Focus on one thing, do not be distracted by anything else. Oh look tacos!

I find it sad that the person who wrote the first tweet -- "Obi Wan Kenobi" -- used a fake Jefferson quote to support an otherwise valid point. Monticello dot org points out that it was written by Eyler Robert Coates' in his collection of Jefferson quotes.

It will be hard to avoid distractions simply because there are so many fires being set by the unscrupulous and amoral loons in the White House. I watched the speakers at the press conference this afternoon, first discussing Venezuela and what they want to do, then the question/answer period. The statements read by Trump's people seemed to be at the 3rd grade level. If the low level of integrity they've demonstrated doesn't concern people, the lower level of intelligence they show should. If neither does -- you're hopeless.

What happens when it collapses under the weight of idiocy?
Is it going to expire with a whimper or explode?

There is obviously a large amount of discontent at the USA's political system. Factions are feeding the fire from both sides.

Could there be a unintended consequence of the USA dissolving?

I ascribe to something more along the lines of TYT's orthodoxy on this stuff from the WH.

It's not a distraction. they're all just batshit. There's no mastr plan, just the wild disorganised screeching of a toxic environment with too many unbalanced and incompetent idiots who have no plan or consideration, only feelings and reactions to them.

Trump's tweets are not part of a master plan, they're the result of a moron with mental problems including a complete lack of self control.

And actions of the rest of the staff are either from an increasingly dominant crowd of similarly idiotic uncontrolled morons or the acts of notionally rational people given no basis on which to plan and therefore can only react to each incident as it turns up.

I agree about the distraction thing while they are robbing the citizens blind but I am sorry Trump has huge loans and connections with the Russian mob that makes our country look like snowflakes imo.

Banning trans people from military service is not placing their lives under attack. I do think it's discrimination, but this is the sort of rhetoric that I cite when opposing social justice.

Not all discrimination is life-threatening. That is the sort of language that leads to a bunch of regressive leftists throwing bricks at buildings in the name of "inclusion" like Antifa scum.

"Banning trans people from military service is not placing their lives under attack."

But it is removing their rights.

"but this is the sort of rhetoric that I cite when opposing social justice."

So like feminists who attack MRAs for arguing for men's rights, you attack everyone for arguing for everyone's rights....

You didn't think this through. Or at all.

"Not all discrimination is life-threatening. "

And not all dingoes are life threatening. But nobody is talking about life threatening at all being required to make discrimination illegal and just plain bad socially.

"like Antifa scum."

So if you're anti antifacism, you must be pro facism.

Nazi scum.

Zach, have you heard of rightwingers arranging to arrive at a trump rally with guns to shoot dead any protestors?

If not, do they exist? Why haven't you heard if they do? What does that tell you about what you "know"?

If you do, are they scum? Why is only the leftists worthy of discussion in your sole post here? And what does that tell you about your bigotries?

There's also the case of not taking our eyes off the ball at a global scale. As David Ignatius observed a few minutes ago on the Lawrence O'Donnell's Last Word, the Trump White House has systematically been working to dismantle the liberal democratic political structure of much of the international community. As an example, the latest example of the emasculation of liberal democratic values is the fact that Putin can kick out 750 US diplomats and there's not even a squeak of protest or other commentary from the man who is supposed to be the leader of the USA.

I've heard time and again commentators, both conservative and liberal, say that Trump is not really going to change the geopolitical milieu. How blind are they?! Trump has already profoundly tipped the international balance, and China and Russia are laughing as they gather up the reins of global leadership. And for the State's allies, all that we see is a once remarkable country strongly exhibiting the disturbing stages of advanced dementia and decline. The reputational damage is severe and comprehensive - the USA will carry this scarring for decades, and indeed possibly for centuries depending on how strongly the Eastern Hemisphere takes advantage of the evisceration of US American leadership.

This is the great fat medicine ball that too many in the States (and elsewhere) seem to be unable to see.

Is this a phenomenon related to the exaggerated preeminence in Western economies of business and the business class? Government is far more than just business (and in Australia, law, as is illustrated by the Aussie penchant for putting lawyers in parliament). Government requires skills in addition to running a company, and in many areas of governance skills are required that are antithetical to those useful in business. If the Trump disaster indicates anything in addition to the folly of putting a sociopathic, narcissistic individual into power, it's the danger of letting business (or any vested interest group) get too much of a grip on the reins of leadership.

Watch the ball. And if that ball resolves into two headlights that are growing larger, jump sideways has hard as you can...

"the liberal democratic political structure of much of the international community" includes that each country has the authority to expel whatever diplomats it chooses. Russia has set the number equal to the number of employees that they are having in the US.

If Trump were complaining about it, liberals like ODonnell would just attack him for that.

Based on a complete asspull, "mike". And as firm.

#9: "If Trump were complaining about it, liberals like ODonnell would just attack him for that."

So you have the power of prediction of what liberals would do? Is this a psychological projection of what right-wingers typical do, for instance like they did to Obama when he and the Congress at the time instituted what was pretty close to Romneycare? (And wasn't that originally conceived by the conservative Heritage Foundation?)

I'll predict that if Trump or the presently constituted GOP ever does anything intelligent and beneficial to Americans in general, liberal will be astounded.

"And wasn’t that originally conceived by the conservative Heritage Foundation?"

Yes it was, as an alternative to what they feared Hillary would devise.

But as we know, Romneycare was fine and "Obamacare" was deemed evil by the right simply because of the races of the men behind them.

And to the supporters ACA was fine but Obamacare was a failure.

The problem wasn't the messaging, IMO, or the D's acceptance of the term, but their lack of belief in just how racist voters actually were.

You see Obamacare was a black man's work and the ACA is what lets them have the heathcare provided for them.

Not everyone, but a lot. And when you hear a lot of other people saying it's crap but not giving the real reason you may move from fence sitting to agreement just to fit in.

The D's thought that since a black man had been voted in as president that there was no more racism apart from an outcast fringe. therefore there would not be a problem with Obamacare, since it would be named after THEIR president.

They just didn't think racism would make it easy to pretend it was different from ACA and bad.