by Jack
Hades just reported freezing temperature and even more ironic, Chuck Schumer, Nancy Pelosi and other key democrats cheered Trump for the attack on Syria saying it was absolutely the right thing to do. Libby, are you reading this and if so, do you need us to call the paramedics?
LOL…they had to, Jack, since Hillary called for military force against Syria the day before to “prevent further deaths.”
This silly woman still thinks she’s going to be president.
The kiss of death from professional backstabbers. Syrian action is doomed.
Cogent Analysis—-
______________________
Calling A Bluff? by Robert Gore
Posted on April 8, 2017
Things are seldom what they seem…
In “Plot Holes,” SLL took a contrary tack to the consensus after Michael Flynn was fired: “The upshot of many commentators is that Trump has underestimated the Deep State, he’s floundering, and so on.” SLL noted that in committing an obvious illegality—leaking transcripts of Flynn’s conversation to the press—the Deep State was showing weakness, not strength, and handing President Trump an opportunity to investigate it and score a decisive victory.
Sure enough, the “Russiagate” story has shifted from alleged Russian collusion with Trump and his team to the Obama team’s alleged illegal misuse of intelligence information against Trump. Susan Rice’s unmasking has been unmasked, raising the possibility that Obama ordered her to do so, and Adam Schiff, the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence committee who had vociferously pursued the Russian collusion investigation, has gone silent. While Trump cannot yet declare match point, he’s up several games in the final set and he’s got his opponents on their back feet.
The Wall Street Journal editorial page and many neocons are delighted by President Trump’s “muscular” response to Syria’s alleged use of chemical weapons. A number of commentators. formerly supportive or at least willing to give Trump the benefit of the doubt, have expressed extreme dismay or repudiated Trump. He stands accused of betraying one of his campaign’s main promises. However, just as with the Michael Flynn affair, the stories emerging so far have their plot holes.
Several days after the Assad regime was blessed by Secretary of State Tillerson and Ambassador to the United Nations Haley, Assad purportedly turned around and ordered the use of chemical weapons, which he had supposedly gotten rid of in 2013. Why would he in one supremely stupid stroke destroy the legitimacy so recently conferred? Why would his ally Russia allow him to do so? The WSJ and New York Times said he was thumbing his nose at the US. This is absurd on its face. A beleaguered head of state who is finally seeing some military and diplomatic daylight doesn’t make provocative gestures guaranteed to piss off the world’s most militarily powerful nation.
Those accusing Trump of betrayal argue that the implausibility of Syria using chemical weapons screams false flag, perpetrated by either Syrian rebels, or more darkly, by the US military and intelligence agencies and their contractors (the complex). Russia and Syria say that Syria bombed a rebel warehouse containing chemical weapons. Throw in the pictures showing relief workers handling chemical victims, dead and alive, with their bare hands, and it all smells pretty fishy. Certainly fishy enough for Trump to investigate before he pulled the trigger.
Unless Trump didn’t care if it was a false flag or not. Take the worse case: assume it was a false flag, that Trump knew it was, and that the complex had a hand in it. Isn’t it far more plausible that after Tillerson and Haley signaled abandonment of its long-cherished goal of deposing Assad, the complex would devise an incident designed to put Trump on the spot in Syria, rather than that Assad surrendered hard-won diplomatic and military gains by using chemical weapons? When politicians start talking about “the children,” watch out, some sort of mischief is underway. Was Trump really moved by pictures of dead children? Probably not. American intervention has been leaving dead children in its wake for decades. Trump has shown no remorse for those killed in Yemen by US special forces and Saudi Arabian bombs on his watch—he’s lifted restrictions on selling the kingdom more bombs!
In this scenario, the false flag was a strike—as was the Michael Flynn affair—by the complex against Trump. Objectively, the false flag was so suspicious that the reasonable course would have been to investigate before launching military action. This may have been what the complex thought Trump would do. If he had, its media allies would have had a field day lambasting “treasonous” Trump as soft on chemical warfare tyrant Assad, and more importantly, on Assad’s ally, Vladimir Putin. There would have been innumerable comparisons to that wimp Obama and his red line. Once again, the complex thought it had Trump backed into a corner.
Except Trump called its bluff. He has given the complex what it claims it wants—a measured, strategic response—and has been lauded by its propaganda organs for doing so. The question going forward: what else will he do? Will he put large numbers of US troops on the ground in a full-fledged effort to depose Assad? Will he risk war with Russia, Iran, Hezbollah, and possibly China, with the attendant risks of terrorist blowback and increased refugee flows? Almost certainly not. Even within the complex there are cooler heads (not all, but some) who realize a full-blown war in the Middle East would be disastrous, and Trump has expressed the same sentiment, many times. Trump is already seeing his base jump ship (Paul Joseph Watson, Ann Coulter). A war would drive it bat-shit crazy.
Perhaps indicating his desire not to escalate the situation, Trump warned the Russians, who in turn warned Syria, of the impending attack. Other than wasting $60 million dollars worth of Tomahawk missiles, some of which did not hit their target (but did the give the Russians a chance to field test their antimissile technology), and perhaps rendering a Syrian air base inoperative, what has the attack accomplished? Trump has given the complex and its media a minimalist gesture they may not have expected, but which they must publicly support and praise.
However, there is no stomach in this country for a big power war in the Middle East, one that could potentially spread. Everyone remembers the public outcry in 2013 that prompted Obama and Congress’s embarrassing retreat from promised red line consequences in Syria and acceptance of Putin’s face-saving gesture, the removal of Assad’s chemical weapons. Trump retains the option for more of these measured, strategic responses, and he has given himself a lot of room. Having shown he’ll use force in Syria, he’ll look reasonable if he resists the complex’s calls for military escalation and regime change. He’ll have most of the American public (which is fine with missiles, drones, and special operations, but not full-blown war), and certainly his base, on his side.
The Trump-is-Putin’s-puppet story has been laid to rest. Having established his anti-Putin bona fides, somewhere in the future he can initiate a Nixon-goes-to-China rapprochement. He’s also sent a not so subtle message to both Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping (who got that message while eating dinner with Trump): play good cop to Assad and North Korea’s Kim Jong-un respectively, or he will play the unpredictable, impetuous bad cop.
SLL believes Donald Trump is consistently underestimated and the Deep State consistently overestimated. If Trump’s bombing initiates a full blown war in the Middle East and perhaps elsewhere, then SLL is wrong and Trump’s an idiot, Deep State stooge, scoundrel, and whatever else you want to call him. If, however, Syria quiets down; Russia, Iran, and Hezbollah subdue ISIS as Assad stays in power; China restrains North Korea, and there is eventually US-Russian rapprochement rather than war, then the tab for Donald Trump’s missiles will be reckoned the best money the government ever wasted.
Link–
https://straightlinelogic.com/2017/04/08/calling-a-bluff-by-robert-gore/
Re: “The Trump-is-Putin’s-puppet story has been laid to rest. ”
Are you kidding? Not as long as the pathetic jackasses who work for CNN and MSNBC have a soapbox to stump their lunacy from.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1nqbHPSJpq4
Quick question…When is post scripts going to start belittling our president for playing golf?
As soon as Trump shows signs that he doesn’t give a rip about America and/or is making really bad decisions.
So far the man demonstrates he is working hard.
I gave President Obama the benefit of the doubt for two years. Can you say the same for anyone on the left side of the aisle for ANY Republican?
lol their fav Obama story but realize fact that Trump has played like some 13 rounds of golf in 11 weeks is ok cause he pretends to be a Conservative.
Just like the fake Trust where he can pull out money or a whole business out without telling anybody, makes him a hero cause they are special and their corruption is honorable
They love him using the position to enrich himself
Blinders
I’ll take your word that he’s working hard. However, he does seem to spend a lot of time in Florida and worrying about little things. I’m just messing (I think it’s called trolling?) with you. I think it’s silly when people bust on a president for playing golf, going to the ranch (Bush) or even getting a little on the side (Slick Willy). Obama cared about the United States. To say that a president didn’t care seems more than a little partisan. FYI…I’m not Dem or Rep. I think fastening oneself to a political party is limiting. I care about the citizens of the United States and their wellbeing first. Does that make me a nationalist?
Pete Obama said himself he intended to “fundamentally transform” this nation. Maybe that means he loves America to you but to me it means he has no respect for America and got himself elected to make it over by his own designs. Once elected he set about doing exactly that. He spoke against American imperialism and said our Constitution was too limiting. He saw racism where none existed and used race (and class) as a means to divide the people and create tensions…classic revolutionary tactics.
“I think fastening oneself to a political party is limiting.”
I am no more “limited” as a Republican than you are with no affiliation. This is still a free country.
I care about the citizens of the United States and their wellbeing first. Does that make me a nationalist?
I too care about the citizens of the US…all of them.
The point being, you and I may differ on ways and means. What is it that best supports all of the people? The founders thought leaving the citizens alone to decide their own destinies and fates, freedom, was the most supportive form of government. We’ve moved away from that charter by leaps and bounds.
You may be able to escape affiliation with a party but when it comes to issues and positions you will align with one or the other major party in most cases.
You’ll have to decide the “nationalist” question for yourself.
A definition out of Stanford:
I think of myself as an American with conservative to libertarian ideals.
Nah, Pete, a nationalist is something else. And you’re definitely not a nationalist.
“I gave President Obama the benefit of the doubt for two years.”
No, you didn’t.
And my reply would then be, “Did too!”
Chris I recall saying from the beginning that Obama was too inexperienced to hold the job. I did make comments like but I held back.
NO ONE…not me, the media, or the alternative media bothered to take Obama to task in the first two years. Disagreement, yes, but not hard criticism and certainly not the raw emotional hate filled rhetoric that’s gone on since before day one with Trump. Obama’s race gave him cover…do not even try to lie about that!
His second term was different…even then, though, his administration was targeted more than he. (Holder, Lerner, Rice, Jarrett)
Chris has a selective memory.
Tina, I am sure I could go back and find articles that amount to “hard criticism” of Obama during his first term, but I’m not sure what the point would be. You would deny it even when faced with undeniable evidence.
You had a point that Obama was too inexperienced. I wonder then why you continue to support a president with NO relevant experience.
Well, well, well the ***hole troll is back.
Excuse me Pie while I use your reply space to respond one more time to Chris who’s “selective memory” extends to all of the thoughts I had that I withheld in the first two years.
I could also go back to demonstrate the point but it would be pointless since you imagine you are right.
To imagine that Trump is too inexperienced to be President is ridiculous unless you narrow the catagory to politics only. Even there he has dealt with politicians and bureaucrats in America and across the world, which gives him unique and valuable experience to bring to the post. Most of what he doesn’t know is process and protocol, something that can be learned quickly under the direction of those who do (plenty of that in DC).
Obama’s experience was very limited in politics and in community organizing. As a young man who had been promoted in politics he brought almost nothing to the job…NO COMPARISON.
If you were older you might get the point. If you limit your own experience to teaching it’s doubtful.
Please, Pete … I refuse to believe you have not gleaned that “Hypocrisy” is our first, last, and middle name.
As it happens, I was in the town, Friday before last, and was forcibly impressed by the alternative reality these people occupy. Eight years of the OA, and I have never seen the town looking so prosperous.
In my day, the Reaganomic day, Park Avenue was a festival of vacant storefronts. All the way from 99 to the University … last week, only one vacancy. That is so totally cool.
My old apartment building, once a cracked and crusty white stucco, fake motel looking thing, now has the most handsome autumnal paint job you ever saw.
Can’t wait to see how things are four years from now.
Libby you’re such a liar. The Carter years created the circumstances you describe. Don’t lie about it. We all experienced the inflation and high interest rates, the gas lines, and the “malaise” that followed Reagan into office. It takes a few years to turn an economy around and then it only happens IF policies are adopted that put money in the hands of the people instead of government (And the rich who will always make money in any economy).
After eight years of liberal policy we have seen no such turn around in the economy. The crash was supposedly handled with bailouts and stimulus. The recession was over in June of 2009. Our economy should have begun it’s turn around in ’09…it has remained blunted and dragging along the bottom at less than 2% growth. Promised better days never came. Roads and bridges were not made the high priority that was promised (certainly not Oroville Dam). The debt was doubled despite increasing revenues…where did the money go? Into the stock market to give the illusion of a great economy. Yeah, your party really cares about “the people.”
How things are four years from now will depend a lot on how powerful your party really is at undermining and destroying whatever is left of the will of the people!
Uh-huh.
Did you know that your President, the one who is supposed to spur all this economic growth (by reducing the cost of government, supposedly) has in three months spent an entire annual OA travel budget?
Thanks Libby, I think we should look into this.
We will look into it…but we don’t have to look too far. One story reports Obama spent almost $100 K on travel in eight years. Trump has spent $10K in three months. At least so far his wife travels with him instead of taking separate flights.
The real test will be whether he can save taxpayer’s big money in eight years (yes, I’m counting on it at this point).
Obama doubled the debt. Will it double again in eight or will he and the Republicans find a way to eliminate debt and tighten budgets?
Trump has donated his first three months salary to veterans…a small savings going to a good cause.
I actually don’t hold out a lot of hope for debt reduction given the performance of the Republican Congress thus far and the biggest debt drivers are SS and Medicare. Reforms now, particularly to SS would be prudent. The millennial generation is larger than the boomers. They need to see their security dollars invested in something that belongs to them and will give them a better return on their investment!
Pete must be having a bad day.
Look at what’s trending on Twitter. Does, “Bush lied and people died,” sound familiar?
WSJ Highlights The ‘Obama WMD Intelligence Failure’:
http://www.chicksontheright.com/wsj-highlights-obama-wmd-intelligence-failure/
In addition to an intelligence failure, Obumble demonstrated a complete lack of spine.
Obumble couldn’t find his red crayon, but TheDonald used a Tomahawk red sharpie.
😀
Sometimes I find it helpful to see how the rest of the world
responds. Russia and Iran were negative of course, but…
Times of Israel, “Israeli leaders offer wall-to-wall praise for US strike on Syria – IDF updated by Washington before raid on regime targets overnight; Netanyahu hails ‘message of resolve’; Rivlin lauds ‘fitting response to such unthinkable brutality’
Times of Islamabad:
Correction : Neocons and Neolibs applaud not Dems and Reps
Boy, you sure liketo apply labels! Wonder what kind of label others put on YOU?
“Jackass” comes to mind, but that is really more of a fitting description than a label.
These labels? LOL You and your labels are wrong.
You group all people into Democrat and Republican while the truth is both parties have internal civil wars going on.
We the people who admit the wrong doings of any Politician regardless of party are neither.
Fact is one of the biggest reasons Hillary lost (except the cheating) was she wanted more war. We got called liars by Dems. Well there she is beating the war drums.
The Establishment DNC members are not Democrats they are third Wave Moderates who took over the Party with Bill Clinton.
Many Republicans do not like the Koch Tea partiers who took over their party.
Sorry but that is fact. The NEO Warmongers have had that label for years.
Trump’s campaign Promise was to get real evidence before striking. His tweets are there to remind you. He drank the Kool-aid. Shows how the MIC works.
We do not know what happened yet. That is FACT
So Hillary was correct in her campaign and The Donald was incorrect all of a sudden?….LOLOLOLOL
“The Establishment DNC members are not Democrats they are third Wave Moderates who took over the Party with Bill Clinton.”
The Dem party is ruled by far left radicals. The “establishment” liberals were partially kicked to the curb when Bill Clinton was elected to make room for the “smarter” sixties generation. BC was moderated when he lost the House for the first time in forty years. It was shoved even further left when Obama was handed the election instead of Hillary. You have the black caucus (Muslim Brotherhood/Marxist) faction and the world government (Marxist/fascist) faction…driven and well funded by Soros. A party that would (2012-nearly) drive God from their platform is not run by establishment Democrats..cheeesh! It’s actually been moving to the far left for a long time, it’s just that now they fly the flag proudly.
Informative opinion on this here and here.
Obama and his administration were outed for ANOTHER lie. – “Obama lied and people died, including babies.”
Evidence suggests Obama admin knew Syria still had chemical weapons but lied about it anyway:
“Dots were connected after comments from national security adviser National Security Adviser H. R. McMaster last week, who said that during targeted U.S. military airstrikes last week in Syria following another chemical weapons attack, “measures” had to be put in place to avoid hitting sarin gas stockpiles.
From the American Interest:
If this strike was arranged to avoid hitting sarin storage facilities, the question arises: did the Obama Administration know that such depots still existed after its “historic” deal that supposedly removed all Syria’s chemical weapons?
The signs point to yes. In Congressional testimony last February, Obama’s Director of National Intelligence James Clapper acknowledged “gaps and inconsistencies in Syria’s declaration,” validating reports that Syria was still hiding banned chemicals at undisclosed locations. And on its way out the door in January of this year, the Obama Treasury quietly introduced new sanctions against Syrian officials involved in chemical warfare. Buried in the language sanctioning a particular official was a telling admission: “As of 2016, Abbas has continued operating at locations in Syria associated with chemical warfare-related missions.”
Whether or not the Obama Administration knew of this particular sarin facility, then, they clearly knew that Syrians were still clinging to their stockpiles at several locations.
In fact, many in the Obama administration knew the “deal” with the Assad regime was merely a sham. That’s why they celebrated Thursday night when President Donald Trump ordered the U.S. Navy to hit an Assad-controlled airbase with 59 tomahawk missiles.
“This shows the moral depravity of the last administration,” one former Obama official told Defense One.
“Many of us are pretty darned happy about this,” added another. “This is the action that many of us were hoping for years ago. Our hope though is that this was not an act in isolation, but a clear signal of the limits of our tolerance, and the restart of meaningful, actionable diplomacy to end Assad’s tenure in Syria and bring about a peaceful political transition.”
Meanwhile, PolitiFact has been forced to change their ruling on Kerry’s 2014 statement.
“We don’t know key details about the reported chemical attack in Syria on April 4, 2017, but it raises two clear possibilities: Either Syria never fully complied with its 2013 promise to reveal all of its chemical weapons; or it did, but then converted otherwise non-lethal chemicals to military uses,” PolitiFact wrote last week.
“One way or another, subsequent events have proved Kerry wrong,” they conceded.
Share”
http://www.theblaze.com/news/2017/04/09/evidence-suggests-obama-admin-knew-syria-still-had-chemical-weapons-but-lied-about-it-anyway/
Yea Peggy the CIA snuck the chemical weapons to the Rebels because Obama was in charge of them? LOL The CIA answers to no one. They even spied on Congress.
Benghazzzzzzziiiiii was all about these chemicals and fact is Stevens knew and did nothing. Neo warmongers are not divided by parties. They work as one.
Stooopid flies again.
Another questions pops up: If Obumble. Lurch and Rice lied about Syria’s “eliminating” all of their chem weapons, should we believe them on ANYTHING concerning their much-touted Iran “deal?”
I think not!
Or anything else!
They were about fundamentally transforming America and their supercilious notions of “world peace”…couldn’t be bothered with the little details.
Of course they lied. It’s just going to take time for more of them to become known.
We do know Lerner and others at the IRS lied, took the fifth or tried to after destroying files. And didn’t Koskinen destroy evidence too? Holder hid behind Obama’s executive privilege apron from congress for Fast and Furious. Etc., etc. etc.
All of those “secret side deals” on the Iran deal will come out some day and when they do Obama’s legacy will be exposed for the disgrace he was and the harm he caused our country and the world..
David Horowitz’s and Andrew Malcom’s takes on Trump’s Syrian action —
Horowitz: A Game Changer For Syria – But Also For Trump
Malcom: What Trump’s attack on Syria did – and did not – do
Love this picture of Trump sitting at the head of the table reserved for the person in charge. Comparing it to the one of Obama during the Bin Laden attack sitting alone in a chair by the door, like a flunky assigned to keep water glasses filled, captures the contrasting character differences of our leaders.
I can’t help but wonder at the unfathomable horror it must for Dewey to wake up every day and be still be Dewey. The same for Chris. Just the thought of it makes me shudder.