Arab States Cut Ties with Qatar
[guest post by JVW]
The governments of Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Bahrain, and the United Arab Emirates have severed (probably not a good word to use in this context) ties with Qatar (which all the hip Westerners in the know pronounce as “Gutter”) over that country’s ties to Iran and the Muslim Brotherhood. Wealthy Qatari citizens have been accused of clandestinely financing groups opposed to the rulings parties in both Egypt and Saudi Arabia and worldwide Wahhabism in general, stepping into the void left when Saudi Arabia begin cracking down on its citizens in the aftermath of the World Trade Center attacks. The four nations are closing their embassies and diplomatic offices in Qatar, and have told Qatari expats that they must return home within two weeks. Saudi Arabia, Qatar’s only shared land border, is closing off traffic to and from the peninsula nation.
Qatar, home to the Al-Jazeera news network, is scheduled to be the host of the 2022 FIFA World Cup, a bid they clearly won entirely on the square without the slightest hint of bribery. Qatar is also home to 10,000 U.S. troops. The Qatari army had been working alongside of Saudi troops to help quell the violence in Yemen, but Riyadh has announced that those joint operations will cease and Qatari troops must leave Yemen.
Rex Tillerson and the administration have their work cut out for them.
– JVW
This is a fascinating development and it’s hard for me not to think Trump’s recent trip to the Middle East played a role in this. Isolating Iran and it’s supporters is a good step. I expect blowback. I hope Trump is ready.
DRJ (15874d) — 6/5/2017 @ 8:42 amBut this could also be a Middle East power struggle between Islamic factions. If so, there isn’t much Trump can do given his black-and-white approach to Muslims. It will be up to Tillerson because t diplomacy has its limits, especially in the Middle East.
DRJ (15874d) — 6/5/2017 @ 8:49 amCNN getting absolutely pwned on their excuse that herding fake ‘Anti-ISIS’ Muslim protestors in London, giving them signs and stage directions was just for a better camera angle.
https://mobile.twitter.com/brianstelter/status/871523514330873857
harkin (77a37c) — 6/5/2017 @ 8:56 amthe perverted saudi royal crown prince screwed the pooch when he glutted the oil market in 2014, devastating the kingdom’s finances just as obama was showering billions on Iran
sucks to be him
happyfeet (28a91b) — 6/5/2017 @ 9:08 am4. “the perverted saudi royal crown prince screwed the pooch”
US frackers also took a rolled-up newspaper to the pooch.
harkin (36810b) — 6/5/2017 @ 9:22 amsorta
pervboy introduced some creative destruction: forced frackers to clean up balance sheets and become more cost-efficient
pervy did frackers a tremendous service really
wholly on accident
happyfeet (28a91b) — 6/5/2017 @ 9:27 amQatar is also the US headquarters of Central Command, which is the location after we moved out of Saudi. The Saudi move was in response to complaints by the Saudis about US women soldiers not obeying Saudi religious restrictions on dress and driving, etc.
The situation probably figured in the 2003 US invasion of Iraq as leaving Saudi after the 9.11 attack would have looked like we were being run out of the Middle East,
It is sort of “out of the frying pan into the fire” however as the Qataris are at least as radical as the Saudis.
Mike K (f469ea) — 6/5/2017 @ 9:33 amThe world temperature is rising. It will be a miracle if we avoid some type of world war. (Other than the insurgency going on now in world capitals like London, that is.)
Patricia (5fc097) — 6/5/2017 @ 9:58 amActually probably worse the real black Prince who had sheltered Ksm in their water department who employed ali Sufan the gitmo defamer also fundraise for jihadists from Libya to syria
narciso (d1f714) — 6/5/2017 @ 9:59 amThe times call for a clear thinking Texan like James Baker. Meh… on second thought.
Colonel Haiku (6dd99d) — 6/5/2017 @ 10:11 amThe doha crew tried to leak emails to the puffington re uae coordination but they were cheesed in the process.
narciso (d1f714) — 6/5/2017 @ 10:14 amHe only got the travel ban right
http://m.jpost.com/app/article/494891
narciso (d1f714) — 6/5/2017 @ 10:53 ami wonder if the “kidnapping” was just a contrivance for so these qatar pigs could fund their terrorist pals
happyfeet (28a91b) — 6/5/2017 @ 11:41 amHosting the World Cup in Qatar is a ridiculous idea. The country has a population of two million; it cannot *possibly* use all of the stadiums that have to be built for it. But worse yet — it’s physically dangerous (because too hot) to hold the world cup in Qatar in June/July. The original bid claimed the stadia would all be domed and air conditioned, which if true is a fantastic waste — but nobody really believes it and consensus is that it’s gonna have to be moved to November/December, which will royally hose the club leagues.
aphrael (e0cdc9) — 6/5/2017 @ 12:45 pmThe CNN report includes the Iranian reaction
kishnevi (682c47) — 6/5/2017 @ 1:19 pmhttps://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2017/06/05/middleeast/saudi-bahrain-egypt-uae-qatar-terror/index.html
I had thought that maybe the abdication of the emir Sheik Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani (in June 2013, at the age of 61) and the resignation of the Prime Minister/Foreign Minister, Sheik Hamad bin Jassim al-Thani might indicate a change of policy, but it soon looked like that wasn’t really the case. (Sheik Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani had himself assumed power in a bloodless palace coup in 1995)
Qatar tries to be on all sides. The United States, but it also probably was instrumental n the creation of ISIS. It founded and covertly runs Al Jazeera. It’s been particularly close to HAmas.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/25/world/middleeast/qatar-transfer-of-power.html
Sammy Finkelman (f46c1b) — 6/5/2017 @ 1:32 pmWelcome to Iraq, where the hunter becomes the hunted.
What, they have a fenced reserve with some of Saddam’s cousins running loose?
Pinandpuller (3066d3) — 6/5/2017 @ 1:39 pmAny bets on the first cabinet member whom Trump will fire (or ask to resign)? Perhaps a parlay bet? Or one on timing?
I’m sure there have been times when a client has more comprehensively embarrassed, undercut, and marginalized his own lawyer in the way that the POTUS embarrassed the Attorney General today with his deranged tweets about the Justice Department. But I can’t think of one offhand.
I didn’t watch “The Apprentice” or any of the rest of his reality TV dreck, so can anyone tell me from past observation: Does Trump generally fire on a LIFO or FIFO basis? “LIFO” might be Jeff Sessions’ best hope. Did he surrender a Senate seat for a six-month cabinet office?
****
Re Qatar:
@ DRJ (#1 & #2): It looks to me, from my amateur perspective, like a gang-leadership consolidation move by the Saudis with the allies in their sway — all of them still basking in the afterglow of Trump’s visit. If it was a Saudi (or other non-Qatar Arab state’s) initiative in the first place, then I expect the Saudi intelligence people would have, at a minimum, given an advance heads-up to their American intelligence counterparts.
But I can also imagine that this might have been on a list of proposals that Trump took to them in that conference, if it’s a situation where our intelligence could persuasively influence and alarm the participants at the conference of the need to act decisively in disciplining a fellow Arab state (one with legendarily sharp elbows itself, “new money” by the standards of the Sheiks, perhaps). If so, we might hear something further and soon about U.S. involvement or cooperation in other diplomatic and, especially, financial sanctions, with an expectation that such combined efforts can induce changes in Qatar’s future actions.
I’m reminded of the backchannel deal between Hoover and the Mafia during WW2 — the mobs would act as monitors and informants for the FBI if they caught any whiff of Nazis on the docks or other areas to which their rackets extended, and for the duration the FBI would mostly look the other way as the mobs did their own business. And the feds also turned a mostly-blind eye to inter-Family squabbles — so long as “civilians” weren’t hurt in the cross-fire.
Alas, too often, the Saudis’ business-as-usual has included their own direct and indirect funding of radicals. Will they put their own House in order too? That would be a neat trick, if anyone’s diplomacy could move them in that direction.
Fighting fire with firebombs is doable, sometimes. It has risks. I hope they’re being avoided to the extent possible and mitigated to the extent they’re unavoidable.
Beldar (fa637a) — 6/5/2017 @ 1:48 pmmake of this what you will
happyfeet (28a91b) — 6/5/2017 @ 1:48 pm14 – “Hosting the World Cup in Qatar is a ridiculous idea”
Holy cr*p forced labor and already 1,200 reported deaths to construction laborers (mostly from India, Bangladesh and Nepal) who are not allowed to leave.
http://www.news.com.au/sport/football/world-cup/come-and-camp-in-the-desert-qatar-addresses-concerns-about-2022-world-cup/news-story/d3b484bc6878b5fb2ed5efdcfe16d31c
And to top it off:
“Alcohol will be banned from inside the stadiums for the World Cup, as well as not being allowed in the streets or public places.”
And asking overflow fans to camp in the desert….
What’s not to like?
harkin (bd4dc3) — 6/5/2017 @ 1:52 pmSomebody tell me again about what a great job did with the Gorsuch nomination. I’ll agree again.
And then I’ll point you to the uncomfortable statistics assembled by Jim Geraghty regarding the absolutely miserable pace at which Trump is bothering to select replacements for Obama’s political appointees throughout the Executive and Judicial Branches. Sample:
The business world equivalent of this would be having your accounts receivable processing people leave incoming payments on the corner of a desk for about six months. It is unjustifiable and inexplicable as anything but managerial incompetence.
Beldar (fa637a) — 6/5/2017 @ 1:55 pmthe uae was taking the lead on isolating Doha, that was the reason for the email dump, to the puffington,
narciso (d1f714) — 6/5/2017 @ 1:55 pmEverything repeats itself in relationships between the Arab world and the west. This story reads like the beginning of a chapter in Michael B. Oren’s excellent 2008 book, Power, Faith, and Fantasy: America in the Middle East: 1776 to the Present.
Beldar (fa637a) — 6/5/2017 @ 2:10 pm18. Beldar (fa637a) — 6/5/2017 @ 1:48 pm
I don’t think he’s going to fire anybody quickly, not even major people on he white House staff although that might happen in September or later. (One late hire quit)
With Cabinet members I don’t except any until at least the middle of next year, say June, 2018 and it could be anone, but is most likely to be a minor cabinet post. If any member of the cabinet gets into big trouble with Congress, that’s also possible.
One thing limiting firings is the difficulty Trump is having in finding people. A few people can’t pass the ethics scrutiny, and many are declining because it looks like his administration is in trouble and maybe won’t last (it doesn’t really look that but superficially it can, and we see things the networks pre-empting programming to broadcast Comey’s testimony on Thursday, s – they didn’t do this since Watergate – I think with Iran contra they rotated which network broadcast it, and with the Clinton impeachment we got very little except on cable..
They also are declining because they don’t want to get tainted – it might be that anyone wo takes an appointment in the Trump Administration might have difficultly getting appointed in anotehr administration.
In any case, Trump’s having trouble filling the post of FBI Director.
Sammy Finkelman (f46c1b) — 6/5/2017 @ 2:11 pmHrmpf. Errata for #21 above, which ought to have begun: “Somebody tell me again about what a great job Trump did with the Gorsuch nomination. I’ll agree again.”
I don’t think that’s a Freudian slip, but would I know if it were?
Beldar (fa637a) — 6/5/2017 @ 2:17 pmThe Democrats are slow walking every appointment. The experience of the Army Secretary is also probably keeping others from volunteering. Trump has no farm team waiting to step in and must recruit. I would prefer he let every Obama appointee go even if the offices are empty.
Mike K (f469ea) — 6/5/2017 @ 2:18 pmIs this something new, or something I missed? Or do you mean this?
(which is only Trump advising legal strategy, which he might want to have for political reasons)
He could have asked his Attorney General why they were doing this.
Maybe he thinks it’s like a criminal investigation and he’s not supposed to interfere.
There’s a very good question, to ask about that travel ban, by the way. The ostensible grounds for it was to give the Department of Homeland Security 90 days to develop a better (and also more precise) vetting plan, or to do decide what parts should remain permanent.
Well, although he didn’t get what he wanted, he did get the 90 days. So the whole thing should be discarded. Because he should by now sign something else.
You could still maintain an appeal because of the legal questions, but for that yyou’d want the better one.
Of course there’s the argument that only a functional ban would motivate countries to improve but the only one of the original 7 countries with a good relationship with the United States was Iraq, and that was taken off the list already with the second version.
It seems like DHS has not been working on a revised version of the travel ban – the whole process was frozen when the courts put in those injunctions. But if this was real, and based on real need, and not politically motivated, you would think they would do that. (courts have invalidated it on the grounds that it is anti-Moslem, which it isn’t, but has a right to be, but not on the grounds it is politically motivated and not the president’s best judgment.)
Trump just wants to say he’s right about everything, even if the only reason he took a position in the first place was political. And he’s only trying to be consistent back to 2015. He signed the whole thing in the first place to appear to be carrying out a campaign pledge.
Sammy Finkelman (f46c1b) — 6/5/2017 @ 2:21 pmAnother opinion on TRump.
Mike K (f469ea) — 6/5/2017 @ 2:21 pmwhich part though, eddy negotiating the compact with ibn saud, Copeland’s adventures with Nasser, neither turned out well
narciso (d1f714) — 6/5/2017 @ 2:23 pmBeldar (fa637a) — 6/5/2017 @ 1:55 pm
Magazines do that – well maybe for 3 or 4 months – with unsolicited orders that come in through third parties that are not authorized agents. I;m learning about magazine subscriptions.
I’m going to get a refund from the people in Spring, Texas who solicited the order, (sounds like avery small company although they’ve been in business more than five years) after more than three months since the last of two payments, and after it was disputed and undisputed, and if the order(s) ever get put through, then I’ll pay again. They maybe are honest enough to actually refund it. They say after I disputed it the first time, processing stopped, and they only passed on teh order after the second oftwo payments was made.
Sammy Finkelman (f46c1b) — 6/5/2017 @ 2:29 pmTrump didn’t identify and vet appointees during his transition so he wasn’t able to name then when he took office, which is what he should have been doing. Instead he was celebrating his win and firing his transition staff, so they had to start over after the inauguration. He’s inept and it shows.
DRJ (15874d) — 6/5/2017 @ 2:48 pmThe FT reported that this story all starts with member of the Qatar royal family on a “hunting trip” to Iraq, and ends with $1 billion ransom spread between Iran and various Shia militias.
Neo (d1c681) — 6/5/2017 @ 2:49 pmyou mean when they throwing the grishenko garbage and the dirty dossier, when apparently even ghcq was a on a bogus snipe hunt, when he likely caught a tip about the whereabouts of raymi, which turned out to be time sensitive,
narciso (d1f714) — 6/5/2017 @ 3:00 pmRex Tillerson and the administration have their work cut out for them.
Swell.
“In thirteen weeks, I can have Arabia in chaos.” – T.E. Lawrence [Peter O’Toole] ‘Lawrence of Arabia’ 1962
DCSCA (797bc0) — 6/5/2017 @ 3:04 pmonce mcconnell got his corrupt pig wife confirmed he took a month-long vacation
what does this tell you
happyfeet (28a91b) — 6/5/2017 @ 3:10 pmonce mcconnell got his corrupt pig wife confirmed he took a month-long vacation
what does this tell you
That Trump is a demented nutjob who doesn’t know which way is up half the time?
nk (dbc370) — 6/5/2017 @ 3:36 pmno that is not the proper inference
happyfeet (28a91b) — 6/5/2017 @ 3:38 pmHe appointed her. What did he get for it? Isn’t he supposed to be tremendous at making huge deals?
nk (dbc370) — 6/5/2017 @ 3:39 pm> the networks pre-empting programming to broadcast Comey’s testimony on Thursday, s – they didn’t do this since Watergate
They did for Iran-Contra. I know; I was home as a twelve-year old that summer, and I watched htem.
aphrael (e0cdc9) — 6/5/2017 @ 3:45 pmOnly a demented nutjob would go and tweet out publicly that his lawyers are not doing what he wants them to do in the Supreme Court. It is simply not a rational thing to do.
Unless he’s playing a double game: He sold out the travel ban to Arabs for emoluments to his gangster family, and he’s just going through the motions for the benefit of the deplorables; and blaming his lawyers and the Courts, when he is the one throwing the case.
nk (dbc370) — 6/5/2017 @ 3:46 pmMcConnell got Gorsuch confirmed with no help from Trump or the Democrats. It was Trump who took the vacation. Golf every weekend and tweets every day.
DRJ (15874d) — 6/5/2017 @ 3:47 pmhe IS tremendous
he’s our plum lolly and our fluffy fluffy buttermilk pancakes both
he stands on the shoulders of giants!
and for this he will not apologize
he brings a vigor to the office what has been sadly lacking for generations
he’s Donald Trump!
and he’s just getting warmed up
happyfeet (28a91b) — 6/5/2017 @ 3:47 pmYeah, I liked him a lot better when he was 8,000 miles away from the White House.
nk (dbc370) — 6/5/2017 @ 3:48 pmEither Trump doesn’t care about the travel ban anymore or he thinks hes going to lose athe the Supreme Court. Either way, hes a quitter. Even an idiot would know not to do what he’s doing.
DRJ (15874d) — 6/5/2017 @ 3:49 pmwho believes pervy Mitt Rommney or Meghan’s cowardly torture victim daddy would’ve withdrawn us from that ridiculous Paris Agreement?
not me that’s for sure
happyfeet (28a91b) — 6/5/2017 @ 3:59 pmoops pervy Mitt *Romney* i mean
happyfeet (28a91b) — 6/5/2017 @ 4:00 pmIf he sticks to Juncker’s four-year timetable for withdrawal, it is meaningless. I hope he doesn’t. I also hope I’ll find a Ferrari in my driveway with Scarlet Johansson in the passenger seat when I go out for a cigarette. Both hopes of roughly equal value.
nk (dbc370) — 6/5/2017 @ 4:04 pmHis real triumph in Paris, was that he showed up with a wife that’s as many years younger than him as Macron’s wife is as many years older than Macron. That’s what got Macron’s culottes in a twist.
Paris being 5,000 miles away from the White House, I liked him unreservedly for it.
nk (dbc370) — 6/5/2017 @ 4:09 pmhe just dropped the sucker, Thursday, Pruitt will pour the roundup in the right places, and this son of a malice, junker, will get his due,
narciso (d1f714) — 6/5/2017 @ 4:10 pmno it is so meaningful
it just means it’s finalized in his second term, but what does that mean?
i will tell you
he gets to keep this embarrassing Paris Agreement albatross around to hang around batty-assed liz warren’s neck in the 2020 campaign
happyfeet (28a91b) — 6/5/2017 @ 4:11 pmAstonishing apologist for Putin: Carter Page on MSNBC’s ‘Hardball’.
DCSCA (797bc0) — 6/5/2017 @ 4:12 pmif i were as smart as trump I’d be a BILLIONAIRE!
happyfeet (28a91b) — 6/5/2017 @ 4:13 pmoh yes, red squaw’s she persisted rant, recycling a bogus claim from 1986.
narciso (d1f714) — 6/5/2017 @ 4:13 pmwe gotta get out while we’re young cause
trump’s like us
and baby we were born to run against batty-assed carbon pervert Liz Warren in 2020
happyfeet (28a91b) — 6/5/2017 @ 4:19 pmChoosing rich parents is the smartest thing a person can do; and being born is hard work too.
nk (dbc370) — 6/5/2017 @ 4:23 pmwe pretend this is an academic exercise, it’s not, we don’t know how many from those 6 countries, have come in the interim, reality has a way of re entering the picture with a loud thud,
narciso (d1f714) — 6/5/2017 @ 4:27 pm39. I taped the Iran contra hearings and still have them on VHS cassettes. I think that’s what’s iin a cabinet filled with VCR tapes that’s underneath book shelves.
But, if I remember correctly, they were only broadcast on one network at a time. One day CBS had it, another day NBC and another day ABC. PBS had it every day. But the Senate Watergate hearings in 1973 were carried on all 3 networks and I think later the House Judiciary Committee debate (or speeches) in 1974.
But before that – Kefauver 1951, McCarthy 1954 – whatever big thing that was on television , and presidential speeches to the nation was everywhere, although taht was before my time.
Nowadays maybe you only get state of the Union messages and Inauguration speeches on all the networks. Nixon maybe tired them out with all his addresses to the nation and presidents nowadays don’t even really try that. Of course, Trump’s got Twitter.
I’m not sure about Comey – I don’t know if every network will carry his testimony live or if it is just CBS. I see now ABC will do it too – I don’t know about NBC.
Sammy Finkelman (f46c1b) — 6/5/2017 @ 4:28 pm@44. DRJ… strawberries are in season. 😉
“Has it ever occurred to you that our captain might be unbalanced?” – Lt. Tom Keefer [Fred MacMurray] ‘The Caine Mutiny’ 1954
DCSCA (797bc0) — 6/5/2017 @ 4:30 pmcomey’s corrupt and he has no integrity
he conspired with sleazy torture victim John McCain to propagate misinformation aimed at taking down a president
he’s just another cowardly fbi lowlife
happyfeet (28a91b) — 6/5/2017 @ 4:32 pmIt’s not that the roof doesn’t need fixing, narciso, it’s that the roofer doesn’t seem to know how to stand up the ladder.
nk (dbc370) — 6/5/2017 @ 4:32 pmbop til you drop in the hot city burn the candle burn it bright Mr. Trump
like a tiger in the night
dangerous and predatory
happyfeet (28a91b) — 6/5/2017 @ 4:35 pmDid you guys know that all Presidential appointments start with an FBI investigation; and all judicial nominations are followed by vetting by the DOJ? Did you?
nk (dbc370) — 6/5/2017 @ 4:37 pmignoring the bloody law, while bodies are stacking up like cordwood in so many venues, that is my definition of unbalanced,
narciso (d1f714) — 6/5/2017 @ 4:37 pmi did not know that Mr. nk
but i’m profoundly ignorant of a great many things
happyfeet (28a91b) — 6/5/2017 @ 4:39 pm44. DRJ (15874d) — 6/5/2017 @ 3:49 pm
Trump cares about the politics, or rather, being able to maintain that he is and was right.
So everything that happens is proof he was right, and he went back and said yes, it was a travel ban, although his lawyers had been arguing (for what reason I don’t know) that it wasn’t. (He didn’t say it was a Muslim ban, and has never said that. He dropped that within a month of when he first proposed it. I don’t know how this is not supposed to be a travel [to the USA] ban for some people. Maybe because now it’s not 100% – but it always could be waived.)
The thing is, for Trump the best thing for him politically is to lose at the Supreme Court, but go down fighting. It’s not good policy, so he needs to escape it, and if it rendered null and void many people will not care too much about it and may pay attention to other things eventually. But the people he has demagogued on this will appreciate his not backing down.
Whether he’s calculated that all the way through, I don’t know. It may just be instinct.
Sammy Finkelman (f46c1b) — 6/5/2017 @ 4:40 pm62.
Since the Truman Administration, I think.
I didn’t know this. I thought maybe they just used ir used to use, the ABA. But isn’t all this before any actual nomination gets made? (While the president is considering someone)
Bernard Kerik got tripped up by the FBI investigation. I am sure some people decline to be considered for reasons many people may never suspect, and they never know what standards are causing people to not be appointed.
Sammy Finkelman (f46c1b) — 6/5/2017 @ 4:45 pmAll the people defending and explaining Trump’s decision on Paris didn’t know what to say. They didn’t answer if Trump believed in climate change. What they should have said it wasn’t necessary to reach that issue to make a decision.
Trump maintained it was unfair to the USA (carried the potential of shifting some manufacturing from the U.S. to some other countries, which does nothing for CO2 emissions) and that on its own terms, it would amount to nothing. He didn’t need to consider anything further.
Sammy Finkelman (f46c1b) — 6/5/2017 @ 4:50 pmbecause they never want to get to the point, even mad mullah Hansen was against it, because it was useless, I think that was Nicaragua’s complaint, it’s like Richard riehle trying to reason with the consultants at initech, who seem oblivious to his situation,
narciso (d1f714) — 6/5/2017 @ 4:54 pmThe ABA is purely voluntary and advisory.
nk (dbc370) — 6/5/2017 @ 5:01 pmThe dinosaurs became extinct because they didn’t have a space program. And if we become extinct because we don’t have a space program, it’ll serve us right! — Laurence van Cott Niven
(But if he doesn’t really want to write anymore, he should not lend his name to Tor’s house writers. “His” latest with Steven Barnes, “The Seascape Tattoo”, which claims to be a “The Magic Goes Away” book, is horrible. Think of “Conan The Destroyer” as staged by Los Feliz Daycare. (Click link at own risk of sanity.)
nk (dbc370) — 6/5/2017 @ 5:10 pmLiberal Democrats… when they’re not undermining law enforcement, they’re undermining our immigration laws and border security. And when they’re not doing that, they are busy undermining our republic in other ways.
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 6/5/2017 @ 5:34 pmAstonishing occurrence on MSLSD’s Hardball: Chris Matthews eschews a simple tingle up his leg and inserts his head up his ass.
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 6/5/2017 @ 5:38 pm44 shorter DRJ: Donald Trump should be impeached.
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 6/5/2017 @ 5:40 pmBoy, the Trump hate is back full force,
Mike K (f469ea) — 6/5/2017 @ 5:40 pmTucker knocks another out of the park
https://mobile.twitter.com/FoxNews/status/871885550503866368
narciso (d1f714) — 6/5/2017 @ 6:04 pmMike K (f469ea) — 6/5/2017 @ 2:21 pm
Actually, the cockpit was stormed on Election Day 2016, and we can now only hope that the new pilot knows what he’s doing, despite continually looking like he doesn’t know what he’s doing.
kishnevi (7bc26d) — 6/5/2017 @ 6:53 pmcontinually looking like he doesn’t know what he’s doing.
Your opinion. Opinions are like a**holes. Everybody has one.
Mike K (f469ea) — 6/5/2017 @ 6:54 pm77
kishnevi (7bc26d) — 6/5/2017 @ 7:06 pm😁
Fair enough.
@ Mike K (#74): What’s the boundary, please, between “Trump hate” and pointing out that he’s doing stupid things that objectively constitute a bad job?
I’m certainly, deliberately, guilty of the latter. I wish someone could induce him to do better.
Please defend him on the merits if you can. Ad hominem, even directed generally, persuades virtually no one of anything, but it does cause hard feelings.
Beldar (fa637a) — 6/5/2017 @ 7:30 pmIs it possible #NeverTrump don’t know what they are doing or who they collude with?
Nahhh….
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 6/5/2017 @ 7:30 pm@ Col. Haiku (#44): It annoys me when you put words in DRJ’s mouth. Do you have so little regard for her and her opinions?
Beldar (fa637a) — 6/5/2017 @ 7:31 pmSorry, meant your #65, referring to her #44, Col. H.
Beldar (fa637a) — 6/5/2017 @ 7:32 pmLooking back over 49 years, you see any really wise moves in the middle east, I’ll count camp David accords. The Afghan war began with the poison seed of is and general intelligence picking the players, the Iraq card, the gulf war etc etc
narciso (d1f714) — 6/5/2017 @ 7:39 pmIf I were the Solicitor General defending the Executive of the United States of America in the performance of my sworn duty as his lawyer — without regard to the then-current holder of that post; if lightning fatally struck him at midnight, my duty would transfer instantly to the Veep as next in line for the constitutional office — I could make a pretty good legal argument that the SCOTUS should ignore every single word that’s come from the then-current POTUS’ mouth or Twitter feed, and that his subjective intention and motivation on, for example, the “travel ban” is absolutely constitutionally irrelevant.
And given the way in which the Fourth and Ninth Circuits have written their opinions ruling his executive orders to be unconstitutional, that would be a very potent argument, jurisprudentially. It amounts to an argument that “I win because you, the SCOTUS, have no place under the separation of powers to be second-guessing my discretionary judgments on this topic, regardless of anything I may say, and regardless of what’s secretly in my head when I do it.”
How much harder is it to make that argument when your client makes the kind of idiotic, self-destructive, infantile tweets that Pres. Trump did this morning?
Now for his position to prevail in the SCOTUS, any judge wishing to uphold it must first write his best “Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain” pitch.
This is presidential malpractice. It’s indefensible, but I seriously challenge any of you to try.
Beldar (fa637a) — 6/5/2017 @ 7:39 pm(While the man behind the curtain is tweeting, “PAY ATTENTION TO ME!”)
Beldar (fa637a) — 6/5/2017 @ 7:41 pmOT
The leakers seem to be at it again.
https://theintercept.com/2017/06/05/top-secret-nsa-report-details-russian-hacking-effort-days-before-2016-election/
I think it’s correct to label this fake news, but Google is promoting this as one of the headlines of the day, so I expect we will hear more about this in the next few days.
kishnevi (7bc26d) — 6/5/2017 @ 7:42 pmShe gets as good as she gives, Beldar. And I do have high regard for her, I just think she is terribly wrong and her judgement is clouded by the disappointment many like-minded people have shared since last year’s convention.
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 6/5/2017 @ 7:43 pmWill justice Roberts sincerely look at the law, will Kennedy, gorsuch alto and Thomas will, but that leaves 3 2 4
narciso (d1f714) — 6/5/2017 @ 7:43 pmYes it is cubic zircinia fake.
narciso (d1f714) — 6/5/2017 @ 7:45 pmThe reason this is so painful to me to watch is that in my professional career, over the last 37 years, I can’t count the number of times I’ve seen parties with absolutely righteous positions lose, and lose badly, because of errors made by either the client or his lawyer.
Trump’s position is righteous, but he’s very likely to lose despite that, and if he does — and yes, I’m looking directly at Mr. Justice Kennedy as I write this — it will be because of Trump’s incompetence, pure and simple.
Beldar (fa637a) — 6/5/2017 @ 7:46 pmCol. H, I accept all that (#87) as true, and yet she still didn’t say the words you put in her mouth. It’s not respectful to put words into someone’s mouth, but kudos at least for the cross-reference, which made it obvious that you’re arguing with a straw man, not DRJ, on this occasion.
Beldar (fa637a) — 6/5/2017 @ 7:50 pmI don’t read those tweets as giving evidence of anti Muslim motives.
But if I were writing the opinion for SCOTUS, I would certainly include a sharply worded paragraph explaining that the Executive Branch does not give orders to the Judicial Branch. And I would be sorely tempted to vote against the EO just to teach Trump a lesson.
Fortunately for Trump I am not on SCOTUS.
kishnevi (7bc26d) — 6/5/2017 @ 7:51 pmI don’t think Trump should be impeached. In fact, I support what he’s trying to do on immigration. That’s why it’s so frustrating to see him screw it up so completely. He had an opportunity to accomplish something meaningful and he is single-handedly destroying that opportunity. And every time lawyers try to get him out of the messes he makes, he screws it up again with his stupid mouth.
He is an idiot but even being an idiot isn’t grounds for impeachment.
DRJ (d35869) — 6/5/2017 @ 7:56 pmNo we want just a little justice so this macabre ground hog day doesn’t keep happening over and over, next week will be the anniversary of the islamust attack on the pulse night club a precursor to Manchester, yet narrative triumphed over the truth.
narciso (d1f714) — 6/5/2017 @ 7:56 pm(In #91, I ought have written “Even accepting” rather than “I accept,” since actually, I agree with DRJ on her views that you find “terribly wrong” and the product of “clouded judgment.”)
Beldar (fa637a) — 6/5/2017 @ 7:57 pmThat is absolutely right. But I don’t think Mike K cares.
Patterico (115b1f) — 6/5/2017 @ 8:00 pmI am incredibly disappointed with the way the campaign and convention turned out. This was an opportunity to turn the country around to conservative solutions, but the opportunity was lost. I still hope it will happen in the future but this President is not going to get much accomplished because he is so inept, uneducated, and uninformed.
DRJ (d35869) — 6/5/2017 @ 8:00 pmOne if the key mistakes made was in misgauging this fundamental point:
narciso (d1f714) — 6/5/2017 @ 8:02 pmhttp://www.familysecuritymatters.org/publications/detail/us-passivity-towards-pakistan-has-prolonged-the-afghan-war
Haiku doesn’t like lawyers, so I don’t take him seriously when he rants because I know he’s prejudiced.
DRJ (d35869) — 6/5/2017 @ 8:06 pmIt does seem like mist of the party would rather take a mulligan, I don’t just mean maverick and flake, and Mcconnell and Ryan giving the rally close call we faced in 2016, the efforts of sessions to make justice mean something Dr. Carsins attempt to fix the augean stables of the cities.dr. Price on the ghastly rube Goldberg that justice Roberts bequeathed us. None of that matters
narciso (d1f714) — 6/5/2017 @ 8:08 pm(While the man behind the curtain is tweeting, “PAY ATTENTION TO ME!”)
Tamam! (That’s Muslim for “That’s it!”) Trump does not want to do what’s right and be told “Attaboy, Donald”. He wants to do what he wants and be told “Attaboy, Donald”. Egotism, narcissism, grandiosity, not-very-brighty.
nk (dbc370) — 6/5/2017 @ 8:08 pmFor example.
DRJ (d35869) — 6/5/2017 @ 8:09 pmBecause the law has become a sophists game, maybe it always was but no therws no pretense to it now.
narciso (d1f714) — 6/5/2017 @ 8:09 pmGermany invited a million unassimimilable young men for the most part, their are y trAins with sticks they shut down nuclear but destiny is right army d the corner that’s insanity
narciso (d1f714) — 6/5/2017 @ 8:13 pmAll the world’s a stage and all the men and women merely players, narciso.
DRJ (d35869) — 6/5/2017 @ 8:13 pm@93. DRJ- ‘Idiocy’- aka competence; less ‘impeachment; more 25th Amendment stuff. Could you make a case beyond eccentricity? BTW, re-#58 per your #44: strawberries- .99/lb., this week! Double portions all ’round the wardroom, Captain!
DCSCA (797bc0) — 6/5/2017 @ 8:15 pmHe’s not crazy, DCSCA. He’s just in over his head. Even Queeg knew how to run a ship.
DRJ (d35869) — 6/5/2017 @ 8:17 pmAll the world’s a stage and all the men and women merely players
But the sound and fury have increased dramatically, and there seems to be no end to the idiots demanding a chance to tell their tale.
kishnevi (7bc26d) — 6/5/2017 @ 8:26 pm@93. DRJ- postscript; remember, as a kid Ol’Dead Fred, so exasperated, packed him off to military school; at middle age po’d U.S. bankers publicly wrapped his knuckles by putting him on an allowance and curbed loans [hence getting chummy w/Rooskie money men.] So what’s the disciplinary punishment for a 70 year old fart who’s hardly every been constrained and happens to be the CIC? Take away his toys and their launch codes? Ground him for six months w/o an Iphone? Sent to bed early w/o ice cream and strawberries??? Maybe in the end, checks and balances will work after all, eh?
DCSCA (797bc0) — 6/5/2017 @ 8:27 pmIn is far as trump may be upset is in sessions refusal over a nithungberger, which threw blood in water as it was with Michael flynn being thrown overboard.
narciso (d1f714) — 6/5/2017 @ 8:28 pmMeanwhile there was a Somali who went bezerk down under, maybe part if that c
narciso (d1f714) — 6/5/2017 @ 8:36 pmGreat deal Turnbull tried to palm off on trump, wait wasnt one of the conutrirs on that list. Somalia I mean
https://amp.heraldsun.com.au/news/law-order/emergency-crews-responding-to-explosion-in-brighton/news-story/432d22f46235bc4f810581d6cd5965d7
narciso (d1f714) — 6/5/2017 @ 8:38 pmTurned the market for tds is highly saturated in new York, shenkkens v fir vendetta flavored play, a false flag nuke creates a pogrom of immigrants closed early
narciso (d1f714) — 6/5/2017 @ 8:43 pm@107. Disagree, DRJ. He’s not ‘in over his head’– he rebels against authority; battles discipline. Never has accepted it. Firmly convinced he’s suffering a serious personality disorder.The evidence is spilling out all around you. He’s sick.
The people who’ve known him and been close to him in NYC for years openly discuss it now. And those eccentricities were overlooked in the high profile entertainment and real estate business as part of the act of drawing a crowd, peddling product and pursuing profits. Behind the drama and glitter, his wives ditched him because he was out of control; his own parents couldn’t manage him. His medical records would reveal it – and will one day. If Trump was your daughter’s gym teacher and not the CIC, chances are hed be under arrest by now.
“Will you look at the man? He’s a Freudian delight; he crawls with clues.” – Lt. Tom Keefer [Fred MacMurray] ‘The Caine Mutiny’ 1954
DCSCA (797bc0) — 6/5/2017 @ 8:44 pm@107- Did he, DRJ? Steamed over his own tow line; turned it upside down looking for an imaginary key and damn near sank it in a typhoon.
Our Captain has plenty of talented people around him to help and he simply ignores or undercuts them. Nah, DRJ. Trump’s ill. Over 240-plus years, sooner or later one of the sicker rats was inevitably going to make to all the way through the maze to the cheese. And it’s finally happened.
But what a show.
DCSCA (797bc0) — 6/5/2017 @ 8:50 pm@107- postscript: DRJ gets points for denial and can be the Steve Maryk in this drama. Keep a medical log on “President X-Ray.”
DCSCA (797bc0) — 6/5/2017 @ 8:53 pmWhat is authirity, judgrsxwho should be sent back to one l. Media which according to harvards own study has 93% negative coverage. A cibgress that seems to suffer from sleeping sickness except when they go on odd jags like trying to tax gi educational benefits how about that hive if scum and villainy that welcomed Fidel and Chavez before they wept Norwegian blue.
narciso (d1f714) — 6/5/2017 @ 8:54 pm@97. Thing is, DRJ, the country rejected ‘conservative solutions.’ The popular vote shows that. There aren’t as many of you in the country as r/w media has led you to believe.
DCSCA (797bc0) — 6/5/2017 @ 8:59 pm@110- Echoes o/t Big Dick; the ‘Berlin Wall’ came tumbling down 16 years earlier than most Republicans care to recall.
“…. two of the finest public servants it has been my privilege to know.” President Nixon announcing the firing of top aides and future Watergate felons Halderman & Ehrlichman, April 30, 1973
DCSCA (797bc0) — 6/5/2017 @ 9:29 pmBeldar (fa637a) — 6/5/2017 @ 7:30 pm
Oh, he does better, when he takes his time, asks people questions, and carefully considers things.
But he’s got this big big thing about never providing evidence that he was wrong about anything, or can be.
Sammy Finkelman (f46c1b) — 6/5/2017 @ 9:33 pmHillary may have gotten a few million more votes, but she lost the election, fair and square, and she lost to trash. That’s also a rejection. Many do not want conservatism, I think largely because of fear and a lack of understanding, but many don’t want progressive solutions either.
DRJ raised the immigration issue. Trump now IS the conservative immigration movement, for better or worse. Those of us who want reforms are frustrated when he brags about banning Muslims, fails in court, is unable to even staff his administration competently. You might be delighted when, in a few years, the reaction to Trump is to go hard in the opposite direction, but it will only make the political pendulum swing wilder and wilder. Trump happened because of frustration, after all.
Dustin (ba94b2) — 6/5/2017 @ 9:37 pmnarciso @110. You mean recusal, not refusal. The Attorney General recused himself from anything having to do with the 2016 election.
About Comey – the committee has not gotten the full text of that memo to himself. I think the claim is the special counsel doesn’t want it released. Comey will be free to say what he wants, though, without reference to the memo. The Trump White House announced he is not invoking executive privilege because he wants the committee to get to the bottom of things (paraphrase.)
Sammy Finkelman (f46c1b) — 6/5/2017 @ 9:38 pmI always find interesting that people who hate Trump say the Office of POTUS is bigger than the man, yet would go along with flawed judicial reasoning on the travel ban because they in essence make it about the man and not the Office, Odd.
Blah (44eaa0) — 6/5/2017 @ 9:38 pmDCSCA has lost his mind.
Take meds.
Blah (44eaa0) — 6/5/2017 @ 9:42 pm@79- I wish someone could induce him to do better.
That sounds like the lament of Ol’Dead Fred when he pack the young and undisciplined Donald off to military school back in the day. But from the 70 year old Trump’s POV, he’s doing not only better but fine because as he’s been known to say, “I’m President, you’re not.”
Not gonna happen, Beldar.
He’s sick. His parents, his bankers, his ex-wives his immediate family and close associates really can’t control him. So hang on for the ride. So far, it’s been a helluva show.
DCSCA (797bc0) — 6/5/2017 @ 9:47 pm@121. On the contrary– they understand it all too well, trickle down et al., and rejected the ideology accordingly.
“Don’t piss down my back and tell me it’s raining.” – Fletcher [John Vernon] ‘The Outlaw Josey Wales’ 1976
DCSCA (797bc0) — 6/5/2017 @ 9:57 pmSo when Bush the Elder told James Bake ” u so smart, why aren’t u POTUS” he was crazy like Trump?
Or when 45 past POTUS said same?
I won.
….. stoopid argument. Military skool and telling subordinates to F off is proper background and behavior for POTUS.
Blah (44eaa0) — 6/5/2017 @ 10:01 pmIntent matters when it comes to discrimination. Not sure why this is odd. Trump wants to ban muslims, and the founding fathers want religious freedom.
Also, I’m not seeing a lot of hate for Trump. I see a lot of you guys constantly complaining about deranged Trump critics, crazy Trump critics, hateful Trump critics, to a crowd of civil patriotic citizens who are being pretty patient.
Dustin (ba94b2) — 6/5/2017 @ 10:03 pmTrue to an extent, but again, both sides should hang their head in shame at the rejection. Losing to Trump should make the democrats reevaluate everything. Losing the popular vote to Hillary should make the Republicans reevaluate everything. It was significant that both candidates were so bad, and both had a shot of winning anyway.
Any decent candidate, with a platform that tried to get beyond partisanship, would have capitalized on a golden opportunity. Perhaps that’s why it was so important to both establishments that such a candidate not be an option.
Dustin (ba94b2) — 6/5/2017 @ 10:06 pm@129- Both parties, shame? Absolutely. The GOP hell is self-explanatory as pragmatists battle to contain ideologues– and that’s a good thing. But the Dems should be jettisoning Clinton, Biden, Pelosi, Schumer baggage. Instead, every time Trump trips, one of them appears to cushion his fall.
DCSCA (797bc0) — 6/5/2017 @ 10:13 pmThe Whitewater and Waco hearings in the mid-1990s didn’t get the kind of attention earlier hearings got. Maybe they were on PBS. I seem to remember then Congressman Charles Schumer arguing to a witness that everybody agreed the Davidians started the fire. Which he, knew, but not too many others knew was not true. And nowadays nobody would say that any more, if they re-examined it, because we all know about the phony fire expertise in Texas which got someone executed in the end.
That was a real low for Charles Schumer – covering up a mass murder by a president. (It was very carefully planned. The fire was started by injecting CS tear gas, and everyone involved in ordering it was given an out.)
Bill Clinton killed most of the Branch Davidians to protect Jay William Buford, one of the leaders of the raid, who had shot three of his own men on Feb 28, 1993, in order to make David Koresh look bad, because he knew the warrant was faulty, because he had helped draw it up, and was responsible for throwing in some sex claims.
Buford needed a few deaths of law enforcement personnel to push all such concerns about the search warrant side by “proving” that Koresh (Vernon Wayne Howell) had been very dangerous.
Buford was the head of the BATF in Little Rock. I bet you didn’t know that. Almost nobody knows that. Clinton actually sent someone (Roger Altman) to see Buford after the raid. Just about nobody knows that either.
It was in the Wall Street Journal of March 9, 1993, witnessed by a reporter because he was there for a day in the life of a president. Clinton had probably known the raid was coming and expected a little different outcome, and probably selected that particular day for that reason. He was probably going to merge the BATF with the FBI (as was in fact proposed later) and promote Buford into a high position in the FBI.
Hillary Clinton’s political career will not truly be over until the truth about Waco comes out.
Sammy Finkelman (f46c1b) — 6/5/2017 @ 10:20 pmBuford’s plan failed on Feb 28, 1993 because he didn’t take account of cell phones. Koresh had one, or rather someone else had one, and, despite the cutting off of all telephone communication and redicting it to he raiders, Koresh was able to contact the outside and arrange a ceasefire.
When the situation settled down Buford was left with having killed three of his own men in front of KWTX-TV television cameras (albeit all he raiders had indiscernable faces, but if the raid was reconstructed we’d know who was who) and the evidence to prove it was in the building.
This was his second attempt to play the hero. The first time was in 1985, in Arkansas. That also hadn’t worked. This time he didn’t want a standoff.
He had to be saved by his friend, Bill Clinton, who owed him for what he did in the investigationn of the first, unsuccessful, attempt to kill Alice McArthur with a bomb.
Sammy Finkelman (f46c1b) — 6/5/2017 @ 10:29 pmDustin (ba94b2) — 6/5/2017 @ 10:06 pm
I think that’s Mark Zuckerberg’s plan.
He’s probably going to run third party.
Mark Zuckerberg will be old enough to be elected president by 2020.
Sammy Finkelman (f46c1b) — 6/5/2017 @ 10:46 pmnarciso @98. Of course, but there’s the objection that Pakistan has nuclear weapons. It doesn’t have ICBMs though.
And it could, and probably would, blink. Now somebody’s got to have the confidence that that would happen. And it doesn’t have to be all one thing or the other.
Defusing the Pakistani threat is a delicate task. Not trying is not really a good idea. At least if you don’t want to see the Taliban and al Qaeda re-established in Afghanistan, or maybe ISIS (although the U.S. destroyed most of the first solid attempt to start up ISIS in Afghanistan with that monser bomb) and support given for terrorism around the world. A lot of that is coming out of Pakistan: The San Bernardino massacre. One of the two known killers in London last weekend.
Sammy Finkelman (f46c1b) — 6/5/2017 @ 10:55 pmBeldar (fa637a) — 6/5/2017 @ 7:39 pm
Well, you may need that anyway.
There is one way these tweets could hurt his case. He said they should have gone with the first ban. But hopefully, it’s been acknowledged, that not only was there a possible legal problem with the first one, which may be wrong but it was mistaken on some points, like including Iraq.
Clearly what Trump wants is for the Supreme Court to uphold unfettered discretion, regardless of motivation, and probably regardless of facts.
There is reason to regard what happened as something other than the president’s best judgment, and his tweets support that, but they do not support the idea that this was or is a travel ban for Moalems, nor does anything else.
The question that really needs to be decided is in fact: Does the president’s determination have to reflect his best judgment, not whether or not a Moslem ban per se unconstitutional.
And how can it be? Doesn’t this depend on what you think of the religion, so isn’t this the same as using any other criterion to exclude people?
Maybe the president’s determination has to be factual, maybe it doesn’t; maybe the president needs to honestly believe it is a good idea, maybe he doesn’t; but if you say no adherents of any religion can be automatically barred on that basis alone, what about some other religions, like the Aum Shinrikyo cult in Japan? Or suppose ISIS officially made a schism within Islam and declared itself to be a separate religion (the one true Islam and all other Moslems are infidels), would adherence to that new religion be a category that could not be used to exclude people from the United States? (not saying that it should be an automatic and universal bar with no consderation of any other factors, but could a president do that.)
But in any case that’s not what this is. This is so far away from a Moslem ban, the issue shouldn’t even have come up.
The real issue is: Is this executive order dishonestly motivated, and does it need to be honest? Is it based on fact, or is it not? Or are these questions that just don’t matter legally? And if they do matter, what kind of judicial review should this have?
Sammy Finkelman (c0fa89) — 6/5/2017 @ 11:55 pmThe motivation was not an animus to Moslems. It was political.
In December, 2015, when he first proposed this (as a temporary measure until we can figure out what is going on he said) his motive was to stake out a position where no other candidate would follow, that, however, was not any more extreme than it needed to be to accomplish that purpose. To that end it was very politically incorrect, and possibly legally deficient but I don’t think he thought it was.
He backtracked on that pretty quickly, although still maintaining his solitary position as the only Republican candidate to endorse what he did. People have forgotten that he backtracked, and while it did remain on his campaign websiite until well past the inauguration (probably for archival reasons) he dropped the whole idea of a specifically Moslem ban within a month and it was certainly gone by the time of the election:
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/10/us/politics/transcript-second-debate.h
tml?_r=0
Now after the election, Trump wanted to appear to be fulfilling a campaign promise, because he wants to be consistent all the way back to the middle of 2015, so he came up with something that cod look like that. The countries were either ones that previously people from visa waiver countries had been required to get visas if they had visited it since 2011. These were countries where ISIS was active or countries on a list of countries supporting terrorism. Iraq, Libya, Yemen and Somalia were in the first category, and Iran and Sudan in the second category and Syria was in both.
The only thing is, that was a list of countries people supporting travelled TO , nt a list of countries where terrorists came FROM , and in the case of Iraq terrorists travelled there without legally entering Iraq. (te leaders of ISIS came from Iraq though, but the Iraqi government identified them)
Also, people in refugee camps were almost definitely not terrorists and had been hanging around for maybe two years.
There was also the argument that they could not rely on those countries informing the U.S. that somebody was a terrorist, but that is overrated anyway as apreventative. Of course Pakistan and Arab Gulf states except Yemen were left out.
Sammy Finkelman (c0fa89) — 6/6/2017 @ 12:11 am@128 Dustin
I’m sure all of the African slaves took comfort in their freedom of worship.
You know, that is one point for President Trump: he never actually owned human beings.
Rented, maybe. Leased, sure. Pwned, absolutely.
Pinandpuller (ee9744) — 6/6/2017 @ 12:20 amInteresting topic that I don’t think you’re really onto.
I guess that’s what you call it when Trump gropes a girl and gets away with it?
Dustin (ba94b2) — 6/6/2017 @ 12:26 amhttp://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2017/06/24-disgusting-anti-trump-tweets-nsa-leaker-reality-l-winner/
mg (31009b) — 6/6/2017 @ 3:02 amshe could blog here and fit right in.
http://www.corriere.it/cronache/17_giugno_06/terzo-attentatore-londra-aveva-madre-italiana-089fd452-4a8f-11e7-ac11-205c7f1cfc9f_amp.html
narciso (ab81e6) — 6/6/2017 @ 5:25 amWhat a waste, dude could have killed it on Spanish telenovelas, if he has a sister, she would give Mia Khalifa a run for his money.
Mg, if you go hard on Winner, you also send a message to Sally Yates (would be Dem savior from Georgia) and Karen Handel (likely Rep.-elect and potential Tuesday Group caucuser).
urbanleftbehind (cf4711) — 6/6/2017 @ 5:42 amNo one here tells people to break the law, mg, so I assume you are calling people who criticize Trump traitors.
Doesn’t it get old being intellectually dishonest?
DRJ (15874d) — 6/6/2017 @ 6:25 amThe Buck Stops Everywhere Else
Beldar,
The WSJ editorial supports your contentions very thoroughly. They also provide a sentence which is a rather complete explanation of the administration’s pathetic inability to staff needed positions:
People of talent and integrity won’t work for a boss who undermines them in public without thinking about the consequences.
Four top law firms have declined the opportunity to represent the President on a personal basis, giving ‘he doesn’t pay and he won’t listen’ as the rationale for missing the wonderful opportunity.
It’s rather lonely at the top for Yosemite Sam at the moment – and for the foreseeable future.
Rick Ballard (4fdfcf) — 6/6/2017 @ 6:34 amjust click the first clip
the future’s so bright i gotta wear sunglasses cause of it’s hard to see with all the brightness
happyfeet (a037ad) — 6/6/2017 @ 7:46 am“To divert attention from Clinton’s assorted e-mail problems, the DNC hired its associated IT firm, Crowdstike, which concluded―without giving any evidence―that “the Russians” had been hacking Democrats, and that they had done so to help the Republicans. The intelligence agencies concurred. Numerous intelligence officials have claimed to know who supplied the-mails to Wikileaks. No one has given evidence on the record. A minor defensive maneuver at the time, the “Russia interference in the elections” narrative grew into the Democratic Party’s main explanation for the massive electoral rejection at all levels it ended up suffering on November 8, 2016.
When Donald Trump became the Republican nominee, much of the U.S government, intelligence agencies included, conducted “opposition research” on him. This included tacitly validating a scurrilous report by a British source of Donald Trump with Russian prostitutes. At first, it targeted Paul Manafort, whom Trump had chosen to manage his campaign at the Republican convention, and Carter Page, a minor foreign policy advisor. The FBI and the Justice Department obtained a warrant from the secret court established under the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act to intercept their electronic communications. Both men had worked, legally, with Russian entities.
On May 24, 2017 Obama’s CIA Director John O. Brennan testified in that regard with language that reflected the “probable cause” assumption presented to the court that these were or could be “foreign agents.”
https://amgreatness.com/2017/06/04/punishing-real-russia-crime-leaking/
Colonel Haiku (6dd99d) — 6/6/2017 @ 8:23 am@97. Thing is, DRJ, the country rejected ‘conservative solutions.’ The popular vote shows that. There aren’t as many of you in the country as r/w media has led you to believe.
DCSCA (797bc0) — 6/5/2017 @ 8:59 pm
It’s the California Effect, ASPCA. Puhleeze, your analysis doesn’t account for it at all.
Colonel Haiku (6dd99d) — 6/6/2017 @ 8:31 amThank you, Colonel. I think many Americans believe conservative values and solutions matter, and I bet you and I agree on what they are and why they work.
DRJ (d35869) — 6/6/2017 @ 9:09 amWelcome. ASPCA is very often wrong, but he’s never in doubt. He can be tedious, but his constant self-beclowning is a source of amusement.
Colonel Haiku (b6b19d) — 6/6/2017 @ 11:04 amQatar Tries to Quell Food-Supply Fears After Crowds Throng Shops
see this is why you shouldn’t support terrorism
happyfeet (a037ad) — 6/6/2017 @ 11:26 amThe New York Times headline depicts all this as a problem for the United States.
These are the headlines:
Bottom left of tghe front page:
5 Arab Nations Put U.S. in Jam
As They Move to ISolate Qatar
On the continuation on page A7:
5 Arab Nations Move to Isolate Qatar, Crucial American Ally in Gulf Region
And yet even this article says:
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/05/world/middleeast/qatar-saudi-arabia-egypt-bahrain-united-arab-emirates.html
Sammy Finkelman (6f9f42) — 6/6/2017 @ 11:45 amAnd the latest:
Yes, this is another thing that Trump has done wrong:
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/06/world/middleeast/trump-qatar-saudi-arabia.html
Sammy Finkelman (6f9f42) — 6/6/2017 @ 11:45 amThe Wall Stgreet Journal has:
New Rift in Mideat
Poses Risks for U.S.
and on the continuation on page A8 it just says Qatar, but there is a separate story headlined:
Flying Blind: Gulf Rift Hots Flag Carrier
The Gulf states may settle this but the United States should demand all intelloigenmce be turned over and U.S. personnel allowed to go to offices and question people and look through records – maybe with promise of immunity. I mean, maybe you could actually defeat terrorism this way.
Sammy Finkelman (6f9f42) — 6/6/2017 @ 11:51 amlol failmnrica spent a trillion billion dollars on Bush’s war in Iraq and didn’t even get a decent military base out of it
so pathetic
happyfeet (a037ad) — 6/6/2017 @ 12:11 pm153, nor any properly depillated and deprogrammed war brides.
urbanleftbehind (5eecdb) — 6/6/2017 @ 12:19 pmMeanwhile we have news out of Notre dame cathedral the one they tried to carbon some months ago.
narciso (36a055) — 6/6/2017 @ 12:20 pm@147- DRJ- Of course there’s ‘many’.. but not nearly as many as you believe– particularly ideologues. That time has passed. And if memory serves, the Colonel was/is a Trump advocate– and our Captain is not an ideologue.
______
Haiki! Gesundheit!
Wong ha-gain.
DCSCA (797bc0) — 6/6/2017 @ 12:21 pm*failmerica* i mean
i spellered it wrong sorry
happyfeet (a037ad) — 6/6/2017 @ 12:23 pm@155- Couldn’t steal a plane, can’t rent a truck so just borrowed a hammer.
That’s progress!
DCSCA (797bc0) — 6/6/2017 @ 12:24 pm155, better than what happened (or didnt end up happening) at a Spain-ish wedding mass over the weekend http://pjmedia.com/trending/2017/06/05/video-muslim-man-runs-into-christian-wedding-in-spain-attacks-priest/
That along with some footage I posted about a Phillipine church on the London Attack thread got me to thinking…someone could stage a trashing by muslims of a shrine of Santa Muerte, Jesus Malverde, and Virgen de Guadalupe…I’ll go make the popcorn.
urbanleftbehind (5eecdb) — 6/6/2017 @ 12:56 pm@155 Meanwhile…..
There have been 144 mass shootings in the U.S. since January 1, 2017.
http://www.wftv.com/news/trending-now/what-is-a-mass-shooting-definitions-can-vary/530005248
DCSCA (797bc0) — 6/6/2017 @ 1:00 pm156… was a Cruz supporter until he dropped out. Trump is in all ways better than anything the Democrats were offering. And the last eight years of overwhelming Democrat losses in Congress, statehouses, state legislatures puts a red rubber nose on your self-beclowning, ASPCA.
Colonel Haiku (b6b19d) — 6/6/2017 @ 1:06 pm@161- Haiku! Gesundheit!
Two wongs still doesn’t make you right.
DCSCA (797bc0) — 6/6/2017 @ 1:10 pmFacts are facts, oh self-beclowned one.
Colonel Haiku (b6b19d) — 6/6/2017 @ 1:16 pmHonk honk
Colonel Haiku (b6b19d) — 6/6/2017 @ 1:16 pm163/164 Haiku! Gesundheit!
Are they, Harpo… the Colonel cops to truthiness!
“Facts matter not at all. Perception is everything. It’s certainty.” – Stephen Colbert
DCSCA (797bc0) — 6/6/2017 @ 1:28 pmBreaking news- CNN reporting Russia planted false news story prompting Arab states cutting ties w/Qatar.
Meanwhile, Trump takes credit for spurring Qatar break.
Check’s in the Russian diplomatic pouch, Captain!
DCSCA (797bc0) — 6/6/2017 @ 3:17 pmDCSCA,
Trump could be one of the millions of people with a personality disorder — my guess is Cluster B, if he has one — but who cares? Most politicians and celebrities probably have some kind of personality disorder but the question is whether it interferes with their daily lives. I doubt it does. In fact, at this point in American politics and entertainment, narcissistic personalty disorder probably enables celebrities and politicians to function in jobs that no sane person would attempt.
DRJ (15874d) — 6/6/2017 @ 3:20 pm@138 Dustin
Why did they get flogged? The Founding Fathers wanted them to have muh Religious Freedom.
My point, dear Dustin, is that the FF’s had a sliding scale on certain Unalienable Rights. At least when they wanted to make really terrific deals. They were great dealmakers, let me tell you.
You think they would have gone out of their way to import Loyalists to King George to the detriment of other classes or types of people?
Pinandpuller (16b0b5) — 6/6/2017 @ 4:04 pm165… ASPCA quotes Colbert! Beclowned irony!
“Got to scrape the sh*t right off yer shoes”
“Sweet Virginia” – Exile on Main Street, teh Strolling Bones
Colonel Haiku (b6b19d) — 6/6/2017 @ 4:21 pm@167- Who cares??
Ask Tom Eagleton. Holding high public office– particularly the most powerful on Earth- isn’t the same as a high profile, private sector gig. But you get points for trying to pitch it as irrelevant making an argument.
“There are mistakes and mistakes. The margin for error is narrow here. There’s too much loss of life and property damage possible.” – Captain DeVreiss [Tom Tully] ‘The Caine Mutiny’ 1954
DCSCA (797bc0) — 6/6/2017 @ 4:30 pmLiberals Gone Wild… http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/06/06/syphilis-cases-hit-highest-level-since-1949-amid-rise-risky/
Colonel Haiku (b6b19d) — 6/6/2017 @ 4:33 pmColonel Haiku
Where do I go to get my DCSCA back?
Pinandpuller (0b53da) — 6/6/2017 @ 5:09 pmDid you hear about the Ruth Vader Ginsberg workout book?
She’s not doing pushups. The Earth is repelling her.
Pinandpuller (0b53da) — 6/6/2017 @ 5:10 pm@172 Covfefe Island — A Trump time share.
DCSCA (797bc0) — 6/6/2017 @ 5:12 pmBreaking news- Top intelligence official told associates Trump asked him if he could intervene with Comey on FBI Russia probe
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/top-intelligence-official-told-associates-trump-asked-him-if-he-could-intervene-with-comey-to-get-fbi-to-back-off-flynn/2017/06/06/cc879f14-4ace-11e7-9669-250d0b15f83b_story.html?utm_term=.6df0b8d57330
“And the hits just keep on coming.” – Lt. Dan Kaffee [Tom Cruise] ‘A Few Good Men’ 1992
DCSCA (797bc0) — 6/6/2017 @ 6:07 pmMore of the same old “unnamed sources said” horsesh*t from the WashPo…
“Director Coats does not discuss his private conversations with the President. However, he has never felt pressured by the President or anyone else in the Administration to influence any intelligence matters or ongoing investigations.”
Comey reportedly won’t testify that he felt Trump was obstructing justice because that would put him in a position of having to answer why he didn’t report it or resign. ‘Cuz that’s the kind of guy he is.
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 6/6/2017 @ 6:15 pmWell I would say check the mental institution, PandP, but they gave him compassionate leave to take care of his mother.
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 6/6/2017 @ 6:18 pmYeah same officials behind the banya with volodya, who brokered the Iran deal, keep stirring the ouvno. We’ve already seen this story, once when they said spice was the messenger.
narciso (d1f714) — 6/6/2017 @ 6:21 pmTrump is giving Sessions the Big Dick treatment.
“Well, I think we ought to let him hang there. Let him twist slowly, twist slowly in the wind.” – John Ehrlichman
DCSCA (797bc0) — 6/6/2017 @ 6:26 pmBig bad of wind coronello,
‘This two mockeries of a travesty of a sham’
Fielding mellish , bananas 1975?
narciso (d1f714) — 6/6/2017 @ 6:36 pmHe is truly a big gas bag, narciso.
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 6/6/2017 @ 6:41 pmTraveshamockery
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 6/6/2017 @ 6:42 pmThis issue with Sessions offering (threatening?) to resign happened a few months ago. Trump had complained about Sessions’ recusing himself from the Trump campaign investigation. (actually he also recused himself from any investigation of the Hillary Clinton also, and that may have bene more important)
Sammy Finkelman (375edc) — 6/7/2017 @ 11:36 amDCSCA (797bc0) — 6/6/2017 @ 3:17 pm
It’s not fake news; it didn’t cause the 5 Arab states to break relations with Qatar – that is fake news; and it was exposed within hours if it was fake because it might have been genuine, at least a genuine story. Middle East news agencies sometimes post fake excerpts from interviews. If there was a hack it wss most likely not done by sending something directly to the website, but sending someone a phony email saying: Run this or do this. Qatar might not want to admit that that’s the way it happened.
On May 23, that’s two weeks ago Tuesday, others say early Wednesday May 24, Qatar News Agency posted statements allegedly made by Qatari emir Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad al-Thani. A scrolling ticker at the bottom of the screen of Qatari state television’s nightly news broadcast also contained these remarks.
In it, he spoke out in support of Iran, saying it was an Islamic power that cannot be ignored and that it was unwise to be against it. He defended Hezbollah, and said Qatar’s relationship with Hamas, which it said he said was “the legitimate representative of the Palestinian people,” amd also had nice words for the Moslem Brotherhood. He criticized the Gulf states and Egypt, and said relations with Donald Trump’s administration were strained (others say he said it was strong) but said Qatar had a good relationship with Israel (!)
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/05/24/qatar-state-news-agency-hacked-fake-positive-story-israel-iran/
And on the Qatari news agency’s twitter feed were alleged quotes from Qatar’s foreign minister saying there was a plot against the country by other Arab nations and adding that Qatar had ordered its ambassadors from Bahrain, Egypt, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates withdrawn over the plot. Which it hadn’t done.
An immmediate consequence was that Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates blocked Al-Jazeera.
Sammy Finkelman (375edc) — 6/7/2017 @ 12:09 pmand other Qatari media and also Qatar News agency took its website offline.
Quelle aurprise
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4.578668/amp/Sadiq-Khan-s-conference-London-Bridge-killer-s-friend.html
narciso (c1c566) — 6/7/2017 @ 12:29 pm