This whole VA Jackson nomination is so silly, yet really encapsulates this White House and these political times.

-Trump nominates someone way out of left field for the position, probably not qualified.

-No vetting is done of the nominee.

-Opposition research reveals a number of accusations about a variety of things.

-Opposition research called into question.

-At least one thing in the opposition research appears to be at least of questionable validity.

-All of opposition research is then called fake news.

-Attack on messenger of "all" the fake news.

Rinse. Repeat.

It's honestly just pretty depressing.

On many sides.

Also, an interesting thread from Radio Free Tom, who studies Russia more than North Korea, but is nonetheless well versed in foreign policy and international relations.

I am not enough of an internal North Korea politics expert to know why Kim is doing what Kim's doing. But from a 30,000 foot IR perspective, I have just a couple of ideas.
/1

— Tom Nichols (@RadioFreeTom) April 27, 2018

So what are everyone's thoughts on the migrant caravan? They are here now.

I know alot of the rhetoric and characterization is off but we do have a "caravan" of folks that want to enter the US and the Mexican government has somewhat enabled this.

My initial thought is we can't save the world (and why doesn't Mexico take them in).

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/04/27/migr...co-border.html

370 people trying to enter a country of 325.7 million people.

It doesn't matter.

I think it does.

It sets a precedence.

If they claim asylum, shouldn’t the UN get involved, as it has with Syrian refugees. If the US feels that we can’t handle the refugees, the UN should help with resettlement among participating nations. At least we’d have a process in place to help which might also stem further illegal immigration.

Honestly trying to figure out what the issue is. I mean other than racism. These people are seeking asylum and doing it the right way according to the rules and laws we have set up. Again other than an orange man trying to stir up fears and outrage about brown and black people I’m at a loss for why this has become an issue.

Maybe I'm gettibg old. I have no idea what he is referring to.

We were discussing this at work yesterday and many of his points are things that were brought up.

Specifically this tweet:

In one swoop, Kim has done all this:
- raised himself to "international leader" stature
- gotten the US to treat him like a peer
- kept his nuclear program
- cracked open the chance for ending at least some sanctions
- gotten the royal treatment in SK without involving the US
/4

— Tom Nichols (@RadioFreeTom) April 27, 2018

It's the obvious play for Kim. He more or less destroyed his nuke testing site and he got the U.S. to acknowledge his government as legit. Nukes were his leverage and if NK went an extended period of time without conducting tests he probably knew the international community would start taking his crazy threats less seriously again. It became the perfect time to get to the table and start talking peace and stability before his leverage slipped.

This is a good thing for everyone if it keeps moving in this direction, but I also think it's naive to think Kim had a change of heart or that direct diplomacy had much of an impact on this. This is years of Kim building up a good enough hand to play and going all on in before he busts.

If you click on the embedded tweet, you can read the thread. He has seven tweets in a row explaining his views. He's basically giving a very broad outline of what it looks like from an international relations viewpoint.

If he's lucky, the South Koreans will sign a deal and then they'll start to wonder why the Americans are still on the peninsula.

https://www.cnn.com/2018/04/29/polit...ian/index.html

I guess the nomination sunk his career.

Didn't his Dad do the same thing a couple decades ago? I'm not sure what to think of the NK thing because it seems like they change their mind a lot (and enjoy playing games).

http://content.time.com/time/covers/...000626,00.html

Still worth remembering he's a ruthless dictator who has had his country hack the United States and companies that operate within it. This should be about more than just the nukes.

What else do you do though? Any military reaction likely results in thousands of US combat deaths and tens to hundreds of thousands of civilian deaths in an allied country. Given the fact we collectively couldn't face hundreds of deaths a month in Afghanistan and Iraq, you think we're going to fight the Korean war part 2 with a NK who actually has a massive army and some modern weaponry this time?

The long play is to try to bring them back into the international community and see if the whole sordid farce doesn't collapse. Having the nuke capability that can strike the US and Japan gone is 99.9% of what really matters to us. And as much of a ruthless dictator he is, I'm not sure the cost of what it would take to get rid of him is really worth it.

If he was self prescribing he'll be lucky to keep his license.

You're missing the point. Tester had the thing about the car crash wrong.

There continues to be a tweet for everything, sometimes coming the day before.

If you lack sense of humor, get “offended” by slights you create, or just can’t bring yourself to tolerate those you disagree with the DO NOT watch my show 2nite! You will be triggered and will need a pony, popsicle, and Playdough to cope! pic.twitter.com/IYht2EMM2p

— Gov. Mike Huckabee (@GovMikeHuckabee) April 28, 2018

It's President Trump's favorite day!

Honesty Day - Wikipedia

This is great, I think this beats all of Trump's hypocritical tweets.

I am going to go out on a limb and guess that Huckabee and those 3 guests aren't going to deliver the humor he promises.

Right to Work

Pros/Cons

GO!

Probably depends on your sense of humor.

Hell, the pony & playdough line alone made me chuckle.

I do think times have changed. Whereas there was need to protect many people in many different industries at one time, the country has evolved and there is much reduced need for labor unions now.

Any particular industry you were thinking of?

E.g. I don't think silicon valley coders need unions

No industry. We have a statewide election on a prop making Right to Work law.

Im on the fence. This seems to be a real hot button in some circles.

Im not a union guy. But will this type of thing be abused in the long run?

Im just curious what this intelligent, diverse crowd has to say about it.

I would have thought anyone in a lower paid job or a dangerous job requires a union in order to give them half decent worker protection.

Even those in relatively good jobs require unions to stop places over-working them (thinking of coders, I know many places who do 'crunch' of 60 hours+ a week for long periods, fortunately not something I have to endure). The arguement is always 'you can go elsewhere' - but how many people with family and kids want to uproot them?

Heck I compare my protection and benefits here in Florida against those the UK employees have back home and it dumbfounds me how people in the US function, I at least have a contract with additional protections but I don't have half the benefits the UK employees have such as receiving 75% of your pay if you're unable to work due to illness/injury (pretty much for life) etc.

As far as I can tell 'Right to Work' in Florida simply mean 'Right to Work for less' ... it artificially weakens labors negotiations and ensures larger corporate profits even when the corporation could easily afford to pay better wages.

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewi...kenship-new-ad

Scroll down and watch Don Blankenship's ad attacking Cocaine Mitch McConnell. Everything about the ad is amazing.

The ad might as well be

"Right to work" isn't. It's about undermining labor unions because they aren't Republican donors.

Full stop, that's all you need to know about it. The other arguments against, like "If I'm not a union member I shouldn't have to pay union dues to enjoy the higher wages and benefits that the union negotiated on behalf of all workers" is a smokescreen. It's meant to distract from the main goal, which is to undermine perceived Democratic power bases.

And if folks living in RTW states make less (and they do, by an average of about 3.5%) than folks living in states with stronger labor protections, well, you can't make an omelette and all that jazz.

Yup

It would seem very hard to obstruct justice for a crime that never happened! Witch Hunt!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 1, 2018

Ha ha!

: points at the old school rube still thinking about facts and stuff :

Marco Rubio on the corporate tax cut: “there’s no evidence whatsoever that the money’s been massively poured back into the American worker.”https://t.co/rzTI8yzYRT pic.twitter.com/XgTLyABwrr

— Sahil Kapur (@sahilkapur) April 30, 2018

Anyone who thought differently should lose their voting privileges.

Ukraine halts cases against Manafort and stops cooperating with the FBI so as not to piss off Trump and lose access to anti-tank weapons.

You remember that glowing letter from Trump's doctor in 2015 during the campaign, and how much it sounded like Trump saying it. Well...

https://www.cnn.com/2018/05/01/polit...ter/index.html

Couple Trumps promise of bringing back dead and valueless jobs with his unwavering support of killing future valuable jobs(Amazon)... I don't have words. Factory line workers good, technology workers bad.

But hey, he may be incompetent, impossible to work with/for and aggressively advocates for abdicating America's leadership in a world that is only getting smaller and more connected, at least he speaks his mind!!! My understanding is that's all that matters. That and triggering libtards.

I am triggered by your post. I am now going to hug a panda bear.

Let the subpoenas flow Mueller:

http://thehill.com/homenews/administ...ce-retiring-wh

Trump supporters suddenly becoming Kanye fans is just weird.

Yeah been trying to avoid that part of this, but did he really say slavery was a choice?

The Kanye for the NFL trade was very unexpected.

Cambridge Analytica has shut its doors:

https://gizmodo.com/cambridge-analyt...ces-1825698536

But have reformed under a new name-Emerdata:

https://www.metro.us/news/the-big-st...mpany-emerdata

I'd give a lot to see Kanye, Trump and Macron sing N___ in Paris.

The most free of the free thinkers.

They're just like a scam Persian rug place.

Rudy really coming in with a bang. He says Trump paid Cohen back for the Dark & Stormy over a period of several months. Ain't nobody gonna care, but I mean WTF?

Giuliani: Trump repaid Cohen $130K for payment to porn star

What exactly is Guliani's game here?

He also said Trump fired Comey because Comey wouldn't say Trump wasn't a target.

[ArrestedDevelopmentLawyerGif]

So Guliani is getting fired...tomorrow???

Would be pretty funny if Fox News interviews are what cause the downfall...

I was thinking they're the new Blackwater, but then I realized I don't recall what Blackwater changed their name to off the top of my head, and this re-branding will probably work as well :(