Study what you will be doing before coming into a hearing where you’ll have to answer a LOT of questions. This guy is so underqualified it’s ridiculous. It seems he’s thinking this is a glamorous position, and it most certainly is not!!!! He’ll need to *work*, not play. From AlterNet:
President Donald Trump’s nominee to serve as Ambassador to Singapore, orthopedic and sports medicine surgeon Dr. Anjani (Anji) Sinha, was blasted and berated during his Senate confirmation hearing on Wednesday, after he appeared unable to answer critical questions about the role Singapore plays in U.S. national security and security in the Indo-Pacific region.
Orthopedic and sports medicine surgeon. Oooo, this is good. It seems the guy has no idea what he would be doing. In a critically important position. He can’t do an El Presidente Imbécil and bluff his way through this. It’s not going to happen. If I were in the Senate, I would be studying the position *before* letting the guy talk. You need to know what this is about. As a matter of fact, *any* position that has to have Senate approval should be studied!
U.S. Senator Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), a decorated Iraq War veteran and retired lieutenant colonel, pressed Dr. Sinha with pointed questions—particularly about Singapore’s role in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), a bloc of ten member countries that includes Singapore. “What does holding the ASEAN chairmanship entail for Singapore?” Senator Duckworth asked. “Can you name one thing? A role that they would have to play as ASEAN chair?” “Well, you know that there—this is ASEAN chair is not only one country that is one of ten countries in—” Dr. Sinha replied.
Ha. Dude, you are not Agent Orange, and you *have* to know what you’re doing! I can already tell this has gone So Wrong, and there’s more to come! I heart Senator Duckworth. Lawdy, she *knows* her stuff. She frightens me sometimes with all the information she pulls out at will. And she makes it look easy! Let’s hear from her some more.
“No, the ASEAN chair is one country,” Duckworth explained. “But there are 10 countries involved as the ASEAN group,” Sinha responded. “You’re not answering my question. You’re not answering my question, sir,” said Duckworth, who sits on the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee and on the U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations. “Can you name one thing there will be of critical importance to Singapore as ASEAN Chair? A role? There are many things. Can you name one thing?” “Defense, economics…” Sinha offered. “Those are very broad. Name an issue,” Duckworth demanded. “Trade,” Sinha said. “I don’t think…no,” Duckworth replied.
See what I mean? She knows what the position entails. She knows what’s going on right now (of course) with this significant position. I *really* hope he doesn’t get confirmed, because *poof* there go some more US Allies. China is *right there*. I’m going to have to do some studying myself on understanding what this job is about. I want to know, after reading the article I’m quoting. Here we go with more of it:
The questions continued, with Duckworth appearing extremely dissatisfied with Sinha’s answers. “Please,” she finally said, “I’m trying to help you here, but you’ve not even done your homework, sir. You want to be ambassador to Singapore, one of the most important alliances, friends we have in the Indo-Pacific. A key place that we’re going to be fighting against our greatest adversary in the region, the PRC,” she explained, referring to the People’s Republic of China.
“Singapore may feature incredible culture, but that should not be treated as a glamour posting,” Duckworth continued. “This nation is too important to the United States, to ASEAN, to the entire region. And frankly, I think the mission is important to U.S. interests and national security, and it should actually be a foreign service officer.” “You are not currently prepared for this posting, period,” Duckworth concluded, “and you need to shape up and do some homework.”
WHAM. There ya have it. This is about work, not play. WORK. Senator Duckworth just wiped the floor with this guy, and well she should! I’ll bet he thought it was a glamour posting. He would go to meetings now and then, and in the meantime, live high on the hog. Nope. It doesn’t work that way.
Singapore is a glamorous posting on the outside, but that’s just the public facade. There’s a lot of hard work behind there. You need to know what’s going on and be prepared to represent the US, since our president can’t do so. (That’s a whole other issue and not somewhere we need to go here.) This idiot is clueless. Totally clueless.
May he NOT get confirmed, or it will be another disaster we don’t need. We have enough from Agent Orange, and Pam Blondi, and Ka$h Patel, and Kristi Gnome and, and and… Please, don’t confirm him. I can hope. Thanks for sticking with me!
We thank all of you who have donated. You’re keeping this blog on the internet, believe me. One of the battles we fight is the inconsistency of ad revenue because politics in this country is so polarized, and a lot of advertisers just seek to avoid the political. They’d rather advertise on food blogs and be safe, doughnuts before democracy. All we’re trying to do is stay in business because we believe the work is important. Thank you if you can assist. If we didn’t need it, we wouldn’t be asking. Ursula
No doubt, the sheep will shepherd him thru. As yiu say, another and in the and and and list of Oh Gawd, not another ones
Unfortunately, yes to the first part. You absolutely cracked me up with “Oh Gawd, not another one”
This guy *really really* needs to NOT be confirmed. Yet another idiot from Agent Orange.
I don’t know why the dead zone of knowledge about the duties surrounding the jobs these people want to assume shocks me at all anymore; this is standard operating procedure for this president. This man displays loyalty and may have done something for Cheeto, like giving him money, for instance. So Cheeto wants to give him a nice job that he is in no way qualified for, besides, how hard can it be, right?
By the logic our president seems to use, I, being a pipefitter/welder by trade, should not be a hindrance in my jumping over into medical diagnostics or even anesthesiology. The skills transfer seamlessly.
It’s totally a merit system now.