Trump cures cancer: Thousands of research jobs lost!

[CitizenBBN]

Seriously. Give the Trump admin their due, the UAE/Bahrain/Israel deal is historic and very significant. The only other Arab nations to recognize Israel and formalize relations other than Egypt, which was more than 40 years ago, and Jordan, which was still 30 years ago and honestly not as significant given Jordan's geopolitics.

Like the Egyptian peace deal, it's just another step in regional stability, not a solution, but it is a big step. It's worthy of bi-partisan praise even in an election year.

No one has really pointed to negatives from it, other than the fact that it further solidifies Israel as a member of the international community (as if a nuclear power nation with strong Western support was just going to go away) which is a negative to some.

No, the main criticism today is that it is a "distraction from Covid", and that the signing ceremony wasn't distanced enough. Seriously, that's the lead for the anti-Trump media.

Such a move by Pelosi and the media just undermines their position, as it does when the GOP does it of course.

I don't really care to get into a debate about Trump and raw politics with this. Two things interest me:

1) The agreement itself, which is another example of the US buying peace as we did with Egypt and later Jordan, which in the end has proven to be a sound strategy, and

2) the complete lack of a "Fourth Estate" of media in the US, which is deeply threatening to good government.

IF the media is going to be hellbent to cover for one side and belittle the other regardless of reality, as we've seen with the Hillary email scandal, the Russian investigation, and things like this which should be seen as a US foreign policy victory on a bipartisan basis, then what hope is there that they will keep politicians of "their" party in check from the corruption, nepotism and back dealing that is such a threat to any government?

Real journalism would report honestly and hold everyone's feet to the fire, but those days are long gone, and it leads to the kinds of abuses we have seen with Hillary Clinton. Government devices destroyed, tens of thousands of emails deleted mysteriously with no backups, now a dozen or more phones wiped with the Mueller team with the most flimsy of excuses, etc.

Those are fundamental threats to good government. There's a reason federal employees have background checks and mounds of procedures to comply with the Freedom of Information Act. It's so we can have transparent government.

That is largely enforced by the media, who will be the people to have the time and energy and drive to file FOIA requests and do the legwork to hold people accountable.

This kind of attitude we see today is indicative of the conversion of the mainstream media into a propaganda organization. They no longer fulfill their role in American government.

My only political side note is that anyone who cares significantly about our support of Israel sure has an obvious choice in this race. It's not even close compared to the Obama/biden years, or the Bush II years for that matter. Not since Reagan has a US President shown as much support for Israel, yet managed to keep our Arab allied relationships and even in this case improve on them.

that's a tricky balance, and Trump and his people like Pompeo deserve some credit.

The Media OTOH deserves complete derision, for this and their entire approach to holding government accountable. It doesn't work if you don't do it to everyone.

[CitizenBBN]

Also, at what point can we hope for "unity" if all the coverage is one sided? For two sides to get together each has to see the good parts of the other, and yes even Trump's administration has had some accomplishments that should get broad support. He's had some that deserve broad condemnation as well, and a bunch on which people won't agree, but when we have one that can get broad agreement that is good, as it was with Obama.

For example, I fully supported Obama's stance on net neutrality, and completely reject Trump's position. I think Obama deserves broad support for his efforts in that area.

I ironically also supported his move towards a more normalized relationship with Russia, though I think his efforts at technology transfer were deeply wrong and dangerous. it's ironic b/c the fact that Obama was the one to set the US on that path, and did so with gusto, has been erased by the Ministry of Truth b/c they need Trump to be the pro-Russian bad guy now. lol.

[Darryl]

Nice post. One of the great mysteries of life to me is why any Jew would vote for a Democrat.

Darryl

[CitizenBBN]

Nice post. One of the great mysteries of life to me is why any Jew would vote for a Democrat.

Darryl

I'm very resistant to grouping people by any category, but traditionally a lot of the Jewish diaspora are in traditionally liberal areas such as New York.

And, just like my many friends and family who are Southern Democrats, I get why historically that was their decision. But just like the Democratic party as a whole has become very far left on issues that leave a lot of Southern Democrats not really aligned with the national party, the shift by the national Democratic party away from Israel is significant and I'm betting a lot of Israel supporters simply haven't caught up.

Alan Dershowitz is a good example. Lifelong liberal, very Democratically aligned on civil rights, very pro-Israel. But he's been abandoned on civil rights issues, Israel and more.

And there are some people of Jewish faith who aren't as pro-Israel, for whom it's not as big of an issue, and those who disagree with the current more conservative Israeli government. Netanyahu even in Israel is hanging on by a thread against others who would be more conciliatory on the Palestine issue, settlements, etc.

there's room for a variety of opinions, but there's no doubt if you are pro-Israel generally and certainly pro-Netanyahu that Trump is your guy.

Interestingly in Israel on many issues there simply isn't what we would consider "conservative". Their version of conservative is still pretty liberal on many issues. This is after all a nation built in part on the Kibbutz system of socialized worker's farms.

[MickintheHam]

Y’all didn’t take into account the Dems, thus also the media, are anti-Israel. They all abandoned the Israeli cause, because Evangelical Christians have provided major support to Israel. Meanwhile, American Jews apparently believe liberal causes are more important than supporting conservative Netanyahu.

[UKHistory]

Front page of the Washington Post. It is actually a substantive foreign policy achievement. He should get a lot of credit.

That is accurate. It is questionable why it doesn’t get more positive coverage at every level.

I try to criticize when I see that it is warranted. I also ant to acknowledge good things. This is one of them by all accounts.

[dan_bgblue]

It is questionable why it doesn’t get more positive coverage at every level.

I do not think it is questionable at all. The MSM has spent the last 4+ years denigrating every positive thing that has been done by President Trump, plus they have been a part of the outright lies told about him and members of his administration concerning the collusion with Russia in election manipulation, and the lies told about him causing the "racist" hatred currently running rampant in the country.

They are damn sure not going to change their narrative this close to the election.

[CitizenBBN]

Front page of the Washington Post. It is actually a substantive foreign policy achievement. He should get a lot of credit.

That is accurate. It is questionable why it doesn’t get more positive coverage at every level.

I try to criticize when I see that it is warranted. I also ant to acknowledge good things. This is one of them by all accounts.

Some of the coverage was fair, but much of it, mostly in the broadcast media that is the backbone of how most people get their news, was not.

As to why, I have no questions at all. The media is no longer interested in reporting the "news", they are interested in their political ideology and in getting views/hits. We're back to the worst days of yellow journalism.