THE ERA OF TRUMP

[Speaker to Animals]

My stomach still hurts from laughing my ass off at your assumption that liberals don't tend to look similar.

[Hanarchy Montanarchy]

I'm glad you are capable of such boundless joy. It speaks to your Budha-nature that you hide because of your wounds.

[Speaker to Animals]

Turn arrows into flowers, I always say. Or into fish face pics when liberals act shocked people confuse them between one another.

[Montegriffo]

Ya hear that, Monte? We are too condescending for the snowflakes. We better police our tone, on account of not wanting to trigger anyone. That is what civil people do, after all.

I'm game. I got cranky, and it was beneath my usual gentlemanly nature.

I thought it was very clever of them to notice we were being condescending...
Perhaps a participation trophy is in order?

[C-Mag]

You don't find the idea that sycophancy seems to be the only qualification relevant to working in Trump's executive office a little distasteful?

You don't find the idea that sycophancy seems to be the only qualification relevant to covering the Obama executive office a little distasteful?

FIFY

I do, indeed. Why change the subject though?

Yes, let's stay on subject which is Mattis who is reported to have been supporting a different agenda than the Commander in Chief

[Hanarchy Montanarchy]

You don't find the idea that sycophancy seems to be the only qualification relevant to covering the Obama executive office a little distasteful?

FIFY

I do, indeed. Why change the subject though?

Yes, let's stay on subject which is Mattis who is reported to have been supporting a different agenda than the Commander in Chief

This is what I was asking about.

When Trump was elected, he was elected with no pretense that he was a foreign policy or military expert. It stands to reason that, upon hiring the best people, he would encounter experts that would disagree with his inexpert intuitions and opinions. The fact that Mattis resigned shows that, as an expert, he could no longer agree with the executive's policy choices. How does this reflect poorly on Mattis?

Maybe Trump is right, and the experts are all locked into a habit they can't break, but turning on Mattis for insufficient loyalty seems absurd. Obviously he was going to have disagreements with a civilian businessman with no experience. Doesn't mean Mattis is right, but it also doesn't mean he was disloyal to our country, and the fact that people would tar an intelligent, serious professional for disagreeing with his boss, and resigning because he couldn't carry out the policy directives in good conscience, bothers me.

That is sycophantic, cult of personality, bullshit.

[C-Mag]

HM, did you read the article?
The McMaster - Mattis Team wanted to put 150,000 US Troops into Syria with an end goal of regime change.

Do you think that's what the US should do ?

IMO, Trump should issue an order to have all foreign wars ended, until such time as Congress can reauthorize with a Declaration of War and a Draft

[Hanarchy Montanarchy]

HM, did you read the article?
The McMaster - Mattis Team wanted to put 150,000 US Troops into Syria with an end goal of regime change.

Do you think that's what the US should do ?

IMO, Trump should issue an order to have all foreign wars ended, until such time as Congress can reauthorize with a Declaration of War and a Draft

I read the article. The only major complaint seems to be that Mattis and McMaster didn't agree with Trump's military and foreign policy decisions. This was part of the reason they were hired in the first place, their expertise in an office that was ill prepared.

I don't know what the US should do, and, blessedly, it isn't my decision. I understand the case for regime change, and the case for not getting more entangled in the ME. I am not wonkish enough to know the right answer, but I don't think either McMasrter or Mattis were disloyal or traitorous. Nor do I think Trump is wrong for trying to follow his popular mandate for more isolationism.

My issue is with the deranged, manichean, for-or-against-Trump ideology, that views serious people who disagree with him as traitors or 5th columnists.

[SuburbanFarmer]

Purge the non-believers!!!

[Fife]

"more isolationism"