U.S. Politics: The Bipartisan Dismemberment of the VA

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

16 hours ago, Kalbear said:

Awesome - one of McCain's campaign managers was arrested for making meth.

She wasn't a campaign manager, but it's still pretty funny. Also, it looks like there was a lot more than just meth going down there. 

[DanteGabriel]

2 hours ago, Tywin et al. said:

She wasn't a campaign manager, but it's still pretty funny. Also, it looks like there was a lot more than just meth going done there. 

Amazing. Lydia from Breaking Bad went on to work for John McCain. Well, his temper's about the same as Tuco's.

[Martell Spy]

 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/john-boehner-ted-cruz-lucifer_us_5722034be4b0f309baefce9e

John Boehner Thinks Ted Cruz Is ‘Lucifer’ And A ‘Miserable Son Of A Bitch’

[DireWolfSpirit]

In the sobering news file- On MSNBC, Rachel Maddow reporting tonight that U.S. troop level in Iraq is now almost back up to 5000 soldiers!!  Good thing the government told us this clusterfuck ended 5 yrs ago?

 

[The Marquis de Leech]

10 hours ago, Martell Spy said:

 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/john-boehner-ted-cruz-lucifer_us_5722034be4b0f309baefce9e

John Boehner Thinks Ted Cruz Is ‘Lucifer’ And A ‘Miserable Son Of A Bitch’

Cue Cruz claiming that Boehner has called him angelic.

[BloodRider]

10 hours ago, DireWolfSpirit said:

In the sobering news file- On MSNBC, Rachel Maddow reporting tonight that U.S. troop level in Iraq is now almost back up to 5000 soldiers!!  Good thing the government told us this clusterfuck ended 5 yrs ago?

What does that number even mean?  You bold it like it is a scary number, but it seems so incredibly small to me.  For contrast we have 28,500 troops in South Korea.  

This is from 2015, so its a bit out of date:

http://time.com/4075458/afghanistan-drawdown-obama-troops/

Quote

There are currently about 35,000 troops serving in the 20 nations in the Middle East region that make up the U.S. Central Command area of responsibility, according to Commander Elissa Smith, press officer for the Middle East at the Office of the Secretary of Defense. About 3,200 of those U.S. forces are in Iraq.

 

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

10 hours ago, Roose Boltons Pet Leech said:

Cue Cruz claiming that Boehner has called him angelic.

One has to admit it's rather funny that he's trying to be a unifying force for Republicans. Because the only thing about him that could unite Republicans is their sheer hatred of him.

[Iskaral Pust]

I'll delurk for a minute to say I fully support Obama's cooler tone toward the Saudis.  Our relationship with them was based on a fear of the 1970s embargo repeating, which (1) has had terrible indirect costs by enabling their toxic regime and (2) was an example of solving yesterday's problem -- OPEC suppliers became more dependent on oil sales than we are on oil purchases, even before fracking.  And for anyone concerned about destabilizing the region, Saudi Arabia will be destabilized one way or another in the coming decade.  It can no longer afford its bribe & oppress style of governance and will either reform from within the regime (e.g. MbS) or be forcibly reformed by its populace.  And we need to be out of the business of the Sunni-Shia conflict -- either they realize it's an empty pursuit or they spiral themselves back into the dark ages (not a long trip, unfortunately) and the rest of the world continues on without them.

Also, not that many years after hailing Obama as the world's president, Europe is wary of the proposed transatlantic trade pact and unhappy about free-rider comments and his general pivot to the Pacific.  But the truth is that Europe cannot continue to free-ride on the US military and needs to decide, either within NATO or the EU, a plan for a realistic cooperative military that can address their shared national security.  Russia, Africa and the Middle East are next to Europe, not America.  And the border countries of the EU and NATO, tend to be poorer and more corrupt and less able to manage this alone.  So far the wealthier nations have been happy to use them as a buffer to absorb problems but that temporary solution is running out.

 

Unrelated: Trump's trial play of the reverse gender card, not to mention Fiorina on the Cruz ticket, sets us up for the swift-boating of Clinton on gender.  What's a uterine analogue for a swift-boat?  Beltway pundits are frantically searching for a phrase to coin as early as possible.  November still looks like a walk for Clinton, making her one of the least popular to ever win a presidential election.  I'd make a joke that she should be grateful to Trump but realistically any of the 17 in the GOP clown car would have led to the same outcome.

[lokisnow]

the idiots that run ZeroHedge have been "unmasked" and in a shocking turn of events they are not Nostradamus nor Cassandra! They have no special predictive powers nor "super special 100% grade A totally true and uniquely unsuppressed factual insights" into the market or economy.

Rather, they're a couple of millionaires, one banned from participating in the market for insider trading, with an ideological ax to grind and a willing demographic of suckers eager to buy the shit swill they've got to sell.

Hah.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-04-29/unmasking-the-men-behind-zero-hedge-wall-street-s-renegade-blog

[DireWolfSpirit]

16 hours ago, BloodRider said:

What does that number even mean?  You bold it like it is a scary number, but it seems so incredibly small to me.  For contrast we have 28,500 troops in South Korea.  

This is from 2015, so its a bit out of date:

http://time.com/4075458/afghanistan-drawdown-obama-troops/

 

It's the upward trend that is a sobering aspect to me. While 5000 is certainly a small amount compared to the peak number reached during the 2007 surge, when troop levels reached 170,000. It's up from the 0 we had drawn down to by Dec 2011. 

Quote

President Barack Obama paid tribute to the troops who served in Iraq on 14 December 2011, at the Fort Bragg military base in North Carolina. As the last of the American troops prepared to exit Iraq, he said the United States was leaving behind a "sovereign, stable and self-reliant" Iraq.^[39] On 15 December, an American military ceremony was held in Baghdad putting a formal end to the U.S mission in Iraq.^[40][41][42] The last 500 soldiers left Iraq on 18 December 2011, in accordance with this agreement.^[1][11][12] US Forces, in the form of air support, resumed operations in Iraq in June 2014, to defend it against ISIL.

 

The concern being how far things will escalate and the failure to see this "stable and self reliant Iraq" the government was pitching at the time of the withdrawals. With the ISIL forces making so many advances so quickly, I dont think anyone will be surprised to see continued increases to the level of U.S. forces in Iraq. Not surprising, but still disappointing to have the "no end in sight" scenario.

[Martell Spy]

So, Paul Ryan has been promising the Republicans will offer substantive policy proposals as an alternative to the Democrats. He's finally revealed one of them on healthcare. Unfortunately, it's not only a very old idea, but a terrible one. High-risk pools.

 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/paul-ryan-obamacare-replacement_us_57222c59e4b01a5ebde4b236?utm_hp_ref=politics

Paul Ryan’s Big Plan To Replace Obamacare Is An Old Idea That Doesn’t Work

It took him six years to come up with a policy invented in the 1970s.

[Shryke]

9 hours ago, DireWolfSpirit said:

It's the upward trend that is a sobering aspect to me. While 5000 is certainly a small amount compared to the peak number reached during the 2007 surge, when troop levels reached 170,000. It's up from the 0 we had drawn down to by Dec 2011. 

 

 

The concern being how far things will escalate and the failure to see this "stable and self reliant Iraq" the government was pitching at the time of the withdrawals. With the ISIL forces making so many advances so quickly, I dont think anyone will be surprised to see continued increases to the level of U.S. forces in Iraq. Not surprising, but still disappointing to have the "no end in sight" scenario.

The "stable and self-reliant Iraq" line was basically the positive spin the government will always put on a troop withdrawal. The truth is Obama likely wanted out as much as he could, though I'm sure they knew it would go to shit which is why they kept trying to stay anyway, and that by the time the current administration took office it was already too late. Iraq was bungled a decade ago and can't be unbungled that easily. If at all.

The US is gonna continue to at least try and solve the issue as best they can but Obama sure as fuck has no interest in a real commitment of ground forces there. 5000 troops is nothing. And not just compared to the surge levels but just as a general number towards trying to accomplish anything in the situation at hand.

[BloodRider]

12 hours ago, DireWolfSpirit said:

It's the upward trend that is a sobering aspect to me. While 5000 is certainly a small amount compared to the peak number reached during the 2007 surge, when troop levels reached 170,000. It's up from the 0 we had drawn down to by Dec 2011. 

 

 

The concern being how far things will escalate and the failure to see this "stable and self reliant Iraq" the government was pitching at the time of the withdrawals. With the ISIL forces making so many advances so quickly, I dont think anyone will be surprised to see continued increases to the level of U.S. forces in Iraq. Not surprising, but still disappointing to have the "no end in sight" scenario.

If you look at the link you will see that there is an area defined as U.S. Central Command aka USCENTCOM.  It looks like they shuffle troops around in that area a lot in an effort to contain ISIS.  My guess is that the number of troops in Iraq is rising because that is where they are need for the current operations against ISIS, and are not a recommitment of troops to that country.

 

[Martell Spy]

http://www.salon.com/2016/05/01/the_movement_to_end_mass_incarceration_is_still_too_weak_to_win_big/

The movement to end mass incarceration is still too weak to win big
A once-promising reform bill is begin gutted in the Senate, while new draconian measures take hold

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Commodore]

the White House Correspondents Dinner is what I imagine Rome/Paris/St. Petersburg were like before the fall

a thoroughly revolting spectacle (with the State of the Union a close second)

[Shryke]

2 hours ago, Commodore said:

the White House Correspondents Dinner is what I imagine Rome/Paris/St. Petersburg were like before the fall

a thoroughly revolting spectacle (with the State of the Union a close second)

Apparently when the raid on Bin Laden's complex was going to go down, there was talk of Obama skipping that bullshit, but people thought it would be suspicious.

Clinton's comment on this was "Fuck the White House Correspondents Dinner".

A sentiment I think we can all agree with.

[lokisnow]

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-jobs-report-20160506-story.html

 

Jobs day!

160,000 jobs gained (much lower than expectations, losses in the retail sector)

more worryingly, 19,000 job DOWNWARD revision to the previous two month estimates. Revisions are often more important than the headline number.

more encourageingly, long term unemployment went down by 150,000

Bottom line, no fed rate hike in June, now, and while some think that they'll hike it in September, I imagine the fed will punt until after the election and not raise rates until the december meeting.

[Darzin]

On 5/2/2016 at 8:19 AM, Commodore said:

the White House Correspondents Dinner is what I imagine Rome/Paris/St. Petersburg were like before the fall

a thoroughly revolting spectacle (with the State of the Union a close second)

But it's not going to fall anytime soon. Unless you think Trump can win. Right now the Republicans don't have much of a viable path to the presidency even without Trump. They need to expand their coalition. Trump is shrinking it. 

[ThinkerX]

Reminds me very much of the old 'Nine Nations of North America.'  And the 'mega-cities' of 'Judge Dread.'

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/17/opinion/sunday/a-new-map-for-america.html?WT.mc_id=2016-KWP-AUD_DEV&WT.mc_ev=click&ad-keywords=AUDDEVREMARK&kwp_0=136593&kwp_4=613445&kwp_1=317854&_r=0

 

 

[DireWolfSpirit]

Ivy leaguers Jeffrey and Hannah Sachs on "Repairing Americas Broken Foreign Policy."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jeffrey-sachs/repairing-americas-broken_1_b_9925700.html