It’s telling that there’s no Impeachment thread on VS...

[monadnocky]

Traumatic Brain Injuries? Do you mean a concussion? Like kids get playing little league sports? I believe that half of the servicemen have already returned to active duty.

You’re trying too hard......

Glenn, I try hard to stay out of these political discussions. I no longer have the heart for it. Respectfully, traumatic brain injuries - even mild traumatic brain injuries - are nothing to sneeze at. As a clinical neuropsychologist I work with individuals (children, adolescents, and adults) whose lives have been devastated by mTBI's. Returning to active duty is has no correlation whatsoever with permanence and severity of injury. These injuries are particularly pernicious in that the individuals who suffer from them "look fine" but their emotional, physical, and cognitive sequelae can be severe and devastating.

Just.... for the record. I do not believe for a moment that you intended ill intent.

[theflashunc]

Traumatic Brain Injuries? Do you mean a concussion? Like kids get playing little league sports? I believe that half of the servicemen have already returned to active duty.

You’re trying too hard......

And what about the half who haven't? Do they deserve the Commander in Chief casually hand waving away injuries they sustained because he's a moron? Or do they deserve some actual empathy from a human being clearly incapable of even faking it?

[Dallas Tex]

And what about the half who haven't? Do they deserve the Commander in Chief casually hand waving away injuries they sustained because he's a moron? Or do they deserve some actual empathy from a human being clearly incapable of even faking it?

One of my good friends suffered a TBI. I’ve been helping him build a track frame for over a year now. It’s taking a long time because he’s doing 100% of the work, I’m merely an annoying guide hovering over him instructing him verbally. It also takes a long time because his short term memory is zero, and every weekend is starting fresh. That’s a TBI in my experience.

Your usage of the most severe terminology for a concussion to reflect negatively on the president then feigning outrage & concern is beyond disingenuous.

[theflashunc]

One of my good friends suffered a TBI. I’ve been helping him build a track frame for over a year now. It’s taking a long time because he’s doing 100% of the work, I’m merely an annoying guide hovering over him instructing him verbally. It also takes a long time because his short term memory is zero, and every weekend is starting fresh. That’s a TBI in my experience.

Your usage of the most severe terminology for a concussion to reflect negatively on the president then feigning outrage & concern is beyond disingenuous.

There's no feigning. He wraps himself in love of troops when it's convenient politically and doesn't actually give two shits about anyone in a foxhole for this country. The DoD which he oversees as commander in chief slow played the release of news soliders were injured, and the President hand waves it away as headaches.

[Dallas Tex]

Glenn, I try hard to stay out of these political discussions. I no longer have the heart for it. Respectfully, traumatic brain injuries - even mild traumatic brain injuries - are nothing to sneeze at. As a clinical neuropsychologist I work with individuals (children, adolescents, and adults) whose lives have been devastated by mTBI's. Returning to active duty is has no correlation whatsoever with permanence and severity of injury. These injuries are particularly pernicious in that the individuals who suffer from them "look fine" but their emotional, physical, and cognitive sequelae can be severe and devastating.

Just.... for the record. I do not believe for a moment that you intended ill intent.

My post was simply a reaction to folks using these folks injuries as tool to mock a president they don’t like.

[monadnocky]

One of my good friends suffered a TBI. I’ve been helping him build a track frame for over a year now. It’s taking a long time because he’s doing 100% of the work, I’m merely an annoying guide hovering over him instructing him verbally. It also takes a long time because his short term memory is zero, and every weekend is starting fresh. That’s a TBI in my experience.

Your usage of the most severe terminology for a concussion to reflect negatively on the president then feigning outrage & concern is beyond disingenuous.

There is no standardized terminology regarding "TBI" and "concussion," or, at best, it depends on the discipline. "Traumatic brain injury" would not commonly be considered "the most severe terminology" for a concussion across almost all of these disciplines and I would not consider it to be disingenuous in the least if I was to receive a referral to work with someone with that moniker. Perhaps "mild traumatic brain injury" but even this would be a fair bit of parsing.
Semantics, perhaps. I am pleased/not pleased to see that you are working with someone with a TBI. There is simply no way of knowing if any of the servicemembers suffered a similarly impactful injury,but I'm guessing it wasn't anything to sneeze at.

[Dallas Tex]

Semantics, perhaps. I am pleased/not pleased to see that you are working with someone with a TBI. .

What are you ‘not pleased’ about? Just curiosity. I have thick skin, tell me what’s up.

[Blue Jays]

There are plenty of people in far-flung State Department / Foreign Service Officer roles that serve at the pleasure of the POTUS.
Did President Carter have people fired? He and the forty-three others? Of course. It is all part of the Big Job.
President Trump wanted that person out. That is how it works. I'm sure those folks in those roles know that going in.

[Matthew Strongin]

Traumatic Brain Injuries? Do you mean a concussion? Like kids get playing little league sports? I believe that half of the servicemen have already returned to active duty.

You’re trying too hard......

One of my good friends suffered a TBI. I’ve been helping him build a track frame for over a year now. It’s taking a long time because he’s doing 100% of the work, I’m merely an annoying guide hovering over him instructing him verbally. It also takes a long time because his short term memory is zero, and every weekend is starting fresh. That’s a TBI in my experience.

Your usage of the most severe terminology for a concussion to reflect negatively on the president then feigning outrage & concern is beyond disingenuous.

My post was simply a reaction to folks using these folks injuries as tool to mock a president they don’t like.

No. Someone pointed out how Trump diminished the severity of these injuries while demonstrating his incredible lack of empathy for those very service people he claims to love. You echoed that diminishment by comparing their injuries to kids playing little league. Which, as an aside, is absurd given what we're now learning about the lasting impacts of concussions and TBI; as a parent I hope my son never experiences an injury like that and if he does I'll treat it with absolute severity. You then tried to make it about how the people taking Trump to task for his comments are just using the injured service people as a tool to mock Trump. Talk about feigning outrage and being disingenuous. If you're so concerned about TBI and the impacts to those who have injuries, I'd think you'd expect your president to show some concern for the people injured in the air strike. Just because they weren't bleeding doesn't mean they aren't hurt.

I think it's awesome that you're helping your friend build that bike. That must require a great deal of patience, care and empathy. I think it would be awesome if you also recognized that he's but one example of TBI and others who have or may suffer the same fate are also worth some of that care and empathy.

[monadnocky]

What are you ‘not pleased’ about? Just curiosity. I have thick skin, tell me what’s up.

Simply that the brain injury happened in the first place. Apologies for the ambiguity.

[HorsCat]

There are plenty of people in far-flung State Department / Foreign Service Officer roles that serve at the pleasure of the POTUS.
Did President Carter have people fired? He and the forty-three others? Of course. It is all part of the Big Job.
President Trump wanted that person out. That is how it works. I'm sure those folks in those roles know that going in.

Nobody is suggesting he didn’t have the authority to fire Yovanovitch. The issue is why he did it, and why he has been lying about his relationship with Parnas. For a guy who is supposedly concerned about corruption, he has an odd way of going about fighting it. It’s almost as if he thinks the way to defeat corruption is with much more corruption.

[lumpy]

Nobody is suggesting he didn’t have the authority to fire Yovanovitch. The issue is why he did it, and why he has been lying about his relationship with Parnas. For a guy who is supposedly concerned about corruption, he has an odd way of going about fighting it. It’s almost as if he thinks the way to defeat corruption is with much more corruption.

And why he apparently demanded it be done at a meeting with private citizens, his private lawyer, and donors, instead of telling the appropriate person in the State Department to do it.

[lumpy]

And why he apparently demanded it be done at a meeting with private citizens, his private lawyer, and donors, instead of telling the appropriate person in the State Department to do it.

NB The latest information is that one of Trump's administration officials (John DiStefano) was in the meeting too, so Trump could have been giving the order to him.

[jclay]

There are plenty of people in far-flung State Department / Foreign Service Officer roles that serve at the pleasure of the POTUS.
Did President Carter have people fired? He and the forty-three others? Of course. It is all part of the Big Job.
President Trump wanted that person out. That is how it works. I'm sure those folks in those roles know that going in.

That's not the point, at all, and you know it, and that's part of the problem. You, and others who do likewise, rightfully lose all credibility with rational, truth seeking people as a result of these types of retorts. Your side in this débâcle has nothing to stand on aside from demagoguery, lies and obfuscation and so that's what all of you use.

[thollandpe]

Jay Sekulow held up the Mueller Report and told the Senate:

• It’s 199 pages long
• Cost $32 million
• Took almost two years

He did not mention that the Mueller investigation resulted in 34 indictments. These included the president’s campaign chair, campaign aide, national security adviser, foreign policy adviser, his personal lawyer, and whatever Roger Stone is. Long-time associate? Graft coach?

Whining about the cost and effort of the Special Counsel’s report? That pegged the irony meter. Because sitting with him on the White House defense team* is Kenneth Starr. His work as independent counsel generated a report that:

• Was 453 pages long
• Cost over $70 million ($110 million in today's dollars!)
• Took over six years
• Resulted in zero indictments

That’s because with Whitewater, Travelgate, Filegate, the Lincoln Bedroom-gate, and assisted suicide-gate, the only thing that he came up with was a really strange and sordid tale of blow jobs in the Oval Office. And to get even that, he had to threaten to put a young woman’s mother in jail.

* Rape Culture All-Star Team according to Samantha Bee


Skip to 4:50 if you’d like only her legal team analysis.

[davids]

That party is long dead. This really is the core of the GOP/Trump base these days.

Johnstown Never Believed Trump Would Help. They Still Love Him Anyway. - POLITICO Magazine

So tragic. So depressing.

[jclay]

I know it's a PITA but this is THE week to call and write your senators repeatedly and submit letters to the editor demanding Senate trial witnesses and Trump's removal from office.

[lumpy]

Martha MacCallum onFox News had Barbara Boxer on last night, saying unequivocally that Trump broke the law and any representative or senator that did the same thing would be removed. This is a big important shift I think.

[Blue Jays]

"...had Barbara Boxer on last night, saying unequivocally that Trump broke the law..."

That is indeed completely shocking and entirely unexpected news coming from office of Senator Barbara Boxer (D-California)!

[theflashunc]

That is indeed completely shocking and entirely unexpected news coming from office of Senator Barbara Boxer (D-California)!

She's not a Senator anymore.