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Edited by Mrph1 on Nov 30th 2023 at 11:03:59 AM
Like Fighteer said, it's very easy for us to sit there on the sidelines and claim he made a mistake. We'll never know what decision we'd make if we were in his shoes with the information he had at the time.
edited 20th Apr '18 5:50:27 PM by Wyldchyld
If my post doesn't mention a giant flying sperm whale with oversized teeth and lionfish fins for flippers, it just isn't worth reading.Normally, I wouldn't use something like "The New Yorker" but this
confirms something that I have sort of suspected for a while.
That may sound like hyperbolic snark, or the premise of an Andy Borowitz column, but it is a plain description of the rationale behind last Friday’s missile strikes in Syria, according to multiple military and administration officials.
Last Tuesday — amid reports that the U.S. was considering a strike against the Assad regime, in response to an alleged chemical weapons attack against civilians in Douma — Russia’s ambassador to Lebanon Alexander Zasypkin warned that “if there is a US missile attack, we … will shoot down U.S. rockets and even the sources that launched the missiles.”
The Fox & Friends morning crew took exception to this bluster, with one host arguing, “What we should be doing is telling the Russians, ‘Every Syrian military base is a target and if you’re there, it is your problem.’”
Minutes later, one of the program’s most dedicated viewers echoed that belligerent note.
"Russia vows to shoot down any and all missiles fired at Syria. Get ready Russia, because they will be coming, nice and new and “smart!” You shouldn’t be partners with a Gas Killing Animal who kills his people and enjoys it!"
The rest of the editorial is sort of weird and I don't really agree with it, but the important part is absolute proof that Fox and Friends is his chief advisor.
edited 18th Apr '18 5:59:32 PM by megaeliz
With Comey announcing what he did when he did, there's an argument to be made that he did so in order to prevent damage to a Clinton Presidency - if that information came out after she'd been elected, and there was new information in the emails they sorted through, that would have risked harming her Presidency. By announcing it ahead of time - though for my money, waiting until they'd had time to sift through the Wiener emails first to see if there was anything new would have been better - Comey avoided making the FBI look complicit in a coverup and would have allowed Clinton to say "Hey, the voters made their choice even knowing what they knew".
Unfortunately, he definitely miscalculated, but hindsight is 20/20.
"Why would I inflict myself on somebody else?"How does Ted Cruz keep getting reelected, anyway? He isn't holding a major position like Ryan or McConnell, and isn't he one of the most hated people in Congress?
edited 18th Apr '18 6:12:25 PM by Raptorslash
According to that interview, he indicated that his biggest concern was to make a decision that protected the institution's reputation as much as possible.
edited 20th Apr '18 5:52:17 PM by Wyldchyld
If my post doesn't mention a giant flying sperm whale with oversized teeth and lionfish fins for flippers, it just isn't worth reading.So at a Press Confrence with Shinzo Abe, at Mar-a-Lago today, a reporter managed to get in a question about Russia.
Here's his response:
"We had a very, very severe ... fight in Syria recently [in February] between our troops and Russian troops and that’s very sad," the president said. "Many people died in that fight."
"With the media, no matter what I did, it’s never tough enough because that’s their narrative," Trump lamented. "But Russia will tell you there has been nobody tougher than Donald Trump."
DO NOT CONGRATULATE!
![]()
once you get pass the obvious lies, you can start to see other things wrong with it as well. [1]
Trump said this today. It is false, and he radically misunderstood his brief.
What happened: Russian mercenaries from the Wagner Group
were positioned across a river from a U.S. Special Forces Forward Operating Base, with the river serving as the defacto dividing line of control.
Wagner mercenaries fired on the American troops.
While they didn't hit anything, they were fully aware they were firing on Americans, and the American soldiers did exactly what they were supposed to do: They did not return fire, which could have sparked a shooting war with Russia, and requested orders from the chain of command.
The American Officer serving as chief liaison to the Russian military contacted his counterpart & said essentially, "Cut it out, move your guys back from the river, and we'll all pretend this never happened."
The Russian officer responded that no Russian troops were in the area.
This is technically true, since Wagner is the Academi/Blackwater of Russia.
You may remember them as the patchless plainclothes soldiers who invaded Eastern Ukraine.
Or from three days ago, when they pushed a journalist covering them out of a window.
The Russian Officer probably thought he was being funny. So the Americans decided to be funny too. They called in airstrikes on the mercenaries.
Massive. Airstrikes. I quote: "AC-130 gunships, F-15 fighter jets, MQ-9 Reapers, AH-64 Apache attack helicopters, B-52s, and an F-22."
For their part, the Marines nearby contributed support from an M142 HIMARS rapidly mobile multiple rocket launcher. picture
When the dust cleared, about 100 pro-Assad Syrian troops along with 200-300 Russian Wagner mercenaries were reduced to vapor. The overwhelming violence of a strike by that much firepower on a force numbering ~350 fighters was clearly to send a message to Wagner PMC.
Don't feel too badly for the Wagner mercenaries.
They signed up to kill for a dictator for money, fired on Americans and work for a company to seize oil fields from the Syrian Democratic Forces in exchange for 25% of the profit. AND Wagner is owned by a guy Bob Mueller indicted.
Read the varying countries' accounts here
,
Or watch Pompeo make an ass out of himself boasting about it here
,
Or see CNN's coverage
for something close to the truth:
edited 18th Apr '18 7:07:15 PM by megaeliz
So Mitch Mc Connell is looking to extend the Senate workweeks in order to prevent vulnerable Democratic senators from having time to campaign. Fucking slimeball.
Among other attempts to erase US democracy, Arizona Republicans tried to rig the rules for replacing McCain.
But Democrats caught the change and raised the alarm, all but killing the effort since emergency clauses need two-thirds support and the party has 13 of the state senate’s 30 seats. Republicans responded by canceling plans to put the bill on the state Senate floor on Wednesday, delaying then canceling a vote.
In better news, Kris Koback was found in contempt of court in the Kansas voting rights trial.
From Attorney General Schneiderman:
No one accused of breaking NY’s laws should escape accountability merely because of a strategically timed presidential pardon. [1]
We are disturbed by reports that @POTUS is considering pardons of individuals who may have committed serious federal crimes—acts that may also violate NY law.
We must ensure that if any president issues such pardons, we can use NY’s laws to bring such individuals to justice. [2]
The full letter can be read here
edited 18th Apr '18 7:20:01 PM by megaeliz

Comey generally seems like a pretty self-righteous guy.
In terms of his choices, it seems like at best he made some bad political choices to deal with Trump partisans in the FBI ranks who were itching to investigate Clinton.
At worst though, it seems like besides making a calculation to not do something that would hurt Trump, both because he assumed he wouldn't win and to appease pro-Trump partisans, he was also totally cool with sabotaging the (he assumed) inevitable Hillary Clinton administration.
Like there is an argument that Comey thought he was doing something which meant that if (as he assumed) Clinton was elected, would have held the partisan ranks in check, but it seems to be more obvious that he really wanted her to be mired in scandal/bad press from the outset.