Free Republic

President Donald Trump has bestowed upon the nation of Qatar a remarkable security guarantee that could include coming to its defense militarily. In an executive order dated earlier this week, Trump declared that the United States will regard any attack on Qatar’s territory, sovereignty or critical infrastructure “as a threat to the peace and security of the United States” itself. And perhaps most crucially, the order suggests the US might come to Qatar’s defense militarily.

Consensus has been reached among civil rights leaders, downtown business interests and Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa on a Skid Row cleanup plan that involves a crackdown on crime, but not sweeping up the homeless from the streets. It is the first time that downtown business interests and civil libertarians have agreed on an approach for downtown's destitute Skid Row, which is home to an estimated 8,000 to 10,000 homeless people. The American Civil Liberties Union and business leaders have endorsed a plan by criminologist George Kelling, who has called for police to crack down on drug dealers, prostitutes and other criminals...