Army Maj. John Rigsbee, a spokesperson for U.S. Central Command, said in a statement that Abdul Hamid al-Matar was killed

By Associated Press 10/23/2021 08:09 AM EDT

The U.S. military said it killed a senior al-Qaida leader in an airstrike Friday in northwest Syria. Army Maj. John Rigsbee, a spokesperson for U.S. Central Command, said in a statement that Abdul Hamid al-Matar was killed by a drone strike [....]

The drone strike came two days after a U.S. military outpost in southern Syria was hit by a coordinated attack that included drones and rockets. U.S. officials said no American troops stationed there were injured or killed.

Op-ed by Thomas Edsall @ NYTimes.com, Oct. 20

Do liberals or conservatives experience higher levels of satisfaction, happiness or meaning in life? Is the left or the right more inclined to intolerance, bigotry or conspiratorial thinking? Are Democrats or Republicans more loyal to family and friends?

A wide range of scholars in a variety of disciplines are asking these questions and taking them seriously. Ultimately, though, this line of inquiry raises an even broader question: whether liberals and conservatives function on fundamentally different moral planes.

Two similarly titled papers with markedly disparate conclusions illustrate the range of disagreement on this subject. “Why Are Conservatives Happier Than Liberals?” by Jaime Napier of N.Y.U. in Abu Dhabi and John Jost of N.YU., and “Conservatives Are Happier Than Liberals, but Why?” by Barry R. Schlenker and John Chambers, both of the University of Florida, and Bonnie Le of the University of Rochester.

Using nationally representative samples from the United States and nine other countries, Napier and Jost note that they 

consistently found conservatives (or right-wingers) are happier than liberals (or left-wingers). This ideological gap in happiness is not accounted for by demographic differences or by differences in cognitive style. We did find, however, that the rationalization of inequality — a core component of conservative ideology — helps to explain why conservatives are, on average, happier than liberals.

Napier and Jost contend that their determinations are “consistent with system justification theory, which posits that viewing the status quo (with its attendant degree of inequality) as fair and legitimate serves a palliative function.” [....]

By Charles Toutant @ Law.com, Oct. 19 

The U.S. Senate confirmed Christine O’Hearn on Tuesday to a U.S. District Court judgeship, bringing sorely needed help to the shorthanded District of New Jersey.

O’Hearn’s nomination was approved by a 53-44 vote, with most Republican senators voting no. She becomes the third nominee of President Joe Biden to win confirmation in New Jersey [....]

[....] The vote splitting largely on party lines does not suggest any controversy about O’Hearn, but is merely a reflection of the current mindset among senators about judicial selection, said Carl Tobias, a law professor at the University of Richmond who studies federal judicial selection.

“There were a lot of close votes when [Donald] Trump was in, and there is a payback going on,” Tobias said.

Three Republican senators—Susan Collins of Maine, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska—crossed the aisle to join with independents and Democrats in support of O’Hearn [....]

By Alana Wise @ NPR.org, Oct. 19

Nebraska Rep. Jeff Fortenberry was charged Tuesday with lying to federal authorities about illegal campaign contributions made to his 2016 reelection campaign.

In a video posted online ahead of the indictment, Fortenberry, a conservative Republican who represents the state's 1st district, alluded to illegal contributions made to his campaign by Lebanese-Nigerian billionaire Gilbert Chagoury [....]

The congressman said that he was first questioned about the illegal campaign contributions two-and-a-half years ago by FBI agents from California. The grand jury indictment was filed in Los Angeles [....]

read the article before judging; I think they are basically expecting other countries are going to "cheat" even though it would be easier to support unrealistic agitprop -