The Trump Presidency: Part 17

[Planigale]

I can't help thinking that if you send attack dogs into a tunnel with three young children inside that they will attack the children. I can't help thinking that the whimpering and whining and crying Trump heard and boasted about was the sounds of three young children being attacked by dogs. This is not to say the operation was wrong, but it might explain why we will never hear a tape of the blubbing or any video from the attack dogs. That Trump would lack the empathy to realise who was crying would not surprise me.

I know the body of Baghdadi was disposed of / disappeared in a 'secret' fashion. But have they said what they did with the three children's bodies?

 

[Andy_Ross]

Trump Tweets

“Americans know by now that the Impeachment inquiry is just another hoax and silent coup to remove the President from office.” J.J. Crovatto
Don’t worry J.J., Schiff is a leaker & corrupt politician who made up what I said on the call in order to hurt the Republican Party & me!

“There is no underlying crime in that transcript.” @IngrahamAngle
100% correct, and the Whistleblower disappeared after I released the transcript of the call. Where is the Whistleblower? That is why this is now called the Impeachment Hoax! The Do Nothing Dems are Doing Nothing!

The only crimes in the Impeachment Hoax were committed by Shifty Adam Schiff, when he totally made up my phone conversation with the Ukrainian President and read it to Congress, together with numerous others on Shifty’s side. Schiff should be Impeached, and worse!

 

[Andy_Ross]

Donald Trump Jr. Tweeted

This is the dumbest take ever! I mean ****** stupid!!!
Maybe he knew that the scumbag lobbyists and liberal elite in the 94% leftist swamp of DC would behave exactly as they did and therefore shielded a child from that kind of behavior.

That’s great parenting moron!


Rob Anderson for Louisiana
@RobAnderson2018
A Father not taking his son to a baseball game, let alone a World Series game, is perhaps the worst indictment of a “family man” I’ve ever heard.
I have a feeling Trump could have gotten Barron a ticket, if he got tickets for Scalise and Gaetz.

 

[The Great Zaganza]

sounds like Don jr. is jealous that Daddy didn't take him to the ball game ...

 

[phiwum]

And you don't think they have so many illegal actions to choose from that it was politically expedient not to make a fuss about this one?

I'm pretty sure both Pelosi and Schumer have more than enough years of experience in Congress that they are more than familiar with the Constitution.

You missed part of my post. The war on terror authorization gave the president wide latitude to use the military to fight terrorism. It has long been interpreted as including the fight against ISIS. There is no requirement that he consults Congress before such an attack, far as I can see.

 

[phiwum]

He should have notified the gang of 8. He shouldn't have notified Congress as a whole. He has that duty.

Are you claiming that it is illegal not to notify the Gang of Eight? The law that Norman cited does not obviously apply, since this action was not obviously a "covert action" per that law.

As a matter of tradition and respect, sure, he should have. He absolutely chose not to simply for petty spite. But I am not certain he broke any laws at all in refusing to do so.

 

[phiwum]

Covert? I should laugh.

Trump literally announced it globally by tweet on his usual presidential tweeterphone channel. "Something big has happened!" Hundreds of millions of people could have seen that, including Russia and ISIS. And Russia and Turkey and Iraq were all in on it because it was arranged to go through various air spaces without confrontation. So you can't get much more covert than that.

And yet the Gang of Eight heard it at the same time as you did. That is, a non-covert operation that bypassed set protocols because of irrational personal bias.

Did Trump tell his team to act this way? Probably not directly. Trump never makes direct orders. He's more of a mafia don..."Why can't this be done like I want it? Make him an offer...etc." Trump wanted al-Baghdadi dead, sure. But he didn't design or run the op, or even know the date or details. That was all to be done by henchmen.

Of course, Trump's henchmen are a bunch of lawless clueless suck-ups looking for any brownie-points from Boss Donny, and this was a sure-fire way to squelch the impeachment goings on which would please him as well. Or so they thought.

There are no adults left in that room. Nobody who would tell them the correct protocols for this. So chances are they didn't even bother to check the paperwork. They just cheerfully launched into what was essentially a PR exercise that involved Delta Force ('Murica heroes!) and a bunch of brown Muslim countries (faceless expendables), and asking his pal Russia to look the other way (buddy Putin!). What could possibly go wrong?

Well, the op went fine, which is all to the good. But the PR exercise has been a failure. But never mind. The MAGA-nuts will lap it up nonetheless.

And then he got boo'ed at the baseball. So we have all moved on.

So are you dropping the claim that failure to alert the Gang violated the cited law? (Serious question, I can't tell for certain. But if you agree that it's not a covert action then that law does not apply.)

We both agree that basic respect for the institutions requires notifying the Gang, but I don't think that it violated any legal requirement.

 

[newyorkguy]

Donald Trump Jr. Tweeted

This is the dumbest take ever! I mean ****** stupid!!!
Maybe he knew that the scumbag lobbyists and liberal elite in the 94% leftist swamp of DC would behave exactly as they did and therefore shielded a child from that kind of behavior.

That’s great parenting moron!...

The language these people use is incredible. "...scumbag lobbyists and liberal elite in the 94% leftist swamp of DC..." This is the son of the president of the United States? This is how he expresses himself? This is normal behavior?

 

[Horatius]

Do we know he gave the go-ahead for this specific operation? Or just a general "go find the guy" order?

Because if so, when did he do it? It really seems weird that he would say, "Yeah, get him, I'm going to golf for a while. I'll be back when it gets interesting."

Actually, that sounds exactly like what I'd expect him to say. The reports are that the troops took over an hour to fly to the site of the raid. Can you imagine Trump sitting there watching these guys just fly for an hour? This is exactly the sort of short attention span behaviour I'd expect from Trump.

 

[kellyb]

The language these people use is incredible. "...scumbag lobbyists and liberal elite in the 94% leftist swamp of DC..." This is the son of the president of the United States? This is how he expresses himself? This is normal behavior?

This is now normal for people in the executive branch of government if they're Republican.

I'm still getting used to it, too.

 

[varwoche]

This is great:
https://twitter.com/arlenparsa/status/1188627056323633154

https://twitter.com/adamlongoTV/status/1188623821877760005

https://twitter.com/twmentality1/status/1188628359695216640

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9AvZynpBTl8

That's the same expression as when he said something Trumpish at the UN and the audience laughed at him. It's a peek at his 'real' psyche, a moment when he realizes he's the butt of the joke, he's humiliated for just a flash, he's Charlie the Tuna and he doesn't taste good enough for Starkist try though he has for his entire life, and then the internal defense mechanisms sluff it off.

Our 50 minutes are almost up now.

 

[kellyb]

That's the same expression as when he said something Trumpish at the UN and the audience laughed at him. It's a peek at his 'real' psyche, a moment when he realizes he's the butt of the joke, he's humiliated for just a flash, he's Charlie the Tuna and he doesn't taste good enough for Starkist try though he has for his entire life, and then the internal defense mechanisms sluff it off.

Our 50 minutes are almost up now.

Same look he had here, too:

https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/...e-night-president-obama-took-on-donald-trump/

 

[TofuFighter]

The language these people use is incredible. "...scumbag lobbyists and liberal elite in the 94% leftist swamp of DC..." This is the son of the president of the United States? This is how he expresses himself? This is normal behavior?

During the primaries, trump was criticised by the Republican field about using foul language. In response, during one of his rallies:
“I won’t use foul language. I’m just not going to do it. I’ll never do it again, actually, and I’ll never even copy what somebody asks me to say.”

He criticised Mexican president Vincente Fox thusly “This guy used a filthy, disgusting word on television and he should be ashamed of himself and he should apologize, okay?”

Proceeded, later, again at one of his rallies, “You can tell them to go **** themselves!” and at another “I can’t understand a word he’s ******* saying,”, and again somewhere else “Listen, you ************,”.

Since then he's complained publicly about foul language from Rashida Tlaib, Omarosa Manigault, and several times about Ilhan Omar.

These last few months have also seen his tweets and rallies littered with choice words. Human scum is not technically swearing, is it?

Of course he's a liar and a hypocrite, but his fans don't care. Every now and again some god-fearing christians will say "i really wish he wouldn't", but then find some way of convincing themselves that it doesn't really matter.

All of this will be at some cost to the USA and eventually there will be a reckoning.

 

[pgwenthold]

Since then he's complained publicly about foul language from Rashida Tlaib, Omarosa Manigault, and several times about Ilhan Omar.

Note that the criticism for Ilhan Omar for using "foul language" was for when she was talking about something Trump said.

 

[Ziggurat]

Holy moly, have you tried opening your eyes?

Are they gone yet? Where are all those replacements coming from?

We don't exactly have real-time data on ISIS recruitment levels. Nor is this a single-variable problem. Really, SG, this was a pathetic attempt at a gotcha. It was destined for failure the moment you conceived of it.

 

[acbytesla]

Are you claiming that it is illegal not to notify the Gang of Eight? The law that Norman cited does not obviously apply, since this action was not obviously a "covert action" per that law.

As a matter of tradition and respect, sure, he should have. He absolutely chose not to simply for petty spite. But I am not certain he broke any laws at all in refusing to do so.

No, it obviously applies. The President has a responsibility to keep Congress informed. This isn't that difficult.

 

[JoeMorgue]

I never thought "Technically not against the law isn't the standard we should settle for when it comes to the President" would be a controversial statement.

He (maybe, there's high level government law and procedures I can't speak with authority on involved here) didn't legally have to tell them.

He still should have.

The Presidents responsibilities and duties don't end at "Technically didn't do anything that breaks the law."

 

[slyjoe]

I can't help thinking that if you send attack dogs into a tunnel with three young children inside that they will attack the children. I can't help thinking that the whimpering and whining and crying Trump heard and boasted about was the sounds of three young children being attacked by dogs. This is not to say the operation was wrong, but it might explain why we will never hear a tape of the blubbing or any video from the attack dogs. That Trump would lack the empathy to realise who was crying would not surprise me.

I know the body of Baghdadi was disposed of / disappeared in a 'secret' fashion. But have they said what they did with the three children's bodies?

Don't worry about it - Trump made it all up.

The rest of the things Trump does actually hurt the US.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/...aghdadi-raid-n1073001?cid=public-rss_20191029

 

[phiwum]

No, it obviously applies. The President has a responsibility to keep Congress informed. This isn't that difficult.

Then please identify the relevant law. The only suggestion thus far involves covert actions and this does not appear to be one.

 

[phiwum]

I never thought "Technically not against the law isn't the standard we should settle for when it comes to the President" would be a controversial statement.

He (maybe, there's high level government law and procedures I can't speak with authority on involved here) didn't legally have to tell them.

He still should have.

The Presidents responsibilities and duties don't end at "Technically didn't do anything that breaks the law."

I have not argued that his failure to alert Congress is okay. Some folks have claimed it was illegal. I'm trying to understand why.