Q: The U.S.-led coalition in Afghanistan dropped more bombs during the first quarter of 2018 than it has in the same period in any of the last 15 years, according to Pentagon data. The increased bombing is the latest evidence the 17-year-old war in Afghanistan is significantly intensifying since U.S. President Donald Trump announced his new military strategy for the country in August. Coalition planes dropped 1,186 weapons on Afghanistan during the first three months of 2018, according to figures released by U.S. Air Forces Central Command. The previous record (1,083) was set during the height of the war in 2011. The U.S. has not released 2001 to 2003 airstrike data. Those figures do not include activity by the Afghan Air Force (AAF), which has stepped up its aerial bombardment since gaining the ability to conduct airstrikes two years ago. The AAF carries out between 4 to 12 airstrikes every day, according to the Afghan Ministry of Defense. If recent trends are any indication, 2018 is likely to get even more violent. Fighting traditionally picks up during the warmer months, and the coalition has expanded its bombing campaign against the Islamic State group, as well as narcotic labs and other Taliban revenue sources. But there is little indication the expanded airstrikes are helping end the conflict, says Thomas Johnson, an Afghanistan specialist who teaches national security affairs at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California. "It's basically a tactic of desperation," said Johnson, author of Taliban Narratives: The Use of Power and Stories in the Afghanistan Conflict. "There's never been an insurgency in history that's been defeated purely through air power." Even high-level U.S. military officials concede the conflict remains a stalemate. According to the latest U.S. military estimate, the Afghan government controls 56 percent of Afghanistan's districts, with insurgents controlling or contesting the rest. Insurgent attacks also have continued. Nearly 60 people died Sunday when an Islamic State... What is the AAF responsible for? - the country's commercial aircraft - not enough information - daily airstrikes - aerial strategy and tactics
A: daily airstrikes

Q: Thank you for the a2a! I have a habit of making mental errors; some funny, some not. This one just happens to be funny. We had "open critiques" in art school. The idea was A- to point out how we could do it better, and B- to toughen us up for the advertising world. It's brutal, cruel, and cutthroat, and get ready for your stupid clients to ruin your tasteful design and fuck it all kinds of up to put a picture of their ugly-ass crotch dropping on there, or a huge starburst that says "SALE SALE SALE!". You had to learn not to care, and do your fulfilling artwork on the side. It's just a job; nothing personal. We were in the middle of a critique, and it was turning ugly. The only time our professor would jump in was if it turned personal. It had. He laid back and let us fight it out, until someone told the girl we were critiquing that "with your taste from growing up in a trailer park, looks like you'll be working for the Auto Trader" (a shitty, newsprint magazine that people sell used cars in- the worst of the worst design jobs). Before our professor could comment, I blurted out "For fuck's sake, Mom." I was about to say "tell them to break it the fuck up!" until the laughter started. Then I realized I'd called my professor, who had an MFA and spent 20 years in advertising at Saatchi and Saatchi, "Mom". He responded with such amazing, quick wit; "Ms. Hood, I admire your devotion to your mother; just remember she stays home while you come to class." I caught hell for it that entire semester. Luckily, we (almost) all had pretty tough skins, so it was amusing, even to our somewhat staid professor. He wrote on my end of semester assessment "Respectfully, Not Your Mom." I still keep that assessment to remind me to wear life like a loose garment. We all say stupid shit sometimes; just laugh at yourself and enjoy the silly moment. How does the student feel after calling his professor Mom? - Embarrassed but silly - Mad - Upset - not enough information
A: Embarrassed but silly

Q: WHITE HOUSE White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders, who was asked to leave a Virginia restaurant days ago, told reporters on Monday that "calls for harassment and a push for any Trump supporter to avoid the public is unacceptable." She was referring to comments from Congresswoman Maxine Waters, who previously has called for President Donald Trump's impeachment. Waters told supporters, "If you see anybody from that cabinet in a restaurant, in a department store, at a gasoline station, you get out and you create a crowd. And you push back on them, and you tell them they're not welcome anymore, anywhere." The most prominent Democrat in the House of Representatives, however, disagreed with Walters. "Trump's daily lack of civility has provoked responses that are predictable but unacceptable," Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi said on Twitter on Monday. "As we go forward, we must conduct elections in a way that achieves unity from sea to shining sea." Pelosi's tweet included a link to a CNN story about Waters encouraging harassment of Trump administration officials. Trump also responded to Water's remarks, saying on Twitter that the congresswoman whom he referred to as an "extraordinarily low IQ person" had called for his supporters to be harassed. In the social media message, the president concluded, "Be careful what you wish for Max!" Last week, protesters yelled at Department of Homeland Security chief Kirstjen Nielsen at an upscale Mexican restaurant near the White House. Earlier, Nielsen publicly defended the policy of separating children from parents who were apprehended for illegally entering the U.S., a policy the president has since reversed. Trump policy adviser Stephen Miller, also an immigration hard-liner, was called a "fascist" while dining at a Mexican cantina in a neighborhood in the District of Columbia. The incident involving Sanders took place Friday night at the Red Hen restaurant in Lexington, Virginia, 300 kilometers south of the U.S. capital. "I explained that the restaurant has certain... What was the likely view of policy adviser Stephen Miller towards the policy of separating children from their parents at the border? - he was indifferent - he believed the policy was inhumane - he fully supported the policy - not enough information
A: he fully supported the policy