Heckuva job.
One of the very few things Donald Trump campaigned on that at least sounded halfway sane was his focus on fixing things for veterans. It's not that any person who isn't a moron should have believed Trump, because he's a liar and a fraud, but at least it sounded nice, in a childish "I know 100 total words" sort of way. And there were definitely problems at the VA! It was understaffed and underfunded, and the wait times were crap!
Well! The Trump administration had its first meeting with veterans about fixing up healthcare for veterans, and it was just great except for how he didn't invite no veterans. For the story, we go to that old liberal rag the Military Times:
White House officials held their first listening session on problems with the Department of Veterans Affairs on Tuesday, but without inviting prominent members of the veterans community to the event.
Derp.
Officials from the American Legion, Disabled American Veterans and the Veterans of Foreign Wars said they were not invited to the morning event and did not know about it until it was announced late Monday night, as part of the White House’s routine schedule outline.
Other prominent veterans groups were surprised Tuesday morning by news of the event, and unsure who was invited to take part in the discussion.
Well! As the Military Times reports, Rep. Jerry Moran, Republican of Kansas, said it was with "health care executives," and later Sean Spicer said attendees included the wife of a veteran, and Isaac Perlmutter, the CEO of Marvel Entertainment (because obviously), and also some "experts." Sounds like just a really good meeting!
But no veterans' groups. : (
The Military Times notes that some veterans organizations have been a wee bit concerned that Trump wants to privatize a lot of the VA (and maybe make it a subsidiary of Marvel entertainment???), but that Trump's nominee to lead the VA, David Shulkin, has given assurances that he doesn't want to do that. And why wouldn't we be reassured? It's not like Trump has ever pretended like he was helping the veterans, but instead it turned out he was totally full of shit when he said he was doing nice things for the veterans, right?
Also, Trump would never ever screw veterans, because Trump is a war hero just like them, or he would have been if his little hooves hadn't been hurting him during the Vietnam War.
Anyway, we are sure Donald Trump is doing yooge, tremendous things for veterans and we probably should just shut our mouths and stop asking questions.
[ Military Times ]
panting with broad strokes helps.
You can, if you believe one was nominated by someone who lied, cheated, and to all appearances colluded with a hostile foreign power to steal the presidency, is of questionable literacy and clearly not mentally competent to hold the office, whose alarming behavior and attitude toward both enemy and ally presents a danger to the country, etc., etc., and if you also believe the party who placed this person at the top of its ticket and ultimately in the most powerful position in the world, should never be granted a SC justice as a reward for their horrifying immorality, anti-Constitutional actions and plain bad faith governing. Just no. Dems need to dig their heels in and refuse to budge on this until President Obama's nominee is given the full hearing and vote he should have been given last year. But no - without fail, there are always a few of these bastards who roll over and beg for more GOP abuse. Herding cats, indeed. Meanwhile, we get excited when we peel off a measly two so-called moderate Republicans to vote against perhaps the most appallingly unqualified person ever nominated for a cabinet position. So bring on the dirt, and the shit, because playing nice with bullies doesn't work. What does work is refusing to play at all.