THE ERA OF TRUMP

[Okeefenokee]

Tomorrow the headlines are going to be, 'Donald Trump rants and raves.' I'm not ranting and raving. I'm having a good time.

[Smitty-48]

Who wants elegance? I want a peek inside the sausage factory.

Exactly.

Penner spambot gotta spam, I guess; "this is CNN" /shrugs

[de officiis]

I laughed at the part where he called himself a politician as if he'd never thought of himself that way before.

Trump got one thing right: he's inherited a deeply divided nation. He didn't create it; it's been a long time building up; and Obama--and frankly, the Republicans, too, during his tenure--did nothing to try to reverse the trend. So now we have a pay-back-minded Democratic party and a leftist press who are hell-bent to oppose Trump, and stop his Administration at any cost. And for what? So we can return to the status quo ante? Where has that gotten us over the last 20 years? So we can maintain a shitty relationship with Russia? So we can let the folks in Congress cater to monied interests, sign f-'d up trade deals and continue to outsource our jobs? So the middle class can continue to dwindle until at last we have the 1% and the rest of us living at or below the poverty line? That's why I really don't like this mindless attitude of the Left right now. They're just not interested in stepping back, trying to look at the country from 20,000 feet, and set their minds and hearts to doing what's best for the country. Say what you want about Donald Trump, he's clearly a guy who loves our country and wants to improve things and extricate us from this hole we've dug for ourselves. He's a blunt tool, but frankly, in case anyone hasn't noticed, he's the only tool John Q. Public has in the drawer right now. So thank God he's in the White House, and let's do what we can to support him, help him make the right decisions, and hope we can get this country back on course.

[Calculus Man]

I laughed at the part where he called himself a politician as if he'd never thought of himself that way before.

Trump got one thing right: he's inherited a deeply divided nation. He didn't create it; it's been a long time building up; and Obama--and frankly, the Republicans, too, during his tenure--did nothing to try to reverse the trend. So now we have a pay-back-minded Democratic party and a leftist press who are hell-bent to oppose Trump, and stop his Administration at any cost. And for what? So we can return to the status quo ante? Where has that gotten us over the last 20 years? So we can maintain a shitty relationship with Russia? So we can let the folks in Congress cater to monied interests, sign f-'d up trade deals and continue to outsource our jobs? So the middle class can continue to dwindle until at last we have the 1% and the rest of us living at or below the poverty line? That's why I really don't like this mindless attitude of the Left right now. They're just not interested in stepping back, trying to look at the country from 20,000 feet, and set their minds and hearts to doing what's best for the country. Say what you want about Donald Trump, he's clearly a guy who loves our country and wants to improve things and extricate us from this hole we've dug for ourselves. He's a blunt tool, but frankly, in case anyone hasn't noticed, he's the only tool John Q. Public has in the drawer right now. So thank God he's in the White House, and let's do what we can to support him, help him make the right decisions, and hope we can get this country back on course.

+1

[Alexander PhiAlipson]

I laughed at the part where he called himself a politician as if he'd never thought of himself that way before.

Trump got one thing right: he's inherited a deeply divided nation. He didn't create it; it's been a long time building up; and Obama--and frankly, the Republicans, too, during his tenure--did nothing to try to reverse the trend. So now we have a pay-back-minded Democratic party and a leftist press who are hell-bent to oppose Trump, and stop his Administration at any cost. And for what? So we can return to the status quo ante? Where has that gotten us over the last 20 years? So we can maintain a shitty relationship with Russia? So we can let the folks in Congress cater to monied interests, sign f-'d up trade deals and continue to outsource our jobs? So the middle class can continue to dwindle until at last we have the 1% and the rest of us living at or below the poverty line? That's why I really don't like this mindless attitude of the Left right now. They're just not interested in stepping back, trying to look at the country from 20,000 feet, and set their minds and hearts to doing what's best for the country. Say what you want about Donald Trump, he's clearly a guy who loves our country and wants to improve things and extricate us from this hole we've dug for ourselves. He's a blunt tool, but frankly, in case anyone hasn't noticed, he's the only tool John Q. Public has in the drawer right now. So thank God he's in the White House, and let's do what we can to support him, help him make the right decisions, and hope we can get this country back on course.

[C-Mag]

I laughed at the part where he called himself a politician as if he'd never thought of himself that way before.

Trump got one thing right: he's inherited a deeply divided nation. He didn't create it; it's been a long time building up; and Obama--and frankly, the Republicans, too, during his tenure--did nothing to try to reverse the trend. So now we have a pay-back-minded Democratic party and a leftist press who are hell-bent to oppose Trump, and stop his Administration at any cost. And for what? So we can return to the status quo ante? Where has that gotten us over the last 20 years? So we can maintain a shitty relationship with Russia? So we can let the folks in Congress cater to monied interests, sign f-'d up trade deals and continue to outsource our jobs? So the middle class can continue to dwindle until at last we have the 1% and the rest of us living at or below the poverty line? That's why I really don't like this mindless attitude of the Left right now. They're just not interested in stepping back, trying to look at the country from 20,000 feet, and set their minds and hearts to doing what's best for the country. Say what you want about Donald Trump, he's clearly a guy who loves our country and wants to improve things and extricate us from this hole we've dug for ourselves. He's a blunt tool, but frankly, in case anyone hasn't noticed, he's the only tool John Q. Public has in the drawer right now. So thank God he's in the White House, and let's do what we can to support him, help him make the right decisions, and hope we can get this country back on course.

+1

Nicely said, deo.

[ssu]

he's the only tool John Q. Public has in the drawer right now.

Not the only tool. If this tool doesn't work, if the bombastic adds stating how wonderful it is for every occasion and works better than anything you have earlier had, then there's allways the Pence-tool. The "also included in the package" tool anyone wouldn't have otherwise picked up.

[Smitty-48]

Pence needed Trump to get into this position, Pence couldn't have won the primary, and Pence is too ideological to have likely broken through the Blue Wall in the Rust Belt. The brilliance of Trump, is the straddling of the line, in order to pull otherwise Democrat voters to the GOP in the swing states.

Trump's lack of ideological rigidity and inherent flexibility is what broke the back of the Democrats, he just wasn't enough of a Right Wing Nutjob, to scare off the Blue State Swingers.

He can tax, he can spend, he can protect, he can intervene, at which point; who needs the Democrats?

The Democrats have been reduced with pandering to SJW's and Race Hustling, because on bread and butter economic issues which swing the elections, Trump has stolen their thunder.

A Democrat base of SJW's, Race Hustlers and Bernie Bros; they are in big trouble, because there is no path there back through the swing discricts, they're never going to win the center with a bunch of Nanny Staters and Wannabe Commies, it's no wonder the Democrats are desperate to get something on Trump, because if they can't get the GOP off the sraddling of the center, there's no way for the Democrats to take it back.

If they try to go back to the Right, they'll depress their Leftard base, but if they don't go to the right, swing voters ain't gonna go for them, they basically need Trump to fail miserably, or they got no way back until he leaves in 2024.

[ssu]

As vice admiral Howard declined the job of national security advisor, naturally the "politically correct" reason is family matters, but some noted also that Howard was afraid he might not be able to pick his own team.

Naturally the media (allways) makes disagreements bigger than they are and looks for rifts or infighting in the government (as that naturally is news, not that things are going OK). Even if the MSM creates the impression that the Trump administration is fumbling, things aren't going smoothly, that's for sure. General Thomas' remarks simply portray what is the outcome now for the armed forces in what is happening in Washington. It's not typical that an acting general would make that kind of a comment (below).

General Tony Thomas, the head of the US military’s Special Operations Command, said the chaos engulfing Mr Trump’s fledgling administration was causing problems for the country’s armed forces.

Speaking at a military conference, he was quoted by the New York Times as saying: “Our government continues to be in unbelievable turmoil. I hope they sort it out soon because we’re a nation at war.”

See here

General Thomas:


Then there's the DCI pick of Trump here. What's his role, especially if Trump is putting some billionaire Feinberg to go after the intelligence services?

Mr. Coats is especially angry at what he sees as a move by [Stephen] Bannon and [Jared] Kushner to sideline him before he is even confirmed, according to current and former officials. He believes the review would impinge on a central part of his role as the director of national intelligence and fears that if Mr. Feinberg were working at the White House, he could quickly become a dominant voice on intelligence matters.

See Trump just escalated his war with the intelligence community — bigly

DCI that still isn't even on the job, Dan Coats:


At least it's a great show that Trump has put on. Definately not boring.

[Smitty-48]

Yeah, Herr Trumpler needs to jettison the Sturmabteilung, or nobody in the Deep State is going to want to work for him, because nobody in the Reichswehr und SS, wants to be reporting to Breitbart.com.

And if he doesn't disavow the Russians, he'll be fighting the Neocon caucus in his own ranks for the rest of the term.

To me, it's a no brainer, I mean, it's the economy stupid, just toss this ideological stuff under the bus and focus on bread and butter, because bread and butter is the only path to reelection in 2020, swing voters don't care if the US is confrontational with Russia, buddying up to Russia is a lose-lose.

I don't see the point in taking hits for the Kremlin, that does nothing for him, particularly when there's no there there, the Siloviki in the Kremlin cannot be contained by negotiation, they ain't gonna do shit for Trump, doesn't matter what "deals" he supposedly makes with them, making deals with Putin is a fools errand.

Putin has his own entrenched interests to deal with, and Putin's entrenched interests; need America as an adversary, so just move on with this trying to have kumbaya with the Kremlin, it's a dead end.

The Kremlin wants Cold War 2.0, the Kremlin needs Cold War 2.0, the Kremlin is not giving up Cold War 2.0 under any circumstances, Cold War 2.0 is not just an entrenched interest for them, it is a critical interest for them, whatever "detente" deal you make with them, they will have to come up with some reason to break the deal, by accusing America of breaking it of course, so quit wasting your time, it's not worth the headaches.