Quote:

Former colleagues said they would be shocked if Mr. Hanssen turned out to have spent the money he is accused of having received from his handlers in Moscow -- at least $600,000 in cash, the F.B.I. says -- on alcohol or fancy automobiles or women. Instead, they suspect, he probably used much of the proceeds from his spying to pay tuition at his children's schools.

The Heights School of Potomac, Md., which his youngest son, a junior, attends, charges annual tuition and fees of nearly $11,000, which alone would make a large dent in Mr. Hanssen's F.B.I. salary of about $100,000 a year. His older sons also graduated from the school, which will not say if any of the boys received financial aid. Calls for comment to his daughters' school, Oakcrest, in McLean, Va., were not returned.

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Quote:

But there Trump was, struggling to come up with a new Afghanistan policy and frustrated that so many U.S. forces were deployed in so many places around the world. The conversation began to tilt in the same direction as it had in the Tank back in July.
“All these countries need to start paying us for the troops we are sending to their countries. We need to be making a profit,” Trump said. “We could turn a profit on this.”
Dunford tried to explain to the president once again, gently, that troops deployed in these regions provided stability there, which helped make America safer. Another officer chimed in that charging other countries for U.S. soldiers would be against the law.
“But it just wasn’t working,” one former Trump aide recalled. “Nothing worked.”

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koods said:

Lol kavanaugh went to the Opus Dei school down the street for elementary school. Kavanaugh and Gotsuch both went to a private Jesuit high school in Rockville. It’s the only high school I know of that had its own golf course. The religious schools seem to turn out the worst kinds of people, IMO. I just never understood why parents would spend all that money for a high school education. I get there are places where the public schools are terrible and private schools are the only hope, but people literally move here just for the public schools. It’s dumb.

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Sulfurshelfsean said:

https://www.citizensforethics.org/trump-hotel-rates-spiked-13x-last-weekend/

So much for that phony emoluments clause...

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Stable Genius said:

This is one of the big differences between Aus politics and the U.S.

If that sort of cronism happened here he'd likely have to stand down due to a conflict of interest.

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Bigbadwooof said:

koods said:

Lol kavanaugh went to the Opus Dei school down the street for elementary school. Kavanaugh and Gotsuch both went to a private Jesuit high school in Rockville. It’s the only high school I know of that had its own golf course. The religious schools seem to turn out the worst kinds of people, IMO. I just never understood why parents would spend all that money for a high school education. I get there are places where the public schools are terrible and private schools are the only hope, but people literally move here just for the public schools. It’s dumb.

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In my mind, it's all about networking, even from a young age. That's another reason the game is rigged.

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Bigbadwooof said:

Stable Genius said:

This is one of the big differences between Aus politics and the U.S.

If that sort of cronism happened here he'd likely have to stand down due to a conflict of interest.

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Americans have lost all control of our government. Other countries governments (particularly France, for instance) respond to the concerns and criticisms of their constituents. Here in America, journalism is dead, politicians aren't held accountable, all we have is a propaganda machine. Most people don't have the time or energy to sift through the media bullshit.

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Brian Jones said:

Bigbadwooof said:

Stable Genius said:

This is one of the big differences between Aus politics and the U.S.

If that sort of cronism happened here he'd likely have to stand down due to a conflict of interest.

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Americans have lost all control of our government. Other countries governments (particularly France, for instance) respond to the concerns and criticisms of their constituents. Here in America, journalism is dead, politicians aren't held accountable, all we have is a propaganda machine. Most people don't have the time or energy to sift through the media bullshit.

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I think a big part of that is education and I don't mean formal education. I would call it cultural education. In France regular people read philosophers and social theorists in the newspaper. They have a history of opposing their government, the best example being the workers and students uniting for a general strike in May 68.

Here we just want comfort and entertainment, and journalism is now part of that industry.
John Lennon said it quite well:
                  Keep you doped with religion and sex and TV
                  And you think you're so clever and classless and free
                  But you're still fucking peasants as far as I can see

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Quote:

Fox News style journalism has ruined this fucking country.

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It certainly has lowered the standard of journalism and the standard of debate.
The rise of the internet has squeezed their revenues which hasn't helped with the facts.

koods said:

The religious schools seem to turn out the worst kinds of people, IMO.

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koods said:

David ended up turning into a totally over the top flaming homo, and in hindsight his poem may have been an actual suggestion.

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