Free Republic

[From the article]

“And for those members of our military in the chain of command, here in Washington or overseas — look very carefully at every order given to you by this president,” Moulton said. “It is our duty to make sure everything done in the name of the United States military is lawful; and that burden falls on us. ... We have an opportunity to call on our military officers around the world to bring new scrutiny to their sworn oath to obey lawful orders, and only lawful orders.”

While you are correct that Moulton is not explicitly saying that he thinks the order to kill Souleimani was illegal, he is certainly implying, rather strongly, that EVERY ORDER given by Commander-in-Chief Trump is suspect, and thus must be “look[ed at] very carefully.”

I wonder how he would feel if his presidential aspirations had been successful, and someone else was publicly calling for soldiers to question HIS orders.

This is all so reminiscent of the Eastern Airlines Union forcing their employer out of business

Eastern Airlines Brought Down by a Strike So Bitter It Became a Crusade

By AGIS SALPUKAS
Published: January 20, 1991

As word filtered out Friday night that Eastern Airlines would shut, some members of its machinists union, which has been on strike since March 1989, rejoiced.

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Watching the machinists union, and its head Charlie Bryan, gleefully destroy Eastern Airlines is what fired up my long-running disgust and hatred of unions.

Paying workers on a daily basis is nothing new; do you all not recall the Parable of the Vineyard Workers? (It’s in Matthew 20, if you’d like to take a look.)

I agree with those who say that this will make it even harder for the workers — many of whom probably aren’t the brightest financial bulbs to begin with — to manage their money. But why is that the employer’s problem? We as conservatives should not reflexively support an employer withholding pay for a certain period of time just because it’s good for the workers. The workers did their jobs (presumably) and earned their pay. So their employer should pay them and not worry about managing their financial lives.

And yeah, my first job out of college was a monthly paycheck. Absolutely hated it. The reality is that most people on the bottom end of the wage scale don’t have the discipline, much less the cash reserves, to manage it.

So they're going to charge motorists tolls to use the roads that their taxes paid to construct and maintain.

No they're not. Read the article. Hogan is quoted as saying that only the new lanes will be tolled; the existing lanes will remain free. In other words -- every bit of the highway capacity that you have available for free today will remain free.

Personally I can't wait for this to be done. That way, I have a choice: pay more (through tolls) for a faster ride, or go for free but endure congestion. Everyone gets to decide for themselves what their time is worth, and whether or not it's worth it to use the toll lanes.

I would just hope that they would use the HOV-3 technology on the E-Z Pass like Virginia does, so that carpoolers can use the HOV lanes for free.

And for those (not Freepers, most likely) who are complaining this plan somehow shortchanges mass transit, that just shows how little they know. Maryland already has an extensive system of commuter buses that run from various suburbs into Washington. Letting them use the HOV lanes will do wonders to speed their trip and thus make them even more attractive to a much wider share of the commuting population. I would envision the ridership to skyrocket once these lanes open.

Ships don’t commit crime. People do. Banning ships is like banning guns.

People don't carry vast quantities of cargo that can be exchanged for money with which to fund North Korea's weapons programs. Ships do.

I will. The North Korean children are innocent victims. They have been imprisoned and brainwashed since Day One of their miserable little lives and they will continue to be imprisoned and brainwashed for the remainder of them. None of what is happening is their fault, and they are powerless to affect the outcome.

That said, we will still need to do what we need to do, undeterred by the awful knowledge of the horrific cost. I fear that war is inevitable, and if I have to choose between losing millions of North Korean children and losing millions of American children, I’ll take the side of losing the North Korean children. But I will surely grieve for them.

Honestly I can’t imagine a safer time to be in South Korea than during the Olympics. If Lil’ Kim does ANYTHING at all to affect the games, he will instantly lose any support he has from anyone, including China and Russia. (After all, their athletes will be competing there too.) Trump will have carte blanche to retaliate to the maximum extent and the world will cheer him on.

NK war starts, Seoul ceases to exist in 30 minutes.

I am desperately hoping that someone has a credible plan to end the North Korean menace while simultaneously enabling Seoul to continue existing. Losing Seoul would be a humanitarian catastrophe, a huge blow to the world's economy, and a great personal hit to me as well. (I have a number of friends there.)

I would think that “Any person legally within the United States” could be construed to include tourists who entered legally and have not overstayed their visas. Better wording would be “Any person legally residing within the United States.”

[From the article] Moon previously said humanitarian aid and political issues should be handled separately. Seoul stopped the aid in January 2016 after Pyongyang conducted its fourth nuclear test. But after meeting with ministries and civilian experts, Moon decided to resume aid to help North Korean children and pregnant woman, the Unification Ministry said. [end quote]

North Korea could support their own children and pregnant women, if they’d stop wasting their money on missiles and nuclear bombs. This isn’t South Korea’s problem, and I don’t know why they feel the need to try and appease the Norks (not that it will work anyway) with this money.

In general I am a firm supporter of South Korea. Not only do I think that they are a valuable regional ally, but I have a number of friends there. But if they’re going to thumb their noses at us by shelling out $8 million to the Norks in the face of the sanctions that we managed to get through the UN, then I think we ought to reduce our aid to them by an amount at least double that.

The best thing to improve traffic there would be to get rid of HOV.

Au contraire. The best thing would be to follow Virginia's lead and extend the HOT lanes all around the Beltway, and link them up to the ones on I-270 (converting them from HOV to HOT). Those lanes should also be constructed on I-66 west to I-81 and on I-95 north through Baltimore and beyond and on U.S. 50 east to the Bay Bridge.

That way, carpoolers and those whose time is worth the money to use those lanes can speed along to their destination, while those whose time is worth less than the money needed to use those lanes (or the inconvenience of joining a car pool) can continue to use the congested "free" lanes.

And in April, the Maryland Department of Transportation awarded a $100 million contract to a 16-member design-build team to come up with ways to improve traffic flow and ease congestion on Interstate 270 between Interstate 495 and Frederick, MD — just outside Washington, DC. The state expects to use technology to give motorists real-time traffic information in its quest to cut average travel time by 30 minutes.

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I’ll do it for them for a lot less than $100 million. Here are the main problems with I-270’s northern portion (in the area of Frederick).

Problem 1: it drops from as many as six lanes EACH WAY in the southern portion to a mere two each way. In other words, two-thirds of its capacity — but less than two-thirds of its traffic — goes away before it reaches its northern terminus.

Problem 2: the two lanes of I-270 northbound join with the three lanes of I-70 westbound to continue as I-70 further west — with just two lanes each way. So yeah, five lanes of traffic feeding into two.

Short-term solutions: (1) add a third lane each way on I-270 all the way up to Frederick, and have that lane be an “exit only” onto U.S. 15 northbound serving Frederick itself and points north. (2) add a third lane each way on I-70 westbound at least as far as I-81 to Hagerstown, and preferably as far as where I-68 splits off I-70 in Hancock.

OK, I’ll take my consultant check now.

Isn’t it already legal to not own a weapon?

Why would anybody need a law like this?

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Some people lack self control — and they’re smart enough to realize it. So they need to be controlled from without.

As long as this proposed law is really as benign as it sounds, and is purely voluntary and revocable, I don’t really have a problem with it. As the article said, it would be similar to the self-bans on gambling that some states have.

>> a few tricks up its sleeve that wouldn’t involve the decimation of Seoul.

I prefer Trump’s rhetoric than Mattis’ comforting words to the Left.

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I prefer a plan that solves the North Korea problem while not decimating Seoul, over a plan that solves the North Korea problem while accepting the decimation of Seoul.

Some posters here are saying that they want South Korea to take the lead in dealing with the Norks, or even going it alone without our help. Well, I will say that we are far more likely to get their buy-in and support if we at least make a good-faith effort to have a plan to protect their nation’s capital and largest and most important city.

The city of Seoul has a population of 10 million people. The overall metropolitan area has a population of 25 million. That’s HALF of the entire population of South Korea. Seoul IS South Korea. They will never accept any plan that implicitly sacrifices that city.

[North Korean response to the missile test] “The reckless sanctions and pressure upon the DPRK kicked up by them, blindly dancing to the tune of the US, are an unpardonable treacherous act of going against the aspiration of the compatriots for national reconciliation and unity and the improvement of inter-Korean relations.”

Hey, Kim, here’s a thought for you. Maybe, just maybe, “improvement of inter-Korean relations” might be helped if you’d stop threatening to turn Seoul into a “lake of fire.” Just a thought.

At the Disneyland parking lot there are minivan-shaped rectangular piles of food trash and dirty diapers when the cars full of illegals’ families pull out. No wonder parking is so expensive.

How can we coexist when European Americans tell our children to hold on to every gum wrapper and bottle cap and wait for a trash can, but if you are from Mexico you SHOW your kids how throwing trash out the window of cars on freeways or parking lots is the best way to deal with it?

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When I was in Seoul a couple of months ago, I marvelled at how clean the city is. Honestly I don’t recall seeing a single piece of litter anywhere. And I think about how clean my own suburban neighborhood is, with only the occasional piece of litter dropped by the trash men or the landscaping crews. But then I compare it to Baltimore, where I work, where there’s all kinds of litter everywhere.

And then I think about the demographics of Seoul, and the demographics of my neighborhood, and the demographics of Baltimore. And therein lies the answer.

“These islands should never have been inhabited.”

Nah.
In fact it has been brilliantly inhabited:- by using disposable housing! And there’s a nice big road to evacuate on.
Hurricanes will always come, but they quickly go too.

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That “nice big road” to which you refer is U.S. 1, the Overseas Highway. It features all of two lanes, one in each direction. I would assume that both lanes would be used for outbound traffic in the event of an evacuation, though I don’t know that for sure.

But regardless, any emergency manager can tell you that trying to evacuate any place where there is only one exit is fraught with peril. Something like this is not to be taken lightly.

I realize you’re trying to bait me, but I’ll give you a serious answer. A middle-aged man such as myself would be far more of a hindrance than a help in fighting a ground war. And my kids aren’t even teenagers yet, so they wouldn’t be much use over there either.

But I will say this: if my kids, when they’re old enough, told me that they wanted to go fight to defend South Korea, I would send them off with my blessings. THAT is how important I feel South Korea is to our own strategic interests, to say nothing of the good feelings that I have for that country — and the negative feelings I have towards the North Korean tyrant.

Now, let me turn it around on you. Since you obviously don’t care one whit about either Korea, I assume you’d be OK with it if Kim just gets ornery one day and dumps a few nukes down on Seoul? I mean, heck, as long as we’re not involved, who cares what happens to them, right? This wouldn’t bother you any, right?

Precious. I presume you are a Korean citizen, not a US citizen, thus more concerned with them than the lives of Americans?

So, let me get this straight. Having an interest in what happens in Korea means that one must be a Korean citizen who is OK with spilling American blood? OK, good to know . . .

Just so you know, I'm a white American citizen, born and raised in this country, and I'm married to a white American citizen who likewise was born and raised in this country. Therefore, by your logic, I suppose I should just sit back and wish for the two Koreas to blast each other into oblivion, right? I mean, unless one is a Korean citizen, one couldn't possibly care less about what happens there, right?