I was ranting so hard I forgot to post the link to the story
Short summary – there is speculation that she’s not spineless enough to survive working with Trump, plus she was mean to him during the primary campaign. Plus she got off a shot at him during her 2016 State of the Union rebuttal. And Trumpy never forgets.
“She’s my personal envoy to the UN”??? WTF?
No, Donald, she isn’t your personal envoy. She represents the United States of America.
Asshole.
Word.
Public support grows for Obamacare: Poll: 61 percent of Americans do not want Obamacare repealed and replaced
Given Trump’s tendency to pull healthy men off-balance with that stupid dominance-stunt handshake of his, I’m actually relived he didn’t shake the recipient’s hand.
Which is really odd, given that the US military is, essentially, a society with the social programs Democrats advocate. Let’s see; there are socialized health and housing, for starters.
But for some reason, veterans skew quite rightward. Perhaps it’s because Republicans spend so much time obsessing over things like flag pins and standing up for the anthem.
My only cite is a military buddy, but he told me that when Bush 43 took office, the default news station in the dayrooms on overseas US bases was switched from CNN to Fox News. If that’s all you hear, and you’re a teenager with a mediocre high school education, as is the case with many volunteers, then you’re fertile ground for the Fox News BS.
You would think that now that everyone has access to the internet, things would change for the better, but they seem to be changing for the worse, since it’s so easy to find websites that reinforce your bias.
A large part of it is that Republicans are perceived to be tougher in foreign policy and more willing to use military force. Given the testosterone culture of the military, being circumspect about the wisdom of using military force can be a fleeing concept, particularly among the rank and file.
Many service members tend not to dwell on the socialistic aspects of the service, perhaps because some aspects have an involuntary side to them. Service members have to get semi-routine medical and dental check-ups and can be brought and escorted there if there is any kind of uncertainty about whether the service member will follow-through. Service members without any friends higher up in the food chain may not have any say over where their next assignment will be or how long they will be there and expect help in moving and finding a new residence in the place of their new assignment, especially if they have families.
I think some of that is a carryover from the tensions of the Vietnam Era.
Also I think right wing policy has traditionally favored military solutions to geopolitical problems more so than left wing policy*. And an all volunteer military is going to be heavily skewed towards people that believe in military solutions.
*although that dynamic is starting to shift with the rise of the nationalist alt-right movement, a growing number of conservatives favor isolationism.
Are you sure ? I’unno, most of the US military folk I talk with over the interwebs are either terminally disillusioned with politics or skew left (though often an off-kilter, sardonic, “what the fuck, right ?” kind of left).
Then again, I guess I don’t hang out with the more motto bastards, so it might could be self-selection.
What’s surprising is that military members and veterans tend to do better, especially financially, under left wing policies (as do most government workers). Yet military and veterans do seem to skew a bit to the right - I’ve seen numbers between 53% and 58%. It seems like more because the right tends to be louder.
For the record, this independent enlisted USAF veteran would always prefer a non-military solution. Doesn’t mean we don’t need a strong defense, but we shouldn’t be looking for ways to use the military while any other option is available.
Don’t you mean “more macho”?
Worship of them as heroes helps. Worked with a guy who felt entitled to such worship as a Vietnam-Era Veteran.
“You were a draftsman in Wiesbaden.”
“Yeah, but I could’ve been sent to Vietnam at any moment.”
“To be a draftsman at Ton Son Nhut Airbase.” :rolleyes:
No, moto (only one t, as it turns out). As in the kind of guy who unironically spews morale-building mottos all the time and/or believes every word. Be all you can be, hooah, the deadliest weapon in the world is a Marine and his rifle, and so on and so forth. Also the kind of guy who has his rank and/or his regiment insignia tattooed on his biceps, still wears his camies or sports a high 'n tight haircut back in civilian life, has a Semper Fi bumper sticker, that kind of thing.
In all fairness though, his presidency is the bigger disaster.
Insecurity. Same as a salesman (which he is) sells himself first of all, a person who’s terribly insecure about his strengths needs to convince himself first of all. He’s trying to sell himself to himself and achieving only partial success; the narcissist part is very happy to know himself, but the two braincells which aren’t narcissistic aren’t convinced.
Exactly! I had the same impression as Nava. We could be wrong, but it sure sounds like someone trying to convince himself that he’s doing a great job.
That’s why he’s choosing so unqualified people. He hopes to look competent compared to them.
And when something goes wrong there’s always some ( other ) moron to blame.
Call me crazy, but if I was in the military and my butt was potentially going in harm’s way, I’d be more in favor of more restrained use of military force.
I get the impression that he mostly picks incompetent people because his selection criteria are out of whack. He doesn’t care about competence, he cares about “look” and “loyalty”. Most competent people rightly want nothing to do with this train wreck, so he picks from a pool of boot-licking toadies based on how much they massage his ego and how much they “look” the part to him.
He’d be throwing his subordinates under the bus no matter how competent they were. But I doubt he’s selecting them based on it. Besides, he’s made little effort to appeal to anyone outside his base, and for them he can simply blame Obama and the Democrats and they’ll eat it up with a spoon.