profile pic stayed. Edit to add: I'm also just noticing the automatic double spacing. If I type a long, single line, it single spaces. If I hit enter, it double spaces automatically. If I double space, it doubles that. I've been in the habit of double spacing, due to the 'wall of text' that would appear if I didn't in the past. That's going to be a hard habit to break.

Treason is going to be tough to get a conviction on. I've noted this before. It's clearly and specifically defined in the Constitution. It uses words that include "enemy" and "in times of war". Since we aren't at war with Russia; and while they are certainly and adversary, and a hostile one at that, they aren't really classifiable as an 'enemy', treason really couldn't be used. Even John Lindh (the "American Taliban") wasn't charged with treason. One reason being that if he had been, then the conflict in Afghanistan would need to be called a 'war' and then Geneva Conventions would have had to be applied to all of the 'enemy combatants'. They would have had to be called "Prisoners of War" and the US didn't want to do that. Just out of curiosity, does anyone know if the 'bribery' part of the impeachment clause mean taking bribes? Or paying them? Because there's some pretty strong indication that Trump paid bribes to a couple of state's Attorneys General to make the Trump U 'problem' go away, and more that the NYC DA was paid off to make real estate fraud charges go away for Ivanka and one of the sons.

It seems like it only happens with threads you haven't looked at since the change. For stuff I've looked at since the change, the blue dot takes me to the latest post. It would be really nice to see a 'this is how stuff works now' sort of user guide. I've learned that I can see people's profile info by hovering over their avatar pic. Also that the little down arrow next to my profile in the upper bar give me access to stuff like my classifieds (if I had any) and account settings (like siglines). I had to re-enter my sigline, since it seemed to have disappeared. It's a learning process. A bit frustrating, but that's part of change.

It seems like everything I read before the change over is now 'forgotten'. Clicking on the blue dot goes to the first post in the thread. The only 'go to latest post' that work correctly are the ones that I've read since the change.

Facts? He doesn't care about those. And, in addition to the clear motives behind the actions, there's a new report that DHS doesn't know how many children were taken from their parents. The real number may be 'thousands higher' than the reported 2737. The real number is not and may never be known. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/17/us/family-separation-trump-administration-migrants.html

Ok, the sigline issue is fixed, there's a line at the bottom of each post separating the siglines. The format issue is older posts. I think that the old 'in reply to' box doesn't appear any more. So when someone did that (the [reply] thing to make it clear what someone was responding to), it used to appear in a box. That box is now gone. There are a few of those on page 19 of the 'global warming' thread in SC. Apparently, the old reply box is now just 4 dashes between the 'replied' text and the posted text. Also, I just noticed the individual post numbers are not there. So I can't say 'go to post 452 to see what I mean'. Again, this is pretty minor stuff. Getting used to any new format is always a process. Overall I think it's an improvement.

I made a post on this a few minutes ago in the "error & feedback" forum. I like it. Mostly. The posts are formatting weird, though. "Quotes" and "XXX posted" doesn't seem right. Siglines aren't segregated from the body of the post. The "poster info" for each post is different too. No jump numbers, year in sport, location, that sort of stuff. And what is the 'total reputation' thing? Overall, it's a nice improvement. But it will take some getting used to. Just like any change.