• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

PoliGAF 2017 |OT1| From Russia with Love

Status
Not open for further replies.
R

Roland_Gunner

Member
Ogodei said:
Edit: What's the deal with New Mexico? It always seems to rate poorly, and is one of those states where they take more money from the feds than they pay to them, which is unique for the Desert/Mountain West
Click to expand...

New Mexico is basically a desert and a large percent of the population is recent immigrants from Mexico, it should be one of the poorest states objectively. Its more amazing that somewhere like Alabama that is dripping with natural resources can't do better.
 
B

Blader

Member
Toxi said:
Oh my God, why is the Tom Perez shit still a thing the day after Trump announced VOICE?
Click to expand...

Speaking of which, given that he isn't going full-time at the DNC, what are the odds Ellison parlays his newfound clout to launch a 2020 run?
 
B

benicillin

Banned
I can't really find it in myself to worry too much about NuTrump. He had a good night in the most favorable circumstances possible and the media is going overboard in their praise of it because ratings. Unless Trump gets teleprompters installed directly to contacts in his eyes he'll fall apart in a few days when people can actually ask him a question and expect an answer.
 
I

ItWasMeantToBe19

Banned
benicillin said:
I can't really find it in myself to worry too much about NuTrump. He had a good night in the most favorable circumstances possible and the media is going overboard in their praise of it because ratings. Unless Trump gets teleprompters installed directly to contacts in his eyes he'll fall apart in a few days when people can actually ask him a question and expect an answer.
Click to expand...

Literally yesterday he said Jews were false flagging bomb threats.
 
O

Officerrob

Banned
Reporter on MSNBC in Dallas, "Over the last couple of hours he have spoken with 75 people, and all but five didn't watch the speech"


LOL
 
M

metalslimer

Member
The media creaming their pants after Trump learns how to read a teleprompter speech by someone else that was filled with lies is expected from them. They haven't learned a single thing since the election
 
N

Nazgul_Hunter

Member
metalslimer said:
The media creaming their pants after Trump learns how to read a teleprompter speech by someone else that was filled with lies is expected from them. They haven't learned a single thing since the election
Click to expand...

Yeah I thought it was the scariest trump speech I've heard *because* he was spouting the same shit. VOICE is inevitably going to turn into a racist witch hunt but because he said it slowly and without non-sequiturs pundits are distracted.
 
N

NeoXChaos

Member
I wonder how Obama's chart looks? This is Clinton's

C52QPGgWYAAzCqD.jpg
 
N

nature boy

Member
#finetunedmachine

The State of Trump's State Department

The flags in the lobby of the State Department stood bathed in sunlight and silence on a recent afternoon. ”It's normally so busy here," marveled a State Department staffer as we stood watching the emptiness. ”People are usually coming in for meetings, there's lots of people, and now it's so quiet." The action at Foggy Bottom has instead moved to the State Department cafeteria where, in the absence of work, people linger over countless coffees with colleagues. (”The cafeteria is so crowded all day," a mid-level State Department officer said, adding that it was a very unusual sight. ”No one's doing anything.") As the staffer and I walked among the tables and chairs, people with badges chatted over coffee; one was reading his Kindle.

”It just feels empty," a recently departed senior State official told me.

With the State Department demonstratively shut out of meetings with foreign leaders, key State posts left unfilled, and the White House not soliciting many department staffers for their policy advice, there is little left to do. ”If I left before 10 p.m., that was a good day," said the State staffer of the old days, which used to start at 6:30 in the morning. ”Now, I come in at 9, 9:15, and leave by 5:30." The seeming hostility from the White House, the decades of American foreign-policy tradition being turned on its head, and the days of listlessness are taking a toll on people who are used to channeling their ambition and idealism into the detail-oriented, highly regimented busywork that greases the infinite wheels of a massive bureaucracy. Without it, anxiety has spiked. People aren't sleeping well. Over a long impromptu lunch one afternoon—”I can meet tomorrow or today, whenever! Do you want to meet right now?"—the staffer told me she too has trouble sleeping now, kept awake by her worries about her job and America's fading role in the world.

”I used to love my job," she said. ”Now, it feels like coming to the hospital to take care of a terminally ill family member. You come in every day, you bring flowers, you brush their hair, paint their nails, even though you know there's no point. But you do it out of love."

Some try to conduct policy meetings just to retain the muscle memory and focus, but, said another department employee, ”in the last couple months, it's been a lot more sitting around and going home earlier than usual." Some wander around the streets of Foggy Bottom, going for long, aimless lunches.

A lot of this, the employee said, is because there is now a ”much smaller decision circle." And many State staffers are surprised to find themselves on the outside. ”They really want to blow this place up," said the mid-level State Department officer. ”I don't think this administration thinks the State Department needs to exist. They think Jared [Kushner, Trump's son-in-law] can do everything. It's reminiscent of the developing countries where I've served. The family rules everything, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs knows nothing."

Right now, those I've spoken to in the department seem to know very little about what's going on. The staffer told me that she finds out what's going on at State from the news—which she spends all day reading because, after years of having her day scheduled down to 15 minute blocks, she has nothing else to do. And even the news itself isn't coming from official sources.
Click to expand...

Too long to quote, but it's a radical departure for the worst.
 
B

Blader

Member
nature boy said:
#finetunedmachine

The State of Trump's State Department



Too long to quote, but it's a radical departure for the worst.
Click to expand...

I posted this a page or two back, but Trump mentioned in a Fox & Friends interview that he has no intention of filling many of the hundreds of still-vacant executive agency positions. Good luck State!

Also, unrelated, but I just watched a pretty good doc last night about the man and the movie in your avatar.
 
M

Mario

Sidhe / PikPok
metalslimer said:
The media creaming their pants after Trump learns how to read a teleprompter speech by someone else that was filled with lies is expected from them. They haven't learned a single thing since the election
Click to expand...

He wasn't even reading from the teleprompter that well. It was still that stilted "I'm reading this for the first time" broken cadence feel.
 
J

JesseEwiak

Member
B-Dubs said:
Apparently Oprah is mulling it over as well.

Trump really opened a door that should have stayed shut.
Click to expand...

Yup. America used to be the outlier among Presidential democracies in which we didn't just nominate celebrities and star candidates to determine who won, ala Brazil where a guy who basically plays a clown on TV got the most votes for their Senate.

I mean, we had no problem nominating charismatic folks, but we used to say sure be charismatic but prove you can do any sort of governing first. That's over now.
 
B

Bonen no Max'd

Banned
JesseEwiak said:
Yup. America used to be the outlier among Presidential democracies in which we didn't just nominate celebrities and star candidates to determine who won, ala Brazil where a guy who basically plays a clown on TV got the most votes for their Senate.

I mean, we had no problem nominating charismatic folks, but we used to say sure be charismatic but prove you can do any sort of governing first. That's over now.
Click to expand...
Wonder how much Perot should've been a warning sign, I should probably read up more on his (absolutely bashit crazy) candidacy.
 
R

RustyNails

Member
So done with politics. This Perez vs Ellison bullshit is going to be our deathknell. Berniewingers are going to drag this nonsense all the way to 2020.
 
P

PBY

Banned
RustyNails said:
So done with politics. This Perez vs Ellison bullshit is going to be our deathknell. Berniewingers are going to drag this nonsense all the way to 2020.
Click to expand...

Don't blame the Berniewingers only. The DNC approached this in the stupidest way possible, eg - they reinforce continuously that they just don't get it.
 
P

Plinko

Wildcard berths that can't beat teams without a winning record should have homefield advantage
RustyNails said:
So done with politics. This Perez vs Ellison bullshit is going to be our deathknell. Berniewingers are going to drag this nonsense all the way to 2020.
Click to expand...


Which is why a guy like Buttgeig should have won.
 
N

NeoXChaos

Member
RustyNails said:
So done with politics. This Perez vs Ellison bullshit is going to be our deathknell. Berniewingers are going to drag this nonsense all the way to 2020.
Click to expand...

and just 2 years ago March 2015 none of these arguments were happening. What happened between 2009-2014 that kept the party at peace then come 2015 Bernie boom floodgates of division?
 
M

Maledict

Member
RustyNails said:
What was the stupidity?
Click to expand...

Someone dared to run against Bernie's anointed candidate, and he won.

Suddenly the attempts to clear the field and not allow a contest, which were so appalling during the primary, are now not bad at all. Similarily, the fact that Ellieson was endorsed by a huge swathe of the establishment, including Schumer of all people, doesn't matter at all.
 
B

Blader

Member
Plinko said:
Which is why a guy like Buttgeig should have won.
Click to expand...

I like Buttigeg a lot and look forward to his next run for (I hope higher) office. But I'm unclear what about his track record makes him a better fit for the responsibilities of DNC chair than Perez and Ellison.

PBY said:
Don't blame the Berniewingers only. The DNC approached this in the stupidest way possible, eg - they reinforce continuously that they just don't get it.
Click to expand...

Saying you just don't get it over and over is not an effective way of helping other people get it.
 
B

benicillin

Banned
Blader said:
I like Buttigeg a lot and look forward to his next run for (I hope higher) office. But I'm unclear what about his track record makes him a better fit for the responsibilities of DNC chair than Perez and Ellison.
Click to expand...

He isn't Perez or Ellison, that's what made him a better fit. We could have avoided most of this.

Perez and Ellison are so similar that it seems like the only reason Perez ran is because the Obama people didn't want Ellison to win and a lot of them were bitter about Ellison and anyone related to Bernie Sanders (see the fact that Perez people were less likely to vote Ellison as a second choice than Ellison's voters were to pick Perez.)

EDIT: Anyway it doesn't matter now the people who actually care about this are incredibly miniscule. A lot of people worried that these same "bern it all down" voters wouldn't turn out for Clinton, but that wasn't true so...all this DNC chair stuff is a tempest in a teacup.
 
N

nature boy

Member
RustyNails said:
So done with politics. This Perez vs Ellison bullshit is going to be our deathknell. Berniewingers are going to drag this nonsense all the way to 2020.
Click to expand...

I'm personally more terrified of an Oprah or Zuckerberg (or similar) candidacy. You know some celebrity is going to run and they pretty much have to run Democrat.


Blader said:
I posted this a page or two back, but Trump mentioned in a Fox & Friends interview that he has no intention of filling many of the hundreds of still-vacant executive agency positions. Good luck State!

Also, unrelated, but I just watched a pretty good doc last night about the man and the movie in your avatar.
Click to expand...

Yeah love Steve McQueen, true Hollywood legend in my book
 
B

Bonen no Max'd

Banned
Maledict said:
Someone dared to run against Bernie's anointed candidate, and he won.

Suddenly the attempts to clear the field and not allow a contest, which were so appalling during the primary, are now not bad at all. Similarily, the fact that Ellieson was endorsed by a huge swathe of the establishment, including Schumer of all people, doesn't matter at all.
Click to expand...
That's what makes it more frustrating!

Ellison had done a good job of being the unity candidate that made Bernie people happy but also seemed fine and got Schumer/Reid on board and then they panicked and dropped Perez in because they didn't want Ellison to win. It's not a personal rejection over Perez, it's about the fact that Ellison getting the position was a good olive branch and that needed to be taken away.

But whatever, I'm over it. I don't think anyone who was going to be involved is going to leave over this. It just sends a frustrating signal.

And I still reject the "oh I thought you were against party coronations" comparison. This is an insider event chosen by insiders, not a normal small-d democratic function.
 
M

Maledict

Member
Let's not forget that Ellison had some bad moments in the campaign. For waaaay too long he was insisting he could do the job part time, which left a lot of people wanting someone else. Similarily, his first couple of media appearances were not good - he didn't do well on Keeping it 1600 for example at all. There was ample reason for other people to jump in.
 
K

kirblar

Member
Maledict said:
Let's not forget that Ellison had some bad moments in the campaign. For waaaay too long he was insisting he could do the job part time, which left a lot of people wanting someone else. Similarily, his first couple of media appearances were not good - he didn't do well on Keeping it 1600 for example at all. There was ample reason for other people to jump in.
Click to expand...
By the end of the campaign I was glad Perez jumped in. A lot of the behavior coming from both Ellison and his campaign was raising red flags about Ellison's managerial capabilities.
 
M

metalslimer

Member
Who even cares. They both appeared last night in media appearances and Keith will be the face of the DNC for media appearances. There is no signal being sent from the DNC telling the Bernie wing to fuck off. If Bernie wants to slowly change the DNC they have already made huge strides. Considering where the organization was last year it is a massive gulf
 
P

PBY

Banned
metalslimer said:
Who even cares. They both appeared last night in media appearances and Keith will be the face of the DNC for media appearances. There is no signal being sent from the DNC telling the Bernie wing to fuck off
Click to expand...

Its easy for you to say, the Bernie wing would disagree.

Rightfully or not, it doesn't matter. Its frustrating - but we learned this on Nov 9. YOU HAVE THE GRASSROOTS. YOU HAVE A MOVEMENT GROWING. TAP IT!
 
K

kirblar

Member
PBY said:
Its easy for you to say, the Bernie wing would disagree.

Rightfully or not, it doesn't matter. Its frustrating - but we learned this on Nov 9. YOU HAVE THE GRASSROOTS. YOU HAVE A MOVEMENT GROWING. TAP IT!
Click to expand...
It's more "You have the structural reactionary forces of US politics behind you because you lost the presidency AND have a raw majority."

People are complacent and it's a big problem.
 
P

Pandora012

Member
Forgive me for my ignorance, but why doesn't the government increase taxes? I keep hearing them talk about entitlements and budget deficits, but they always say either give further tax breaks or decrease taxes. Why don't they increase them, to where they were before the deficits began?
 
B

balladofwindfishes

Member
Pandora012 said:
Forgive me for my ignorance, but why doesn't the government increase taxes? I keep hearing them talk about entitlements and budget deficits, but they always say either give further tax breaks or decrease taxes. Why don't they increase them, to where they were before the deficits began?
Click to expand...

Nobody wants to be the politician that raises taxes
 
M

metalslimer

Member
PBY said:
Its easy for you to say, the Bernie wing would disagree.

Rightfully or not, it doesn't matter. Its frustrating - but we learned this on Nov 9. YOU HAVE THE GRASSROOTS. YOU HAVE A MOVEMENT GROWING. TAP IT!
Click to expand...

Well they can disagree but they have a prime opportunity to have influence at the DNC so they either can stick to trying to change things or go running home like losers
 
B

Bonen no Max'd

Banned
balladofwindfishes said:
How is being endorsed (and maybe propped up) by career politicians like Schumer and Sanders grassroots?
Click to expand...
Sanders endorsement: hey this is one of our guys, we should get one of our guys in this spot

Schumer endorsement: this doesn't really matter so as a gesture of goodwill we'll put one of your guys in this spot

It's not that hard to navigate.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Similar threads

  • Locked
Russia begins Invasion of Ukraine
News NSFW 639 640 641 642 643
32K
2M
EviLore replied
Kanye West Planning Russia Trip to Meet Putin and Perform Sunday Service, Says Advisor
21
2K
It's all in the wrist replied
NYTIMES - Report Points to Microwave ‘Attack’ as Likely Source of Mystery Illnesses That Hit Diplomats and Spies
News
7
2K
DisguiseArrsick replied
Gowdy: Trump advisers should consider quitting over Russia
0
545
Arkage replied
  • Locked
Trump "Owned by Russia for 30 years" says his "Art of Deal" Ghostwriter
2 3
131
9K
FStubbs replied
Top Bottom