Yup, a late friend of mine was a lobbyist at the state level for a mental health lobbying group. His daughter has schizophrenia and that was his way to give back in his retirement. Without lobbying, it's hard for politicians to know when there is a problem they need to fix. They have a small staff and they don't just magically know when there is a problem. The problem is when a politician either can't sniff out unethical lobbyists or just doesn't care.
Arrests are done by the police, not the DA, so that issue lies with the police. And as much of the rest of the article pointed out, the number of people who saw the inside of a prison cell for marijuana possession was small.
According to onerecent poll, the number is 67%, and they didn't poll for a range of definitions of ceasefire to try to suss out exactly what that means. Like, many people would only accept a ceasefire that would more or less erase Hamas, but there is no sign of that happening. Instead, everything (including somewhat agree) was just lumped together to produce 67%.
Did you miss the bit where Russia kept harassing Georgia? It was going to invade sooner or later. Russia likes its former imperial conquests to be kept under its thumb.
The August 2008 invasion of Georgia was just the culmination of years of Russian provocations towards Georgia. Georgia's leaders knew Russia was itching for a fight. As for Ukraine, many Ukrainians realized that if they ever adopted a more pro-Western stance then Russia would invade. I've heard one account of Ukrainians fighting in the Georgia-Russia War because "we're next."
They could have waited or tried to make a deal with the new government. They did neither and immediately invaded without making an attempt at an arrangement.
Why did Russia invade Georgia?
Are you trying to get me to say NATO? Because that conflict far predates NATO involvement.
Bullshit. Crimea was invaded mere days after the change of power in 2014, far before anyone of note was seriously talking about Ukraine joining NATO. Support for separatists elsewhere soon followed. It was about Russia exerting a "sphere of influence" that it felt entitled to. The Russian leadership can't seem to get that countries are joining NATO because of Russian imperialism, past and present.
I'm going to say the same thing that I said about the Polish incident. That incident only happened because Russia chose to attack Ukraine in an area directly bordering on another country. Izmail is also right across the border. I'll wait on more dependable sources for an investigation, and I'm certainly not agitating for an escalation on NATO's side. At the same time, if Russia's bombing campaign ultimately results in foreseeable casualties outside of the country, I put the blame on Russia. Ukraine has the right to defend itself.
Pretty much anything that substantially improves batteries will be huge. R & D money is pouring in and that likely means progress. Improvements could be felt in factors like environmental impact, weight, energy density, safety, and charge time.
Hong Kong was always going to happen because that was an agreed upon conclusion. China violated promises that it made (one country, two systems my ass), but Hong Kong was a part China. Taiwan has never been under the control of the current government of mainland China. At this point Taiwan would likely be a separate country if it didn't have China's dagger at its throat telling it that even a breath of declaring independence will result in immediate invasion.
It wouldn't necessarily just be burner phones. Many people wouldn't want to take a valuable phone traveling in case it gets stolen. Or maybe their phone isn't compatible with the US's networks.
Yup, a late friend of mine was a lobbyist at the state level for a mental health lobbying group. His daughter has schizophrenia and that was his way to give back in his retirement. Without lobbying, it's hard for politicians to know when there is a problem they need to fix. They have a small staff and they don't just magically know when there is a problem. The problem is when a politician either can't sniff out unethical lobbyists or just doesn't care.