Tom Clancy’s US Politics Thread

He had very good working relationships with people like McConnell (they’re pretty good friends off-camera) and Graham, but he can barely get control over his own party so it’s moot anyway.

If anyone still doubted that we're living in one of the shittiest timelines imaginable:

us.cnn.com/2022/07/12/politics/biden-trump-polling-2024-race-analysis/index.html

Like it's a surprise.

I was pretty sure that Biden was only going to run for one term due to his age... which apparently isn't the case. 

I'm not sure it's a good sign for him that I developed that belief. 

IMHO he should commit to doing only one term and they should work on building up a successor. 

Is it that far fetched to believe some of these democrats are Republican double agents.

Their ability to make themselves look foolish against a far right GOP astounds me.

Interpret that last bit any way you like

As I say, I'm not insensitive to that.. but a dudebro photo op the clown prince can use as propaganda for the next few years? Was it *really* necessary?

C'mon, Joe. Be better than that! Your administration is 18 months old, now, and you can't keep coasting by on "Well, I'm better than the last guy, amirite?"

They shook hands afterwards. There’s also a world of difference between diplomacy and photo ops. This looks incredibly bad no matter what “oh well what are you gonna do we need oil” excuse. Especially considering the Saudi prince doesn’t seem to give a shit and is taking a “we don’t need to do anything for you” stance and Biden is basically all but rolling over and showing his belly.

Saw an interesting take on Brooks and Capehart regarding Manchin just now. Brooks owned that, as frustrated as everyone has been with Manchin, he was actually completely right about inflation when everyone else in the Dems disagreed, and inflation would be even worse now had Manchin not blocked the big spending bills from earlier. “That said, he’s still a cunt,” Brooks qualified. I may be paraphrasing.

I watch PBS NewsHour all the time on YouTube. Perhaps the least worst American news outlet, comes off as dry, rational and reliable.

There's a lot of reasons why MBS has positioned himself as such - as the reformer, the moderniser, the friend of the west.

For 50 years the Saudis have relied on Aramco to provide literally everything, paid for by the unbelievable wealth of oil they extract. The government (ie, the royal al-Saud family) has massively subsidised the citizenry - homes, fuel, education, healthcare, travel. Most of the work has been done by immigrants, at a staggering cost. Saudi men might work, but they were paid subsidies to actually attend in addition to their salaries.

The reliance on both the oil and the foreign labour is unsustainable and as such it was deemed essential to move the country's economy into other markets, which required the greater involvement and investment of foreign businesses and deals with foreign governments. Many of whom were wary of getting too closely involved.

To persuade the foreigners and the citizens to be part of the vision of a new Saudi Arabia, to invest and to work for a living, reforms were needed. Younger generations wanted things older generations didn't. But at the same time, there's still a massive amount of power with the tribal elders and they will not tolerate too much too quickly. So there's a balancing act to be done.

Make no mistake. Bin Salman is a brutal and harsh leader who has instituted reforms out of necessity, not out of a personal desire to be liberal or to bring his country to Western "standards".

No, he's just making use of his hand before it's lopped off for some bullshit reason

Biden is looking really old. He seems older each time I see a pic of him.

He’s slowly turning into David Lo-Pan.