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[CCS]

While I agree the EU should spend more, I think it would be easier to justify if there was a combined EU army. Otherwise (as is already the case) there's going to be a lot of duplication and inefficiency. I imagine a combined EU spending 1.5% of its GDP on defence would be more effective than each individual country spending 2%.

 

[aspiegamer]

In a entirely random article at Politico, someone entirely fails to understand the problem with Trump's vacation and for some reason thinks people are upset because the destination is New Jersey, which is not a complaint I'd ever heard, ever, and I can't imagine why anyone would be bothered by it.

But the idea that a president vacationing in New Jersey is itself a sign of national decline? Please spare me.

Yes, you'll see people with spray tans and muscle shirts – widely popular things in American culture that should no longer be scandalizing. So go ahead and blend ‘high' and ‘low' culture however you want: Grab a cheesesteak or a crab cake, go from being on a sailboat to throwing a round of skee ball, and break out ”The Sopranos" box set if it rains to watch one of the best television shows ever made.

The author even mentions Trump's frequent vacationing but seems oblivious to that as a primary concern, and doesn't remotely mention the whole matter of tax payers paying his own resorts for his vacations.

 

[Deleted member 231381]

While I agree the EU should spend more, I think it would be easier to justify if there was a combined EU army. Otherwise (as is already the case) there's going to be a lot of duplication and inefficiency. I imagine a combined EU spending 1.5% of its GDP on defence would be more effective than each individual country spending 2%.

This is true, but as a short-term measure, increasing national spending by 2% is significantly less costly in terms of political capital than further EU military integration - see Macron.

 

[Pixieking]

This is true, but as a short-term measure, increasing national spending by 2% is significantly less costly in terms of political capital than further EU military integration - see Macron.

Is it possible to phrase increased EU military integration as a cost-saving measure that could free-up individual nations' budgets for services, like health, education, mental health and police?

 

[Deleted member 231381]

Is it possible to phrase increased EU military integration as a cost-saving measure that could free-up individual nations' budgets for services, like health, education, mental health and police?

Ye-es, except that's a hard sell when most of Europe is run by parties that have literally no intention of doing any of the latter.

 

[NoName999]

No socialist would say that an economic transformation alone would end racism and misogyny (though it could potentially change their expression), but we recognize that these structures of oppression have a material basis.

We have yokels on this very site who claim that. Finland is a socialist country, yet it's still bigoted as hell. Somalian immigrants and the indigenous Sami can attest to that.

Like how many times do we have keep referencing articles, history, stats, or data that shows that the white working class won't go for economic progressive ideas as long as they think minorities get it as well?

Like all humans are selfish, but everyone else knows that breaking your own arm so another person can have theirs sawed off is a fundamentally stupid idea.

 

[CoolOff]

Finland is a socialist country

No it's not? Scandinavian social democracy =/= socialism.

 

[Frank the Great]

Thing is, that never existed. Just like there's a group of Republicans today who cut their teeth on the propaganda that was slung by the generation before them, that their predecessors knew was bullshit but what they know as the only truth, so it is in right-wing intelligentsia. William F. Buckley was a racist trying to repackage Bircher ideals as something that could pass muster in academic circles, and there were a group of intellectuals who bought Buckley's attempts at legitimizing conservatism as an intellectual doctrine that never actually existed.

All we're seeing in the modern day is conservatism come full circle. The song-and-dance that was invented to hide the ugliness of paleoconservatism has been discarded because it is no longer necessary, and part of that facade is the entire conservative intellectual establishment (which is why Heritage is being gutted in favor of Heritage's PAC)

I mean, classic liberalism is a real thing, it's a bona fide economic/political ideology that used to form the backbone of the Republican party. If your claim is that there never was any ideology on that side of the aisle, I disagree. Certainly many were racist but there used to be an entire wing of the party (with real influence) that really believed in the economic ideology.

"Conservative" has always meant racist, but for many years it was confused with classic liberalism because both movements were included within the Republican party. My only point is that current Republicans like Kristol are too naive to realize that the Republican party chose racism over them, chose to promote the conservative wing and leave the ideologues behind. There used to be room in the party for both wings but not anymore, seemingly. If Kristol isn't a racist and social conservative, he's not a conservative at all and should stop calling himself that and stop trying to hopelessly rebrand "conservative." It ain't gonna happen.

Did you miss Goldwater? Or, you know, Ford, who didn't enforce the civil rights act.

Are you disagreeing with anything I said? because you yourself admitted that Kristol isn't a racist. You can't point to a few racist politicians to undermine my simple point that neither classic liberalism, not any other ideology but racism, is represented by the current Republican party, whereas the party used to include many more educated folks who believed in classic liberalism.

A lot of those folks are now libertarians. Kristol should do the same or, if he realizes he doesn't agree with that party very much, he should just become a Democrat.

 

[jtb]

It doesn't surprise me to see people like Kristol and Frum begrudgingly flirt with being Democrats - their domestic policy convictions are far more malleable than their foreign policy convictions. Medicare Part D, immigration reform, etc. etc.

Someone like Kristol is much more of a Neocon than a Libertarian (he hates Ron Paul after all, and their isolationist tendencies are anathema to him), and it's no coincidence the Neocons evolved from the Scoop Jackson wing of the Democratic party. Their rise to prominence within the Republican Party largely occurred concurrently with the rise of the anti-war left around Vietnam and the collapse of the LBJ/New Deal coalition.

I don't really care what Kristol rebrands himself as because the Neocons are a constituency that only exists in DC think tanks and lobbying firms these days. Trumpism is a direct repudiation of each and every one of their policy convictions.

 

[Plinko]

Fox News‏Verified account @FoxNews

David Bossie: Republican leaders need to "stand with the president and get these bills through Congress or they need to step aside."

"Step aside?" That's not how any of this works.

 

[ItWasMeantToBe19]

Greenwald just mainlined some drywall and wrote his hottest take of all time.

It's a terrible article.

 

[dramatis]

The proposal of capitalism intended to work, in an ideal world. The proposal of socialism also intended to work, in an ideal world. Neither, however, fully works in their application to reality.

To me, the reason we do a mishmash of ideas is because we do not live in an ideal world. Perhaps not so much because humans are shitty, but because humans are imperfect.

 

[jtb]

2017 Greenwald: Edward Snowden is a member of the deep state

 

[tuxfool]

2017 Greenwald: Edward Snowden is a member of the deep state

What, seriously?

 

[RumbleHumble]

2017 Greenwald: Edward Snowden is a member of the deep state

Sounds like Greenwald post-Trump. I'm still annoyed they had him on Pod Save The World.

 

[Ernest]

From that article:
(nothing too revelatory, but more grist for the mill)

Right after the election, Trump biographer Tim O'Brien made what has turned out to be a prescient prediction, telling Politico that Trump would leave the actual work of governing to Congress. “He says he’s a hard worker, but he really prefers to watch a lot of TV and eat hamburgers,” O'Brien said. Several months later, as that prediction was being realized, O'Brien told Maureen Dowd, the New York Times columnist, that the pinnacle of Trump’s career was the erection of Trump Tower. That was in 1983.

"But the success of that went to his head and he never cared again. He’s fundamentally lazy. He free-rides so many processes he doesn’t know anything about. He used to do it in the business world, and now he does it in the political world,” O’Brien told Dowd. "He’s not a student of anything other than protecting his image."

Trump was never a master builder, entrepreneur or deal-maker. He is good at branding, and at selling that brand: Make America Great Again, Build the Wall, Lock Her Up. Liddle Marco, Lyin’ Ted, Crooked Hillary. But the branding that worked so well during the campaign works a lot less well when your customers are legislators who not only have to have a grasp of policy but to explain their votes to constituents back home.

It’s also fairly difficult to brand high-risk insurance pools and six-party talks on North Korea. Not everything can be reduced to a ballcap slogan, Trump has discovered. And that discovery has dispirited him, as he confessed to Reuters this spring: “I loved my previous life. I had so many things going. This is more work than in my previous life. I thought it would be easier." That may be the most astonishing admission ever made by a sitting president, a concession of intellectual incuriosity and outright laziness that simply has no rival in the history of the office.

Little surprise, then, that Trump’s time in the White House has been marked by the creation of crises and obsession over them. The presidency may be more about the appearance of power than power itself, but it’s not supposed to be quite this powerless. The grand infrastructure plan remains the stuff of bipartisan fantasy. Healthcare bored him, so Trump did little of the deal-making that is his supposed genius. When he tweeted on the issue, it was nonsensical, sophomoric or counterproductive. Frequently, it was all three.

Sometimes, a zealous cabinet member brings him an executive order, allowing carcinogens to be spewed into the air or maligning people with brown skin. Trump signs it in an ornate Oval Office affair, Republicans standing over him as over a child just learning to write his name. They told him to nominate Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court, and Trump did. That, too, he has treated as a testament to his toils, though he appears to have as little understanding of the judicial branch as he does of the legislative one.

Republicans on the Hill plainly hope Trump sticks around long enough to rubber-stamp whatever legislation comes his way. “White House officials privately concede that it is actually better for Republicans when the president disengages more from being a policy negotiator,” the Daily Beast reported in June. The article was about healthcare, but it could have been about anything.

Trump is a public official, meaning he is employed by the American people. We pay his salary, regardless of whether he donates it or not. Republicans have long loved to crow about lazy Washington bureaucrats who waste taxpayer dollars while working little and achieve less. Their desire to expunge government waste seems acutely commendable these days. It should begin in the Oval Office.

 

[TheLaughingStock]

Under Trump, gains against ISIS have ‘dramatically accelerated’

Nearly a third of territory reclaimed from the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria since 2014 has been won in the past six months, due to new policies adopted by the Trump administration, a senior State Department official said Friday.

Brett McGurk, the State Department’s senior envoy to the anti-Islamic State coalition, said that steps President Trump has taken, including delegating decision-making authority down from the White House to commanders in the field, have “dramatically accelerated” gains against the militants.

McGurk described extensive preparations, while emphasizing that the United States is not interested in reconstruction or nation-building. Instead, he said, U.S. and partner nations are removing mines, clearing rubble and making sure that basic services — electricity, sewage and water — are operational to allow displaced residents to return under the leadership of local councils.

“People say, ‘We want you to run the hospital, the schools.’ We say, ‘No, we’re not very good at that.’ It’s not our responsibility,” McGurk said.
Asked whether the current deterioration of relations between the United States and Russia has affected their cooperation in Syria, he said that “so far, we’ve not seen an effect on our engagement” there.

 

[aspiegamer]

Trump spokesperson says policies of Trump have improved a conflict situation. Shocking news! Never mind that it reads like "we're totally on course to rebuild Iraq, fore realsies! We swear!!" circa 2004. There's been good progress in ISIS territory, though. This is true. I mean there is no way to argue against the territory lost, and that much of it has been direct work of US-backed allies in the region.

Talk to me when we sort out the humanitarian disasters and come up with a plan for Assad, because the status quo over there only benefits Russia. As the saying goes, winning the war is the easy part.

 

[Barzul]

Re Pence's Shadow campaign:

 

[kirblar]

Lots of stories have been run in the NYT about Pence's barely-disguised 2020 PAC.

But this one was in a newspaper Trump reads.

 

[ArkhamFantasy]

"Step aside?" That's not how any of this works.

Ill never understand why they would throw hundreds of republicans under the bus to protect a president who has never given them anything in his life.

 

[Random Human]

Re Pence's Shadow campaign:

Now he's gonna have to do a press conference where he pleases Trump.

 

[tbm24]

Re Pence's Shadow campaign:

I think it's hilarious that he responded to the story at all. Does he not realize every time someone from the WH does that, it turns out the story was true?

 

[Dubbedinenglish]

Re Pence's Shadow campaign:

Trumpy got mad lol.

Double lol Pence thinks he's clean

 

[Stinkles]

no I DON'T fucking enjoy this. They can't even spend 2%? Germany gets to be a socialist paradise while we subsidize the defense of the eastern front? Fuck me sideways.

If Britain can do it, so can they. I want to see everyone on the same line

Britain has a proportionally huge military, a significant number of nukes both us and domestic, and a big defense industry. Germany is artificially capped because of those one thing it did twice in the 20th century. There is no good reason for Germany to suddenly switch its entire successful culture towards militarism that it has been historically hamstrung in. It doesn't make sense for every country to spend the same arbitrary percentage on NATO or any other military adventure. They should spend what they can afford.

 

[Geist-]

 

[1.21Gigawatts]

The way the Trump administration is taking credit for Obamas work, after building large parts of their campaign on the message of how terrible Obama has been, is one of the most disgusting and sinister developments I have seen.

I have not seen such a blatant disregard for truth and decency in western politics in a long time.
The fact that media outlets like FoxNews aren't calling them out on this bullshit, but even giving a platform to it makes them complicit in this vile propaganda attempt.

 

[Dan]

I can't wait to get a full detailing about Pence knowing everything about Flynn's foreign entanglements and explicit confirmation that he wasn't misled about the Russian call.

 

[thefro]

Trump spokesperson says policies of Trump have improved a conflict situation. Shocking news! Never mind that it reads like "we're totally on course to rebuild Iraq, fore realsies! We swear!!" circa 2004. There's been good progress in ISIS territory, though. This is true. I mean there is no way to argue against the territory lost, and that much of it has been direct work of US-backed allies in the region.

Not sure how much you can credit Trump for since everything is Obama-era plans continuing (albeit with caring less about civilian casualties).

 

[Dan]

The way the Trump administration is taking credit for Obamas work, after building large parts of their campaign on the message of how terrible Obama has been, is one of the most disgusting and sinister developments I have seen.

I have not seen such a blatant disregard for truth and decency in western politics in a long time.
The fact that media outlets like FoxNews aren't calling them out on this bullshit, but even giving a platform to it makes them complicit in this vile propaganda attempt.

Fox News was happily blaming Obama for the consequences of the housing crash. You shouldn't be the least bit surprised.

 

[ArkhamFantasy]

I love how specific they are with jobs, and then follow it up with a broad statement like "ISIS is on the run" that doesnt mean anything lol.

 

[Ogodei]

As far as ISIS goes, we knew the DoD was working with Abadi to build up for the big attack on Mosul as far back as December (post-election but pre-handover), and the advance on Raqqa has been going on since November.

Much like the economic surge presently, it's just things coming home to roost that were put in motion a while ago.

Now the stock market Trump might be able to take credit for. Private sector is *hungry* for those tax cuts, and you'll notice a market skid whenever the GOP has a failed vote in congress: the further away the dream of tax cuts becomes, the market reacts adversely, but then resumes its upward march because of the strong fundamentals (now including rising gas prices for the first time in a few years).

 

[Dan]

Stock market also keeps climbing because no one wants to park their money anywhere else, which is not a healthy situation.

 

[BlastProcessing]

Re Pence's Shadow campaign:

I'm offended by these baseless claims made by the NYT and I look forward to sharing my outrage with the fine people of New Hampshire and Iowa soon.

 

[Autodidact]

I'm offended by these baseless claims made by the NYT and I look forward to sharing my outrage with the fine people of New Hampshire and Iowa soon.

*Provided the fine people of New Hampshire can hear me through their drug-induced hazes.

 

[DMczaf]

The way the Trump administration is taking credit for Obamas work, after building large parts of their campaign on the message of how terrible Obama has been, is one of the most disgusting and sinister developments I have seen.

I have not seen such a blatant disregard for truth and decency in western politics in a long time.
The fact that media outlets like FoxNews aren't calling them out on this bullshit, but even giving a platform to it makes them complicit in this vile propaganda attempt.

The job numbers are real now? Hmmm

 

[Autodidact]

The job numbers are real now? Hmmm

The numbers were always real. The President was fake.

 

[GTI Guy]

The job numbers are real now? Hmmm

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9IhIWf6G77M

 

[ArkhamFantasy]

Did anyone ask Spicer or Sanders why Trump doesnt use real unemployment numbers anymore?

Edit: Just did a quick google search, Spicer claimed Obama's numbers were phony? LOL

There's so much shit happening that i forgot about all the crazy shit they've said.

 

[gaugebozo]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9IhIWf6G77M

I like how everyone in the room laughed. "That's my Trump!"

 

[RustyNails]

This is a new talking point being churned out from the right. Alan Dershowitz started the ball rolling by saying the juries are "racially and ethnically" stacked against Trump.

“It gives the prosecutor a tremendous tactical advantage,” said Dershowitz. “The District of Columbia, which is always solidly Democratic and has an ethnic and racial composition that might be very unfavorable to the Trump Administration.”

Basically already laying the groundwork for the inevitable indictment by saying that the juries were biased.

 

[Valhelm]

Under Trump, gains against ISIS have ‘dramatically accelerated’

Not much to do with Trump; this is all thanks to the joint success of the SDF, the Syrian Arab Army, and the Iraqi military.

While we have given further material support to the SDF under Trump, Hillary also suggest to lend stronger support to our Kurdish allies.

 

[RustyNails]

Not much to do with Trump; this is all thanks to the joint success of the SDF, the Syrian Arab Army, and the Iraqi military.

While we have given further material support to the SDF under Trump, Hillary also suggest to lend stronger support to our Kurdish allies.

Didnt Trump stop arming SDF recently, under orders from Putin?

 

[Brawly Likes to Brawl]

This is a new talking point being churned out from the right. Alan Dershowitz started the ball rolling by saying the juries are "racially and ethnically" stacked against Trump.

Basically already laying the groundwork for the inevitable indictment by saying that the juries were biased.

They shook.

 

[Plinko]

This is a new talking point being churned out from the right. Alan Dershowitz started the ball rolling by saying the juries are "racially and ethnically" stacked against Trump.

Basically already laying the groundwork for the inevitable indictment by saying that the juries were biased.

Please proceed, GOP. What Mueller is doing is perfectly legal.

 

[BlastProcessing]

Newt does have a point: Trump really should have had the foresight to commit his felonies in West Virginia.

 

[Snowman Prophet of Doom]

So what's Trump's big announcement going to be? Construction to begin on THE WALL (TM)?

 

[~Kinggi~]

So what's Trump's big announcement going to be? Construction to begin on THE WALL (TM)?

There's another one? I thought that was the rally.

 

[whyamihere]

http://firehousestrategies.com/new-firehouse0ptimus-survey-trumps-shrinking-base/

LV midterm voters in Florida, Ohio, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania. Land line only. Kind of wish they showed us the states, but yeesh. Kind of makes it hard to see how the GOP wins any of the Obama/Trump Senate seats.

 

[Autodidact]

Good news for Brown. I've never been too worried about Nelson, Baldwin, and Casey, anyway.