Trump’s Answer to the Drip, Drip, Drip Russiagate Attacks?
SMACK SYRIA!!!
(Duh!!!)
Totally in character.
Give a bully large money; he uses it to defeat everybody he can with all means at his disposal…especially people who oppose him.
Give him hugely destructive weaponry?
Ditto.
Squared.
Cubed, even.
You wanna play politics? I got yer “politics.” Right here!!!!
I already hear the shuffling of nervous so-called progressive/liberal feet. The same shuffling that I heard when Bush II’s bloody war started.
Shame!!!
We are not the world’s policeman!!!
Hell…we can’t even police ourselves.
RESIST, goddammit!!!
RESIST!!!
AG
P.S. My two comments on Booman’s post Trump Strikes Syria pertain:
The overarching question:
How does Russia react?
and
The statement “Evidence that the Assad regime did what we’re accusing them of doing” followed by the words “I don’t doubt it” is frightening, Booman. Just who is going to present this “evidence,” and are they in any way connected with the people who presented the “evidence” of WMDs in Iraq as an excuse to go to war there?
Those are two rhetorical questions, of course. U.S. Intelligence is going to present the evidence, and they are the same people who hornswoggled us into Bush II’s catastrophe.
And you “don’t doubt it!!!???”
Wow!!!
This is deja vue all over again.
Twice!!!
#1-The runup to the Iraq War
and
#2- I also seem to remember something about the impossibility of “proving” anything about the last chemical attacks in Syria.
Too many possible suspects.
Do you remember that?
Please.
Here we go again…
P.P.S. How does Russia react?
US air strikes in Syria latest: Russia suspends agreement that prevents direct conflict with American forces.
How else?
With NATO holding military massive “exercises” all along the Eastern European borders?
How else?
Trump thumps the drippers.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch:
Trump Welcomes Chinese President Xi Jinping At Mar-A-Lago
NPR-14 hours ago
and
Trump accept’s Xi’s invitation to visit China: Xinhua
CNBC-2 hours ago
And the beat goes on.
AG
I blame Democratic hysteria and this DNC witch hunt. As I said elsewhere, now Trump has to prove he’s not Putin’s puppet by taking chances with our security.
It all goes back to the Democratic party’s illegal unconstitutional attempts to overthrow the election and install Hillary Clinton. I’m thoroughly disgusted and last Tuesday refused to participate in our local primary. The Republicans were unopposed and I refus3e to vote for ANY Democrat until the Party is purged of Clintonites and other traitors.
Yup.
AG
None of this has anything to do with Russia, Assad, chemical weapons, or Donald Trump.
This is all the fault of Democratic Democrats being Democrats.
Hilarious analysis.
No, not Democrats being democrats. Democrats channeling Joe McCarthy. I lived through those years and it wasn’t pretty. it’s no prettier today.
I suppose as Democrats morph into Republicans, we can expect more of the same. Lower business taxes, end entitlements, free trade, states rights, Communist Conspiracy… Oh, yeah, that was last year’s campaign.
As usual, all one needs to do to see where the PermaGov media are generally standing on any important issue is to look at the Google News “Top Stories.”
Here they are, as of 11;40AM, EST, 4/7/17:
As can be easily seen if you have been watching them for any length of time since Trump was elected president, this may be the very first time that there have been no snarky twistings of Trump’s actions. The top line actually pictures Trump as having tweaked the Russian lion’s tail.
Neutral like a motherfucker in comparison!!!
And…again possibly for the first time…no biased headlines from either WAPO or the NY Times. Just a bottom-of-the-pile, matter-of-fact WAPO statement about what happened.
The NY Times and WAPO have been the lead media actors in the anti-Trump, Russiagate drip, drip, drip.
Suddenly?
Silent.
I am sure their controllers are hiding in the bushes, waiting to asee how this one breaks.
So far?
No good anti-Trump opening.
Trump wins at least this news cycle.
Watch.
AG
Although I hate to further antagonize the kneejerk anti-Paulists here, I am going to do so anyway.
The first negative reaction to trump’s Syria actions from a major U.S. politician?
Step right this way, folks.
Right this way.
You can’t get more accurate or matter of fact than that.
It’s the law, folks.
It’s the law.
Of course…DemRat and RatPub presidents have been breaking that law for about 40 years, but hey…gotta start somewhere.
Right?
Riiiiight!!!
AG
P.S. He’ll probably get swamped in the war fever, but his act stands.
War fever like the following. From the execrable Fox News:
His act stands tall.
Fan them flames, assholes.
Fan them flames.
AG
Why bother with:
It’s well established that a President doesn’t need such authorization and hasn’t for decades. Congress gave up that power in a variety of ways, and as no effort has been made to take it back — the Constitution be damned — to point that out in any specific incident is bloviating. While Congress generally supports such requests, there’s risk in the process if it gets slowed down enough, the flimsiness of the case for war will be seen by more people. And in the rare instances where Congress balks (ie – Obama over Libya), the President has to scramble for another way to get his war on and that makes him look weak and opens him to criticism.
Frightening and possibly revealing. What else in real time did he have “no doubt” about that proved to be wrong? (Other than Hillary will win and win big which was properly documented before the fact.) The 2013 CW attack in Syria? (At least at that time Assad had CWs.) Libya and Iraq?
I’m reminded of that period in the weeks/months after Nixon resigned (abdicated?). Suddenly most people were from MA and hadn’t voted for the creep. After the fact, lots of people lie. 90% of USians believed the massing of the Iraq army on the KSA border and babies tossed out of incubators in Kuwait. Afterwards, how many people admitted that they’d been suckers for cheap propaganda?
Oh, and “no doubt” that Putin/Russia stole Podesta and DNC emails and in all sorts of other undetected ways interfered with the US 2016 election. (That must explain why his “no doubt” about the election outcome was subverted.)
Here’s the “no doubt” Assad gassed his own people narrative:
The alternate narrative #1:
Or an agricultural chemical accident and the terrorists exploited the accident. (Nice to have a cadre of pro-AQ propaganda filmmakers on hand to take advantage of serendipitous opportunities. Or, or, or …
Yup.
ASG
Compare the 3:25PM Google Top News with the one above.
Apparently the Times received its marching orders from above:
Like dat
Really?
After weeks and weeks of “Trump is Russia’s spokesperson!!!” shit?
I guess they figure the rubes will buy anything.
And of course…
On the evidence of their own many successful bullshit tosses…the most successful of all being that they remained “America’s paper of record” even after Judith Miller CIA-ed them right into the Iraq buildup hype with her yellowcake routine…they are probably right.
The rubes will buy anything.
The only question that remains is this…are there enough “rubes” left after all of the lying from all sides of every question to make a majority?
And a folow-up question.
If there aren’t? Then what will they do?
The iron fist comes out of the polyester media glove they’ve been wearing?
I dunno.
Could be…
We shall see.
Soon enough.
Let us pray.
Or be preyed upon.
Later…
AG
I know this is an extremely unpopular take, but as an old US Navy engineer, I have to ask the question, “Why did only half the Tomahawks hit their targets?” Lousy missiles that failed? Or shot down? Also, Is there anyone left in the Bureau to ask these questions? Or have they all been replaced by contractors whose only concern is profits? “Don’t worry, Admiral! Just buy twice as many missiles!”
I know most of you undoubtedly view my (Civil) service with the Navy as being akin to a being a Mafia hitman’s armorer, but old habits die hard.
And where did the others end up? Playgrounds for the kids to have something new to climb on?
At $1.6 million a pop have to expect that half of them will be duds. Missiles with a 1% failure rate cost $5 million each (well worth the price whenever very few launches are possible.).
Inflation. I think they started out as $100K. Or am I thinking about Harpoon.
If we have to go to war with Russia, sobeit. We’ve lived with that assumption ever since the ’50s.
But why now? Over something so unrelated to our national interest? We expected it to be over Europe, but over which bloodthirsty fanatic rules Syria, the Marxist puppet or the religious megalomaniac? We head to nuclear war over that?
Speak for yourself — I’ve never lived with that assumption.
If humans are dumb enough to wipe out their specie, that’s one thing, but all the other critters in the world shouldn’t have to pay for our stupidity. If they do, all the religious and warmongering wackos can forget about heaven.
http://finance.yahoo.com/m/e6d40b0a-a419-34a3-aa9e-d62f8886d625/russian-warship-moves-toward.html
Nice. Sooner than we think.
That’s fine. Syria allows Russian vessels in its waters.
Not be overlooked is that Putin and his team have sixteen years experience in these matters. He’s already been through dealing with three administrations of novices and/or cowboy jerks. He/they aren’t about to lose their cool.
You never saw two chicken hearted bullies goad each other into a fight in a schoolyard? Neither one wants it but they can’t back down.
I think it’s a testosterone thing. Testosterone is a wonderful hormone that makes muscles grows and gives strength and stamina, makes you almost impervious to pain, hence it’s use by body builders and fighters. However, mentally, it makes one pugnacious and touchy.
Trump and Putin are schoolyard bullies.
Nonsense. Putin is far more level-headed and impressive in his intelligence, knowledge, abilities and self-confidence. Schoolyard bullies, or corp boardroom bullies like the Donald, usually have few of those positive qualities and have a rather low self-esteem, necessitating a very strong overreaction when they feel slighted or insulted.
Don’t expect Putin to overreact as the Donald did. But don’t expect him not to react in some way either, perhaps down the line a bit.
Keyword being “usually”. I have known bullies that were very intelligent. They just had some psychological quirks. And they would literally eat shit for a stronger boy that beat them.
Putin has proven himself to be much more than just a bully, Voice. He has survived and prospered in a vicious kakistocracy/kleptocracy for 12 years as president…and decades before…using the techniques he learned in the KGB and martial arts to quell all comers while simultaneously amassing a fortune that is rumored to be one of the largest in the world.
He’s not a “bully;” he’s a stone killer.
Trump pales in comparison.
Now…Trump’s military advisors?
McMasters and Mattis?
If Trump can pay attention long enough to actually listen to them?
They look like pretty tough cookies themselves. Not dummies, either. Not by a long shot.
We shall see…
Discount Russia at your own peril. This isn’t some nutcase Kim Il Jong type we’re talking about, it’s a master of the international violence hustle.
So far…
AG
The two are not incompatible.
I don’t discount Putin’s ability, but he’s not mr. niceguy (as you said).
Is that your opinion/conclusion based on your own observations of these two characters as they’ve appeared on camera and careful reading of accurate reports on them? Or are you just repeating what “everybody says?”
Since the first 8/15 GOP debate, I have, unfortunately, observed Trump. Beginning two months before that I noted his antics. Until then, I’d never paid any mind to the man. What I’ve seen is that he’s not a one-note bully. He punches back at those that he perceives as bullying him and usually punches back harder than what he’s receiving. When that works, he keeps punching. When it doesn’t, he drops that fight. He also goes after those that have something he wants/needs if there isn’t another way to get it, but he’s savvy enough not to take them all on at the same time.
Examples: He took on Jeb first and to a lesser extent Rubio. Why? I’m going to complete this analysis as a response to my comment in my Secret Sauce diary because it’s related to that and is instructive.
Twenty year old men and juicers have lots of testosterone. Seventy year old, overweight men, not so much.
How have you come to know Putin so well? Have you watched him in interviews and at other public appearances? His body posture, facial expressions, and vocal tone doesn’t vary widely from one forum to another. Ever seen him lashing out for no damn good reason? Shifty eyes or obvious evasion attempts? Droning on in an effort not to be properly responsive? How many generic bullies are always calm, measured, and yet resolute across a wide range of appearances? Not difficult to find numerous examples of Trump and Clinton lasing out and to my eyes that’s arrogant bullying.
I’m not going to pretend to know if Putin is excessively corrupt, greedy, and has a penchant for inflicting violence on others. However, evidence of the latter sounds an awful lot like the “Clinton body count” garbage. I do note that he hasn’t invaded another country, much less unilaterally invaded one, and has only responded to appeals for help from very long-standing allies — South Ossetia, Crimea, and Syria — all of which were under attack from western powers. And rejected the appeal for overt assistance from the ethnically Russians in eastern Ukraine that have been under assault from the neo-Nazis in western Ukraine.
My take is that he and/or his close associates are much better and longer term strategic thinkers than anything we’ve seen from leaders in this country for at least four decades. That combined with being as smart and probably smarter than most US leaders probably galls them. (Merkel appears to be at Putin’s level on both measures, but she’s not culturally provincial like Putin which is a major and very negative blindspot for him.)
One last point — and it’s possibly why the Alt-Right doesn’t hate Putin and why they were responsive to Trump’s make nice with Russia stance — Putin is first a nationalist. I’m contrasting that with empire builders. That has become so embedded in how we see ourselves and place in the world, that our global military footprint and wars seem natural to, and therefore are unquestioned by most. Hence, Trump launches cruise missiles in Syria and the never-Trumpers and neo-con Democrats swoon.
Who said and when:
Yes, it is based on my observations. Your paragraph #2 shows Trump’s classic bully behavior.
I’m not disputing that Trump engages in bullying, but seems to fall a bit short of a classic bully. Classic bullies weren’t once an over-valued child which Trump seems to have the hallmarks of. There’s an objective to his bullying other than the pleasure of humiliating others and propping up insecurities and masking inferiorities.
A reason why Trump confounds us is that an over-valued child that’s fully internalized that and manages to translate that into successes as an adult is very rare. You and I may know that without his father, wimp bankers, and slick accountants and lawyers bailing him out that he’d be no more than a middling huckster today, but he doesn’t know that at all. He’s special and all his successes are his own.
His bullying is more the style of one that views himself as superior and has an objective of adding to his successes. That does feed his ego, but classic bullies feed a fragile or empty ego. It’s why Trump can turn his bullying off and on and classic bullies can’t.
I’ve shared some of what I’ve observed about Putin over the past decade and a half that have informed my own opinion of him. Can you? (Sorry, but “I’ve observed” alone is like the dodge that those that haven’t done their own study and thinking about public figures use.)
Have I cataloged my observations so I can write an academic paper? No.
IOW, you’ve got nothing.
Who did this (our) country help at the end of WWII. The murderous Germans and Japanese that had plunged the world into that nightmare, but not the ones that had suffered the brunt of that rampage and without whom we’d all be speaking Japanese or German today.
Have you even bothered to read the chapter on Russia in Naomi Klein’s “Disaster Capitalism?” That book and “The Devil’s Chessboard” upend most of the kneejerk crap that USians have swallowed over the past seven decades.
Never taught to duck under the desk and time the interval between the flash and the boom? We were in Illinois. I think “duck and cover” drills were big in NYC.
They still are…at least in the ungentrified, rougher neighborhoods.
Bet on it.
Hear gunfire?
DUCK AND COVER!!!
Been there.
Too damned many times to count.
AG
Well, yeah! Same here.
heh — somehow I heard about duck and cover drills and asked my 6th grade teacher why we never had any. Her response was to the effect that CA schools didn’t do such dumb things.
D & C drills were standard fare in my elementary school classrooms in the MW during the 60s. Lots of govt-sponsored Cold War propaganda films too.
My experience going to school in Orange County, CA was very different from yours — duck and cover drills all the time in the 60’s to make sure we survived nuclear war . . . .