Offended POTUS: American Citizens Should Have Remained In Custody In Communist Country
[guest post by Dana]
While there has been much debate about President Trump’s use of Twitter since he took office, his “shoot from the hip” style is less likely to meet with approval from an increasing number of supporters. Here at Patterico’s Pontifications, there have been numerous posts about the president’s Twitter habit and the unintended consequences of such an immensely powerful, yet self-indulgent president who lacks self-control but has (now) 280 characters at his disposal. I have maintained that the President does himself no favors tweeting, as he inevitably steps on any positive achievements by his administration because he cannot resist lashing out at individuals whom he feels slighted by, or is determined to have the last word about some petty issue, or worse, uses Twitter to provoke notoriously unstable and dangerous world leaders. His defenders will say this is a unique strategery on his part. Others will say that his tweets are simply a way to distract from the more troubling and consequential events taking place in his administration that he would prefer not be in the headlines.
Case in point: Two days before President Trump was due to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping on his 10-day trip to Asia, three UCLA men’s basketball players were arrested for shoplifting in China. President Trump brought up the issue with the Chinese president during a meeting with him. As a result, the players were released and allowed to return to the U.S.
On Wednesday, President Trump appeared to publicly challenge the young men to acknowledge his role in their release:
I don’t know whether Trump’s tweet made this happen, or whether the young men were sincerely appreciative and had planned to express their thanks from the get-go, but all three players thanked Trump for his help:
“To President Trump and the United States government, thank you for taking the time to intervene on our behalf. We really appreciate you helping us out,” Cody Riley, one of the three UCLA players, said at a press conference in Los Angeles on Wednesday.
LiAngelo Ball, another of the players, said he “would also like to thank President Trump and the United States government for the help that they provided,” and Jalen Hill, the third involved player, said, “Thank you to the United States government and President Trump for your efforts to bring us home.”
Following the press conference, LiAngelo Ball’s father, Lavar Ball, was asked about President Trump’s involvement in helping his son. He response was less than gracious or grateful a few days ago, and continues to be today:
“Who?” LaVar Ball told ESPN on Friday, when asked about Trump’s involvement in the matter. “What was he over there for? Don’t tell me nothing. Everybody wants to make it seem like he helped me out.”
As long as my boy’s back here, I’m fine,” LaVar Ball told ESPN. “I’m happy with how things were handled. A lot of people like to say a lot of things that they thought happened over there. Like I told him, ‘They try to make a big deal out of nothing sometimes.’ I’m from L.A. I’ve seen a lot worse things happen than a guy taking some glasses. My son has built up enough character that one bad decision doesn’t define him. Now if you can go back and say when he was 12 years old he was shoplifting and stealing cars and going wild, then that’s a different thing.
Queue the President of the United States who, being unable to resist lashing out at being dismissed in such a manner, upped the ante with those 280 characters at his disposal:
Several hours later, he tweeted this:
Now. I’m hard-pressed to see how anyone would defend a sitting President of the United States who says publicly that it would be better for American citizens to be locked up by the brutal Communist regime of China rather than be back home free on American soil because his feelings were hurt by an ungrateful dad. We are not talking about a private citizen reacting this way. We are talking about the man holding the most powerful position in the world. And yet the President of the United States couldn’t resist lashing out at the senior Ball because he took a shot at him. The President has yet again taken the focus off of his own good work by making outlandish comments. To excuse him with a wave of the hand,it’s just Trump being Trump is similar to the classic it’s just Joe being Joe. Unfortunately, Trump’s lack of self-control on Twitter almost guarantees that this is what Sarah Sanders Huckabee will be confronted with at today’s scheduled press conference and will once again awkwardly struggle to put a positive spin on a self-imposed injury by the President. Further, because support for President Trump is already dismally low in the black community, it wouldn’t be surprising if the senior Ball comes out the winner in this kerfuffle by seeing an uptick in sales at his his company, Big Baller Brand. After all, free publicity. You would think a man who touts his business acumen and success as much as President Trump has, would have at least thought about this unintended consequence.
Additionally, it has been suggested that President Trump picking a fight with Lavar Ball had racist overtures:
“The black man was not appreciative of what the white man did for him and it’s a dog whistle to say the least.”
This doesn’t seem like the President Trump we’ve come to know on Twitter. Instead, as we’ve seen throughout his presidential run and time in office, the President is an equal-opportunity, thin-skinned reactionary when feeling publicly challenged, dismissed or criticized. Every race, gender and religion is a potential target for him, no holds barred. However, these specific comments may have also been red meat for those in his base who are indeed racist.
(For those of you annoyed that I am posting about Trump’s Twitter habits again, I guess be glad I didn’t post about President Trump calling out Al Franken for his sexual misconduct. I would have titled that post “Pot Meet Kettle”.)
(Cross-posted at The Jury Talks Back.)
–Dana
Hello.
Dana (023079) — 11/20/2017 @ 11:56 amthat was the sweetest thing to do, making sure those kids got home for the holidays
they get to have turkey now and be thankful
i know i sure am thankful and not just to God but to President Trump as well
it’s been a fantastic year and that man gets the lion’s share of the credit
happyfeet (28a91b) — 11/20/2017 @ 11:59 am“Communist country” just doesn’t have the same ring to it when they were caught shoplifting at Louis Vuitton.
Extra credit for including the racial blast.
harkin (a9a478) — 11/20/2017 @ 11:59 am@Dana: Hints of dementia. We need a patriot to leak his medical records.
DCSCA (797bc0) — 11/20/2017 @ 12:01 pmPersonally I think giving them a pass is enabling behavior. That would be the least of Trump’s sins. They should have sweated it out a little longer than a few days.
Ben burn (b3d5ab) — 11/20/2017 @ 12:05 pmTrump has a problem. He is dealing with a contradiction:
If he did so much for the basketball players, then keeping them in prison is an injustice; but if keeping them in prison is an injustice he’s saying something bad about the government of China! And he doesn’t want to.
So he says
Very attentive of his writing for Trump to get in that “as it should be.”
Does he believe shoplifting in the United states should also get you 5-10 years in jail??
It’s not a contradiction if he sees everything as who you know.
Sammy Finkelman (02a146) — 11/20/2017 @ 12:14 pmWhen the boys thanked President Trump, they made sure to include “the U.S. government” making this not personal.
President Trump’s position is the boys should really not have been released, but he used his influence as president of the United States, and China’s desire to have some sort of good relationship with the United States while they do nothing much to stop North Korea etc., to get them out, sort of like what might have happened in the 19th century.
LaVar Ball’s position was that nothing much was going to happen to the boys anyway. And besides, victory has a thousand fathers. (you could argue that China did not want the bad publicity anyway)
Most people think that China might very well have held them longer, and that indicates something bad with China.
and act to expand their influence elseshere.
Sammy Finkelman (02a146) — 11/20/2017 @ 12:21 pmDon’t do the crime if you can’t do the time.
mg (60b0f7) — 11/20/2017 @ 12:25 pmBut have a good lawyer and bail bondsman on call.
or
President Trump taking timeout working for the American people to get these international criminals home for the holidays.
I wonder how much Xi thinks Trump owes him?
Ben burn (b3d5ab) — 11/20/2017 @ 12:36 pmHe is thin-skinned. It doesn’t seem to hurt the overall policies he’s enacting though so I have kind of tuned it out. It’s ridiculous! And it’s not strategy, folks, it’s a failing. We always think only people with no faults can achieve fame and fortune, but obviously that’s not so.
The kids ought to be grateful. They will realize that some day. Now they are free to earn millions of dollars and date a Kardashian!
Patricia (5fc097) — 11/20/2017 @ 12:49 pmR.I.P. Della Reese
Icy (b8832b) — 11/20/2017 @ 12:50 pmThe kids were grateful, and they thanked him very nicely, and he said “You’re welcome” very graciously and gave them some fatherly advice. And all was good.
Then LaVar Ball said something stupid and Trump just had to go and be stupider and flush all the fuzzy-cuddly-warm down the toilet. #AlertTheDayCareTeam
nk (dbc370) — 11/20/2017 @ 1:08 pmNever get into a twitter war with someone who stated:
“Back in my heyday, I would kill Michael Jordan one-on-one”
LaVar was once described as a ‘pageant mom’ and that says it all, unless you also want to consider his curious opinion that theft is no big deal.
Wrestling with a pig seems an apt analogy.
harkin (a9a478) — 11/20/2017 @ 1:08 pmThe feds arrested a chicom spy last week. He has probably already landed in his homeland.
mg (60b0f7) — 11/20/2017 @ 1:09 pmDebt Paid.
i think it’s nice for President Trump to highlight the disgusting pettiness of a sleazy-ass like LaVar Ball
and what’s so disgusting is how LaVar raised a dirty low-class thiever!
thanks a lot LaVar great parenting skills lol
happyfeet (28a91b) — 11/20/2017 @ 1:15 pmit’s not just sportstrash check out this loser embarrassing america in Asia too
they must think america sucks so bad cause of all these trashies
but we have to be like President Trump and show compassion I suppose
it’s hard sometimes though to live up to His example
happyfeet (28a91b) — 11/20/2017 @ 1:26 pmI don’t blame Trump for expressing my thoughts as to the stupid dad, and the silly entitled kids who are very lucky they weren’t left there.
But focusing on the story–like the Koi pond fish food box; the December 2016 steak dinner showing “lack of transparency;” Trump’s long neckties; his scotch-taped neckties; his junk food habit; his weight; the water sipping last week–only illustrate how easy it remains for media to dwell on the idiotic. Reuters today: NK ramping up efforts to have a missile read the US mainland.
Harcourt Fenton Mudd (5e0a82) — 11/20/2017 @ 1:51 pmSi tacuisse, philanthropus mansisse.
nk (dbc370) — 11/20/2017 @ 1:55 pmHe has a staff. He has Breitbart, happyfeet, and a whole network of Trumpeters. They’d gladly pig wrestle any pig Trump told them to. He has yet to learn that he needs to leave the pig wrestling to them, and to stay out of the dirt himself. He will probably never learn.
That said, from the snippets I’ve seen about the Ball family, I’m inclined to sympathize with Trump in this case.
kishnevi (158466) — 11/20/2017 @ 2:06 pmAn interesting squabble – Donald Trump vs. LaVar Ball. I have a feeling a big part of the friction stems from the fact that these two shameless self-promoters are so much alike.
MacGruber (15cfac) — 11/20/2017 @ 2:09 pmhttps://www.usni.org/magazines/navalhistory/2015-04/landing-troops-across-rhine
Yes, it’s hard sometimes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=11&v=knc5b6tTFgc
Because it matters.
Steve57 (0b1dac) — 11/20/2017 @ 2:14 pmthe right thing of course would be for LaVar Ball to apologize
happyfeet (28a91b) — 11/20/2017 @ 2:20 pmAlso, ask me about the USN Spitfires of Normandy.
Steve57 (0b1dac) — 11/20/2017 @ 2:22 pmWhen does the right thing happen?
Steve57 (0b1dac) — 11/20/2017 @ 2:24 pmThis will make his base happy.
No, really.
The way he’s selling this — he did these guys a favor, and their ungrateful parent spit in his face. So he’s angry and bitter.
This is *exactly* the world view of a lot of his base with respect to things like Black Lives Matter: in their worldview, BLM is filled with ungrateful people who are spitting in the faces of the hardworking police officers who dedicated their lives to helping them. Trump, by tweeting like this, is tweeting for everyone who is doing good things only to have sand kicked in their face by ungrateful louts.
This isn’t my worldview. But I can see it in a lot of Trumpists — and this behavior of Trump’s will make them happy. He’s just calling the world for what it is, and speaking a truth that for too long has been silenced by the evil forces of political correctness.
aphrael (e0cdc9) — 11/20/2017 @ 2:28 pmwell I just hope LaVar Ball never has a kid what ends up getting thrown in a Chinese jail to where only the president can save him
happyfeet (28a91b) — 11/20/2017 @ 2:28 pm10. Patricia (5fc097) — 11/20/2017 @ 12:49 pm
He just sort of almost said that Senator Jeff Flake was going to vote against his tax bill out of personal animosity or out of craziness.
That’s going to encourage him to vote yes? Flake says he is still studying it and his decision won;t be determined by his att=itude toward Trump.
Susan Collins wants to put back state and local tax deductions and change the corporate tax rate to 22% instead of 20%. I think Trump is stuck on 20% (though he accepted the one-year delay by the Senate, which creates some interesting possibilities)
Sammy Finkelman (02a146) — 11/20/2017 @ 2:31 pmLaVar Ball is a jerk.
Neo (d1c681) — 11/20/2017 @ 2:32 pm“Bei Mir Bistu Shein” (Yiddish: בײַ מיר ביסטו שיין, “To Me You’re Beautiful”)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HT_PClBc8vE
Steve57 (0b1dac) — 11/20/2017 @ 2:34 pmIn these instances, I would agree. These were either in accurately reported, exaggerated, or sensationalized by hungry media. However, the issue in this post is one that the president himself escalated. He uneces made the first shot across the bow and then escalated things when provoked by Lavar Ball.This is on him.
Dana (023079) — 11/20/2017 @ 2:37 pmyou have no love in your heart for our president, Donald Trump
not that I can tell anyhow
happyfeet (28a91b) — 11/20/2017 @ 2:42 pmI made this very point to a friend this morning when I emailed:
Dana (023079) — 11/20/2017 @ 2:49 pmSo who soesnt know what life in a communist country entails. Although china is much more authoritarian now, more like the colonels of nks acquaintance. Back in the day. There wee a mini booklet tying the colonels and Nixon but only the late Christopher hitchens really cared
narciso (d1f714) — 11/20/2017 @ 2:49 pmhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3JETeFJZDa0
Steve57 (0b1dac) — 11/20/2017 @ 3:11 pmI think LaVar (whatever his name is) should apologize to Trump.. After Trump apologizes for assaulting women.. In general. I also think every moronic statement on this blog should be synthesized for outright ass kissing-in the name of TRUE conservatism.
A moron holds the highest office in the land, but can’t get anything done using the Democratic process but argue with civilians.. In his own country.
Of course.. You’re all happy.
Lester Same (4f4825) — 11/20/2017 @ 3:14 pmTrump should have been more sympathetic to the basketball players. They clearly weren’t raised properly.
AZ Bob (f60c80) — 11/20/2017 @ 3:19 pmTrump’s inner child got loose again. Seems to happen a lot. He probably needs a Twitter account where he has to press SEND twice, an hour or more apart.
Kevin M (752a26) — 11/20/2017 @ 3:26 pmThe only problem I have with this post is it took far too many words to point out that Trump was being an asshat.
If they DO get around to impeaching him, it should be for “conduct unbecoming” rather than the dubious “criminal” charges they’ve, ah, trumped up.
Kevin M (752a26) — 11/20/2017 @ 3:28 pmyou have no love in your heart for our president, Donald Trump
Yes, off to Room 101 with Patterico!
Kevin M (752a26) — 11/20/2017 @ 3:33 pmWill charlie rose allow Bannon to interview him?
mg (60b0f7) — 11/20/2017 @ 3:36 pmThe outrage has gone up to eleventy!!!
https://mobile.twitter.com/thehill/status/932737321891454977
narciso (d1f714) — 11/20/2017 @ 3:37 pmHe’s just calling the world for what it is, and speaking a truth that for too long has been silenced by the evil forces of political correctness.
If only I believed that. Yes, there are “evil forces of political correctness”; every censorship movement has evil intent. Yes, there is truth that has been too long silenced as well.
It’s just that Trump would not be my pick to voice it. He’s the kind of personality you want on the opposing side.
Kevin M (752a26) — 11/20/2017 @ 3:41 pmMP: LaVar Ball, you ARE the father!
LB: Who?
Pinandpuller (0957da) — 11/20/2017 @ 3:41 pmThe obvious question arising from this report is, what happens when Mueller fails to meet the deadline Cobb has arbitrarily set for him? If Cobb has bought time with Trump by blowing sunshine up his ass, at some point Trump will stop believing his lawyer’s absurdly copacetic analysis and start believing the people who are warning him about the Gambino-style roll-up under way. That point might come after Thanksgiving, it might come at New Year’s, or perhaps early next year. At some point, Trump is going to blow.
http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2017/11/trump-hasnt-fired-mueller-yet-lawyer-is-blowing-sunshine.html
Ben burn (b3d5ab) — 11/20/2017 @ 3:43 pmUCLA spray some Warmbier on your coach next victory.
Pinandpuller (0957da) — 11/20/2017 @ 3:43 pmAlso, Petterico.. How do you justify “Happy feet”?
Lester Same (4f4825) — 11/20/2017 @ 3:48 pmOr EVERY criticism you’ve leveled at President Obama re: character or competence?
.. And tell us again how Sarah Palin would make a great President or even dog catcher?
Pikachu hates everybody and he has a particular animus toward striong women.
narciso (d1f714) — 11/20/2017 @ 3:55 pmThey’d gladly pig wrestle any pig Trump told them to. He has yet to learn that he needs to leave the pig wrestling to them, and to stay out of the dirt himself. He will probably never learn.
This is almost certainly a message to China.
It’s kind of fun to watch the Trump haters get it hilariously wrong.
As Richard Fernandez said, The torpedo was fired at Trump by the left and missed. As torpedoes do, it kept circling and finally hit Charlie Rose right in the ass.
Just hilarious.
TDS is the gift that keeps on giving.
Mike K (b3dd19) — 11/20/2017 @ 3:56 pmAs a UCLA grad, and someone who finds LaVar Ball entertaining, all I can say about this is ….
YAWN.
It would be hard for me to care less.
Now Charlie Rose OTOH — why do 70+ year old men (I’m not one yet), think that parading naked in front of 20-something females is someone offering an enticement?
shipwreckedcrew (56b591) — 11/20/2017 @ 4:03 pmI see it as a degree of perspective, you would think the fathervwould be more wise than the son. But is near beer
narciso (d1f714) — 11/20/2017 @ 4:04 pmIn other news campbells work with the bureau seems to have gone back ten years
narciso (d1f714) — 11/20/2017 @ 4:07 pmLaVar Ball was the asshole in all of this, not Trump.
gahrie (d51b5b) — 11/20/2017 @ 4:19 pmPot meets Kettle, plus he can’t spell Frankenstein.
DRJ (15874d) — 11/20/2017 @ 4:20 pmIt’s just that Trump would not be my pick to voice it.
He wouldn’t be most people’s first pick. You had the chance to make it Cruz or Rubio, or Hell even Walker. Walker imploded and the Establishment hated Cruz and Rubio more than Trump.
He’s the kind of personality you want on the opposing side.
Normally yes. Unless of course no one else on your side was even willing to fight in the first place.
gahrie (d51b5b) — 11/20/2017 @ 4:23 pmFrom the Urban Dictionary
cornball brother
n pl Cornball Brothers (kôrn’bôl’ brəT͟Hər)
a. An African American male who chooses not to follow the stereotype. This includes, but is not limited to, being educated, well spoken, a role model, a leader, selfless, an upstanding member of the community and above all – humble.
b. life choices include marrying white women, being republican, and not being “down with the cause”.
c. a rare breed of African American males who should be praised, not chastised by their own race.
d. a term where MLK would be rolling over his grave for
1. Dat RG3 got himself a becky. He a cornball brother (brotha) – na’mean?
2. Dat cornball brother (bruva) talk like he white.
Pinandpuller (394863) — 11/20/2017 @ 4:35 pm#rg3 #rob parker #obama #tiger woods #ignorance
by Parker Rob December 14, 2012
What’s the point of your new low, hairpin?
Ben burn (b3d5ab) — 11/20/2017 @ 4:37 pmSometimes a b
Nut instrument is required:
http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/italy-eternal-political-curse-silvio-berlusconi-171115080548786.html
There’s a new detective series murders in barime tests of interest
narciso (d1f714) — 11/20/2017 @ 4:38 pmPatterico — it’s a mistake to take Trump’s comment literally. What he said was merely a way of expressing pique at not having his good deed appreciated. Now, expressing that pique in such colloquial words was not Presidential. OTOH this is an issue where Trump did something that was unambiguously good. And, his critic comes across looking unambiguously foolish and ungrateful. So, maybe Trump wins by making a bigger fuss about this issue.
David in Cal (2b55d5) — 11/20/2017 @ 4:45 pm59. David in Cal (2b55d5) — 11/20/2017 @ 4:45 pm
If you think that Guanxi is good.
In China it probably is. It tempers the dictatorship.
Sammy Finkelman (f07364) — 11/20/2017 @ 4:55 pmWhere was it that I just read that Trump uses twitter like a laser pointer to distract the silly cats?
Seems to be working, around here anyway.
Fred Z (05d938) — 11/20/2017 @ 5:03 pmhttp://nationalpost.com/opinion/conrad-black-trump-is-already-the-most-successful-u-s-president-since-ronald-reagan
Fred Z (05d938) — 11/20/2017 @ 5:50 pmMaybe the squid ink is to hide this:
https://mobile.twitter.com/PoliticalShort/status/925093627415576577
narciso (d1f714) — 11/20/2017 @ 5:58 pmThis is almost certainly a message to China.
The message being I am easily diddled by meaningless gestures
I mean, the fruits of Trump’s meeting with Xi are springing a teenage basketball player out of jail, handing a substantial stake in West Virginia’s infrastructure to China and…..nothing else.
Perhaps o great wise Dr K. you could enlighten us on what Fearless Leader’s great triumph was.
kishnevi (55d84d) — 11/20/2017 @ 6:26 pmnarciso, you seem to be missing the real point of this: Trump is much an inhabitant of the Great Swamp as Hillary or any of the others.
kishnevi (55d84d) — 11/20/2017 @ 6:27 pmReally who had the levers of power for the last eight years,
narciso (d1f714) — 11/20/2017 @ 6:30 pmPerhaps o great wise Dr K. you could enlighten us on what Fearless Leader’s great triumph was.
I doubt it,. You seem a member in good standing of the TDS brigade.
I think the Chinese understand the role of the leader.
The rest I will eave to your imagination.
Mike K (b3dd19) — 11/20/2017 @ 6:30 pmWhat’s the point of your new low, hairpin?
Ben burn (b3d5ab) — 11/20/2017 @ 4:37 pm
LB is a hardcore OG ,not a cornball brother.
When asked at a press conference this week about being an African-American player in the NFL, Redskins rookie sensation Robert Griffin III said he didn’t want to be “defined” by his race and said that some fans and sports writers tended to “put you in a box with other African-American quarterbacks.”
The comments served as a springboard for a discussion Thursday on ESPN’s First Take, prompting commentator Rob Parker to pose this query: “My question, which is just a straight honest question: is he a brother, or is he a cornball brother?”
The question puzzled the other sports pundits on the show, so Parker tried to clarify what he meant.
“Well, [that] he’s black, he kind of does his thing, but he’s not really down with the cause, he’s not one of us,” he said. “He’s kind of black, but he’s not really the guy you’d really want to hang out with, because he’s off to do something else.”
Pressed to further explain his point, Parker continued: “I want to find about him. I don’t know because I keep hearing these things. We all know he has a white fiancee. Then there was all this talk about he’s a Republican, which there’s no information at all. I’m just trying to dig deeper into why he has an issue. Because we did find out with Tiger Woods, Tiger Woods was like, ‘I’ve got black skin, but don’t call me black.’ So people wondered about Tiger Woods.”
Redskins lol
Pinandpuller (394863) — 11/20/2017 @ 6:33 pmWell the last forty five years of interaction have been a mixed blessing the Khmer rouge, the north Koreans the pakistani nuclear program.
narciso (d1f714) — 11/20/2017 @ 6:33 pmI tend to agree with Fred Z that Trump’s tweets are a distraction. To distract us from the fact that he isn’t doing much of anything except play golf and jerk off.
nk (dbc370) — 11/20/2017 @ 6:40 pmOk – the Khmer Rouge started about 45 years ago – moe like 46 years but what do the other three things have to do with either.
North Kore was just re-certified as a state sponser of terror but Tillerson says this doesn’t mean too much and we can still negotiate. I think Kim Jong Un sentenced Donald Trump to death in the meantime.
Sammy Finkelman (57e37d) — 11/20/2017 @ 6:42 pmWe were tied to the Khmer because they were part of the umbrella opposition that Prince sihanouk had in China, yong byon was a,joint China/Soviet collaboration, in return for middlemen for Nixon, Pakistan received technical assistance from China on their nuclear program
narciso (d1f714) — 11/20/2017 @ 6:46 pmThey also contributed to the libyan program
https://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/864124
narciso (d1f714) — 11/20/2017 @ 6:49 pmI think that means there isn’t a great triumph, kishnevi.
DRJ (15874d) — 11/20/2017 @ 6:53 pmNow that’s what our feckless duma does for the most part.
narciso (d1f714) — 11/20/2017 @ 6:56 pm@narciso. Oh yes, all of them were allies of Red China. The Khmer Rouge, whom they stole from the North Vietnamese, Pakistan and North Korea. To which we should add: Burma, and Zimbabwe, probably Rwanda at the time of the genocide in 1994.
Sammy Finkelman (57e37d) — 11/20/2017 @ 7:02 pmNo the last was a Belgian French affair, it does seem the coup has Chinese roots, rakhine province does sit on resources promised to China they held at least one oil concession in Iraq and supported the janjaweed through talisman oil innthe sudan
narciso (d1f714) — 11/20/2017 @ 7:06 pmIt seems the Russians are not as comcerned.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/sputniknews.com/amp/africa/201711171059186674-zimbabwe-africa-investments-crisis/
narciso (d1f714) — 11/20/2017 @ 7:21 pmEven xi did study Marxism back in the lights, I don’t think it really informs his philosophy in the way mao did.
narciso (d1f714) — 11/20/2017 @ 7:25 pmFredZ,
Okay, What exactly is the President trying to distract us from, and why doesn’t he want us to notice??? Do you think that’s a clever strategy we rubes can’t understand, or is it just a fool being a fool?
Dana (023079) — 11/20/2017 @ 7:31 pmPerhaps the whole RussiAn gornisch carp served up courtesy of fusion and crowdstrike, getting the anti Iranian and anti SalAfi coalition in line.
narciso (d1f714) — 11/20/2017 @ 7:37 pmSharif was certainly tied to the Abdullah branch of the family:
https://www.dawn.com/news/1371592
As,one way put it there have been four civil wars in Yemen in his lifetime.
narciso (d1f714) — 11/20/2017 @ 7:42 pmWho can say his true this actually is:
https://mobile.twitter.com/ThomasWictor/status/932777748753367040
narciso (d1f714) — 11/20/2017 @ 7:52 pmHis initial tweet quoted in the post was done because the ball players were black.
Patterico (1d97e4) — 11/20/2017 @ 7:57 pmThat’s just disrespectful to the office of the President.
I love it!
Patterico (1d97e4) — 11/20/2017 @ 8:01 pmI think that means there isn’t a great triumph, kishnevi
The ironic part is, that Dr K recently warned us that we were deluding ourselves because of TDS.
The sad part is, that while libertarian me objects to some of Trump’s agenda on practical and philosophical grounds, and Jewish me has some doubts about some of his supporters, and does not like how, in co-operation with the Left, he has made support of Israel a partisan thing, I am in sympathy with most of the Trumpian goals. But I think he’s such a flawed instrument he will turn out to do more damage than Obama on his most imperious days did.
kishnevi (55d84d) — 11/20/2017 @ 8:08 pmReally, with the sandernista bds brigades swarming over the party platform, tell me more, with the new york Times stigmatizing any opponent however token of the Rhodes road show for having a Jewish surname.
narciso (d1f714) — 11/20/2017 @ 8:12 pmIt was straightforward to reverse much of Carter’s program because the seed bed had not been planted as firmly in the judiciary, it was harder with Clinton for the same reason, but the latter did some feints toward sanity. W wasn’t temperamentally attuned to reverse policies wholesale.
narciso (d1f714) — 11/20/2017 @ 8:17 pmCheney was more dizposed so he became the bste noire, which he relished, in resource devdlopment and foreign affairs
narciso (d1f714) — 11/20/2017 @ 8:19 pmOf course ‘compassionate conservatism’ mandatex that thd same subprime policies conducted under Clinton be continued and even expanded
narciso (d1f714) — 11/20/2017 @ 8:22 pmOf course he was also hamstrung by the Jeffords deal and the likes of mavericks little Camarilla which included Hagel as well as Graham (Who I’ve dubbed goose)
narciso (d1f714) — 11/20/2017 @ 8:26 pmYes, but even Clinton never called for a house in every cooking pot (I don’t remember how GWB phrased it). And Medicare Part D was George’s baby.
It was Alternet that made me realize how antiSemetic the Left was. That was about 2002 or so.
kishnevi (55d84d) — 11/20/2017 @ 8:32 pmTrue but they’ve gone full chtauri since the killings harnessed themselves to yeargh.
narciso (d1f714) — 11/20/2017 @ 8:37 pmKoz kids, yes the Jedi mindtrick worked on e and the gop majority,
narciso (d1f714) — 11/20/2017 @ 8:39 pmAnd since they are on the Katrina template
https://mobile.twitter.com/pspoole/status/932811792866336768
narciso (d1f714) — 11/20/2017 @ 8:45 pmI wonder if they were funded by Prince talal
https://mobile.twitter.com/SethAMandel/status/932761961774841856
narciso (d1f714) — 11/20/2017 @ 8:53 pmhe has made support of Israel a partisan thing,
I call bullshit on this. The left has been anti-Israel since at least 1973.
gahrie (d51b5b) — 11/20/2017 @ 9:01 pmIt’s left unclear but one of the other manned merchant prince’s has influence in academia:
http://www.campus-watch.org/article/id/15699
narciso (d1f714) — 11/20/2017 @ 9:03 pmplease to join Rexy Tillerboobs as he leads Failmerica in celebration of gone-but-never-forgotten trannies
we will now have a moment of silence that we may better hear the nightsong of the tranny angels
happyfeet (28a91b) — 11/20/2017 @ 9:05 pm76. SF: … all of them were allies of Red China. The Khmer Rouge, whom they stole from the North Vietnamese, Pakistan and North Korea. To which we should add: Burma, and Zimbabwe, probably Rwanda at the time of the genocide in 1994.
77. narciso (d1f714) — 11/20/2017 @ 7:06 pm
The hatchets used in the killings were ordered in advance from China.
I don’t think anyone in France or Belgium would have wanted to or dared to plan this. Bill Clinton abandoned the Tutsis in Rwanda – not only didn’t help but didn’t want any other country to, either. Susan Rice later made an excuse for that. And you know it was China that contributed to his 1996 re-election campaign. But these are just signs of possibilities – clues.
The general leading it visited China shortly before. China may not have trusted Mugabe’s wife to maintain the same relationship.
The Burmese government was trying to draw away from China before that – now I think that’s all spoiled. China (and Russia) have vetoed United Nations Security Council resolutions and are arguing nothing’s going on, if I am right.
If China had no interest in Myanmar/Burma they wouldn’t do that, except maybe of course for the fact that they against human rights, and the greater the human rights violation, the more they are against doing anything about it. They’d like to see it tale place and nothing happen.
Besides, mass murder helps combat global warming, or it would except for the burning of villages, but that’s a temporary effect. (I mean, if China bought into that, and there are signs that it has, why would you expect it to take the same approach to reducing carbon emissions?)
They seem to want to gain a special connection to oil and other natural resources, as if expecting a boycott, or a break-down of international free trade, in the future. Otherwise why try to lock up resources? It costs money.
Sammy Finkelman (57e37d) — 11/20/2017 @ 9:09 pm95. The on;y real problems in Puerto Rico are with the wires. PREPA is corrupt. The head of it finally resigned – the Governor claims he didn’t push him out, which is probably true. The danger of exposure pushed him out.
Sammy Finkelman (57e37d) — 11/20/2017 @ 9:12 pm96
Following a sub-thread from the Rutgers thing: in fact, the Donmeh ties to the Young Turks was noted by Gershom Scholem.
And before I hit the hay, a book recommendation, I finishef this tonight : Guelzo: Gettysburg The Last Invasion.
kishnevi (1f8073) — 11/20/2017 @ 9:14 pmnarciso @82. Look at all the countries this writer is siding with. Now Qatar is not being destroyed.
He’s completely pro-Iranian government. Maybe he has to take that line.
The Saudi pilots are proabab;y not just incompetent – Saudii Arabia is not listening to the U.S. military for the most part, and was just bombing anything that might be worth hitting on the theory it can’t hurt and might help, and so what if it kills many uninvolved people?
Sammy Finkelman (57e37d) — 11/20/2017 @ 9:19 pmThe army and militia were mostly trained in those two countries, then again it didn’t take massive amounts of equipment to carry out year zero. And that massacre was a larger manifestation of previous Hutu/tutsi frictions. Somewhat like the anfal echoed other baathisg operation as well as their baathisg golden square predcessors
narciso (d1f714) — 11/20/2017 @ 9:19 pmThere is a degree of sunni zaydi friction going back to the founding of kin don to the first civil e
narciso (d1f714) — 11/20/2017 @ 9:26 pmWar in the 60s. When passer was the great threat, a young prince sultan captained the operation then.
That really is crazy:
http://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-arts-and-culture/books/23393/the-other-secret-jews
narciso (d1f714) — 11/20/2017 @ 9:32 pmTrump never said anything and probably never personally brought up, any of the other people imprisoned in China. Just a few high school basketball players in the news who stole some stuff. America First!
I think the father, or was it someone else) tried to prove that Trump didn’t really care about them by saying he didn’t visit them in prison. I suppose like Jesse Jackson or Jimmy Carter maybe would, and bring them out on his plane.
The father is right that in L.A. this would not be treated as something that could land them in jail for years. It would indeed be more like:
Winona Ryder
and
Lindsay Lohan
Or your average neighborhood offender.
https://www.losangelescriminallawyer.pro/los-angeles-shoplifting.html
Sammy Finkelman (57e37d) — 11/20/2017 @ 9:38 pmI tend to agree with Fred Z that Trump’s tweets are a distraction. To distract us from the fact that he isn’t doing much of anything except play golf and jerk off.
To be fair, that’s more than Obama did.
Kevin M (752a26) — 11/20/2017 @ 9:39 pmHere is one view
narciso (d1f714) — 11/20/2017 @ 9:50 pmhttps://modernhistoryproject2012.wordpress.com/history-of-hutu-tutsi-relations/
103. The Belgians actually created the distinction between Hutus and Tutsis. These were not long term existing tribes. But that was before 1960. I don’t think where the army got trained has that much to do with it – but maybe there is indeed some complicity by some people. But France, or somebody, wanted to intervene and was stopped by President Clinton. He pulled out all the help.
There’s a lot to read about this, and there’s a pre-history involving Uganda – Internet searches turn up several long articles I haven’t read.
The best interpretation that can be said about it is that Clinton didn’t want any U.S. casualties and he didn’t want the United States to look bad by comparison with some other countries, so he didn’t want troops form any other foreign countries to intervene either. A worse interpetation is that he was siding with some people who wanted it to happen. At least the trump administration is not covering up what’s going on in Myanmar.
Sammy Finkelman (57e37d) — 11/20/2017 @ 9:55 pmhttps://www.buzzfeed.com/paulmcleod/she-complained-that-a-powerful-congressman-harassed-her?utm_term=.tx2Y02PJbY#.elLZkgANzZ
mg (60b0f7) — 11/20/2017 @ 10:04 pmThese perverted ingrates must end up behind bars, before someone has the balls unloading bullets in the pervs brain box.
Did Paul Ryan get a hand job for covering up for Conyers?
mg (60b0f7) — 11/20/2017 @ 10:08 pmhttp://dailycaller.com/2017/11/20/revealed-top-democrat-paid-off-sexual-harassment-accuser-with-27k-in-taxpayer-money/
mg (60b0f7) — 11/20/2017 @ 10:12 pmAmericans need to disinfect America by removing all perverts from office.
These are not the jobs we want our elected officials doing. Off with his penis.
We are on the road to term limits.
mg (60b0f7) — 11/20/2017 @ 10:18 pmThe ho’s are coming to conyers defense!
no ho's (b22581) — 11/20/2017 @ 10:35 pmHow does a President end up in this kind of argument?
Steve57 (0b1dac) — 11/20/2017 @ 10:38 pmIt’s unseemly.
Steve57 (0b1dac) — 11/20/2017 @ 10:40 pmYes the b-ball players were jerkoffs,
Steve57 (0b1dac) — 11/20/2017 @ 10:42 pmno trumpers hate the presidents character, yet republicans are unwillingly able to charter a course of conservatism.
mg (60b0f7) — 11/20/2017 @ 11:25 pmTrump and the silent majority will not be going away.
Probably only thing I hate is hate. It will eat your soul, if you hold onto it. Happy Thanksgiving, everyone.
Steve57 (0b1dac) — 11/21/2017 @ 1:51 amI also believe in tipping big.
and tipping.
Steve57 (0b1dac) — 11/21/2017 @ 2:23 amSomeday your waitress could save your life.
Steve57 (0b1dac) — 11/21/2017 @ 2:27 amShe could be working her way through medical school.
Steve57 (0b1dac) — 11/21/2017 @ 2:32 amPsalm 107
Steve57 (0b1dac) — 11/21/2017 @ 3:01 amhttp://vanderburg.org/etc/black_marigolds.html
And sometimes we look to the end of the tale that
there should be marriage-feasts, and find only, as it
were, black marigolds and a silence.
—Azeddin el Mocadecci
To the of time.
Steve57 (0b1dac) — 11/21/2017 @ 3:19 amA waitress did save my life
mg (60b0f7) — 11/21/2017 @ 3:40 amshe is my wife
I don’t think a finer poem has been written. But what do I know.
Steve57 (0b1dac) — 11/21/2017 @ 3:54 amI miss clinton barking…
mg (60b0f7) — 11/21/2017 @ 3:55 amI rest my case. And congratulations sir.
Steve57 (0b1dac) — 11/21/2017 @ 3:59 amBiff Tannen. Non-fiction.
noel (b4d580) — 11/21/2017 @ 4:07 amBut I think he’s such a flawed instrument he will turn out to do more damage than Obama on his most imperious days did.
I thunk that would be hard to do and I think you are blinded by your TDS but we will see.
Mike K (b3dd19) — 11/21/2017 @ 6:14 amTake this a few steps further… http://www.newsweek.com/how-murderer-charles-manson-and-donald-trump-used-language-gain-followers-717399?utm_campaign=NewsweekTwitter&utm_source=Twitter&utm_medium=Social
Colonel Haiku (65f4ca) — 11/21/2017 @ 6:16 amBreaking news! Donald Trump is a buffoon!
And it ain’t even early February yet…
Colonel Haiku (65f4ca) — 11/21/2017 @ 6:23 amA blunt instrument which is what is required in this day and age.
narciso (d1f714) — 11/21/2017 @ 6:28 amYou have a point.
But no one’s freedom and no one’s life hangs in the balance of the decisions LaVar Ball makes at his job. LaVar Ball can be petty without me caring much because he is not working on my behalf and his scope of responsibility is limited to his own business. LaVar Ball isn’t launching drones or tomahawk missiles.
Trump saying Ball’s son belongs in a Chinese prison is indeed something any sane father would be upset about.
Dustin (ba94b2) — 11/21/2017 @ 6:39 amIt’s not only that even I would not lower myself to squabbling with a POS like LaVar Ball in public, let alone whether a President should. What worries me is that Trump seems to have forgotten that the kids had thanked him very nicely and that he had responded very graciously and they were all good. Dementia?
nk (dbc370) — 11/21/2017 @ 6:48 amI’ve changed my mind on whether Trump was a net-good. His judicial appointments will change our lives for the better, relative to Hillary. Otherwise, it’s very clear Trump is a disaster for conservatives. Not just long term political price, but his direct actions on Obamacare, taxes, spending, foreign policy, law and order, amnesty are all poor.
I think TDS is a much more apt term for Trump supporters who are so deranged by defensiveness they cannot even comprehend criticism or respond to it intelligently. But of course Trump is criticized! The nation didn’t consent to be governed by him! Millions more voters rejected him than supported him, and Trump himself claimed the election was rigged. Trump worked so hard to undermine the legitimacy of the election so why should we respect his presidency? As America continues to criticize Trump, his supporters continue to pretend this completely reasonable way of things is ‘deranged.’ They liken this to ‘Bush Derangement Syndrome’ as though the most obnoxious and deranged Bush critic wasn’t Donald Trump. No shame, no sense.
Dustin (ba94b2) — 11/21/2017 @ 6:50 amMr. nk you did not clicker the link
Mr. Trump did not do any forgets
he pointed out quite correctly how ill-mannered the filthy sportstrash were behaving even after he busted them out of jail for stealing stuff
happyfeet (28a91b) — 11/21/2017 @ 6:51 amIts also illustrative, perhaps, of older (Gen-X and back) black Californians (LaVar B. is a contemporary of the NWA crowd) still having their party biases dating back from the Nixon/Reagan halcyon era, and the kids, even while adopting the BLM pose, probably see some value in some of the Trump nationalist agenda, mainly to neuter Mexican comeuppance.
Thank you, nk, you may have also proved my assertion that POS has replaced that one word and, maybe the new vernacular term in SE Pennsylvania is different, but nonetheless thats why the Rev. hasnt heard the n word in a while.
urbanleftbehind (5eecdb) — 11/21/2017 @ 6:54 amI thought “thug” was the new n-word, if that’s what you mean, ulb. To me POS is just what it says — piece of sh!t. I would not apply it to the homeless lady who panhandles at the 7/11 parking lot but I would to the thug who steals her money.
nk (dbc370) — 11/21/2017 @ 7:00 amTrue. Trump got the thanks he wanted. Want to shut Mr. Ball down?
Well A) Why? and B) just reply to the son saying ‘you’re welcome and thanks for the note!’ and C) WHY?
There is no reason why Trump should care that somebody tweeted something to him. There’s barely any reason why Trump should even notice. By punching down, Trump just brought this guy to the level of the presidency and in most of the nation’s view, the presidency isn’t winning this contest. Meanwhile Ball is laughing all the way to the bank.
Dustin (ba94b2) — 11/21/2017 @ 7:03 amOne G.O.P. operative in close contact with the Trump White House characterized Mueller’s approach as “working through the staff like Pac-Man” and dismissed the idea that Trumpworld is undaunted. “Of course they are worried,” the Republican said. “Anybody that ever had the words ‘Russia’ come out of their lips or in an e-mail, they’re going to get talked to. These things are thorough and deep. It’s going to be a long winter.”
One source told the Post that Mueller is executing a “a classic Gambino-style roll-up” that “will reach everyone in this administration.
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2017/11/white-house-lawyer-ty-cobb-trump-mueller-russia
Ben burn (b3d5ab) — 11/21/2017 @ 7:04 amMy mistake, happyfeet. I had read the warm-fuzzy-cuddly stuff first.
nk (dbc370) — 11/21/2017 @ 7:04 amPOS started as a designation among law enforcement/first responders and spread from there, although if mapped on the background of the lower 48, it would look like Pop in a sea of Soda. Thug much lost much of its sting once I saw a lot of people wearing this T H U G t-shirt with definintions below it e.g. Urban Dictionary around River Oaks Mall and places like that i.e. North Riverside Mall.
urbanleftbehind (5eecdb) — 11/21/2017 @ 7:08 amKushner has long denied any collusion with the Russian government, which is suspected of targeting the 2016 election, but his newspaper proved a favored conduit for hacks, which the U.S. intelligence community says were carried out on Kremlin orders. The Observer was not the only outlet that received exclusive access to Guccifer 2.0 documents — or those from other outlets such as DC Leaks, widely believed to be part of the same campaign — but it was the only one owned by someone who was part of the Trump campaign.
Ben burn (b3d5ab) — 11/21/2017 @ 7:09 amhttps://foreignpolicy.com/2017/11/17/how-jared-kushners-newspaper-became-a-favorite-outlet-for-wikileaks-election-hacks/
He’s just not that smart.
Steve57 (0b1dac) — 11/21/2017 @ 7:34 amThe American government should offer assistance to Americans who are in foreign countries and need help. We have embassies around the world to offer appropriate assistance. These young men are right to thank Trump because they got far better treatment from Trump than most Americans would get.
I don’t think Trump should have intervened unless there was a clear injustice, such as these young men had been arrested illegally or on bogus charges. But, by all accounts, they did what they were charged with. They, their schools, and their families should have had to deal with the consequences of their behavior, with appropriate U.S. Embassy assistance. Why should they get special assistance when most Americans in foreign countries are lucky to get embassy assistance, let alone Trump’s help?
But I understand why this happens. Everything is PR for Trump. He has no clue about how government works.
DRJ (15874d) — 11/21/2017 @ 7:36 amIf you say so.
Steve57 (0b1dac) — 11/21/2017 @ 7:38 amDRJ’s got the unique take that on second glance makes the most sense.
Why is Trump bragging about pulling strings to get admitted criminals off the hook? Because they are criminals who appear on Tee Vee?
Dustin (ba94b2) — 11/21/2017 @ 7:41 am148
He’s distracting cats with tweets…S’all good….genius!
Ben burn (b3d5ab) — 11/21/2017 @ 7:43 amSorry to disagree, Dustin and DRJ. This is Communist China we’re talking about. Their “criminal justice system” is as trustworthy as their $35.00 Rolexes.
nk (dbc370) — 11/21/2017 @ 7:46 amIt was brilliant for Mr. Trump to expose (yet again) the petty weirdness of nevertrump.
Cause demonstrating how petty and low class his critics are does a lot to mitigate the contrived and empty sleaze-foggery what nevertrump and their propaganda slut media work so hard to manufacture.
I love how smart he is – I have to be honest about that.
It gives me hope for a better tomorrow!
happyfeet (28a91b) — 11/21/2017 @ 7:49 amThe site continues with the trivial while there are a tremendous series of stories on Uranium One being published over the last 3-4 days.
Oh well.
shipwreckedcrew (56b591) — 11/21/2017 @ 7:57 am146 — I think any US President who found themselves meeting with the Chinese President at the same time 3 members of a prominent US College basketball team were sitting in a Chinese jail would have acted the same as Trump acted. The only difference is the back-and-forth on Twitter that has followed.
Twitter is just Trump’s thing. He found it useful to get around the media, and he’s continuing to use it in the same fashion, for good or ill.
So what? Its not going to change. Its the “new normal.”
shipwreckedcrew (56b591) — 11/21/2017 @ 8:01 amHey, c’mon now. Even the trivial, mundane, repetitive, tedious, teethgrinding stuff has a purpose.
Turn, turn, turn…
Colonel Haiku (65f4ca) — 11/21/2017 @ 8:03 amShippyshareit!
Ben burn (b3d5ab) — 11/21/2017 @ 8:08 amBall and I agree..What has Trump done for me?
Ben burn (b3d5ab) — 11/21/2017 @ 8:10 amIn my experience, “ghetto” is the adjective of choice.
That’s so ghetto of her! is not a compliment.
Cause demonstrating how petty and low class his critics are does a lot
You meant to say, demonstrating how petty and low class Trump is.
He’s pretty ghetto himself.
BTW, it’s my understanding that Trump’s initial tweet complaining that he hadn’t been thanked came while the miscreants were still flying back to the US, and they did indeed read thank you statements (probably prepared by university flacks) pretty much at the first actual opportunity to do so.
kishnevi (bb03e6) — 11/21/2017 @ 8:19 amNonono President Trump’s a class act all the way Mr. kishnevi
this is why nevertrump has no choice but to go low all the time
over and over again
happyfeet (28a91b) — 11/21/2017 @ 8:23 amhttps://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-11-21/tax-loopholes-for-wall-street-s-wealthiest-loom-in-house-bill
But you knew this…
Ben burn (b3d5ab) — 11/21/2017 @ 8:34 amTurn, Turn, TurnBurn, Burn, BurnTo everything (burn, burn, burn)
Colonel Haiku (65f4ca) — 11/21/2017 @ 8:44 amThere is a reason (burn, burn, burn)
And a time to every purpose, under heaven
A time to be born, a time to die
A time to tell truth, a time to lie
A time to b*tch, a time to moan
A time to laugh, a time to chuckle
To everything (burn, burn, burn)
There is a season (burn, burn, burn)
And a time to every purpose, under heaven
A time to break up, a time to tear down
A time to dance, a time to mince
A time to chuck away stones, a time to throw teh stones together
To everything (lbturn, burn, burn)
There is a season (burn, burn, burn)
And a time to every purpose, under heaven
A time of rage, a time of hate
A time of war, a time to fight
A time you may embrace, young girls you will refrain from embracing
To everything (burn, burn, burn)
There is a season (burn, burn, burn)
And a time to every purpose, under heaven
A time to gain, a time to grab
A time to rend, a time to tear
A time for dissent, a time to listen
A time to read important stuff that we’re missin’
Any U.S. President would be mentioning the widow of dissident Liu Xiaobo or the 90 Americans held prisoner in China, most on flimsy charges (because nk is right about the Chinese justice system). Why put these boys ahead of the other Americans? To curry favor with the black community?
DRJ (15874d) — 11/21/2017 @ 9:16 amI wish that Trump weren’t so thin-skinned and that he stayed off Twitter. However, the idiot ball players should just shut up and play ball, and thank God that the President and State Dept. were able to address their alleged criminal acts with the Chinese. Surely they can wait until they get back to the US to shoplift their Louis Vuitton sunglasses.
ROCHF (877dba) — 11/21/2017 @ 10:14 amI still say if it’s not to curry favor with the black community, it’s also Bobby Knight asking a solid for his former go to IU point guard (and current UCLA) coach Steve Alford. Alford has the blemish of dragging his feet with regard to a violent (not some mattress girl he said/she said) rapist (Pierre Pierce) on one of his Iowa Hawkeye teams.
urbanleftbehind (bca9b7) — 11/21/2017 @ 10:30 am@ DRJ,
It wouldn’t seem to make sense for a president to step in and help these 3 students on account of them being black and then quickly undo any good PR with that community by getting into a slapfest with one of their parents because they didn’t publicly express their gratefulness. But then, this is Trump we’re talking about. What may have been a political tactic was quickly undone by his own insatiable ego. Sounds very plausible.
With that, however, prominent UCLA basketball players are a far more glamorous subject to publicly go to bat for than a dissident’s widow or photographer. Even Sandy Phan-Gillis is not a household name. Plus, the 3 players didn’t pose the risk for the president that going to bat for controversial figures would have. Also, given that it is China, they’re going to also go for the easy targets for some PR that wouldn’t threaten their hardline stand against accused spies and dissidents. The players didn’t represent a large threat like the others are seen to have done.
Dana (023079) — 11/21/2017 @ 10:52 amThe site continues with the trivial while there are a tremendous series of stories on Uranium One being published over the last 3-4 days.
Oh well.
shipwreckedcrew (56b591) — 11/21/2017 @ 7:57 am
Well, gosh, I’ll just have to try harder to meet your standard of what you believe to be serious matters.
Dana (023079) — 11/21/2017 @ 10:53 am161. DRJ:
164. Dana
It wouldn’t be to curry favor with the black community. It would be to curry favor with sports fans or basketball fans, and also because that made the news and had happened just then, so a lot of people knew about it.. And that also may be why he knew about it.
Donald Trump also might not really have been aware of other cases, although he probably had an opportunity to find out if he was interested in that sort of thing. Prisoners must have been mentioned at least in passing in some of his briefing materials.
Once having done this, he wanted to get real credit for it, and thought he had a point about ungratefulness. Since they came form a community where nearly nobody voted for him.
These boys, by the way, won’t be playing basketball for awhile, since they’ve been suspended from the team. Maybe next year – this shouldn’t be a lifetime ban.
Sammy Finkelman (57e37d) — 11/21/2017 @ 12:29 pmApropos of nothing, the US just broke ground for it’s first Army base in Israel.
About d@mned time. We have to stick together.
Also, Haifa is a d@mned goo port visit.
Steve57 (0b1dac) — 11/21/2017 @ 10:50 pmSplodey heads exploding, Steve. Did BO have to approve it?
Pinandpuller (dd846b) — 11/21/2017 @ 10:52 pmhttp://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/235696
IsraelNationalNews.com
[Yisrael Bardugo]
Spotlight
‘Huge opportunity to escape two-state solution paradigm’
Now if we could only open one in Jordan.
Steve57 (0b1dac) — 11/21/2017 @ 10:53 pmYeah, why should only Israeli soldiers be the ones getting killed by Palestinian suicide bombers?
nk (dbc370) — 11/21/2017 @ 10:53 pmI like Jordan.
http://www.firstclasstravel.de/destinations/jordan-hotels-and-roundtrips/aqaba-hotels-at-the-red-sea.html
Steve57 (0b1dac) — 11/21/2017 @ 10:58 pmnk, I take it you’ve never been to Haifa.
It’s to die for.
Steve57 (0b1dac) — 11/21/2017 @ 11:00 pmPractice, nk. Train like you fight.
Steve57 (0b1dac) — 11/21/2017 @ 11:04 pmI would train to fight for Haifa just for s***s and grins.
Steve57 (0b1dac) — 11/21/2017 @ 11:15 pmRules for Going to a Gun fight
In civilian circles a firefight is known as a gunfight, so quite naturally the very first and most important rule when going to a gunfight are:
1. Have a gun.
1.1 Preferably, have at least two guns.
All additional rules are supplemental to that first rule.
2. Bring all of your friends who have guns.
2.1 Preferably, they will all have at least two guns.
3. Anything worth shooting is worth shooting twice.
3.1 Ammo is cheap. Life is expensive.
3.2 There’s no additional paperwork for shooting someone more than once.
3.3 Two in the chest, one in the head is not a bad plan
4. Only hits count.
4.1 The only thing worse than a miss is a slow miss.
5. If your shooting stance is good, you’re probably not moving fast enough or using cover correctly.
6. In ten years nobody will remember the details of caliber, stance or tactics.
6.1 They will remember who lived.
7. Proximity negates skill. Distance is your friend.
7.1 Lateral and diagonal movements are preferred.
8. If you are not shooting, you should be doing something else.
8.1 Communicating, reloading or running are the preferred things.
9. Accuracy is relative: most combat shooting standards will be more dependent on the “pucker factor” than on the inherent accuracy of the gun.
9.1 Use a gun that works every time.
9.2 All skill is in vain when an Angel pisses in the flintlock of your musket.
10. Someday someone may kill you with your own gun.
10.1 If they do, they should have to beat you to death with it because it is empty.
11. Always cheat, always win.
11.1 The only unfair fight is the one you lose.
12. Have a plan.
12.1 Have a back-up plan, because the first one won’t work.
12.2 If you find yourself in a fair fight, you didn’t plan your mission properly.
13. Use cover or concealment as much as possible.
14. Flank your adversary when possible.
14.1 Protect your own flank.
15. Don’t drop your guard.
16. Always perform a tactical reload and then threat scan 360 degrees.
17. Watch their hands. Hands kill.
17.1 In God we trust. Everyone else, keep your hands where I can see them.
18. Decide to be aggressive enough, quickly enough.
19. The faster you finish the fight, the less shot you will get.
20. Be polite. Be professional.
20.1 Have a plan to kill everyone you meet.
22. Do not attend a gunfight with a handgun whose caliber does not start with a “4”.
23. Nothing handheld is a reliable stopper, even if it does start with a “4”.
Pinandpuller (f2928d) — 11/22/2017 @ 2:17 amIf an angel pisses on my musket I’ll pick up a rock. I went through SERE school with Marines an SEALs. And no I’m not tough.
Steve57 (0b1dac) — 11/22/2017 @ 3:00 amMy DI would want nothing less.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_q5PPQUuLFI
PRESSURE POINT (REVISED 1990)
Steve57 (0b1dac) — 11/22/2017 @ 3:03 am@177 Steve57
Tough Enough The Fabulous Thunderbirds
Pinandpuller (f2928d) — 11/22/2017 @ 4:02 amhttp://fox8.com/2017/11/21/u-s-navy-blue-angels-in-cleveland-to-prep-for-2018-air-show/
Steve57 (0b1dac) — 11/22/2017 @ 4:32 amIf any angel passes my musket. It could happen.
Steve57 (0b1dac) — 11/22/2017 @ 4:37 amThe quickest reload is a second gun.
Steve57 (0b1dac) — 11/22/2017 @ 4:47 amhttp://www.businessinsider.com/john-kellys-speech-about-marines-in-ramadi-2013-6
Steve57 (0b1dac) — 11/22/2017 @ 4:56 amOr maybe maybe a Marine.
Steve57 (0b1dac) — 11/22/2017 @ 5:37 amDetails details:
http://dailycaller.com/2017/11/21/exclusive-central-figure-in-backdoor-overture-request-denies-that-russian-official-sought-trump-meeting
narciso (d1f714) — 11/22/2017 @ 5:40 amMaybe the triumph of pragmatism
https://spectator.org/the-ultimate-argument-for-roy-moore/
narciso (d1f714) — 11/22/2017 @ 5:47 amThat increase to a 280 character limit was a clever ploy by Twitter to allow Trump even more opportunity to stick his foot in his mouth.
dlm (a4eb00) — 11/22/2017 @ 3:59 pm