A.M. Links: Trump Reverses Position on NATO, United Airlines Offers Refunds, Russia Vetoes U.N. Security Council Resolution on Syria Chemical Weapons Attack

• 

  Gage Skidmore / Flickr.com

  "I said it was obsolete. It's no longer obsolete." President Donald Trump has reversed his position on NATO.

• Russia has vetoed a U.N. Security Council resolution condemning the chemical weapons attack in Syria.
• "Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe warned Thursday that North Korea might be capable of firing a missile loaded with sarin nerve gas toward Japan."
• United Airlines will offer refunds to every passenger on the flight from which Dr. David Dao was forcibly removed by police.
• Sheila Abdus-Salaam, the first African-American woman to sit on New York's highest court, has been found dead in the Hudson River.

Follow us on Facebook and Twitter, and don't forget to sign up for Reason's daily updates for more content.

Comments

[Fist of Etiquette]

"I said it was obsolete. It's no longer obsolete." President Donald Trump has reversed his position on NATO.

What's next? Closing GITMO???

[A Cynic's Guide to Zen]

Lol. All my moderate Team Blue friends/family are slowly realizing what a Rockefeller Republican is.

[Rufus The Monocled]

Hello.

[loveconstitution1789]

The media spins these statements as if Trump will still not push to cut America's role and money contributed to NATO.

Notice the media never clarifies what Trump meant with NATO being obsolete and America's role. The media never knew. Now Trump says it's not obsolete. What does that mean for America's role in NATO and the media still does not know. It could be Russia pushing back in Syria that caused NATO is not be obsolete but Trump will let Europe defend itself. Who knows. That unknowing drives the media crazy, so they act like they have it all figured out.

[Agammamon]

I think you might be a little confused.

Trump will continue to *bluster* about funding - he's not going to cut it. He's not going to reduce America's role. He's become President now and realizes what *power* NATO membership gives him. He can simultaneously bitch and moan (and delight his base) about it while using its connections to push other nations to publicly support his warboner.

He's simply doing what every President *except maybe Carter* did upon assuming office - decide that the US military can be a global force for good as long as he's in charge of it.

So, expect more 'intervention' in Syria and expect more 'intervention' in North Korea. Expect the rest of NATO to talk about how we need to bomb more BSP's. Back to the status quo ante.

[Bee Tagger]

"I said it was obsolete. It's no longer obsolete." President Donald Trump has reversed his position on NATO.

It may not have been windy on inauguration day but it is now.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Russia has vetoed a U.N. Security Council resolution condemning the chemical weapons attack in Syria.

SO HOW WILL SYRIA KNOW NOW THAT IT'S BEEN CONDEMNED?

[Bee Tagger]

United Airlines will offer refunds to every passenger on the flight from which Dr. David Dao was forcibly removed by police.

They'll give a double refund to anyone who drops their kid into a lion cage forcing the lion, with a meme-able name, to be shot and killed.

[Pope Jimbo]

I'm thinking of the nightmare that this would be for me if I had been on that flight for business.

I'm sure my employer would demand that those voucher miles are theirs. They would also have some horrible paperwork to fill out to document what happened (they have horrible paperwork for every possible situation).

[mad.casual]

with a meme-able name

Miles out for Simba?

[A Cynic's Guide to Zen]

Ni Hao to the Norks!

[Citizen X - #6]

I think you mean "Anyong."

[A Cynic's Guide to Zen]

They'll be speaking Mandarin soon enough, tovarisch.

[John DeWitt]

Will someone please tell this insufferable child...

[Citizen X - #6]

Here's $20. Go see a Star War.

[BiPolarMoment]

I'm just so tired of all these Star Wars.

[Not a True MJG]

Hel-loh!

[Bee Tagger]

Russia has vetoed a U.N. Security Council resolution condemning the chemical weapons attack in Syria.

Has the US Senate tried censuring Russia, yet? Or is that too extreme?

[Conchfritters]

You just sent a tingle up Lindsey McCain's leg.

[Griffin3]

Ewww?!

[Libertarian]

"United Airlines will offer refunds to every passenger on the flight from which Dr. David Dao was forcibly removed by police."

And then for good measure give the plane to Dr Dao.

[Juice]

"I said it was obsolete. It's no longer obsolete." President Donald Trump has reversed his position on NATO.

One term president, folks.

[creech]

Could be. I know a number of folks who voted for Trump that are having second thoughts. I don't know one person who supported Hillary who now thinks Trump should have gotten their vote. And all us Johnson voters seem to be getting happier and happier with that decision.

[Conchfritters]

Amen. I haven't had to take a shower since Election Day.

[John DeWitt]

And all us Johnson voters seem to be getting happier and happier with that decision.

I am enjoying my view from atop this horse. Although, I am grateful for Gorsuch.

[CooterBrown]

He'll get primaried. Especially if lefties in open primary states (probably the same fucks who voted for him in 2015, expecting him to lose against HRC) are smart.

[Red Rocks Baiting n Inciting]

He'll get primaried

This wouldn't surprise me at all. The Rs are probably going to get clocked in the mid-terms, so he has roughly two years to push through whatever agenda he may have had, and if he governs like the Bushes did, it will be far too much compromise for his base. If I'm McConnell and Ryan, I'd be pushing Kennedy and Thomas to hang it up now so he can put their replacements in, and hope RBG's supply of baby's blood runs out in that time.

His biggest hit is going to be in the Rust Belt states that went for him--those people are only concerned about jobs and don't give two shits about any other issue, whether it be gay wedding cakes or overseas adventures.

[mad.casual]

And all us Johnson voters seem to be getting happier and happier with that decision.

I haven't heard one bad thing about Aleppo since!

[loveconstitution1789]

I think Trump is fine with being a one-term president. He set out to limit government as president and he has done a few things to that end. If Americans don't want to allow him to cut more during a second term, he tried and at least got gorsuch on the Scotus. Funny how some People on this site think two-terms and/or long government employment is some kind of great thing.

I would say Trump did well if the next budget has small but important cuts to the federal budget and ObamaCare is repealed.

[Zeb]

I've been saying for a long time that we need way more one term presidents. And more people willing to be one term presidents would probably be a good thing too. I'm not sure if that applies to Trump, though. At this point, I don't believe anything about Trump, least of all anything he claims about himself.

[Not a True MJG]

He always wanted to be a one term president. People begged him to run again - begged him! - and he would've won with the biggest landslide, vote totals you wouldn't believe, but he knew he could accomplish everything he set out to do in one glorious term.

[Juice]

We need to change the presidency to one six year term.

[Shirley Knott]

One six-month term would make a lot of us even happier.

[Juice]

The budget will be bigger than last years. Trump is no fiscal conservative. He wants military and infrastructure spending. Even if he cuts some departments and agencies to the bone, it'll be more than made up for.

[Konima]

He set out to limit government spending? Didn't his spending plan increase the deficit even more than Clinton's?

[Zeb]

Yes, but this time stimulus will work.

[chemjeff]

"I would say Trump did well if the next budget has small but important cuts to the federal budget and ObamaCare is repealed."

First: HE'LL DRAIN THE SWAMP

Now: "Eh, if he just drains it a little, it will be okay, as long as he repeals ObamaCare"

How low can the bar go? I predict:
"Eh, if he just trims ObamaCare a little bit, that will be okay"

[Stormy Dragon]

How low can the bar go?

If he spends four solid years trolling people they don't like on Twitter, the base will be happy, because that's really all they care about.

[Bra Ket]

How about this for a bar: none of the doomsday scenarios we were promised actually come to pass, AND he doesn't nominate any more of those socialist idiots to the supreme court like the last guy did.

[MarkLastname]

"He set out to limit government..."
Really? When?

[Crusty Juggler aka "Chad"]

Inside Bannon's struggle: From 'shadow president' to Trump's marked man

Admin infighting, etc, Trump runs a loose ship. The most relevant section in Crustyland:

As tensions have heightened in recent weeks, the Bannon and Kushner camps have devolved into opposing firing squads. Team Bannon believes the hosts of MSNBC's "Morning Joe," a show the president watches regularly, are speaking regularly with Kushner and projecting his anti-Bannon sentiments.

Obama watched that show, too. Washington, DC is a place where Morning Joe matters.

[Bee Tagger]

A presidential coffee mug that reads: "Don't even try talking to me until i've had my morning joe."

[A Cynic's Guide to Zen]

I know my breakfast doesn't taste quite as good until I see wincing and bloviation from self-satisfied smug intellectuals on MSNBC.

[Fist of Etiquette]

So that whole article was sponsored content from MSNBC?

[CooterBrown]

Morning Joe was the catalyst of Gary Johnson's plummet. Come to think of it, didn't all of his Full Retard moments happen on MSNBC?

[Conchfritters]

You forgot the first CNN townhall (hell, the second one wasn't much better). Mcfee/Peterson '20!!

[Not a True MJG]

I hope Bannon writes a book about his struggle.

[Jerry on the sea]

You know who else wrote a book about a struggle?

[Citizen X - #6]

Sapphire?

[Citizen X - #6]

"I said it was obsolete. It's no longer obsolete." President Donald Trump has reversed his position on NATO.

How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Bomb(ers)

[Fist of Etiquette]

"Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe warned Thursday that North Korea might be capable of firing a missile loaded with sarin nerve gas toward Japan."

Sarin on the mind. What's next? Panic about the Norks firing human trafficking and clown missiles at everyone?

[Crusty Juggler aka "Chad"]

Inmates built computers hidden in ceiling, connected them to prison network

Inmates at a medium-security Ohio prison secretly assembled two functioning computers, hid them in the ceiling, and connected them to the Marion Correctional Institution's network. The hard drives were loaded with pornography, a Windows proxy server, VPN, VOIP and anti-virus software, the Tor browser, password hacking and e-mail spamming tools, and the open source packet analyzer Wireshark.

and they had zero commenting issues!

[Citizen X - #6]

Yeah but DanO was there.

[Free Society]

The RAM was easy to smuggle into the prison. But the motherboard and CPU heat-sink is another story...

[Ska]

The guy who brought in the Evo Coolermaster 212 has a fitting nickname.

[Free Society]

Loosey? Stretch?

[A Cynic's Guide to Zen]

Deep Soap

[MarkLastname]

His fellow inmates all admire his largesse.

[Crusty Juggler aka "Chad"]

Carlsbad?

[Ska]

Was that your nickname in college?

[Crusty Juggler aka "Chad"]

You know, because the inmate's anus is wide and deep, like the cavern.

[Ska]

Eat penguin shit you ass spelunker.

[Crusty Juggler aka "Chad"]

Watchdog warns of 'unnecessary risk' to VA hospital patients in DC

Among the issues identified, the watchdog found that the facility has no effective inventory system for managing medical equipment and supplies; 18 of the 25 sterile satellite storage areas for supplies were dirty when inspected; and there are numerous and critical open senior staff positions that will make it difficult to address challenges.

Those issues have led to canceled surgeries, the use of expired equipment and borrowing equipment from elsewhere, among other incidents, according to the report.

Thank you for your service!

[Citizen X - #6]

Attention single payer fans: this is what single payer looks like. Hope you like MRSA!

Anecdotally, a college buddy of mine is now a surgeon. He briefly worked for the VA at one point and spent the whole time complaining that he had nothing to do - the bureaucracy was so impenetrable that very few patients ever made it as far as surgery.

[Juice]

The VA is not a single payer system. It's a nationalized system like NHS. All government-run.

[Citizen X - #6]

That seems a fairly minor, pedantic quibble, the opening for which i blame a lack of coffee this morning. Word to your biological mother.

[Juice]

I wouldn't call it minor or pedantic. One is a monopsony and the other is a total monopoly.

[Citizen X - #6]

Yeah, well, it still LOOKS like that regardless. [kicks pebble]

[MarkLastname]

One could argue that a government monopsony would eliminate meaningful competition among providers and they would basically end up functioning like a monopolistic cartel.

[$park? leftist poser]

Hey, do you want inexpensive health care or not?

[Griffin3]

They've got inexpensive health care in North Korea, too. Unless you get the ZPU-4 upgrade.

[Fist of Etiquette]

United Airlines will offer refunds to every passenger on the flight from which Dr. David Dao was forcibly removed by police.

By force, if necessary.

[Crusty Juggler aka "Chad"]

Attendees chant 'you lie' at U.S. Rep. Joe Wilson during Graniteville town hall

GRANITEVILLE ? U.S. Rep. Joe Wilson received some protests Monday like other Republican congressmen nationwide during town halls this year, getting drowned out at times with loud boos and receiving 30 seconds of "You Lie" chants.

"I moved here from somewhere else," she said. "If I had known before I moved here that this is the man who stood up in Washington, D.C., and yelled at our former president, I would not have moved here."

I think she's lying...

[Fist of Etiquette]

Carpetbaggers not welcome.

[Rhywun]

I'm embarrassed to live in the same country as someone who thinks that calling out the president's BS is embarrassing.

[John DeWitt]

No, I'm sure she thinks it's ok to call out a president, as long as that president isn't a tyrant from her team.

[Zeb]

He did lie, didn't he? (Obama, that is?)

[mad.casual]

"If I had known before I moved here that this is the man who stood up in Washington, D.C., and yelled at our
former president, I would not have moved here."

"If I had known casting aspersions at the president would cause aspersions to be cast at me, I'd have thrown my shoe at him instead. Or maybe a rolex."

[Crusty Juggler aka "Chad"]

Alabama Megachurch Moves Closer to Getting Own Police Force

The Alabama Senate voted 24 to 4 on Tuesday to allow the Briarwood Presbyterian Church, a megachurch located in suburban Birmingham, to break with precedent and establish its own police force.

"The police officers would be restricted to the church's campuses and be able to respond to emergency situations while coordinating with local authorities," he wrote.

[Juice]

Use the Lord's name in vain? That's a tazin'.

[A Cynic's Guide to Zen]

Pope Urban the Second had some thoughts on this, according to Fulcher of Chartres:

"All who die by the way, whether by land or by sea, or in battle against the pagans, shall have immediate remission of sins. This I grant them through the power of God with which I am invested. O what a disgrace if such a despised and base race, which worships demons, should conquer a people which has the faith of omnipotent God and is made glorious with the name of Christ! With what reproaches will the Lord overwhelm us if you do not aid those who, with us, profess the Christian religion!" [...] WAR ON COPS, DEUS VULT!

[Adans smith]

So much for the meek inheriting the earth.

[Free Society]

I've always considered that a frightening prospect.

[This Machine Chips Fascists]

As did the the priests of the Temples of Syrinx.

[John DeWitt]

It's basically Canada.

[A Cynic's Guide to Zen]

At first, this Beatitude seems like a stated desired way of life. "Be a peaceful person, and you will eventually be wealthy."

But the entire religion is based on receiving awards in the afterlife, serving God zealously while alive, and forging a communal collective bond between fellow members (with high deference to the mouthpieces of God.)

Considering this, "Blessed are the meek" seems more of a challenge to the motivated among the flock. In other words, "The weak will get a consolation prize. Remember all this talk of heaven? You want that, right?" Or, "Don't feel bad about being inferior. You'll get something."

This Beatitude sets up the foundation for the Martyrdom clause that is so commonly found in the dominating religions of human history. Valhalla, Indulgences, Islamic Martyrdom, etc. It is easy to direct and order troops to die when they are convinced their death is secondary to eternal reward.

[$park? leftist poser]

Considering this, "Blessed are the meek" seems more of a challenge to the motivated among the flock

If Nietzsche is to be believed, many of the tenets of Christianity were direct contradictions of Roman faith. Romans praised strength and power so, to differentiate themselves when forming their religion, Christians praised meekness.

[Zeb]

The other thing is, if an omnipotent god says the meek inherit the earth, then the meek inherit the earth. Doesn't matter what anyone else thinks.

[$park? leftist poser]

And that's something I find a bit funny too. If your lead holy man is saying things like:

O what a disgrace if such a despised and base race, which worships demons, should conquer a people which has the faith of omnipotent God and is made glorious with the name of Christ!

I'd be a bit concerned about the actual omnipotence of said God.

[Zeb]

The Lord works in mysterious ways to confound the wise.

[Zeb]

They are all much better in the King James version anyway.

I don't think that the contemporary English meaning of "meek" really gets the point across either.

[loveconstitution1789]

Now that Republicans are in power, who needs the Constitution.

The separation of church and state clause is hated among religious Republicans.

[$park? leftist poser]

The separation of church and state clause is hated among religious Republicans.

How does this apply here?

[Agammamon]

So, 'The Apocalypse Codex' was *right*!

[Crusty Juggler aka "Chad"]

'Girls': Lena Dunham series marks end of an era

Girls" was too smart and self-aware to fall into a trap of its own making. Sure, some millennials were this bad, but these millennials were just taking a cue from their own self-absorbed parents, those once-despised boomers. What goes around, comes around. The joke was also on them.

[Rhywun]

I'm glad Gen X is typically ignored in these arguments.

[mad.casual]

Sow the seeds of discontent and apathy and reap the fruit. Or not. Whatever.

[Rhywun]

Like I care.

[Crusty Juggler aka "Chad"]

Whatever.

[CooterBrown]

I thought Boomer's children were Gen X. And Gen Xr's kids were millennials? Fuck it.

[Zeb]

Depends how old they were when they had kids.

I'm late Gen-X and my parents are definitely boomers. The oldest gen-x people are parents of some late millennials, but mostly gen-x has had kids from the mid 90s to now or so, so most are probably whatever we are calling the next one after millennials now.

This would all be so much easier to keep track of if everyone would just breed on a more regular schedule. I propose that once every 5 years people between the ages of 20 and 30 be permitted to breed. That will give most people the opportunity to have two children, which is the right number, and we'll finally get this generation thing sorted out.

[mad.casual]

I was gonna suggest that it be done like horses and you just give everyone in the hemisphere an age and/or birthday regardless of when they were actually born.

Then I realized that that doesn't solve the problem and it convinces me even more that the whole generational nomenclature stuff is just noise.

[lap83]

Depends how old they were when they had kids.

Yes, my parents are boomers and my siblings and I are Millenials

[Half-Virtue, Half-Vice]

When the Vulcan's do this in Star Trek it always makes for comedy gold. In case you didn't know Vulcan's lock up their sexual urges for logical reasons but logically they know they also need to propagate so every so often at a predetermined time there is the equivalent of Vulcan Spring Break, pretty sure Spock has knocked out Kirk and stolen the ship before.

[Citizen X - #6]

Nerd.

[Agammamon]

Dude, its an article written *by a millennial*. All that shit that happened before 1995 is, like, ancient history and it all get jumbled up. Like when Bill Gates invented the telephone.

[JWatts]

"Like when Bill Gates invented the telephone."

Kids these days. Everyone knows that Steve Jobs invented the telephone.

[Meh.]

"Lots of millennials said the show didn't 'represent' them."

Yeah, no kidding. I have yet to meet a real, live millennial who is a Lena Dunham fan.

[Crusty Juggler aka "Chad"]

Hi there, I'm Crusty - nice to meet you.

[Not a True MJG]

If you call that living...

[Crusty Juggler aka "Chad"]

Dyin' ain't much of a livin', boy.

[lap83]

Crusty thinks he's a millennial because he took a poll once.

[$park? leftist poser]

That being said, he's taken a pole many times. So I've heard.

[Crusty Juggler aka "Chad"]

You're both mean!

[Meh.]

Or even worse than mean - not woke. We need to accept and support Crusty, whatever his generation identity may be!

[Crusty Juggler aka "Chad"]

After 26 years on the lam, 'last' Miami Cocaine Cowboy arrested in Orlando

"Willie" Falcon and his partner, Salvador "Sal" Magluta, were recognized as kingpins among the legendary Cocaine Cowboys who turned South Florida into a violent hub of drug trafficking in the 1980s. The pair used their speedboats not only for ocean racing, but also to haul loads of cocaine smuggled from Colombian through the Caribbean to the shores of Miami.

The Godmother is not going to be amused.

[Adans smith]

She's alright,she's alright,she's alright,..... cocaine.

[Crusty Juggler aka "Chad"]

Miley Cyrus' 'nude snaps leak online as she falls victim to the same hackers as Emma Watson and Amanda Seyfried'

Okay pervs, it was fun when you did it to Kate Upton, but this is a step too far. Gross.

[This Machine Chips Fascists]

Is her tongue fully extended? I only like looking at Miley when her tongue is out.

[Citizen X - #6]

I think she has a condition that prevents her from drawing her tongue into her mouth.

[Adans smith]

I'm more of a Sarah Shahi guy.

[mad.casual]

Okay pervs, it was fun when you did it to Kate Upton, but this is a step too far. Gross.

This is the internet and there are rules. You'll thank us later.

[$park? leftist poser]

It's unsurprising that the real focus of the article is how pissed Emma and Amanda are and makes no other mention of Miley past the first sentence.

[Ken Shultz]

"I said it was obsolete. It's no longer obsolete." President Donald Trump has reversed his position on NATO."

This must be reflective of Bannon getting 'moted.

Bannon was kicked off the National Security Council last week, and now Trump seems to be going more globalist all the time. That anti-globalism Bannon represented seems to be going out the window with Bannon.

Those of us who abhor Trump's economic nationalism, etc. should celebrate. We should try to resist the urge to condemn Trump for abandoning that part his old agenda when possible. I understand Trump offered China a better trade deal in exchange for China's help in dealing with North Korea. That may be a betrayal of Trump's campaign stance, but from a libertarian perspective, that's a winner.

Bannon's nationalism flew in the face of the neocons on security policy, though, and that way lies danger. That being said, we shouldn't condemn Trump for abandoning campaign stances that were anti-libertarian. The problem with Trump is that his policies are anti-libertarian. The problem with Trump is not that he is Trump.

[Agammamon]

"Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe warned Thursday that North Korea might be capable of firing a missile loaded with sarin nerve gas toward Japan."

Hmm.

a) I might be capable of firing a missile loaded with sarin nerve gas (which is redundant - just say Sarin, there's no other form of it *except* for the nerve agent) towards Japan.

And I'm as likely to hit Japan as North Korea is. And, let's face it. This stuff takes some knowledge to use properly. In and *enclosed subway train* they still only managed to kill 12 people with one of the deadliest substances available. Drop random missiles at random spots and the missile is a greater danger than the payload.

b) Maybe the Japanese should do something about this?

[racer X]

.... regularly siding with [fill in the blank] ? against [fill in the blank]. ....

Not really what is needed in a jurist

[Brandybuck]

The continuing redefinition of the word "obsolete".

[Half-Virtue, Half-Vice]

Maybe the old definition was... oh never mind.