The Donald J. Trump Presidency

That budget is unconscionable. Stopping funding for feeding kids in afterschool programs. Stopping funding for Meals on Wheels, which feeds 500,000 veterans.

A huge increase in military spending does make sense, when you cut spending at the State Department by 30%. We are going to need the army.

So, was pretty hell bent on joining the state department, but if that bullshit stands I like my chances to get back in as a full time Navy diplomat!

Still though, Jesus.

Something like... "If the State Dept doesn't get proper funding, I need to buy more ammunition."
- James Mattis

Don't worry guys John Oliver is lining up a dynamite, scathing piece that will show how stupid this budget is and how the cuts will have serious repercussions to those that put him in office.

And then opinions are really gonna change in the USA!

Having an opinion one way or another about the hosts of satire news programming is really dumb, but it seems like I have a lot of opinions on this so, whatever.

John Oliver seems like someone to uphold. He spends far less time making wisecracks, or exposing the hypocrisy of the system, and far more time actually explaining something to an audience in detail and why it really matters. I started really liking this show when he did that piece on the natural gas boom in the Dakotas a few years ago. It was probably the most informed I have ever felt about something after watching twenty minutes of television. That should count for something.

I think moralizing public/political discourse can be effective too. Jon Stewart was the master of this and it is why he became such a beloved figure. In retrospect, the 'Rally to Restore Sanity' was horribly wrong-footed and the pure condescension of the Tea Party was a bad approach. Don't pretend though, that when Jon looks into the camera with those doughy eyes and is passionately engaged with something that he authentically cares about, it doesn't make you pause and listen to him.

is it possible to not love Angela Merkel?

The contrast was remarkable today. I hate this stupid, stupid man!

tjenz wrote:That budget is unconscionable.  Stopping funding for feeding kids in afterschool programs.  Stopping funding for Meals on Wheels, which feeds 500,000 veterans.  

A huge increase in military spending does make sense, when you cut spending at the State Department by 30%.  We are going to need the army.  

From what I read the Meals on Wheels thing was mostly wrong.

http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2017/03/meals

Budget still sounds predictably awful but it's annoying that some reporters apparently tried to spin something when there was no shortage of legitimate things to criticize.

Not a hundred days in and this motherfucker has taken some Ls.

I would have celebrated this today but I'm sooooo tired from all this winning!

Rest in piss you ghouls.

Actual headline today:
Treasury Secretary Accused Of Ethics Violation For Plugging 'LEGO Batman'

https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2017/03/31/president-donald-j-trump-proclaims-april-2017-national-sexual-assault

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/04/magazine/cnn-had-a-problem-donald-trump-solved-it.html?_r=0

That is a really excellent read. I didn't know about "The Apprentice" connection during the Election. Really gross and disheartening.

How are you all doing?

What are the odds of this country directly involving themselves into this civil war? And if so, how quickly might this escalate into a proxy war between Russia-Iran and the United States and many NATO allies?

America is disgusting and always has been.

Just look at these cowardly Dems supporting this. Fuck these people.

It's difficult for me to comment one way or another because I'm mostly ignorant of this extremely complicated civil war, but it is hard to criticize action against the Assad regime after what they have done to innocent civilians. Realpolitik certainly isn't my approach and I'm not, at least on principle, a dovish leftist.

I think any calculation would imply a competent President and administration, which obviously isn't the case (other than possibly the Defense department). What would liberal opposition to this look like? That Congress should have been consulted? I never expected Democrats to voice some nuanced critique of American military power and neo-imperialism. Hillary Clinton always intended to intervene and the Democratic establishment, for the most part, shares the same philosophy as most Republicans. Obama's approach was always more of the exception than the rule (and un-friendly reminder that he was assisting the Saudi governments brutalization of Yemen for the last couple of years).

I'm very offended by the coverage this is getting though. CNN last night was just looping footage of missiles being shot into the night sky. The blasts were audible the entire time and interfered Wolf Blitzer's disgustingly reductive coverage. It's nothing other than war porn and just reinforces the disturbing fact that our entertainment/news media is literally designed for nothing other than looping this footage. They offered very little perspective and just kept reiterating how complicated the situation was on the ground. That is true, but it is their job to clarify this complexity as best as they can and they don't even make any attempt. It's nauseating. Fuck them.

The New York Times headlines are predictably shitty today as well. Does anyone have a sense what public opinion will be like on this? This is an issue that splits party affiliation. There is a constituency of non-interventionist 'American First" Trump supporters who will probably be turned off by this action.

If this happened when Obama was President, it would have been labeled "Obama's illegal war," they'd have been chanting to lock him up.

undo wrote:If this happened when Obama was President, it would have been labeled "Obama's illegal war," they'd have been chanting to lock him up.

I just really doubt this. I edited my last post, but the Obama administration was already heavily involved in Yemen. If hard-line Trump supporters were really isolationist this would have been criticized during the campaign (and if memory serves it wasn't ever mentioned). The 'lock her up' was always related to Benghazi and her perceived corruption, not her neo-conservative foreign policy.

Or maybe I'm wrong. Actually, I probably am wrong.

I just saw this. Damn...

This is so clearly mirroring the GWB Iraq war. A small percentage of the population sees it as walking into a disaster that will only cause further destabilizing of the region. It will cost civilian lives, lives of troops & cost a shitload of money.

But the politicians am the media are lining up bc war is great content & support our troops Patriot point garbage.

there is literally nothing that could ever make me support an intervention in the Middle East. i didn't support the invasion of Afghanistan after 9/11. i didn't support Obama's toppling of Ghadaffi. if Assad was throwing up death camps and gassing people by the thousands i wouldn't support it. self-determination, to me, is literally the only long-term solution for that region's issues. picking winners and losers only prolongs conflict in perpetuity. peace can only be achieved when foreign powers stop propping up autocrats and kleptocrats, and allow the people of those countries to wrestle the power back into their own hands. i think, realistically, it will only happen when the oil dries up.

to say that it is a moral imperative to bomb Assad is disgusting, horribly misguided, and will not save anyone. hundreds of thousands will die no matter what we do because we have empowered tribalists to pillage these countries for centuries. only getting our fingers out of the pie will allow the situation to resolve itself. Sykes-Picot is the root of the problem.

not having cable and not watching cable news sometimes makes me feel so fucking out of the loop. it seems like cable news is the only medium which sets the narrative in this country. it's incredible and ridiculous.

i went to bed filled with dread at the thought of being involved in more foreign wars, with our Fuckboy-in-Chief at the helm.