Of Course They're Incompetent

Here's a scenario for you:

You are someone who specializes in [pretty much anything] and there is a position in the White House staff to provide advice and help implement policy regarding the thing you specialize in.  You are asked to take said position.  It is the Trump White House.

Normaly the answer to something like this is not simple, but there's a good chance it would be "Yes!" That last line though is a kicker.  The problem is that Trump is a know-nothing man child who may listen to you while you are in the room but you've got at best a 50/50 chance that your informed suggestion will get implemented, a chance that goes down dramatically if anyone else talks to him between the time you did and the time that said suggestion gets implemented.  The chance approaches zero if any of a small handful of people are opposed.  In the end, whether you get fired, resign or just toil on fruitlessly, you will be forever tarnished as "that person who worked for the Trump administration."

So the answer becomes easy: NO!   The fact is that, almost by definition, anyone who accepts a position in this White House or from this president is inherently unqualified and incompetent.  His supreme court pick is already tarnished by virtue of the fact that it should have been filled a year earlier, but it was Trump that put forth the nomination.  Justice lobster is sure to have asterisks by his name throughout history.

This all brings me back to the beginning of an article Digby quotes extensively from here (article is NYT which I will try my best to never link directly again):

Mr. Trump’s appetite for chaos, coupled with his disregard for the self-protective conventions of the presidency, have left his staff confused and squabbling. And his own mood, according to two advisers who spoke on the condition of anonymity, has become sour and dark, turning against most of his aides — even his son-in-law, Jared Kushner — and describing them in a fury as “incompetent,” according to one of those advisers.

Emphasis mine.  No competent aids would accept a position, and in the unlikely event one did (because she really thought she could make a difference) Donald would end up firing her because a competent person would end up disagreeing with president man-child on pretty much everything.

I Kinda Figured

It seemed somewhat obvious to me that lots of Trump voters would end up surprised/upset at Trump doing something that he said he would do.  I mostly figured it would be when the AHCA kicked lots of them off their insurance or led to increases in health care costs that they won't be able to afford, but that it's immigration related seems somehow more appropriate.

I certainly feel bad for the man who was deported, but his own wife voted for Trump!  A lot of this is shit that will have next to no impact on my life, but I wasn't too stupid to get it.  The talk about deporting "bad hombres" was obviously talking about deporting people whether or not they were "bad hombres" in reality.  This is largely because Obama was already deporting crap tons of people and the "bad hombre" segment was already covered.  The only way to deport more would be to kick out hard working, tax paying, America loving immigrants, probably breaking up families in the process, and that's exactly what is happening.

So on the one hand: I am sorry, and no family should have to go through that.  On the other: you stupid fucking people should have fucking thought about the election with something more advanced than your lizard brains.

The Horrible, it Burns!

It seems that Republicans don't actually want the pile of shit that is the ACHA to pass but no one wants to be blamed for it failing.  The Senate Republicans, if they were smart (some actually are) would bring the the House passed bill for a vote as is, vote it down dramatically, and then blame the House for handing them a pile of shit to vote for, pushing it back to them to fix.  Not looking like they'll do that but that would be their best move.