Ricochet is the best place on the internet to discuss the issues of the day, either through commenting on posts or writing your own for our active and dynamic community in a fully moderated environment. In addition, the Ricochet Audio Network offers over 50 original podcasts with new episodes released every day.
Political Establishment Picks Wrong Week To Stop Sniffing Glue
Let’s face it: if Trump had more political experience he would’ve kept Scaramucci on for years before realizing his mistake.
Personally I was looking forward to Scaramucci literally threatening to take CNN to the mattresses. But the hysteria that’s followed his firing nicely illustrates why everyday Americans have such contempt for Washington.
Don’t get me wrong, I sympathize with the political lifers and the D.C.-media establishment who thought they knew “how things are done around here.” I fully acknowledge that it’s a little hard to believe that we’ve reached the point where return of Sean Spicer would bring a sense of normalcy.
But Trump didn’t campaign on a promise to “shake things up” in Washington but to turn it upside down. Has Trump delivered? To ask the question is to answer it. I can hear the chorus now: “But key positions remain unfilled!” Really? Key positions? So key that the position didn’t even exist within my lifetime? Like the entire Department of Education?
What developments are being lost in the sauce as a result of the collective fixation on West Wing personnel changes? Consider: Trump has signed over 40 bills into law (for those who get off on that sort of thing); the stock market has reached an all-time high and ISIS has retreated to its last two strongholds: Paris and Brussels.
Then there’s the Democrats. At some point you’d think they’d get wise and ask how it is that they’ve dropped below the Mendoza line over the last four special elections (0 – 4). The more strident their anti-Republican rhetoric becomes – “People will die!” – the more one naturally wants to ask them: “How is it that you’re losing to these guys?”
Republicans for their part are proving that to fulfill their promise to repeal Obamacare really requires voters give them control of the Oval Office, both houses of Congress and every mayorship in the continental United States. The Senate majority party’s repeated, cover-your-eyes-embarrassing attempts to repeal and/or replace Obamacare has made it obvious to anyone who cares that they’re every bit as populist as Trump. Rhetorically conservative but operationally liberal, they can’t even bring themselves to start with a no-brainer like repealing the medical device tax. Think of the mind that comes up with the idea to tax medical devices – and how callous it would be portrayed had it been the brainchild of Republicans.
But it’s been in effect for several years so what can you do, right?
Then there’s our friends at the Congressional Budget Office, in many ways the most Washington, D.C. of all institutions. If individuals are permitted opt-out of health insurance – a right we all took for granted just nine years ago – then millions of Americans will… lose their coverage! Well match wits with Inspector Non-partisan! What’s next, Colin Kapernick signing a two-year deal with the Black Panthers? The CBO should score the Mayweather-McGregor fight, given that it can never, by definition, be wrong.
As for the culture war, who knows how it will end? At this point I wouldn’t be surprised if the Supreme Court – another supposedly sacrosanct product of D.C. more than the Constitution – ruled that a photographer can be made to bake a cake for a same-sex wedding.
Published in Humor
I was watching Headline News this morning. I didn’t want to. I was forced. It was playing in a small waiting room with the volume turned up. The only redeeming thing about the experience is I can chalk it up as “time served” if I am ever sentenced to maximum security, or sent to Hell. Anyway – the talking heads on HLN were in a frenzy about all-things-Trump. I think there may have been some actual frothing at the mouth. And as little as I care for Trump (and that is very little), I couldn’t help but think, “Gee, he’s making these folks crazy, so he must be doing something right.”
Good stuff!
I have to like this post just for the graphic alone, that Rushmore is hilarious!
Thank you, Matt. For entertainment purposes only!
While the press is having conniptions that Big Donnie dictated the statement that went out over Little Donnie’s name, none of them are paying the slightest attention to the fact that the guy running IT for the office of the DNC chair was hinkier than the guy selling herbal brownies in the parking lot outside a Grateful Dead concert. Have any of them thought to ask the FBI, CIA, NSA, et al if that might affect their “confidence” in their declaration that it was the Russians all along? Doesn’t it bother any of them that Derpy Debbie didn’t fire this twerp until he made a break for the border? That I have a better chance of dancing nekkid at the next Bohemian Grove conclave than Awan had of qualifying for a security clearance? Ain’t anybody at WaPo smart enough to play this game?
Maybe they’re playing a different game.
Nicely said.
Yes!
If you’re going to shake things up, turn it upside down you have to know what upside down is and your team has to know. He’s not making it clear and he needs to. One major issue at a time. His lack of experience is showing. The appointment of Kelly is encouraging, an adult to try to bring order. Now President Trump has to set some priorities and provide some clear guidelines of what he wants Congress to do, and then sell those guidelines to the people. Congress cannot do things without guidance, prods, threats and pressure from their constituents. President Trump is treating them like a team of like minded people who want to do good things. They’re not, nor will they ever be. He has to lead and ignore the attacks. The Democrats, some Republican and media are trying to destroy him. That’s what they do, always, it’s just worse than usual.
Thanks, Bryan.
Great post. Thanks. Very good way to characterize the facts on the ground.
It’s going to gnaw at me unless I post this:
Yes. But a heck of a lot less entertaining if you live in Paris or Brussels.
Mort Sahl on stage; Paul Harvey in pixels. Love it, Dave! I may not be able to walk and chew gum, but your stuff enables me to laugh and think at the same time! :-D
Great stuff, as always, Deebs.
Thanks, Nanda!
Thanks, Hammer.
That line has been a perennial in computer labs since that movie came out.