Donald Trump's Fantastic Incredible Awesome Rhetorical Presidency-Podcast 620

Donald Trump’s Fantastic Incredible Awesome Rhetorical Presidency-Podcast 620

Foreign Policy Based On Cable News and Twitter

Wars. Rumors of wars. In Donald Trump’s Fantastic Incredible Awesome Rhetorical Presidency-Podcast 620 Trump breaks another promise. Remember 2013? That’s when Trump said Obama should forget about Syria. Save his powder for something more important. In the debates, then candidate Trump said the same thing. Leave Syria alone. We’ll get nothing out of attacking Assad.

Trump Fine With Assad Until…

At the end of March Senators McCain and Graham were pleading to attack Assad. However as late as last week Nikki Haley was telling her UN Counterparts and the world Assad could stay. Then came the chemical attack on Syrian civilians. Children. Pictures on cable news. President Trump saw the pictures and got mad.

Cable News Made President Mad

As Trump and his team met with the Chinese at his resort in Florida, he ordered a counterstrike. 59 missiles. 70 million dollars. The runway where the planes took off is still intact. Syrian military aviation continues to fly sorties from that runway. On a dime this president has changed US foreign policy. Changed one of the cornerstones of his campaign. Another major promise broken.

North Korea Too

Over the weekend the USS Carl Vinson Strike Force was detailed to the Western Pacific. Off the Korean Peninsula. Suddenly Donald Trump has become George W. Bush. If you voted for Trump is this what you voted for? We’re a long way from building the wall and getting China to send all those jobs back now, Toto.

Alt Right Deeply Misinformed

Then there are the rumors. The bad reporting. The discourse on social media. One hundred fifty thousand US troops to Syria? Says so right here. China deploying another one hundred fifty thousand of their troops to the Yalu river, China’s border with North Korea. Russia and Iran say they’ll respond if there are any more US attacks. Word is the Russian Navy is very busy in Europe. More activity than the cold war.

How About Those Twins?

Voters who didn’t want to talk about foreign policy because it was too complicated might want to bone up. TV producers and Radio Program directors and talk show hosts may want to drop the banter about sports and the weather. Republicans should take a look at the bargain they made with this president and ask themselves just what they bought and must now defend.

Trust Me. It’s Gonna Be Great

Welcome to Donald Trump’s Fantastic Incredible Awesome Rhetorical Presidency-Podcast 620. Tax Reform, a trillion dollar stimulus program and another run at repealing ObamaCare loom. The US is twenty trillion dollars in debt. On top of that, perhaps a war in Syria he campaigned against and a crisis in North Korea. Don’t worry though. The president will tweet about it. Foreign Affairs crisis? Bah. More tweets. In Donald Trump’s Fantastic Incredible Awesome Rhetorical Presidency-Podcast 620.

(Editor’s Note: Late Tuesday the President told the New York Post, “We are not going into Syria”, and blamed the confusion on his ‘aides’. Which would be his ambassador to the UN among other fairly senior administration personnel. Oddly enough regime change remains a new goal. He also said, “We’re sending an armada” to North Korea. Rhetorical Presidency indeed.)

Sponsored by Ryan Plumbing and Heating of Saint Paul.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 39:12 — 89.7MB) | Embed

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS

 

The Strange Case of Susan Rice and Other Mysteries-Podcast 619

The Strange Case of Susan Rice and Other Mysteries-Podcast 619

Different Mysteries Left and Right

Susan Rice is the leaker. A political Flack. Running an operation to discredit the new president before he took office. Rice is at least guilty of a felony. At least that’s the story the right wing commentators are telling. In The Strange Case of Susan Rice and Other Mysteries-Podcast 619.

On the left it’s a different story. National security became a top concern after someone hacked the DNC computers. The Russians did it. The Russians did it because Trump did some kind of back room deal.

Opinion Is Not News

In America’s increasingly partisan media most people only want their beliefs confirmed. There’s no chance a political point of view different from my own can be right. Is there? A sea of information. Where opinion masquerades as fact and personalities beat the drums. We’re supposed to dance to their rhythm.

We Know Nothing…yet

Real Facts? In The Strange Case of Susan Rice and Other Mysteries-Podcast 619 we’ll see there are few facts. Russians hacking the DNC? Not so fast. Trump making deals behind the scenes with Putin? Obama ordering illegal surveillance of a president elect? Maybe. Maybe not.

Tin Foil Hats Anyone?

Evidence supporting claims of the right and left in this case is thin. All of it has the classic elements of conspiracy theory. So we’ll take a moment in The Strange Case of Susan Rice and Other Mysteries-Podcast 619 to detail the known facts. You can draw your own conclusions. Mystery lovers beware though. We’re along way from wrapping this one up in the final chapter.

Basic Framework

Is Susan Rice a political operative? What is the legal framework regarding National Security Agency intercepts. Why did the Trump administration leak NSA documents to a congressmen? What provoked the president to tweet he was ‘wiretapped’ in the first place? Is there a difference between a wiretap and an NSA intercept? Who gets to see intercepts? What are the significant legal justifications for executive orders in 2011 and 2017 allowing sharing in the first place. Lots of questions.

Where There’s Smoke

One thing is true. The dust kicked up by the Susan Rice story obscures real developments. North Korean Missiles. Syrian chemical weapons. Congressional action on the ACA, Tax Reform and Immigration. We’ll talk about it in The Strange Case of Susan Rice and Other Mysteries-Podcast 619.

Sponsored by Brush Studio and X Government Cars.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 44:39 — 102.2MB) | Embed

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS

The American Dream Is Killing Us? Really? Podcast 618

The American Dream Is Killing Us? Really? Podcast 618

“Deaths of Despair” is what some researchers call them. Death due to suicide, drug overdose and the consequences of heavy drinking. Alarm bells are ringing. Over the last twenty seven years deaths among middle aged white people with a high school diploma or less have doubled. So many deaths it has caused a fall in overall US life expectancy. Let’s talk about it in The American Dream Is Killing Us? Really? Podcast 618.

Failure Isn’t Your Fault Anymore?

This is a lurid headline. Lurid headlines get attention. Writers are writing. Talkers are talking. Princeton researchers blame ‘Cumulative Deprivation’. We’re suddenly wondering if The American Dream Is Killing Us? Really? Podcast 618.

American Dream Grows Up

What is The American Dream? James Truslow Adams tied it to the Declaration of Independence. All men are created equal. We have an unalienable right to Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.

Who Says You’ll Be Happy

When did it become The American Dream? Do we expect our government to help us be happy? Are we supposed to be guaranteed success in our pursuit of happiness. A house in the suburbs? Two cars? A great job? Happy children? Retirement? Health Insurance?

Economic Inequality

Robert Samuelson thinks economic inequality is the cause. Inequality causes slow active social forces accumulating and destroying the hopes and dreams of white people with a high school education or less. It drives them to despair. Drink. Drugs. Death. Writers like JD Vance add to the ‘White Trash‘ ethos with stories of poor, dumb white people living in Appalachia.

We All Have Tough Times In Our Family Histories

In The American Dream Is Killing Us? Really? Podcast 618 I tell some stories of my own family’s history in the coal mines. I wonder what people think we’re responsible for these days. All of us have some kind of despair but we fight it. We get knocked down and get back up. Live to fight another day. Never give up.

Get Up And Fight

Life is a challenge. It does not come with a guarantee. How we define winning and success changes with age and time. Happiness doesn’t require a house in the suburbs and two cars. Happiness requires a warrior mentality to some degree. Sometimes you just have to reach down and get it.

The American Dream Is Killing Us? Really? Podcast 618

Sponsored by Ryan Plumbing and Heating of Saint Paul.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 37:30 — 85.8MB) | Embed

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS