David Frum of The Atlantic--perfect take on the speech!

[ginnyinWI]

Last edited Wed Jan 9, 2019, 09:25 AM - Edit history (1)

A magnificent take-down.

Link to tweet

[Cha]

1. It was bound to happen.

The president, trapped without a decent exit in a predicament of his own making, will yield everything and get nothing.

Thanks, ginny!

[Major Nikon]

9. Meanwhile Pelosi with only days into the new job will be the one handing his ass to him

...and for the next two years will be a constant reminder of how ineffectual and amateurish his presiduncy is.

[redstateblues]

2. Frum is one of my top 5 Never Trumpers

[czarjak]

4. Never TrumperAlways Republican

[Dorian Gray]

12. His takes

are always worth reading, even if I don't always agree with him on policy. He's nailed Trump, though.

[dalton99a]

3. Spot on

[Hermit-The-Prog]

5. but what kind of fire trucks will be in the new station?

[ecstatic]

6. Great point! Nt

[littlemissmartypants]

7. I love it when people paint pictures with words. nt

[PatrickforO]

8. Well, I've repeatedly pointed out that $5.7 billion is

a gross understatement of what the cost would actually be.

Consider Amendment 5. If the government wants the land abutting the US border with Mexico, they (we taxpayers) will have to purchase it, acre by acre, along a 1,200 mile frontier, at fair market value.

So, right away, we're looking at WAY more than $5 billion. Then, when we look at the engineering feat to build a 30 foot high concrete wall along that same 1,200 mile frontier, given that much of the land is uneven, we're looking at MAJOR cost overruns.

Then, of course, there is the actual purchase of materials, which will be more expensive because of Trump's own tariffs, and the construction crews.

So, this $5.7 boondoggle has suddenly become a $150 or $200 billion boondoggle.

You know what?

I'D RATHER HAVE HEALTHCARE.

[anarch]

17. and hey, don't forget about maintenance & upkeep support--it would be a long term revenue stream

for somebody...probably quite a few somebodies. I don't think fuckface cares even slightly about border security; he just has no choice about continuing to campaign for "the Wall" since it was such a major part of his first campaign strategy. He does care very strongly about thinking up new ways to transfer public funds into his own bank accounts and into those of his cronies, and I'm sure the "Wall" construction effort would be managed very much like the fictional Newark Esplanade and "Museum of Science and Trucking" on The Sopranos...that is, the main concern wouldn't be completing the construction project so much as keeping money flowing from public coffers into the pockets of criminals.

$5.7B? That's just a token amount to get things started.


I've been thinking how I'd be OK with my tax money going toward the study of how best to protect our borders, and would be fine if a Wall was part of that, based on expert recommendation...thing is, I'm talking about seawalls around some of our more low-lying coastal cities (hey, the coast is also a "border&quot , to partially mitigate the inevitable impacts of climate change. A system of seawalls would at least be more effective at slowing down the destruction of America's vulnerable cities than a concrete or even steel-slat wall would be at keeping out immigrants.

[PatrickforO]

22. We might well have to do seawalls like Holland has.

In fact, I'm increasingly attracted to this 'green new deal' AOC is talking about. We've got to do something. Oh, I'm 60 so will probably be dead by the time it gets really bad, but why? Why not take some aggressive steps now for the sake of our children and grandchildren?

We spend far, far too much on wasteful junk we don't need and not enough on stuff that would actually make our lives better. Like healthcare. And stronger Social Security. The whole litany - affordable college, infrastructure.

But here's the thing. We need to do five things before any real change can happen.

1) Reverse Citizens United
2) Pass and enact Elizabeth Warren's Accountable Capitalism Act
3) Get enough state legislatures to pass National Popular Vote legislation to negate the Electoral College
4) Get back in the Paris agreements
5) Reverse the giant tax cut for billionaires and corporations the Republicans rammed down our throats in 2017

Well, there's more than four, aren't there? Trump and his wreckers have really fucked us over in favor of billionaires and corporations.

But these four would be a good start.

[PatrickforO]

23. and...

One other thought.

If the national debt is money we owe to ourselves, then why are we paying it back to bankers and 'investors' with interest?

Why, when Article 1, Section 8 of the Constitution clearly puts the responsibility for coining money on Congress, do we instead have the Fed, which is NOT quasi-governmental as the solemn talking heads would have you believe. Nope. The two banks that hold most of the interest in the Fed are JP Morgan Chase and Citibank and they are about profits, not public good.

The truth is that international bankers have created a system of worldwide scarcity where fewer and fewer people have almost all the wealth.

If you haven't, I'd like to recommend 'Web of Debt' by Ellen Brown. It is as much of an eye-opener as Zinn's People's History of the United States.

[Volaris]

24. '..that's just a token amount to get things started.'..

Or his cut of the Grift...

[JackRiddler]

10. David Frum, Bush speechwriter, coiner of "Axis of Evil"

Doesn't matter how much this enabler of aggressive war and endless war crimes now pretends to be on the side of the angels, or how beautifully he writes. He is not your friend. If Trump attacks Iran, Frum will not be protesting.

[orleans]

11. agree. kind of like

when bill kristol tries to play nice-nice lately.

[PDittie]

19. +1,000,000

[kentuck]

13. Thought-provoking

[Achilleaze]

14. LOL

[JHB]

15. Frum is never "all you need to read" about anything

The article may be a good read, but I'd advise also checking out what people who haven't been so wrong about so many things for so long have to say.

[DeminPennswoods]

16. The perfect summation

Trump will cope by locking himself into the Fox News closed-feedback system of flattering disinformation, emerging only to emit enraged tweets pretending he won big and denouncing the media for reporting otherwise. He might even convince himself to believe it. His political allies will repeat it without believing it.

[Capperdan]

18. Remove Trump

Signs should be everywhere

[bdamomma]

20. I wish we

could run him out of the country...we need to.