We weren’t economically dependent on South Africa in the 1980s-90s. 

He’d have been thrown in jail for life, the mother martyred as a woman protecting her baby from a guy who refused to believe his son was sick and, quite possibly, no one would have ever really connected the dots that this was some form of abuse/that the kid wasn’t really ill (or as ill as his mother claims). Even now,…

Well, that is basically how China advances it’s own international interests - by economic threat rather than military threat. They’ve been doing this style of international relations for centuries and it’s very successful.

I doubt Ronald did since his brain was mush but I’m sure his handlers did!

The think I’m still not understanding is ... what recourse does the investigation have if they simply (as they have been doing for a few months now) simply refuse to show up or provide requested documents/information? As I understand it, Pelosi and co don’t have any mechanism to send the FBI or ... hell, Congresses’…

Kinda did, actually. Not fantastically, but better since the money you were paying into it wasn’t mainly intended to provide profit to shareholders and CEOs.

I don’t think most (somewhat reasonable) folks think it’s normal ... I think we’re all exhausted and somewhat discouraged. Every week there’s something so abjectly criminal/immoral/cruel/destructive/anti-American by folks claiming to be the true holders of patriotism that it discourages folks from actually caring…

No parole allowed in this case.  Whatever she’s sentenced is what she’ll serve (pending an assortment of things, including appeals).

It’s not the job of a minimum wage register jockey to play police.  The woman seemed to leave pretty immediately after her yelling fit and didn’t physically accost anyone.

I wonder, if he’s impeached, if they’ll remove him from the roster.  I’d kinda like that - similar to the way the Egyptians would chisel out the names of disliked former rulers to erase them from history.  I want us to remember how quickly our country fell apart but I want him, as a person, to be erased and forgotten.

I would guess it depends on the type of game their trying to make. Is it about how violence damages everyone who participates? Then graphic violence can be a way to talk about it.

They make a fair bit on the photos but I’m not honestly sure who gets (all/some) of that money. The convention circuits are weird, they evolved from fan run groups which were not profit focused to big business and the guests are a mix of actors/whomever on current shows doing promotional work (and so their travel and…

Not much, actually. While I’m sure they get paid for appearances, it’s also part of the advertising cycle so it’s not intended to be independently profitable.

That’s because a huge amount of adoptions of young kids from foreign countries are illegal child trafficing whereas in the US we sorta try to make sure the parents really don’t want their child before selling it to someone else.

Probably because you haven’t bothered to look. Taxi drivers in (most, all?) cities go through background checks, are required to apply and pay for a licence (which come with a variety of skills/requirements to fufill), there are numerous local laws (attempting) to reduce racial and other discrimination, in my city all…

Funnily enough, there was also an uptick in non-profitable things like public works efforts to end cholera as a fun summer diversion in cities all over the world, the vaccine movement to corral polio and many childhood diseases, the New Green Deal, public funding support for home ownership, college education,…

It’s almost like capitalism and anything don’t go well for most everyone. The entire point of capitalism is to concentrate wealth into a tiny fraction of the people who are actually creating it.

Also not sure if it’ll go back to her or to Kelly after the trial.  The courts don’t care where the money comes from, it’s for his bail.

Make sure they’re well done - only way to avoid prion diseases.

Thing is, historically speaking - they’re right. The rich tend to suffer last any destabilizing consequences.  There are very few ‘eat the rich revolutions’ in history (figuratively or literally).