President Trump: The NEW one and only politics thread

'Baby Trump' balloon heading to LSU-Alabama game

 

If this were about Biden - and the testimony tells us it's not, not really - that'd be more interesting. But, of course, we have whatever-you-call-it of a phone call that shows no demand, no quid pro quo in writing, no evidence of that. Initially, these words were framed as a kind of mob boss's leverage by Adam Schiff. When that failed to capture the American imagination, we shifted to all the other folks with concerns and impulses and presumptions and vibes about the situation. Vindman, whose testimony I do appreciate because it laid bare the real concern being Ukraine's funding - and thus, somehow, America's own self-defense - sort of advanced the plot. The idea, at this point - and, again, I'll concede this has been handled pretty beautifully - is just toss up enough of corruption-y stuff to get the impeachment and then put a kind of "you will forever be remembered for this" decision on the senators. Which is fine. Trump's certainly done enough collective things. He has.

My hackles just aren't up about this particular thing. They're not. They weren't about the Russiagate stuff, either. We spent, I dunno, 5-6 years waterboarding people and putting dog collars on them for a war in Iraq that eventually spawned a group of sicko-terrorists worse than any we've ever seen, touching off another genocide in the region. That was some heinous shit. This is bureaucrats moving chess pieces around a board to create the effect that Trump is simultaneously a sinister mastermind and a complete fool.

And maybe they get the guy out, and maybe we're all better for that, and maybe it's "just the one time," and everyone goes back to playing nice. But unelected government officials, with the aid of the media willing to keep their names anonymous, has pummeled the office of the president for three years. And if it's all "just for Trump," well, maybe there's a greater good. But it's for whomever holds the office, what's happening should worry people. That it doesn't is pure rooting for laundry.

 

Mostly, that Trump is the devil they know - the one who basically touts himself as a devil - vs. the ones who act like they're saints, but aren't in the slightest way.

 

It.

Was.

More.

Than.

Just.

One.

Phone.

Call.

 

I was watching the NFL last night and there's a commercial of players writing to soldiers, and it's lovely and all that - nice sentiments for Veterans Day - but there's a line in there, I think from Brees, about how he couldn't do what he does without soldiers, etc, etc.

And on some basic level, that's kind of true. It's also kind of not true. Our national safety, as it were, is largely guaranteed by our copious amounts of nuclear weapons, our radar technology and the oceans to the right and left of us. Our national vulnerability is rooted in terrorism both foreign and domestic, but no nation is going to war with us. There's not a single advantage in that for any of those nations when, in essence, they'd be wiping themselves out and, in the global economy, the greatest, most voracious consumers on earth. Who wants that? But our military might - so-and-so stationed in Syria - did not prevent 9/11. The White House, as a physical structure, was likely saved by regular citizens on a plane.

But it reminded me, now that we have a volunteer army, how much money is wasted and spent on foreign policy we don't want or need, how holidays - the Fourth of July, Thanksgiving, even Christmas - have, to some degree, become about the "ultimate sacrifice" of our military stationed in some country where we don't need to be, pursuing foreign policy we don't need to pursue, featuring folks who chose to be there, doing things that have little to do with our security and, may, in some cases, have little to do with our national interest.

One of the greatest weaknesses of Trump is that he's so...ludicrous...as a man, that even when he might pursue something potentially wise, it's viewed as dumb, every action is a mistake, and the media, eager to critique Trump at every turn, will allow anonymous caterwauling on end from unidentified bureaucrats and administration officials. The downshot of that is, what happens when he's gone? Back to normal? Or have the channels opened up to an extent where the elected executive - whoever it is - is less trustworthy than all the minions below who get free channels with the press?

 

Well . . . fuck them, too, amirite?

 

I'm sorry, but this is just completely inaccurate. Everything who does? Trump? No. No, he's an embarrassment on many levels. But his presence in the WH has shed light on things that shouldn't make people feel confident about how our government operates, either. Two things can be true at once. It doesn't have to be binary and I am not necessarily a defender of Trump just because I bring up x, y and z.

Throughout the 80s, I watched the US government sidle up to complete louts - terrorist louts - in this ongoing "the enemy of my enemy is my friend" nonsense, and resulted in helping prop up dictators in Africa, Iraq and Central America, and terrorists in Afghanistan/Saudi Arabia. Many of the horrors that came grow in the last 20 years were seeds sown by our own foreign policy.

 

You are either a really good troll (I will give you the benefit of a doubt) or a truly moronic stooge. First it wasn't one phone call and second...no demand or quid pro quo? WTF? Go fuck yourself asshole.