I think he trusts her to do the one think he wants in that position. To tell him the truth and not hold information from him. That is the problem with spooks. They are willing to lie to the president.
What Everyone Gets Wrong About Tulsi Gabbard
- Thread starter Knuckle Ball
- Start date
I dont think characterizing it as her choosing to walk away is quite right.
It seems that she was rather ostracized after a while.
And 2016? She ran in the democratic primary in 2019 and endorsed Biden.
Now 5 years later she is MAGA.
That shows she swings the way the power swings and nothing else seems to matter.
I'm worried about everything involved with the Trump administration and the very bad situation my country of origin is in.
I know you've said repeatedly that you don't care about any of it because none of it will affect you, but those of us who care about people in the US are worried.
(I also think there is much reason to worry on a global scale as well.)
Which was exactly my point.
Trump has lots of people who will do what he wants.
Some, for his various personal reasons, he cares about more and will fight for.
We don't really know where Gabbard falls on that.
Will someone else be better or worse for reasons separate from the loyalty to Trump issue?
Possibly.
Hesgeth would be terrible for reasons completely apart from his "loyal to Trump" thing, for example. Gaetz and Bondi are the same from the "Do what Trump wants" side, but have different things wrong with them otherwise, etc.
Sure.
He says a lot of shit.
But he also tries most of the shit he says.
He will not fight for a lot because it was just said to say shit, but I haven't seen a lot of him doing things as feints or sacrifice plays.
He does a lot of "Oh, I never cared about that anyway" BSing, though.
So Gaetz doesn't read as a "I will nominate him to make it easier for others to get in."
He reads as "I will nominate him. If it doesn't work out, I've got more. It's not like I owe him anything."
She could’ve been a superstar on the Dem side if she kept her mouth shut. She chose to walk away because she did not agree with many of their policies, particularly foreign involvement in wars we should not be in.
As ex-army, she has credibility to make that comment.
She resigned from the DNC in protest of how Clinton payed off the debt in exchange for control of it and endorsed Brenie Sanders.
That's as walking away as it gets.
And Biden's pro war actions in Gaza and Ukraine no doubt changed her mind.
In the end she does indeed have her own policy choices she desires to see for the country. So does everyone in Washington. So what? This is her path to them.
Your nation of origin is is disagreement with just who is responsible for how shitty it is.
Personally I think it's going to have to get worse before it gets better. Much worse. The power brokers will not give up power without a big fight.
But take heart. Robspierre was the last to go to the square after the rest were dealt with. And it was FDR in the USA that rose from the worst of things.
I think you give "ex-army" undue credit.
I agree with no involvement in foreign wars but this is a foreign policy issue.
On which she has no experience.
Its like saying Pete Hegseth is qualified for a defence secretary role because he was in the army.
I don't think it does call BS on it.
I think Butler's statement you are responding to here is right.
Trump is corrupt, venal, authoritarian, and very much transactional about power.
These are things that align with her world view.
What the hell are you talking about. She was in the house foreign affairs committee and house armed service comitee. She has more credibility on this issue than most.
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Poor Val. His entire world view is unraveling before his eyes and he is completely impotent to stop it. The public view has changed now.
He doesn't consider loyalty as a general principle to be good.
He values loyalty *to him* to be valuable.
Since everything is on a "what have you done for me lately" footing, he just needs to assess what she's doing for him right now.
Remember, he can remove her from this position at a moment's notice if he wants.
She sucked up to him and MAGA for quite some time, defended his positions on TV, and generally showed she would do what she needed.
If you look at her career as a series of make overs and position-switching in order to find the path that gets her what she wants, he understands and appreciates that.
She doesn't have real convictions he needs to worry about much.
That you were against him before isn't important.
(It's only important if you DID do the loyalty thing and then went against him. That's much harder for him to let go of - see Mike Pompeo or Nikki Hayley.)
Holy Fuck, WHAT?
You think Trump wants to be told the Truth?
Wow.
I didn't realize you were this far gone.
Really?
Those news reports about her powerful statement about how Clinton did that must have been fire at the time.
She is on the record that Biden didn't support Israel enough in Gaza, if I recall.
She's with you on the side rooting for extermination/ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians.
She's always been VERY pro drone strikes and bombing, as you know. She just objects to "regime change" wars.
Outside of that she describes herself as a warhawk.
She was against supporting Ukraine, though.
I believe that was a position you used to disagree with her about.
Have you come around to the "Russia was right to invade and Biden is escalating war by helping Ukraine resist"?
I thought you held the opposite position back in the day.
And which policy choices do you feel she is aiming for here?
Care to name some you think she actually supports and looks like she is trying to accomplish?
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Wow, it's been a while since you've gone "Let's root for the French Revolution" on us.
Well, it will get you a Napoleon, so I guess your love of authoritarianism remains consistent.
After all, none of it will affect you or anyone you care about, so a round of "it is good that they suffer so they know I am right" makes sense for you, I suppose.
As for your original statement, yes, my nation of origin is in disagreement with me about all kinds of things.
That's normal.
Unlike you, I don't wish to punish people and hope they suffer until they come around to my way of thinking.
As for the power brokers not giving up power without a big fight, I agree.
Of course, you just want different power brokers. This has always been the core of our disagreement.
Your love of the idea of a benevolent dictator. (Well, probably more a benevolent oligarchy in your case.)
That is what they said.
He was in the army and could do lots of pushups.
I think a Republican senator even asked him that.
And to be fair to Gabbard, she has been on foreign relations committees and has some foreign policy experience.
But she is up for DNI, not for Secretary of State or of Defense.
The public view changing doesn't unravel my world view.
What an odd statement.
I don't sway with the wind of public opinion like that.
I am, like most people, only able to contribute a small amount to mitigating the damage this administration is going to cause to people and to the country itself.
This does make me sad.
Then she should be in the running for Secretary of State or Defence. Not DNI.
I don’t recall Trump’s being a big fan of the truth…he’s the guy who lied on a weather map about Alabama’s being hit by a hurricane
