Wideleft

Palast does most of his investigation on voter suppression now, but "The Best Democracy Money Can Buy" was an amazing and depressing read. Voter suppression is a huge problem in the States already and Kris Kobach and Trump are trying to make it even worse. http://www.gregpalast.com/trump-picks-al-capone-vote-rigging-investigate-federal-voter-fraud/

Leo Ezerins wore 72 for us.

I would argue that it starts at home.

Ukraine is not a member in NATO. The invasion of Crimea is at least partly due to ongoing discussions about joining. If Russia had waited until after Ukraine became a member, then the organization would have a duty to react and defend Ukraine.

Now that we've determined what "great" actually means, can you all please tell me of the other receivers - who are top-drawer and who are merely upper-echelon?

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/us-army-altered-khadr-report/article668919/ "In the report's first version, penned the day after the firefight and dated July 28, 2002, the commander identified in court as "Lt.-Clnl. W" says U.S. troops killed the person who attacked Sgt. Speer. Several months later, the report was rewritten to say U.S. troops "engaged" the person who attacked Sgt. Speer, implying the attacker was not killed." The implications for Mr. Khadr are significant. If the person who attacked Sgt. Speer was himself killed, it could not have been Mr. Khadr. He faces a murder charge in relation to the killing, and the possibility of a life sentence if convicted. Mr. Khadr's U.S. military lawyer, Lieutenant-Commander Bill Kuebler, revealed the previously secret information at the tribunal yesterday. The prosecution did not contest his account."

My guess is those are minor factors in comparison to the political capital gained by the Canadian Government in letting him rot there.

That Khadr was the person who actually killed him. I'm not saying he was totally innocent - but the US military reports of the incident did change over time.

That still has not been proven. Facts are important to this discussion.

That was the U.S. military's first mistake. They didn't. Speaking of laws that evolve - the US also made up a new law saying that soldiers could now be considered "terrorists" - whatever that means. Khadr was arrested, detained and convicted without the benefit of a lawyer or trial. Canada's mistake was failing to prevent them from doing so. As for him being a murderer - that simply hasn't been proven. Saying it more loudly or more angrily won't change that. This is an application of law. Take the facts of this case and remove Khadr from the equation and replace him with any Joe Shmoe. Then consider if what Canada did was ok. I'm not a lawyer, but if you can prevent emotion from affecting objectivity, this is pretty simple. The Supreme Court found in Khadr's favour. Fighting it would have resulted in a loss of time and probably more money.

Won't be everyone's cup of tea, but a really solid movie. It even made me like Ray Romano again.

This is why we have courts. This is about the law. If we let citizens pass sentence, then we'd be back to witch trials and lynch mobs. Sometimes a government should be given credit for doing the politically harmful thing because it is the just thing to do.

I'll defer to Romeo Dallaire on the subject of casualties of war every day of the week. https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/canada-failed-omar-khadr-compensation-and-an-apology-was-the-right-move/article35623662/

Except our kicker outplayed theirs. It is a team sport.

That's pretty much an example of outplaying them.

And nobody seems to realize what a risk American toddlers pose. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/mar/13/the-macabre-truth-of-gun-control-in-the-us-is-that-toddlers-kill-more-people-than-terrorists-do

To the richest of the rich, of course. That new swamp is full of greenbacks and I ain't talking walleye. https://www.usnews.com/news/politics/articles/2017-06-23/senate-gop-health-bill-tax-cuts-for-rich

While I'm on this thread, is anyone else watching Fargo season 3 or Better Call Saul? Those are 2 amazing series.

I went to a 60" Samsung 4K for my newly refurbished basement and it's plenty big (standard St. James bungalow). Keep in mind that there is not a lot of 4K content outside of Youtube right now, but it is coming. Also keep in mind that if you want to watch 4K Blu Ray, you need a true 4K blu ray player - not a 4K upconverting etc. Save the money on the bigger TV and spend it on a proper 4K blu ray player. Just my 2 cents.

Not when you consider how many mass shootings have already occurred in the U.S. this year. Today's shootings in #Alexandria & San Francisco bring the total # of mass shootings in 2017 to 195. -958 victims -675 injured -283 killed

My dealings with these people on social media is that their main motivation is spite. They have no real ideology other than making democrats/liberals angry. It doesn't matter if what they are saying has any facts to back them up as long as it gets a rise out of you and a "yahoo" from their friends. They amount to little more than the spiteful troll that they elected.

Trump wasn't elected until after they were. Desperate times call for desperate measures. Trump is that much of a threat to destabilizing the world.

Because Trump can no longer be trusted to defend NATO allies, the NATO commitments have to be accelerated. Of course we can't win a war against the U.S., but we can no longer trust their government either.

This is what happens when your neighbour to the south can no longer be trusted to act responsibly, cooperatively or sensibly.