Trump, when asked why he hadn't yet addressed the Special Forces killed in Niger, deflected by saying that Barack Obama never contacted familes of fallen soldiers. This is a flat-out despicable lie.
But as long as we're on the subject (and since the campaign seems to have gone down the memory hole), let's remember this shit-bag spent a week attacking a Gold Star family.
Race, gender, sexual orientation and anything else individualistic is not political.
People like to hide their bigotry behind a political tag, but how someone self identifies has nothing to do with politics.
I don't disagree. I was merely noting that people can find a way to try and politicize *any* topic. When those cards were released, various MtG boards exploded with comments by people on all sides of those topics who brought in their own political views and applied them to a card game. It was ridiculous.
60 minutes report on drug distribution companies and their influence on spreading the opioid epidemic (including lobbying congress to make it more difficult for the DEA to combat cases where the industry was vastly oversupplying pharmacies).
60 minutes report on drug distribution companies and their influence on spreading the opioid epidemic (including lobbying congress to make it more difficult for the DEA to combat cases where the industry was vastly oversupplying pharmacies).
And now Trump's nominee (Rep. Tom Marino) for Drug Czar is no longer being considered after pushing the law to make it harder to keep opioids off th street. But Trump praises him as a "great congressman." What a joke.
60 minutes report on drug distribution companies and their influence on spreading the opioid epidemic (including lobbying congress to make it more difficult for the DEA to combat cases where the industry was vastly oversupplying pharmacies).
And now Trump's nominee (Rep. Tom Marino) for Drug Czar is no longer being considered after pushing the law to make it harder to keep opioids off th street. But Trump praises him as a "great congressman." What a joke.
Nearly every cabinet Secretary Trump has appointed is a sworn enemy of the Department they are heading and want to destroy it from within. Trump's cabinet is a mass case of foxes guarding multiple henhouses. In most cases, he choose the absolute worst person possible.
Many people think Big Oil is the lobby with the most influence in Congress until they start looking into Big Pharma. Many of the physicians who advise the FDA when approving new drugs for use are also paid consultants with various Big Pharma corporations.
That one pharmacy in Kermit, WV, ordering 9 million hydrocodone pills in only two years for a town of 392...that's 31 pills per person per day, so clearly they were servicing a larger area/customer base. To see the kind of money these companies make, the article notes one fine against McKesson of $13.2 million, but McKesson's net income at that time was well over $1 billion annually (for 2016 their net income--that means money in pocket after all expenses are paid--was $2.25 billion), so they paid about 1.32%. If you had $100 in your pocket could you afford a $1.32 fine? Of course you could. (Cardinal Health had net income of $1.29 billion in 2017 while poor Amerisource Bergen took home only $134 million.)
I'm still constantly amused about how the debate on how to deal with drug users has shifted now that the main problem is the opioid crisis. Since the 1920s, this country's policy on drug use has been "lock them up and throw away the key" because it was viewed as a urban, African-American issue. Now the drug crisis has hit the suburbs and rural America, and NOW it's a crisis where we need to do everything we can to get these people treatment instead of put in prison. Demographically, the same people who for 80+ years have been tough on drugs are now demanding money and treatment and leniancy for their kids and siblings. Maybe if these former prom queens and star QBs were to face the same consequnces for drug use that African-Americans has disproportionately been subject to for decades, their family members and friends might start to develop a conscious on the issue.
I'm still constantly amused about how the debate on how to deal with drug users has shifted now that the main problem is the opioid crisis. Since the 1920s, this country's policy on drug use has been "lock them up and throw away the key" because it was viewed as a urban, African-American issue. Now the drug crisis has hit the suburbs and rural America, and NOW it's a crisis where we need to do everything we can to get these people treatment instead of put in prison. Demographically, the same people who for 80+ years have been tough on drugs are now demanding money and treatment and leniancy foe their kids and siblings. Maybe if these former prom queens and star QBs were to face the same consequnces for drug use that African-Americans has disproportionately been subject to for decades, their family members and friends might start to develop a conscious on the issue.
Well, honestly, I think it was more the drug 'dealers' that folks had the lock 'em up mentality for. I don't recall any of my rightish family members, church members or friends ever wanting to throw drug 'users' in prison...
I'm still constantly amused about how the debate on how to deal with drug users has shifted now that the main problem is the opioid crisis. Since the 1920s, this country's policy on drug use has been "lock them up and throw away the key" because it was viewed as a urban, African-American issue. Now the drug crisis has hit the suburbs and rural America, and NOW it's a crisis where we need to do everything we can to get these people treatment instead of put in prison. Demographically, the same people who for 80+ years have been tough on drugs are now demanding money and treatment and leniancy foe their kids and siblings. Maybe if these former prom queens and star QBs were to face the same consequnces for drug use that African-Americans has disproportionately been subject to for decades, their family members and friends might start to develop a conscious on the issue.
Well, honestly, I think it was more the drug 'dealers' that folks had the lock 'em up mentality for. I don't recall any of my rightish family members, church members or friends ever wanting to throw drug 'users' in prison...
Except now the dealers appear to be pharmaceutical companies pushing their wares through small local clinics. Despite the double standard, I am still all in favor of treatment over jailtime for users. I'm just looking for some consistency on the issue.
This particular article cited only pain medication. Consider all the other instances where physicians and manufacturers come up with a pill for everything--I haven't seen one lately but for a while I saw ads pushing a pill for "work shift fatigue syndrome". If you find yourself feeling tired working second shift then just pop a pill and you will feel better. What? How about a cup of extra-strength coffee?
Boeing submitted a claim against Bombardier towards the US Federal Government resulting in a staggering 300% tariff on the airplanes being imported into the United States.
Bombardier out maneuvered them by signing a deal with Airbus, Boeing top competitor to have the airplanes manufactured in Alabama negating the tariff since 50% of the airplanes would be made in America. (story)
This is a win for everyone involved, including Trump as he'll definitely take credit of Airbus bringing jobs to Alabama except for Boeing, and the company knows it and is in full damage control. Releasing a statement claiming it was a questionable deal. Boeing also released an Ad directed at Canadians (I saw it recently, but I can't find an actual link to it) stating Boeing's importance to Canadians by creating jobs and innovation but a single ad can not undo the harm its image took from this ordeal.
Given how Trump has tried to use the death of his Chief of Staff's son to attack Barack Obama today (and for those that don't know, he said Obama never called John Kelly after his son's death in 2010. For one thing, his son was married, and the call would have went to his widow, and for another, John Kelly and his wife sat at the First Lady's table at a White House event for Gold Star families in 2011), I was wondering if one of the surviving relatives of the 4 soldiers killed in Niger would leak part of the conversation Trump had with them about their dead loved ones. Turns out, they did: U.S. President Donald Trump told U.S. Army Sgt. La David Johnson's widow Tuesday that "he knew what he signed up for....but when it happens it hurts anyway"
What a sentiment. He can't even fake empathy. Imagine saying such a thing to a pregnant widow. If this is what Trump is able to conjure up in these situations, then he shouldn't even make the calls. I mean, don't even bother. It would be better for everyone. I wouldn't be surprised if he talked about how big his Electoral College win was.
I wouldn't be surprised if he talked about how big his Electoral College win was.
Nine months in and he's still talking about Hillary Clinton too, darn near every day. I don't recall Obama lingering on McCain or Romney months after they lost.
Trump's got one trick (one mode), he creates an enemy then spews his vile assaults on that and about his self it's all tremendous and the best. He'll use whatever tiny excuse to say the worst things. "That horrible terrible woman is the most disgusting thing ever, she looked at me wrong."
To Trump, it's okay to attack and say the most terrible things that bubble up in his mind. Just blame the victim as an excuse.
I wouldn't be surprised if he talked about how big his Electoral College win was.
Nine months in and he's still talking about Hillary Clinton too, darn near every day. I don't recall Obama lingering on McCain or Romney months after they lost.
Trump's got one trick (one mode), he creates an enemy then spews his vile assaults on that and about his self it's all tremendous and the best. He'll use whatever tiny excuse to say the worst things. "That horrible terrible woman is the most disgusting thing ever, she looked at me wrong."
To Trump, it's okay to attack and say the most terrible things that come to his mind. Just blame the victim as an excuse.
I think he enjoys attacking and punishing weak and vulnerable people. I think it's part of his basic DNA. Human beings hold no value to him. He would see the world burn if it benefited his ego. His quote from the phone call to the widow reveals something about him: the very IDEA of sacrifice is alien to him. When he is saying "he knew what he signed up for", it is (for him) one step away from "what a sap". You can take this to the bank: when things get worse for Trump, he will lash out by actively trying to hurt as many Americans as possible.
Think on this: if Trump is this uncaring and emotionless when talking to a war widow on the phone, just how casually do you think he will throw thousands of American lives away as cannon fodder if it suits his political purposes?? And that is just AMERICAN soldiers. Given what we know about his mental state, does anyone think he would give two shits what would happen to the people of North and South Korea if he launched an attack??
People with Narcissistic Personality Disorder (eg Trump) usually don't see other people as "real people" (the way they see themselves) and treat them as toys and tools. What @jjstraka34 said sounds very believable - he already lashes out at anyone who does not comply with his world view seeing himself as the greatest thing ever.
I hope for US guys that you'll be able to get him impeached or something soon, even though - watching the amount of mess he's causing and the amount of corrupt ppl still trying to use him to get their greedy ends meet is alarmingly disgusting.
From Josh Marshall again at TPM, I think most people with agree with this sentiment at this point:
The United States has been in a more or less perpetual state of war since the fall of 2001. That’s more than fifteen years. Whether you support or oppose wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and lower intensity conflicts in various other countries, it has left thousands of American men and women dead and far more with longterm injuries. The number of US military deaths is down dramatically from the middle years of the Bush presidency and even from the early years of Obama’s presidency. Military deaths in Afghanistan actually went up dramatically during Obama’s first term as he refocused the country from Iraq to Afghanistan. (According to iCasaulties.org, 1,544 American military personal died in Afghanistan during Obama’s first four years in office. The number to date this year is 11.)
Meetings with families, calls with families, letters to families, visits to military hospitals were a constant feature of both the Bush and Obama presidencies. For both Presidents there was a balance between maintaining the privacy of these contacts while also letting the population at large know that they were happening.
Both men spoke of it as the hardest part of the job of being President. Whatever you think of either man, I don’t doubt that. Regardless of the politics or policy considerations, when a member of the armed services dies in combat, he or she dies because of decisions made ultimately by the President. That’s a heavy burden.
I’ve thought a lot about the mechanics of these communications. Does a bereaved family want to hear from the President on day one or two? It’s a great honor, a recognition of the country’s gratitude. But such a loss is personal, not political or even national. Do you call? Do you send word asking if a call would be welcome? The sheer number of deaths in the middle years of the Iraq War likely made calling every family impossible. I have no idea. This is a topic that requires a vast blanket of discretion. War is political, inevitably. The individual grief of loved ones must be as private as we can keep it.
I don’t know why President Trump failed to take public note of the US military deaths in Niger. What he communicated privately is something I think it would be reasonable to just keep private. The inexplicable failure to publicly note the deaths led to the discussion of any private communication. But President Trump is the one who made the egregious claim that Presidents Obama and Bush never called families to take the spotlight off himself.
Everybody, basically universally, agrees this was a lie. There’s no debate over that.
But I’m not sure that’s even the worst part. To get out of an awkward situation, Trump triggered a partisan fight about one of the most painful, horrible, hallowed part of our national life. People use the word too casually. I’ve used it too casually. But it’s a genuine disgrace. It’s a disgrace.
Now the White House is putting out the word that Obama didn’t call Chief of Staff John Kelly, then a senior Marine General and later Commander of Southern Command. Kelly’s then-29 year old son Robert, a Marine First Lieutenant, was killed in 2010 in Afghanistan. President Trump this morning asked: “As far as other presidents, I don’t know, you could ask Gen. Kelly, did he get a call from Obama? I don’t know what Obama’s policy was.”
An unnamed White House official says Obama did not.
Obama is not talking.
General Kelly isn’t talking.
None of us should be talking.
We shouldn’t be having this conversation at all. There was no need to until now. I don’t know what happened between Kelly and Obama. Almost 500 Americans died in Afghanistan in 2010. I doubt Obama spoke by phone to every single family. We don’t know who wanted to talk and who didn’t. We don’t know enough to litigate these questions and we really have no business doing so. We’ve had the most horribly polarized politics during the Bush and Obama presidencies. Yet none but those on the fringes of the political debate felt the need to go here.
But now we are. And that’s the thing: Donald Trump poisons everything. It’s like an abuser with a captive family; he poisons everything, inflames everything, destroys and degrades anything in his path for his own ends. No one gets out in one piece. He’s poison. He’s just poison. There’s no other way to put it. He hurts the country every moment he’s in office.
This story is going to be everywhere tomorrow. But you know he is going to hit back at this Congresswoman (but again, she is a family friend who literally mentored the deceased, she was riding with them in a limo to meet the casket when Trump called), but will he attack a pregnant widow as well?? It's worth pointing out that the Congresswoman speaking for the family is both female AND black, and we know there isn't a single thing in the world that sends Trump into a rage more than that combination calling him to task. And we know he is incapable of taking blame for anything. As mentioned in the write-up I posted above, we SHOULDN'T be talking about this, but we are because of Trump's behavior. No one is going to be able to control him when he sees the press he is getting in the morning on this. What does he do, deny that he said it?? The bet here is that he calls the black Congresswoman a liar, pushing fake news. But we all know this is true. Even Trump supporters would know this is true. Because it comports to everything we know about him. Of COURSE this is how he would talk to a war widow. Expecting him to be able to do that part of the job any better than the rest of it would be foolish. At this point, someone on his staff, in addition to all the other babysitting, is going to have to make sure he doesn't call anymore families of deceased soldiers because he can't stop himself from making them break down due to his lack of empathy.
I'm not entirely sure what we're doing in this country right now. You can't avoid what he's doing unless you lock yourself in your house and disassociate yourself from all media. Anyone else notice that everyday conversations with people (if you aren't sure of their political beliefs) are like a tightrope walk where both parties are simply trying to avoid saying anything that might come off as remotely related to Donald Trump?? As if neither party wants to know what the opinion of the other party is because it will immediately taint and solidify their opinion of them in an instant?? This is an absurd situation.
Consider the whole Trump situation from a different point of view for a moment. Trump is the result of years of increasingly vitriolic, overly-partisan politics from both sides, a trend which (in my opinion) began with Bill Clinton's impeachment. If we are lucky, enough of us can use Trump's one term (he won't get a second term--I am already calling it) to take a look at where we are, realize that something is fundamentally wrong, and move back to a reality in which Democrats/liberals and Republicans/conservatives don't *hate* each other. If not, then things will get even worse than they are now.
I know the idea of impeaching Trump is becoming increasingly attractive to some people (that one Representative from Houston already introduced articles but later backtracked and retracted them) but I still think that would be a bad idea. Doing so will cause more backlash the next time Republicans control the House and a Democrat is in the Oval Office as they seek anything at all, no matter how thin the reasoning, to move for impeachment. Ultimately, it will wind up with being sworn in on 20 January then impeached on 21 January.
Look for many Republicans running for reelection next year to be actively avoiding anything that resembles a Trump endorsement--they will all want to keep as much distance as possible.
Lost in the midst of all this is a pretty fundamental question: Why the hell do we have special forces in an supposed advisory role in Niger in the first place?? And where is the crowd who was screaming about Benghazi for years on this issue?? In the end, that situation was pretty cut and dry. The embassy got overrun (and, not for nothing, but the Republican Congress had DENIED the funding for extra security for embassies that Hillary Clinton and the Obama Administration had requested). No one has clue what happened to these 4 soldiers, nor a clue why they were there in the first place.
Right....just like he has tapes of his coversations with Comey. He already played this card. He also had "proof" Obama wasn't born in the US. He said he was going to sue the women who accused him of sexual assault because he had proof they were lying. None of it happened. It's always a bluff. He has no hand.
For a long time now politics has been a subset of advertising- as Schumpter recognised. Politicians are partially defined by the dominant media discourses. Trump is effectively clickbait incarnate. He understood the media better than his rivals. In the TV age there was Ronald Reagan. Arnie got to be Governer. Now we get internet age politicians who can maximise the amount of attention that people pay to politics. In the UK Corbyn is also in permanent campaign mode for example.
Why the hell do we have special forces in an supposed advisory role in Niger in the first place?
Once upon a time we had a small group of military personnel acting solely in the role of "advisor" in a little place called Vietnam. I won't go into many details but that story has a surprise ending. Anyway, we have small groups of people in "advisory" roles all over the place.
Consider the whole Trump situation from a different point of view for a moment. Trump is the result of years of increasingly vitriolic, overly-partisan politics from both sides, a trend which (in my opinion) began with Bill Clinton's impeachment. If we are lucky, enough of us can use Trump's one term (he won't get a second term--I am already calling it) to take a look at where we are, realize that something is fundamentally wrong, and move back to a reality in which Democrats/liberals and Republicans/conservatives don't *hate* each other. If not, then things will get even worse than they are now.
I know the idea of impeaching Trump is becoming increasingly attractive to some people (that one Representative from Houston already introduced articles but later backtracked and retracted them) but I still think that would be a bad idea. Doing so will cause more backlash the next time Republicans control the House and a Democrat is in the Oval Office as they seek anything at all, no matter how thin the reasoning, to move for impeachment. Ultimately, it will wind up with being sworn in on 20 January then impeached on 21 January.
Look for many Republicans running for reelection next year to be actively avoiding anything that resembles a Trump endorsement--they will all want to keep as much distance as possible.
This is the real world and there is no guarantee that things will get better. Things can get worse. McCain and Corker seem about the only Republicans to really be able to put distance on Trump. The rest seem to be strong supporters or passive ones. Things can get worse.
About a year into the rule of authoritarian populists like Vladimir Putin, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and Viktor Orbán, a lot of very well-informed observers laughed off suggestions that they might do real damage to the democratic system in their respective countries.
Putin, a lot of Russia scholars argued at the time, should be understood as a technocratic modernizer from the comparatively liberal city of St. Petersburg. Erdogan, a lot of Turkey scholars kept insisting, was on the way to reconciling Islam and democracy by following the path blazed by Christian Democrats in countries like Germany and Italy. Orbán, a lot of Hungary scholars believed, was a moderate conservative whose tough talk was belied by his Oxford education and his past as a liberal politician.
As it turns out, all of these experts were wildly, disastrously wrong. Today, Russia and Turkey are dictatorships with a thin electoral veneer. Hungary is well on its way toward joining their autocratic ranks.
Could that happen in the US? There doesn't seem to be much will to stop it. Attacks on the Press and judiciary are laughed off. Common decency and common sense are ignored in favor of race baiting and dog whistles.
“She was crying the whole time, and when she hung up the phone, she looked at me and said, ‘He didn’t even remember his name.’ That’s the hurting part.”
Wilson went on to say Trump “was almost like joking. He said, ‘Well, I guess you knew’ — something to the effect that ‘he knew what he was getting into when he signed up, but I guess it hurts anyway.’ You know, just matter-of-factly, that this is what happens, anyone who is signing up for military duty is signing up to die. That’s the way we interpreted it. It was horrible. It was insensitive. It was absolutely crazy, unnecessary. I was livid.”
“She was in tears. She was in tears. And she said, ‘He didn’t even remember his name."
Comments
But as long as we're on the subject (and since the campaign seems to have gone down the memory hole), let's remember this shit-bag spent a week attacking a Gold Star family.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/ex-dea-agent-opioid-crisis-fueled-by-drug-industry-and-congress/
That one pharmacy in Kermit, WV, ordering 9 million hydrocodone pills in only two years for a town of 392...that's 31 pills per person per day, so clearly they were servicing a larger area/customer base. To see the kind of money these companies make, the article notes one fine against McKesson of $13.2 million, but McKesson's net income at that time was well over $1 billion annually (for 2016 their net income--that means money in pocket after all expenses are paid--was $2.25 billion), so they paid about 1.32%. If you had $100 in your pocket could you afford a $1.32 fine? Of course you could. (Cardinal Health had net income of $1.29 billion in 2017 while poor Amerisource Bergen took home only $134 million.)
Anyway, I had a difficult time locating the Ensuring Patient Access and Effective Drug Enforcement Act of 2013, probably because it got reintroduced later as H.R.471 - Ensuring Patient Access and Effective Drug Enforcement Act of 2015. According to the actions on the bill the rules were suspended to allow the bill to pass on 21 April 2015 and this measure passed by a voice vote after 40 minutes of debate.
Boeing submitted a claim against Bombardier towards the US Federal Government resulting in a staggering 300% tariff on the airplanes being imported into the United States.
Bombardier out maneuvered them by signing a deal with Airbus, Boeing top competitor to have the airplanes manufactured in Alabama negating the tariff since 50% of the airplanes would be made in America. (story)
This is a win for everyone involved, including Trump as he'll definitely take credit of Airbus bringing jobs to Alabama except for Boeing, and the company knows it and is in full damage control. Releasing a statement claiming it was a questionable deal. Boeing also released an Ad directed at Canadians (I saw it recently, but I can't find an actual link to it) stating Boeing's importance to Canadians by creating jobs and innovation but a single ad can not undo the harm its image took from this ordeal.
U.S. President Donald Trump told U.S. Army Sgt. La David Johnson's widow Tuesday that "he knew what he signed up for....but when it happens it hurts anyway"
What a sentiment. He can't even fake empathy. Imagine saying such a thing to a pregnant widow. If this is what Trump is able to conjure up in these situations, then he shouldn't even make the calls. I mean, don't even bother. It would be better for everyone. I wouldn't be surprised if he talked about how big his Electoral College win was.
Trump's got one trick (one mode), he creates an enemy then spews his vile assaults on that and about his self it's all tremendous and the best. He'll use whatever tiny excuse to say the worst things. "That horrible terrible woman is the most disgusting thing ever, she looked at me wrong."
To Trump, it's okay to attack and say the most terrible things that bubble up in his mind. Just blame the victim as an excuse.
Think on this: if Trump is this uncaring and emotionless when talking to a war widow on the phone, just how casually do you think he will throw thousands of American lives away as cannon fodder if it suits his political purposes?? And that is just AMERICAN soldiers. Given what we know about his mental state, does anyone think he would give two shits what would happen to the people of North and South Korea if he launched an attack??
Update: Jesus Christ
I hope for US guys that you'll be able to get him impeached or something soon, even though - watching the amount of mess he's causing and the amount of corrupt ppl still trying to use him to get their greedy ends meet is alarmingly disgusting.
The United States has been in a more or less perpetual state of war since the fall of 2001. That’s more than fifteen years. Whether you support or oppose wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and lower intensity conflicts in various other countries, it has left thousands of American men and women dead and far more with longterm injuries. The number of US military deaths is down dramatically from the middle years of the Bush presidency and even from the early years of Obama’s presidency. Military deaths in Afghanistan actually went up dramatically during Obama’s first term as he refocused the country from Iraq to Afghanistan. (According to iCasaulties.org, 1,544 American military personal died in Afghanistan during Obama’s first four years in office. The number to date this year is 11.)
Meetings with families, calls with families, letters to families, visits to military hospitals were a constant feature of both the Bush and Obama presidencies. For both Presidents there was a balance between maintaining the privacy of these contacts while also letting the population at large know that they were happening.
Both men spoke of it as the hardest part of the job of being President. Whatever you think of either man, I don’t doubt that. Regardless of the politics or policy considerations, when a member of the armed services dies in combat, he or she dies because of decisions made ultimately by the President. That’s a heavy burden.
I’ve thought a lot about the mechanics of these communications. Does a bereaved family want to hear from the President on day one or two? It’s a great honor, a recognition of the country’s gratitude. But such a loss is personal, not political or even national. Do you call? Do you send word asking if a call would be welcome? The sheer number of deaths in the middle years of the Iraq War likely made calling every family impossible. I have no idea. This is a topic that requires a vast blanket of discretion. War is political, inevitably. The individual grief of loved ones must be as private as we can keep it.
I don’t know why President Trump failed to take public note of the US military deaths in Niger. What he communicated privately is something I think it would be reasonable to just keep private. The inexplicable failure to publicly note the deaths led to the discussion of any private communication. But President Trump is the one who made the egregious claim that Presidents Obama and Bush never called families to take the spotlight off himself.
Everybody, basically universally, agrees this was a lie. There’s no debate over that.
But I’m not sure that’s even the worst part. To get out of an awkward situation, Trump triggered a partisan fight about one of the most painful, horrible, hallowed part of our national life. People use the word too casually. I’ve used it too casually. But it’s a genuine disgrace. It’s a disgrace.
Now the White House is putting out the word that Obama didn’t call Chief of Staff John Kelly, then a senior Marine General and later Commander of Southern Command. Kelly’s then-29 year old son Robert, a Marine First Lieutenant, was killed in 2010 in Afghanistan. President Trump this morning asked: “As far as other presidents, I don’t know, you could ask Gen. Kelly, did he get a call from Obama? I don’t know what Obama’s policy was.”
An unnamed White House official says Obama did not.
Obama is not talking.
General Kelly isn’t talking.
None of us should be talking.
We shouldn’t be having this conversation at all. There was no need to until now. I don’t know what happened between Kelly and Obama. Almost 500 Americans died in Afghanistan in 2010. I doubt Obama spoke by phone to every single family. We don’t know who wanted to talk and who didn’t. We don’t know enough to litigate these questions and we really have no business doing so. We’ve had the most horribly polarized politics during the Bush and Obama presidencies. Yet none but those on the fringes of the political debate felt the need to go here.
But now we are. And that’s the thing: Donald Trump poisons everything. It’s like an abuser with a captive family; he poisons everything, inflames everything, destroys and degrades anything in his path for his own ends. No one gets out in one piece. He’s poison. He’s just poison. There’s no other way to put it. He hurts the country every moment he’s in office.
He uses people for his own gratification. He is drunk on his own power.
People are beneath him in his own opinion. Pawns.
I'm not entirely sure what we're doing in this country right now. You can't avoid what he's doing unless you lock yourself in your house and disassociate yourself from all media. Anyone else notice that everyday conversations with people (if you aren't sure of their political beliefs) are like a tightrope walk where both parties are simply trying to avoid saying anything that might come off as remotely related to Donald Trump?? As if neither party wants to know what the opinion of the other party is because it will immediately taint and solidify their opinion of them in an instant?? This is an absurd situation.
I know the idea of impeaching Trump is becoming increasingly attractive to some people (that one Representative from Houston already introduced articles but later backtracked and retracted them) but I still think that would be a bad idea. Doing so will cause more backlash the next time Republicans control the House and a Democrat is in the Oval Office as they seek anything at all, no matter how thin the reasoning, to move for impeachment. Ultimately, it will wind up with being sworn in on 20 January then impeached on 21 January.
Look for many Republicans running for reelection next year to be actively avoiding anything that resembles a Trump endorsement--they will all want to keep as much distance as possible.
Right....just like he has tapes of his coversations with Comey. He already played this card. He also had "proof" Obama wasn't born in the US. He said he was going to sue the women who accused him of sexual assault because he had proof they were lying. None of it happened. It's always a bluff. He has no hand.
About a year into the rule of authoritarian populists like Vladimir Putin, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and Viktor Orbán, a lot of very well-informed observers laughed off suggestions that they might do real damage to the democratic system in their respective countries.
Putin, a lot of Russia scholars argued at the time, should be understood as a technocratic modernizer from the comparatively liberal city of St. Petersburg. Erdogan, a lot of Turkey scholars kept insisting, was on the way to reconciling Islam and democracy by following the path blazed by Christian Democrats in countries like Germany and Italy. Orbán, a lot of Hungary scholars believed, was a moderate conservative whose tough talk was belied by his Oxford education and his past as a liberal politician.
As it turns out, all of these experts were wildly, disastrously wrong. Today, Russia and Turkey are dictatorships with a thin electoral veneer. Hungary is well on its way toward joining their autocratic ranks.
Could that happen in the US? There doesn't seem to be much will to stop it. Attacks on the Press and judiciary are laughed off. Common decency and common sense are ignored in favor of race baiting and dog whistles.
There's no guarantee that things will get better.
“She was crying the whole time, and when she hung up the phone, she looked at me and said, ‘He didn’t even remember his name.’ That’s the hurting part.”
Wilson went on to say Trump “was almost like joking. He said, ‘Well, I guess you knew’ — something to the effect that ‘he knew what he was getting into when he signed up, but I guess it hurts anyway.’ You know, just matter-of-factly, that this is what happens, anyone who is signing up for military duty is signing up to die. That’s the way we interpreted it. It was horrible. It was insensitive. It was absolutely crazy, unnecessary. I was livid.”
“She was in tears. She was in tears. And she said, ‘He didn’t even remember his name."