Day: July 17, 2018

Closing Thought–17Jul18

Last week we had the great news that all the kids and their coach had been rescued from the cave in Thailand…..the news was every where and the atta boys were constant…..

The out pouring to love and good wishes was amazing…..but with all that I was wonder after years of conflict why the news media seems to ignore the plight, the suffering the death of the children of Yemen…….

Thanks to a major international effort, a Thai youth soccer team has been successfully rescued from the cave where it has been trapped for nearly 15 days. The boys’ plight and the efforts to rescue them have captured the world’s attention for several days, dominating news headlines throughout much of the world. Ultimately, most of the boys were rescued thanks in large part to an international collaboration as divers from several countries united to save them. Indeed, the rescue team was composed of five foreign divers paired with five Thai Navy SEALs as well as a team of 70 support divers, 50 of whom were from other nations.

The successful rescue of the Thai youth team undoubtedly stands as a testament to how international collaboration stemming from international awareness – thanks in part to in-depth news coverage – can overcome impossible odds to save the lives of children and others in need. Yet, while the now-rescued Thai youth recover out of harm’s way, children elsewhere whose lives are also in danger cannot expect similar treatment.

http://theantimedia.com/thai-boys-yemen-children/

Do not misunderstand…I am thrilled that these kids were rescued from the rising water in that cave….I just do not understand why one group of kids is more important than another…..we can thank the media for this situation…..they alone decide who is important.

Why cannot the media with all its resources do something about all the suffering in Yemen?  Why is there NO stomach for an effort in Yemen?  Why are starving children Yemen less important than kids trapped in a cave?

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The Stinky In Helsinki

Let me make it clear…I think that talking with adversaries is a good way to solve problems…that is called diplomacy….sorry what happened in Helsinki was nowhere near diplomacy.

I have been watching Our Dear Leader’s responses to questions for over 540 days of his presidency….and in all that time his responses have been nothing but babble and the reiterating his accusations and his bitches about the 2016 elections.

The meeting in Helsinki was a waste of time for anything but Trump’s ego trip…..no one heard anything from our Dear Leader but bullsh*t……even his best friend in the media FOX heard nothing but babble……Let us check the round-up shall we?

CNN’s Anderson Cooper called it “perhaps one of the most disgraceful performances by an American president” immediately after the press conference. Cooper’s name immediately began trending on Twitter after making the comment, which resulted in a variety of media members agreeing with the CNN star.

“Anderson Cooper nailed it,” CNN anchor Brooke Baldwin tweeted.

Associated Press reporter Jonathan Lemire and Reuters White House correspondent Jeff Mason were both praised by journalists for asking tough questions, but Trump’s answers drew scorn.

“Trump, finally asked whom he believes on Russia interference, gives a vague and rambling non-answer, with renewed complaints about Hillary’s server. Says he trusts US intel but made clear he takes Putin’s denials seriously. Lame response, to say the least,” Fox News’ Brit Hume tweeted.

“He threw in references to the whereabouts of a computer server at the Democratic National Committee and the activities of a former House Democratic staffer who some conspiracy theorists have alleged penetrated lawmakers’ computers,” NBC News’ Jonathan Allen wrote. “Trump also blamed the U.S. in part for the deterioration of the relationship between the two countries in recent years.”

The New York Times’ headline said, “Trump avoids rebuking Putin on meddling,” noting that the president “won’t say if he believes Moscow or U.S. intelligence.” The Washington Post also focused on the president’s reaction to the Mueller probe with a headline, “Putin again denies Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. election; Trump calls probe a ‘disaster for our country.’”

CNN chief International anchor Christiane Amanpour called the press conference “extraordinary,” while the network’s senior White House correspondent Jim Acosta said the president took the word of Putin over his own intelligence community. Acosta even said there was “nervous laughter” in the room when Putin was asked if he has dirt on Trump before calling it “astonishing” that he didn’t condemn Putin when given the chance.

“They came across as playmates on a soccer field more than they did international rivals,” Acosta said.

CNN’s Gloria Borger added, “Everybody around the world has seen the president stand next to Vladimir Putin and basically cave.”

“Horrible performance from our President today. Pretty ugly when u give a pass to a nation that is undermining our democracy,” Fox Business anchor Trish Regan tweeted.

Fox News’ Neil Cavuto called the press conference “disgusting,” while his colleague Stuart Varney added, “It was not a very forceful presentation from President Trump with Putin standing right next to him. Not forceful at all.”

“Noticing on Twitter that many of the normal Trump defenders are struggling mightily to defend today’s performance,” NBC News’ Chuck Todd said.

Conservative commentator Ben Shapiro called Trump’s performance “self-serving and utterly grotesque,” before declaring Trump “made a fool of himself.” The BBC’s headline simply stated, “Trump sides with Russia against FBI.”

Conservative strategist Chris Barron tweeted, “Not pleased with Trump’s Putin press conference. Doesn’t feel like America First.”

(Fox News)

How long will he keep reliving the election?  An election HE WON!

This is that bee in his bonnet…..Does he relive the election because his feelings are hurt that he lost the popular vote…..does he deep down think that we feel he is a illegitimate president?

It’s all right there in the indictment — day by day, hack by hack, theft by theft — how agents of the Russian intelligence service, the GRU, set out in the spring of 2016 to steal the election for Donald Trump. When you track the actions taken by Russian intelligence in the indictment with statements made by Trump and actions taken on his behalf by members of his campaign, the picture is as clear as an iPhone photo. Agents of the Russian government coordinated with members of the Trump campaign and took cues from Trump himself in order to influence the election of 2016.

In announcing the indictment, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein may have refused to point to a victim of the Russians’ crimes other than to say it was America itself, but the intent of the Russians was clear. They took active measures over a period of at least nine months to aid the campaign of Donald Trump and to damage the campaign of Hillary Clinton. They stole the election for Donald Trump, and he helped them do it.

https://www.rawstory.com/2018/07/donald-trump-illegitimate-president/amp/

This will be interesting to see if the GOP has anything to say or they wimp out like they have been doing for 540+ days……in other words….will the GOP grow a spine?

Oh yeah…I learned that Dear Leader won the 2016 election and that Hillary was his opponent……

Lastly, do you think that the media is making too much out of the Helsinki situation?  (I ask because tomorrow I will post on that possibility)(hope to see you there)

The Golden Fleece

Back in the 1970’s a bunch of Senators started a thing called the Golden Fleece Award….it was an award given for the best governmental waste of taxpayer money…..one of the most popular and enduring icons of American politics, Senator William Proxmire’s Golden Fleece Award embodied both outrage and humor as it put the public spotlight on waste and abuse of taxpayer money.

Maybe it is time for the award to be picked up by the MSM and inform the public of how their money is being pissed away……

Who could forget it? There were the $37 screws (no need to say who was getting screwed), the $2,043 nut (McDonnell Douglas made it specially for the U.S. Navy), the $7,622 coffee pot, the $74,165 aluminum ladder, and the $640 plastic toilet seats for the Air Force. All of those examples of Pentagon waste were from ancient times, the 1970s and 1980s when such revelations still generated literally hundreds of newspaper and magazine articles. These days, in the age of America’s never-ending credit-card wars and a Pentagon budget eternally going through the roof, stories of that sort are surprisingly rare. It’s as if that budget and the waste that goes with it has, by now, become such a strikingly bipartisan Washington phenomenon that the details hardly matter. Who’s going to be shocked? Who’s going to complain? Who would possibly contest anything the Pentagon did or spent for American “safety” and “security”?

So I recently felt a wave of almost Trumpian nostalgia for those long-gone days of American “greatness,” or at least well-publicized great wastefulness, when I stumbled across an obscure piece about the $10,000 toilet seats the Air Force is presently buying for its Boeing C-17 Globemaster III transport planes. Admit it: even taking inflation into account, that’s impressive! That’s waste on a scale that should make any American proud! Now, imagine that, as TomDispatch regular William Hartung points out today, when it comes to government investment in the American economy and our disintegrating infrastructure, there really is nothing much left but the Pentagon and its $10,000 toilet seats. It should make your heart beat faster to know that if anything is going to lift the economy long term, it’s going to be Pentagon spending. If that isn’t MAGA, what is?

https://original.antiwar.com/william-d-hartung/2018/07/01/weaponized-keynesianism-in-washington/

Maybe focus on the trillions with a “T” from the Pentagon…..

A Department of Defense inspector general’s report released last week offered a jaw-dropping insight into just how bad the military’s auditing system is.

The Defense Finance and Accounting Service, the behemoth Indianapolis-based agency that provides finance and accounting services for the Pentagon’s civilian and military members, could not provide adequate documentation for $6.5 trillion worth of year-end adjustments to Army general fund transactions and data.

I am sure that this is NOT the only mismanagement of taxpayers funds……why not focus on those and bring the pain to the waste?

Enter “Starship Troopers”

We all remember the scifi classic and the subsequent movie….but our dear fearless leader has proposed just such a part of our armed forces…..a Space Corps.

There has been many to crap on the idea to include me and there are some that see the need for such a force…..so to be fair I want to give that point of view……

President Trump’s recent declaration of a new Space Force was met with ridicule in many quarters. Yet, the reality is that the United States does urgently need a dedicated military space branch that is separate from its Air Force.

While the United States has somewhat neglected its space program over the past twenty-five years, China has escalated its efforts in this area, including launching numerous manned space flights, landed a rover on the moon, and deployed multiple unmanned space stations. This has spurred a regional space race with India, Japan, South Korea, North Korea, Taiwan, and Iran and more besides. The goal for the most ambitious of these states is not merely to equal American accomplishments, but to push past them, including establishing permanently manned space stations, landing astronauts on the Moon and Mars, and building lunar habitations. If achieved, these feats could knock the United States out of the lead in space for the first time since Soviet Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin orbited the earth in 1961.

https://www.realcleardefense.com/articles/2018/07/11/why_america_needs_an_independent_space_force_113595.html

Okay then if we need this new “Force” where will the funds come from?  Will it expand the budget of the Pentagon or will they work within their large amount of funds already?  Which programs will suffer to pay for this new “Force”?

The Trump Doctrine

With Dear Leader’s recent meeting in Helsinki…the question onc e again arises…just what is the Trump Doctrine?

I have written on a few occasions that I have yet to determine just what the Trump Doctrine is and how to apply it to world affairs…..I mean since 1949 there has been a presidential doctrine presented by each president elected since that date.

A doctrine is how a president is forced to operate foreign policy in the reality in which he finds himself. Sometimes, presidents proclaim their own foreign policy doctrines. Other times, observers see a coherent pattern in a president’s foreign policy and outline the doctrine for him. In both cases, doctrines ought to be seen not as strokes of genius or decisions made at the will of the president but as actions imposed on him and dictated by reality.

The Truman doctrine was defined in 1948. Given the Soviet threat to Turkey and Greece, President Harry Truman announced that, as a general principle, he was committed to supporting free nations against communism. The United States could not accept a Soviet-dominated Europe because of the long-term threat it would pose. The U.S. lacked the capacity to launch a conventional war against the Soviets, so it was forced into a strategy of containment. Turkey, in particular, was indispensable to this strategy, as the Bosporus blocked Soviet access to the Mediterranean. The U.S., therefore, had to defend Turkey and Greek ports. The doctrine was determined by necessity.

https://geopoliticalfutures.com/the-trump-doctrine/

Any “doctrine” needs some consistency and so far I have seen nothing Trump has said or done that illustrates that consistency.  The best I can say is he enters into a meeting kicks over all the furniture and slaps around the people then walks out and claims a success when nothing actually changed (all that is a metaphor…he did not actually touch anyone….I felt I needed to explain that for the low IQ of Trump supporters.)