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Official Trump: Dems favorability down to 31%! All time low! Sad!

A lot of women are comfortable deriving power from the men in their lives and they see women gaining power as a threat to their own.
 
Krugman opinion piece I’ll put here

Is It Policy, or Just Reality TV?

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The other day the Trump administration announced a new trade deal with South Korea. It also announced that President Trump was nominating the White House physician to head the Department of Veterans Affairs. What do these announcements have in common?

The answer is that both are indicators of how Trump views his job. He doesn’t seem to see actual policymaking as important; instead, he treats it all as an exercise in reality TV.

Unfortunately, what looks good on TV isn’t necessarily good for America, or the world.

Ronny L. Jackson, the veterans affairs nominee, certainly looks good on TV, as we saw when he gave Trump an excellent bill of health, including a declaration that the president, while overweight, is just shy of being officially obese — thanks to having apparently grown an inch in office.

However, girtherism isn’t the real issue here; as David Axelrod says, “a waist is a terrible thing to mind.” The point, instead, is that running veterans’ health is a management, not medical, job — and Jackson has no managerial experience.

But what does this have to do with trade deals?

Well, last week the stock market plunged on fears that Trump was getting ready to begin his long-threatened trade war. But then it made a partial comeback, as investors decided that he was mainly huffing and puffing.

That Korea deal supports the huffing-and-puffing view. Although hyped as a major victory, it’s basically a nothingburger in terms of its actual content. Korea will increase quotas that U.S. companies aren’t filling anyway and will divert a few percent of its steel exports to other destinations. It’s hard to escape the sense that the goal was to announce something, never mind the content, and call it a victory.

Once you start looking at the Trump administration as an exercise in publicity, not policy, you see signs of it everywhere.

For example, the director of the National Economic Council is often described as the president’s chief economist, but that’s not quite right. What the person holding that job is supposed to do is act as a coordinator: making sure that the president receives coherent economic advice, that policymaking in different departments is consistent with the administration’s overall vision, and so on.

Obviously, this requires a good enough understanding of economics to recognize good and bad advice, but it also requires other skills, managerial and diplomatic; basically, the council’s director has to be an honest and effective broker of other people’s ideas and actions.

So when Trump chose Larry Kudlow to replace Gary Cohn in that role, Kudlow’s remarkable track record on the economy — he’s been wrong about everything — was only part of the problem. Beyond that, nothing in Kudlow’s role as a shouting head on cable TV has prepared him for the job he’s supposed to do.

But no matter: According to Kudlow, the president says he looks “very handsome” on TV.

So Trump is acting as if his job were to run up ratings for his TV show, not to make actual policies. And in some ways this could be a good thing, since Trump’s policy ideas are often terrible. As I said, Wall Street had a big relief rally when investors tentatively concluded that Trump wants to only play at trade war, and can be bought off with symbolic wins that change nothing real.

Yet America still needs to be governed, and Trump’s lack of seriousness has consequences.


One consequence is that actual policy is mostly set by people with a hard-right agenda. Ben Carson, with his ever-changing explanations for ordering a $31,000 dining set, cuts a comical figure as secretary of housing and urban development. But never mind the furniture: In real life HUD seems to be abandoning its historical mission of fighting racial discrimination.

Similar turns to the right can be seen in many agencies. Trump hasn’t managed to repeal Obamacare, but his officials have undermined the program’s efficiency, driving up premiums and reducing coverage. Meanwhile, deaths and illness due to the collapse of environmental enforcement will be one of Trump’s enduring legacies.

Another consequence is that if and when America needs real leadership, there will be nobody home.

So far, the Trump era has been almost free from crises Trump didn’t generate himself. One of the few such events demanding an effective response was Hurricane Maria — and the response was disastrously inadequate.

So what happens if there’s a foreign policy crisis, a financial crisis, a health crisis, whatever? Fake wins like the Korea deal won’t do the trick; we’ll need actual policies. And who’s going to devise those policies? Lincoln had a team of rivals; Trump has assembled a team of poseurs.

And even if Trump should come to realize he needs better people, he probably couldn’t get them. At this point, everyone with some independent reputation knows that you can’t enter this administration without getting tarnished and diminished. Trump can’t even hire good lawyers!

So one of these days, the reality TV administration is going to bump up against actual reality. And it’s not going to end well.
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Trump's Infrastructure Strategist Is Leaving The White House

Trump initially promised he'd deliver a trillion-dollar infrastructure plan in his first 100 days, but it took more than a year until Gribbin and the White House would unveil and deliver the plan to Congress in February. And the president upped the ante, calling it "the biggest and boldest infrastructure plan in the last half-century," promising it would generate a $1.5 trillion investment in rebuilding the nation's highway, railways, bridges, tunnels, airports, seaports and water systems.

But the Gribbin-drafted proposal calls for federal spending of just a fraction of that, $200 billion over 10 years, with the rest coming from state and local governments and private investors.

we'll always have Infrastructure Week.
 
Could go under the media or midterm elections threads, but I’ll put here.

MADELEINE ALBRIGHT: Will We Stop Trump Before It’s Too Late?

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On April 28, 1945 — 73 years ago — Italians hung the corpse of their former dictator Benito Mussolini upside down next to a gas station in Milan. Two days later, Adolf Hitler committed suicide in his bunker beneath the streets of war-ravaged Berlin. Fascism, it appeared, was dead.

To guard against a recurrence, the survivors of war and the Holocaust joined forces to create the United Nations, forge global financial institutions and — through the Universal Declaration of Human Rights — strengthen the rule of law. In 1989, the Berlin Wall came down and the honor roll of elected governments swelled not only in Central Europe, but also Latin America, Africa and Asia. Almost everywhere, it seemed, dictators were out and democrats were in. Freedom was ascendant.

Today, we are in a new era, testing whether the democratic banner can remain aloft amid terrorism, sectarian conflicts, vulnerable borders, rogue social media and the cynical schemes of ambitious men. The answer is not self-evident. We may be encouraged that most people in most countries still want to live freely and in peace, but there is no ignoring the storm clouds that have gathered. In fact, fascism — and the tendencies that lead toward fascism — pose a more serious threat now than at any time since the end of World War II.

Warning signs include the relentless grab for more authority by governing parties in Hungary, the Philippines, Poland and Turkey — all United States allies. The raw anger that feeds fascism is evident across the Atlantic in the growth of nativist movements opposed to the idea of a united Europe, including in Germany, where the right-wing Alternative für Deutschland has emerged as the principal opposition party. The danger of despotism is on display in the Russia of Vladimir Putin — invader of Ukraine, meddler in foreign democracies, accused political assassin, brazen liar and proud son of the K.G.B. Putin has just been re-elected to a new six-year term, while in Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, a ruthless ideologue, is poised to triumph in sham balloting next month. In China, Xi Jinping has persuaded a docile National People’s Congress to lift the constitutional limit on his tenure in power.

Around the Mediterranean, the once bright promise of the Arab Spring has been betrayed by autocratic leaders, such as Abdel Fattah el-Sisi of Egypt (also just re-elected), who use security to justify the jailing of reporters and political opponents. Thanks to allies in Moscow and Tehran, the tyrant Bashar al-Assad retains his stranglehold over much of Syria. In Africa, the presidents who serve longest are often the most corrupt, multiplying the harm they inflict with each passing year. Meanwhile, the possibility that fascism will be accorded a fresh chance to strut around the world stage is enhanced by the volatile presidency of Donald Trump.

If freedom is to prevail over the many challenges to it, American leadership is urgently required. This was among the indelible lessons of the 20th century. But by what he has said, done and failed to do, Mr. Trump has steadily diminished America’s positive clout in global councils.

Instead of mobilizing international coalitions to take on world problems, he touts the doctrine of “every nation for itself” and has led America into isolated positions on trade, climate change and Middle East peace. Instead of engaging in creative diplomacy, he has insulted United States neighbors and allies, walked away from key international agreements, mocked multilateral organizations and stripped the State Department of its resources and role. Instead of standing up for the values of a free society, his oft-vented scorn for democracy’s building blocks has strengthened the hands of dictators. No longer need they fear United States criticism regarding human rights or civil liberties. On the contrary, they can and do point to Trump’s own words to justify their repressive actions.

At one time or another, Trump has attacked the judiciary, ridiculed the media, defended torture, condoned police brutality, urged supporters to rough up hecklers and — jokingly or not — equated mere policy disagreements with treason. He tried to undermine faith in America’s electoral process through a bogus advisory commission on voter integrity. He routinely vilifies federal law enforcement institutions. He libels immigrants and the countries from which they come. His words are so often at odds with the truth that they can appear ignorant, yet are in fact calculated to exacerbate religious, social and racial divisions. Overseas, rather than stand up to bullies, Mr. Trump appears to like bullies, and they are delighted to have him represent the American brand. If one were to draft a script chronicling fascism’s resurrection, the abdication of America’s moral leadership would make a credible first scene.

Equally alarming is the chance that Mr. Trump will set in motion events that neither he nor anyone else can control. His policy toward North Korea changes by the day and might quickly return to saber-rattling should Pyongyang prove stubborn before or during talks. His threat to withdraw from the 2015 Iran nuclear agreement could unravel a pact that has made the world safer and could undermine America’s reputation for trustworthiness at a critical moment. His support of protectionist tariffs invites retaliation from major trading partners — creating unnecessary conflicts and putting at risk millions of export-dependent jobs. The recent purge of his national security team raises new questions about the quality of advice he will receive. John Bolton starts work in the White House on Monday.

What is to be done? First, defend the truth. A free press, for example, is not the enemy of the American people; it is the protector of the American people. Second, we must reinforce the principle that no one, not even the president, is above the law. Third, we should each do our part to energize the democratic process by registering new voters, listening respectfully to those with whom we disagree, knocking on doors for favored candidates, and ignoring the cynical counsel: “There’s nothing to be done.”

I’m 80 years old, but I can still be inspired when I see young people coming together to demand the right to study without having to wear a flak jacket.

We should also reflect on the definition of greatness. Can a nation merit that label by aligning itself with dictators and autocrats, ignoring human rights, declaring open season on the environment, and disdaining the use of diplomacy at a time when virtually every serious problem requires international cooperation?

To me, greatness goes a little deeper than how much marble we put in our hotel lobbies and whether we have a Soviet-style military parade. America at its best is a place where people from a multitude of backgrounds work together to safeguard the rights and enrich the lives of all. That’s the example we have always aspired to set and the model people around the world hunger to see. And no politician, not even one in the Oval Office, should be allowed to tarnish that dream.

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i think i have it...

white southern Republicans i think are just racist in general. I have lived in the south (NC, GA, FLA, TX, TN) most of my life...i am qualified to make that remark. i think deep down they want to be Trump, live like he did. never really work, just do whatever and fuck whatever piece of pussy that lights their torch. they don't care what he says or what he does. they are clearly not bright.

i do not understand the women love for him, i would think most would greatly dislike the way he views and treats women, not to mention the rights he is taking away from them.

Whats weird about this take so hawt is that is wasn't (NC,GA,FLA,TX,TN) that won him the election. It was the Rustbelt.
 
NC and FL certainly won it for him.
 
 
Trump challenges Native Americans’ historical standing

But the Trump administration contends the tribes are a race rather than separate governments, and exempting them from Medicaid work rules — which have been approved in three states and are being sought by at least 10 others — would be illegal preferential treatment. “HHS believes that such an exemption would raise constitutional and federal civil rights law concerns,” according to a review by administration lawyers.

:eyeroll:
 
Ryan shouldn't have run. The Donald ran and kicked Hillary's crooked arse to kingdom come and it was a great thing to watch last night. Just to see Rachel Maddow & Chris Matthews with their opened mouth dis-belief and to see NBC's Andrea Mitchell's swollen eyes from crying. All worth it--like listening to Woody Durham after Carolina lost a game.

Librul tears!
 
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