It’s the Trumpster’s lap dog, FOX News. It is worse than Pravda at its height; speaking of that, not one Russian news station carried the news of the protests in 99 Russian cities on Sunday. According to one article “Indeed, all of the state run channels ignored the rallies.” Imagine if we only had Fox news that is what would have happened in America.
Over a thousand people were arrested in Russia for protesting peacefully. The leader of the protest Aleksei A. Navalny was sentenced the day after the rally to 15 days in prison for resisting arrest. That’s the quick justice you get in Russia. He’ll have more time heaped on top of that. I bet the London bookmakers have it 50/50 that he will be murdered in prison although it will be reported he died of a heart attack. When he is murdered some will start talking about civilians being killed in Yemen to pretend Putin murdering his foes is equivalent to American defending its nation.
One thing remarkable about the nationwide rallies in Russia is that they were carried out mostly by young people. Why the young. One 26-year-old man who joined the protest commented: “Younger people have smarter eye. Elder people have rigid brains; watching Channel One is a routine for them – they switch it on to see what is Channel One telling us. Everything’s good, Mashka the cat had kittens yesterday.”
Hearing that I thought that is the type of reporting that can be heard on FOX. Add to that the rigid brains and you see the results. The election of the Trumpster.
Also listening to that young man and seeing the crowds of faces of young Russian men and women disgusted with Putin (isn’t it strange Trumpster and his rigid brain followers admire the man) I could not but think how courageous these young people are. In Russia standing up to the government can be met with a brutal response unlike here where there is no real consequence.
How bad is FOX? Well the Trumpster spent his time golfing on Saturday. It was the twelfth time he’s been on the golf course in his nine weeks as president. Numerous people sent out photographs him on the course.
What has that got to do with FOX. @FoxNews tweeted on Sunday at 5:30 p.m. a “News Alert” Here is the alert: “@POTUS spending weekend working at the White House.” You want fake news well that just about tops it although in the alt-fact world perhaps the Trumpster feels he is working when he is playing golf.
But that is not the worst part of it. What is ludicrous is that FOX apparently thinks it is breaking news for the Trumpster to work at the White House over the weekend. FOX itself has so little regard for the president’s work habits that had he worked up to 5:30 p.m. on Sunday it considered it breaking news. As one site had it: “Everyone’s Laughing at this Fox News Tweet about Trump’s “Weekend Working.”
The Trumpster believes Putin’s approval rating is in the mid-eighties and envies him. Putin’s state-run media tabulated the poll numbers. Poor Trumpster has to live with the fake polls in the United States that shows his approval rating at 36% the all time lowest for any president. We know if FOX took the poll Trumpster too would be as high as Putin.
I have to ask this. Has there ever been a president who has stumbled and bumbled as much as Trumpster during his first sixty some odd days. The only thing I see that he has done is to push his poll numbers lower and lower. Unfortunately for him his golf score is going in the opposite direction even though he has been on the golf course a little over every fifth day since he has been in office. Although I do not begrudge him his golf, at least while his mind is on playing that game America can get a respite from him.
Didn’t he say when running for office he’d have no time for golf? I’m not a golfer. The main reason was I could not see spending the time that the sport required. It is good to know the Trumpster can handle his new job so easily.
Even you who worship at the altar of the Trumpster have to admit the guy is sort of a dunce. He’s planning to spend billions upon billions on the Great Mexican Wall. On Sunday he tweeted: “General Kelly is doing a great job at the border. Numbers are way down. Many are not even trying to come in anymore.” Isn’t the natural question one would ask is why if that is the case do we need a wall?
Speaking of tweeting he did a few on Monday night. He did complained about the intelligence committee not investigating Hillary and Bill (do you think he knows Hillary is planning to run against him again?) He wrote “Trump Russia story is a hoax.” He probably also believes the stories of the Sunday demonstrations were a hoax because he did not read anything about them in the Russian newspapers.
At least we know one thing, he will never speak out in support of Russians seeking a less corrupt government.
Whoops! Make that “These comrades are ‘blooded’ cadres,” now.
Wa-llahi! Read this fine piece in the Wash P from 3 days ago.
“How two U.S. Marxists wound up on the front lines against ISIS.”
A florist and an American University graduate didn’t intend to fight, but they were sent into battle against the Islamic State in Syria.
(These comrades are cadres, now. The next OWS will be a much more serious matter. All power to the dialectic!)
So it appears that Blackwater is back in the news. Trump with his private spy Erik Prince….Betsy Devos’s brother…meeting with Russians in the Seychelles for no reason whatsoever, facilitated by the UAE (who won’t comment on the meeting). Spicer denies any knowledge of a meeting (of course). http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/blackwater-founder-repped-trump-secret-meeting-overseas-sources-n742266
The Steele Dossier strikes again! Carter Page outed in court document that as early as 2013, he had been in contact with and passing information to Russian spies. http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/trump-campaign-advisor-carter-page-targeted-russian-spies/story?id=46557506
Off topic: Time to free John Connolly. He’s already been in prison for more than nine years, while Kevin Weeks, John Martorano, the loathsome John Morris and perhaps even Steve Flemmi (???) walk the streets. Not a Connolly fan, but the scattershot justice in this case warrants his immediate release. The man has done more time behind bars than Bulger for God’s sake!
Matt:
Please, start a thread on the war. It’s a subject that needs to be discussed.
It doesn’t matter who Obama, and, Bush killed. Those folks are already dead. Glorious Leader is killing civilians, as I write. The dog, Trump, has sent his scurvy puppy, Kushner, to Iraq to put the Mosul offensive back on track. That can only mean increased direct involvement of US combat troops on the front-line.
PSR deaths estimates from 2003-2013
Who do you believe?
Deaths in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan during War on Terror!
BROWN UNIVERSITY’S WATSON INSTITUTE: Total deaths @ 400,000 (Iraq through April 2015 + Afgh/Pakist through July 2016)
PHYSICIANS FOR SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY STUDY (March 2015 estimated deaths from 20013-13 for Iraq, Afghan, Pakistan) = 1.3 million total. (1 million Iraq; 220,000 Afghanistan; 80,000 Pakistan.)
PSR Physicians study fewer years and find three times as many deaths.
_________________
Khalid,
We’re all concerned about civilian deaths.
I read a UN Report (Jan. 2016) that in a 21-month period (1/1/15-10/31/16) in Iraq: there were 18,880 civilian deaths and 36,000 civilian injuries, in what was called “ISIS-related violence”, and that ISIS had enslaved 3,500 women and children (mostly Yazidis). This is about 900 civilian deaths a month.
Another source puts the monthly civilian toll at 1,300 a month for 2016, and 1,700 a month for 2014.
A site called IraqBodyCount says that for 2016 in Iraq, “An average of more than 1,300 civilians were killed in violence every month.”
What are all the Headlines Today: Newsweek: “Under Trump: US forces allegedly kill over 1,000 civilians in Iraq, Syria in March.” NYT: “US coalition counts 229 civilian deaths before Mosul strike” Read the NYT article, the Pentagon says that since 2014 there have been only 229 civilian deaths in US strikes and that in Mosul last week an accidental strike may have killed 200-plus. The Pentagon says the rules of engagement have not changed!
Who to believe?
Again: According to IraqBodyCount:
Here’s the civilian deaths in Iraq the last four years under Obama (deaths caused by US, Coalition, Iraqi, ISIS, etc):
2012 (4,622 civilian deaths); 2013 (9,852 civ death); 2014 (20,218 civ deaths); 2015 (17,578 civ deaths); 2016 (16,393 civ deaths)
War is Hell!
2. I also remember when Bush was in office, every Friday PBS showed pictures of soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan; four months after Obama became president, PBS discontinued the series.
3. When the Misery Index (inflation plus unemployment rate) reached 20% under Carter and the first two years of Reagan, it was a top story. When Reagan cut it in half by the end of his second year, the Media stopped covering it.
Keep an eye on Media bias. There is one conservative leaning network, Fox, “balanced” by six liberal leaning (or leftist dominated) networks ABC, CBS, NBC, MSNBC, CNN, and PBS.
4. NYT: “U.S.-led coalition airstrikes in Iraq and Syria may have already killed 1,484 civilians in just Iraq and Syria this month alone (March), more than three times the number killed in President Barack Obama’s final full month in office, according to British monitoring group Airwars.” Were you aware Obama’s Coalition Air forces killed about 300 or 400 civilians in December (according to Airwars)?
AIRWARS (a British journalist group) estimates that in a 32 month period (August 2014 to March 2017) about 5,200 – 8,300 civilian deaths, or up to 260 civilian deaths per month, are due to US (Coalition) bombing. (US conducts over 75% of Coalition bombing in Iraq.) US says only 229 have been accidentally killed since 2014, and in one incidence in March perhaps another 200 accidentally killed.
Who to believe?
I still want to know if Trump sent a sympathy card to Nicky Scarfo’s family. I mean, he owed him.
Bill C: I’ll happily join you in a prayer for peace. Let’s hope Trump gets the message.
Hutch is right:
War is Hell!
To the victim, it matters not whether you were killed by an M-16 rifle or B-52 bomber.
Prisoners taken on Saipan: @ 200
Prisoners taken on Iwo Jima: @ 900
Prisoners taken on Okinawa: @ 7,000 – 10,000
Rough Figures:
Japanese soldiers killed on Saipan: @24,000 (plus 5,000 suicides); on Iwo Jima @ 18,000; on Okinawa @100,000.
American soldiers killed on Saipan @3,400, on Iwo Jima, 6,800, and at Okinawa @12,500.
Soldiers include sailors and marines, of course. Many sailors killed at Okinawa.
2. Deliberately targeting civilians is always morally repugnant. The Luftwaffe’s bombing of Spanish civilians (Guernica) and British cities (WWII), the British fire-bombing of German cities (Dresden et al) “total war” okayed by Winston Churchill, the U.S. fire-bombing of Japanese cities, and, of course, the nuclear bombings at Hiroshima and Nagasaki raise profound moral questions.
3. The U.S. has been at war in the Middle East for over 15 years. Don’t blame Trump.
4. Don’t bicker; pray for peace!
5. Stop heeding the war mongers, like John McCain, and the NeoCons.
6. Make Russia an ally.
Wa-llahi! It’s progress that you lads, now, accept the ghazwa Manhattan as a valiant military action, rather than, an act of criminal terrorism, hamdulillahi! Indeed, war is hell. In terms of international war crimes, 911 can be be seen as roughly equal in depravity to the bombing of Mosul/Raqqa. America can give it out, as, much, as, America is willing to take it. The toppling of the towers was all about pay-back. Atrocities committed overseas have a habit of coming home to roost.
Why all the bickering? This is War you are talking about. As soon as you accept this avenue for solution, all bets are off. You are arguing niceties that sound incisive in the living room or at the Aetheneum, but have no bearing to reality or logic. What difference is there among B-52 strikes and My Lai? Are the pilots of the 8th Air Force to be tried for Essen and Dresden?
Do you think the Marines and soldiers on Saipan, Okinowa, Iwo etc. took prisoners. Get real.
If all bets are off, there are no terrorists, right? They are just a bunch of guys fighting war as they know it. Maybe Obama should have given bin Laden a pat on the head instead of blowing him away?
This peacenik thinks we should withdraw all of our military forces from the Mideast. I’m betting that move would quiet things on the terrorist front.
America is great now. Let’s hope Trump doesn’t screw that up (by going to war with Iran, for example).
My desire for peace includes Russia. Nobody wants an all-out nuclear war, right? If Russia is willing to stop interfering with our elections, I think we can establish a cordial relationship. We dealt successfully with communist autocrats for decades. We can certainly handle a bare-chested tyrant who is worshipped by a motorcyle gang called the “Night Wolves”. But be his friend or ally? Nah. Leave the lovin’ to the Night Wolves.
No prisoners, except, when, specifically, asked for. Sounds like humping the Arizona. How about our guys taken prisoner? It cuts both ways.
In Mosul, the scale of destruction wrought by increased artillery and airstrikes is immense in some areas.
Abdullah, the resident of the Al-Jadida district, buried 13 members of his family in a single day.
Standing in a field now being used as a graveyard, he said: “This was not a liberation. It was destruction.”
A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Daily Star on April 01, 2017, on page 8.
500,000 civilians are packed into a battle space the size of Iwo Jima. The savagery of the fighting in Mosul compares with that bloody struggle. What would 1945 Washington have done, if the Japanese Army was holding a half a million hostages on the battlefield? Will America kill, and, maim, tens of thousands of civilians in order to eliminate the DAESH? Glorious leader’s conspicuous, and, shameful, disdain for humanity, shows the dog Trump for the kufr haywanat he is.
Trump’s reckless killing of civilians in Iraq, Syria, and Yemen is many things: barbaric, amoral, and criminal. It is also, ironically, likely to strengthen support for the very groups — ISIS and al Qaeda — that he claims he wants to defeat, given that nothing drives support for those groups like U.S. slaughter of civilians (perhaps the only competitor in helping these groups is another Trump specialty: driving a wedge between Muslims and the West).
But what Trump’s actions are not is a departure from what he said he would do, nor are they inconsistent with the predictions of those who described his foreign policy approach as non-interventionist. To the contrary, the dark savagery guiding U.S. military conduct in that region is precisely what Trump expressly promised his supporters he would usher in.
(Glenn Greenwald/Intercept)
Whoops! 2x my bad.
BEFORE TRUMP TOOK OFFICE:
01/12/2017
YEMEN – SAUDI ARABIA
Conflict in Yemen, 1,400 children killed and up to 2 thousand schools destroyed
This is the dramatic toll of the conflict, which has also left “more than 2140” children with minor injuries. UNICEF pleas that schools should be “zones of peace” and not targets of attacks. A renewed appeal for the protection of children. Yemeni institution for children against the Saudi air raids, responsible for “war crimes”.”
Obama’s history. How about the now? Glorious Leader is the current chief war criminal. The Saudis are using weapons America sold them. There is no no excuse for the dog, Trump. That’s how Yemenis refer to your President…the dog, Trump. It sounds more poetic in Arabic.
Bill and NC: You seem all cool with murdering civilians. Are you ISIS guys, now? My Lai wasn’t that long ago. VN was a slaughter, so’s the situation in the Mideast. Americas is accumulating bad karma with every bomb it drops.
7000 civilians killed in Yemen under Obama and you are blaming Trump for those deaths? Mattis said no country takes better care in avoiding civilian casualties than the U S. 2. If one wants big government they can move to China or N. Korea. A 4 trillion dollar American government isn’t big enough? Our best President Reagan ran a superior government with one trillion. Under the Gipper we were stronger militarily, morally and economically. Best of all we were at Peace.
Except for that whole Iran-Contra affair and the utter failure of his economic policies which have wrought devastation on the working class for the past 30 years.
Khalid:
Hogwash.
See General Mattis’s statement previously posted. See the number of bombs, drones, shells, etc, used by Obama.
Civilians die in war. The leftist media grossly underestimated the deaths under Obama and will grossly exaggerate civilian deaths under Trump.
How little we heard from liberals and leftists while Obama waged war in 7 countries!
Trump’s reckless killing of civilians in Iraq, Syria, and Yemen is many things: barbaric, amoral, and criminal. It is also, ironically, likely to strengthen support for the very groups — ISIS and al Qaeda — that he claims he wants to defeat, given that nothing drives support for those groups like U.S. slaughter of civilians (perhaps the only competitor in helping these groups is another Trump specialty: driving a wedge between Muslims and the West).
But what Trump’s actions are not is a departure from what he said he would do, nor are they inconsistent with the predictions of those who described his foreign policy approach as non-interventionist. To the contrary, the dark savagery guiding U.S. military conduct in that region is precisely what Trump expressly promised his supporters he would usher in.
(Glenn Greenwald/Intercept)
What do you think Bill, and, NC, do you approve of the slaughter?
The Mark 84 has a nominal weight of 2,000 lb (907.2 kg), but its actual weight varies depending on its fin, fuze options, and retardation configuration, from 1,972 to 2,083 lb (894.5 to 944.8 kg). It is a streamlined steel casing filled with 945 lb (428.6 kg) of Tritonal high explosive.[1]
The Mark 84 is capable of forming a crater 50 feet (15.2 m) wide and 36 ft (11.0 m) deep. It can penetrate up to 15 inches (381.0 mm) of metal or 11 ft (3.4 m) of concrete, depending on the height from which it is dropped, and causes lethal fragmentation to a radius of 400 yards (365.8 m).[3]
Bill C:
Do you think this is the type of “smart” bomb can distinguish between DAESH fighters and innocent civilians?
Gallup polls tend to tilt left, but here’s a January 2017 Gallup poll:
The poll found that in 2016, 36 percent of Americans said they are conservative, compared with 25 percent who identified as liberal and 34 percent who identified as moderate.
More Americans identify as Conservative than Liberal, yet the Media decidedly spins left.
Since Gallup started to routinely measure Americans’ political ideology in 1992, conservative identification has varied between 36-40% and liberals have fluctuated between 17-25% since 1992.
Go ask those same conservatives if they like Obamacare. I bet you will find a majority of them do.
Liberals gave us the Welfare State, the break-up of inner city families and 80% illegitimacy rates. Government (Federal, State, Local) consumes over 40% of GDP. The great liberal Obama, the Nobel Peace Prize recipient, extended the war in Iraq and Afghanistan, expanded the war in Afghanistan, and initiated American warfare and bombing in Syria, Yemen, Somalia and Libya. Obama doubled the National Debt. (@20 trillion.)
Ever wonder why Obama received such favorable press coverage?
Here’s five reasons why:
1. Obama’s White House national security advisor, Ben Rhoades, is the brother of CBS News President David Rhoades. You know Ben: he edited the Benghazi talking points.
2. Jay Carney, Obama’s White House Press Secretary is married to Claire Shipman, a senior national correspondent at ABC News.
3. The president of ABC News, Ben Sherwood, is brother to Dr. Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall, a special advisor to Barack Obama.
4. Tom Nides, Deputy Secretary of State under Obama is married to Virginia Moseley, CNN Vice President and Washington Bureau Chief.
5. The Mainstream Media (MSNBC, CNN, ABC, CBS, NBC, NYT, WashPost, etc, etc, etc), is liberal (leftist).
I get my news and opinions from conservative websites and conservative writers on line: Buchanan, Sowell, American Spectator, Federalist Papers, Townhall, American Thinker, Breitbart, etc, etc. I rely on C-Span, too. I don’t read the Herald! I like Fox News, fair and balanced. I like Rush Limbaugh. CNN and MSNBC are biased, too leftist; since Trump’s election, constantly in the doldrums: e.g. “Breaking News: Trump paid 28% in taxes!”
Of course, I like to read. Where would we be without library books? A good expenditure of taxpayer dollars!
Keep reading the Herald–you won’t have worry about verbs. Bill, if you and NC like small governments, try Lichtenstein.
Did the King of deficits take any kind of beating for Beirut? Compared to her slickness’ strapping to the post over Benghazzi, Raygun got a pass.
Is Wolfowitz still alive? After his fall from grace at the World Bank perhaps resurrection in his future with the Trump gang.
Dave: Spoken like a true liberal believer: Keep reading the Globe!
I mostly read the Intercept, Vice News and wait for it….Breitbart! The intercept and vice news are about as independent and away from the main stream as it gets. Vice News has pretty fantastic journalism, especially in war zones, which is kind of funny because 21st century fox owns about a 5% stake in the company.
The Intercept is amazing because it shines a light on what we are really doing regarding surveillance and intervention in conflicts like Yemen and Syria (I’ll give you a hint, it includes bombing the sh*t out of civilians). They had 2 journalists embedded in Yemen basically come out and say that the reason the Seals came under such heavy fire was that the village is right on the front line of the civil war, and most of the villagers thought they were under attack by the Houthis…the people our Saudi allies are actually fighting. 0 intelligence was collected, and there were 3-4 low level al qaeda hanging out there. The military went nuts with air strikes when the seals realized they were pinned down because they approached from the bottom of the hill/mountain, and the villagers had the high ground. Go see for yourself, the article is probably still up on their website. They were also on the intercepts podcast a couple of days ago, check it out, amazing stuff. It was quite clear that the raid was a political tool, there was a reason Obama didn’t ok it.
Lastly, I read Breitbart to just keep my head on a swivel about what the crazies are up to, what they are coming for and who they are attacking next. That is also the same reason I read the comment section on this blog.
Before man used fossil fuels there were one billion people on the planet. Today there are seven billion and they are better fed. Carbon dioxide is plant fuel and it’s increase has led to the green revolution in agriculture. Coal, oil and gas are primarily responsible for today’s abundance. Life is impossible without carbon. 2. Trump’s critics should consult their grief counselors and calm down. Happy days are here again. Has any President in our history ever selected a better Supreme Court nominee?
1. Humanity’s population explosion is unsustainable at its current rate with what natural resources we have. Global warming will put further strain on drinkable fresh water. It will continue to dry out some our most important farming areas like southern california. CO2 will continue to acidify our oceans, depleting fish stocks, which a majority of the world depends on as its main source of protein. 2. Life is also impossible without water, yet you can still drown from it. 3. Humanity also flourished with the discovery of electricity, it can still kill you. 4. Trump’s critics make up approximately 60% of the nation. 5. If you want a Supreme Court nominee who will support corporations over people, then yes he is a wonderful nominee. 6. Explain to me how deregulating internet privacy laws will lead to more privacy as GOP congressmen have said on the house floor? Thanks bye.
I assume this post is dung in cheek.
That would be nc’s post.
It now comes out that members of the White House NSC are the ones who provided the information to Nunes that the Trump campaign team and been incidentally surveilled when they were colluding with Russian officials. Then Nunes ran to the White House to brief the President on this new information. How does that make any sense. Why would Nunes have to brief the President on information his own National Security Council had? Pure lies.
I noticed in recent Iraqi media interviews that a lot of the Iraqi officers in the CT and Rapid Response units have Shia names (Ali, Hussein, Hassan), and, hail from the south of their country. These are the same company to battalion level officers who target artillery and airstrikes on DAESH positions. Considering that Mosul is a Sunni majority city, do you think that any of those officers would sacrifice their troops to save civilians? Being flush with US air and artillery assets, they can recon by fire. Does that make America complicit in war crimes?
Witness in Senate Intelligence Committee hearing just testified both Trump and Manafort used Russian fake news stories multiple times as talking points. Witness testified Russian propagandists/hackers continue to monitor Trumps internet activity and push and tweet fake news stories at him when he is online.
Presently, ISIS is the greatest butcher of civilians in the Middle East.
America exercises great care to avoid civilian casualties. General Mattis recently said that no country takes more care to avoid civilian casualties than America.
But no doubt civilians are killed.
Stats showed that in 2016 the US dropped 26,000 bombs in the Middle East and nearly 2,000 drone strikes. (@1,300 drones in Afghanistan alone.) I can’t find an honest story of how many civilians have been killed under Obama. Trump is in office 70 days and the Media is plastered with stories of civilian casualties.
2. I’m for fair reporting; not anti-Russian propaganda.
3. I do hope for better relations with Russia. I’m against the cold war warriors.
Bill: Read Huff, this morning. A top US General said the US wouldn’t be applying its’ usual high standard of concern for civilians because the fight is too tough. The General implies that massive civilian casualties are part of the game. If you’ve heard different give me the e-cite.
In the last several weeks, the number of airstrikes by the United States-led international coalition against the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq has jumped exponentially. With it, civilian casualties. This month, there have been more than 1,000 claimed civilian deaths from coalition airstrikes in Iraq and Syria, Airwars reports. (Syria Direct)
Soon, civilian deaths by US airstrikes will surpass the carnage at the twin towers. What will be the Believers’ git-back this time, another Ghazwa Manhattan? America is sowing the Mideast with dragons’ teeth.
Is today’s post an argument for conformity? Shouldn’t dissenting opinions be welcomed? Aren’t we fortunate to have the Nation magazine and Amy Goodman on the left? While having Buchanan and Ron Paul on the right. Different opinions is what our Constitution is about. Freedom of conscience. You can find group think in N. Korea, China and Saudi Arabia. So denouncing the only non liberal TV outlet seems bizarre. The Establishment clause forbids the forced worship of religion ( liberalism). As Mao said ” Let a thousand flowers bloom”. 2. Why would one be concerned over Trump killing thousands of Muslims when they were silent when Obama killed hundreds of thousands in Syria, Libya, Yemen and elsewhere? A double standard maybe.
Wa-llahi! All the action’s in Syria/Iraq. Trump is slaughtering Muslims by the thousands. Glorious Leader, and, his crazy crew, have their mad crusade rolling. Bit by bit, he’s sending troops to the Mideast battlefields. There’ll be divisions headed there, soon. The abattoir welcomes all comers.
If what Farkus said was such a big deal. Why did it take weeks for anyone to figure it out? Maybe someone could type up exactly what she said and post it here. Not the pre-hysteria, and post-hysteria hype. Just exactly what she said. And let readers here decide for themselves. All you ever get is the spin, not an actual quote.
That’s what I did when I got sick of the nonstop Benghazi bullbleep. I typed up and posted on social media exactly what conservative Bob Novak had said on McLaughlin Group about the Marines stationed in Lebanon 18 days before the barracks bombing:
John McLaughlin: Let’s talk about Lebanon. The Congress says that the Marines can stay for a year and a half at Ronald Reagan’s urging. Did Ronald Reagan choose the right course in keeping the Marines over there for a year and a half Robert Novak?
Robert Novak: No. It’s an absolute disaster. There is no mission for them. There is nothing they can accomplish. They are a sitting duck there. It is one of the most feckless foreign policy decisions that I have seen by this country.
Jack Germond (Moderate Democrat): I hate to be in the position of agreeing with Novak but I do.
From: Mclaughlin Group, October 5, 1983 (18 days before the Marine barracks truck bombing, killing 241 U.S. Marine and 58 French peacekeepers, and six civilians
Here is a youtube link. The Lebanon discussion starts about 10 seconds in. I did it that way to authenticate the exact date of the program.
How is this controversial? The intel community knew of nefarious collusion and made attempts to ensure that the incoming crooks would not do their best to sweep their illegal activities under the rug.
I don’t think Trump has even read the Constitution. I’m enjoying the suggestion that Russia is somehow more democratic than the US. America, love it or leave it!
Looks like Trump’s next big swing (outside the golf course) willl come in the foreign affairs arena. Let’s hope that’s not war with Iran.
Afterthought: I was amazed at how tired and gaunt Obama looked after eight years in office. But recent golf course photos indicate that your boy Trump is headed in the opposite direction! Any guesses on how many pounds the leader of the Free World (which now includes Russia, evidently) will have packed on after one year in office? The winner gets a free weekend at fabulous Mar-a-Lago.
Matt attacks Fox News.
Of course, the Media in America (Cable, T.V., Press) is overwhelmingly liberal, as are most journalists. Most liberals can’t abide conservative views.
Russian protest organizers say 150,000 people protested in 90 cities; reports say over 1,000 were arrested; most arrested were young and most were released the following day.
On Inauguration Day, January 20, 2017, in Washington D.C., 200 protesters were arrested (mostly young).
RT (Russia Today) did report on the Russian Protests, and of course with a pro-Russian slant.
Our Media, of course, generally employs anti-Russian slants, as does Matt.
US kills US citizens defecting to ISIS (by drones); US Media relatively uncritical of Israel when 1,500 civilians killed using America’s planes and bombs (Matt criticized that); US relatively silent when 1,000s in Yemen killed by Saudi’s planes/bombs; US gives cluster bombs to Saudi Arabia which uses them on civilians; Saudi Arabia and China are much more repressive than Russia; Saudi Arabia just executed a Shia Cleric for being critical of the government; and, yes, a handful of Russian “defectors” are assassinated.
Russia had massive protests from 2011-2013. No wholesale slaughter, as there was in Tiananmen Square, where civilian deaths were estimated at 200-2,500; police deaths est. 50. Russia also saw large scale “dissenters protests” from 2006-2008. Some Russian protesters were arrested and most released the following day, as in America. Many of the Russian protesters are liberals, communists, students, etc, etc, etc.
2. The Farkus issue is very troubling: Basic admission of a spy operation against US citizens.
3. Three million protested in America the day after Trump was inaugurated, and Trump had zero arrested. Trump respects the Constitution!
The reality is Trump’s collusion with Russia and the barely legal and profoundly distasteful surveillance of American citizens can exist at the same time, it does not have to be one or the other, as both sides will have you believe. While Obama allowed the intel community to spread its tentacles, Bush initially put it in place after 9/11. It was illegal enough that his own AG refused to sign off on it.
The GOP’s insistence on clamping down on leaks while at the same time decrying the surveillance of the Trump administration is quite the paradox….another classic example of GOP cognitive dissonance. Without leaks like Snowden, the American public would have no knowledge of the Intel community’s surveillance programs. I am sure if the intelligence collected from this surveillance was not damaging, these “look over here” red-herring tactics would not be utilized.
Meanwhile the GOP and President Fool are complicit in removing your internet privacy rights. The GOP Senator (I can’t remember his name but it can be easily googled) claimed it was in the name of the Constitution that these privacy regs should be repealed. I think he meant to say in the name of corporate profit.
Meanwhile, Trump and his minions have sacrificed clean air and water and land that is currently above sea level in order to insist on bringing back American jobs and revitalizing dying and obsolete industries. Trump claims that environmental regs make it too tough for coal companies to be competitive. If we are really going to focus on bringing back the dying coal industry jobs, we should alsolook into revitalizing the phone booth manufacturing companies, and start a jobs program for the stagecoach drives who no longer can find work. At what point should coal miners take “personal responsibility” as the GOP likes to put it, and find work in fields that are actually relevant and needed?
A lot of coal country’s problems stem from the influx of natural gas, which in itself is controversial due to the highly damaging fracking techniques. In Oklahoma, where our beloved scientific neophyte EPA chief hails from, they experience earthquakes and tremors from fracking on an unprecedented scale. Fracking also causes groundwater pollution, in some communities where fracking occurs, there are crazy methane leaks and people can literally light their tap water on fire. The Trump admin is also revoking rules that require the fracking companies to report and provide data on the amount of methane leaks.
We should be willing to sacrifice obsolete jobs and dirty, polluting industries, and pay a bit more for our fuel if in the end we have a clean environment and a livable plant. Retrain those in Appalachia who have lost coal jobs and invest in renewable energy. The blew the tops off the mountains to get at the coal, why not stick solar panels or a wind farm on top of the blown off mountain tops?
The “president” just named his son-in-law as the leader of his new “innovation swat team.” Really, reverting back to 150 year old sources of fuel is innovation? They want to run the country like a business and called the American people the government’s customers. We are not your customers, we do not buy any product from government, the American people are the government. It is funny that Exxon-Mobil has a huge amount of its assets tied up in the Canadian oil sands, which the XL pipeline will now open up access to. Oil from this area is like tar, it is very dirty to burn, and because it has to be mined rather than pumped like liquid, it actually costs more fuel to produce than a normal barrel of oil. Our Secretary of State should know all about this.
It is going to be a devastatingly long four years of the destruction of our Republic. It makes me sick just thinking about it.
The revelations of Evelyn Farkus and overall behavior of Obama administration convince me that FISA and other products of national intelligence were used to undermine an incoming, elected administration by ‘true believers’ in the Clinton and Obama universes. This trumps anything Nixon might have envisioned in his wildest dreams. I found a summary of Farkus’ dad’s book and can comprehend how her worldview was formed through family history. This may explain, but does not excuse, her willingness to employ ANY means to destroy Trump. That is the problem; they did employ intelligence for political purposes.
Her dad was INSIDE the Hungarian radio building in 1956. Her family was destroyed by the Russians. It is compelling reading but how terribly sad it might have resulted in the daughter using the totalitarian tactics her father fought against in Hungary. Matt, Adams disliked Jefferson, Adams’ son despised Jackson and Nixon must have felt unkindly to JFK’s theft of Texas an Illinois in 1960 but the Republic survived. It is what we call democracy and, as the defeated but wonderful political prankster Dick Tuck said in his concession speech; “the people spoke; the bastards!”
Charles Farkus:
Thirteen pages of the book describe Charles’s active participation in and observations on the 1956 Revolution. The acts of violence perpetrated by the Communists in front of the building of the Radio has been described by many authors and eyewitnesses, but here we learn also what happened inside, as Charles was one of those who entered the building when the revolutionaries took it over. That was enough to fear arrest and even execution when the second Soviet invasion managed to suppress the Hungarian people and brutal reprisals followed. It seemed the logical thing for him to do was to leave behind his beloved mother, friends and the country home, and to escape, ending up at Camp Kilmer in New Jersey, together with thousands of Hungarian refugees.
http://www.hungarianreview.com/article/20140514_chroniclers_of_a_vanished_world
Factual point. Harry Truman was way below Trump’s “all time low” approval rating. Did you not ever hear about “Korea, Communism, and corruption”? As an incumbent Truman had to drop out in 1952. He was way below Trump and the polls were not rigged.
Talk about Pravda airbrushing news, the American network triad that people grew up with before cable and later the Internet was a closed environment. It was about them and their ideas only – the NYC-Washington hostile elite and their brats. Nothing has changed.
As a student in the sixties I belonged to the ISI, Intercollegiate Society of Individualists, an organization of some 45,000 + students. It was right wing and active. It got zero news coverage. But the SDS, Students for a Democratic Society, was lavished with coverage despite never being composed of more than a very few hundred youths. The former was almost entirely White and Christian so they were unimportant. The latter was mostly Jews with a scattering of Negroes, so they counted to the media.
A couple decades ago I recall a NYT big piece on how America was going back to the soil. A major trend. Yeah, sure. They found about 200 or so NYC darlings eking out an existence farming in the same year some 40,000+ heartland family farms were abandoned. Of course the White Christian farmers were of no value to the hostile elite that feeds you your information and that hates you and your folk.
Fact: The young McGovernite generation of media legend voted for Richard M. Nixon. Have you ever seen a single member of that majority on TV as a representative of that cohort?
Matt, you never escaped a tightly defined, controlled bubble that you grew up in, nursed on commie-lite, aka, liberalism. Uncle Walter is still your Big Brother.
Tadzio: Your remark about Jewish SDS students and the media comes pretty close to anti-Semitism.
Now, I’ve never heard of ISIS, er, sorry, ISI.
Your complaint is this: “The former [ISI] was almost entirely White and Christian so they were unimportant. The latter was mostly Jews with a scattering of Negroes, so they counted to the media. ”
Now, this could be still another media conspiracy, OR, it could be proof of the fact that ISI was extremely boring , perhaps a tad smaller than you recall, and composed largely of students who couldn’t get a date.
As I recall it, the boring, can’t-get -a-date view of campus conservatives was vastly more popular in left-wing student circles in the late ’60s and the early ’70s than the notion that they were being picked on because they were white Christians.
I’m also amazed by the fact that you seem to think of white Christians as a persecuted minority. Surely you don’t think this to be the case in the Republican Party, do you?
This white, Christian liberal Democrat is signing off for now.
Your rhetorical ability is limited to ad hominem attacks.
Btw, ad hominem is a Latin phrase commonly used in English discourse. It means to the man, that is, personal.
Thanks for the tip on “ad hominem.” I also dug your reference to SDS “Negroes,” but I don’t think that’s what black SDS-types called themselves, even in 1968.
I say “SDS types” because no one was issued a membership card, and SDS itself disintegrated around 1969. I think the term you’re actually looking for is New Left. Just a tip.
We speak English.
If you go back and actually read any of Matt’s pre-election posts, he lambastes Hillary, Bernie, and Trump quite evenly. The fact that Trump is still comparing his ridiculous behavior to Hillary Clinton is pathetic. He won, Hillary Clinton is irrelevant. At least when he complains about Obama he can argue that he inherited whatever problems Obama created. Hillary was never president, so any comparison to her is completely and utterly meaningless.
Too many dead Russians since the insuguration. Is a CIA network being killed off? Is there a leak at Langley?