Credo

Why on God's green earth would he comply? Those in the Trump administration don't even respond to a subpoena in their own country. I am pretty sure they would consider Spain's request to be a joke.

Having spent considerable time in the Phoenix area, I can tell you it is a dangerous place. It is also a well-armed area. Listening to the morning news, it's usually a litany of various shootings. On the plus side, it's pretty easy to avoid the drug and alcohol fueled parties where many shootings occur. The ones that scare me are the road rage shootings. It's pretty easy to be driving at a good clip and have someone decide you're not driving fast enough.

If Depp really wants to get even with her, he should give the opportunity to write a full Op-Ed opinion retracting her allegations. In return, her debt is forgiven. At that point we can determine which means more to her, money or integrity. By the way, who got the two dogs they snuck into Australia?

He's not a hypocrite? After the Parkland school shooting, this is what he said: ‘Take the guns first. Go through due process second, I like taking the guns early,’ Here's the full quote: “Or, Mike, take the firearms first and then go to court, because that’s another system. Because a lot of times, by the time you go to court, it takes so long to go to court, to get the due process procedures. I like taking the guns early. Like in this crazy man’s case that just took place in Florida, he had a lot of firearms – they saw everything – to go to court would have taken a long time, so you could do exactly what you’re saying, but take the guns first, go through due process second.” https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/factcheck/2021/10/14/fact-check-trump-made-comment-taking-guns-without-due-process/6070319001/

What is wanted is for the killing of huge numbers of people, especially children. Unfortunately, it appears that to do that requires limits on your freedom to own a weapon of war. So be it.

The town is located very near the Mexican border and from all appearances the majority of the town is Hispanic. Most of the names are Hispanic and most of the children appear to have been Hispanic. There were a couple of kids killed that appeared not to be Hispanic either by name or appearance. The shooter was obviously Hispanic. The police force appears to be mixed with both White and Hispanic and a lot of the Border Patrol agents are of Hispanic background as they need people who can speak Spanish. I don't think there is anyway of putting a racial edge on this. The commander who kept them from going in is also Hispanic. i think the community is around 80% Hispanic or Latino.

Funny how that turned completely around, isn't it?

The police are trained in what is called Rapid Deployment and try to engage the shooter as soon as possible. They are also trained to do that from the very beginning and to NOT wait for reinforcements. I think standing around waiting for someone to bring a key to the room doesn't quite fit standard procedure and protocol. It must be true terror to watch the police doing nothing while hearing gunfire that is killing children.

Given the amount of time the police were mulling around, they could have watched "Gone with the Wind." Law enforcement is going to have to do a lot of spinning to ever explain why they stood around for an hour while children are being shot. I can only imagine the horror those parents endured and it is 2nd only to the trauma endured by those children.

The mantra about guns not killing people, it's people killing people will be trotted out and repeated ad nauseam. Those little jingle may sound nice but it is completely wrong. They will (actually already have) started defending guns. The guns used in this shooting is a weapon of war. It has one purpose and that is to kill large numbers of people. You don't use it for hunting game, it's used for hunting and killing people in large numbers. It has no other purpose.

I think for a lot of people they would start taking the pills to dull the pain, discomfort and general fear. I also suspect his main goal when he was released was to get out of the country and back to someplace he considered safe. I've never met anyone who described rape as enjoyable.

I believe they are. I was listening to a news report on supply-chain issues and the reporter was saying that a number of companies are looking at having products made in more countries in different areas to try to prevent this type of problem. I know that chip manufacturing is returning to the US. There is a very large facility being built in the SW US. Years ago, I knew a lot of people who working in chip plants in the US but those plants were all closed and the jobs went overseas. Manufacturing that still has some production in the home country can ramp up or expand. Manufacturing that has completely shut down is hard to reconstitute. Part of the more serious problem is the interconnected relationship of modern products. Everything from the very basic raw materials may come from overseas. I don't think there is a really effective way of dealing with all this other than to ramp up our surveillance of pathogens that are likely to cause pandemics. Our manufacturing simply has so many very complex parts coming from all over the world.

Well, looking at the picture, it seems he has a grip on more than just the spray can.

I don't have a strong opinion, but I think it would be best for individual sports to decide who should be included. Some sports seem to be able to accommodate either women or men pretty close to equally.

Unfortunately, their economy and many of their products are essential for the economic growth and stability of other countries.

Lockdowns work but there is a horrific cost to them. It's not just economies that suffer, it's the effects on people. We are, by nature, a social species and we do not do well in isolation. I would tend to think that by this stage of the pandemic we have enough information to better target mitigation efforts than massive lockdowns. With vaccines and antivirals most people are not going to get seriously ill. It's important to contain the spread, but targeting specific places and masking and social distancing are probably effective enough to prevent lockdowns.

One thing about psychopaths is that they generally appear socially as good, interesting people. Stone says The Putin I knew was rational, calm, always acting in the best interest of the Russian people. I suspect it might be a case of being cold, calculating and manipulative.

I am impressed, you're going all liberal and woke on this issue. Of course, it's wrong. Of course, it's illegal. Of course, there are repercussions from false reports of any kind and there is damage, but victims? Not really.

I believe that Russian speakers in Donbas are given Russian citizenship. I know that many were evacuated out of the fighting to Russia.

If people want to live in Russia, then move to Russia. They are living in Ukraine.

Putin only to wait until Trump's 2nd term and Ukraine would be his for the asking. Trump intended to withdraw from both NATO and the South Korean Alliance, giving both Putin and Kim unfettered access to their targets. I suspect his meeting alone with Putin covered this, but have nothing to substantiate it. Without the US in NATO, it would be a rather toothless tiger in the eyes of Putin and Trump, who had been impeached for withholding military aide to Ukraine, was clearly not interested in protecting Ukraine in any way. Trump was planning to withdraw US from Nato and ditch South Korea alliance https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/trump-nato-south-korea-book-b1883457.html

Well, there was a president after Obama who did even less. It's pretty hard to compete when you have a powerful neighbor right next door. It's always a wise idea to stay on their good side.

I suspect some statements can't really be walked back. This is one of them. I think Biden meant exactly what he said. The logistics of regime change would require a much, much more active involvement by the US. But if anyone comes along who can cause regime change, I have a feeling they will get all the support they need from the US.

The UK and the parts of the EU were a little more tolerant, however, there were restrictions. If you suspected you had HIV and had sex without a condom, jail time was on the table. Spitting at or on someone along with a few other acts involving bodily fluids like blood could put you in jail. Asylum seekers were denied on the basis of their HIV status. The restrictions on immigration to the US for HIV infected people was not lifted until 2010. 13 countries still do not allow entry of anyone with HIV and/or deport anyone found infected. The point isn't to discuss HIV, but to show the level of control that gov'ts can and do exercise in the area of Public Health. The rather extreme measures taken with HIV were to protect everyone. The same is true of Covid. The comparison between the two infectious diseases is only relevant to a discussion on the mitigating regulations to control the spread, not to the diseases directly.

I don't want to belabor the point nor derail the topic, but I do believe that your country most certainly did have restrictions, as a matter of fact, they were one of a handful of countries who continued (at least until 2021) to have travl restrictions on HIV+ individuals. UNAIDS welcomes New Zealand’s decision to lift travel restrictions for people living with HIV https://www.unaids.org/en/resources/presscentre/pressreleaseandstatementarchive/2021/october/new-zealand-lift-travel-restrictions-hiv But my point is that governments have and do have the power to take rather drastic action when there is a pandemic/epidemic/public health emergency. It's interesting that people seem to object to a vaccine and mask mandate, but have no problem in placing onerous and restrictive conditions (and jail time for those who disobey) and others.