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Edited by Mrph1 on Nov 30th 2023 at 11:03:59 AM

sgamer82 Since: Jan, 2001
#290476: Sep 18th 2019 at 11:03:34 PM

Bolton unloads on Trump’s foreign policy behind closed doors – The recently fired national security made little secret of his disagreements with the president.

https://www.politico.com/story/2019/09/18/bolton-trump-foreign-policy-1501932

John Bolton, President Donald Trump’s fired national security adviser, harshly criticized Trump’s foreign policy on Wednesday at a private lunch, saying that inviting the Taliban to Camp David sent a “terrible signal” and that it was “disrespectful” to the victims of 9/11 because the Taliban had harbored al Qaeda.

Bolton also said that any negotiations with North Korea and Iran were “doomed to failure,” according to two attendees.

All the North Koreans and Iranians want to do is negotiate for relief from sanctions to support their economies, said Bolton, who was speaking before guests invited by the Gatestone Institute, a conservative think tank.

“He ripped Trump, without using his name, several times,” said one attendee. Bolton didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

Bolton also said more than once that Trump’s failure to respond to the Iranian attack on an American drone earlier this summer set the stage for the Islamic Republic’s aggression in recent months.

At one point, Bolton, a previous chairman of Gatestone, suggested that had the U.S. retaliated for the drone shootdown, Iran might not have damaged the Saudi oil fields.

Bolton called the alleged attack on Saudi Arabia, which U.S. and Saudi officials have blamed on Iran, “an act of war” by anyone’s definition.

TheRoguePenguin Since: Jul, 2009
#290477: Sep 18th 2019 at 11:15:07 PM

I've heard this said elsewhere so I'll say it here. As soon as Trump is out of office, things like [up] are going to come from soooooooooooooooooooooo many people trying desperately to scrub the stench of Trump off themselves. Especially if he's ousted next year.

3of4 Just a harmless giant from a foreign land. from Five Seconds in the Future. Since: Jan, 2010 Relationship Status: GAR for Archer
Just a harmless giant from a foreign land.
#290478: Sep 18th 2019 at 11:44:00 PM

The Trump Presidential Library is going to get an Annex of "It wasn't my fault" Books

"You can reply to this Message!"
CharlesPhipps Since: Jan, 2001
#290479: Sep 19th 2019 at 12:04:19 AM

Bolton's "Trump is friends with evillllll brown people" is weirdly something I could see working as an attack on Der Cheeto. I wonder if it will affect any of Citizen One's numbers.

Edited by CharlesPhipps on Sep 19th 2019 at 12:05:37 PM

Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.
tclittle Professional Forum Ninja from Somewhere Down in Texas Since: Apr, 2010
Professional Forum Ninja
#290480: Sep 19th 2019 at 4:32:51 AM

The remnants of Imelda are still causing problems even after moving east of Houston. Some places have received over 2 feet of rain in the past 6 hours and there's no signs of stopping. Interstate 10 east of Winnie, Texas has been shut down in both directions.

Here's a live blog from Beaumont's ABC affiliate. They've had to evacuate their station to due high water.

Also, Winnie's hospital had to be evacuated.

Edited by tclittle on Sep 19th 2019 at 6:35:24 AM

"We're all paper, we're all scissors, we're all fightin' with our mirrors, scared we'll never find somebody to love."
Ultimatum Disasturbator from the Amiga Forest (Old as dirt) Relationship Status: Who needs love when you have waffles?
Disasturbator
#290481: Sep 19th 2019 at 6:08:46 AM

> The Trump Presidential Library is going to get an Annex of "It wasn't my fault" Books

Trump would get a Presidential cornershop that sells nothing but his book and a playboy magazine

have a listen and have a link to my discord server
KazuyaProta Shin Megami Tensei IV from A Industrial Farm Since: Jan, 2015 Relationship Status: [TOP SECRET]
Shin Megami Tensei IV
#290482: Sep 19th 2019 at 6:32:23 AM

@sgamer: To be honest, I feel.Bolton is saying the truth. Say whatever.of.him, but he seems to truly believe on Pax Americana, something that Trump has shred without any consideration. It's not a secret that Trump's mix of trying to cuddle with Dictatorships and sheer apathy has emboldened them.

Trump's biggest danger isn't that he's war loving. Is that he likes to use the rhetoric of wars without bothering to commit, something that just hurts the reputation of the nation that does.

Edited by KazuyaProta on Sep 19th 2019 at 8:35:10 AM

Watch me destroying my country
TobiasDrake (•̀⤙•́) (Edited uphill both ways) Relationship Status: Arm chopping is not a love language!
(•̀⤙•́)
#290483: Sep 19th 2019 at 7:37:23 AM

So, about a week ago, I said this about Bolton's replacement.

As for Trump just hiring someone worse, that's a crapshoot. Trump will hire the next person who says "That Trump guy sure does a bang-up job in office, and he certainly never committed any crimes!" out loud within earshot. This practice has historically resulted in a wide range of nominees between merely bad to batshit terrible, and on occasion someone totally unfit for their job but who will actually stand up for their department to Trump.

Bolton was batshit terrible, so there is a chance that the Random Praise Lottery will pull out someone who just sucks at a reasonable level.

The new National Security Advisor has been announced as Robert O'Brien, formerly the top U.S. hostage negotiator, to fill the spot. O'Brien brings very little to the table that one might expect of a National Security Advisor, but he did say this once.

"President Donald J. Trump is the greatest hostage negotiator that I know of in the history of the United States. 20 hostages, many in impossible circumstances, have been released in last two years. No money was paid."

So there's that.

...I feel really gross about actually being right on this.

My Tumblr. Currently side-by-side liveblogging Digimon Adventure, sub vs dub.
ironballs16 Since: Jul, 2009 Relationship Status: Owner of a lonely heart
#290484: Sep 19th 2019 at 12:24:38 PM

So are we really not talking about the Whistleblower story, where the current (acting) Director of National Intelligence is directly disobeying instructions from the Intelligence community's Inspector General to turn over the documents to Congress? And that the entire thing started because of Trump giving a worrying promise to an (as-yet) unnamed foreign leader?

For context, as the Post is behind a paywall:

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam B. Schiff (D-Calif.) warned of possible legal action Thursday if intelligence officials did not share a potentially explosive whistleblower complaint prompted by President Trump’s interactions with a foreign leader.

Schiff called acting director of national intelligence Joseph Maguire’s refusal to share the complaint with Congress “unprecedented” and said he understood the Justice Department was involved in the decision.

“We cannot get an answer to the question about whether the White House is also involved in preventing this information from coming to Congress,” Schiff said, adding: “We’re determined to do everything we can to determine what this urgent concern is to make sure that the national security is protected.”

Someone, Schiff said, “is trying to manipulate the system to keep information about an urgent matter from the Congress. ... There certainly are a lot of indications that it was someone at a higher pay grade than the director of national intelligence.”

Edited by ironballs16 on Sep 19th 2019 at 3:29:58 PM

"Why would I inflict myself on somebody else?"
Fighteer Lost in Space from The Time Vortex (Time Abyss) Relationship Status: TV Tropes ruined my love life
Lost in Space
#290485: Sep 19th 2019 at 12:44:46 PM

I've been watching that story unfold on Rachel Maddow. It'd be astonishing if it weren't for all the other corrupt or flagrantly illegal stuff this President has done yet faced no repercussions for.

In "I'm convinced we live in a parody of our own reality now" news, The Onion recently posted an article mocking our public responses to school shootings, titled "School Shooter Thankfully Stopped Before Doing Enough Damage To Restart National Gun Debate". It so happens that the stock photo they used in that article was of a high school in my local area. This got the attention of a number of people and apparently raised genuine concern that there had been a shooting.

It got to the point where the school district's administration sent a message to parents explaining the situation and that the article is a satire.

I don't ... I can't even parse this. We get more upset now about being mocked for not doing anything about school shootings than by the shootings themselves. Truly, the priorities of this society are in order.

Edited by Fighteer on Sep 19th 2019 at 3:50:02 PM

"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"
danime91 Since: Jan, 2012 Relationship Status: Above such petty unnecessities
#290486: Sep 19th 2019 at 12:47:48 PM

Perhaps if they mock us enough, politicians will be incensed enough to actually do something about it. After all, if not for altruism, then for money. If not for money, then for pride.

Ultimatum Disasturbator from the Amiga Forest (Old as dirt) Relationship Status: Who needs love when you have waffles?
Disasturbator
#290487: Sep 19th 2019 at 12:51:33 PM

> This got the attention of a number of people and apparently raised genuine concern that there had been a shooting

On one hand it was irresponsible to use that image if it risked creating panic,on the other hand as a satire it's getting a response and importantly it's getting people to think about gun control in relation to school shootings

edit:Trump loses to every democratic candidate in a fox news poll,easy to dismiss because is fox news,but it is entertaining that even Fox news has turned against him

Edited by Ultimatum on Sep 19th 2019 at 7:53:40 PM

have a listen and have a link to my discord server
Parable Since: Aug, 2009
#290488: Sep 19th 2019 at 12:58:30 PM

Fox News polls are done by the actual news part of the network. They're reliable enough that even the Democrats use them to qualify for the debates.

DingoWalley1 Asgore Adopts Noelle Since: Feb, 2014 Relationship Status: Can't buy me love
Asgore Adopts Noelle
#290489: Sep 19th 2019 at 12:59:31 PM

[up]x2 Fox News Polls are actually incredibly reliable. So expect Trump to tweet about how Fox sucks now (as he was doing the last time the polls showed him being destroyed on Fox News) in a few moments.

Edited by DingoWalley1 on Sep 19th 2019 at 3:59:41 PM

Ultimatum Disasturbator from the Amiga Forest (Old as dirt) Relationship Status: Who needs love when you have waffles?
Disasturbator
#290490: Sep 19th 2019 at 1:01:53 PM

> Fox News polls are done by the actual news part of the network

They have an actual news part?

That does surprise me

have a listen and have a link to my discord server
Draghinazzo (4 Score & 7 Years Ago) Relationship Status: I get a feeling so complicated...
#290491: Sep 19th 2019 at 1:36:46 PM

Yeah a while back back I posted an earlier Fox News poll that showed similar results, i.e Donald loses to the most popular democratic nominees by a good margin.

Ultimatum Disasturbator from the Amiga Forest (Old as dirt) Relationship Status: Who needs love when you have waffles?
Disasturbator
#290492: Sep 19th 2019 at 1:43:22 PM

I have wondered if Trump will chicken out and quickly resign if the polls keep pointing to a overwhelming defeat,though it wouldn't make much difference even if he did because even with a different President they're still going to lose because the Republican party itself is super unpopular,so its a lose lose situation overall

That's if the polls are accurate,nothing is certain until actually voting begins

have a listen and have a link to my discord server
Protagonist506 from Oregon Since: Dec, 2013 Relationship Status: Chocolate!
#290493: Sep 19th 2019 at 1:44:25 PM

No, Trump would more likely run, lose, and then declare the system was rigged against him. He wouldn't necessarily believe it, but he would say it.

Leviticus 19:34
Fourthspartan56 from Georgia, US Since: Oct, 2016 Relationship Status: THIS CONCEPT OF 'WUV' CONFUSES AND INFURIATES US!
#290494: Sep 19th 2019 at 1:46:31 PM

I have wondered if Trump will chicken out and quickly resign if the polls keep pointing to a overwhelming defeat,though it wouldn't make much difference even if he did because even with a different President they're still going to lose because the Republican party itself is super unpopular,so its a lose lose situation overall

That's if the polls are accurate,nothing is certain until actually voting begins

Never going to happen, we've already seen him declare polls to be fake news because they show him losing.

He's going to assume that the evidence is wrong until the very last second.

"Einstein would turn over in his grave. Not only does God play dice, the dice are loaded." -Chairman Sheng-Ji Yang
Ultimatum Disasturbator from the Amiga Forest (Old as dirt) Relationship Status: Who needs love when you have waffles?
Disasturbator
#290495: Sep 19th 2019 at 1:48:40 PM

So basically

have a listen and have a link to my discord server
TobiasDrake (•̀⤙•́) (Edited uphill both ways) Relationship Status: Arm chopping is not a love language!
(•̀⤙•́)
#290496: Sep 19th 2019 at 1:49:00 PM

> Fox News polls are done by the actual news part of the network

They have an actual news part?

That does surprise me

Yeah, in general, their real news department is not the worst out there. Shep Smith even made a name for himself over the past couple years for doing honest journalism in spite of his colleagues - including, at one point, a scathing takedown of the "Uranium One" fake Clinton scandal that everyone else on Fox was trying to use to distract from the Mueller Investigation. Somehow, he's even managed to avoid being fired for this - possibly because he's white and male, leaving Fox higher-ups very confused about how to get rid of him.

About 90% of the awful toxic propaganda out there comes from their talk shows. Hannity, Fox & Friends, Tucker Carlson Tonight, etc. They're not real news segments, so they have a lot more flexibility in presenting their version of reality.

Edited by TobiasDrake on Sep 19th 2019 at 2:49:43 AM

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Fourthspartan56 from Georgia, US Since: Oct, 2016 Relationship Status: THIS CONCEPT OF 'WUV' CONFUSES AND INFURIATES US!
#290497: Sep 19th 2019 at 1:51:12 PM

[up][up]Significantly less dignified than that, but pretty much.

Edited by Fourthspartan56 on Sep 19th 2019 at 1:52:35 AM

"Einstein would turn over in his grave. Not only does God play dice, the dice are loaded." -Chairman Sheng-Ji Yang
DingoWalley1 Asgore Adopts Noelle Since: Feb, 2014 Relationship Status: Can't buy me love
Asgore Adopts Noelle
#290498: Sep 19th 2019 at 1:55:19 PM

Here's the thing; even if Trump does choose to drop out, or loses in 2020 (to any Democrat, Biden, Warren, anyone), as long as he's alive and not currently in jail come 2024, he can run again, as everyone has the ability to run twice and that's it.

And if things go south (because of him, unfortunate and unpredictable events, and/or the Democratic Administration) by 2024, he will run again, and the scary thing is he would have a much greater chance to win.

KazuyaProta Shin Megami Tensei IV from A Industrial Farm Since: Jan, 2015 Relationship Status: [TOP SECRET]
Shin Megami Tensei IV
#290499: Sep 19th 2019 at 1:57:22 PM

That's implying he don't get legal punishment for his actions in a Dem. Government.

Watch me destroying my country
DingoWalley1 Asgore Adopts Noelle Since: Feb, 2014 Relationship Status: Can't buy me love
Asgore Adopts Noelle
#290500: Sep 19th 2019 at 1:59:37 PM

[up] But that's also forgetting how biased our justice system is for white and rich individuals (IE, usually very light slaps on the wrist). On top of that, a Criminal Record doesn't actually stop anyone from running for President. Unless Trump is in Jail past 2025, so long as he loses in 2020, he can and will run again, and will keep trying until he either gets his 2nd term or dies.


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