The Politics Thread

[DRW50]

A part of me wonders if someone in Trumpland used Ronny Jackson as a sacrificial lamb to make it easier to get a hard right extremist through under the guise of being more "qualified"  - someone like Pete Hegseth.

[Vee]

No. There is no plan. There's just this.

[DRW50]

The Intercept continues to carry water for the GOP/Trump.

 

https://www.politico.com/story/2018/04/26/nancy-pelosi-steny-hoyer-recordings-555935

[Vee]

Today in "Take Me Now, Sweet Abyss":

 

 

And more Trump pathology:

 

 

[DRW50]

Looks like the GOP is already going to use Jackson to go after vulnerable Democrats.

 

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/tester-surprises-colleagues-by-feeling-emboldened-in-jackson-investigation

 

I don't think Trump planned for Jackson to be used this way or to be humiliated - I think he actually believed the guy would be confirmed - but so much of the rest of this feels like a setup to me, from other involved parties. 

[Vee]

It's really not. They have no capacity for it.

[Khan]

 

Cohen and Trump's relationship is the stuff that mid-'90's NBC sitcoms are made of.

[DramatistDreamer]

Okay, I'll admit, I laughed at this.

 

 

 

Seems like the only reason Jackson survived thus far was likely due to his relatively understated position within the administration.

I know people who work for the VA and it is a sprawling organization and from where I notice, VA Affairs is a very high-profile office.  No doubt, head of VA Affairs is one of the highest profile cabinet positions, especially since the two recent wars (Iraq, Afghanistan).

Jackson's bid was likely doomed from the start with his lack of administrative experience but the added level of scrutiny for such a high-level, high-profile position makes me think that there was no way he'd ever be confirmed. 

Only someone as dense as Trump believed Jackson would ever have had a chance.

[DRW50]

http://thehill.com/homenews/house/384814-gop-rep-rips-macron-after-speech-as-socialist-militarist-globalist

 

Idiot.

[sivad40]

http://thehill.com/homenews/media/384766-lgbt-group-rescinds-award-for-msnbcs-joy-reid

 

https://www.mediaite.com/online/new-inflammatory-posts-about-gays-and-muslims-from-joy-reids-old-blog-unearthed/

 

IMO, It looks Joy Reid's time at MSNBC will be coming to an end. If you live by the purity politic sword, you will die by the purity politic sword.

[JaneAusten]

This is one example at least right now of the US backing out in some capacity of foreign involvement around the world and it having a hopefully positive impact. In this case it was accidental as 45 is such a fool and incompetent, it forced the South and North Koreans to take the lead.  This is far from over and I don't believe North Korea will denuclearize, but it's a good step. And yes IMO China will ultimately be the biggest capitalistic beneficiary of this. The fear of course is continued human rights abuses and that spreading compared to the reverse, but time will tell.

 

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/27/world/asia/north-korea-south-kim-jong-un.html

[DRW50]

Disgusting. 

 

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/fivepoints/todd-entrekin-blames-liberal-media-alabama-sheriffs-pocket-inmate-food-funds

[Vee]

I think I like Michelle Wolf, who may have made the Beltway media angrier than Colbert did when he roasted them at the end of the Bush years. Maggie Haberman and co. clutched their pearls over this frankly restrained attack on Sanders:

 

 

 

And:

 

 

More from the very controversial - but IMO mostly on target - speech.

Edited April 29, 2018 by Vee

[DramatistDreamer]

Hopefully You Tube has posted the WHCD speech as they did last year with Hasan Minhaj.

 

 

 

I have a few colleagues from Grad school who turned out to be good friends and two, in particular, were born and raised in Korea (the South, they don't called it South Korea, by the way...just Korea) and at least one of them, although born about two decades after the Korean War, blames the U.S. for the war never coming to an official end as well as the two sides of the peninsula never being reunited.

I think this coming together of the two Koreas will feel more legitimate if the present U.S. administration stays away, or at least doesn't enter until the very end, when things have been solidified between the North and South.

I just read that a spokesman from Iran's ministry said that the U.S. was "unqualified" to broker detente between the North and South Korea and I'd have to agree, which I must admit, I agree with--at least this present administration. Trump himself changes his mind like the weather, which does not lend itself to fostering any kind of trust.  Also, diplomatically, this current administration has not gotten anything accomplished, those are just the facts.

Edited April 29, 2018 by DramatistDreamer

[Khan]

Seriously, folks, when is Sean Spicer going to leave the stage?

 

I'm SO proud of Michelle Wolf.  And she's right: the media, both liberal and conservative, helped create the monster, no matter how much they are reluctant to admit that.  The truth is, we would NOT be in the messes we are in right now if the media and others hadn't been so enamored with the idea of Donald Trump, a reality-TV "star," running for president; or if they hadn't been swept up by Hillary's Damn E-Mails (TM).

Edited April 29, 2018 by Khan