They have way overplayed their hand and they will march into the midterms using fake polls and fake news again only to emerge in an even bigger loss.

Not necessarily. The Republicans were sent to the majorities in the House and Senate and given the White House to repeal Obamacare, build a wall and get tax reform through. So far none of that has happened or even come close. There's still time, but the mid-terms will be here soon. If this doesn't happen then I could see the Republicans losing at least one chamber of Congress. The Democrats still have an uphill battle for the Senate but it's not completely out of play for them yet.

The budget that the President sent to Congress this week looks pretty good from what I've seen so far and I've been impressed by a lot of Mick Mulvaney's answers to the press and congressmen/women. The President's budget probably deserves its own thread, though.

Erosion of the 4th isn't limited to Obama.  I think we can all agree it crosses party boundaries and is the worst at the local level.  The worst part is that the erosion is accelerating and that so many people either don't care or welcome it. 

My opinions on the matter aren't agreeable with many people though.  I don't think one should have to assert his right to remain silent.  He should be able to simply remain silent.  I read something a couple of weeks ago about a guy getting stopped at a checkpoint, asked where he was going and he said he didn't have to answer.  The cops arrested him for not complying and this was upheld even on appeal.  Serve a warrant on the wrong house, find something illegal, and it's still a good bust? 

I know it sounds like I'm in favor of being soft on criminals.  I'm not at all.  I just think those hired to protect us need to obey what should be a very strict set of rules. 

We've militarized our police and given them broad powers.  I don't think it should be that way.  We had a situation here in town several years ago where a guy was suspected of selling pot.  A warrant was signed, sat on for a month, then a SWAT team hit the house in the middle of the night.  Video shows the family had 2 small non-aggressive dogs who were chased into the kitchen where one was shot, the other shot when it ran into the laundry room.  The guy's wife and 8 YO led out the door while this guys is complying with the command to lay on the floor, then kicked in the head (not hard, but still, why?)

Sure enough, they did find a joint in the raid, maybe even two, I don't recall.  But it's amazing to read the comments about how the guy brought this on himself by having marijuana.  I don't know, maybe things have always been this crazy.  I just don't remember it being like this and it seems like it's getting worse. 

The government likes to keep you frightened.  The media likes it too, sells cars and breakfast cereals.  Fact of the matter is you are far more lily to die of a plethora of mundane causes than be harmed by a terrorist. I say this having had a terrorist attack at my home institution.  Freedom is more important than security.

This is true but the problem with this line of argument (to support not discriminating against ideologies associated with terrorism) is your assumption that this rate will remain static.  As we saw pre WWII in Germany, very small problems can escalate and spread into all encompassing problems. If Islamic terrorism is not nipped in the bud, it will become much more widespread.

The second problem with your line of argument is that while the odds of being a direct victim of terrorism is very small, the attacks result in very significant social changes that do impact us all in a negative way, such as the creation of TSA as DJ points out.

He's an idiot. The closest thing to ethnic cleansing in this country is the liberals insisting the poor (blacks) get free abortions.

Not everyone can be a winner in life.

My participation trophies say otherwise!

Remember, the media is twisting EVERYTHING to make Trump look bad.  It's has become so bad that nothing can be believed coming out of the MSM today.

I agree that the media is a huge problem and they are reporting stories, which in some cases are proven to be false shortly after their initial report. But that doesn't excuse Trump's tweets, statements and actions. You can't blame the media for what Trump says or does. He isn't helping himself in this situation and he's only giving the media more fuel. Luckily his first overseas trip is going very well and he's staying off of Twitter.

And on Memos:   I can write a "memo" and post date it that says you propositioned me for sex back in April.   If I present that "memo" for evidence does it automatically make it true?

No, but if the memo is on Department of Justice letterhead and it's untrue then he falsified a government document. It would also destroy his credibility.

And for Comey and his "memo":  Under federal law if Comey had knowledge a federal official was trying to interfere with an ongoing investigation then he should have reported it to the DoJ.  The law does not say "write a memo and use it at an appropriate time for political expediency".

That's correct, which is why I said that if the memo is true then it's bad for both Trump and Comey since Comey should have reported it and didn't.

I understand the media is a large part of the problem but they aren't the only problem and they aren't the only ones creating a headache for the Trump administration. Trump is creating most of the headaches on his own and keeps giving the media more material to go after him with.

Yeah, but you'd miss the sound of that sweet radial!

The Yak could do it too, 2 days each way, with about 10 fuel stops each way, consuming 420 gallons of fuel ($1600) AND about 40 quarts of oil ($300).

Also an adventure, but I might be a bit dishevelled once I arrived.

'Gimp