Trump's America

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Sorry. Between Gen. Kelly as the Chief of Staff, and Gen. Mattis as Secretary of Defense (after getting a waiver from Congress), and Gen. McMaster as National Security Advisor, I feel confident in saying that the generals have a lot of power.

[Frelga]

Yeah...

Bloomberg reports Gorka may be on the way out, too.

[Impenitent]

So, basically a cross between a junta and a cult of personality.

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[Voronwë the Faithful]

Yeah...

Bloomberg reports Gorka may be on the way out, too.

Hopefully Miller too.

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[River]

So, basically a cross between a junta and a cult of personality.

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Yeah. Basically.

[Frelga]

Well.... I don't get the sense that this is the military takeover of the government. We still have the legislative branch, technically, and none of the generals in question appear to be in it for personal power. But we do seem to have the military supervising the executive branch.

Among the people quitting the administration:
The art commission (I think they were the ones who wrote an epic resignation letter where the first letters of each paragraph spell RESIST)
Digital economy council
Billionaire Carl Icahn as a special adviser, to avoid questions about conflicts of interest

Also, several charities canceled scheduled events at Mar-a-Lago, including The American Red Cross, The Salvation Army, Susan G. Komen foundation, and American Cancer Society,

[River]

I wouldn't call it a military take-over so much as a hand-over. Trump appointed these people and remains capable of firing them. The fact that they're being looked to as a stabilizing force says a lot, though.

[Nin]

https://www.facebook.com/letemps.ch/pos ... 0803189339

I don't know if this will work and I have very little time to engage into any discussion (I am leaving in a few hours to my aunt's funeral and the preparation has been difficult), But I hope you can see this drawing by the Swiss Chapatte.

[yovargas]

FB post from my brother who loathes Trump and Republicans but is no fan of Democrats either:

Trump has had one huge success: Syria. The war there is ending after years of failed Obama policies. Families are returning home, bombs have stopped dropping. If Hillary had won the Syrian war would now be escalating as she was a firm believer in "regime change", aka increasing war against Assad and his allies in Iran and Russia.

Progressives like to ignore how awful Obama and the Democrats have been on war issues. Trump correctly labeled them as a warmongering party. It is way past time for progressives to demand an end to Democrat's warmongering ways.

Thoughts? I know next to nothing about the topic so I have no comment of my own but was curious what he was referencing exactly. I would ask him but I don't want to get into a political discussion with family members.

[Frelga]

I haven't heard that the situation in Syria was so greatly improved. Just today, 42 civilian deaths were reported in a "US-led" bombing in Raqqa.

On the other hand, I do think that Obama's Middle East policy was, to quote a Frenchman, worse than a crime, a mistake. While Trump made disengagement part of his campaign, so far I haven't seen him follow through.

[axordil]

Obama's ME policy was designed to scale back from the batshit crazy levels of W to the merely dangerous levels of every president before him. But once you've gone batshit, it's hard to go back.

[Frelga]

That is true. Once Bush knocked out Hussein, dominoes started falling. It's possible things would have been better if we left the Arab Spring alone, though.

I paid more attention to the news from that region and I don't think yov's brother is factually correct. Trump has stepped up the offensive in Syria, resulting in progress against Daesh at the cost of greater civilian casualties. He just announced that he is stepping up offensive in Afghanistan, and then there's his latest proposal to turn the war over to private mercenaries, which I have a strong sense of nope about. And then there are his tweets double daring North Korea, and his threat of military action against Venezuela.

Bannon was the White House voice for less foreign intervention. With him out, and the generals in, who knows how things will develop.

[Inanna]

I'm actually upset at this turn of events:

Mnuchin Doesn’t Endorse Placing Harriet Tubman on the New $20 Bill
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/31/us/p ... money.html

[Lalaith]

What?! Seriously? I was just wondering when I'd start seeing the new bills.

[Cenedril_Gildinaur]

Obama's ME policy was designed to scale back from the batshit crazy levels of W to the merely dangerous levels of every president before him. But once you've gone batshit, it's hard to go back.

His policy was designed to replace manned operations with unmanned operations, but to have more of these operations. Hardly scaling back in any meaningful sense of the word. Especially since Obama's policy included executive executions of US citizens without any due process. If Trump actually scales anything back, that will be an unexpected good outcome.

This is frustrating to me. Were a standard Republican or a standard Democrat in office I could predict what mistakes they are going to make. Easily. Republicans have one standard set of mistakes, Democrats have a different but overlapping standard set of mistakes. Trump is truly a wild-card, which is why he drives the mainstream so absolutely crazy. One reason, that is.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Donald Trump's new BFFs: "Chuck and Nancy". What a weird world we live in.

[Frelga]

Kim Jong Un: calls Trump a dotard.

Americans: Google dotard.

Tolkien geeks: are smug.

Kim went on to say, "What is the house of Trump but a loutish tower where retail spaces languish empty."

(For real, Trump Tower was the only building in downtown Chicago with vacancy signs where shops would be.)

[Inanna]

And where "brigands drink in the reek" would also work.

[Frelga]

I think it might be an insult to the brigand community.

[Sunsilver]

And where "brigands drink in the reek" would also work.

That crossed my mind, too, Inanna!