All purpose news and politics thread part v: The quickening

[Iron Maiden]

Job Vacancies and Inexperience Mar Federal Response to Coronavirus



It is still mind-boggling that more Americans cannot see the gross incompetency and sycophancy that is the hallmark of this Administration.

I read about this very early on when it was reported in Vanity Fair how few people the Trump organization sent to meetings that were set up in various departments to aid in the transition. Some of those sent were just two bit lobbyists with no expertise whatsoever

This happened with Department of Agriculture and the Department of Energy....documents were prepared, meetings set up.

To prepare for the transition after the 2016 election the U.S.D.A.’s staff had created elaborate briefings for the incoming Trump administration. Their written material alone came to 2,300 pages, in 13 volumes. A lot of people who work in the Department of Agriculture grew up on or around farms. They like to think of the Department of Agriculture as a nice, down-to-earth bureaucracy. They consider themselves more bipartisan, and less ideological, than people at the other federal agencies. “Our plan was to be as hospitable as possible,” said one of the transition planners. “We made sure the office space was gorgeous.”

No one showed up that first day after the election, or the next. This was strange: the day after he was elected, Obama had sent his people into the U.S.D.A., as had Bush. At the end of the second day the folks at the Department of Agriculture called the White House to ask what was going on. “The White House said they’d be here Monday,” recalled one. On Monday morning they worked themselves up all over again into a welcoming spirit. Again, no one showed. Not that entire week. On November 22, Leftwich made a cameo appearance for about an hour. “We had thought, Rural America is who got Trump elected, so he’ll have to make us a priority,” said the transition planner, “but then nothing happened.”

More than a month after the election, the Trump transition team finally appeared. But it wasn’t a team: it was just one guy, named Brian Klippenstein. He came from his job running an organization called Protect the Harvest. Protect the Harvest was founded by a Trump supporter, an Indiana oilman and rancher named Forrest Lucas. Its stated purpose was “to protect your right to hunt, fish, farm, eat meat, and own animals.” In practice it mainly demonized organizations, like the Humane Society, that sought to prevent people who owned animals from doing terrible things to them. They worried, apparently, that if people were forced to be kind to animals they might one day cease to eat them. “This is a weird group,” says Rachael Bale, who writes often about animal welfare for National Geographic.

Another source in the article states "“At most of the federal agencies, there were no real briefings,” says a former senior White House official who watched the process closely. “They were basically for show. The Trump transition sent in these teams in the end just to say they were doing it.”

The article goes on to say the Trump eventually sent in 30 new people to the Department of Agriculture just before Inauguration...described as "a long-haul truck driver, a clerk at AT&T, a gas-company meter reader, a country-club cabana attendant, a Republican National Committee intern, and the owner of a scented-candle company, with skills like “pleasant demeanor” listed on their résumés. n many cases [the new appointees] demonstrated little to no experience with federal policy, let alone deep roots in agriculture,” wrote Hopkinson. “Some of those appointees appear to lack the credentials, such as a college degree, required to qualify for higher government salaries." What these people had in common was loyalty to Trump.

This is a department that oversees our national parks, inspects all the animals that we eat, it has a large fleet of aircraft for firefighting, monitors fish farms, and manages key programs like SNAP and school lunch programs and many programs that make our food safe.

[Malvolio]

No, WHO did it!

"I don't know." "He's on third; we're not talking about him."

Any other year, this would be Opening Day of the baseball season, so I would definitely be watching the Who's On First routine on YouTube.

[Malvolio]

I read about this very early on when it was reported in Vanity Fair how few people the Trump organization sent to meetings that were set up in various departments to aid in the transition. Some of those sent were just two bit lobbyists with no expertise whatsoever

This happened with Department of Agriculture and the Department of Energy....documents were prepared, meetings set up.




Another source in the article states "“At most of the federal agencies, there were no real briefings,” says a former senior White House official who watched the process closely. “They were basically for show. The Trump transition sent in these teams in the end just to say they were doing it.”

The article goes on to say the Trump eventually sent in 30 new people to the Department of Agriculture just before Inauguration...described as "a long-haul truck driver, a clerk at AT&T, a gas-company meter reader, a country-club cabana attendant, a Republican National Committee intern, and the owner of a scented-candle company, with skills like “pleasant demeanor” listed on their résumés. n many cases [the new appointees] demonstrated little to no experience with federal policy, let alone deep roots in agriculture,” wrote Hopkinson. “Some of those appointees appear to lack the credentials, such as a college degree, required to qualify for higher government salaries." What these people had in common was loyalty to Trump.

This is a department that oversees our national parks, inspects all the animals that we eat, it has a large fleet of aircraft for firefighting, monitors fish farms, and manages key programs like SNAP and school lunch programs and many programs that make our food safe.

The Republican Party has spent the last 40 years telling is that we shouldn't trust the government to do anything right, so when they get into positions of power, they make sure the government hasn't the resources to do anything right.

[Kirby101]

And since he has gotten into office, he has gotten rid of all with expertise and experience and replaced them with those who are only loyal to Trump.

[Robotman]

Trump approval rating higher than ever according to new poll. Yes, Americans really are this stupid.

https://www.cnn.com/2020/03/25/polit...ing/index.html

[XPac]

Trump approval rating higher than ever according to new poll. Yes, Americans really are this stupid.

https://www.cnn.com/2020/03/25/polit...ing/index.html

I said this before, but a $1000 check can really help in that regard.

[Jack Dracula]

And since he has gotten into office, he has gotten rid of all with expertise and experience and replaced them with those who are only loyal to Trump.

Making it easier to get away with shenanigans like repealing the Clean Water Act, Fiduciary Rule and Fair Pay and Safe Workplaces Rule.

Anyone not a Trump loyalist is a potential whistle-blower.

[Tazirai]

No one is bullying you into anything -- mainly you're here just arguing with people, attacking Biden, and posting Sanders propaganda.

No one is Bullying you into anything -- mainly you're here just arguing with people, attacking Sanders, and posting Biden propaganda.

[Tazirai]

Fear is a great motivator and the left employs it just as much as the right. Sanders himself does this when he attacks the "establishment." This is why organisation is helpful, rather than defining yourself as the perennial outsider like Sanders does. He could have made inroads and won the election, instead he didn't learn what he should have from '16 and thought he was entitled to the nomination. That's on Sanders.



He's just the current head of the movement, that's why people take it personally when he gets called out.



It is when Sanders flubs that message to the public because he's only interested in appealing to the fringe. Progressive policies are popular, leftist politicians aren't. The left won't go anywhere if their leaders are people like Corbyn and Sanders.



Sure, and Sanders is worse with the media than Biden is. He spoon feeds them Red Scare quotes and is surprised when they use it against him.



I don't know who that is. And yeah, they would - this election was Biden's too lose long before he entered the race. That's how well liked he was.



AOC is where she is right now due to luck having the laziest politician to run against and worked hard to fill a niche he missed then she was constantly given the spotlight from Fox news and the right like she's the new Hillary Clinton - which she skilfully managed to being a voice on the left that was heard around the world. However, she isn't tested politically outside her safe blue district and she's a rookie politician. TYT didn't "notice" her, they recruited her to run. None of those people made her famous, the mainstream media networks did. They're obscure media channels.



Trump got where he is with brute force, marketing something the regular GOP wasn't giving their base and winner take all primaries. It's not wise to take your ideas from the GOP without huge caveats. We don't need a left GOP, one's bad enough.



Aja_Christopher understands politics better than you do by a wide margin.



You don't speak for all progressives, and the GOP base aren't that malleable that's the "independents". Sanders is an elite, as are many of the leftist You Tube pundits you follow. Decent people don't cover for sexist bullies on the internet, or hen they do things like make death threats because their candidate lost an election. Normally I wouldn't have to separate those "decent people" from regular Sanders supporters but you've shown you consider them "decent people." Long term you've failed twice running for president, so I'm skeptical about that comment.




We've seen how far rage and spite get the left in politics, organisation crushes that tactic to dust. If you had the numbers for those people we'd be talking about Sanders being he nominee, not Biden. The people have spoken and they don't prefer Sanders.

I truly don't think your or Aja understand politics the way most people do honestly.
But it's cool. You do you and keep the centrist propaganda going.

You have a niche to fill to defend Democratic corruption under the guise of Trump bad.

Also, if TYT was obscure then why are their hosts on MSNBC, FOX, and CNN regularly?
Doesn't sound obscure to me.
Sam Seder is consistenyl on Msnbc with Chris Hayes.
David Pakman and Kyle Kulinski are on Cnn or FOX,
Nomiki Konst is on Cnn or FOX
Alexandra Rojas is on CNN

Spare me the trite talking point of obscure Youtube channels with billions of views.
When a single video of theirs gets more views than a CNN or MSNBC clip.

The difference is that New media is just that, NEW, Why do you think Youtube is trying to win over the CNN's and MSNBC's?
They see the money these "Obscure" channels are making, but want that corporate cash. But Younger viewers don't care much about Network news anymore.

CNN and such are for the people who just watch "news" all day.

So there's that.

[KNIGHT OF THE LAKE]

Trump approval rating higher than ever according to new poll. Yes, Americans really are this stupid.

https://www.cnn.com/2020/03/25/polit...ing/index.html

A lot of people are viewing this like a war. War time incumbents usually do well. There’s a lot of American’s who if they think Trump is going to get them through this, won’t want a power transition in the middle of it.

This is exactly like 2016 where it’s going to be a lot of long held truths about politics vs the idea that Trump is an anomaly that cN defy them.

[KNIGHT OF THE LAKE]

I said this before, but a $1000 check can really help in that regard.

It will be the biggest handout most Americans got in a long time, and he’ll take credit for it. It’s funny. All these “socialist“ ideas become necessary, they have to do them, they end up being very popular.... and he gets to be the guy at top taking all the credit. World works funny

[Tazirai]

....except as an actual Brit with feet on the ground I can tell you (as I did before) Corbyn fucked up in his own. Hell his main "enemies" were the Conservative party, not the smattering of neo-blairites who (like it or lump it) have been the most successful left wing party in Britain and (Iraq war aside) have a fairly decent record.

But sure "centrists"

You do understand when I speak about Centrists I'm not speaking about you in America right? But if you want to be tagged Centrist, nothing I can do about that.
If you here the term Centrist fly, it's for these borders...

I can speak on Japan and America. I only lived in England for a year, and I don't keep up much with Labour party politics much anymore, but I do See how Sky and the BBC treated Corbyn and how the Americans in our country interjected themselves into British politics shitting on him. People like No Good Neera Tanden, and Obamas advisor who advised the Tories. Corbyn wasn't perfect and how his party won before is how they should have ran, since May was fuckin terrible.

So I cede that ground to you, but yeah Centrists (America).

[Tazirai]

Tony Blair’s record would be so differently regarded if only he’d done a “Wilson” and refused to get involved in a patently pointless war. But in general terms on foreign policy he did seem subservient to US interests...Iraq wasn’t unusual in that, just the most damaging example.

I agree with you that Corbyn did a lot of stuff to damage himself. I think the fact that he did relatively well in his first election campaign suggests it’s possible for a youngish dynamic leader to actually win on a fairly left wing platform.

Unfortunately his performance has made that prospect more unlikely. (I find it telling that Sir Keir...whose wishy washy Brexit policy has done so much to damage the party is probably favourite to take over as leader.)

All of this is it.

[shooshoomanjoe]

As expected, trump's recent racism towards China has caused an increase of racism towards the Asian community. I can't recall another POTUS in my time that has attacked so many Americans.

[Tazirai]

Most Americans honestly don’t understand how right wing this country is compared to the rest of the West. Guns are a big one just because it’s not uncommon for most of our peer countries to have either outright gun bans or just such restrictive laws that it wouldn’t get past the 2nd Amendment.

Look at a country like the UK which is led by BORIS JOHNSON. Look at what they are doing for their people in this crisis and look at what we are doing. They are about to provide 80% pay to their workers who aren’t working during this crisis. We are about to provide a one time 1200 check and add some money to unemployment and the bulk of this is going to big business and that’s considered a win.

America’s a very big and different country and parts of it are almost fringe right wing to the point where it deeply drags the national average.

By comparison to your statement, nearly all my European friends consider Bernie Sanders merely center left. But here he’s like the far fringe left that people find unrealistic.

Exactly! This is why last night was huge for Sanders, and why I'm glad the media is giving him credit begrudingly of course.

HE saved the bill in the senate, because he made the GOP look like they were against the people. Not only did this "Far Left Loon" shame the GOP, they gave him props for doing it lol.

In any country where I have lived, centrists, and liberals, and conservatives tend to work towards the welfare of the people more than in America.
In America it's a few select issues, then rage for the rest of it.

Bernie Sanders Spits Fire At GOP Senators For Holdup Over Unemployment Benefits
The Vermont senator dripped with sarcasm as he eviscerated Republicans for holding up the coronavirus relief package over unemployment benefits.

Bernie Sanders Fights for Laid-off Worker Protections in $2 Trillion Stimulus with Corporate Bailout


Bernie Sanders threatens to hold up coronavirus bill after 4 GOP senators push to cut unemployment aid

More Sanders Propaganda for some folk, lol.