Politics

Sens. Ben Sasse (R-Nebraska) and Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) repeated some boilerplate hawkish nostrums on foreign policy in a recent op-ed. They concluded:

We say this delicately, as we work hard to respect the office of the presidency, but our allies everywhere are baffled. We asked one head of state, What single lesson would you like us to report back to our bosses, our constituents? The reply: “Get us a U.S. president who will know that the U.S. needs to lead. We need you. All the freedom-loving nations of the world need you.”

Wouldn’t it be a strange world to live in if 50% of military spending was paid for by just 5% of the population? Sometimes truth is stranger than fiction.

Courtesy of: Visual Capitalist

Every year, the United States government spends the equivalent of $3,300 for each working citizen on its military budget. In aggregate, this grand total of $610 billion in defense spending amounts to about half of the dollars globally spent on the military.

Earlier today, we noted that going into the South Carolina primary, Donald Trump is sitting on a commanding lead not just in the state, where he’s up 17 points, but nationally, where his lead over Ted Cruz is an even larger 20 points.

Perhaps most disconcerting for Cruz, Trump has a nine point national edge among white evangelicals, a voter base the Texas senator should by all rights dominate. Trump is also only 3 points behind Cruz among voters who identify as “very conservative.”

The Supreme Court Has Murdered The US Constitution

Guest Column by John Whitehead

The People vs. the Police State: The Struggle for Justice in the Supreme Court

By John W. Whitehead
February 16, 2016

“We are not to simply bandage the wounds of victims beneath the wheels of injustice, we are to drive a spoke into the wheel itself.” —- Dietrich Bonhoeffer

The untimely death of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia has predictably created a political firestorm.

Ukraine have confirmed that an imminent collapse of its current coalition government is on the cards, amid a Parliamentary vote on whether to hold snap elections in the country.  Ukraine’s largest political party confirmed that they will vote whether the performance of Prime Minister Arseny Yatseniuk is “unsatisfactory” before arranging a general election. Theglobeandmail.com reports: If the government loses, lawmakers need 150 signatures in parliament to hold a no-confidence vote, which could lead to national elections if the coalition cannot agree on a new cabinet.