Patterico's Pontifications

4/19/2017

Trump Claim About Aircraft Carrier Was False

Filed under: General — Patterico @ 7:34 am



Remember when Trump said an aircraft carrier was headed towards North Korea? Yeah, it wasn’t.

Just over a week ago, the White House declared that ordering an American aircraft carrier into the Sea of Japan would send a powerful deterrent signal to North Korea and give President Trump more options in responding to the North’s provocative behavior. “We’re sending an armada,” Mr. Trump said to Fox News last Tuesday afternoon.

The problem was that the carrier, the Carl Vinson, and the three other warships in its strike force were that very moment sailing in the opposite direction, to take part in joint exercises with the Australian Navy in the Indian Ocean, 3,500 miles southwest of the Korean Peninsula.

White House officials said Tuesday that they had been relying on guidance from the Defense Department. Officials there described a glitch-ridden sequence of events, from an ill-timed announcement of the deployment by the military’s Pacific Command to a partially erroneous explanation by the defense secretary, Jim Mattis — all of which perpetuated the false narrative that a flotilla was racing toward the waters off North Korea.

There’s finger-pointing going on regarding why this happened, but the inevitable Trumper defense that Trump is just keeping people off guard does not wash.

In South Korea, Hong Joon-pyo, the presidential candidate from former​ leader Park Geun-hye’s ruling party, said it was inappropriate to judge before receiving final confirmation of the Carl Vinson’s whereabouts. But, in an interview, he said: “What Mr. Trump said was very important for the national security of South Korea. If that was a lie, then during Trump’s term, South Korea will not trust whatever Trump says.”​

​He also said that, in light of Mr. Trump’s recent military strikes on Syria and ​Afghanistan, “it seems to me that Trump is a person who takes responsibility and action based on what he says.”

. . . .

In Japan, Prof. Narushige Michishita of the National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies said regardless of whether the U.S. intended to deceive or the narrative was a miscommunication, it looked bad for the White House.

“At a time of emergency, disinformation could be used as a tactic, but if the U.S. president spreads disinformation in peacetime like now, it would hurt the credibility of the U.S.,” he said.

Either Trump was behaving very erratically or he didn’t know where his aircraft carrier was and where it was headed. Neither possibility inspires confidence.

[Cross-posted at The Jury Talks Back.]

249 Responses to “Trump Claim About Aircraft Carrier Was False”

  1. Oh Oh. TDS is back.

    Mike K (f469ea)

  2. And he threw some kids cap into the crowd.

    AZ Bob (f7a491)

  3. Greetings:

    I worked for the US Navy back as a civilian printer back in the ’80s. Back then “ship movements” were not considered public discussion events. Perhaps a residual of WW II’s “loose lips…” philosophy but certainly no human or media rights violation to my mind.

    The idea that misinformation can also be disinformation is one that should be comprehensible by the adult mind as perhaps is the “no harm, no foul” concept of my basketball days.

    These days of the (now anti-)governmental-media complex seem to me to have too many people’s mouths flapping when they should zip them and get back to their real jobs. In a way, it reminds me of the UUSR stories of my youth about children ratting out their parents. Subversion and passive-aggressionism do not become thee.

    Carry on.

    11B40 (6abb5c)

  4. i don’t trust new york times fake news propaganda sluts

    but President Trump has gotten China engaged in a meaningful way (banning noko coal imports etc)

    yay america!

    and while south korea’s neurotic cowardly corrupt government’s opinions should indeed be taken into account to some degree, they don’t really mean a whole lot at the end of the day

    what matters is the fat lil weirdo crazy man is pooping himself

    poop poop poop!

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  5. You should be glad the Vinson “armada” took part in a planned but shortened exercise on its way to the Korean waters delaying any potential use of force until later in the month. It says the NORK threat was more bluster than threat allowing time for better understanding, planning and diplomacy.
    IF diplomatic cooperation with China in solving the NORK nuke problem it will be interesting to see if we move to arranging Kim’s departure to a golden cage as the preferred solution vs toppling him by force or assassination. China can help us do that. Whether they’re willing and what it will cost remains unknown to us.

    crazy (d3b449)

  6. This does not have me concerned.

    Dejectedhead (d3cff5)

  7. “Either Trump was behaving very erratically or he didn’t know where his aircraft carrier was and where it was headed. Neither possibility inspires confidence.”

    – Patterico

    How true! Sadly, this sort of behavior is not new when it comes to our Presidents. Why, just yesterday, on the 75 anniversary of Doolittle’s Raid, we were reminded that when asked about the departure point for Doolittle’s Raiders, FDR replied, “Shangri-La!” Here, too, you have to ask yourself, was FDR acting erratically or did he not know where it was launched from. Neither possibility inspires confidence.

    ThOR (c9324e)

  8. fdr was a big stupid weirdo what made a special zoo just for japanese americans but he got all the natural habitats wrong to where the ones he put inside became listless and sullen

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  9. I dont know, I think the experience turned them from yellow Italians to yellow Jews. They got out of gardening, landscaping and into the professions after having their RE taken from them.

    urbanleftbehind (5eecdb)

  10. Thanks to maverick and haskell’s signing on to the sequester. We have fewer ships to spare, we had a similar problem with force projection in benghazi.

    narciso (bd698a)

  11. “Oh Oh. TDS is back.”

    – Mike K

    Oh no! Retreat to the safe space!

    Leviticus (efada1)

  12. After reading “Dog Company” High Command in the military will screw it up all by themselves.

    mg (31009b)

  13. Ah yes – – how we yearn for what would have been the Golden Era of Hillary Clinton’s Presidency.

    Bill Saracino (ad0096)

  14. Sounds like errors and confusion all the way around. “Armada”… probably hasn’t been used since the days of Queen Isabella.

    We’ll have to wait 20 years for the book that explains it all… psy-ops against the 30 year old fat kid. I’m certainly more confident than if Obama were still in office or – God forbid – Hillary Clinton had won the election. And I’m thankful lawyers aren’t in charge.

    Colonel Haiku (607a84)

  15. My gratitude for that last point knows no bounds.

    Colonel Haiku (607a84)

  16. Looks like this is just one more Emily Litella moment. Never trust content from the NYT.

    ThOR (c9324e)

  17. Oh no! Retreat to the safe space!

    Leviticus

    A safe space.

    TDS is not good for you.

    Mike K (f469ea)

  18. looks like the ineffective do-nothing freedom filth are gonna become even less potent with the retirement of longtime filther Jason Chaffetz

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  19. “We’re sending an armada,” Mr. Trump said to Fox News last Tuesday afternoon.

    Since when is “we’re sending” equals “an armada is on its way?” The false narrative? I cannot remember when a political narrative was not false in many respects.

    I am with Mike K, this is TDS. Nevertheless, I do appreciate the value of watchdogs. But sometimes they can’t help but bark at the moon. Par for the course, I guess.

    felipe (b5e0f4)

  20. Saul Goodman is busy chasing squirrels, the qdr was once promised on two full theatre engagements at one time, now like the eye shared by the witches on the Scottish play, we’re shortstaffed.

    narciso (4c6996)

  21. And I’m thankful lawyers aren’t in charge.

    Colonel Haiku (607a84) — 4/19/2017 @ 9:12 am

    The lawyer is the one Pat is quoting.

    Hwang Kyo-ahn is a South Korean lawyer and is the Acting President of South Korea having continued in that role following the impeachment and removal of President Park Geun-hye by the Constitutional Court of Korea on 10 March 2017. He had already taken over Park’s presidential powers and duties on 9 December 2016 when impeachment proceedings were launched against her by the National Assembly and she was suspended from the powers and duties of the office.

    Talk about twitchy and frivolous, the previous South Korean President was indicted for bribery and abuse of power.

    IN other words the communists heckled her out of office, selectively criminalizing (probably for one time only) key aspects of the job.

    papertiger (c8116c)

  22. “Never tell the truth when a good lie’ll do!” – JR Ewing

    What a show!!

    More strawberries and ice cream for dessert tonight, Captain?

    “I tell you a duplicate key to the ward room icebox definitely did exist!!!” – Captain Queeg [Humphrey Bogart] ‘The Caine Mutiny’ 1954

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  23. Nothing promotes the interest of our nation better than to publicize the location of our naval vessels on the front page of the NYT.

    ThOR (c9324e)

  24. unless you count letting a cowardly geriatric disgraced brainwashed weirdo like John McCain chair the Senate Armed Services Committee

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  25. Except that Captain Queeg is a civilian working in the stenographers pool of the NYTs, or maybe CBS.

    IN an interview that aired April 12th on Fox Business, Trump said, “We’re sending an armada. We have very powerful submarines.”

    It was the media serving you strawberries. How quickly you gobbled them up. Didn’t check for worms. Didn’t look at the label to see if it was RT, CNN, or homegrown.

    papertiger (c8116c)

  26. So let’s revisit the question.

    Remember when Trump said an aircraft carrier was headed towards North Korea?

    No I don’t actually. I remember CNN dispatching their imaginary Navy, the one that sounds vaguely American, runs their ships and planes on restaurant grease, and can do no right in the world.

    Perhaps a clip of President Trump corroborating your version of reality is in order.

    papertiger (c8116c)

  27. This one does seem to be a bit of a stretch, given the actual sailing movements of the task force, and inevitable transit times.

    SPQR (a3a747)

  28. @23. Nothing promotes the interest of our nation better than to publicize the location of our naval vessels on the front page of the NYT.

    Yeah, guess it was pretty damned stupid of JFK to publicize dispatching ships to assemble a quarantine around Cuba when he was really sending them to blockade Long Island. Idiot.

    @25. Dana ‘What Cuban Missile Crisis’ Perino is a fox at Fox, dear. And in the spirit of that organization, ’bout time you moved your shapely tail and got the rest of the thread some coffee to go with our strawberries and ice cream. And remember, Billo takes his black lately.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  29. CNBC NOW REPORTS FOX NEWS HAS FIRED BILL O’REILLY.

    Oh, papertiger, cancel that coffee for Billo.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  30. jfk was the bubble-headed bimbo what almost got everyone nucleared

    i know a lot about him cause this one time he had his own jeopardy category

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  31. @30- Nyet. Nikita didn’t do hiz homewerk and read the Monroe Doctrine. Naughty Nikita should never have placed offensive weapons in Cuber… or built soccer fields along the coastline for Russians to play on and U2s to photograph.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  32. FOX FIRES O’REILLY.

    Bbbbut, President Trump said Bill O’Reilly did nothing wrong.

    Caution, Spicey. Your job is in jeopardy. Next Press Secretary: Billo.

    “This just isn’t your day, is it. ” – James Bond, 007 [Sean Connery] ‘From Russia With Love’ 1963

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  33. Considering that the New York Times was four square in favor of Communism, Castro’s Cuba, and had been promoting him for years, yeah.

    I’m sure the Times editor in his heart of hearts, considered it an act of treason, reporting the quarantine.

    papertiger (c8116c)

  34. DCSCA, is coffee now taken black a euphemism? And where did the Russian sailors take their liberties?

    urbanleftbehind (5eecdb)

  35. One time I told my boss I was going north to visit family in Canada for my vacation, but really I drove northwest to the Columbia River, then followed that due east for a day or so, then north east through Idaho and Montana before going back west a ways before going north across the 49th parallel into Canada. Took me a week to get there.

    I never told my boss because I didn’t want him thinking I was erratic or lost. He may have thought less of me when really I just had my own agenda.

    Ha, just kidding. It’s not like my boss is a lawyer.

    Leon (79ca52)

  36. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/16/us/politics/north-korea-missile-crisis-slow-motion.html

    A ‘Cuban Missile Crisis in Slow Motion’ in North Korea

    …What is playing out, said Robert Litwak of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, who tracks this potentially deadly interplay, is “the Cuban missile crisis in slow motion.” But the slow-motion part appears to be speeding up, as President Trump and his aides have made it clear that the United States will no longer tolerate the incremental advances that have moved Mr. Kim so close to his goals.

    Sammy Finkelman (6f9f42)

  37. @34– That was for Billo — and in this instance, make it to go.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  38. Ot, As talented as Esposito is, it really was a stretch to cast him as chilean.

    narciso (f5d695)

  39. @36. Except it’s not.

    Especially when you send your carrier battle group — or was that an armada– 3,500 miles in the opposite direction.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  40. Some innuendo that color of change came up with. Unfortunately Obama succeeded much more than we thought poszible.

    narciso (f5d695)

  41. Remember when Trump said an aircraft carrier was headed towards North Korea? Yeah, it wasn’t.

    No, I don’t remember him saying that. Probably because those are not this words. Anyone putting those words in Trump’s mouth is speaking falsely. Let’s go to the blockquote for Trump’s actual words.

    “We’re sending an armada,” Mr. Trump said to Fox News last Tuesday afternoon.

    That is not the same as saying the fleet is heading there at this very moment. Grammatically, Trump’s words can mean we are sending the fleet right now, or we are sending the fleet tomorrow, or we are sending the fleet next week. To just say we are sending it is ambiguous as to precisely when it is being sent. What is definite is that it will be sent.

    Anon Y. Mous (9e4c83)

  42. FOX FIRES O’REILLY SAME DAY HE SHAKES HANDS W/POPE FRANCIS.

    Truly an act of God.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  43. A hundred days of winning.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  44. Get your nut where and when you can, dcsca.

    Colonel Haiku (607a84)

  45. JFK did more damage to this country than any other president in the history of presidents. Including Obama.

    He is responsible for legalizing public unions.

    Leon (79ca52)

  46. @44. Flavor of the decade is strawberries, Colonel.

    With vanilla ice cream.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  47. They never fire liberals, do they? Now can we get rid of the leering, touching, misogyny or creepy behavior at the other networks? Or anywhere else for that matter.

    crazy (d3b449)

  48. DCSCA, you must imagine that strawberries thing is wildly funny, or clever, or something, being as you’ve repeated it about a million times.

    I gotta tell ya…not so much.

    Leon (79ca52)

  49. @45/48- You gotta nuthin’ to say.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  50. @ 38, very easily could have been Ecuadorean or Peruvian if you go by their soccer teams. France made some efforts to blanche their national team after 2006, whereas Germany made strides toward Turkification of theirs for 2010 and beyond.

    urbanleftbehind (5eecdb)

  51. If only O’Reilly were a pathologically-lying democratic president from Arkansas, the NYTimes would surely tell us his transgressions were none of our business.

    Ol Bill doesn’t by chance have a talentless daughter who could replace him does he…..no wait he’s a conservative.

    harkin (517285)

  52. @51. In fact, he boasts of being a registered independent. And if he had a daughter, would he likely date her— oh wait, that’s just the province of the President and his Ivanka.

    ______

    Chaffetz to quit…

    He just got tired of winning, too.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  53. Occasional that fired that limey, martin lewis for something or other, and keefums well his is a saga.

    narciso (f5d695)

  54. Oh and the farrow whelp, but he was a figment of someone’s imagination, and we can’t forget my paisan rick Sanchez, as hard as I try to.

    narciso (f5d695)

  55. Can you imagine a WH Press Secretary with a “No Spin Zone?”

    crazy (d3b449)

  56. @55. Crazy, eh crazy.

    Bbbbut “Caution!” The President said he did nothing wrong.

    “Mama-Mia, thatza Spicey meata-ball.” – Alka Seltzer commercial, 1970s.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  57. Are the American boots on the ground in SK headed for India? We have skin in the game SK. STFU.

    Pinandpuller (d6578e)

  58. Maybe this was the “hint” for Spicer to vamoose or Gronk chickened out of his tackle-subdue-remove assignment:

    http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2017/04/19/rob-gronkowski-makes-cameo-at-white-house-press-briefing.html

    urbanleftbehind (5eecdb)

  59. And ‘resist we much’ factotum and fellow tax cheat joy Reid, has been set to the phantom zone, mind you they are Virtually test patterns

    narciso (f5d695)

  60. I hope BO’R doesn’t go all David Letterman and grow a beard and shuffle around NYC in Carhart’s.

    Pinandpuller (d6578e)

  61. I wonder if the Sheps and Anderson Coopers pretend to be gay to inoculate themselves from the sexual harassment lottery?

    papertiger (c8116c)

  62. that would be dishonest

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  63. He’s not like those other presidents.

    Kevin M (25bbee)

  64. This really did not bother me. My first thought was “Well played!”

    But then, I’m a “glass half full” kind of guy, not a “glass smashed into a million pieces kind of guy.”

    Kevin M (25bbee)

  65. Can you imagine a WH Press Secretary with a “No Spin Zone?”

    O’Reilly isn’t smart enough to be press secretary. But the, neither is Spicer.

    Kevin M (25bbee)

  66. Bill O’Reilly is actually also a liar in his books.

    http://www.salon.com/2015/03/08/the_incontrovertible_proof_bill_oreilly_is_a_serial_liar_about_his_past_partner/

    Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly has been under fire following a series of revelations that seem to show he lied about numerous major reporting milestones in his career, from witnessing the murder of nuns in El Salvador to being witness to combat in the Falklands War to personally seeing the suicide of a figure involved in the JFK assassination investigation.

    http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/go-ahead-and-call-bill-oreilly-what-he-is-a-pathological-liar-20150305

    The hits keep coming. Former colleagues flatly deny O’Reilly’s story that he was attacked by rioters in the 1992 L.A. riots. His story that he witnessed bombings in Northern Ireland was denied by Fox News’ own spokesman. Further, his claim that he was on the doorstep when a friend of Lee Harvey Oswald’s committed suicide was impeached by the fact that O’Reilly was in Dallas at the time, (another) 1,200 miles away from the shooting.

    Sammy Finkelman (6f9f42)

  67. Bill and Brian’s Bogus Journeys – coming to a channel near you?

    urbanleftbehind (5eecdb)

  68. i like how we’re doing armada all up in the north korea but also i want some tacos

    when food stamp and his lil dog valerie was president you couldn’t have both but now you can!

    i don’t know about you but that puts a smile on my face

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  69. After reading “Dog Company” High Command in the military will screw it up all by themselves.

    Well, Fox Company did pretty good despite High Command.

    Kevin M (25bbee)

  70. I was never the fan of O’Reilly’s middle of the road I’m the only grownup in the room shtick.

    Now it’s bitten him in the keister.

    I mean right or wrong, even if BillO were chasing Lauri Dhue around the cafeteria with salad tongs on a daily basis, the smart play, the right play, especially for a guy with his megaphone is to never settle and [edit] the lawyer’s advice to keep it quiet. Beat that girl senseless. Trash her reputation in a daily segment.
    Dhue is a lush. She pounds the happy hour sauce. Never pays a bar tab. Can barely stand upright on one planet – and that’s on her good days. Oops forgot to wear undies getting out of the car. Bill’s paparazzi got the photo to prove it in tonight’s Bimbo Factor segment.

    Because that’s what she’s going to do to you. Also because it’s good journalism.

    Girls kicking him in the kaniggies and he still wants to play grownup in the room.
    What a maroon! [YouTube]

    papertiger (c8116c)

  71. Lauri Dhue might even could be lying about the whole thing

    i don’t trust her

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  72. 45. Not JFK

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public-sector_trade_unions_in_the_United_States

    Change came in the 1950s. In 1958 New York mayor Robert Wagner, Jr. issued an executive order, called “the little Wagner Act,” giving city employees certain bargaining rights, and gave their unions with exclusive representation (that is, the unions alone were legally authorized to speak for all city workers, regardless of whether or not some workers were members.) Management complained but the unions had power in city politics.[14]

    The first U.S. state to permit collective bargaining by public employees was Wisconsin, in 1959.[15] Collective bargaining is now permitted in three fourths of U.S. states.[16] By the 1960s and 1970s public-sector unions expanded rapidly to cover teachers, clerks, firemen, police, prison guards and others. In 1962, President John Kennedy issued Executive Order 10988, upgrading the status of unions of federal workers.[17]

    The problem has not really bene at the federal level.

    Sammy Finkelman (6f9f42)

  73. 262– Are you kidding? He’ll ink another ‘killer’ book– and he has the title genre already: “The Killing of O’Reilly.”

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  74. Thanks, Kevin M.

    mg (31009b)

  75. O’Reilly isn’t smart enough to be press secretary. But the, neither is Spicer.

    Kevin M

    LOL

    I think communication is clearly the first problem here. I thought Trump and Mattis were saying the carriers were headed to Korea as they spoke. They sure seemed to be talking about it that way, and putting urgent pressure on North Korea. This ‘eventually it gets there on a schedule’ thing isn’t what people thought they meant, and it’s odd they are acting surprised with all the media about it, particularly on Fox News, their primary intelligence agency. This is easily fixed and Trump can succeed here depending on how he handles this. Hopefully he made some phone calls to our allies to explain.

    I was never the fan of O’Reilly’s middle of the road I’m the only grownup in the room shtick.

    I haven’t watched The O’Reilly Factor since I had roommates in college, during the Bush administration, but this was exactly my interpretation. He’s going to force an objectivity so he can say ‘they are their side’s guys, they are the other sides guys, but me, O’Reilly, I’m just telling it to you straight. It came across as a load of crap. O’Reilly probably made 20 million dollars today so I’m not losing any sleep worrying about him.

    JFK did more damage to this country than any other president in the history of presidents. Including Obama.

    He is responsible for legalizing public unions.

    Leon

    Well, every president since then hasn’t stopped it. This was why a lot of Scott Walker’s fans liked him. Has Trump talked about fixing this, because that would be awesome.

    Dustin (ba94b2)

  76. Last time I remember watching Ted Baxter he was putting a shine on Obama and his upcoming first election.
    Nothing better than seeing the self appointed chosen few hack themselves into pieces.

    mg (31009b)

  77. “Has Trump talked about fixing this, because that would be awesome.”

    No, dang it. As far as I know, NO elected official has talked about it since FDR.

    Leon (79ca52)

  78. No, dang it. As far as I know, NO elected official has talked about it since FDR.

    Leon

    Yeah, I would be naive to say ‘but but Ted Cruz might have’. It’s going to be extremely difficult to fix, but you’re right it’s gotta happen.

    Anyway, I’m going to have some of this delicious hot chocolate now in memory of Bill O’Reilly. What? What?

    Dustin (ba94b2)

  79. You would think a 6’3″ woman with proportionate reach and force could just end it with the Slap from Hell. The black chick’s attorney (Bloom) is nice though (get her to replace Pirro).

    urbanleftbehind (47c719)

  80. Yeah, a politician these days would fare better saying he wants to do away with social security than he would saying he wants to outlaw pubic unions.

    Too bad, because they are the biggest obstacle to limited government IMHO. JFK basically changed the USA from a republic to a bureaucracy.

    Leon (79ca52)

  81. “I think he’s a good person. I know him well… he’s a good person… I don’t think Bill O’Reilly did anything wrong…” – President Donald J. Trump, April 5, 2017

    Fourteen days later: Fox News Fires Bill O’Reilly for ‘doing something wrong’… April 19, 2017.

    How’s that wall coming along, Captain?

    “How sweet it is!” – Jackie Gleason, ‘The Jackie Gleason Show’ CBS TV

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  82. Too grownup and dignified to do anything but pay out to extortionists.

    Shows Bill as a misfit to the age.

    papertiger (c8116c)

  83. Salon and rolling moss, rendering judgement on o’reilly, ironic.

    narciso (d1f714)

  84. @86 DCSCA

    It’s all just a cost/benefit analysis.

    “If you loofa me, do I not expoliate?”. Bill O’Reilly.

    Pinandpuller (d6578e)

  85. I couldn’t care less. So what if the Imperialist navy turned away from certain death and ran like dogs slated for the stew.
    I’d have to look it up, but I think we baited the Sea of Japan with a destroyer.
    North Korea is welcome to have to go get it.
    I guarantee it won’t end like that Iranian fiasco

    steveg (32617c)

  86. Marrow, Sgt schultz and company came from that criminal conspiracy air America, that franken fronted for.

    narciso (d1f714)

  87. “Too grownup and dignified to do anything but pay out to extortionists.”

    – papertiger

    Laughable, as usual. Take them to trial, if they’re lying – he certainly has the money to pay for one. For a self-described “pugilist” (yeah, right) O’Reilly folded like a cheap suit. Pathetic. Enjoy your remaining years, creep. Now exit left.

    Leviticus (86babc)

  88. where’s Mr. nk did he have a nice easter

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  89. In English rather than gibberish, North Korea is most welcome to pick a fight with us.
    Hillary s fat pant suited cousin who runs NJ talks like a badass. So come and take it

    steveg (32617c)

  90. Or NK

    steveg (32617c)

  91. Interesting parallel to O’Reilly’s situation was the case of Adolphus Busch versus the Temperance Movement.

    Despite years and decades of womens temperance movements setting up church congregations like picket lines blocking the doors to saloons, textbooks teaching children utter bullox about the “scientific basis” of how a single drink will cause some people to erupt into flames, and armies of hatchet wealding terrorists breaking up private property, drinking increased in popularity.

    Heck with inspite of it. Probably because of it.

    Then Roosevelt’s ego screwed the pooch. He ran for a third term and split the Republican ticket.
    This allowed The eugenics loving scum Wilson to gain office.
    Pre Wilson the Federal government drew 70 % of it’s funds from the sale of alcohol.

    It was the Temperance Movement hitched to the Wilson admin. that pushed through the income tax amendment, with the goal being to free the Fed from demon Rum.

    In between the 16th amendment and prohibition, Adolphus Busch used the O’Reilly model pretense of being the voice of reason while charting a self serving course down the middle, to fight off the Temperance zealots.
    “Of course rum and hard liquor are deleterious to the social order,” said Busch, “but beer is harmless.” [Link to Prohibition by Ken Burns]

    Same tactic that Exxon and BP take with the global warming zealots.

    Can’t reason with zealots. Be they Tea totallers, global warmers, or gynofeminists.
    Can’t pretend you’re on their side while feeding them your natural allies one by one.
    You have to fight them beginning to end. You have to defeat them utterly and completely, or they will do the same to you.

    O’Reilly. [YouTube] Message for him personal.

    papertiger (c8116c)

  92. Yes ask ray donovan how that works out, ‘the punishment is the process’

    narciso (d1f714)

  93. @90- LOL yeah, gosh-darn that free market.

    “Advertising is based on one thing: happiness. And do you know what happiness is? Happiness is the smell of a new car. It’s freedom from fear. It’s a billboard on the side of a road that screams with reassurance that whatever you’re doing is OK. You are OK.” – Don Draper [Jon Hamm] ‘Mad Men’ AMC TV 2007

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  94. Meanwhile bill richarrdson finds some way not to be inducted same for Charlie Rangel

    narciso (d1f714)

  95. 25, Happyfeet: McCain’s not cowardly. He is as brave as anyone with someone else’s kids. On the other points, well…

    Harcourt Fenton Mudd (5e0a82)

  96. Yes, I did, thank you, happyfeet. Spent it with my family. Grilled lamb, potatoes, tsoureki, traditional Greek Easter cookies, the usual stuff.

    nk (dbc370)

  97. JFK did more damage to this country than any other president in the history of presidents. Including Obama.

    He is responsible for legalizing public unions.

    The man to damn is Jerry Brown, who legalized collective bargaining by PEUs in California, and nod-nod-wink-wink they because the major backers of the Democrat party.

    Unions at the national level don’t have the same rights. Just ask PATCO.

    Kevin M (25bbee)

  98. No soup.

    nk (dbc370)

  99. Late to the discussion — like Mike K I just stopped by to see if anybody, host or commenter, had posted the secret to life, the universe, and everything — but I see the “armada” thingie as the blind hog (that’s Trump) finding an acorn. The Commander in Chief has no business telling the world where our Navy is, so it’s a good thing he got it wrong. (Not foreclosing the possibility that he was acting on information from the same quality of Navy personnel who navigated the two boats into Iranian waters a while back.)

    nk (dbc370)

  100. It was the Temperance Movement hitched to the Wilson admin. that pushed through the income tax amendment, with the goal being to free the Fed from demon Rum.

    Except the Income Tax was adopted in 1913, and Suffrage in 1920, and only after the Republicans gained control of Congress. Wilson, like nearly all Southern Democrats viewed women’s suffrage with distaste. He only supported it when it seemed likely to pass anyway.

    The direct election of Senators had more to do with suffrage than the income tax. It allowed women in states that allowed women to vote to dis-elect recalcitrant senators.

    Kevin M (25bbee)

  101. News item: Trump uses hyperbole. Film at 11.

    Kevin M (25bbee)

  102. good good!

    we couldn’t have asked for a more beautiful weekend

    i don’t know this soup but i do have a jar of the avgolemono somewhere

    i’m still exhausted from easter but i think one more night’s sleep back in my own bed should do the trick

    we had many adventures it was a memorable easter

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  103. Dingbat Dana ‘what Cuban Missile Crisis’ Perino now is part-time hosting something called ‘the Factor’ on Fox…

    “My fellow Americans, our long national nightmare is over.” – President Gerald R. Ford, August 9, 1974.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  104. awww

    failmerica’s corrupt trashy cia sluts have a sad about leakings

    … and they’re going to the corrupt comey fbi bimbos for halps?(!)

    brilliant!

    The CIA and FBI are conducting a joint investigation into one of the worst security breaches in CIA history, which exposed thousands of top-secret documents that described CIA tools used to penetrate smartphones, smart televisions and computer systems.

    this will end swimmingly lol

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  105. Dana Perino? Outstanding. Smart lady, very well spoken, quick wit. Except it is yet another example of this Stephanopoulos revolving door of presidential staff in the news business. Spin doctors posing as no spin zone hosts.

    As long as she doesn’t pretend to be ‘doing this for the folks’, it could be good.

    Dustin (ba94b2)

  106. Heck, the women’s vote was the cure for prohibition.

    Wish they’d fixed that income tax thing.

    papertiger (c8116c)

  107. Thank God the Russians, ChiComs, etc., don’t have satellites, submarines or their own navies or they might have known where our armada really was!

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  108. Holy schnikeeeeze!

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  109. Good point coronello:
    https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/3350347/china-russia-spy-ships-us-carrier-korean-peninsula/

    And there were other pieces of that nature recently, suggesting a red October type cinfrontation

    narciso (d1f714)

  110. I always find that statement from ford, a little puzzling did he mean the deep state provoked coup attempt against a duly constituted gift had ended.

    narciso (d1f714)

  111. Clearly not, they just cut their losses, but the left was encouraged to purge more of the security services with the church and Rockefeller commissions, with the fisa restriction, the abolition of police intelligence units like boss.

    narciso (d1f714)

  112. Judge Sheila Abdus-Salaam, who was found dead in a river last week, never converted to Islam.

    That was her first ex husband’s name. She was a MINO, married to an Episcopalian.

    Update your booklets.

    It looks a lot like suicide. For political purposes they’re going to try and make hay, but her mother and brother both committed suicide on or near Easter recently (different years). She was reportedly despondent.
    Enough to give anyone the sads.

    papertiger (c8116c)

  113. Narrative uber alles tiger, one recalls three days of the condor, suggested a murderous company operation to suppress something akin to luttvaks modest proposals about seizing middle eastern oil fields

    narciso (d1f714)

  114. @113. =yawn= KNow your Foxettes: Dana ‘what Cuban Missile Crisis’ Perino is as thick as a Wyoming fence post.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  115. papertiger (c8116c) — 4/19/2017 @ 4:29 pm

    Pre Wilson the Federal government drew 70 % of it’s funds from the sale of alcohol.

    I don;t think that;s right. The Federal government made a lot from the tariff.

    Even 70% of “internal revenue” doesn’t sound right.

    Maybe.

    We see here:

    http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:1yhz3-9pWPIJ:https://mises.org/blog/prohibition-and-income-tax%2Balcohol+tax+1913&hl=en&gbv=2&ct=clnk

    Prior to the creation in 1913 of the national income tax, about a third of Uncle Sam’s annual revenue came from liquor taxes. (The bulk of Uncle Sam’s revenues came from customs duties.) Not so after 1913. Especially after the income tax surprised politicians during World War I with its incredible ability to rake in tax revenue, the importance of liquor taxation fell precipitously.

    By 1920, the income tax supplied two-thirds of Uncle Sam’s revenues and nine times more revenue than was then supplied by liquor taxes and customs duties combined. In research that I did with University of Michigan law professor Adam Pritchard, we found that bulging income-tax revenues made it possible for Congress finally to give in to the decades-old movement for alcohol prohibition…

    He even has a theory hat when income tax revenue fell during the Great Depression, liquor taxes looked better. (Of course FDR raised income tax rates very high, so that’s another way)

    Sammy Finkelman (26a080)

  116. To the military, the aircraft carrier was symbolic anyway.

    Sammy Finkelman (26a080)

  117. I’m pretty sure Donald Trump doesn’t know the difference between Australia and North Korea. Or Kansas for that matter.

    Some say Trump is a fascist. I say he doesn’t know the meaning of the word Fascist. Literally.

    Steve D (6fbc1c)

  118. @113 Dustin

    Another WY ex-pat broadcaster like Pete Williams and Curt Gowdy.

    Pinandpuller (545203)

  119. DCSCA

    One of the saddest sights I have ever seen was a guy field dressing a pronghorn on a fence post.

    It wasn’t very big is what I’m saying.

    Pinandpuller (545203)

  120. Judge Sheila’s J Date profile said she like to take long walks by the river.

    Pinandpuller (545203)

  121. “Either Trump was behaving very erratically or he didn’t know where his aircraft carrier was and where it was headed. Neither possibility inspires confidence.”
    What a poor Obama-like strawman.

    jb (b3d883)

  122. Of course the fact that carusone was recently dnc treasurer or words to that effect

    narciso (d1f714)

  123. Some say Trump is a fascist. I say he doesn’t know the meaning of the word Fascist. Literally.

    Nor do most of the people calling him that. Literally.

    Kevin M (25bbee)

  124. Looks like this is just one more Emily Litella moment. Never trust content from the NYT.

    Yeah? How’s that? This was reported all over the place. The second link above, about how it’s stupid to make false statements that your allies believe and reply upon, is from the Wall Street Journal.

    If anybody thinks they are rebutting the piece because the aircraft carrier is now headed there a week later, they didn’t read any of the stories. That was known. If anyone thinks the White House didn’t claim the aircraft carrier was going there last week, they didn’t read the stories.

    Patterico (115b1f)

  125. 131, for the greater spectrum of right radio, corporate well known brands versus smaller niche un-hip products and services (think Gold Line and Incorporate in Nevada).

    urbanleftbehind (847a06)

  126. How true! Sadly, this sort of behavior is not new when it comes to our Presidents. Why, just yesterday, on the 75 anniversary of Doolittle’s Raid, we were reminded that when asked about the departure point for Doolittle’s Raiders, FDR replied, “Shangri-La!” Here, too, you have to ask yourself, was FDR acting erratically or did he not know where it was launched from. Neither possibility inspires confidence.

    From the post that apparently nobody read:

    “At a time of emergency, disinformation could be used as a tactic, but if the U.S. president spreads disinformation in peacetime like now, it would hurt the credibility of the U.S.,” he said.

    If you think it’s genius to proclaim to our allies in the region that this aircraft carrier was headed towards North Korea when it was not, you and I part ways on what constitutes genius. Our allies in the region are on my side with this one. More clownish incompetence from this fool.

    Patterico (115b1f)

  127. He said “we’re sending an armada.” And we are. Oh, you didn’t hear the future tense? Oh, well.

    And in any event, I’m sure they wanted to be misinformative to KIm, and Kim alone. China knew, of course. Russia and the Euros knew. Probably Japan, the Indians and the Aussies. Everybody watches everybody.

    But Missile Boy and his nukes? I’d rather not tell them exactly what’s going on with the fleet.

    Kevin M (25bbee)

  128. We’re talking about a newsroom, studios, producers, directors, interns running to get coffee, writers, make up artists, and cameramen. The dude in the booth. Manning the phones.

    My question is if O’Reilly is such a serial horndog, with a history stretching back for decades, where is the video?

    He’s been chasing Laury Dhue around the cafeteria with salad tongs. Where’s the guy with the cellphone?

    Demon Rum, from Jamaica man, accounted for the majority of imports to America. Three gallons a year for every man woman and child.

    papertiger (c8116c)

  129. if the U.S. president spreads disinformation in peacetime like now,

    What makes you think this is peacetime? It might not be war, but I bet you that fleet is on a war footing. A launch from North Korea heading their way is going to get a reaction.

    Kevin M (25bbee)

  130. Three gallons a year for every man woman and child.

    That’s barely an ounce a day!

    Kevin M (25bbee)

  131. The chance that one or more nuclear weapons are used in anger in the next two months is probably higher than it has been in decades.

    Kevin M (25bbee)

  132. He said “we’re sending an armada.” And we are. Oh, you didn’t hear the future tense? Oh, well.

    What was said is being rewritten by commenters here:

    April 9:

    Amid rising tensions with North Korea, an aircraft carrier strike group led by the USS Carl Vinson was heading toward the Korean Peninsula.

    The aircraft carrier and its accompanying ships had been scheduled to leave from Singapore for port visits to Australia on Saturday, but Adm. Harry Harris, head of U.S. Pacific Command, ordered the strike group to head north toward Korean waters instead.

    “U.S. Pacific Command ordered the Carl Vinson Strike Group north as a prudent measure to maintain readiness and presence in the Western Pacific,” Cmdr. Dave Benham said in a statement.

    Instead the Vinson was heading away from North Korea.

    And in any event, I’m sure they wanted to be misinformative to KIm, and Kim alone. China knew, of course. Russia and the Euros knew. Probably Japan, the Indians and the Aussies. Everybody watches everybody.

    But Missile Boy and his nukes? I’d rather not tell them exactly what’s going on with the fleet.

    You want to not tell them, don’t tell them. Instead, he told them, and our allies, something that was false.

    Our allies don’t like it.

    Patterico (115b1f)

  133. The chance that one or more nuclear weapons are used in anger in the next two months is probably higher than it has been in decades.

    With an erratic jackass on each side with his finger on the button, I’d say that’s accurate.

    Patterico (115b1f)

  134. I remember the President specifically saying that in one of these international situations HE WOULD NOT divulge deadlines or details of operations, that’s why until I see or here different from the POTUS mouth, I’m going to assume reports of carrier fleet movements are enemy action meant to confuse and demoralize the public.

    (The media is the enemy. Yes and even more so now that O’Reilly is out.)

    papertiger (c8116c)

  135. I remember the President specifically saying that in one of these international situations HE WOULD NOT divulge deadlines or details of operations, that’s why until I see or here different from the POTUS mouth, I’m going to assume reports of carrier fleet movements are enemy action meant to confuse and demoralize the public.

    Enemy action from a U.S. Naval Commander? Check your temperature. This seems feverish even for you.

    Patterico (115b1f)

  136. Never heard of a Lt. Colonel public relations officer operating the steering wheel on a carrier fleet before.

    Cmdr. Dave, doing his real job.

    “Check your fire. Check your fire.” [YouTube]

    papertiger (c8116c)

  137. i’m old enough to remember when barack announced the precise day and time he was intending to withdraw our troops from iraq
    i’m pretty sure our enemies marked it on their calendar

    i didn’t graduate from west point, but i suppose it’s a good thing to keep our enemies guessing about our movements
    a little misinformation can be a good thing

    kind of like in football when the quarterback fakes a handoff to a running back, then throws the ball thirty yards down the field to another player

    Cruz Supporter (102c9a)

  138. Well no, he has created the expectation that kin. Would be confronted and after the earlier missile test there is expectation tie follow through, this resmbkes the psyops campaign Reagan ran against Libya adpfter the bombing of tripoli

    narciso (d1f714)

  139. @136- Bingo, Patterico.

    Picture JFK announcing plans to quarantine ‘Cuber’ and sending the task force to the Caribbean– eventually– by way of Long Island Sound, Nova Scotia and a few weeks worth of liberty ports of call in Scotland. Not worried about events going nuclear after October, ’62.

    Won’t happen.

    But just in case, keep an eye out for flyers from Home Depot and Lowe’s for a Mother’s Day sale on bomb shelters.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  140. The Carl Vinson knew where it was. The CIC didn’t.

    Another portion of strawberries and ice cream, Captain?

    “Well, isn’t that special.”- The Church Lady [Dana Carvey] SNL

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  141. The CIC never said the Carl Vinson ws going. That was the media trying their best to strip the football away from the quarterback.

    They so loved Falcons football.

    papertiger (c8116c)

  142. Col. 115
    ding.

    mg (31009b)

  143. By the way, for those who want to pay attention to facts. These days, a carrier air wing consists of 3 F-18E/F Super Hornet squadrons and 1 F-18C Hornet squadron plus supporting aircraft.

    The USAF already has four squadrons of strike and interceptor aircraft in South Korea, four squadrons of interceptors in Japan and the USN has several squadrons transiting through Japan. Add in the squadrons in Guam and Alaska that can forward deploy to South Korea or Japan in hours, and the reality is that the Carl Vinson is a relatively small increase in striking power.

    South Korea itself has approx 400 strike and interceptor aircraft, almost half of which are relatively modern.

    The only really interesting components of that task force are the Arleigh Burke class guided missile destroyers, some of which are fitted with the Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense System which is capable of interceptions of intermediate range ballistic missiles. Those ships are far more interesting than the Carl Vinson, as they could greatly expand Japan’s own handful of Aegis BMD equipped ships.

    SPQR (a3a747)

  144. This is a non-story.

    PACOM says the carrier is being re-routed from Singapore to the “Western Pacific”.

    PACOM re-routed the carrier, not the White House. Ship deployments CAN be ordered by the WH, but in this case it was the Naval Command, not the WH that ordered the change.

    The WH picked up on the press statement made by PACOM that the strike force was being redirected.

    Apparently, the actual orders were to redirect AFTER the port call to Australia. But the Press Release ISSUED BY PACOM says the strike force WAS NOT going to Australia.

    So, how is it that the WH was acting like an “erratic jackass”??? All the WH did was rely on what had been put out by the Navy in a press release.

    If, on the other hand, the WH had ordered the strike force to Australia, but publicly announced it was going to Korea, that would be a story.

    shipwreckedcrew (56b591)

  145. If you try to run from the Carl Vinson you will die tired…running in the wrong direction.

    Pinandpuller (545203)

  146. Thanks for the info SPQR.
    I hope our commanders can keep them in food and water. Unlike what happened to Dog Company.

    mg (31009b)

  147. Proud of the President for this signing. Should have been done when old man boosh was in office.
    http://www.trumpscorecard.com/veterans.html

    mg (31009b)

  148. “At a time of emergency, disinformation could be used as a tactic, but if the U.S. president spreads disinformation in peacetime like now, it would hurt the credibility of the U.S.,” he said.

    the person what said this is just a harvardtrash no-account academic japaneser what hates Trump cause that’s what sleazy arrogant harvardtrash are programmed to do

    if this is the best that CNN Anderson Coooper fake news could come up with to represent Japanesers who are troubled by Mr. Trump’s saying that “we’re sending an armada” I’d say we’re in pretty good shape

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  149. The WH picked up on the press statement made by PACOM that the strike force was being redirected.

    Tell that to the people here who claim Trump knows everything he is doing and is trying to misdirect the NORKs or something something

    So, how is it that the WH was acting like an “erratic jackass”???

    I don’t have all day. However, I did not claim that making false claims about the location of the ship was an example of his acting like an erratic jackass. I merely said he is an erratic jackass. The former claim is something you made up because you like to attack silly claims you put in others’ mouths which makes ridicule easier. What I said was:

    Either Trump was behaving very erratically or he didn’t know where his aircraft carrier was and where it was headed. Neither possibility inspires confidence.

    Which, after all the spin offered in this comment thread, remains 100% true. I am apparently the only person here who will say so.

    Patterico (9ca350)

  150. that’s not even good analysis

    Mr. Trump said “we’re sending an armada.”

    That was true then and it’s true now.

    Gogo gadget gogo! We are do armada all up in it!

    FOR FREEDOM!

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  151. Hopefully its not one whose ships are made of green wood, but with these sequesters, one never knows.

    urbanleftbehind (5eecdb)

  152. Having fun, Patterico?

    The world of the right has sure become strange.

    Simon Jester (c8876d)

  153. Patterico (9ca350) — 4/20/2017 @ 7:16 am

    Either Trump was behaving very erratically or he didn’t know where his aircraft carrier was and where it was headed. Neither possibility inspires confidence.

    Which, after all the spin offered in this comment thread, remains 100% true. I am apparently the only person here who will say so.

    I would 98% agree, with this caveat: I don’t see any reason to say he was acting erratically in any way prior to this becoming public. First he didn’t know where his aircraft carrier was, and then he acted a bit erratically, or his staff did, as happens from time to time, when Trump is caught up in a problem caused by his own words. After everyone found out, there were some erratic attempts to explain this.

    I think that he didn’t know where his aircraft carrier was. I think that is almost the only possibility. Not only did Donald Trump not know, Vice President Mike Pence didn’t know either. Maybe McMaster and Mattis knew and were covering up for Trump, without actually alerting him, or maybe just trying not to say anything to North Korea.

    Here’s waht Mattis said last week:

    http://www.businessinsider.com/mattis-uss-carl-vinson-aircraft-carrier-north-korea-war-2017-4

    Maybe somebody in the Pentagon had some idea of creating a misimpression. Only somebody – not the whole Pentagon, because it was the Pentagon itself that revealed, a few days later, where the Carl Vinson really was, and if this had been all co-ordinated, they would have had a better public relations plan.

    All this became an issue because almost everybody was taken in. Not just newspapers but also foreign countries.

    I would chalk it up mostly to the fact that he’s a new president. And to the fact that the Pentagon didn’t have any use for putting the aircraft carrier near North Korea. (If there was a remote possibility of using it for anything that was taken off the able after Trump’s meeting with Xi, in which China said it agreed the problem had reached a new level and they would help.)

    Sammy Finkelman (26a080)

  154. What’s true is simple, and it doesn’t support the conclusion that Trump not knowing is somehow exasperating.

    PACOM redirected the strike force.

    PACOM’s issued statement was inaccurate.

    The WH relied on PACOM’s statement in commenting on where the strike force was heading.

    I do not expect the Pres to know, 24/7, where each military asset of the US armed forces is at any given moment in time, and were its headed.

    When a flight of nine F-22 Raptors all depart at once from Hickam AFB on a Tuesday morning, is there an expectation that POTUS — whoever it might be — knows where they are headed??

    shipwreckedcrew (56b591)

  155. I would say if lawyers in California expect to have by the minute accountings on navy movements they should put down the newspaper and go apply for a security clearance. Otherwise they risk sounding like a child upset on finding out Santa isn’t real.

    Leon (79ca52)

  156. Sandy at 164:

    No one was up to anything. The PIO at PACOM issued a public statement saying the strike force was being redirected to the “Western Pacific” after departing Singapore, at the order of the Third Fleet Command.

    But the Order was, in actuality, that the strike force go to the Western Pacific after making a scheduled port call in Australia to conduct a pre-planned joint exercise with the Australians. When the confusion WITHIN PACOM was recognized, the port call to Australia was cancelled, and the strike force turned north.

    Simple. A bit of a snafu, with the inaccurate Naval Command press release that got picked up by the press and the WH press office.

    shipwreckedcrew (56b591)

  157. you have to remember the Navy is by far the most incompetent and silly branch of the military

    especially when they get outside their comfort zone of combating transphobia, spending hundreds of billions of dollars on useless climate change endeavors, getting captured by persians and crying like little girls, and polishing the piping on the Harvey Milk

    so c’mon they’re doing the best they can

    moving ships around for to project force in the interest of US national security isn’t exactly in their wheelhouse

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  158. What’s clear from the NYT story is that the Naval Commander who ordered the redeployment wasn’t cancelling the joint exercise with Australia — a fact not made clear in the press release issued by PACOM — only the port call in Australia that was to follow the joint exercise. So when the Strike Force was spotted heading south out of Singapore, it was on the way to the exercise, after which it was to deploy to the Sea of Japan.

    But the press release doesn’t address specifically when/where the strike force is headed and on what time schedule — which is SOP in making such announcements.

    shipwreckedcrew (56b591)

  159. happy @ 168

    LOL

    Thanks to all the commenters who fleshed out the details of this non-story.

    ThOR (c9324e)

  160. I’m Shattered!

    gbear (c97ba2)

  161. With an erratic jackass on each side with his finger on the button, I’d say that’s accurate.

    Do you actually think that the President can wake up some morning and order a nuclear strike on France? Or even North Korea? OTOH, Kim can do any damn thing he pleases.

    Kevin M (25bbee)

  162. Simple. A bit of a snafu, with the inaccurate Naval Command press release that got picked up by the press and the WH press office.

    NO! It was TRUMP!!1! intentionally misleading everyone about what he saw on the Master Battle Map he keeps on his laptop.

    http://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/president-reagan-mastermind/n9509?snl=1

    Kevin M (25bbee)

  163. Trump bad… BAD!!! Patterico good… noble…

    Colonel Haiku (b84dde)

  164. Kim Jong UN shot a video of him destroyinbg Los Angeles, Washington, D.C. and Austin, Texas (except he put Austin on the wrong place on the map.)

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-ezVhsz6XA

    After which SONY pictures made a movie about assassinating Kim Jong Un.

    After which North Korea, operating from abuilding in China, hacked SONY picturesd copied and released a lot of e-mail as well as destroying their records.

    Sammy Finkelman (26a080)

  165. The “erratic” meme has been used by liberals against Republican presidential candidates my entire life. Goldwater, Nixon, Reagan, and even Bush Jr. were all portrayed as too erratic to be trusted. By now, it’s become a bit stale.

    After three months on the job, where is the erratic behavior we were promised? On an almost daily basis, I read stories in the media that demonstrate President Trumps commitment to fulfilling his campaign promises. On Tuesday, it was his executive order on employment and the H1B visa. Yesterday, he signed an executive order that allows veterans to seek care outside the broken VA system. Today, I read that a compromise is near on Obamacare reform that satisfies the Freedom Caucus. Through these action and in countless other ways, President has demonstrated an almost compulsive dedication to honor his own words. These are not the actions of an erratic chief executive. If anything, they demonstrate just the opposite. In my now-long memory of American politics, not a single Republican president, not even Reagan, moved with such deliberation to implement conservative reforms.

    One thing I will not disagree with is that President Trump has a personal style that many find off-putting. To be frank, style is the least of my concerns – especially coming after the polished BO. Style matters to many, but should it matter to us?

    ThOR (c9324e)

  166. President Trump has saved taxpayers more than $86B in regulatory costs during his first three months in the White House, according to a new study from a conservative group.

    The American Action Forum (AAF) points to several Obama-era regulations that Trump has either rolled back on his own or with the help of Republican lawmakers using the Congressional Review Act (CRA).

    This includes the Education Department’s school accountability standards, the EPA’s waters of the United States rule and the so-called “blacklisting” rule for government contractors.

    These are just a few examples mentioned in the report. Since taking office, Trump and Congress have repealed 13 rules with the CRA. The CRA allows lawmakers to overturn recent rules they disapprove of with a simple majority in Congress, and send the action to the president for his signature.

    President Trump the Benevolent, he hath delivered us unto freedom!

    We are very blessed.

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  167. USNS Harvey Milk away under steam. With the T AO 206 arm patch.

    And theme song. [YouTube]

    papertiger (c8116c)

  168. @160– See 150. Apparently you’re not, Patterico, as I agree.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  169. Picture JFK announcing plans to quarantine ‘Cuber’ and sending the task force to the Caribbean– eventually– by way of Long Island Sound, Nova Scotia and a few weeks worth of liberty ports of call in Scotland. Not worried about events going nuclear after October, ’62.

    http://www.navy.mil/local/guantanamo/

    JFK would have just called Jack Nicholson, told him “We need you on that wall, Jack.”

    papertiger (c8116c)

  170. The USNS prefix indicates that the Harvey Milk isn’t a commissioned ship in the fleet.

    It’s a support ship, manned by civilian contractors to supply the Navy with fuel. Kind of like a floating version of a Texaco station or a commissary you would see on a military base.
    There are no sailors or military crew except maybe a contingency squad for repelling boarders when operating in hostile waters.

    https://dallascernment.wordpress.com/tag/harvey-milk/

    papertiger (c8116c)

  171. #182 The Harvey Milk pours liquids into the hull of it friends.

    LOL.

    Blah Blah (44eaa0)

  172. Patterico likely worships on the Regan alter and yet to those who paid attention (me) the criticisms of Trump are pretty much on par as those of Reagan.

    As someone pointed out, since I can remember, all Republicans are extreme, erratic war mongers who want to devour the poor, and minorities and LGBT and …..

    Derangement is derangement. Be nice for people to realize the are out of their minds.

    Blah Blah (44eaa0)

  173. Anybody who believes were actually ‘close’ to a nuclear exchange today wasn’t alive in October, 1962, when the prospect of a thermonuclear war was genuinely, actually, truly a very, very real possibility. Americans were literally scared sh-tless for 13 days. You’d do well to revisit the day-to-day reports of life at that time in that era. The U.S. military was at DEFCON 2; grocery store shelves cleared; backyard bomb shelters stocked; daily ‘duck and cover’ Civil Defense drills at schools… the worried looks in the faces of parents was vivid and apparent to kids… troop movements; alerts; CD sirens… radios and TV on all the time… it was horrid.

    This NK crap is just that: crap. Jaysus, an atomic accident by one of our own is a bigger worry.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  174. Derangement is derangement. Be nice for people to realize the are out of their minds.
    Blah Blah

    Which is why eradication of the Left should be the goal. Not detente. By all legal means necessary, destroy their lives, their families and impound their money.
    Blah Blah

    You make a compelling argument

    Davethulhu (fab944)

  175. “Americans were literally scared sh-tless for 13 days.”

    Not true… I was playing Pop Warner football and loving it. I had a cousin who was on a destroyer during the blockade and he took a couple of great pics.

    Colonel Haiku (b84dde)

  176. @187- Totally true, Haiku.

    Nice try.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  177. @187- Totally true, Haiku.

    Nice try.
    DCSCA (797bc0) — 4/20/2017 @ 4:22 pm

    Totally not true, DCSCA – thanks for playing.

    felipe (023cc9)

  178. @189. Except it was, kiddies.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  179. I direct you to your use of the word “literally.” With certain medical exceptions, people are always full of s**t.

    felipe (023cc9)

  180. @191. Speak for yourself.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  181. Oh brother.

    felipe (023cc9)

  182. Col. 187
    I was hunting wabbit.

    mg (31009b)

  183. 1962 …
    wasn’t that when some democrats believed that the soviets were the bad guys?

    Cruz Supporter (102c9a)

  184. so how many people died in paris today anyway

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  185. this is quite a picture

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  186. here’s maybe a slighty more arty one

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  187. @194. Not Bear?

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  188. *slightly*

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  189. @196- Choking on Freedom Fries?

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  190. @187- Totally true, Haiku.

    Nice try.

    DCSCA (797bc0) — 4/20/2017 @ 4:22 pm

    He ducked and he covered and they couldn’t get the little guy out from under his school desk.

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  191. 195… welcome back, Cruz supporter!

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  192. The suspect karim c, was released last year from a 29 year sentence for killing cops, back in 2000

    narciso (d1f714)

  193. lol @ 202

    Paris terrorist attack means a Le Pen victory. The French version of Democrats are crapping twinkies right now, and or trying to think of a benign excuse for a complete media blackout.

    papertiger (c8116c)

  194. 20 years, so we have a hypothetical set of incidents, posited by a Alfred crowdsourced lawfare attack, and we know much that is worth.

    narciso (d1f714)

  195. After three months on the job, where is the erratic behavior we were promised?

    Simply nowhere to be seen!!

    Patterico (115b1f)

  196. I would say if lawyers in California expect to have by the minute accountings on navy movements they should put down the newspaper and go apply for a security clearance. Otherwise they risk sounding like a child upset on finding out Santa isn’t real.

    Yes, that is such an accurate statement of the concerns expressed in this article. Truly your reading comprehension approaches that of Trump himself, or dare I say Tomi Lahren.

    Patterico (115b1f)

  197. so put your hands together for sally

    she’s the one who cared for him

    put your hands together for sally

    she was there when his luck was running thin

    she’s doing our dirty work

    she’s the only one who can.

    doing our dirty work, thirsty world

    one angry day…

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  198. (in the above lyrical metaphor the part of “Sally” is played by the beneficent President Donald J. Trump)

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  199. Do you actually think that the President can wake up some morning and order a nuclear strike on France?

    No, probably not.

    Or even North Korea?

    Yes.

    Some flimsy justification would be needed. Trumpers provide justifications after the fact for erratic shit this totally non-erratic dude does, though, so the requirement of a flimsy justification is not reassuring.

    OTOH, Kim can do any damn thing he pleases.

    That makes two of them.

    Patterico (115b1f)

  200. Patterico likely worships on the Regan alter and yet to those who paid attention (me) the criticisms of Trump are pretty much on par as those of Reagan.

    And yet Trump is not on par with Reagan.

    But because people unfairly criticized Reagan means any criticism of Trump is invalid.

    /Trumper logic

    Patterico (115b1f)

  201. Simple. A bit of a snafu, with the inaccurate Naval Command press release that got picked up by the press and the WH press office.

    “Snafu” as we know stands for Situation Normal, Trump Fully in Charge and Made No Mistakes Whatsoever

    Patterico (115b1f)

  202. Mr. Trump shows a lot of signs of being one of those rare pickles what is deferential to trusted advice from The Military.

    It’s been years and years since failmerica had one of them kind of presidents.

    (personally i think they’re all a bunch of freaky semi-literate tatted-up weirdos… but there’s a definite handful what paid for reals attention in military strategy class – those are the ones President Trump is probably listening to)

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  203. Having fun, Patterico?

    The world of the right has sure become strange.

    Not much, but fortunately at the moment an excess of work combines with a shortage of give a crap.

    Everyone in North Korea believes Kim Jong-un is a genius and is never wrong. Luckily that could never happen here

    Patterico (115b1f)

  204. this north korea thing ends badly

    we’ve know this for some time now

    don’t just stand there let’s get to it strike a pose there’s nothing to it

    TRUMP!

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  205. Thanks the other Wendy’s fabulous deal add some stirrings from Ac khan and IrAnian strategic Missile forces north Korea is likely on the verge of a first strike against major installations as far as the mariannas

    narciso (d1f714)

  206. When China decides to neutralize North Korea from behind seeking more oceanfront property and an easier land route to capitalist Seoul, the world will look the other way as Kimmy-Jong dines w/Hoffa-Jay.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  207. So much for the horsesh1t about unhappy voters… “Fully 92 percent of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents say Mr. Trump has done as well or better than they expected. Only 7 percent say he’s done worse.”

    http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Politics/2017/0418/Trump-voters-discontented-So-far-that-s-not-what-polls-say?cmpid=TW

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  208. 219
    When you have low expectations, it’s easy to do better than expected….

    FWIW he has done better than I expected, but that does not mean I think he’s doing a good job. The good stuff seems to happen bwhen he listens to the adults in the room​.

    kishnevi (1a00bd)

  209. I’m more dissapointed in congress ‘what exactly do they do there’

    http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2017/04/champs-elysees-attacker-an-Http://islamic-state-fighter-group-claims.php

    Giving the Iran deal its due is a good idea?

    narciso (d1f714)

  210. Either Trump was behaving very erratically…

    He’s always seemed volatile (I suppose a Trump supporter might say “protean”).

    So this wouldn’t be erratic by Trump standards. It’s par for the course.

    JP (f1742c)

  211. Patterico (115b1f) — 4/20/2017 @ 7:14 pm

    Everyone in North Korea believes Kim Jong-un is a genius and is never wrong.

    No, they don’t.

    Everyone in North Korea has to pretend to believe Kim Jong-un is a genius and is never wrong. And that so was his grandfather and father.

    Thinking that they actually do believe that is like believing heavily political words from children, and for the last doubters I think we know that is not a fact from some people who escaped.

    Sammy Finkelman (4591c3)

  212. Do people really not know how to spell “Reagan?”

    I mean come on.

    Dustin (ba94b2)

  213. Autocorrect is dark magic as I’ve pointed out before.

    narciso (cd7d9e)

  214. Thinking that they actually do believe that is like believing heavily political words from children, and for the last doubters I think we know that is not a fact from some people who escaped.

    Well, “everyone” was obviously exaggeration for effect — but the notion that the overwhelming majority of folks in NK hate Kim is almost certainly wrong. Read “Red Scarf Girl” for an insight into the psychology of the Chinese populace under Mao after he killed tens of millions of their fellow countrymen. There’s plenty of psychological terror but also healing helpings of adulation by brainwashed humans.

    Follow like sheep. It’s what humans do best.

    But leaders don’t really care if you’re pretending or not. So long as you toe the line.

    And you will.

    Patterico (461aac)

  215. He’s always seemed volatile (I suppose a Trump supporter might say “protean”).

    One Trump supporter in a hundred might say that. The other 99% would not know what it means let alone have it in their active vocabulary.

    And, yes, your’re right. This is par for the course.

    nk (dbc370)

  216. protein wisdom hello it’s a pun

    everybody knows that

    and i miss it sometimes

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  217. milk is a good source of protein

    if we trump voters were really smart, we would have voted for hillary

    she’s so smart, she can’t bother to learn how to use email
    she even hired people to wipe her computer screen with a cloth because she was too busy thinking deep thoughts to do it herself
    (probably an undocumented worker who’s registered to vote)

    Cruz Supporter (102c9a)

  218. i’m pro-teen
    in some cultures, teenagers are hated
    but i don’t hate them
    they’re the future of america!

    we should be nice to them when they’re teenagers so they won’t beat us once we become old and infirmed

    Cruz Supporter (102c9a)

  219. milk is so good

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  220. I just come by to check the temperature of the Trump Derangement Syndrome from time to time.

    “Fully 92 percent of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents say Mr. Trump has done as well or better than they expected. Only 7 percent say he’s done worse.”

    I check on the 7% from time to time.

    Mike K (f469ea)

  221. The 7% though is probably proxy for Tuesday Group demographics which skew everything.

    urbanleftbehind (5eecdb)

  222. Jefferey Dahmer did better than I expected. He didn’t rape, kill and eat anyone in prison.

    Like kishnevi said above, the expectations for Trump were below zero. Selling out his campaign promises about China, in exchange for Chinese trademark protection for his daughter’s schlock, is a relief when the expectation was nuclear war.

    nk (dbc370)

  223. mr happyfeet, tuna fish is a good source of protein, too
    it makes for a nice substitute topping on a big salad when you’re worried that too much of the creamy blue cheese dressing might contain a week’s worth of calories

    Cruz Supporter (102c9a)

  224. But leaders don’t really care if you’re pretending or not. So long as you toe the line.

    They’ll start to care the moment they realise just how many people have been pretending all along.

    Rhetoric aside, a lot of these dictators cast in the revolutionary mould end up pretty paranoid, well before being ushered into codgerdom by some Young Turk successor (or something else). The fear that someone was merely feigning the party line, or might even just be thinking about feigning, helps to explain the fearsome and intrusive internal security in such states.

    The particular regimes cited above made (make, in the case of the DPRK) a ritual of encouraging/brutalising children to publicly condemn their own parents and other family members for political ‘heresies,’ real and imagined.

    It wasn’t enough that people were turned into sheep. Some of those sheep have to be culled on a regular basis pour encourager les autres.

    JP (f1742c)

  225. I noticed in the DPRK’s march of the proletariat army a huge amount of them would shake their empty fist in the air in unison.

    Don’t have enough guns to arm them, or Dear Leader got nervous with that many armed with potential veto power?

    papertiger (c8116c)

  226. 238, you didnt see the opening scene of Enemy at the Gates (1999 or 2000)?
    You will go in pairs, when your partner is dead, you may have his rifle

    urbanleftbehind (5eecdb)

  227. Patterico, that the Kim mob family feels the need to execute their enemies with things like standing them in a field and firing mortars at them, or executing them with 30mm anti-aircraft cannon on rifle ranges, leads one to think that the Kim mob thinks they are not loved.

    SPQR (a3a747)

  228. “Truly your reading comprehension approaches that of Trump himself, or dare I say Tomi Lahren.”

    My reading comprehension is fine, it’s you that don’t understand.

    You are aware of a tiny fraction of the Trump administrations military intelligence, strategy, and complicating factors, and decided he is erratic or clueless. I would suggest, with all due respect, it may be, just a possibility, YOU may be clueless.

    Hey, remember when FDR declared war on Japan, and then the first thing he did was send American troops to Africa?

    Geez, what an erratic fool!

    Leon (79ca52)

  229. Patterico (461aac) — 4/21/2017 @ 6:55 am

    Read “Red Scarf Girl” for an insight into the psychology of the Chinese populace under Mao after he killed tens of millions of their fellow countrymen.

    It’s only the younger generation, born after the dictatorship staarted that can think this way, so taht takes fifteen to 20 years, and even then it’s probably ony a fraction. Nobody knows what the other person is thinking. I also think only acertain kind of person can write such abook – this is a person who held asomewhat high rank, but they are not evil because they believed.

    Theer are two lies that people cannot be told:

    1) Lies about themselves

    2) To aconserable extent, also lies that contradict themselves.

    In North Korea now people know more since the mid-1990s famine.

    Theer were things people did beleive. They didn’t have any idea how people lived in the world outside (sandard of living)

    It could also be they tthink they will be killed if they defect.

    Sammy Finkelman (4591c3)

  230. He’s the one guy, the CINC, who could make it all true…

    Steve57 (0b1dac)

  231. Tomorrow, Wednesday, starting at 3 PM EDT, there will be a briefing about North Korea and U.S. policy toward it at the White House to which all 100 United States Senators have been invited, where they will hear from Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis, Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Joseph Dunford.

    No word on whether President Donald Trump will be there.

    They are also planning some kind of a briefing of House members.

    Sammy Finkelman (6f9f42)

  232. I must have missed when this policy was rescinded. At any rate, it sure didn’t last long:

    1/29/2017
    New Policy on Comments on Posts Bearing the Word “Trump”
    Filed under: General — Patterico @ 11:05 pm
    If the word “Trump” appears in a post, I’ll be commenting at The Jury Talks Back. I won’t be commenting here. This policy will remain in effect for the foreseeable future, until further notice.

    This is for two reasons.

    First, I am trying to promote commentary at The Jury Talks Back. The comments section there tends to be a little less lively than here, in part out of habit (we’re all used to commenting at the main site), and in part because I still lack a Recent Comments section there, which means it takes more effort to maintain a conversational flow. But I like the idea of the ethic at The Jury Talks Back, which is that there is a strict adherence to civil conversation. There are no personal attacks and no strawman arguments. The rule is that you behave the same way you would if I had invited you to my living room. I’d like to see more people participating there — and if the prospect of discussing the post with the blog proprietor is a plus (and hey, maybe it’s not), then I can help increase the volume of comments there.

    Second, any post with the word “Trump” in it inevitably devolves at some point into personal commentary, usually accusing me of bias against Trump. Even when this sort of commentary comes from only one or two people, I find it irritating and it puts me in a bad mood. It’s pretty much impossible to defend against vague accusations like that. I keep wanting to discuss the actual issue I blogged about, but the issue gets lost when people insist on complaining about me and my views about Trump on a personal level. It’s not fun for me, and if an aspect of the blogging experience is not fun for me, then it makes me want to change it.

    And for now, that means commenting at The Jury Talks Back when a post contains the word “Trump.”

    People can still challenge my criticism of Trump there. They just can’t criticize me on a personal level while they do so. For now, that’s something I need. I hope readers understand.

    School Marm (5999c1)

  233. So Mitty’s toilet paper wiper Chaffetz wants to impeach Trump. Bring it on you uni-party mormon freak.

    mg (31009b)

  234. Firing a hack in the FBI – no, no, no…
    Obama giving millions to Iran so they can develop weapons to kill us – Yes , yes, yes says Chaffetz. The republicans should have impeached Obama. JHC I despise republicans.

    mg (31009b)

  235. So it turns out admiral Harris didn’t want to alert the enemy that the Vinson could not make the then in time.

    narciso (81386f)

  236. It’s one thing for the enemy’s scouts (airplanes and satellites, too) to see you coming over the horizon and another for them to have three weeks notice that you’re on the way. “Confusion to our enemies!” (I think that might have been said before.) I seriously doubt that is what Trump intended, but it turned out that way.

    nk (dbc370)


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