LAPPL News Watch
October 16, 2019
A decade ago, chemistry professor Paul Kelly was conducting experiments at England’s Loughborough University when he noticed his glass beakers were emerging from a vapor-filled chamber with clearly defined fingerprints on them.
The quality of the fingerprints was remarkable, and Kelly and his colleagues decided to see if their discovery could have any practical applications. They teamed up with the United Kingdom’s Ministry of Defence, and began exposing fingerprints on various materials to a chemical vapor, and adjusting the process to improve their results.
Kelly’s team then licensed the technique to a private company called Foster + Freeman, which built a machine called RECOVER to run the tests.
Foster + Freeman started selling it to law enforcement agencies in the United States this year and has delivered machines to about 10 of the country’s 400 public labs so far, two sources said. Lab technicians can use the machine to pull fingerprints from shell casings and other metal surfaces, like knives and from explosives.
It’s not as useful on guns themselves because they are often textured or treated to prevent corrosion, which can make it more difficult to retrieve usable prints, one expert said.
Thursday, October 17, 2019
ABC NEWS SHOWED TURKS BOMBING KURDS IN KENTUCKY GUN RANGE
ABC Mistakenly Label a Video from a US Gun Range as Syrian War Footage
By Bethania Palma
Snopes
October 15, 2019
A nightly news program on ABC erroneously aired a video from a Kentucky gun range during a report about the outbreak of war in northern Syria between Turkey and U.S.-allied Kurds after U.S. President Donald Trump pulled American forces out.
The video depicting a fiery explosion was shown during “World News Tonight” on Oct. 13, 2019, and again the following day on “Good Morning America.” The video described itself as “appearing to show” the Turkish military bombarding Kurdish forces. In reality, it showed a night-time shooting event at a Kentucky gun range. ABC apologized for the mistake.
“We’ve taken down video that aired on ‘World News Tonight Sunday’ and ‘Good Morning America’ [on Oct. 14, 2019] that appeared to be from the Syrian border immediately after questions were raised about its accuracy. ABC News regrets the error,” an ABC spokesman said in a statement.
A source from ABC said the video was provided by someone who purported to be in a “sensitive position” on the border between Turkey and Syria. The network is investigating the incident.
Turkey launched a military offensive against Kurdish forces in northern Syria shortly after Trump pulled American troops from their posts there, where they had been for several years supporting Kurds in a fight to contain Islamic State (ISIS) terrorists. The resulting chaos that included the escape of detainees associated with ISIS, violence against civilians, and a geopolitical advantage handed to America’s adversaries, have prompted sharp bipartisan criticism of Trump’s decision.
The video aired by ABC has been online since at least 2017. A caption on what appears to be the original YouTube post says the explosion was the rather spectacular result of a night time machine-gun shoot, an event held at the Knob Creek Gun Range in Kentucky.
A number of right-wing partisans have pointed to the incident as evidence of the nefarious work of the “mainstream media” or “MSM,” which attracted the attention of Trump, who often attacks the news media.
But Peter Adams, head of education at the non-profit, non-partisan News Literacy Project, explained that although ABC owes the public a detailed account of how the misstep happened, it appeared to be nothing more than human error, not an intentional effort by ABC to mislead.
“Despite the online rantings of bad-faith partisans, there is no evidence that this was intentional nor ideologically-motivated. The conflict in Syria is highly newsworthy & the motivation here was almost certainly to get a sensational, great-for-TV clip,” Adams wrote in a Twitter thread. Adams added that legitimate news outlets publicly acknowledge even minor errors and correct the record, and that it’s important to remember that these types of mistakes are relatively rare.
By Bethania Palma
Snopes
October 15, 2019
A nightly news program on ABC erroneously aired a video from a Kentucky gun range during a report about the outbreak of war in northern Syria between Turkey and U.S.-allied Kurds after U.S. President Donald Trump pulled American forces out.
The video depicting a fiery explosion was shown during “World News Tonight” on Oct. 13, 2019, and again the following day on “Good Morning America.” The video described itself as “appearing to show” the Turkish military bombarding Kurdish forces. In reality, it showed a night-time shooting event at a Kentucky gun range. ABC apologized for the mistake.
“We’ve taken down video that aired on ‘World News Tonight Sunday’ and ‘Good Morning America’ [on Oct. 14, 2019] that appeared to be from the Syrian border immediately after questions were raised about its accuracy. ABC News regrets the error,” an ABC spokesman said in a statement.
A source from ABC said the video was provided by someone who purported to be in a “sensitive position” on the border between Turkey and Syria. The network is investigating the incident.
Turkey launched a military offensive against Kurdish forces in northern Syria shortly after Trump pulled American troops from their posts there, where they had been for several years supporting Kurds in a fight to contain Islamic State (ISIS) terrorists. The resulting chaos that included the escape of detainees associated with ISIS, violence against civilians, and a geopolitical advantage handed to America’s adversaries, have prompted sharp bipartisan criticism of Trump’s decision.
The video aired by ABC has been online since at least 2017. A caption on what appears to be the original YouTube post says the explosion was the rather spectacular result of a night time machine-gun shoot, an event held at the Knob Creek Gun Range in Kentucky.
A number of right-wing partisans have pointed to the incident as evidence of the nefarious work of the “mainstream media” or “MSM,” which attracted the attention of Trump, who often attacks the news media.
But Peter Adams, head of education at the non-profit, non-partisan News Literacy Project, explained that although ABC owes the public a detailed account of how the misstep happened, it appeared to be nothing more than human error, not an intentional effort by ABC to mislead.
“Despite the online rantings of bad-faith partisans, there is no evidence that this was intentional nor ideologically-motivated. The conflict in Syria is highly newsworthy & the motivation here was almost certainly to get a sensational, great-for-TV clip,” Adams wrote in a Twitter thread. Adams added that legitimate news outlets publicly acknowledge even minor errors and correct the record, and that it’s important to remember that these types of mistakes are relatively rare.
WE HAVE NO WALL TO KEEP OUT ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS FROM THE CARIBBEAN
Man who illegally re-entered U.S. after his 2016 deportation accused of murdering his girlfriend in their Bronx apartment and leaving her body to rot for a month
By John Annese
New York Daily News
October 15, 2019
A deported immigrant who illegally returned to the U.S. is now charged with killing his Bronx girlfriend and leaving her body to rot for a month.
Luis Severino, 49, was indicted Tuesday on charges he allegedly stabbed his girlfriend, Cindy Olivo, 33, in their Fordham Heights apartment sometime in June.
Police found her decomposed body July 12 in the apartment on University Ave. near W. Fordham Road after neighbors complained of a foul odor. At first, authorities thought she’d died of a drug overdose.
An autopsy proved otherwise, revealing two stab wounds on each side of her neck, cops said.
Olivo’s family suspected Severino killed her, telling the Daily News in July that she started dating him about two years ago, began using drugs and pulled away from her relatives.
“He was very weird, very strange, always distant, he was always very isolated to a corner. But we didn’t pay mind to that, we were just happy she was around," her sister, Ana Javier, told the News. Severino never reached out to her family after her death to find out what had happened to her, Javier said.
It turned out Severino fled to Florida, and was arrested Aug. 14 on a re-entry of deported aliens charge, according to federal court documents and law enforcement sources.
Severino, who was born in the Dominican Republic, has never been a U.S. citizen, court documents allege. In 2006, he served time in state prison time in a stolen credit card case, and in March 2014, he was convicted of drug possession with intent to sell in Manhattan and sentenced to 42 months. He was deported Oct. 18, 2016.
Severino, who also went by the name Louis Santana, Julio Torres and Luis Manuel Severino Colon, got back into the U.S., and showed up in the Bronx, federal prosecutors said. The NYPD let ICE officials know on July 26 that he was under investigation for a June 15 crime, according to a federal complaint.
Severino appeared in Bronx Supreme Court Monday to face murder and manslaughter charges, and was returned to federal custody.
EDITOR’S NOTE: MAGA. Build Trump’s wall across all the borders of the US. Access to East Coast, West Coast and Gulf beaches through heavily guarded gates only. MAGA.
By John Annese
New York Daily News
October 15, 2019
A deported immigrant who illegally returned to the U.S. is now charged with killing his Bronx girlfriend and leaving her body to rot for a month.
Luis Severino, 49, was indicted Tuesday on charges he allegedly stabbed his girlfriend, Cindy Olivo, 33, in their Fordham Heights apartment sometime in June.
Police found her decomposed body July 12 in the apartment on University Ave. near W. Fordham Road after neighbors complained of a foul odor. At first, authorities thought she’d died of a drug overdose.
An autopsy proved otherwise, revealing two stab wounds on each side of her neck, cops said.
Olivo’s family suspected Severino killed her, telling the Daily News in July that she started dating him about two years ago, began using drugs and pulled away from her relatives.
“He was very weird, very strange, always distant, he was always very isolated to a corner. But we didn’t pay mind to that, we were just happy she was around," her sister, Ana Javier, told the News. Severino never reached out to her family after her death to find out what had happened to her, Javier said.
It turned out Severino fled to Florida, and was arrested Aug. 14 on a re-entry of deported aliens charge, according to federal court documents and law enforcement sources.
Severino, who was born in the Dominican Republic, has never been a U.S. citizen, court documents allege. In 2006, he served time in state prison time in a stolen credit card case, and in March 2014, he was convicted of drug possession with intent to sell in Manhattan and sentenced to 42 months. He was deported Oct. 18, 2016.
Severino, who also went by the name Louis Santana, Julio Torres and Luis Manuel Severino Colon, got back into the U.S., and showed up in the Bronx, federal prosecutors said. The NYPD let ICE officials know on July 26 that he was under investigation for a June 15 crime, according to a federal complaint.
Severino appeared in Bronx Supreme Court Monday to face murder and manslaughter charges, and was returned to federal custody.
EDITOR’S NOTE: MAGA. Build Trump’s wall across all the borders of the US. Access to East Coast, West Coast and Gulf beaches through heavily guarded gates only. MAGA.
BECAUSE HAMAS WOULD WIN, THERE WILL BE NO GENERAL ELECTION FOR THE PALESTINIANS, CERTAINLY NOT SO LONG AS ABBAS IS ALIVE
'PA elections will result in Hamas taking over the West Bank'
By Daniel Siryoti
Israel Hayom
October 16, 2019
Despite the diplomatic schism between Israel, the Palestinian Authority, and Jordan, senior security officials from Israel, Jordan, and the PA are confirming that security coordination and intelligence cooperation are operating with "Swiss clock" precision.
Jerusalem, Ramallah, and Amman are in rare agreement when it comes to elections for the Palestinian presidency in east Jerusalem, the Gaza Strip, and the West Bank. In a speech at the United Nations last month, PA President Mahmoud Abbas declared that PA elections would lead to Hamas defeating Fatah and the organization seizing control of the Palestinian Authority, quickly and brutally ousting Fatah officials from all government agencies, ministries, and the PA security and intelligence apparatuses.
Senior Palestinian officials say that Abbas' close associates acknowledge that recent polls indicate clearly that if PA parliament elections were held now, not only would Hamas beat Fatah, but Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh would also beat Abbas in a race for the presidency by a considerable margin.
The last time parliamentary elections were held in Gaza and the West Bank (2006), Hamas secured a majority in the PA parliament. A year later, Hamas carried out a putsch in Gaza and took control of all government agencies, while lynching many Fatah officials and deporting others from Gaza, along with their families.
Recently, the Palestinian public has become more critical of the lack of progress toward reconciliation between the various Palestinian factions.
Meanwhile, fellows at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs (JCPA) who research Palestinian politics are emphasizing that the public's criticism of Abbas and his associates grew stronger after they rejected a proposal for reconciliation with Hamas that had been put together by eight different organizations in the West Bank and Gaza. In contrast, Hamas strongman Haniyeh announced that he accepted the proposal "unconditionally and as written."
Because Abbas rejected the plan, while Haniyeh approved it, Abbas was perceived as someone who was trying to undermine the process of reconciliation, which should have resulted in parliamentary elections.
Head of the General Authority of Civil Affairs in the PA Hussein al-Sheikh, a senior Fatah official and member of Abbas' inner circle, rejects criticism of the "rais" (president) as well as the claim that despite his UN speech urging parliamentary elections in the PA, Abbas does not really want them to take place for fear that Hamas will oust him and his Fatah movement from power.
"We are not ruling out any reconciliation initiative. In this case, the proposal that the organizations put together would only waste time and deepen the schisms, thereby increasing the divide in Palestinian society. We must call an immediate general election in Gaza, the West Bank, and east Jerusalem, after which a national unity government will be formed that can fully govern the West Bank and [Gaza] Strip," al-Sheikh said.
Another senior PA official responded to al-Sheikh's comments, telling Israel Hayom that "There will not be a general election in the Palestinian Authority, certainly not so long as Abbas is alive."
According to the official, the people in Fatah know that "they'll lose an election, and in this case, Hamas would rush in to seize power in the West Bank. That is a nightmare scenario, not only for Israel but for Jordan, too. It would really pose a danger to Jordan and Israel's national security. Not to mention the ramifications on the day-to-day lives of the average Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza."
The official also said that Hamas had no interest in promoting reconciliation with Fatah if the process would not result in an election.
"Hamas doesn't want to divide control over the Gaza Strip with the PA, which it kicked out in the putsch of 2007. Hamas wants to take control over the West Bank, too, so the organization is willing to promote a process of reconciliation between the Palestinian factions only if it's clear that doing so will lead to elections that will put Hamas into power in the West Bank. If the organization loses the elections, it won't be in a hurry to hand over power in Gaza," the official continued.
After Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced in September that he planned to annex the Jordan Valley and northern Dead Sea area, Abbas stated that if annexation went ahead, the PA would freeze all existing agreements with Israel.
But despite Abbas' declarations, the facts on the ground indicate that security and intelligence coordination, as well as civil cooperation at the mid-level, is proceeding as usual. According to one senior official in Ramallah, this is due to "an understanding and acceptance of a situation in which we have common interests with Israel and, to a certain extent, with Jordan – namely, stopping Hamas' vision of seizing power in the West Bank like it did in Gaza."
Israeli diplomatic officials familiar with developments in Palestinian politics notes that Abbas' call to suspend all agreements with Israel and even his insistence on continuing to pay stipends to relatives of Palestinian terrorists have driven the PA into a serious economic crisis.
"The call [to freeze the agreements] was mainly intended to show that he was deterring Israel and is not afraid to freeze all the agreements with Israel, including the security coordination that is so vital to the Palestinian security apparatuses, not less so than to Israeli security and defense," the researchers said.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Democracy Abbas style. The election which brought Abbas to power took place in January 2005, almost 15 years ago. The election for the PA parliament which he has since dispersed, was held in January 2006.
By Daniel Siryoti
Israel Hayom
October 16, 2019
Despite the diplomatic schism between Israel, the Palestinian Authority, and Jordan, senior security officials from Israel, Jordan, and the PA are confirming that security coordination and intelligence cooperation are operating with "Swiss clock" precision.
Jerusalem, Ramallah, and Amman are in rare agreement when it comes to elections for the Palestinian presidency in east Jerusalem, the Gaza Strip, and the West Bank. In a speech at the United Nations last month, PA President Mahmoud Abbas declared that PA elections would lead to Hamas defeating Fatah and the organization seizing control of the Palestinian Authority, quickly and brutally ousting Fatah officials from all government agencies, ministries, and the PA security and intelligence apparatuses.
Senior Palestinian officials say that Abbas' close associates acknowledge that recent polls indicate clearly that if PA parliament elections were held now, not only would Hamas beat Fatah, but Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh would also beat Abbas in a race for the presidency by a considerable margin.
The last time parliamentary elections were held in Gaza and the West Bank (2006), Hamas secured a majority in the PA parliament. A year later, Hamas carried out a putsch in Gaza and took control of all government agencies, while lynching many Fatah officials and deporting others from Gaza, along with their families.
Recently, the Palestinian public has become more critical of the lack of progress toward reconciliation between the various Palestinian factions.
Meanwhile, fellows at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs (JCPA) who research Palestinian politics are emphasizing that the public's criticism of Abbas and his associates grew stronger after they rejected a proposal for reconciliation with Hamas that had been put together by eight different organizations in the West Bank and Gaza. In contrast, Hamas strongman Haniyeh announced that he accepted the proposal "unconditionally and as written."
Because Abbas rejected the plan, while Haniyeh approved it, Abbas was perceived as someone who was trying to undermine the process of reconciliation, which should have resulted in parliamentary elections.
Head of the General Authority of Civil Affairs in the PA Hussein al-Sheikh, a senior Fatah official and member of Abbas' inner circle, rejects criticism of the "rais" (president) as well as the claim that despite his UN speech urging parliamentary elections in the PA, Abbas does not really want them to take place for fear that Hamas will oust him and his Fatah movement from power.
"We are not ruling out any reconciliation initiative. In this case, the proposal that the organizations put together would only waste time and deepen the schisms, thereby increasing the divide in Palestinian society. We must call an immediate general election in Gaza, the West Bank, and east Jerusalem, after which a national unity government will be formed that can fully govern the West Bank and [Gaza] Strip," al-Sheikh said.
Another senior PA official responded to al-Sheikh's comments, telling Israel Hayom that "There will not be a general election in the Palestinian Authority, certainly not so long as Abbas is alive."
According to the official, the people in Fatah know that "they'll lose an election, and in this case, Hamas would rush in to seize power in the West Bank. That is a nightmare scenario, not only for Israel but for Jordan, too. It would really pose a danger to Jordan and Israel's national security. Not to mention the ramifications on the day-to-day lives of the average Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza."
The official also said that Hamas had no interest in promoting reconciliation with Fatah if the process would not result in an election.
"Hamas doesn't want to divide control over the Gaza Strip with the PA, which it kicked out in the putsch of 2007. Hamas wants to take control over the West Bank, too, so the organization is willing to promote a process of reconciliation between the Palestinian factions only if it's clear that doing so will lead to elections that will put Hamas into power in the West Bank. If the organization loses the elections, it won't be in a hurry to hand over power in Gaza," the official continued.
After Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced in September that he planned to annex the Jordan Valley and northern Dead Sea area, Abbas stated that if annexation went ahead, the PA would freeze all existing agreements with Israel.
But despite Abbas' declarations, the facts on the ground indicate that security and intelligence coordination, as well as civil cooperation at the mid-level, is proceeding as usual. According to one senior official in Ramallah, this is due to "an understanding and acceptance of a situation in which we have common interests with Israel and, to a certain extent, with Jordan – namely, stopping Hamas' vision of seizing power in the West Bank like it did in Gaza."
Israeli diplomatic officials familiar with developments in Palestinian politics notes that Abbas' call to suspend all agreements with Israel and even his insistence on continuing to pay stipends to relatives of Palestinian terrorists have driven the PA into a serious economic crisis.
"The call [to freeze the agreements] was mainly intended to show that he was deterring Israel and is not afraid to freeze all the agreements with Israel, including the security coordination that is so vital to the Palestinian security apparatuses, not less so than to Israeli security and defense," the researchers said.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Democracy Abbas style. The election which brought Abbas to power took place in January 2005, almost 15 years ago. The election for the PA parliament which he has since dispersed, was held in January 2006.
WE’RE IN A PERMANENT COUP
Americans might soon wish they just waited to vote their way out of the Trump era
By Matt Taibbi
October 11, 2019
I’ve lived through a few coups. They’re insane, random, and terrifying, like watching sports, except your political future depends on the score.
The kickoff begins when a key official decides to buck the executive. From that moment, government becomes a high-speed head-counting exercise. Who’s got the power plant, the airport, the police in the capital? How many department chiefs are answering their phones? Who’s writing tonight’s newscast?
When the KGB in 1991 tried to reassume control of the crumbling Soviet Union by placing Mikhail Gorbachev under arrest and attempting to seize Moscow, logistics ruled. Boris Yeltsin’s crew drove to the Russian White House in ordinary cars, beating KGB coup plotters who were trying to reach the seat of Russian government in armored vehicles. A key moment came when one of Yeltsin’s men, Alexander Rutskoi – who two years later would himself lead a coup against Yeltsin – prevailed upon a Major in a tank unit to defy KGB orders and turn on the “criminals.”
We have long been spared this madness in America. Our head-counting ceremony was Election Day. We did it once every four years.
That’s all over, in the Trump era.
On Thursday, news broke that two businessmen said to have “peddled supposedly explosive information about corruption involving Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden” were arrested at Dulles airport on “campaign finance violations.” The two figures are alleged to be bagmen bearing “dirt” on Democrats, solicited by Trump and his personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani.
Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman will be asked to give depositions to impeachment investigators. They’re reportedly going to refuse. Their lawyer John Dowd also says they will “refuse to appear before House Committees investigating President Donald Trump.” Fruman and Parnas meanwhile claim they had real derogatory information about Biden and other politicians, but “the U.S. government had shown little interest in receiving it through official channels.”
For Americans not familiar with the language of the Third World, that’s two contrasting denials of political legitimacy.
The men who are the proxies for Donald Trump and Rudy Giuliani in this story are asserting that “official channels” have been corrupted. The forces backing impeachment, meanwhile, are telling us those same defendants are obstructing a lawful impeachment inquiry.
This latest incident, set against the impeachment mania and the reportedly “expanding” Russiagate investigation of U.S. Attorney John Durham, accelerates our timeline to chaos. We are speeding toward a situation when someone in one of these camps refuses to obey a major decree, arrest order, or court decision, at which point Americans will get to experience the joys of their political futures being decided by phone calls to generals and police chiefs.
My discomfort in the last few years, first with Russiagate and now with Ukrainegate and impeachment, stems from the belief that the people pushing hardest for Trump’s early removal are more dangerous than Trump. Many Americans don’t see this because they’re not used to waking up in a country where you’re not sure who the president will be by nightfall. They don’t understand that this predicament is worse than having a bad president.
The Trump presidency is the first to reveal a full-blown schism between the intelligence community and the White House. Senior figures in the CIA, NSA, FBI and other agencies made an open break from their would-be boss before Trump’s inauguration, commencing a public war of leaks that has not stopped.
The first big shot was fired in early January, 2017, via a CNN.com headline, “Intel chiefs presented Trump with claims of Russian efforts to compromise him.” This tale, about the January 7th presentation of former British spy Christopher Steele’s report to then-President-elect Trump, began as follows:
Classified documents presented last week to President Obama and President-elect Trump included allegations that Russian operatives claim to have compromising personal and financial information about Mr. Trump, multiple US officials with direct knowledge of the briefings tell CNN.
Four intelligence chiefs in the FBI’s James Comey, the CIA’s John Brennan, the NSA’s Mike Rogers, and Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, presented an incoming president with a politically disastrous piece of information, in this case a piece of a private opposition research report.
Among other things because the news dropped at the same time Buzzfeed decided to publish the entire “bombshell” Steele dossier, reporters spent that week obsessing not about the mode of the story’s release, but about the “claims.” In particular, audiences were rapt by allegations that Russians were trying to blackmail Trump with evidence of a golden shower party commissioned on a bed once slept upon by Barack Obama himself.
Twitter exploded. No other news story mattered. For the next two years, the “claims” of compromise and a “continuing” Trump-Russian “exchange” hung over the White House like a sword of Damocles.
Few were interested in the motives for making this story public. As it turned out, there were two explanations, one that was made public, and one that only came out later. The public justification as outlined in the CNN piece, was to “make the President-elect aware that such allegations involving him [were] circulating among intelligence agencies.”
However, we know from Comey’s January 7, 2017 memo to deputy Andrew McCabe and FBI General Counsel James Baker there was another explanation. Comey wrote:
I said I wasn’t saying this was true, only that I wanted [Trump] to know both that it had been reported and that the reports were in many hands. I said media like CNN had them and were looking for a news hook. I said it was important that we not give them the excuse to write that the FBI has the material or [redacted] and that we were keeping it very close-hold.
Imagine if a similar situation had taken place in January of 2009, involving president-elect Barack Obama. Picture a meeting between Obama and the heads of the CIA, NSA, and FBI, along with the DIA, in which the newly-elected president is presented with a report complied by, say, Judicial Watch, accusing him of links to al-Qaeda. Imagine further that they tell Obama they are presenting him with this information to make him aware of a blackmail threat, and to reassure him they won’t give news agencies a “hook” to publish the news.
Now imagine if that news came out on Fox days later. Imagine further that within a year, one of the four officials became a paid Fox contributor. Democrats would lose their minds in this set of circumstances.
The country mostly did not lose its mind, however, because the episode did not involve a traditionally presidential figure like Obama, nor was it understood to have been directed at the institution of “the White House” in the abstract.
Instead, it was a story about an infamously corrupt individual, Donald Trump, a pussy-grabbing scammer who bragged about using bankruptcy to escape debt and publicly praised Vladimir Putin. Audiences believed the allegations against this person and saw the intelligence/counterintelligence community as acting patriotically, doing their best to keep us informed about a still-breaking investigation of a rogue president.
But a parallel story was ignored. Leaks from the intelligence community most often pertain to foreign policy. The leak of the January, 2017 “meeting” between the four chiefs and Trump – which without question damaged both the presidency and America’s standing abroad – was an unprecedented act of insubordination.
It was also a bold new foray into domestic politics by intelligence agencies that in recent decades began asserting all sorts of frightening new authority. They were kidnapping foreigners, assassinating by drone, conducting paramilitary operations without congressional notice, building an international archipelago of secret prisons, and engaging in mass warrantless surveillance of Americans. We found out in a court case just last week how extensive the illegal domestic surveillance has been, with the FBI engaging in tens of thousands of warrantless searches involving American emails and phone numbers under the guise of combating foreign subversion.
The agencies’ new trick is inserting themselves into domestic politics using leaks and media pressure. The “intel chiefs” meeting was just the first in a series of similar stories, many following the pattern in which a document was created, passed from department from department, and leaked. A sample:
• February 14, 2017: “four current and former officials” tell the New York Times the Trump campaign had “repeated contacts” with Russian intelligence.
• March 1, 2017: “Justice Department officials” tell the Washington Post Attorney General Jeff Sessions “spoke twice with Russia’s ambassador” and did not disclose the contacts ahead of his confirmation hearing.
• March 18, 2017: “people familiar with the matter” tell the Wall Street Journal that former Trump National Security Adviser Michael Flynn failed to disclose a “contact” with a Russian at Cambridge University, an episode that “came to the notice of U.S. intelligence.”
• April 8, 2017, 2017: “law enforcement and other U.S. officials” tell the Washington Post the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court judge had ruled there was “probable cause” to believe former Trump aide Carter Page was an “agent of a foreign power.”
• April 13, 2017: a “source close to UK intelligence” tells Luke Harding at The Guardian that the British analog to the NSA, the GCHQ, passed knowledge of “suspicious interactions” between “figures connected to Trump and “known or suspected Russian agents” to Americans as part of a “routine exchange of information.”
• December 17, 2017: “four current and former American and foreign officials” tell the New York Times that during the 2016 campaign, an Australian diplomat named Alexander Downer told “American counterparts” that former Trump aide George Papadopoulos revealed “Russia had political dirt on Hillary Clinton.
• April 13, 2018: “two sources familiar with the matter” tell McClatchy that Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s office has evidence Trump lawyer Michael Cohen was in Prague in 2016, “confirming part of [Steele] dossier.”
• November 27, 2018: a “well-placed source” tells Harding at The Guardian that former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort met with Julian Assange at the Ecuadorian embassy in London.
• January 19, 2019: “former law enforcement officials and others familiar with the investigation” tell the New York Times the FBI opened an inquiry into the “explosive implications” of whether or not Donald Trump was working on behalf of the Russians.
To be sure, “people familiar with the matter” leaked a lot of true stories in the last few years, but many were clearly problematic even at the time of release. Moreover, all took place in the context of constant, hounding pressure from media figures, congressional allies like Democrats Adam Schiff and Eric Swalwell, as well as ex-officials who could make use of their own personal public platforms in addition to being unnamed sources in straight news reports. They used commercial news platforms to argue that Trump had committed treason, needed to be removed from office, and preferably also indicted as soon as possible.
A shocking number of these voices were former intelligence officers who joined Clapper in becoming paid news contributors. Op-ed pages and news networks are packed now with ex-spooks editorializing about stories in which they had personal involvement: Michael Morell, Michael Hayden, Asha Rangappa, and Andrew McCabe among many others, including especially all four of the original “intel chiefs”: Clapper, Rogers, Comey, and MSNBC headliner John Brennan.
Russiagate birthed a whole brand of politics, a government-in-exile, which prosecuted its case against Trump via a constant stream of “approved” leaks, partisans in congress, and an increasingly unified and thematically consistent set of commercial news outlets.
These mechanisms have been transplanted now onto the Ukrainegate drama. It’s the same people beating the public drums, with the messaging run out of the same congressional committees, through the same Nadlers, Schiffs, and Swalwells. The same news outlets are on full alert.
The sidelined “intel chiefs” are once again playing central roles in making the public case. Comey says “we may now be at a point” where impeachment is necessary. Brennan, with unintentional irony, says the United States is “no longer a democracy.” Clapper says the Ukraine whistleblower complaint is “one of the most credible” he’s seen.
As a reporter covering the 2015–2016 presidential race, I thought Trump’s campaign was disturbing on many levels, but logical as a news story. He succeeded for class reasons, because of flaws in the media business that gifted him mass amounts of coverage, and because he took cunning advantage of long-simmering frustrations in the electorate. He also clearly catered to racist fears, and to the collapse in trust in institutions like the news media, the Fed, corporations, NATO, and, yes, the intelligence services. In enormous numbers, voters rejected everything they had ever been told about who was and was not qualified for higher office.
Trump’s campaign antagonism toward the military and intelligence world was at best a millimeter thick. Like almost everything else he said as a candidate, it was a gimmick, designed to get votes. That he was insincere and full of it and irresponsible, at first at least, when he attacked the “deep state” and the “fake news media,” doesn’t change the reality of what’s happened since. Even paranoiacs have enemies, and even Donald “Deep State” Trump is a legitimately elected president whose ouster is being actively sought by the intelligence community.
Trump stands accused of using the office of the presidency to advance political aims, in particular pressuring Ukraine to investigate potential campaign rival Joe Biden. He’s guilty, but the issue is how guilty, in comparison to his accusers.
Trump, at least insofar as we know, has not used section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act to monitor political rivals. He hasn’t deployed human counterintelligence “informants” to follow the likes of Hunter Biden. He hasn’t maneuvered to secure Special Counsel probes of Democrats.
And while Donald Trump conducting foreign policy based on what he sees on Fox and Friends is troubling, it’s not in the same ballpark as CNN, MSNBC, the Washington Post and the New York Times engaging in de facto coverage partnerships with the FBI and CIA to push highly politicized, phony narratives like Russiagate.
Trump’s tinpot Twitter threats and cancellation of White House privileges for dolts like Jim Acosta also don’t begin to compare to the danger posed by Facebook, Google, and Twitter – under pressure from the Senate – organizing with groups like the Atlantic Council to fight “fake news” in the name of preventing the “foment of discord.”
I don’t believe most Americans have thought through what a successful campaign to oust Donald Trump would look like. Most casual news consumers can only think of it in terms of Mike Pence becoming president. The real problem would be the precedent of a de facto intelligence community veto over elections, using the lunatic spookworld brand of politics that has dominated the last three years of anti-Trump agitation.
CIA/FBI-backed impeachment could also be a self-fulfilling prophecy. If Donald Trump thinks he’s going to be jailed upon leaving office, he’ll sooner or later figure out that his only real move is to start acting like the “dictator” MSNBC and CNN keep insisting he is. Why give up the White House and wait to be arrested, when he still has theoretical authority to send Special Forces troops rappelling through the windows of every last Russiagate/Ukrainegate leaker? That would be the endgame in a third world country, and it’s where we’re headed, unless someone calls off this craziness. Welcome to the Permanent Power Struggle.
By Matt Taibbi
October 11, 2019
I’ve lived through a few coups. They’re insane, random, and terrifying, like watching sports, except your political future depends on the score.
The kickoff begins when a key official decides to buck the executive. From that moment, government becomes a high-speed head-counting exercise. Who’s got the power plant, the airport, the police in the capital? How many department chiefs are answering their phones? Who’s writing tonight’s newscast?
When the KGB in 1991 tried to reassume control of the crumbling Soviet Union by placing Mikhail Gorbachev under arrest and attempting to seize Moscow, logistics ruled. Boris Yeltsin’s crew drove to the Russian White House in ordinary cars, beating KGB coup plotters who were trying to reach the seat of Russian government in armored vehicles. A key moment came when one of Yeltsin’s men, Alexander Rutskoi – who two years later would himself lead a coup against Yeltsin – prevailed upon a Major in a tank unit to defy KGB orders and turn on the “criminals.”
We have long been spared this madness in America. Our head-counting ceremony was Election Day. We did it once every four years.
That’s all over, in the Trump era.
On Thursday, news broke that two businessmen said to have “peddled supposedly explosive information about corruption involving Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden” were arrested at Dulles airport on “campaign finance violations.” The two figures are alleged to be bagmen bearing “dirt” on Democrats, solicited by Trump and his personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani.
Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman will be asked to give depositions to impeachment investigators. They’re reportedly going to refuse. Their lawyer John Dowd also says they will “refuse to appear before House Committees investigating President Donald Trump.” Fruman and Parnas meanwhile claim they had real derogatory information about Biden and other politicians, but “the U.S. government had shown little interest in receiving it through official channels.”
For Americans not familiar with the language of the Third World, that’s two contrasting denials of political legitimacy.
The men who are the proxies for Donald Trump and Rudy Giuliani in this story are asserting that “official channels” have been corrupted. The forces backing impeachment, meanwhile, are telling us those same defendants are obstructing a lawful impeachment inquiry.
This latest incident, set against the impeachment mania and the reportedly “expanding” Russiagate investigation of U.S. Attorney John Durham, accelerates our timeline to chaos. We are speeding toward a situation when someone in one of these camps refuses to obey a major decree, arrest order, or court decision, at which point Americans will get to experience the joys of their political futures being decided by phone calls to generals and police chiefs.
My discomfort in the last few years, first with Russiagate and now with Ukrainegate and impeachment, stems from the belief that the people pushing hardest for Trump’s early removal are more dangerous than Trump. Many Americans don’t see this because they’re not used to waking up in a country where you’re not sure who the president will be by nightfall. They don’t understand that this predicament is worse than having a bad president.
The Trump presidency is the first to reveal a full-blown schism between the intelligence community and the White House. Senior figures in the CIA, NSA, FBI and other agencies made an open break from their would-be boss before Trump’s inauguration, commencing a public war of leaks that has not stopped.
The first big shot was fired in early January, 2017, via a CNN.com headline, “Intel chiefs presented Trump with claims of Russian efforts to compromise him.” This tale, about the January 7th presentation of former British spy Christopher Steele’s report to then-President-elect Trump, began as follows:
Classified documents presented last week to President Obama and President-elect Trump included allegations that Russian operatives claim to have compromising personal and financial information about Mr. Trump, multiple US officials with direct knowledge of the briefings tell CNN.
Four intelligence chiefs in the FBI’s James Comey, the CIA’s John Brennan, the NSA’s Mike Rogers, and Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, presented an incoming president with a politically disastrous piece of information, in this case a piece of a private opposition research report.
Among other things because the news dropped at the same time Buzzfeed decided to publish the entire “bombshell” Steele dossier, reporters spent that week obsessing not about the mode of the story’s release, but about the “claims.” In particular, audiences were rapt by allegations that Russians were trying to blackmail Trump with evidence of a golden shower party commissioned on a bed once slept upon by Barack Obama himself.
Twitter exploded. No other news story mattered. For the next two years, the “claims” of compromise and a “continuing” Trump-Russian “exchange” hung over the White House like a sword of Damocles.
Few were interested in the motives for making this story public. As it turned out, there were two explanations, one that was made public, and one that only came out later. The public justification as outlined in the CNN piece, was to “make the President-elect aware that such allegations involving him [were] circulating among intelligence agencies.”
However, we know from Comey’s January 7, 2017 memo to deputy Andrew McCabe and FBI General Counsel James Baker there was another explanation. Comey wrote:
I said I wasn’t saying this was true, only that I wanted [Trump] to know both that it had been reported and that the reports were in many hands. I said media like CNN had them and were looking for a news hook. I said it was important that we not give them the excuse to write that the FBI has the material or [redacted] and that we were keeping it very close-hold.
Imagine if a similar situation had taken place in January of 2009, involving president-elect Barack Obama. Picture a meeting between Obama and the heads of the CIA, NSA, and FBI, along with the DIA, in which the newly-elected president is presented with a report complied by, say, Judicial Watch, accusing him of links to al-Qaeda. Imagine further that they tell Obama they are presenting him with this information to make him aware of a blackmail threat, and to reassure him they won’t give news agencies a “hook” to publish the news.
Now imagine if that news came out on Fox days later. Imagine further that within a year, one of the four officials became a paid Fox contributor. Democrats would lose their minds in this set of circumstances.
The country mostly did not lose its mind, however, because the episode did not involve a traditionally presidential figure like Obama, nor was it understood to have been directed at the institution of “the White House” in the abstract.
Instead, it was a story about an infamously corrupt individual, Donald Trump, a pussy-grabbing scammer who bragged about using bankruptcy to escape debt and publicly praised Vladimir Putin. Audiences believed the allegations against this person and saw the intelligence/counterintelligence community as acting patriotically, doing their best to keep us informed about a still-breaking investigation of a rogue president.
But a parallel story was ignored. Leaks from the intelligence community most often pertain to foreign policy. The leak of the January, 2017 “meeting” between the four chiefs and Trump – which without question damaged both the presidency and America’s standing abroad – was an unprecedented act of insubordination.
It was also a bold new foray into domestic politics by intelligence agencies that in recent decades began asserting all sorts of frightening new authority. They were kidnapping foreigners, assassinating by drone, conducting paramilitary operations without congressional notice, building an international archipelago of secret prisons, and engaging in mass warrantless surveillance of Americans. We found out in a court case just last week how extensive the illegal domestic surveillance has been, with the FBI engaging in tens of thousands of warrantless searches involving American emails and phone numbers under the guise of combating foreign subversion.
The agencies’ new trick is inserting themselves into domestic politics using leaks and media pressure. The “intel chiefs” meeting was just the first in a series of similar stories, many following the pattern in which a document was created, passed from department from department, and leaked. A sample:
• February 14, 2017: “four current and former officials” tell the New York Times the Trump campaign had “repeated contacts” with Russian intelligence.
• March 1, 2017: “Justice Department officials” tell the Washington Post Attorney General Jeff Sessions “spoke twice with Russia’s ambassador” and did not disclose the contacts ahead of his confirmation hearing.
• March 18, 2017: “people familiar with the matter” tell the Wall Street Journal that former Trump National Security Adviser Michael Flynn failed to disclose a “contact” with a Russian at Cambridge University, an episode that “came to the notice of U.S. intelligence.”
• April 8, 2017, 2017: “law enforcement and other U.S. officials” tell the Washington Post the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court judge had ruled there was “probable cause” to believe former Trump aide Carter Page was an “agent of a foreign power.”
• April 13, 2017: a “source close to UK intelligence” tells Luke Harding at The Guardian that the British analog to the NSA, the GCHQ, passed knowledge of “suspicious interactions” between “figures connected to Trump and “known or suspected Russian agents” to Americans as part of a “routine exchange of information.”
• December 17, 2017: “four current and former American and foreign officials” tell the New York Times that during the 2016 campaign, an Australian diplomat named Alexander Downer told “American counterparts” that former Trump aide George Papadopoulos revealed “Russia had political dirt on Hillary Clinton.
• April 13, 2018: “two sources familiar with the matter” tell McClatchy that Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s office has evidence Trump lawyer Michael Cohen was in Prague in 2016, “confirming part of [Steele] dossier.”
• November 27, 2018: a “well-placed source” tells Harding at The Guardian that former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort met with Julian Assange at the Ecuadorian embassy in London.
• January 19, 2019: “former law enforcement officials and others familiar with the investigation” tell the New York Times the FBI opened an inquiry into the “explosive implications” of whether or not Donald Trump was working on behalf of the Russians.
To be sure, “people familiar with the matter” leaked a lot of true stories in the last few years, but many were clearly problematic even at the time of release. Moreover, all took place in the context of constant, hounding pressure from media figures, congressional allies like Democrats Adam Schiff and Eric Swalwell, as well as ex-officials who could make use of their own personal public platforms in addition to being unnamed sources in straight news reports. They used commercial news platforms to argue that Trump had committed treason, needed to be removed from office, and preferably also indicted as soon as possible.
A shocking number of these voices were former intelligence officers who joined Clapper in becoming paid news contributors. Op-ed pages and news networks are packed now with ex-spooks editorializing about stories in which they had personal involvement: Michael Morell, Michael Hayden, Asha Rangappa, and Andrew McCabe among many others, including especially all four of the original “intel chiefs”: Clapper, Rogers, Comey, and MSNBC headliner John Brennan.
Russiagate birthed a whole brand of politics, a government-in-exile, which prosecuted its case against Trump via a constant stream of “approved” leaks, partisans in congress, and an increasingly unified and thematically consistent set of commercial news outlets.
These mechanisms have been transplanted now onto the Ukrainegate drama. It’s the same people beating the public drums, with the messaging run out of the same congressional committees, through the same Nadlers, Schiffs, and Swalwells. The same news outlets are on full alert.
The sidelined “intel chiefs” are once again playing central roles in making the public case. Comey says “we may now be at a point” where impeachment is necessary. Brennan, with unintentional irony, says the United States is “no longer a democracy.” Clapper says the Ukraine whistleblower complaint is “one of the most credible” he’s seen.
As a reporter covering the 2015–2016 presidential race, I thought Trump’s campaign was disturbing on many levels, but logical as a news story. He succeeded for class reasons, because of flaws in the media business that gifted him mass amounts of coverage, and because he took cunning advantage of long-simmering frustrations in the electorate. He also clearly catered to racist fears, and to the collapse in trust in institutions like the news media, the Fed, corporations, NATO, and, yes, the intelligence services. In enormous numbers, voters rejected everything they had ever been told about who was and was not qualified for higher office.
Trump’s campaign antagonism toward the military and intelligence world was at best a millimeter thick. Like almost everything else he said as a candidate, it was a gimmick, designed to get votes. That he was insincere and full of it and irresponsible, at first at least, when he attacked the “deep state” and the “fake news media,” doesn’t change the reality of what’s happened since. Even paranoiacs have enemies, and even Donald “Deep State” Trump is a legitimately elected president whose ouster is being actively sought by the intelligence community.
Trump stands accused of using the office of the presidency to advance political aims, in particular pressuring Ukraine to investigate potential campaign rival Joe Biden. He’s guilty, but the issue is how guilty, in comparison to his accusers.
Trump, at least insofar as we know, has not used section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act to monitor political rivals. He hasn’t deployed human counterintelligence “informants” to follow the likes of Hunter Biden. He hasn’t maneuvered to secure Special Counsel probes of Democrats.
And while Donald Trump conducting foreign policy based on what he sees on Fox and Friends is troubling, it’s not in the same ballpark as CNN, MSNBC, the Washington Post and the New York Times engaging in de facto coverage partnerships with the FBI and CIA to push highly politicized, phony narratives like Russiagate.
Trump’s tinpot Twitter threats and cancellation of White House privileges for dolts like Jim Acosta also don’t begin to compare to the danger posed by Facebook, Google, and Twitter – under pressure from the Senate – organizing with groups like the Atlantic Council to fight “fake news” in the name of preventing the “foment of discord.”
I don’t believe most Americans have thought through what a successful campaign to oust Donald Trump would look like. Most casual news consumers can only think of it in terms of Mike Pence becoming president. The real problem would be the precedent of a de facto intelligence community veto over elections, using the lunatic spookworld brand of politics that has dominated the last three years of anti-Trump agitation.
CIA/FBI-backed impeachment could also be a self-fulfilling prophecy. If Donald Trump thinks he’s going to be jailed upon leaving office, he’ll sooner or later figure out that his only real move is to start acting like the “dictator” MSNBC and CNN keep insisting he is. Why give up the White House and wait to be arrested, when he still has theoretical authority to send Special Forces troops rappelling through the windows of every last Russiagate/Ukrainegate leaker? That would be the endgame in a third world country, and it’s where we’re headed, unless someone calls off this craziness. Welcome to the Permanent Power Struggle.
Wednesday, October 16, 2019
DOES YOUR KID LIKE BIKER COFFEE OR BURRITOS?
A partial list of slang words for drugs to help police and parents keep ahead of the ever-increasing bizarre street names
From the DEA
Here are the street names of the drugs most used by users of illegal drugs in the US:
Cocaine - Big Bird, Cookie, Fish Scales, Mosquitoes, Tutti-Frutti and Rainbow
Ecstasy / MDA / Molly - Blue Superman, Dancing Shoes, Scooby Snacks, Vitamin E and Malcolm X
Fentanyl - Chinese Buffet, Facebook, Tango and Cash, Heineken and Murder 8
Heroin - Avocado, Chocolate Balls, Joy Flakes, Smack and Nice and Easy
Ketamine - Cat Food, Special K, Blind Squid, Honey Oil and Kit Kat
LSD - Bart Simpson, Electric Kool Aid, Looney Tunes, Pink Panthers and Wedding Bells
Marijuana - Mary Jane, Skywalker, Arizona, Bambalachacha and Burritos
Methamphetamine - Biker Coffee, Peanut Butter Crack, Chandelier, Clothing Cleaner and Tupperware
Synthetic Cannabinoids - Voodoo Child, Crystal Skull, Black Mamba, Green Peace and Hammer Head
Steroids - Gym Candy, Weight Gainers, Arnolds, Juice and Stackers
EDITOR’S NOTE: Back in my day the most common street name for heroin was ‘shit’ and it was ‘coke’ for cocaine, ‘meth’ for meth and ‘pot’ for pot. That was when illegal drugs were predominantly used by adults. The new street names appear to have been designed by kids to keep their parents from getting wise to their drug use.
From the DEA
Here are the street names of the drugs most used by users of illegal drugs in the US:
Cocaine - Big Bird, Cookie, Fish Scales, Mosquitoes, Tutti-Frutti and Rainbow
Ecstasy / MDA / Molly - Blue Superman, Dancing Shoes, Scooby Snacks, Vitamin E and Malcolm X
Fentanyl - Chinese Buffet, Facebook, Tango and Cash, Heineken and Murder 8
Heroin - Avocado, Chocolate Balls, Joy Flakes, Smack and Nice and Easy
Ketamine - Cat Food, Special K, Blind Squid, Honey Oil and Kit Kat
LSD - Bart Simpson, Electric Kool Aid, Looney Tunes, Pink Panthers and Wedding Bells
Marijuana - Mary Jane, Skywalker, Arizona, Bambalachacha and Burritos
Methamphetamine - Biker Coffee, Peanut Butter Crack, Chandelier, Clothing Cleaner and Tupperware
Synthetic Cannabinoids - Voodoo Child, Crystal Skull, Black Mamba, Green Peace and Hammer Head
Steroids - Gym Candy, Weight Gainers, Arnolds, Juice and Stackers
EDITOR’S NOTE: Back in my day the most common street name for heroin was ‘shit’ and it was ‘coke’ for cocaine, ‘meth’ for meth and ‘pot’ for pot. That was when illegal drugs were predominantly used by adults. The new street names appear to have been designed by kids to keep their parents from getting wise to their drug use.
THE DECISION TO PULL OUR TROOPS OUT OF SYRIA WAS A FOOLISH DECISION MADE ON THE SPUR OF THE MOMENT
Somebody better think about the long term effects of throwing the Kurds under the bus
By Tom Moran
First, the US has a long history of dumping on people who served US interests in dangerous situations. One need only look to 1975, when we abandoned tens thousands of South Vietnamese, Cambodians and members of tribes who fought the NVA and VC to further US interests.
It doesn't make any difference whether the Vietnam War was good or bad. Those folks put it on the line for the United States and ended up either in Vietnamese reeducation camps or Cambodian graves. All because the US ambassador to Vietnam didn't want to evacuate them with the NVA advancing because it would look like the US was giving up on South Vietnam.
And, think about what is going through the minds of Afghans who have taken the side of the US. They've got to be thinking what is going to happen to them when the US pulls out and leaves them high and dry. It doesn't take too much to figure out what they're thinking. After all, the US has been refusing visas to translators who worked with the US Army and were promised relocation to the US.
We have been working with the Kurds since the aftermath of the first Gulf War when Saddam nerve gassed Kurds in Northern Iraq. The Kurds have been the pointy end of the US spear for years in fighting ISIS. They were guarding ISIS prisoners who now are running free.
Now, to save themselves from genocide by the Turks, they are getting help from Assad and his Russian and Iranian friends. The Kurds have every reason to fear a Turkish genocide. The first modern genocide was the Turkish genocide of the Armenians just before World War I.
Gee, that's a great result. A murderous regime supported by the Russians and Iranians is going to win the Syrian civil war. What a great result.
People are going to be lining up all over the world to support the US after seeing how we treat those who help us. NOT. Sooner or later for some reason or other the United States is going to need foreigners to help us to protect a US vital interest. And, the people we ask for help are going to remember what we did to the Kurds.
And, sooner or later, the US is going to have to defend US troops from Turkish artillery or air attack. Isn't that a going to be pretty picture. US Air Force planes taking off from a US base in Turkey to bomb the Turkish Army and shoot down Turkish planes.
Turkey is a NATO ally. What happens there. We've already said we won't sell them F-35s because they bought a Russian air defense missile system. Sooner or later, Turkey will pull out of NATO or be kicked out and become a Russian supporting state.
And, what does that do for the future of NATO, our most important alliance? The current administration has been pretty darn negative about NATO. EVERY president since Truman has seen NATO as an important alliance both to guarantee peace in Europe and defend the US. NATO troops supported US troops in Afghanistan. Germans, Poles and others died there supporting the war on terror.
You can bet that Putin would love to see NATO break up. I'm sure the Baltic states will be thrilled to lose the protection of NATO. I remember when George W. Bush said he looked in Putin's eyes and said he saw someone he could work with. John McCain said he looked in Putin's eyes and saw KGB. McCain was right.
The decision to pull the US troops supporting the Kurds was a foolish decision made on the spur of the moment without any input from people ranging from Special Forces sergeants on the ground to top government diplomats.
It's going to turn out very badly for the US, both in the short run and in the long run.
We're going to have blood on our hands and we're going to be very unhappy when the Iranians gain power in the Middle East.
And, that's just for starters.
Tom Moran is a Houston Criminal Defense Attorney who represented defendants at both the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda and International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. Mr. Moran has been admitted to practice before the International Criminal Court and the Special Tribunal for Lebanon.
By Tom Moran
First, the US has a long history of dumping on people who served US interests in dangerous situations. One need only look to 1975, when we abandoned tens thousands of South Vietnamese, Cambodians and members of tribes who fought the NVA and VC to further US interests.
It doesn't make any difference whether the Vietnam War was good or bad. Those folks put it on the line for the United States and ended up either in Vietnamese reeducation camps or Cambodian graves. All because the US ambassador to Vietnam didn't want to evacuate them with the NVA advancing because it would look like the US was giving up on South Vietnam.
And, think about what is going through the minds of Afghans who have taken the side of the US. They've got to be thinking what is going to happen to them when the US pulls out and leaves them high and dry. It doesn't take too much to figure out what they're thinking. After all, the US has been refusing visas to translators who worked with the US Army and were promised relocation to the US.
We have been working with the Kurds since the aftermath of the first Gulf War when Saddam nerve gassed Kurds in Northern Iraq. The Kurds have been the pointy end of the US spear for years in fighting ISIS. They were guarding ISIS prisoners who now are running free.
Now, to save themselves from genocide by the Turks, they are getting help from Assad and his Russian and Iranian friends. The Kurds have every reason to fear a Turkish genocide. The first modern genocide was the Turkish genocide of the Armenians just before World War I.
Gee, that's a great result. A murderous regime supported by the Russians and Iranians is going to win the Syrian civil war. What a great result.
People are going to be lining up all over the world to support the US after seeing how we treat those who help us. NOT. Sooner or later for some reason or other the United States is going to need foreigners to help us to protect a US vital interest. And, the people we ask for help are going to remember what we did to the Kurds.
And, sooner or later, the US is going to have to defend US troops from Turkish artillery or air attack. Isn't that a going to be pretty picture. US Air Force planes taking off from a US base in Turkey to bomb the Turkish Army and shoot down Turkish planes.
Turkey is a NATO ally. What happens there. We've already said we won't sell them F-35s because they bought a Russian air defense missile system. Sooner or later, Turkey will pull out of NATO or be kicked out and become a Russian supporting state.
And, what does that do for the future of NATO, our most important alliance? The current administration has been pretty darn negative about NATO. EVERY president since Truman has seen NATO as an important alliance both to guarantee peace in Europe and defend the US. NATO troops supported US troops in Afghanistan. Germans, Poles and others died there supporting the war on terror.
You can bet that Putin would love to see NATO break up. I'm sure the Baltic states will be thrilled to lose the protection of NATO. I remember when George W. Bush said he looked in Putin's eyes and said he saw someone he could work with. John McCain said he looked in Putin's eyes and saw KGB. McCain was right.
The decision to pull the US troops supporting the Kurds was a foolish decision made on the spur of the moment without any input from people ranging from Special Forces sergeants on the ground to top government diplomats.
It's going to turn out very badly for the US, both in the short run and in the long run.
We're going to have blood on our hands and we're going to be very unhappy when the Iranians gain power in the Middle East.
And, that's just for starters.
Tom Moran is a Houston Criminal Defense Attorney who represented defendants at both the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda and International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. Mr. Moran has been admitted to practice before the International Criminal Court and the Special Tribunal for Lebanon.
COLUMBUS DAY
4 states and over 100 cities refuse to honor Christopher Columbus
By Howie Katz
Big Jolly Times
October 15, 2019
Monday was Columbus Day. There was no mail delivery and most Banks were closed because it’s a federal holiday. Otherwise it was business as usual. Schools and colleges were open, giving leftist professors and some public-school teachers the opportunity to tear Christopher Columbus apart.
The same idiots and troublemakers who want all vestiges of the Confederacy erased also want the memory of Christopher Columbus erased. They are pissed off at old Chris because, according to them, he committed mass genocide of the native people on the western hemisphere islands he discovered.
The idiots demand that the name of Columbus Day be changed to Indigenous Peoples' Day. They’ve succeeded with the name change for the states of New Mexico, Wisconsin, Maine, and Vermont, as well as in over 100 cities, including the District of Columbia. Los Angeles, San Francisco, Berkeley, Seattle, Minneapolis, Denver, Phoenix, Tulsa, Salt Lake City, Nashville and Austin, the Berkeley of Texas.
If something like that were tried in New York City, the city would experience a bloody revolt by the Italian-Americans who are very proud of Columbus. I’m sure that Sandinista-loving Mayor Bill de Blasio would like to dishonor Columbus, but he’s not so goofy as to cause bloodshed on his city’s streets.
On Sunday, San Francisco’s statue of Columbus was painted red and the vandals also spray painted the statue’s base, writing “Kill all colonizers” and “Destroy all monuments of genocide.” And on Monday in Providence, Rhode Island, some of the idiots dishonored Columbus by splashing red paint on his statue and leaving a sigh demanding “stop celebrating genocide.” They did the same thing last year.
When the idiots accuse Columbus of mass genocide, they probably mean that he introduced a number of European diseases, including smallpox, measles and typhus to the natives. But the Indians repaid him with syphilis which he then brought to Europe, or so it is said. Not a bad trade-off.
It took an awful lot of courage for Columbus to venture into uncharted waters, courage that the defacers of the Columbus statues and the name-changers do not have. Many people at the time believed the earth was flat and they were sure that Columbus, together with his ships and their crews, were doomed to fall off of the edge of the earth.
Should the state of Texas and its cities like Dallas, San Antonio and Houston continue to honor Christopher Columbus?
Even thou old Chris thought he had reached India and missed his mark by 10,000 or so miles, his discovery of Hispaniola was an amazing feat for its time. That’s why we should continue to honor him with Columbus Day. And that goes for the rest of the country too!
By Howie Katz
Big Jolly Times
October 15, 2019
Monday was Columbus Day. There was no mail delivery and most Banks were closed because it’s a federal holiday. Otherwise it was business as usual. Schools and colleges were open, giving leftist professors and some public-school teachers the opportunity to tear Christopher Columbus apart.
The same idiots and troublemakers who want all vestiges of the Confederacy erased also want the memory of Christopher Columbus erased. They are pissed off at old Chris because, according to them, he committed mass genocide of the native people on the western hemisphere islands he discovered.
The idiots demand that the name of Columbus Day be changed to Indigenous Peoples' Day. They’ve succeeded with the name change for the states of New Mexico, Wisconsin, Maine, and Vermont, as well as in over 100 cities, including the District of Columbia. Los Angeles, San Francisco, Berkeley, Seattle, Minneapolis, Denver, Phoenix, Tulsa, Salt Lake City, Nashville and Austin, the Berkeley of Texas.
If something like that were tried in New York City, the city would experience a bloody revolt by the Italian-Americans who are very proud of Columbus. I’m sure that Sandinista-loving Mayor Bill de Blasio would like to dishonor Columbus, but he’s not so goofy as to cause bloodshed on his city’s streets.
On Sunday, San Francisco’s statue of Columbus was painted red and the vandals also spray painted the statue’s base, writing “Kill all colonizers” and “Destroy all monuments of genocide.” And on Monday in Providence, Rhode Island, some of the idiots dishonored Columbus by splashing red paint on his statue and leaving a sigh demanding “stop celebrating genocide.” They did the same thing last year.
When the idiots accuse Columbus of mass genocide, they probably mean that he introduced a number of European diseases, including smallpox, measles and typhus to the natives. But the Indians repaid him with syphilis which he then brought to Europe, or so it is said. Not a bad trade-off.
It took an awful lot of courage for Columbus to venture into uncharted waters, courage that the defacers of the Columbus statues and the name-changers do not have. Many people at the time believed the earth was flat and they were sure that Columbus, together with his ships and their crews, were doomed to fall off of the edge of the earth.
Should the state of Texas and its cities like Dallas, San Antonio and Houston continue to honor Christopher Columbus?
Even thou old Chris thought he had reached India and missed his mark by 10,000 or so miles, his discovery of Hispaniola was an amazing feat for its time. That’s why we should continue to honor him with Columbus Day. And that goes for the rest of the country too!
HAS / WAS AMELIA EARHART'S REMAINS BEEN FOUND
by Bob Walsh
In 1940 human remains were found on the uninhabited Island of Nikomororo in 1940. They were apparently misidentified as male, and then disappeared. They later turned up in a museum on Tarawa. A good quality, modern forensic examination has been done of the remains which indicate the are female and the physical parameters closely match the late aviator who disappeared in the south Pacific before WW II.
They are in the process of doing DNA testing on the bones, which may answer the question for sure.
In 1940 human remains were found on the uninhabited Island of Nikomororo in 1940. They were apparently misidentified as male, and then disappeared. They later turned up in a museum on Tarawa. A good quality, modern forensic examination has been done of the remains which indicate the are female and the physical parameters closely match the late aviator who disappeared in the south Pacific before WW II.
They are in the process of doing DNA testing on the bones, which may answer the question for sure.
FELICITY CHECKING IN
by Bob Walsh
Actress Felicity Huffman has reported in to the Federal Correctional Institution at Dublin, CA to begin her two-week gig. (I have been there. It is a nice place.) I doubt she will make it to GenPop as I think their normal intake and classification period takes two weeks, but either way I don't think she is in too much danger, except from stomach troubles from consuming food and drinking tap water.
Life is hard.
Actress Felicity Huffman has reported in to the Federal Correctional Institution at Dublin, CA to begin her two-week gig. (I have been there. It is a nice place.) I doubt she will make it to GenPop as I think their normal intake and classification period takes two weeks, but either way I don't think she is in too much danger, except from stomach troubles from consuming food and drinking tap water.
Life is hard.
MIKE BLOOMBERG HAS SLIPPED HIS CABLE
by Bob Walsh
Various talking heads announced yesterday that Mike Bloomberg, whose presidential campaign train went from East Nowhere to West Nowhere before crashing into a fertilizer truck and burning has (allegedly) made it known that he may be planning to jump back in as the "savior moderate" if (when) Joe "The Hairsniffer" Biden becomes a basket case due to his family corruption issues actually floating to the surface like a huge turd in a porta-potty.
That is clearly just what the Democrat-Socialist party needs, MORE failed candidates jumped into the race. Don't the first actual electoral contests begin in February? Four months of fun fun fun.
Various talking heads announced yesterday that Mike Bloomberg, whose presidential campaign train went from East Nowhere to West Nowhere before crashing into a fertilizer truck and burning has (allegedly) made it known that he may be planning to jump back in as the "savior moderate" if (when) Joe "The Hairsniffer" Biden becomes a basket case due to his family corruption issues actually floating to the surface like a huge turd in a porta-potty.
That is clearly just what the Democrat-Socialist party needs, MORE failed candidates jumped into the race. Don't the first actual electoral contests begin in February? Four months of fun fun fun.
ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY
by Bob Walsh
In 1793 Marie Antoinette received a very radical haircut by the revolutionary forces in French. She and her late husband, the former king, were captured by the mob in 1792. The monarchy was disestablished and the former King and Queen sentenced to die for treason.
In 1923 Walt and Roy Disney formed the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio.
In 1946 ten former Nazis condemned two weeks earlier during the Nuremburg tribunals for war crimes were executed.
In 1793 Marie Antoinette received a very radical haircut by the revolutionary forces in French. She and her late husband, the former king, were captured by the mob in 1792. The monarchy was disestablished and the former King and Queen sentenced to die for treason.
In 1923 Walt and Roy Disney formed the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio.
In 1946 ten former Nazis condemned two weeks earlier during the Nuremburg tribunals for war crimes were executed.
PUNISHMENT FOR FOLLOWING THE LAW ?
by Bob Walsh
Governor Newsom of the formerly great state of California was a supporter of the law requiring PG&E to de-energize power lines in areas where the combination of humidity, wind, etc. made for a high risk of fire. PG&E has done so now on a couple of occasions. Now Newsom is screaming that PG&E should be forced to pay a fair chunk of money ($100 each to residential customers, $250 each to small businesses) for the inconveniences involved.
In addition the Public Utilities Commission is now demanding that PG&E set up a way to be more selective and focused in areas where the power is shut off and be able to re-energize the lines in 12 hours. Currently it takes about 48 hours and can not be done during the dark as they must visually inspect the lines before re-powering them. The PUC certainly knew this when the law was passed.
Everybody hates PG&E. Hell, I hate PG&E. That being said you shouldn't complain about forseeable outcomes when you change the rules.
Governor Newsom of the formerly great state of California was a supporter of the law requiring PG&E to de-energize power lines in areas where the combination of humidity, wind, etc. made for a high risk of fire. PG&E has done so now on a couple of occasions. Now Newsom is screaming that PG&E should be forced to pay a fair chunk of money ($100 each to residential customers, $250 each to small businesses) for the inconveniences involved.
In addition the Public Utilities Commission is now demanding that PG&E set up a way to be more selective and focused in areas where the power is shut off and be able to re-energize the lines in 12 hours. Currently it takes about 48 hours and can not be done during the dark as they must visually inspect the lines before re-powering them. The PUC certainly knew this when the law was passed.
Everybody hates PG&E. Hell, I hate PG&E. That being said you shouldn't complain about forseeable outcomes when you change the rules.
ASSAD AND PUTIN APPEAR TO BENEFIT FROM AMERICAN WITHDRAWAL
Trump sanctions fail to slow Turkey assault, Assad makes land grab
Israel Hayom
October 15, 2019
Turkey ignored new sanctions from the United States to press on with its assault on northern Syria on Tuesday, while the Russia-backed Syrian army entered one of the most hotly contested cities, filling a void created by Donald Trump's abrupt retreat.
A week after reversing US policy and moving troops out of the way to allow Turkey to attack Washington's allies in northern Syria, Trump announced a package of sanctions to punish Turkey.
But financial markets shrugged off the announcement. The Turkish lira actually went up, with traders noting Trump had spared Turkish banks from punishment.
Trump's unexpected decision to withhold protection from Syria's Kurds after a phone call with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan a week ago swiftly upended five years of US policy in the Middle East, giving a free hand to Washington's adversaries in the world's deadliest ongoing war.
The United States announced on Sunday it was withdrawing its entire force of 1,000 troops. Its former Kurdish allies immediately forged a new alliance with the Russia-backed Syrian government of President Bashar al-Assad, inviting the army into towns across the breadth of Kurdish-held territory.
One of the most important flashpoints is the city of Manbij, west of the Euphrates river, which Turkey has vowed to capture. The area had been patrolled jointly by US and Turkish forces under a deal aiming to persuade Turkey not to invade.
The Russian-backed Syrian forces appear to have moved swiftly to fill the void left by departing Americans. State television broadcast footage of what it said was government troops entering the city on Tuesday. A resident inside the city told Reuters the Syrian troops were on its outskirts.
Turkey-backed Syrian fighters said they would continue their advance towards Manbij, and said the troops that had entered were mostly Kurdish fighters now allied to the government.
Trump has defended his reversal of US policy as part of a plan to withdraw the United States from "endless" wars in the Middle East.
Turkey says it aims to defeat the Kurdish YPG militia, which it sees as terrorists for its links to separatists in Turkey, and to create a "safe zone" where millions of Syrian refugees can be resettled.
The United Nations says 160,000 people have fled their homes as Turkish forces advance. The Kurdish administration puts the number of displaced at 270,000.
Erdogan, who has pledged to continue military operations come what may, said Turkey was giving the world a "second chance" to bring peace to the region.
"The international community missed its opportunity to prevent the Syrian crisis from pulling an entire region into a maelstrom of instability," he wrote in the Wall Street Journal. "The European Union - and the world - should support what Turkey is trying to do."
The Syrian army deployments into Kurdish-held territory are a victory for President Bashar Assad and his most powerful ally, Russia, giving them a foothold in the biggest remaining swath of the country that had been beyond their grasp.
Israel Hayom
October 15, 2019
Turkey ignored new sanctions from the United States to press on with its assault on northern Syria on Tuesday, while the Russia-backed Syrian army entered one of the most hotly contested cities, filling a void created by Donald Trump's abrupt retreat.
A week after reversing US policy and moving troops out of the way to allow Turkey to attack Washington's allies in northern Syria, Trump announced a package of sanctions to punish Turkey.
But financial markets shrugged off the announcement. The Turkish lira actually went up, with traders noting Trump had spared Turkish banks from punishment.
Trump's unexpected decision to withhold protection from Syria's Kurds after a phone call with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan a week ago swiftly upended five years of US policy in the Middle East, giving a free hand to Washington's adversaries in the world's deadliest ongoing war.
The United States announced on Sunday it was withdrawing its entire force of 1,000 troops. Its former Kurdish allies immediately forged a new alliance with the Russia-backed Syrian government of President Bashar al-Assad, inviting the army into towns across the breadth of Kurdish-held territory.
One of the most important flashpoints is the city of Manbij, west of the Euphrates river, which Turkey has vowed to capture. The area had been patrolled jointly by US and Turkish forces under a deal aiming to persuade Turkey not to invade.
The Russian-backed Syrian forces appear to have moved swiftly to fill the void left by departing Americans. State television broadcast footage of what it said was government troops entering the city on Tuesday. A resident inside the city told Reuters the Syrian troops were on its outskirts.
Turkey-backed Syrian fighters said they would continue their advance towards Manbij, and said the troops that had entered were mostly Kurdish fighters now allied to the government.
Trump has defended his reversal of US policy as part of a plan to withdraw the United States from "endless" wars in the Middle East.
Turkey says it aims to defeat the Kurdish YPG militia, which it sees as terrorists for its links to separatists in Turkey, and to create a "safe zone" where millions of Syrian refugees can be resettled.
The United Nations says 160,000 people have fled their homes as Turkish forces advance. The Kurdish administration puts the number of displaced at 270,000.
Erdogan, who has pledged to continue military operations come what may, said Turkey was giving the world a "second chance" to bring peace to the region.
"The international community missed its opportunity to prevent the Syrian crisis from pulling an entire region into a maelstrom of instability," he wrote in the Wall Street Journal. "The European Union - and the world - should support what Turkey is trying to do."
The Syrian army deployments into Kurdish-held territory are a victory for President Bashar Assad and his most powerful ally, Russia, giving them a foothold in the biggest remaining swath of the country that had been beyond their grasp.
THEY CALLED SOUTHERN ITALIANS NIGGER WOPS
Gov. Cuomo drops the n-word during live radio interview
By Bernadette Hogan
New York Post
October 15, 2019
Gov. Andrew Cuomo used the n-word during a live radio interview Tuesday while discussing racism against Italian Americans.
Cuomo called into WAMC radio, where he was asked about the controversy surrounding Indigenous Peoples’ Day, which was celebrated Monday at the same time as Columbus Day.
He quickly turned the discussion to a New York Times op-ed that ran Saturday about the treatment of Italian Americans in the past — and said the entire n-word while talking about slurs once used against the Italian community.
“They used an expression that southern Italians were called, I believe they were saying southern Italians, Sicilians — I’m half Sicilian — were called, quote-unquote and pardon my language, but I’m just quoting the Times: ‘nigger wops.’ N-word wops, as a derogatory comment,” Cuomo said, slowly and clearly saying the whole inflammatory epithet.
“When I said that ‘wop’ was a derogatory comment, that was when the Times Union told me, no, you should look in Wikipedia, ‘wop’ really meant a dandy,” he told host Alan Chartock, laughing.
The governor’s on-air gaffe comes months after his younger brother, CNN anchor Chris Cuomo, was caught flying into an expletive-filled rage after someone called him “Fredo” — an apparent insult referencing Fredo Corleone, the incompetent son of Don Vito Corleone in “The Godfather.”
Andrew Cuomo has since waged war against Albany Times-Union managing editor Casey Seiler, who penned an op-ed over what he called the Cuomo brothers’ misconception of Italian American insults.
“Wop,” Seiler contended in his piece, is derived from the Italian word guappo — meaning dude or dandy — not “without papers,” as Andrew once insisted.
Andrew again raised the issue on WAMC on Tuesday.
“I’m sure that’s what they were saying to me back in Queens — ‘you’re a dandy’ — when they looked at me with scorn and gave me a hand gesture and called me a ‘wop,'” he said.
Reps for Cuomo didn’t immediately return requests for comment.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Gov. Cuomo said nigger? Impeach him! Or better yet, quick, git a rope.
By Bernadette Hogan
New York Post
October 15, 2019
Gov. Andrew Cuomo used the n-word during a live radio interview Tuesday while discussing racism against Italian Americans.
Cuomo called into WAMC radio, where he was asked about the controversy surrounding Indigenous Peoples’ Day, which was celebrated Monday at the same time as Columbus Day.
He quickly turned the discussion to a New York Times op-ed that ran Saturday about the treatment of Italian Americans in the past — and said the entire n-word while talking about slurs once used against the Italian community.
“They used an expression that southern Italians were called, I believe they were saying southern Italians, Sicilians — I’m half Sicilian — were called, quote-unquote and pardon my language, but I’m just quoting the Times: ‘nigger wops.’ N-word wops, as a derogatory comment,” Cuomo said, slowly and clearly saying the whole inflammatory epithet.
“When I said that ‘wop’ was a derogatory comment, that was when the Times Union told me, no, you should look in Wikipedia, ‘wop’ really meant a dandy,” he told host Alan Chartock, laughing.
The governor’s on-air gaffe comes months after his younger brother, CNN anchor Chris Cuomo, was caught flying into an expletive-filled rage after someone called him “Fredo” — an apparent insult referencing Fredo Corleone, the incompetent son of Don Vito Corleone in “The Godfather.”
Andrew Cuomo has since waged war against Albany Times-Union managing editor Casey Seiler, who penned an op-ed over what he called the Cuomo brothers’ misconception of Italian American insults.
“Wop,” Seiler contended in his piece, is derived from the Italian word guappo — meaning dude or dandy — not “without papers,” as Andrew once insisted.
Andrew again raised the issue on WAMC on Tuesday.
“I’m sure that’s what they were saying to me back in Queens — ‘you’re a dandy’ — when they looked at me with scorn and gave me a hand gesture and called me a ‘wop,'” he said.
Reps for Cuomo didn’t immediately return requests for comment.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Gov. Cuomo said nigger? Impeach him! Or better yet, quick, git a rope.
BAR HOPPING FEMALE JUDGE EXHIBITS THE BIRDIE, HER TWO MALE COMPANION JUDGES GET SHOT
Three Indiana judges face discipline after May shooting outside Indianapolis White Castle restaurant
Associated Press
October 12, 2019
INDIANAPOLIS — Judicial officials filed disciplinary charges Friday against three southern Indiana judges involved in a night of bar-hopping that ended with two of them being shot and seriously wounded during a fight outside a downtown Indianapolis fast-food restaurant.
The Indiana Commission on Judicial Qualifications announced misconduct charges against circuit judges Andrew Adams and Bradley Jacobs of Clark County and Sabrina Bell of Crawford County over the May 1 altercation outside a White Castle. Adams and Jacobs were shot.
Court records indicate the altercation began after one of two men in a SUV yelled something at the judges, and Bell extended a middle finger at the two.
Adams and Jacobs were hospitalized for several days after the shooting. Authorities have said they don’t believe the judges were targeted because of their jobs.
The commission said Bell told police: “I’m not denying that I said something or egged it on ... because I drink. I mean I fully acknowledge that I drink and get mouthy, and I’m fiery and I’m feisty, but if I would have ever thought for a second that they were gonna fight or that that guy had a gun on him, I would never, never.”
The Indiana Supreme Court suspended Adams with pay after he was indicted in June. Adams pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor battery charge and received a one-year suspended sentence.
Jacobs wasn’t charged and has returned to the bench in the county across the Ohio River from Louisville, Ky. Crawford County also borders the river.
The alleged gunman, Brandon Kaiser, faces several charges including felony aggravated battery, battery with a deadly weapon and other crimes. He has pleaded not guilty and is awaiting trial.
The altercation occurred about 3 a.m. on the opening day of a conference the judges were in town to attend.
Each judge has 20 days to answer the charges. Jacobs and Bell each are charged with two counts of misconduct and Adams faces three counts.
The Indiana Supreme Court has the final word on whether misconduct occurred and any sanctions.
Associated Press
October 12, 2019
INDIANAPOLIS — Judicial officials filed disciplinary charges Friday against three southern Indiana judges involved in a night of bar-hopping that ended with two of them being shot and seriously wounded during a fight outside a downtown Indianapolis fast-food restaurant.
The Indiana Commission on Judicial Qualifications announced misconduct charges against circuit judges Andrew Adams and Bradley Jacobs of Clark County and Sabrina Bell of Crawford County over the May 1 altercation outside a White Castle. Adams and Jacobs were shot.
Court records indicate the altercation began after one of two men in a SUV yelled something at the judges, and Bell extended a middle finger at the two.
Adams and Jacobs were hospitalized for several days after the shooting. Authorities have said they don’t believe the judges were targeted because of their jobs.
The commission said Bell told police: “I’m not denying that I said something or egged it on ... because I drink. I mean I fully acknowledge that I drink and get mouthy, and I’m fiery and I’m feisty, but if I would have ever thought for a second that they were gonna fight or that that guy had a gun on him, I would never, never.”
The Indiana Supreme Court suspended Adams with pay after he was indicted in June. Adams pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor battery charge and received a one-year suspended sentence.
Jacobs wasn’t charged and has returned to the bench in the county across the Ohio River from Louisville, Ky. Crawford County also borders the river.
The alleged gunman, Brandon Kaiser, faces several charges including felony aggravated battery, battery with a deadly weapon and other crimes. He has pleaded not guilty and is awaiting trial.
The altercation occurred about 3 a.m. on the opening day of a conference the judges were in town to attend.
Each judge has 20 days to answer the charges. Jacobs and Bell each are charged with two counts of misconduct and Adams faces three counts.
The Indiana Supreme Court has the final word on whether misconduct occurred and any sanctions.
DEMOCRATS TRYING TO REMAKE AMERICA INTO SOMETHING IT WAS NEVER MEANT TO BE
The Clintons: Flesh-eating disease of the American body politic
By Patricia McCarthy
American Thinker
October 12, 2019
If we reflect on the current crises that afflict our nation, look no further than the poison injected into our national bloodstream by the Clintons.
There is no need to go back to the numerous scandals that bedeviled Bill Clinton's days in office, as governor of Arkansas, and as president. Hillary was behind them all: Whitewater, bimbo eruptions, foreign money (remember Charlie Trie?).
Bill Clinton was a walking, talking, serial philanderer scandal. He was rightfully impeached for lying under oath. The man was and remains a cad. But when it comes to criminality, Bill can't hold a candle to Hillary. Machiavelli would be proud: "Never attempt to win by force what can be won by deception."
Hillary's entire life in politics has been about deception in the certain belief that she is smarter than everyone else, when in fact she is as transparent as a piece of glass. Those of us who have had to endure her presence in our public life for decades saw her for who and what she was long ago, a greedy, power-hungry pol with delusions of grandeur.
Consider though that it is the Clintons who have polluted our national politics since 1992. Sure, JFK was an adulterer, LBJ was a creep on many levels, but Hillary really does take the cake. She still thinks she won the 2016 election! She is the Stacey Abrams of national politics, fantastically deluded. And yet it is the Clintons who have led us to the present moment, the ridiculous attempt by the Democrats to impeach a successful president based on calculated lies and treachery that began with the "dossier" that Hillary commissioned Fusion GPS to produce.
All that has followed can be traced back to Hillary's campaign to be president and to insure her victory by deceit. But she was an expert at subterfuge long before she ran for president. She used her stint as Secretary of State to enrich herself with her pay-to-play scheme with the Clinton Foundation as her front. She sucked up millions into her faux charity and she saw to it that the payees got what they wanted - 20% of our uranium for example, sold to Russia.
Hillary was an equal-opportunity greed machine. She sold access to America's largesse to the highest bidder. She did not distinguish between good and evil and most of those from whom she took vast sums of money were not our allies. When she lost the election, all that payola dried up for obvious reasons.
Hillary Clinton is responsible for the devastation that has been visited upon Libya. That was her baby. It was Hillary who refused to send help to our guys stranded in Benghazi when our embassy was under attack. She let Ambassador Christopher Stevens be killed.
She was behind the scheme to run American guns from Libya to Syria. She proved her callous lack of foreign policy judgment with that fateful disaster. She should never again be even remotely close to having to make such decisions.
Had her husband Bill had the courage, he would have taken out Osama bin Laden when he had the several chances and the horrific crime of 9/11 might have been prevented. Had Bill Clinton's Deputy AG Jamie Gorelick not built her "wall" preventing communication between intel agencies about their independent investigations of potential terrorists, 9/11 might well have been prevented.
In short, the Clintons and their henchmen have done incalculable damage to this country. They are responsible for countless deaths, here and abroad. And yet this hopelessly narcissistic woman decries her loss in 2016 and still claims she won!
The three-year investigation that was in fact a cover-up operation can be traced directly to Hillary Clinton. Her coterie of fellow schemers who were dedicated to insuring her victory spent millions, lied, cheated and deceived the American people with the certainty she would win. It is a miracle that despite all their cheating, their underhanded attempt to destroy Trump, he still won.
It is as though the hand of providence stepped in to save the nation. Blinded by their loathing of Trump the interloper, they've lost their minds. Their attempt to remove him from office will fail and in the process they will have revealed to all how patently perverse they are.
The Democrats driving this impeachment inquiry -- Adam Schiff, Nancy Pelosi, Jerry Nadler, et. al, should be driven from office with the contempt they deserve. But we can thank the Clintons for bringing us to this crossroads. They are the bacteria that brought this national flesh-eating disease to the American psyche. They have long been a scourge on our body politic and it must end. We are where we are because of them, along with their conviction that they are superior beings entitled to rule.
Each of the Democrat candidates for the presidency are following Hillary's lead - remake America into something it was never meant to be.
What is the cure for the disease? Pelosi, Schiff, Nadler and their partners in crime, all those fake whistleblowers, need to be rebuked and called out for what they are - fascists masquerading as Americans.
May the Horowitz, Barr and Durham reports bring them to their knees and expose them for the anti-constitutionalists, anti-Americans that they are. Trump is the ultimate anti-biotic, elected to cure the Clinton disease.
By Patricia McCarthy
American Thinker
October 12, 2019
If we reflect on the current crises that afflict our nation, look no further than the poison injected into our national bloodstream by the Clintons.
There is no need to go back to the numerous scandals that bedeviled Bill Clinton's days in office, as governor of Arkansas, and as president. Hillary was behind them all: Whitewater, bimbo eruptions, foreign money (remember Charlie Trie?).
Bill Clinton was a walking, talking, serial philanderer scandal. He was rightfully impeached for lying under oath. The man was and remains a cad. But when it comes to criminality, Bill can't hold a candle to Hillary. Machiavelli would be proud: "Never attempt to win by force what can be won by deception."
Hillary's entire life in politics has been about deception in the certain belief that she is smarter than everyone else, when in fact she is as transparent as a piece of glass. Those of us who have had to endure her presence in our public life for decades saw her for who and what she was long ago, a greedy, power-hungry pol with delusions of grandeur.
Consider though that it is the Clintons who have polluted our national politics since 1992. Sure, JFK was an adulterer, LBJ was a creep on many levels, but Hillary really does take the cake. She still thinks she won the 2016 election! She is the Stacey Abrams of national politics, fantastically deluded. And yet it is the Clintons who have led us to the present moment, the ridiculous attempt by the Democrats to impeach a successful president based on calculated lies and treachery that began with the "dossier" that Hillary commissioned Fusion GPS to produce.
All that has followed can be traced back to Hillary's campaign to be president and to insure her victory by deceit. But she was an expert at subterfuge long before she ran for president. She used her stint as Secretary of State to enrich herself with her pay-to-play scheme with the Clinton Foundation as her front. She sucked up millions into her faux charity and she saw to it that the payees got what they wanted - 20% of our uranium for example, sold to Russia.
Hillary was an equal-opportunity greed machine. She sold access to America's largesse to the highest bidder. She did not distinguish between good and evil and most of those from whom she took vast sums of money were not our allies. When she lost the election, all that payola dried up for obvious reasons.
Hillary Clinton is responsible for the devastation that has been visited upon Libya. That was her baby. It was Hillary who refused to send help to our guys stranded in Benghazi when our embassy was under attack. She let Ambassador Christopher Stevens be killed.
She was behind the scheme to run American guns from Libya to Syria. She proved her callous lack of foreign policy judgment with that fateful disaster. She should never again be even remotely close to having to make such decisions.
Had her husband Bill had the courage, he would have taken out Osama bin Laden when he had the several chances and the horrific crime of 9/11 might have been prevented. Had Bill Clinton's Deputy AG Jamie Gorelick not built her "wall" preventing communication between intel agencies about their independent investigations of potential terrorists, 9/11 might well have been prevented.
In short, the Clintons and their henchmen have done incalculable damage to this country. They are responsible for countless deaths, here and abroad. And yet this hopelessly narcissistic woman decries her loss in 2016 and still claims she won!
The three-year investigation that was in fact a cover-up operation can be traced directly to Hillary Clinton. Her coterie of fellow schemers who were dedicated to insuring her victory spent millions, lied, cheated and deceived the American people with the certainty she would win. It is a miracle that despite all their cheating, their underhanded attempt to destroy Trump, he still won.
It is as though the hand of providence stepped in to save the nation. Blinded by their loathing of Trump the interloper, they've lost their minds. Their attempt to remove him from office will fail and in the process they will have revealed to all how patently perverse they are.
The Democrats driving this impeachment inquiry -- Adam Schiff, Nancy Pelosi, Jerry Nadler, et. al, should be driven from office with the contempt they deserve. But we can thank the Clintons for bringing us to this crossroads. They are the bacteria that brought this national flesh-eating disease to the American psyche. They have long been a scourge on our body politic and it must end. We are where we are because of them, along with their conviction that they are superior beings entitled to rule.
Each of the Democrat candidates for the presidency are following Hillary's lead - remake America into something it was never meant to be.
What is the cure for the disease? Pelosi, Schiff, Nadler and their partners in crime, all those fake whistleblowers, need to be rebuked and called out for what they are - fascists masquerading as Americans.
May the Horowitz, Barr and Durham reports bring them to their knees and expose them for the anti-constitutionalists, anti-Americans that they are. Trump is the ultimate anti-biotic, elected to cure the Clinton disease.
THE END OF TIME FAILED TO ARRIVE
Dutch Family Holed up in Cellar for 9 Years Waiting for 'The End of Time' Found After Son Escapes to Local Bar and Orders 5 Beers
By Brendan Cole
Newsweek
October 15, 2019
A family of six adult children and their bedridden father have been found living in the cellar on the remote Dutch farm where they had been holed up for nearly a decade, it has been reported.
The family had been on the property, near the village of Ruinerwold in the Drenthe province of the Netherlands, for nine years. They had been completely self-sufficient with their own vegetable garden and goat, but had had no contact with the outside world. That's according to RTV Drenthe, which reported the family had been "waiting for the end of time."
The children are aged between 16 and 25. The family was discovered after the eldest left the farm and went to a local bar, where he pleaded for help.
Café De Kastelein owner Chris Westerbeek told RTV Drenthe that the man looked completely confused, was wearing old clothes and had a long beard.
Westerbeek said the man had visited his premises several times, adding: "The first time I sent him away, but he came back a few days later.
"He said he had brothers and sisters who lived on the farm. He said he was the oldest and wanted to end the way they were living.
"He ordered five beers and drank them. Then I had a chat with him and he told me he had run away and needed help. Then we called the police," he said, according to DutchNews.nl.
When police arrived at the property, which is nestled inside a forest, they found all the windows boarded up and a secret flight of stairs hidden behind a cupboard. The stairs led to where the family had been staying.
The father, 58, had a stroke several years ago and was in bed. It is not yet known what had happened to the children's mother, although Dutch media reported that she may have been buried on the property.
Neighbors had thought that the man lived there alone and had never seen anybody else.
The children have now been removed from the property, RTV Drenthe reported.
Drenthe Police said in a statement on Tuesday that the father was arrested but was not the owner of the farmhouse, only the tenant. They are continuing their investigation, saying that the authorities are providing "care and attention" to the children.
"All scenarios are still open. Our research is in full swing and we cannot share more information at this time," the police force tweeted.
By Brendan Cole
Newsweek
October 15, 2019
A family of six adult children and their bedridden father have been found living in the cellar on the remote Dutch farm where they had been holed up for nearly a decade, it has been reported.
The family had been on the property, near the village of Ruinerwold in the Drenthe province of the Netherlands, for nine years. They had been completely self-sufficient with their own vegetable garden and goat, but had had no contact with the outside world. That's according to RTV Drenthe, which reported the family had been "waiting for the end of time."
The children are aged between 16 and 25. The family was discovered after the eldest left the farm and went to a local bar, where he pleaded for help.
Café De Kastelein owner Chris Westerbeek told RTV Drenthe that the man looked completely confused, was wearing old clothes and had a long beard.
Westerbeek said the man had visited his premises several times, adding: "The first time I sent him away, but he came back a few days later.
"He said he had brothers and sisters who lived on the farm. He said he was the oldest and wanted to end the way they were living.
"He ordered five beers and drank them. Then I had a chat with him and he told me he had run away and needed help. Then we called the police," he said, according to DutchNews.nl.
When police arrived at the property, which is nestled inside a forest, they found all the windows boarded up and a secret flight of stairs hidden behind a cupboard. The stairs led to where the family had been staying.
The father, 58, had a stroke several years ago and was in bed. It is not yet known what had happened to the children's mother, although Dutch media reported that she may have been buried on the property.
Neighbors had thought that the man lived there alone and had never seen anybody else.
The children have now been removed from the property, RTV Drenthe reported.
Drenthe Police said in a statement on Tuesday that the father was arrested but was not the owner of the farmhouse, only the tenant. They are continuing their investigation, saying that the authorities are providing "care and attention" to the children.
"All scenarios are still open. Our research is in full swing and we cannot share more information at this time," the police force tweeted.
Tuesday, October 15, 2019
TRUMP’S FRIEND PIERS SAYS TROOP WITHDRAWAL IS A BLOODY DISGRACE
Congratulations, Mr President - the real winners from your dumb and dangerous betrayal of the heroic Kurds are Iran, Russia and ISIS!
By Piers Morgan
Daily Mail
October 14, 2019
Defeating ISIS was one of Donald Trump’s main campaign pledges during the 2016 election race.
At the time, the terror group was America’s public enemy No1 - marauding around the Middle East with apparent impunity, killing US forces and committing despicable atrocities like burning pilots alive in cages and throwing gay people off roofs.
Candidate Trump repeatedly vowed to ‘bomb the hell’ out of ISIS and beat them into submission.
His words resonated powerfully around the world, especially in countries like Britain and France where ISIS were carrying out appalling acts of violence on civilians.
And to a large extent, President Trump kept his word.
US forces did indeed ‘bomb the hell’ out of ISIS, destroying its caliphate in Syria and Iraq, and neutering much of its very dangerous global threat in the process.
It would be a stretch to claim, as Trump has done, that ISIS is finished, because they’re demonstrably not in places like Afghanistan.
But since the successful dismantling of the caliphate, there has been a massive reduction in major ISIS terror attacks around the world.
President Trump is thus perfectly entitled to take credit for largely delivering on his promise.
Yet in one spectacularly ill-judged phone call, he’s now unleashed a horrendous can of worms that seems likely to undo all of that deserved kudos.
Nobody knows exactly what was said when Trump spoke to President Erdogan of Turkey last Sunday, but we’re all now seeing the gruesome consequences of that conversation.
Three days later, after Trump had announced the US would be pulling its small number of troops from northeast Syria, Erdogan did what he’d threatened to do for several years and invaded Syria.
He said he was launching Operation Peace Spring to ‘neutralize terror threats’ and ‘establish a safe zone’.
In reality, Turkish forces promptly attacked Kurdish forces – a historic foe - with savage brutality.
These are the same Kurdish forces who heroically helped the US defeat ISIS in the first place, and who’ve since been guarding thousands of captured Islamic State fighters.
And amid the chaos, hundreds of these fighters are now reported to have escaped.
So ISIS is back on the loose in Syria, free to re-group, re-arm, and re-launch its terrorism.
It gets worse.
As Turkey has rampaged through Kurdish territory, its forces have also killed many civilians and displaced over 130,000 from their homes, in what many horrified observers are describing as ‘ethnic cleansing’.
Some of the TV news interviews with devastated Kurdish women and their wounded or dead children are absolutely heart-breaking.
Let’s be blunt: America has betrayed the Kurds in horrifying, despicable fashion.
As the carnage unfurled - carnage that many experts predicted would happen – Trump warned Turkey its assault was a ‘bad idea’ and threatened on Twitter to destroy Turkey’s economy if it continued to wipe out the Kurds.
‘If Turkey does anything that I, in my great and unmatched wisdom, consider to be off limits,’ said Trump, with unedifying arrogance given the gravity of the situation, ‘I will totally destroy and obliterate the economy of Turkey!
But Erdogan, having brazenly called Trump’s bluff, has shown no sign of being remotely deterred by such warnings, ruling out any mediation with the Kurds saying Turkey wouldn’t negotiate with ‘terrorists’.
As a result, the appalled and terrified Kurds are now fleeing into the gleeful arms of Syrian dictator Bashar Al-Assad, the man America wants ousted, and the man who is supported by two major U.S. rivals, Iran and Russia.
The Syrian government has offered to support the Kurds against Turkey’s invasion, a shift in alliances that could help Assad achieve total victory in the long-running Syrian conflict, and by association, achieve a victory too for Iran and Russia.
What an absolute shambles!
There can be few things more sickening than such cold-hearted betrayal of men and women who’ve risked their lives, and in many Kurd cases GIVEN their lives, to fight with another nation in battle.
The Kurds did that for America, to defeat ISIS and to make the world a safer place.
For President Trump to now throw those same Kurds to the Turkish wolves is an unforgivable act of treachery that may have very serious ramifications for the security of the United States.
The Kurds are under no illusion what’s happened to them.
The Wall Street Journal reported that a Kurdish commander who had spearheaded the fight against ISIS stormed out of a meeting with Americans shouting: ‘You sold us!’
Top U.S. military personnel feel the same way.
‘There is blood on Trump’s hands for abandoning our Kurdish allies,’ retired four-star Marine general John Allen told CNN.
Yes there is.
The only question now is how much blood, and what if anything America can do to stop it now the near-genocidal genie is out of the bottle?
Sending U.S. troops back into the area seems pointless.
‘I can’t see why you would leave U.S. forces there now,’ a senior military source told Fox News. ‘How would you get other partners? What would give them a reason to trust us?’
Well, exactly.
As even Trump loyalist Senator Lindsay Graham put it before the invasion began: ‘If we abandon them (the Kurds) good luck getting anybody to help America in the future with Al Qaeda and ISIS. You may be tired of fighting radical Islam, but they’re not tired of fighting you.’
General Allen added: ‘This is what happens when Trump follows his instincts and because of his alignment of autocrats.’
Sadly, this withering assessment is hard to argue.
Trump has regularly played footloose and fancy-free in his dealings with despotic foreign leaders.
But by letting himself get played by President Erdogan in this way, he has exposed America to the very worst kind of accusation: that it will ditch its allies when it suits them.
Trump, of course, doesn’t accept he’s done anything wrong.
‘Very smart not to be involved in the intense fighting along the Turkish border, for a change,’ he tweeted. ‘Those that mistakenly got us into the Middle East Wars are still pushing to fight. They have no idea what a bad decision they have made.’
Hmmm. I think the President needs to look closer to home when it comes to bad decisions.
I applaud Trump’s desire not to wage further war in the Middle East.
But I don’t applaud him for what he’s done to the Kurds.
It’s not ‘great and unmatched wisdom’ – it’s dumb, dangerous and disloyal.
The U.S. military has always operated under a sacred rule: ‘No man left behind.’
It is imbedded into the psyche of everyone in the American forces.
The U.S. Army Rangers creed states: ‘I will never leave a fallen comrade to fall into the hands of the enemy.’
Whichever way Trump tries to spin this, the truth is that America just left its Kurdish comrades to fall into the hands of the enemy.
And that is a bloody disgrace.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Piers has been a frequent critic of how the Democrats and the media treat the president, but he doesn’t have his head stuck up Trump’s ass.
By Piers Morgan
Daily Mail
October 14, 2019
Defeating ISIS was one of Donald Trump’s main campaign pledges during the 2016 election race.
At the time, the terror group was America’s public enemy No1 - marauding around the Middle East with apparent impunity, killing US forces and committing despicable atrocities like burning pilots alive in cages and throwing gay people off roofs.
Candidate Trump repeatedly vowed to ‘bomb the hell’ out of ISIS and beat them into submission.
His words resonated powerfully around the world, especially in countries like Britain and France where ISIS were carrying out appalling acts of violence on civilians.
And to a large extent, President Trump kept his word.
US forces did indeed ‘bomb the hell’ out of ISIS, destroying its caliphate in Syria and Iraq, and neutering much of its very dangerous global threat in the process.
It would be a stretch to claim, as Trump has done, that ISIS is finished, because they’re demonstrably not in places like Afghanistan.
But since the successful dismantling of the caliphate, there has been a massive reduction in major ISIS terror attacks around the world.
President Trump is thus perfectly entitled to take credit for largely delivering on his promise.
Yet in one spectacularly ill-judged phone call, he’s now unleashed a horrendous can of worms that seems likely to undo all of that deserved kudos.
Nobody knows exactly what was said when Trump spoke to President Erdogan of Turkey last Sunday, but we’re all now seeing the gruesome consequences of that conversation.
Three days later, after Trump had announced the US would be pulling its small number of troops from northeast Syria, Erdogan did what he’d threatened to do for several years and invaded Syria.
He said he was launching Operation Peace Spring to ‘neutralize terror threats’ and ‘establish a safe zone’.
In reality, Turkish forces promptly attacked Kurdish forces – a historic foe - with savage brutality.
These are the same Kurdish forces who heroically helped the US defeat ISIS in the first place, and who’ve since been guarding thousands of captured Islamic State fighters.
And amid the chaos, hundreds of these fighters are now reported to have escaped.
So ISIS is back on the loose in Syria, free to re-group, re-arm, and re-launch its terrorism.
It gets worse.
As Turkey has rampaged through Kurdish territory, its forces have also killed many civilians and displaced over 130,000 from their homes, in what many horrified observers are describing as ‘ethnic cleansing’.
Some of the TV news interviews with devastated Kurdish women and their wounded or dead children are absolutely heart-breaking.
Let’s be blunt: America has betrayed the Kurds in horrifying, despicable fashion.
As the carnage unfurled - carnage that many experts predicted would happen – Trump warned Turkey its assault was a ‘bad idea’ and threatened on Twitter to destroy Turkey’s economy if it continued to wipe out the Kurds.
‘If Turkey does anything that I, in my great and unmatched wisdom, consider to be off limits,’ said Trump, with unedifying arrogance given the gravity of the situation, ‘I will totally destroy and obliterate the economy of Turkey!
But Erdogan, having brazenly called Trump’s bluff, has shown no sign of being remotely deterred by such warnings, ruling out any mediation with the Kurds saying Turkey wouldn’t negotiate with ‘terrorists’.
As a result, the appalled and terrified Kurds are now fleeing into the gleeful arms of Syrian dictator Bashar Al-Assad, the man America wants ousted, and the man who is supported by two major U.S. rivals, Iran and Russia.
The Syrian government has offered to support the Kurds against Turkey’s invasion, a shift in alliances that could help Assad achieve total victory in the long-running Syrian conflict, and by association, achieve a victory too for Iran and Russia.
What an absolute shambles!
There can be few things more sickening than such cold-hearted betrayal of men and women who’ve risked their lives, and in many Kurd cases GIVEN their lives, to fight with another nation in battle.
The Kurds did that for America, to defeat ISIS and to make the world a safer place.
For President Trump to now throw those same Kurds to the Turkish wolves is an unforgivable act of treachery that may have very serious ramifications for the security of the United States.
The Kurds are under no illusion what’s happened to them.
The Wall Street Journal reported that a Kurdish commander who had spearheaded the fight against ISIS stormed out of a meeting with Americans shouting: ‘You sold us!’
Top U.S. military personnel feel the same way.
‘There is blood on Trump’s hands for abandoning our Kurdish allies,’ retired four-star Marine general John Allen told CNN.
Yes there is.
The only question now is how much blood, and what if anything America can do to stop it now the near-genocidal genie is out of the bottle?
Sending U.S. troops back into the area seems pointless.
‘I can’t see why you would leave U.S. forces there now,’ a senior military source told Fox News. ‘How would you get other partners? What would give them a reason to trust us?’
Well, exactly.
As even Trump loyalist Senator Lindsay Graham put it before the invasion began: ‘If we abandon them (the Kurds) good luck getting anybody to help America in the future with Al Qaeda and ISIS. You may be tired of fighting radical Islam, but they’re not tired of fighting you.’
General Allen added: ‘This is what happens when Trump follows his instincts and because of his alignment of autocrats.’
Sadly, this withering assessment is hard to argue.
Trump has regularly played footloose and fancy-free in his dealings with despotic foreign leaders.
But by letting himself get played by President Erdogan in this way, he has exposed America to the very worst kind of accusation: that it will ditch its allies when it suits them.
Trump, of course, doesn’t accept he’s done anything wrong.
‘Very smart not to be involved in the intense fighting along the Turkish border, for a change,’ he tweeted. ‘Those that mistakenly got us into the Middle East Wars are still pushing to fight. They have no idea what a bad decision they have made.’
Hmmm. I think the President needs to look closer to home when it comes to bad decisions.
I applaud Trump’s desire not to wage further war in the Middle East.
But I don’t applaud him for what he’s done to the Kurds.
It’s not ‘great and unmatched wisdom’ – it’s dumb, dangerous and disloyal.
The U.S. military has always operated under a sacred rule: ‘No man left behind.’
It is imbedded into the psyche of everyone in the American forces.
The U.S. Army Rangers creed states: ‘I will never leave a fallen comrade to fall into the hands of the enemy.’
Whichever way Trump tries to spin this, the truth is that America just left its Kurdish comrades to fall into the hands of the enemy.
And that is a bloody disgrace.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Piers has been a frequent critic of how the Democrats and the media treat the president, but he doesn’t have his head stuck up Trump’s ass.
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