If you're gonna get religion, this is the religion to get:

Ragtime "Ode to Joy"

As long as you have got the bread, there's nothing more that need be said.

The President appoints the ambassadors.

The latest revelations puzzle me. If Mr Trump was dissatisfied with his ambassador, he could just fire her and appoint someone more to his taste. Indeed, he did fire her and appoint someone more to his taste. Why would agents acting on his behalf (allegedly) go through such an elaborate and risky surveillance, to say nothing about what action was contemplated that required such surveillance? Only if one were hoping to create a provocation and pin it on someone else, it seems, would it be worthwhile to go through such a charade.

-- Mal

I seem to recall a Tomahawk strike a while back...

... on Syria, IIRC, where we warned the Russians in advance about the strike so there wouldn't be any casualties among them. Let's see, the Syrians evacuated the buildings and all we did was blow up some facilities and runway structure. Which had some on DU whining about how "ineffective" the response was, and others angrily defending it as really quite serious.

Dunno why that came to mind just now.

-- Mal