Comments by "possumverde" (@possumverde) on "CBS Evening News" channel.

  1. Putin isn't exactly insane. He is however caught up in delusions of grandeur. He sees himself as the second coming of Stalin and is hellbent on reforming the Soviet Union by force if necessary. He very well could consider the use of tactical nukes in Ukraine. Especially now that he's seen how timid (bordering on cowardly) the west and NATO especially, are. We're not talking about high yield nukes. Just low yield nukes used in conjunction with conventional military activity. The use of such would not necessarily justify the use of high yield nukes on Russia in response. I doubt his generals would allow/reccomend it as it would likely cost them China as an ally and neutral countries would turn against them. All for something that just isn't tactically sound or useful to begin with. However, if he has followed to closely in Stalin's footprints and only has "yes men" for generals, who knows...He was KGB and it wouldn't be out of the realm of possibility to risk the entire country if he felt that buckling to the west would doom Russia to mediocrity and leave them too weak to stand up for themselves anyway. Despite how badly he and his buddies have treated and robbed the Russian people, he is still driven by a sort of warped patriotism so nothing should be considered completely off the table.
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  2. Without more info the officer deserves the benefit of the doubt. However, one would think that if he was behind the car and had enough time to get those rounds off, then he had time to simply get out of the way instead. While if he was to the side, it wouldn't have been rolling at him so opening fire would seem unnecessary. Hopefully there will be body cam video to clear it up. As is, the story does seem a bit dubious.
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  3. Primaries are complete garbage when it comes to determining which candidate has the most support. One of the main reasons being that moderates and centrists are less likely to vote in the primaries than those who are more polarized. Basically, the only thing primaries tell you is who has the most support from a party's hard core/radical demographic. As a result, candidates like Trump, Bernie Sanders, etc. who have near cultish followings will appear to be front runners at some point but can't count on that holding up once the quieter demographics enter the mix.
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  4. That's actually interesting. Until sentenced, he can't actually pardon himself and the DOJ can't force a judge to dismiss a case that has already been concluded awaiting sentencing.
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  5. Insurance would be a nightmare if they allowed hired security to handle such things and they'd have to pay their hired security enough to make such risk worth it (you don't want someone who would take such a job for low pay as that generally means they're doing so because they like such confrontations.)
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  6. A gun battle occurring outside would put neighbors/bystanders at greater risk while waiting for the target to leave would require keeping "eyes" on the house to see them do so. The latter risks the suspect realizing they're being watched, giving them time to either try to sneak out or prepare for battle.
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  7. Sadly, their life expectancy is greater than that of the criminals/mercs being sent in suicidal attack waves against them.
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  8.  @hikoseijuro9291  Unless presented as evidence in court, affidavits alone are pretty meaningless. Their list of people willing to testify under oath whose claims support the kind of fraud alleged is pretty much non existent.
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  9. Given his age and clean background, this likely the result of dementia.
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  10. Such a "middle man" doesn't exist. The special master will have to have the security clearance necessary to view the documents. As a result, the pool of potential candidates who would meet all of the requirements will be quite small and pretty much everyone on it is going to be politically connected/biased in some way. Furthermore, as there are no qualified candidates, neither side's lists will have anyone they can agree upon. That will put the choice in the hands of the Trump appointed judge and thus raise questions of potential bias. Also, anyone the judge picks will need to be vetted for the necessary security clearance before they can even do their job. That alone will significantly stall the case. If the judge wanted to, she could simply keep picking people who won't pass a background check etc. and thus stall the case indefinitely. In the end, the type of documents the master will be looking for will only be a small fraction of the total and their removal will not significantly affect the case anyway. The whole thing is simply a stall tactic.
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  11.  @arthurjeremypearson  You can usually get around the spam filter if you include the link along with a comment containing more characters than the link.
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  12. We'll have to wait for the full details but if it was a situation where the suspect had somehow been tipped off about the impending raid giving them time to prepare their defenses, that could be considered an ambush.
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  13. Sandbagging doesn't really work here. In that situation, SCOTUS will be hearing it as an appeal which means they will be looking at the evidence presented in the original case. They can choose to allow new but likely won't since the original doesn't meet the standards to begin with.
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  14. It's better than bending over and spreading the country's cheeks like our former President did.
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  15.  @cranshawmccaw  They are stubborn children...
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  16. Trump's pardon has not been defied. Presidential pardons do not expunge records or even signify innocence. They simply negate the sentence (in this case, the demotion.) As long as Gallagher's rank is restored (which it is), if the Navy deems his actions worthy of removal from the SEALs and reassignment elsewhere, then they have every right to do so.
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  17. Since ex-Presidents often act as unofficial ambassadors, briefings can help keep them from getting caught up in dealings with people who might be considered risks to our national security. Whether such potential benefit is worth the risk, I don't know.
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  18. You should think about returning to reality one day... The officer had a wounded civilian at his feet to protect and they were told the suspect had a gun by whoever called it in. No one has x-ray vision and all the training and firearm discipline in the world can't prevent ricochets and wall penetrations in a situation like this. They rightfully protected the civilian they knew was there (and injured.) The blame for the little girl's death goes to the guy responsible for creating the situation which made the officer's actions necessary to begin with.
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  19. No. Some people would rather die at home at peace with themselves than abandon it all just to live a little longer. Not everyone's psychological make up will allow them to like what they see in the mirror if they were to chose the path of a refugee.
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  20. That can't stop the hypersonics or the long range artillery. What they need is US/NATO air power to strike launch sites/artillery and take out the jets launching one type of Russian hypersonic missile before they can fire. A couple of squadrons of A-10s with some fighter escort wouldn't hurt either. Especially with how the Russian commanders like to bunch their forces up out in the open. It may be too late depending on how many troops Ukraine has left but foreign close air support for Ukraine ground forces might give them a fighting chance as well. It's moot anyway since NATO/the west aren't going to remember where they left their...courage...anytime soon.
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  21. The Capitol building wiki has the floor plans from 1997. Little of any significance has changed since then.
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  22.  @revdraco  Also, in states that automatically send out ballots to everyone in their voter registry (which can occasionally cause some ballots to be sent to the dead) it would be fraud if someone were to fill out and return a ballot accidentally sent to a deceased person.
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  23.  @tfelder4944  Interestingly, The autopsy (which the medical examiner said he performed before seeing any video of the incident) showed no signs of damage to the neck muscles, larynx, etc. one would expect if the knee on the neck had enough pressure behind it to cause suffocation. In fact, there was pretty much no conclusive evidence found in the autopsy tying his breathing issues etc. to any external physical cause. Also, during the investigation, he stated that without the video, the physical evidence from the autopsy was consistent with a fentanyl overdose being the cause of death (the statement was never given as an official report though.) It wasn't until the autopsy was complete and he had finally watched the video evidence (and was getting slammed with political pressure and fear of riots etc.) that he ruled it a homicide and blamed it on the officers.
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  24. Nah. It will remember him as one of the few leaders of the time period who actually put some effort into doing his job and managed to hold out far longer than he should have given the force he was up against. He'll also be remembered as an excellent example of what happens when you trust the US (and the west in general) to uphold their agreements.
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  25. Executive orders can't be used for budget related things. That has to be done by Congress. On the bright side, they seem to have finally given up on getting Republican support for the relief bill and are apparently going to just use budget reconcilliation instead. That approach only requires a simple majority vote in the Senate as opposed to the 60 they would otherwise need.
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  26. Bah, they're solar balloons likely launched by hobbyists/as experiments. The reported shapes, sizes, and even altitudes match. Such balloons have likely been in use for a long time and are only now being noticed due to the paranoia caused by the Chinese balloon. They've been described as being roughly the size of a car which would give them an angular size of ~0.02° at 40,000 ft. That happens to be the limit on what the human eye can resolve so they would have been nearly invisible from the ground. Reports by pilots of seeing balloons at that altitude aren't exactly rare and have occurred almost as long as such balloons have existed. They are considered harmless unless they're directly in a traffic lane so such reports have no reason to spread much.
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  27. Last I checked Russia started it, so whatever happens is on them.
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  28. Move along troll
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  29. Go to bed kid and let the adults do the talking.
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  30. Given the choice between living the refugee life and just refusing to give up your home even if it means death, there will always be those who find death to be the more acceptable fate. Also, in such a situation, forcing your enemy to actually do the deed if they want your home so badly rather than just running and letting them take everything is just as honorable a way to go any other. If everyone up and fled everytime some bloodyhirsty warlord like Putin invaded, the world would be full of nothing but runners and invaders.
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  31. An incoming President needs to be up to date on such info when they take office. An ex-President doesn't. Especially if said ex-President happend to accidentally leak classified info multiple times in press conferences and on twitter while they were in office...
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  32. Whatever the orcs do to them, Ukraine should do to any Syrians, neck bearded Chechens, Wagner group members, "separatists", and any other mercenaries working for Russia that they've caught.
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  33. Russia will steal it like they did Crimea...
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  34. All the Trump supporters and bots spamming the comment section do indeed reek of desperation.
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  35. No one cares what you think troll. Move along.
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  36. Ever stop to think that maybe some simply chose to stay? There are those whose psychological make up would prevent them from being at peace with themselves were they to abandon their home and history simply to stay alive.
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  37. Says someone who will never bother reading it...
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  38. Win or lose, Russia will have defeated themselves by the time this is over. The cost they're paying is too great for any gains they might make.
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  39. Executive orders can't deal with budget related things like covid relief. Those have to go through Congress.
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  40. Executive orders can't deal with budget related things like covid relief. Those have to go through Congress.
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  41. Don't worry, Trump will be giving himself over to Putin in two months...
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  42. Rubles are currently 0.012 USD. Whatever you're getting paid to troll, is worth less than most toilet paper.
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  43. The amount is scaled based on the recipient's income.
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  44. They had nuclear weapons as a deterrent to Russian invasion. The US/UK (with the approval of NATO) agreed to defend Ukraine militarily should Russia ever invade in return for Ukraine giving up their nuclear weapons. Someone, didn't uphold their end... Also, Putin has been meddling in Ukraine's affairs so much since he's been in power that their government wasn't even close to being stable enough to build up a proper defense until the better part of the past decade.
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  45. They've finally given up on getting Republican support and are going to push it through via budget reconcilliation instead. That only requires a simple majority vote in the Senate as opposed to the 60 needed otherwise. Don't be surprised if the bill gets passed before the end of the week. Had they done this to begin with, people would have condemned them for bypassing bi-partisan support while claiming they want unity.
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  46. They're done negotiating. It appears that they are just going to use budget reconcilliation to push it through instead. That only requires a simple majority vote in the Senate as opposed to the 60 needed otherwise.
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  47. Executive orders can't be used for budget related things like the covid relief bill. That has to go through Congress. The relief bill will be passed soon though. The delay was due to their attempt to get Republican support for it (it normally requires 60 votes in the Senate to pass such bills.) It now appears that they have finally given up on bi-partisan support and are just going to push it through via budget reconcilliation instead. That only requires a simple majority in the Senate.
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  48. Shotguns aren't as effective against armor or if the officer needs to shoot through soft/hard cover etc. It's not like a video game where you can carry multiple weapons (along with ammo for each) and easily switch on the fly to better fit the immediate situation. You use a weapon that will be effective in as many possible circumstances as you can and a shotgun isn't that weapon.
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  49. To be fair, they never should have been forced to make such a decision in the first place.
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  50.  @joyce8854  Perhaps. Though there are plenty of people who would see abandoning their homes and histories simply to continue breathing as a fate worse than death. Not everybody's psychologically cut out for the life of a refugee.
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