Trumpled (Alternative Leading)

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Re: Trumpled (Alternative Leading)

Reply #1290 – March 31, 2017, 01:21:48 pm

Trump's Russia problem won't go away.

General Flynn, his former National Security Advisor, has asked for immunity if he is to testify to Congress or talk to the FBI. Wow! Trump has racked up another first. I don't think someone who had held a senior post as the head of the National Security Council has done that before, and we're only 70 days into Trump's term. Unfortunately for Trump, Flynn is apparently bitter over being dumped and the criticisms made of him by White House staff. Flynn may not mind dragging a few of them into the mud. He certainly would know where the bodies are buried - the question is whether he would testify candidly.

How ironic. This is the same guy who said that Hillary's staffers who sought immunity in the email probe must have committed a crime as innocent people don't seek immunity. The karma bus has hit him well and truly and is backing up over him for good measure. This is the same guy who led chants of "Lock her up!" at the Republican Convention.

Meanwhile, the House Intelligence Committee is becoming a circus. The Chairman, Devin Nunes, seems to have decided to use his position to kill its investigation. At the last minute, he cancelled public hearings at which Sally Yates and the former CIA director were to testify. The previous public hearing involved FBI Director Comey and this ended up badly for Trump. The Republicans had tried to highlight leaking but instead the Dems extracted the stunning information that the FBI has been investigating Trump's team since last July.

Nunes has also allowed himself to be a stooge for the White House. He marched down to see Trump in the Oval Office and then called a press conference and dropped a bombshell that he'd seen proof that Trump's team had been caught up in surveillance of foreigners. He did this without taking that info to his own committee. This appeared to be an attempt to justify Trump's tweet about Trump Tower phones being tapped. But now Nunes is taking heavy fire. It has now come out that Nunes actually went to the White House where he was shown documents by White House officials before then returning to the White House to tell Trump about this info he'd 'discovered'. What a sham! Nunes was on Trump's campaign team, surprise, surprise.

Re: Trumpled (Alternative Leading)

Reply #1291 – March 31, 2017, 01:57:56 pm

Mav, the whole Whitehouse is looking like a Marx Brothers or Three Stooges movie!

Re: Trumpled (Alternative Leading)

Reply #1292 – March 31, 2017, 08:09:43 pm

I reckon Curly would have made a decent POTUS, particularly with Mo as Secretary of State and Larry as press secretary

They could be worse than the clowns in the roles now.

Re: Trumpled (Alternative Leading)

Reply #1293 – April 07, 2017, 10:24:16 am

Wonder what all the Trump fanboys think now that the inevitable international crises are looming. Whether he's good or bad for the US domestically is largely irrelevant for us. But international crises aren't.

Are we happy that Trump's in charge now that Syria and North Korea look as if military interventions may be possible?

At least General McMaster has now consolidated his control of the situation room and Bannon has been punted. McMaster seems to be impressive. But Trump's sloth in filling important positions makes you wonder whether the US is well-placed to deal with the inevitable crises that inevitably confront new Presidents.

Re: Trumpled (Alternative Leading)

Reply #1294 – April 07, 2017, 11:36:54 am

As long as the Generals know what they're doing

If Donald looks like he's going to interfere give him something else to do that makes him happy.

Re: Trumpled (Alternative Leading)

Reply #1295 – April 07, 2017, 12:41:24 pm

Sad for Trump that he won't be able to persuade the Chinese Premier to play a round of golf with him at Maralago in the official visit that's happening now. Le Kiqiang has banned party and government officials playing golf as an anti-corruption measure

There's now been a missile strike on a Syrian airbase and Secretary Tillerson has condemned the Russians for failing to prevent further chemical weapons use by Assad. How will Putin react? If there really was any coordination between the Russians and the Trump campaign, maybe Wikileaks will release documentary evidence of it now.

The problem now is whether the Syrian situation will escalate and whether Trump is smart enough to prevent it doing so.

Re: Trumpled (Alternative Leading)

Reply #1296 – April 07, 2017, 12:52:22 pm

Quote from: Mav on April 07, 2017, 12:41:24 pm

Sad for Trump that he won't be able to persuade the Chinese Premier to play a round of golf with him at Maralago in the official visit that's happening now. Le Kiqiang has banned party and government officials playing golf as an anti-corruption measure

There's now been a missile strike on a Syrian airbase and Secretary Tillerson has condemned the Russians for failing to prevent further chemical weapons use by Assad. How will Putin react? If there really was any coordination between the Russians and the Trump campaign, maybe Wikileaks will release documentary evidence of it now.

The problem now is whether the Syrian situation will escalate and whether Trump is smart enough to prevent it doing so.

Here lies the problem.

US backed rebels are reportedly the ones who dropped the chem weapons.

Not Assad.

This is a propaganda war as much as anything as no one really knows.

Re: Trumpled (Alternative Leading)

Reply #1297 – April 07, 2017, 01:00:17 pm

What reports? Only the Russian-backed Assad regime has air power in Syria. How then could the rebels have "dropped" chemical weapons?

Assad's regime claimed instead that they targetted chemical weapons stores or factories in rebel territory and that attack incidentally released chemicals. That's pretty lame.

PS: I'm asking about reports rather than conspiracy theories based on the assumption that Assad wouldn't be stupid enough to do this, so it must have been a false flag operation.

Re: Trumpled (Alternative Leading)

Reply #1298 – April 07, 2017, 02:34:09 pm

So much for Trump being in bed with Putin.

Re: Trumpled (Alternative Leading)

Reply #1299 – April 07, 2017, 03:20:32 pm

Quote from: Mav on April 07, 2017, 01:00:17 pm

What reports? Only the Russian-backed Assad regime has air power in Syria. How then could the rebels have "dropped" chemical weapons?

Assad's regime claimed instead that they targetted chemical weapons stores or factories in rebel territory and that attack incidentally released chemicals. That's pretty lame.

PS: I'm asking about reports rather than conspiracy theories based on the assumption that Assad wouldn't be stupid enough to do this, so it must have been a false flag operation.

Better question, how do we know they were dropped by Syrians?

Very quick reaction by the US.

Either way, I think its deplorable.

Re: Trumpled (Alternative Leading)

Reply #1300 – April 07, 2017, 04:17:08 pm

Quote from: madbluboy on April 07, 2017, 02:34:09 pm

So much for Trump being in bed with Putin.

Interesting turn of phrase. When a cheating spouse is caught in flagrante delicto, said cheating spouse then has to be on best behaviour, at least in the short term. Obviously, the other spouse will be watching like a hawk for a while. If Trump had been able to keep his bedtime frolics with Putin secret, how long would the affair have lasted and what effect would it have had on US policy? Strange how an FBI investigation stopped the bromance in its tracks

Re: Trumpled (Alternative Leading)

Reply #1301 – April 07, 2017, 10:35:41 pm

Quote from: Thryleon on April 07, 2017, 03:20:32 pm

Either way, I think its deplorable.

The retaliatory strike or the initial chemical attack?

The swiftness of the response I think is very deliberate and about the first thing Trump has done that I agree with.
The intelligence they have at hand obviously provides a far clearer picture than what we can speculate on, but it seems all Western governments seem to be in agreement that the attack was by Assad's government.

Interestingly Russia has shown a willingness to use gas themselves on their own people, notably with the Theater crisis. Now that may well have been the right response to that particular situation, but it also shows that Putin might consider the use of chemical agents as valid if it hastens a resolution.

I don't like Trump, I don't think most do... But I did like that someone stood up and said 'screw You' to Assad and to Putin, because I think that they feel the West is quite weak at the moment and will let them get away with anything.

Re: Trumpled (Alternative Leading)

Reply #1302 – April 07, 2017, 11:34:50 pm

The use of chemical weapons is deplorable.

A swift strike to flex muscles is not great either as the USA is partly responsible for the situation in this country.

Re: Trumpled (Alternative Leading)

Reply #1303 – April 08, 2017, 01:52:00 am

That is an interesting chestnut that...
It is very easy to really say that the US is partly responsible for any issues in the middle east, but the reality is that the problem in Syria is mainly Assad's doing. The guy is a criminal, time and again his actions against citizens contravene International Law.

Whilst the US involved in the country (as you would suspect), I don't see that Syria is 'caused' by the US, partially or otherwise. They have been essentially a dictatorship for 40 years, the Arab Spring scared the crap out of Assad and he had to ensure he kept power and wasn't overthrown in the way others were, he decided suppression through force was the right option, this turned the country to chaos.

Now America chose sides and it was NEVER likely to be Assad's, but they didn't start this civil war, they didn't create the tension that is there between Sunni and Shia Muslims either.

America screws up a lot, they may have create a massive power vacuum in Iraq (not commenting on whether they should or should not have in this particular argument) which may then have allowed for the growth of the likes of ISIL within that country, but I don't see how they created the Syria problem.

I think flexing muscles is actually what needs to happen on occasion, there are some who only respond to strength.

Re: Trumpled (Alternative Leading)

Reply #1304 – April 08, 2017, 08:12:56 am

The only thing I find interesting is that everyone is happy to enforce their ideas of democracy on other nations and then state that our brand of war pain and suffering is better than the home grown version.

Meanwhile the occupation of northern Cyprus by Turkish insurgents continues from 1974 to today.

No one seems to worry overly about that one though.