Living in the Northeast, there are a lot of reminders every day of it. For instance, I am about 7 miles from the homestead of one of the pilots, and driving through the interchange that now bears his name always gives me a shiver.

Do I believe there was a conspiracy? I have reviewed the arguments pro and con, and I personally am not swayed that it was a set-up. I can totally appreciate the people who believe it was, though.

I am not fond of the fact that the government at the time used 9/11 as an opportunity to strip us of some of our rights, but any privacy we had taken from us then is matched by the privacy citizens give up freely these days with phone apps, etc.

It will take another 40 years before we will really be able to assess what 9/11 did to us as a people and a country though.

Workin, I didn't mean the comments to wish any ill will on Carolina. Sorry if it might have sounded that way.

My comment was that Carolina IS a red bastion, where Puerto Rico might be bluer than redder. We know that the assistance to PR was a little "lax", with the Donald having a little trouble remembering that it was NOT a foreign country, but a US Commonwealth. (If we recall, he stated he had talked with the "president" of PR...) Having done business in PR recently, I know that we COULD be supplying more support to PR than we did

Natural disasters suck, no matter where they happen.

You say "hot air is energy", but it seems the current POTUS likes to play favorites; a lot of times his hot air is just blowing up his own butt. That is not what the president is supposed to do... EVERY taxpayer has the right to expect the same help from our government when they face a disaster.

East, be careful, your "southern" is showing again.

Obama was born here in the US. That makes him a US citizen, just like you, me, and even kids of immigrants, like I believe out current president is.

I mean, Trump beat the drum on this forever to whip up the racists against Obama, but eventually just let it go when it was verified Obama was born here.

"Saying "go back to Africa" is simply ignorant and divisive.

My grandparents came to America and faced "NINA" ("No Irish Need Apply"). I am not saying that that is anything CLOSE to what SOME Americans still face for prejudice, but it was enough for my grandfather to teach me that finding the BEST person for the job means looking past skin color, what church they attend, and whether they prefer pasta or potatoes with their "gravy". Not for nothing, but Grampa worked hard, came to this country on the bottom, and walked off the field significantly better off

Back to the OP.... If the guy is a top dog at Limited Brands, he probably has some coin in his pocket. Usually, the Republicans can rely on well-compensated guys like him to fund their candidates. If the guy is ticked off enough to not automatically contribute to the Republican candidate, that COULD be trouble for a Republican candidate who previously counted on his money in the candidate's war chest.

Agreed, by himself, no big deal if one formerly-reliable Republican contributor might no longer be counted on to support the effort, but how many of these people "defecting" does it take before the the GOP starts taking notice and getting worried? Money is the fuel of campaigns.

Dub, I totally agree. However, it is a statement I hear every election cycle: " [democratic candidate] is coming for your guns".

Like I say, it is one of those lies inserted on social media by operatives (I believe) from a certain National three-letter Association, and the more and more it gets repeated, the simple people think that it is a fact. This Association is in the pocket of the gun and ammunition manufacturers, and if you can put fear into the simple people, they will go out and hoard (buy) more guns and ammo "before it gets banned".

A buddy of mine owns a gun shop, and laughs all the way to the bank when these simple people buy the latest lie, because they go nuts buying him out of ammo.

Actually, waiting for COMPANIES to re-tool workers is the same as some folks waiting for government handouts to improve themselves. Employees need to motivate themselves, take advantage of tuition reimbursement from companies when available, or simply invest in THEMSELVES to take classes to improve themselves,making themselves more marketable/ promotable.

It is the same at all levels: if a plumber refuses to learn how to work with PEX pipe, preferring to stay with sweating copper only, he is going to lose bids to plumbers who have re-educated and re-tooled for the new standards.

I hear on these threads that "the welfare folks are too lazy to go out and get a new job", but folks who are in a job and are too lazy to go to night school are just as much at fault for the position they are in.

Company or government, waiting for a "hand out" is a lame excuse.

I hear this claim all the time here that Obama was nothing but a liar, but no one can tell me the top 10 lies he told. I even gave the first one for free "You can keep your own doctor". I have yet to hear the other 9 lies that complete his Top 10.

On the other hand, I can easily give you the top 10 lies that our current guy has pushed in the past 18 months, without even working up a sweat.

Obama owns this good economy, a simple look at the charts pre-11/2016 shows that this economy is continuing on the straight line that Obama policies got it on. Contrary to what was claimed in this thread, the economy did not tank while he was president, Obama inherited the Bush recession and turned it around.

Trump has done nothing to influence the economy since coming in 18 months ago.... which is actually a good thing, because he hasn't screwed up something that was already going well. The jury is still out on what tariffs are going to do to the economy, and if the increase on prices on Chinese goods impacts Walmart, we could be seeing a net loss of jobs.

Ah, I stand corrected, thanks. I should speak REGIONALLY in the Northeast (probably mid Atlantic as well) it went down to those levels. California with its higher emissions requirements (and thus, higher $$) might have skewed the national number.

A late $.02 here:

9/11 memorials do not have room for comments on racism, selfies ON THE WHOLE are overdone, but especially at memorial sites.... and POTUSs should remember their diplomacy when they are going to memorial services and not offer fist-pumps to the crowd.

9/11 is a day about American unity, and it should be a time to remember that the enemy thought they could destroy us that day with fear, but we instead came together in UNITY.
- the ironworkers, firemen, car rental agents, heck, the people of Gander Newfoundland who all helped another human that day did it without labels or prejudice. We helped out ONE ANOTHER.
- that day we were all shocked, angry, vengeful,... but we were also united in a way I have not seen since I was a kid.

We need more of that today. Like him or hate him, this president had increased the divide in this country, so much so that families are split. We need unification.

Labels can do bad things, but they can also be good. I am an "American", I am "caring", I am "aware", and try to be more "charitable" and "informed" every day.

Especially to the folks I sometimes try to label as "idiots" and "clueless"!

9/11. Never forget.

I believe that we are not seeing more folks DOING such things, but that we are HEARING about such things more just because of the rapidity of information transfer now.

When I was growing up, we still had perverts "offering candy to strangers" from cars, etc. There were folks who killed their own families, I have seen many shows on TV detailing the murders in black and white police photos. Heck, my town growing up was a ground zero for "funny priests", as we called them growing up. ("Stay away from Fr ___, he is 'funny'")

Now though, a death in Florida is picked up and reported nationally rather quickly (to fill the multi-outlet 24-hour news cycle), instead of having to wait for the morning paper to detail it.

I mean, would folks on the east coast ever have heard the name Elizabeth Smart in the 70s? It would have just been an abduction known in California.

As far as the comment in the thread of it being "the face of liberalism" though, there is a danger with simply slapping a name on anything. They come in ALL flavors, we don't know the killer's politics, so simply saying it is a manifestation of "liberalism" shows that we are too lazy to think something through... and if someone TOLD you it was just an example of "liberalism" examine their bias before they tell you the next thing, because it is probably tinged with that same incorrect slant.

Oh, and as far as "if guns are outlawed, next we will have to outlaw steak knives", an interesting thing happened after the Marathon Bombings:

Across from a location of an organization I belong to, there is a shop run by folks I believe by their appearance might be Indian, Pakastani, or some other group from that part of the globe. (It doesn't matter to me where they are from, and I would not mention it except it pertains to the story). For years, they had in their front windows cooking and food serving items, like aluminum tifins (a lunchbox - type item), and... pressure-cookers.

Shortly after the bombings, the pressure cookers disappeared from the window...

I hope that happened simply because they were sensitive to their neighbors, and did not want to remind anyone about an everyday implement used as a weapon.... not because someone saw their appearance and suggested they were subversive, or encouraging violence

Ms, I looked through the thread, and I did not see who mentioned the statement "Democrats don't want anyone to be able to own guns or have a CCW." I am in agreement with the other parts of your statement though, and I strongly believe that that one line is a falsehood pushed by a certain "National Organization" to push votes to candidates they lobby.

For the record, I am licensed for Concealed Carry, and I am totally against the NRA, believing that they are just a marketing arm for gun manufacturers and that their "safety" ethics have been compromised by profit.

Here in the Northeast, we have some tough gun laws, and I believe they work well. I hear friends complain about certain (high-cap)magazines being illegal, but someone is always going to complain.

I am not sure that society would be safer if there was a lot more CC going on, as I feel that, especially in a place like a theater there could be a lot more "repercussions" should say, 10 good guys fired back at 10 bad guys, (tunnel vision, friendly fire, etc)

The Democrats are not "after your guns", as I hear during every election cycle. We all have to looks past the statements and seek the bias of every statement made, pro- or anti- every candidate.

Rock, I agree. Like in the old Baretta theme: "Don't do the crime if you can't do the time."

Unfortunately, the problem of prison is that now the already-overloaded taxpayer is footing the bill for the perp's three squares a day, clothing, and his accommodations.

Here in the Northeast,nobody wants a new prison built in their town either. "NIMBY" mentality.

A lot of State mental homes got shut down here, because the State was sick of paying for the room and board of those folks.

So the kid who stole a set of Cons from another (leaving the gun out for a second) goes away. Where? Do we stack them up like cordwood in the existing prisons?

OK, he uses a gun. If it is murder, he definitely goes away anyway. If it is an illegal gun, he goes away in MA. If he is a tard, the Social Workers should have already filed had the paperwork on him so a background check would keep him from being able to get a gun.

OK, so no State mental home to put him in, prisons are full (besides, the state budget can't afford to have him in there anyway).

Probably the best bet IS for more cops at the schools, with orders to shoot perps to kill, sort of a "Final Solution"... (an aside, but Christopher Browning's book "Ordinary Men" has to deal with another "Final Solution")

The only problem to THIS is that we have to pay the COPS (hey, new jobs!), and they are going to get pretty messed up after a while, doing what they need to do. Parents are going to be pissed off. Oh, and though I never shot a kid for a pair of kicks, I did some stupid stuff as a kid that would have got ME $.07 of quick-moving lead too.

I really don't know what the solution IS, but the simple stuff has been thought through already.

Trump IS to blame for the hurricane! Everybody knows they are caused by lots of hot air that gets swirling around a centerpiece.

- Hot air? Trump is full of it, no one can doubt that. "Look at a wonderful job I am doing taking credit for how Obama repaired the economy", etc

- Centerpiece? We know that Trump believes he is the center stake for everything that is good, and how all news is about him and his big ego.

I mean, the sun would not come up tomorrow unless Trump deems it so. "I did not give the sun permission to rise today, if it came up, that is FAKE NEWS!"

Just hope FEMA dos a better job in Carolina than it did in Puerto Rico last year. Carolina folks vote RED...

Well, the joke about Howard Dean (that idiot from Vermont, a dairy state) was "He just wants to get in the White House so that he can drive the price of MILK up, like Bush did for oil".

War in Afghanistan and Pakistan (which were connected to 9/11) was not as productive to Bush family fortunes as going into Iraq. The Saudis were not feuding with Afghans and Pakis, no oil there. But the Saudis had a big beef with Iraq, and had W come over to destroy the oil fields so that Chaney's companies (like Haliburton) could rebuild them... big money there for them. It is funny, they never found the great underground subway/ bunker system in Iraq (where Powell told the UN Saddam was hiding the WMDs, tunnels supposedly built by American firms)... unfortunately, that was a set-up, ruined Colin Powell's chance to run for president.

Also, War along the Straits of Hormuz upset shipments of oil, further raising the price. Reps can claim that a president can't influence the price of oil, but by waging war on the highway from the oilfields, the pres certainly can.

I am going to need a citation on that one. Enron CEO Ken Lay was a big friend of Chaney, who was having meetings with him in the White House after the election (Read the book "Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room"). Enron and Dynegy were not big fans of Bill's, and they both wer big backers of the Bush-Chaney ticket. WorldCom's Bernie Ebbers (or as I referred to him in meetings at the time, "Uncle Bernie") was a Clinton guy, but never traveled to Russia.

Ahh, disagreement from a man who self-admits in another thread that he doesn't know economics. And another biased article? The cheers for Trump in it should have given it away. If it was the Clintons that caused the "second" Bush recession (the first one, as I have already stated, can't be blamed fully on Bush, but on the burst dot-com bubble), why was the action not taken by the Bush administration until 2005, as clearly stated in the article? That is after Bush's second term started. Possibly Bush was under pressure from his friends on Wall St to leave it just so?

Gas was indeed .87 a gallon under Bill Clinton, and shot up to over $4, when W invaded Iraq. One could speculate that a president in the oil business would KNOW that gas would go way up if they invaded a country (one which had nothing to do with 9/11), and what effect it might have on the economy. Hey, his advisors (which were mostly advisors from his dad's administration) didn't think they would make the same mistake twice....

Hmmm, now that you bring it up, I am trying to think, did the price of gas go UP or DOWN during the Obama administration? I seem to recall it was under $2 for a most of Obama's second term.

Well, Walmart is probably not going to go OUT, but with the tariffs being raised on Chinese crap, and Walmart being a leading merchandiser of Chinese crap, as the prices go up at Walmart, that could lead to less profits, and layoffs at Walmart.

If Boeing can't get their components from China cheaply enough (I believe Boeing wings are manufactured there, and flown to SeaTac in the world's largest cargo plane), their planes cost more in comparison to Airbus, which causes contracts to go to France instead of Seattle.

Remember that it is tough to find anything made of metal in this country that is not made in China

Of course, the tax cut was paid for by adding on to the deficit, which puts us more in debt with the Chinese we are fighting over tariffs with. Of course, we used to hear about the deficit all the time, when a Dem was growing it. Under this administration, we don't hear about it at all.

Yes, there is a LOT more to economics than wages. And just screwing around with tax breaks to the "greedy CEOs" and other people just like Trump himself, he is playing fast and loose with a good economy he inherited from the last administration.

"tell me again who's fault this is?"
Well, a poorly thought-out fiscal plan, such as a tax cut, which was put out so that the guy could simply put his name on a tax cut, and one which benefitted HIM more that the middle class, I think that would be:

Trump's fault

Well, it is weird that the piece was run on FoxNews, which is the Republican mouthpiece, and the jukebox that the Trump supporters dance to.

The cabinet is all doing the "12 apostles denial", ("Who, will it be ME, Lord?"), which is to be expected, and even his wife piped up with a denial of her own... (that is a first) But I think the mainstream Republican machine might be contemplating getting Trump out of there before he starts something like a shooting war with another country, or rioting by his supporters in the streets. Pence being a long-term congressman is in their eyes, somebody safer, and one with whom they can get more done.

Tombraider, you DO know that Project Mockingbird was an old op in the early 60s, right? Did you hang out a bunch with Timothy Leary?