mtutiger

Wow, we have truly never been more respected /s

It is not the most important story of the day, but damn if it doesn't sum this moment up well... an unpopular autocratic leader who is incapable of handling dissent, and a media that goes out of their way to stifle expressions of his unpopularity. That's not the America I grew up in... What a snowflake this POTUS is

This is pathetic

I address your point a little bit in a subsequent post about civil-military relations.... the problem for me is that Trump 2.0 has breached that trust, at least for me. I would love nothing more than to believe that this was a Commander in Chief following soberly given advice, but I have too much self-respect to swallow anything that this administration says without question.

All I know is that "Ride of the Valkyries" isn't going to make the commute into town on the Kennedy any faster... Not trying to downplay the danger of what they are doing, but we need to be clear that a lot of this is about putting on a show for not only his base, but to demoralize his detractors as well.

Harp on this a lot, but what are we getting for all of this? Material conditions that are worse than they were previously, unless you are a billionaire or a techie. As someone in my high 30s, it absolutely sucks having to spend the prime years of life thinking about this guy and that this generation, collectively, will have to deal with the aftermath of the damage that he will leave in his wake. And it absolutely sucks to have to raise kids in a society where (at the very least) a large minority gets off on being ***holes all the time. It's all very dangerous, but it's all very pointless as well. What a waste.

The closest to 'Nam that Trump has ever been lol.

It never ceases to amaze me how paper-thin skinned Trump is....

Just when I thought their defenses couldn't get any dumber...

No offense Lee 🙂

Beautiful non-answer here.... hang it in the Louvre

lol

Look, I think that there's a belief out there that the Civil-Military relations are still what they were pre-Trump 2.0, which may explain some of the contradiction here.... but we have seen Trump at numerous times use the military in ways that have politicized their work. Whether it's his speech in NC earlier this year with marines in the background hooting and hollering like it was a campaign rally, or his use of the National Guard in CA, DC and (potentially) in IL, just a couple of examples of him helping to instigate the breakdown in trust between civil society and the military. So while I would love to believe nothing more than this is a Commander in Chief that is acting upon reasonable direction from the military, by virtue of his actions since resuming office, I just can't do it. The trust is gone.

To be clear, you are asking us to uncritically accept the actions of an administration led by someone you regard as "the orange moron", correct?

The thing I keep going back to is that the latest reporting is that they have still not briefed with Congressional leaders and, as of last night, still were scrambling to come up with a legal rationale for what they did. I don't know if they were carrying drugs or not, but as of right now, they have provided no answers to the our representatives (ie. Congress) as to why they did this or what authority they were acting under while pursuing this. As someone concerned about government overreach or a runaway executive branch that is unaccountable to the people, forgive me for not seal-clapping this stupidity

The ultimate call for shooting at that boat falls to the Commander in Chief, Donald J. Trump. A person who is perhaps the most profligate liar in American life today. Again, forgive me for not taking anything coming from this administration at face value. Given how often they lie, nobody owes them their trust.

Do we know they are drug smugglers? Do we even know there were drugs? Given this administration's congenital lying on pretty much every topic, forgive me for not taking anything they say at face value

I know you're being sarcastic here, but it's gonna be real fun when the rate cut hits and the market continues to sputter while prices continue increasing.

That's exactly what he's saying.... If I was in the business of running a company or making money, it'd scare the **** out of me.

They can cook the books all they want, but if the Biden years taught us anything, all the data in the world isn't going to override what people see in front of them in their day to day life.

I don't think they respond to public pressure, but I do think their colleagues in the House/Senate can and will respond to it. Even if it seems hopeless, they shouldn't stop trying. The fact that Bobby Jr. was taking fire from actual GOP Senators yesterday (not just Ds) is directly tied to the CDC director and leadership making it as difficult as possible for them to be removed and subsequently raising the profile of the moves IMO. Opponents of this administration (including Ds but also others) should learn from it. And raising the profile of the moves raises the salience to voters, who then apply pressure as well when they figure out they cannot do things they once took for granted (ie. getting a COVID shot)

Worth noting that his pick to run BLS hasn't been seated yet and that the leadership is still interim.