President Trump: The NEW one and only politics thread

Sometimes your reading comprehension is questionable.

 

LBJ having "served" as compared to GWB is a bit of a stretch. Robert Caro's 1st volume gives a pretty good account of the nature of LBJ's "service" (primarily stateside in a political capacity and briefly -- also in more of a political capacity -- in the Pacific but far from combat operations). He flew on one combat mission as an observer (primarily so he could claim for political purposes that he "saw" combat). Either the plane came under fire or suffered generator trouble and had to turn back (accounts vary). Either way, all accounts say Johnson acted coolly under the circumstances, but putting him alongside JFK, GWHB and Truman with regard to his war record does a tremendous disservice to those three. He did spend a lot of time getting a custom uniform made and getting professional portraits of himself in uniform made. He leaves behind an arguably positive legacy in terms of domestic policy, but he was absolute piece of shit.

 

Thoughts and prayers for DQ.

 

"And Bolton, the former ambassador to the U.N. and noted war-fetishist, decried the leakers.

“When I read about the leak of the notes and the subject of the conversation, I was outraged by it,” Bolton said. “It’s completely unacceptable. You cannot conduct diplomacy, you cannot expect other foreign leaders to be candid and open in their conversations with the president if some munchkin in the executive branch decides they’re going to leak the talking points of the transcript or any other aspect of it.”

“I think this is really a terrible reflection on the individual or individuals that did this,” he continued, surely earning points with the new boss. “They should be ashamed of themselves.”


What does it do to diplomacy and foreign relations if the President brags that he made up statistics while talking to the Canadian PM? "You cannot conduct diplomacy, you cannot expect other foreign leaders to be candid and open in their conversations with the president" if he lies to you to your face and then laughs about it to the news cameras, either.

 

if some munchkin in the executive branch decides they’re going to leak the talking points of the transcript or any other aspect of it.

 

I'd like to say "We're trying", and we are... but I saw what Gary Palmer, my Congressman, posted on Facebook this morning.


"While I strongly support the increased funding for our military, I could not in good conscience vote for the Omnibus that costs almost $1.3 trillion. The military threats to our national security are real and serious, but so is the fiscal threat to our national security. As a result of years of deficit spending, trillions have been added to our national debt, which recently reached $21 trillion for the first time. Eventually the bill will come due with major consequences for our nation. That said, everyone should realize that this deficit in the Omnibus bill is largely the result of a long train of abuses that includes:

• Eight years of neglect of our military,
• Shameful indifference toward our veterans,
• Irresponsible entitlement spending,
• Enormously damaging regulatory and tax policies, including Obamacare, that resulted in eight years of anemic economic growth,
• And perhaps worst of all, the failure to do appropriations in an open and transparent process in both Houses of Congress as we are required to do by the Constitution.

I continue to be committed to supporting our military, to working to find ways to eliminate deficits, reducing our national debt, and restoring the fiscal health and stability for our nation that is essential to the future well-being of every American."


This screed was followed by 400 comments and rising of "No money for what Chuck and Nancy want", "Not a dime for Obamacare, kill it", and other ravings of approval.

Depressing as hell to read.

I didn't even bother to post something about trillions in tax cuts for the rich. What's the old line about trying to stiffen a bucket of spit by pouring in buckshot?

 

Five times.

 

"Eight years of neglect . . ."

C'mon.

 

"• Enormously damaging regulatory and tax policies, including Obamacare, that resulted in eight years of anemic economic growth,"

No mention of the Crash of 2008 either, or the Republican deregulation that allowed it to be so severe, or of how the economy turned around under Obama.

 

I don't know. I think we can only kill the entire world's population eight times over. I can't sleep at night unless that number is 10 times. I won't have children until it's 15 times over.

 

We have no military threat (other than mutually assured destruction, of course).

We do have enormous cyber threats. That's where the billions should go. Those are the walls that need to be built.

 

I couldn't agree more. I was glad to see that they busted that Iranian hacking ring, but it was after the fact. On the other hand, I suppose we wouldn't hear about all the times that a hacking attempt got bounced.