TOON: DeVos gets to work

PIC: Trump impeachment poll vs. Bill Clinton, Baby Bush, & Nixon

serious question: is anyone keeping an eye on GOP foreign policy dirty tricksters?

Not just the guys who make backroom deals like whatever happened with Russia, but the people who deal with the people who can make bad things happen?

I don't know if Prince Bandar is still in that line of work, but I'm sure there are people in Washington know who the likely players are.

We can't afford another 9/11 or worse when Trump and Bannon are in charge.

On Trump, Australia & Mexico

Isn't it odd that Trump could go off on the leader of one of our allied countries when he is talking on the phone, but when he met with the president of Mexico in person, he didn't have the balls to bring up his idea of making Mexico pay for it?

I'm trying to figure out what the difference is between the two interactions besides physical distance and whether Melania put his meds in his smoothie that day.

Why Democratic voters want Democratic politicians to oppose everything:

During the Baby Bush administration, they opposed next to nothing.

Even during Obama's years, when they went bipartisan it was often on the wrong issues.

Many Democratic politicians can't be trusted to take care of their constituents instead of their donors and the GOP golfing buddies.

That has to change in the next two years, or we will be even more screwed than we are now.

We need a party for the rest of us not another business party minus racists and homophobes.

Trump is going to have an unintended side effect of accountability for both major parties

If he is eventually impeached or removed for mental incompetence, it will make it easier for the public to demand accountability and appropriate action be taken against future presidents of both parties.

When the Democrats brought up this Russia stuff, apart from how strong the evidence is, they crossed a line they refused to cross in 1968 or 1980 when Republicans did more directly treasonous things like monkey wrenching peace talks with Vietnam in '68 and negotiating a delay in the release of the hostages in Iran in '80.

Once you rip the curtain off Machiavellian machinations that dirty and harmful to the American people, you can't put the presidency back on an alabaster pedestal and pretend he's like the fucking pope or Queen Elizabeth anymore.

Obviously, Republicans haven't treated Democratic presidential candidates (Democratic presidential election winners for that matter) that way for a long time, but their accusations and machinations always seem to be about personal stuff or making a mountain out of a molehill.

Now it gets real.

The other shoe that needs to drop is an honest assessment of what our foreign policy is about, something that is discussed in the alternative media and academia, but that rarely passes the lips of our elected officials in Washington and even less often is discussed by the mainstream media.

How could we "take" Iraq's oil without committing genocide?

Bush seemed to be aiming for this when he pumped oil without metering it for a while, and pushed a hydrocarbon law on Iraqis that would have given 88% of their oil income to oil companies via production sharing agreements.

While the prime minister and his cabinet supported the law, the parliament wouldn't vote for it because their people might notice that they gave away their biggest national asset.

Even a dictator like Saddam could only go so far in pissing off his people before he would be overthrown.

Therefore, if Trump wants to "take" their oil, he would have to kill a large percentage of the people who oppose the taking, democratically or otherwise.

Also, looting violates the Geneva Convention.

How long will Trump be in office?

His unhinged behavior, sloppiness, and absolute lack of preparation or background knowledge makes it seems like his time in office may not end in a four or eight year increment.

I wonder what other people think though.

If GOP ends or at least kneecaps Obamacare, what stops CA from doing single payer?

Or some other state level improvement?

I recall that the state legislature passed single payer a couple of times when Arnie was governor, only to see him veto it.

Once Jerry Brown was in office, state Dems said to hold off to give Obamacare time to work.

Work or not, Republicans are taking the machetes to it, so California ought to set the example of how to replace it AND show what Democrats will (or at least should) do if they regain control of Congress and eventually the White House.

Does opposition to Betsy DeVos mean Dems are going to stop supporting privatization of public ed?

While Democratic politicians have opposed vouchers, they have gone along with most of the rest of that agenda driven by hedge fund managers, and some wealthy individuals and their foundations.

If they are doing a 180 on this, I applaud and support them.

It wouldn't hurt to explicitly say that their past support of that agenda was wrong, and they are firmly on the side of PUBLIC public education, driven by the needs of students and the best academic research on what helps them (NOT from foundations selling something).

This could energize educators in some of the states Hillary barely lost, who then might help to take back the statehouses and governor's mansions lost to the GOP by echoing their privatization agenda.