Politapocalypse (U.S. Politics Megathread)

Even the content of the Opinion section is largely unchanged. I wasn't kidding when I described it as "moderately centrist," compared to how I would have described it in 1973, namely "way to the right." Sad to say, that isn't because it moderated its editorial policy, but because the Republican Party's self-styled conservatives are so far out there.

At least one militant linked to last month’s Paris terror attacks was among 10 Islamic State leaders killed in recent air strikes, the U.S. military said Tuesday.

U.S. Colonel Steve Warren, a spokesman for the U.S.-led coalition, said Charaffe al Mouadan was killed Dec. 24, and that he had a “direct link” to Abdelhamid Abaaoud, the ringleader of the Nov. 13 attacks that killed 130 people in Paris.

“Al Mouadan was actively planning additional attacks against the West,” Warren said in a video briefing from Baghdad.

The kid's homeless shelter often would see a revolving door of the same kids coming, leaving for several days, then returning.
After several years of this we started to wonder if the facilities for food, beds, shelter, etc. didn't just enable many of these kids to re-charge themselves, then head back out to the excitement of street life without adult authority.

One day we were waiting in line to give a fundraising pitch and the folks ahead of us were a group of paraplegics whose physical therapy health care had run it's course. They had cobbled together a facility, surplus equipment and volunteer physical therapists, etc.
I listened to their pitch and noted that helping people is much easier when they want to help themselves.
Not saying the homeless stuff is not worthwhile, just observing the old adage of leading a horse to water.

Still, I think the experience of that district shows where government can help (i.e. providing necessary support for student) vs. where it helps less (e.g. imposing rigid standards, curricula and "best practices.")

Note the first principles here could apply equally well to poor cultures trying to make a livelihood out in the desert (or trying to keep up to the West). It ain't going to happen. Particularly as the oil dries up.

And when it's gone? there are going to be even more young restless males... measured in the tens of millions.

We're not ready.

One irony of the high Trump polling numbers remains one of the biggest components of his base of support -- disaffected white Democrats.

The self-styled guardians of conservatism spend at least as much vitriol on the RNC as they do on Democrats. How else could someone like Jeb Bush be considered a RINO?