Government funded research is generally basic science. That is a nice way of saying that it has no immediate practical application, but it is a necessary stepping stone to the development of new products. However, basic science must be shared with other scientists before it becomes useful. This means that companies have little incentive to do it themselves, because in order to benefit from it they must give it away thus losing whatever competitive advantage the research brought them.
Oh, well that’s a relief! Nothing to worry about everyone, it’s not a NEW war!
I really don’t understand how Bolton has made it this far without getting killed by another Bhaalspawn.
No one wants anything to do with that mustache.
The…best…people.
Jesus H., we are one final WH dismissal away from literally turning the country over completely to the people who exude idiocy and insanity from every pore. The final straw will be Trump firing Mattis and replacing him with Alex Jones or Hannity. Mueller needs to do something, and fast. Impeachment is going to mean nothing when we’re already at war with NK and China and our allies have all abandoned us to our fate.
That’s what the SBIR program is for.
Mueller can’t bail us out of this one.
Legal experts are split on whether a sitting President can be charged with crimes by a prosecutor (as opposed to impeached by Congress) while the President is in office at all. It would take multiple Supreme Court decisions in Mueller’s favor for Mueller to be able to charge, try, and throw Trump in jail while he’s still President. By the time all that grinds through the courts, Trump and Bolton will have already done any damage they’re going to do.
(If Mueller can find crimes Trump committed before taking his oath of office that can still be charged after Trump leaves office, it’s pretty much clear sailing for Mueller; Trump isn’t protected for that. But that involves waiting until 2021.)
The only realistic ways to get Trump out of office before 2021 involve Trump resigning (and he’s too stubborn to, even though he plainly hates the job), being impeached by Congress, or being booted out by Pence/the Cabinet/Congress via the 25th Amendment. Given Congress has shown itself completely unwilling to hold Trump accountable, there’s no realistic hope of action against him even starting until a new, more anti-Trump Congress is elected and then sworn in in January 2019. Which is one reason Mueller has been taking his time - there’s little point in indicting Trump with the current Congress.
TL:DR We are fucked. My over/under bet is one nuclear bomb will be denotated somewhere in the world during Trump’s term. Any takers on the under?
Over.
I have for the last several years told people that at some point before I die (I am in no hurry by the way) somebody someplace will detonate a nuke. I just never thought it might be an American nuke.
[Insert “This is fine.” GIF]
For years Liberals have been asking Conservatives to make personal sacrifices to elevate the poor, refugees, minorities, etc.
Now is the chance for Liberals to return the favor by supporting an endless series of wars against whomever happens to annoy Conservatives this week or next.
Man that almost got me.
Reichstagg fire incoming
FTFY.
There is absolutely nothing Trump won’t do. I have no doubt he’s capable of trying to manufacture some sort of war or other confrontation to try to distract from the election.
But if he does, I doubt that it will successfully enhance the electorate’s view of Trump and the GOP. One reason is that all of Trump’s flying monkeys are complete and utter fuckups. The guys who will be carrying this out will be dipshits like Devin Nunes, people so incompetent that even a gullible public can tell they’re not acting in good faith.
Furthermore, the public has already made its mind up about Trump, and their opinions are so fixed that a crisis won’t change that fundamental perception. Bush got a huge spike in the polls after 9/11 because people were more than willing to give Bush the benefit of the doubt during the crisis. Trump enjoys no such good will. A crisis might make his supporters support him more, but it’s going to make his opponents hate him even more fiercely. And the opponents outnumber the supporters.
Last but far from least, Trump’s unpredictable antics will completely trash any narrative that Bolton et al try to build about the necessity of taking on North Korea or Iran. The W administration spent months and months carefully building a narrative that made war with Iraq feel inevitable - a constant drumbeat of war orchestrated by an army of important-seeming surrogates.
Trump’s own actions will blow any attempt to build up that kind of narrative to bits. How can Bolton convince the public that war is necessary when every single day Trump distracts the public with trade wars, attacks on the Mueller investigation, porn stars, random offers to make peace with the “enemy” we’re supposed to be going to war with, and hissy fits?
Trump’s unrelenting torrent of chaotic actions will Gish gallop Bolton’s war narrative. In fact, we already saw that yesterday. Anti-Iran hawks wanted us to be shocked by the FBI’s indictment of several Iranians for hacking: clearly the intended response from the public was supposed to be, “OMG, Iran is as bad or worse as Russia!” Instead the story was almost completely buried (even on Fox, interestingly enough) by juicier Trump stories, including Trump’s unexpected temper tantrum over the spending bill. Who cares about Iranians downloading some academic papers when the President is flinging poo at his own party on Twitter?
So a Reichstag fire probably won’t work. Cold comfort, though, because both Bolton and Trump are stubborn and stupid enough to try it anyway.
FWIW, Iran is widely known to have active cyberwarfare operations targeting the US and allies. That wasn’t news or manufactured.
We gonna take our B.B. guns and blow their buns to the sun!