Jarring perspective shift: ‘We’ve Already Survived an Apocalypse’: Native American and First Nations authors are reshaping Sci-Fi’s often Eurocentric worlds. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/14/books/indigenous-native-american-sci-fi-horror.html
Trump’s secret political weapon: Wasting his opponents’ time
But the battle over TikTok and WeChat is part of a now-familiar story. The president or his loyalists threaten to upend some policy, institution or norm they know others will fight to defend.
Issuing the challenge can be easy: a speech, a leak, a tweet or two, about immigration rules or education regulations or cutting taxes on the rich.
In response, Trump’s opponents must invest substantial time, money and effort to resist the proposal — otherwise, Trump wins by default.
Essentially, the administration has weaponized wasting everyone else’s time.
It’s a struggle between firefighters and a spree arsonist.
The firefighters must stamp out every blaze, while the arsonist enjoys pouring accelerant, igniting a spark and sauntering off to start anew with kindling elsewhere.
And the gradual exhaustion of the firefighters makes it likelier that they will someday fail to contain the flames.
Over the past several years, Trump and his loyalists have frequently managed to weaken and wear out those they see as enemies by proposing moves that cost the administration little.
In these cases, the president often wins either by getting the policy he wants or by making his adversaries — among activists, nonprofits, lawyers, legislators, even business executives — spend disproportionately more effort in response.
This phenomenon, as much as the administration’s overt malevolence and incompetence, has helped make the Trump era feel like a never-ending cycle.
If it seems as if we are fighting the same battles over and over instead of making progress, that’s because in many cases, we are.
Sen. Ron Johnson this week said his probe of Obama-era intelligence agencies would help President Donald Trump win reelection, igniting fury from Democrats who say it was an explicit admission he’s using his committee to damage Joe Biden’s candidacy for president.
“The more that we expose of the corruption of the transition process between Obama and Trump, the more we expose of the corruption within those agencies, I would think it would certainly help Donald Trump win reelection and certainly be pretty good, I would say, evidence about not voting for Vice President Biden,” Johnson said in a little-noticed Tuesday interview with Minneapolis-based radio hosts Jon Justice and Drew Lee.
Democrats compared the remark to comments made in 2015 by House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy, who boasted that the Republican-led Benghazi investigation was successful because it had helped tank Hillary Clinton’s poll numbers. Facing sharp criticism, McCarthy later walked back those comments.
Johnson, a Wisconsin Republican, similarly said during another radio interview this week that the evidence his committee had uncovered was so “outrageous” that “it should completely disqualify Biden from president.”
The Biden campaign called the comments explicit proof of what Democrats have been claiming all along: that Johnson’s probe of corruption allegations against the intelligence community and Biden’s diplomatic efforts in Ukraine were thinly veiled efforts to weaponize the powerful Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee to damage the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee.
This damning acknowledgment totally exposes that Ron Johnson’s disgraceful conduct is the definition of malfeasance," said Biden spokesman Andrew Bates. "It is beyond time for him to end this embarrassing and deeply unethical charade once and for all — (✁ 4 space…)
kaffekup over 4 years ago
That was the plan, Carmen. Wear us out so we give up.
It’s not working.
William Robbins Premium Member over 4 years ago
Oh Honey, we hear you.
Jarring perspective shift: ‘We’ve Already Survived an Apocalypse’: Native American and First Nations authors are reshaping Sci-Fi’s often Eurocentric worlds. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/14/books/indigenous-native-american-sci-fi-horror.html
Silly Season over 4 years ago
Trump’s secret political weapon: Wasting his opponents’ time
But the battle over TikTok and WeChat is part of a now-familiar story. The president or his loyalists threaten to upend some policy, institution or norm they know others will fight to defend.
Issuing the challenge can be easy: a speech, a leak, a tweet or two, about immigration rules or education regulations or cutting taxes on the rich.
In response, Trump’s opponents must invest substantial time, money and effort to resist the proposal — otherwise, Trump wins by default.
Essentially, the administration has weaponized wasting everyone else’s time.
It’s a struggle between firefighters and a spree arsonist.
The firefighters must stamp out every blaze, while the arsonist enjoys pouring accelerant, igniting a spark and sauntering off to start anew with kindling elsewhere.
And the gradual exhaustion of the firefighters makes it likelier that they will someday fail to contain the flames.
Over the past several years, Trump and his loyalists have frequently managed to weaken and wear out those they see as enemies by proposing moves that cost the administration little.
In these cases, the president often wins either by getting the policy he wants or by making his adversaries — among activists, nonprofits, lawyers, legislators, even business executives — spend disproportionately more effort in response.
This phenomenon, as much as the administration’s overt malevolence and incompetence, has helped make the Trump era feel like a never-ending cycle.
If it seems as if we are fighting the same battles over and over instead of making progress, that’s because in many cases, we are.
~
https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2020/08/14/trump-waste-time-opponents/
Silly Season over 4 years ago
Sen. Ron Johnson this week said his probe of Obama-era intelligence agencies would help President Donald Trump win reelection, igniting fury from Democrats who say it was an explicit admission he’s using his committee to damage Joe Biden’s candidacy for president.
“The more that we expose of the corruption of the transition process between Obama and Trump, the more we expose of the corruption within those agencies, I would think it would certainly help Donald Trump win reelection and certainly be pretty good, I would say, evidence about not voting for Vice President Biden,” Johnson said in a little-noticed Tuesday interview with Minneapolis-based radio hosts Jon Justice and Drew Lee.
Democrats compared the remark to comments made in 2015 by House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy, who boasted that the Republican-led Benghazi investigation was successful because it had helped tank Hillary Clinton’s poll numbers. Facing sharp criticism, McCarthy later walked back those comments.
Johnson, a Wisconsin Republican, similarly said during another radio interview this week that the evidence his committee had uncovered was so “outrageous” that “it should completely disqualify Biden from president.”
The Biden campaign called the comments explicit proof of what Democrats have been claiming all along: that Johnson’s probe of corruption allegations against the intelligence community and Biden’s diplomatic efforts in Ukraine were thinly veiled efforts to weaponize the powerful Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee to damage the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee.
This damning acknowledgment totally exposes that Ron Johnson’s disgraceful conduct is the definition of malfeasance," said Biden spokesman Andrew Bates. "It is beyond time for him to end this embarrassing and deeply unethical charade once and for all — (✁ 4 space…)
~
https://www.politico.com/news/2020/08/13/dems-ron-johnson-probe-trump-win-reelection-394987
RobinHood over 4 years ago
Wild man’s world is cryin’ in pain
What you gonna do when everybody’s insane?
So afraid of one who’s so afraid of you
What you gonna do? Oh
Ooh crazy on you
Crazy on you
Let me go crazy, crazy on you
Ann and Nancy Wilson
rossevrymn over 4 years ago
Just leave the party.
Monchoxyz over 4 years ago
Would the eulogy be televises and will Trump read it from the a teleprompter? I would pay to see that.
fritzoid Premium Member over 4 years ago
I’ll see you on the dark side of the moon…
jc over 4 years ago
So do something constructive. Or entertaining. Or something but this droning on and on…