All-purpose news and politics thread: Two Steps Beyond!(Part II)

[Tami]

Trump Is Making American Diplomacy White Again

Insane and stupid, typical of the Trump Admin

hen I joined the U.S. Foreign Service in 1990, I used to joke that all my South Asian-American colleagues and I could fit comfortably at a table for four. With my brownish skin, unruly hair and seriously non-Anglo-Saxon name, I didn’t resemble many foreigners’ vision of an American diplomat: white, male, perhaps with a monocle to finish off the look. While serving at U.S. embassies in Jamaica, Egypt, Syria, Oman or India, I often was taken to be a local—a mix-up I would use as a teaching moment, to explain that anyone, regardless of color or origin, could become an American and aspire to join our diplomatic corps. A young Syrian’s reaction captured the usual outcome of such exchanges: “The fact that you’re an American diplomat is what I love about America.”

The State Department became less of a pale male club under secretaries like Colin Powell and Hillary Clinton—who championed diversity and equality as institutional values—and thanks to recruitment programs like the Pickering and Rangel fellowships, which brought hundreds of talented officers from under-represented groups into public service. As of June 2018, Asian-Americans represented 6.8 percent of Foreign Service generalists, slightly above the Asian-American share of the population in the 2010 U.S. Census, while Hispanic (6.0 percent), African-American (5.4 percent) and Native American representation (0.3 percent) lagged at levels well below their share of the population. Our progress on diversity was far from adequate, but for most of my career, across both Democratic and Republican administrations, I could say with confidence that my government was striving to build a diplomatic corps that looked more like America as a whole. As the daughter of Indian-American immigrants proud to be the first member of my family born in the United States, I rose through the State Department’s ranks without perceiving that my ethnicity, gender or religion impeded my career.

That is, until the Trump administration. In 2017, as the media ran out of synonyms for “implosion” in describing Rex Tillerson’s tenure as secretary of state, a quieter trend unfolded in parallel: the exclusion of minorities from top leadership positions in the State Department and embassies abroad.

This shift quickly became apparent in the department’s upper ranks. In the first five months of the Trump administration, the department’s three most senior African-American career officials and the top-ranking Latino career officer were removed or resigned abruptly from their positions, with white successors named in their places. In the months that followed, I observed top-performing minority diplomats be disinvited from the secretary’s senior staff meeting, relegated to FOIA duty (well below their abilities), and passed over for bureau leadership roles and key ambassadorships.

[BeastieRunner]

Team Mueller update:

- With a self-imposed mid-investigation update pending, there's noise finally coming out of Mueller's camp that Manafort delivered "the Big One."
- The speculation is while Trump benefited from the inference, the "Big One" most likely is not Trump but an actual name for Gucifer 2.0, which would be huge.
- Outing the Russia operative and ending his reign of terror would be as big of a deal, if not bigger than if Trump colluded.
- FBI and counter intelligence is looking more at the possibility that family and people in Trump's orbit were colluding, unbeknownst to Trump, taking advantage of him.
- He appears to be swimming in foreign debt and likely paid people to take care of his debt without knowledge of whom they got into to bed with.

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So ... our POTUS is either an evil moron or a moron. Either way this plays out, makes Trump the fool. Something he will not like.

[aja_christopher]

And if "money" is what you are concerned about as the article below points out -- you’re entitled to your own opinion but not your own facts.

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"Trump Is Right About One Thing: 'The Economy Does Better Under The Democrats'"

"That’s right. Trump said out loud the same thing that Hillary Clinton has asserted—and top academics and journalists have confirmed. The same thing I’ve been compiling cold, hard government data on since 1980: By crucial metrics like GDP, job creation, business investment and avoiding recessions, the economy does a lot better with Democrats in the White House than with Republicans.

Just one eye-opening example: Nine of the last 10 recessions have been under Republicans."

https://www.forbes.com/sites/realspi...the-democrats/

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The definition of insanity.

[Tami]

Sharing this here. I went in search of a way to get a copy of my military records. Don't actually Need them, just wanted to have have them. Submitted the request as per the instructions several weeks ago. Today I got a letter saying they couldn't find me in their records or databases.

I could follow it up and try to find out why, but I'm undecided. It is strange that they couldn't find me. At least I still have my dog tags.

[PaulBullion]

Mueller says Flynn sr. is ready for sentencing.

[Dalak]

Sharing this here. I went in search of a way to get a copy of my military records. Don't actually Need them, just wanted to have have them. Submitted the request as per the instructions several weeks ago. Today I got a letter saying they couldn't find me in their records or databases.

I could follow it up and try to find out why, but I'm undecided. It is strange that they couldn't find me. At least I still have my dog tags.

This seems really bizarre, did they give a reason why they thought you weren't there or did they just assume you were lying?

[aja_christopher]

I could follow it up and try to find out why, but I'm undecided. It is strange that they couldn't find me. At least I still have my dog tags.

It might help to contact the VA or a local veteran's group if you haven't already.

[Tami]

This seems really bizarre, did they give a reason why they thought you weren't there or did they just assume you were lying?

They gave a few possible explanations, one that I might be listed in a different database. They included a different address I could use to try again. Basically, they don't know why either.

[Tami]

It might help to contact the VA or a local veteran's group if you haven't already.

I'll consider it, thanks.

[Mister Mets]

Team Mueller update:

- With a self-imposed mid-investigation update pending, there's noise finally coming out of Mueller's camp that Manafort delivered "the Big One."
- The speculation is while Trump benefited from the inference, the "Big One" most likely is not Trump but an actual name for Gucifer 2.0, which would be huge.
- Outing the Russia operative and ending his reign of terror would be as big of a deal, if not bigger than if Trump colluded.
- FBI and counter intelligence is looking more at the possibility that family and people in Trump's orbit were colluding, unbeknownst to Trump, taking advantage of him.
- He appears to be swimming in foreign debt and likely paid people to take care of his debt without knowledge of whom they got into to bed with.

----

So ... our POTUS is either an evil moron or a moron. Either way this plays out, makes Trump the fool. Something he will not like.

Where are you hearing about the noise?

At this point, I really don't -- I know what your party has done to our country and that's all I need to know.

My posts to you aren't to "debate" your views -- just to point out the obvious hypocrisy of the party that you support for all to see.

You can "not like" Republican racism, corruption and treason all day, Mets, but in the end talk is cheap and it's still your party that is responsible for this mess.

Again.

Edit: I noticed that you focused on the fact that I said Trump and his team worked with the Russians to steal the election -- whether you feel that said efforts were "effective" or not, that statement is correct: he did work with them -- to steal the election through illegal means.

And you're likewise right in that we should see what Mueller has to say about it, assuming your chosen party doesn't stifle said investigation, as many of it's members (such as Ryan and McConnell) seem to want to protect Trump while others (such as Nunes and DeSantis) are doing their best to end or to block it.

Conversely, others (such as Cohen and Manafort) are already not only listening to what Mueller has to say but also offering their own personal insights into the corruption of said party... so that they can avoid spending the rest of their lives in prison.

So yeah, let's see what Mueller has to report -- assuming the Republicans don't successfully block it -- and let's also see what Kavanaugh's accuser has to say before we make any judgments. With that in mind, there's no need to do this "quickly" as you argued in your initial post, but there is every need to take enough time to do it right, so that we have all of the relevant facts before making a final well-reasoned decision.

I'm still not clear what you mean by steal the election. Do you have a different definition to this than the conventional definition (IE- ballot stuffing, hacking of voting machines, intentional efforts to disqualify lawful voters)?

[InformationGeek]

Well I'm convinced!

New statements issued by "two women who dated" Kavanaugh

Also, 'member those 65 women who stood by Brett before? Wellllllllll....

Now that the woman accusing Trump Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of sexual assault has come forward, most of the women who rushed to defend him last week have suddenly fallen silent.

On Thursday, Senate Democrats disclosed that they had given the FBI a letter from an anonymous woman who said Kavanaugh violently attempted to rape her when they were in high school. Just 18 hours later, Senate Judiciary Republicans had released a letter from 65 women vouching for Kavanaugh.

Those women said that they had each known Kavanaugh while he was attending an all-boys high school, and that they thought he “behaved honorably and treated women with respect.”

On Sunday, however, that anonymous woman went public. Christine Blasey Ford, a 51-year-old professor and research psychologist, gave an on-record interview to the Washington Post about her ordeal.

The letter defending Kavanaugh was supposedly a spontaneous effort, beginning after 5 p.m. on Thursday. Somehow, in less than 18 hours, the signatures of 65 former students from five separate high schools were gathered and delivered in time for Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA) to release the following morning.

But now, more than 20 hours since Ford came forward, only two of those 65 women have so far been willing to publicly stand by their support of Kavanaugh.

Politico reached out to “more than two dozen” of the women who signed the letter. Just two of them reiterated that they stand by Kavanaugh. Two declined to comment, and the others did not respond.

One of the most prominent signatories to that letter was Virginia Hume, who also penned a lengthy explanation defending the letter against those who found its timing suspicious.

But even Hume, whose father is right-wing Fox News commentator Brit Hume, has remained silent since Ford came forward.

[BeastieRunner]

Mueller says Flynn sr. is ready for sentencing.

That's supposed to happen by Wednesday. It will be interesting to see how long.

Where are you hearing about the noise?

WSJ, The Hill, NBC, and Law & Crime.

We'll see how right they are but I can see this side of the happenings playing out.

EDIT: I can't find the WSJ links. Will check and update from home.

Well I'm convinced!

Two Mauras? Sounds fishy. I'm gonna need to see Maura them!

The comments slay me: “I dated OJ Simpson and he never once murdered me.” -Paula Barbieri

On a serious note, the guy Kavanaugh is alleged to have helped him molest/rape all but cooperated the accuser's story. And they black-out partied often.

Gonna have a hard time refuting that one.

[Dalak]

Well I'm convinced!

What Maura you askin for?

Also, 'member those 65 women who stood by Brett before? Wellllllllll....

If they were so moved so as to sign a letter, why refuse comment now?

[Kirby101]

Beastie; what is the legal significance of the Flynn sentencing? We know he took a deal, does it mean he will declare his crimes in Court like Cohen?

[BeastieRunner]

Beastie; what is the legal significance of the Flynn sentencing? We know he took a deal, does it mean he will declare his crimes in Court like Cohen?

A). It means Mueller is satisfied with the information he was given.

B). Flynn will be arraigned for his plea deal, nothing new. He already plead guilty for lying to the FBI, so it won't be like Cohen's.

C). Sentencing memoranda will also not be filed until after the election and the sentencing date is now Nov. 28, after the election.

D). Team Mueller now has Flynn, Manafort, Papadopoulos, Gates, Pinedo, van der Zwaan, Cohen, & Patten cleared from their dockets, so expect more indictments and a report soon.

E). Kilimnik, the 12 GRU agents (1 was Manafort's "translator"), 3 pending indictments, & "the candidate" are still up in the air.

Law & Crime has a good article on Flynn's sentencing and Manafort's plea timing.