TriGirl

Sounds like the "progress" of a dictator. The process is supposed to be slow -- at least not jarringly, whiplash-inducing fast. And whose personal gain are we talking about again? It would be entertaining if it weren't real. It's embarrassing and damaging. To paraphrase George Will, we need to educate voters that the presidency cannot be treated like an entry-level government position. These actions have consequences that the inexperienced cannot fathom. See the upside, and always wear your parachute! -- Christopher Titus Shut Up & Jump!

Problem there is then you get no benefit from the system when the car is not plugged in or the A/C is not running - so payback times get much longer. Except that in Florida, the A/C is almost always running! Whether it's the full compressor, just the fan, or dehumidifier, some part of it is always turning. Agreed, save two issues: 1 -- Florida does not have this (at least, not last time I checked. Would be pleased to hear if that has changed), and 2 -- As I understand it, Germany is having a big problem with this. Just about everyone puts into the common grid all day, but then everyone needs to pull energy at night. The daytime input is more than they need, so they don't keep the generators running (or can't keep them running at a certain level). When there are storms, or not enough daylight, or at night (esp consider winter), they have to kick up the generation of power, which costs more to kick up than to keep within an average margin* *[disclaimer: layman's basic explanation -- I'm sure I don't have the specifics just right. Also perfectly willing to change my opinion if someone with more expertise chimes in.] ETA -- really looking forward to the day we figure out how to store large amounts of the electricity generated by renewable energy like solar and wind. See the upside, and always wear your parachute! -- Christopher Titus Shut Up & Jump!

That's presuming the current source of electricity remains the same over the same time frame, though. That is still an unknown. And, of course, the investment is also an investment in the industry. I agree that each homeowner should look at their own financial situation to determine when to convert (e.g., costs of installation and purchase will likely go down as the technology continues to develop), but I also like showing support to industry with my dollars when I can. Now, if I could just get a solar power system on my house that works only to the plug charging an electric car, or only on the A/C unit (which draws the most power when the sun is out anyway), then that would be a really nice compromise to take the edge off the power requirements of my home in Florida. See the upside, and always wear your parachute! -- Christopher Titus Shut Up & Jump!

Other than Flynn discussing the option of kidnapping him of course. On the balance, the official response is not to entertain the demand. See the upside, and always wear your parachute! -- Christopher Titus Shut Up & Jump!

The Turkish security thugs are absolutely used to that sort of thing. And this is their usual response. See the upside, and always wear your parachute! -- Christopher Titus Shut Up & Jump!

But the entire delegation could have been here under diplomatic visas. Usually, the most that can be done to someone in that case (esp if they claim they were reacting to a threat to their principle) is to proclaim them personna non grata (sp?) and expel them from the country. The "might not have immunity" would be if they were here under some other type of visa (official, etc). But a diplomatic visa = diplomatic immunity. Erdogan may decide to turn them over if Turkey is presented with arrest warrants and/or extradition requests (if they have left the country), but considering the fact that Erdogan has been asking the US government for several years to revoke the privilege enjoyed by Fettulah Gulen, and we've refused, I seriously doubt he'll decide to set the example by turning over his security team. I doubt the guys doing the assault were "local hires." Some may be permanently assigned to the embassy here, but again, they'll be here under a diplomatic visa. See the upside, and always wear your parachute! -- Christopher Titus Shut Up & Jump!

My biggest fear is he will start a war over a Twitter insult or in-person slight. He has already shown himself to be very sensitive to personal comments. Another case in point to his lack of awareness of his position: has anyone seen his comments to the graduates of the Coast Guard Academy? Instead of addressing the graduates with motivating words of inspiration, or assuring them their choice to serve the nation will be honored or appreciated, he went off about how unfairly he's been treated and how great he is. He treated it like a political rally. See the upside, and always wear your parachute! -- Christopher Titus Shut Up & Jump!

I've been watching the news channels. All of them, including CNN, MSNBC and Fox, have had several Republican members of congress and other experts (law professors, former appointees of both flavor of administration, etc). About the only thing I hear consistently (and I hear it from both sides) is "let's let an independent investigation validate the claims," and clarification of context. No one has been "but, but... OBAMA/CLINTON!" I've been impressed by the professionalism generally from both sides of the isle. One thing I really liked was George Will yesterday saying that when we treat the presidency as an entry-level government position, these are the types of mistakes we get. See the upside, and always wear your parachute! -- Christopher Titus Shut Up & Jump!

In all seriousness, if we had done this at our embassy in Turkey, we would have had problems with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The host nation is responsible for the outside security of the foreign missions, and for the security of official visitors. The delegation is going to be here under a diplomatic status. If a demarche was not issued to the Turkish delegation, the State Department should be explaining why. See the upside, and always wear your parachute! -- Christopher Titus Shut Up & Jump!

For the most part, that is true for information the US has gathered on its own. This was foreign intelligence -- information that was not his to share. Mishandling of someone else's intel is much more serious than being careless with our own. The first questionable action, though, was that POTUS met with a foreign minister and ambassador. About the only reason the president should be meeting with an ambassador is in the event of a time-sensitive emergency, or of course upon accepting the ambassador's credentials. Otherwise, that's like a commanding general of a large military command (think Gen Mattis when he was at CENTCOM) taking a run-of-the-mill meeting with a liaison officer to talk about everyday coordination issues. It is just inappropriate and counter productive within the structure of an organization. This is just the latest example added to the long list supporting the assertion that Mr. Trump is wholly unqualified for this position. See the upside, and always wear your parachute! -- Christopher Titus Shut Up & Jump!

That tells me that they had started beverage service, and were not going to move the cart right away, likely asking her to wait until they had gotten past her. If they were "allowing" other passengers to get up, but not her, then only something physically blocking her in her seat would have prevented her from just getting up. If they then handed her a cup when she made the comment (get up or pee in a cup), then a cup was readily at hand. See the upside, and always wear your parachute! -- Christopher Titus Shut Up & Jump!

That's just odd to me. Any time I've had an emergency of that sort while the seat belt light is still illuminated, the flight attendants have just told me that I would accept my own risk if I got up. It wasn't on take-off or landing -- just if the seat belt light were on for turbulence. See the upside, and always wear your parachute! -- Christopher Titus Shut Up & Jump!

Someone said on CNN again the other day that Mr. Trump got into the campaign to win, not to be president. I recall similar sentiments expressed during the campaign -- mostly followed by wishful thinking that he would drop out before the election if faced by an actual chance of getting elected (or before getting a nomination, so he could throw his support behind another, more qualified candidate). Of course, once he got swept up in the ego whirlwind, there really was no turning back for him. See the upside, and always wear your parachute! -- Christopher Titus Shut Up & Jump!

I'm absolutely disgusted by some of the comments on the website. A criminal is a criminal -- she was convicted and she'll be sentenced. But the racism and other generalizations thrown around in so many of those comments posted is incredibly discouraging. See the upside, and always wear your parachute! -- Christopher Titus Shut Up & Jump!

I saw on HLN this morning that the WH put out a list of the president's accomplishments during this period. It contains a lot of creative definitions! They also played a recording of him from early 2016 criticizing then-POTUS over the use of the executive order, saying that no, you're supposed to work together with the other elected politicians to find a deal. Yeah, I know this has been played before, but the part I love about that particular quote is that he wraps it up by saying the former president would rather just sign an EO so he could go golfing. See the upside, and always wear your parachute! -- Christopher Titus Shut Up & Jump!

Nah... it was already mentioned in another thread there! Here is where we can make all the funny comments, celebrating the irony. :) See the upside, and always wear your parachute! -- Christopher Titus Shut Up & Jump!

Only just barely (in the neighborhood of 115k votes difference). I heard an interesting report after the election regarding Florida voting patterns. It added up all the votes for the D candidates versus all the votes for the R candidates over the past 10 or so presidential elections. The actual number of votes for D candidates was actually far and away much higher than for R candidates -- yet the number of elections the R got the state's electoral votes was something like 7 or 8 (I'm sure I'm not remembering the details correctly, but these are the salient points). Seriously, something has to change in our system. See the upside, and always wear your parachute! -- Christopher Titus Shut Up & Jump!

I don't have time to cut/paste etc. all the quotes I want to address (including those other posters whose positions I'm about to support). So I'll try to be clear: 1 -- IIRC, the violence that resulted from Milo Y's scheduled appearance was determined not to be committed by students, but by citizens from outside the school. The students did demonstrate, and I'll submit that it's possible some eventually participated in some of excessive actions once the vandalism began, but for the most part, the school determined the students were not the catalyst for the destruction. 2 -- If Ms. Coulter was invited by a student group to present ideas at the school, then she was being invited (and provided a campus forum) to speak to STUDENTS, and those associated with the university (professors, advisors, etc). Therefore, the school actually is doing the right thing by scheduling her appearance when the students are most likely to be on campus. Sure, classes are likely scheduled during that time block, but university isn't secondary school, where everyone has to be in a class from 7:30 am to 3:30 pm. Students who want to attend have a much better opportunity if the event is held during a weekday. 3 -- Combining both points, scheduling the event during the school day also limits the opportunity from outside actors to elevate any demonstrations to the aggressive vandalism of the previously referenced event. So, if you want all opinions to touch these students' minds, so a thoughtful exchange of these ideas can help them form well-rounded minds, then UC Berkeley is doing the right thing: continuing to offer Ms. Coulter the opportunity to address students and faculty as intended by the group that invited her; schedule her appearance at a time conducive to that audience; and limit the opportunity destructive influences to hijack that opportunity. PS -- as for the baker and the wedding: they weren't asking the baker to SPONSOR the wedding and ENDORSE the event. They just wanted to buy a cake. If I want to buy a cake and use it to poison rats around my apartment complex, the baker can't decide he disagrees with my cruel treatment of animals and refuse to sell me the cake because it violates his code of conduct. See the upside, and always wear your parachute! -- Christopher Titus Shut Up & Jump!

I don't see where the university says she was "banned," but she seems to think that is the case. They simply cancelled her appearance. ETA -- though she seemed to have a problem with the school scheduling her presentation so it was clearly for students. Um... isn't that who guest speakers are supposedly speaking to? How is it that she gets invited to speak at a university, then gets upset that another audience might not be able to attend? See the upside, and always wear your parachute! -- Christopher Titus Shut Up & Jump!

Not if you still think Plame was outed.... Like I said, obvious you haven't worked in intelligence or you would know better. See the upside, and always wear your parachute! -- Christopher Titus Shut Up & Jump!

Oh, I didn't realize you also work in Intelligence. Though it doesn't seem you do, or have, as you have no idea what you're talking about. I gave you (unclassified) information that, wait, ended up being explained publicly by other intelligence professionals the very next day. Seems I might have some credibility here. See the upside, and always wear your parachute! -- Christopher Titus Shut Up & Jump!

(according to the report you provided and others on network news): She didn't order that all intel reporting from there on out reveal the names of the US citizens referenced in the reports. She read some reporting that concerned her, where questionable conversations were reported between a known foreign intel operator and U.S. citizens. As the NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISOR, she wanted to know whether the conversations meant a real threat to our systems, or were with some poser who couldn't give the operator anything (I'm guessing at what was in the reports based on what has been released). The way to do that was to get the identities of the US persons involved in the conversation. She had absolutely every right to ask for their identities in this context and in her position. If she exposed their identities to others outside the special group that had need-to-know, then we can talk about "charges" or other penalties. And I'm fine with that being investigated. However, let's just contrast this situation to Valerie Plame's unmasking. See any difference here? See the upside, and always wear your parachute! -- Christopher Titus Shut Up & Jump!

So, you're saying the (due) process worked? See the upside, and always wear your parachute! -- Christopher Titus Shut Up & Jump!

And begins with the assumption that she will do something like this. Looks like he prefers to see the deck already stacked against any woman with whom he interacts. Guilty until proven innocent, indeed. See the upside, and always wear your parachute! -- Christopher Titus Shut Up & Jump!

I was stationed on Okinawa for two years. Was out on a boat dive one weekend, and learned the four American ladies out with us were all English teachers on mainland, and had come down for a long weekend holiday. They were ecstatic when I took them on base and shopped with them at the exchange (yeah, I know, not allowed -- but they didn't go nuts, and only picked up a couple magazines and a bag or two of candy for their students). They didn't realize all the "Americana" they were missing until they got on base. Bottom line -- they loved what they did. But yes, there are other options. The U.S. has a large military footprint both on mainland and Okinawa, and they employ a lot of civilians (Japanese and American). They also employ a lot of civilian teachers at the DoD schools. See the upside, and always wear your parachute! -- Christopher Titus Shut Up & Jump!